Walkie Talkie? Please read before getting upset at me!

[CEOofVacation]

My thoughts are along the same line. With 4 siblings, you can have a roster to have each one be responsible for checking with your parents for one morning and rotating, with a set time of say, 8am, 8:30am, 9am, 9:30am 10am etc. Have breakfast in the room on days when you are on the roster so that you can easily check on your parents.

[fleckle]

Have you tried contacting the Special Needs department to see if they have any suggestions?

 

They deal with these types of situations all the time. Lots of multi-generational families cruise together, especially at holiday times.

 

Not only elderly passengers, but passengers of all ages with various types of disabilities need a way to stay in contact with their travel companions.

The child care facilities on board have some type of paging gadget they give out to parents who leave small children there. (Sorry, I never paid attention to just what they use, never having needed it myself.)

The previously suggested extra key card for entry to the room is something commonly used by companions of all ages who travel together.

There is no invasion of privacy if people knock first and wait before entering.

Or call first to let the other party know you are coming.

We routinely hand out extra room key cards when traveling with family or good friends if we have a large balcony that we want to share with the others.

 

I hope that you were able to get the elderly parents a handicap accessible stateroom.

That can make a world of difference on a transatlantic cruise, especially if the person who uses the wheelchair has balance problems when trying to stand.

 

A member of our party once tripped and accidentally fell against one of those alarm cords without even realizing what he had done, and a ship's officer was at the door almost immediately.

It was very reassuring to learn that they really do monitor those devices and respond so quickly.

In any case, the parents should be aware that in an emergency they can call Guest Relations or Security and have you paged.

I hope you all have a wonderful, trouble-free cruise.

[amomx5]

Thank you again for the suggestions. I will confer with rest of family this weekend. We cannot get adjoining rooms as my parents have their handicap accessible room and it was the only one left when we booked so we had to take what was available. It would have been great to have adjoining rooms. My daughters have had the “phones” from the kids club, I will as Celebrity about that. There are a lot of good suggestions and we might be able to combine a couple of them for optimum benefit. My parents refuse to admit the level of my mothers’s needs so we have to sneakily help so they don’t feel useless and get angry or depressed, I know it is a fine line and we are enabling them but they at 90 and 94 have earned the right to make decisions that won’t hurt them or someone else. Families;p :hearteyes: Again thank you all!

[Hydrokitty]

My parents refuse to admit the level of my mothers’s needs so we have to sneakily help so they don’t feel useless and get angry or depressed, I know it is a fine line and we are enabling them but they at 90 and 94 have earned the right to make decisions that won’t hurt them or someone else. Families;p :hearteyes: Again thank you all!

 

Thank you for pointing out how our need to be "independent" despite our limitations impact other family members who's only crime is they love us and don't want us to get hurt. I will try to keep that in mind next time one of my children/grandchildren try to help me with something and I tell them "I can DO it". :D

[Baron Barracuda]

On top of all the other good suggestions, have seen families hang magnetic dry erase board on cabin door for posting daily activity schedule and group messages.

[GottaKnowWhen]

Thank you again for the suggestions. I will confer with rest of family this weekend. We cannot get adjoining rooms as my parents have their handicap accessible room and it was the only one left when we booked so we had to take what was available. It would have been great to have adjoining rooms. My daughters have had the “phones” from the kids club, I will as Celebrity about that. There are a lot of good suggestions and we might be able to combine a couple of them for optimum benefit. My parents refuse to admit the level of my mothers’s needs so we have to sneakily help so they don’t feel useless and get angry or depressed, I know it is a fine line and we are enabling them but they at 90 and 94 have earned the right to make decisions that won’t hurt them or someone else. Families;p :hearteyes: Again thank you all!

 

 

 

Two things. First, a variation on the notion that you four (or six, including the son-in-laws) stop by in the morning. I understand you don’t want to wake them or intrude. Could your father maybe signal when he is up and ready to receive “guests”? Eg, he could open the door a crack, put a yellow stickie “I’m up” on the outside. You four (or six) then make a point to pass by every 15-20 minutes... Second, if you really mean wheelchair, I suggest you leave that home and buy/rent a good transport chair instead. Smaller, lighter, folds up to be put out of the way in the room, etc.

 

Enjoy!

 

Stan

[Sam Ting]

We used walkie talkies on carnival and they worked just fine. I think people some are discouraging you because they dont like others using them and cant find a way to mind their own business.

 

You can always buy a set from amazon and return them after the trip if they dont work.

 

Have a great cruise!

[CaroleSS]

Something to think about regarding the internet package. There is an app called WhatsApp. It does text messaging and can even Skype via WiFi.....you wouldn’t need to use cell service nor incur roaming fees. I use it all the time when communicating internationally.

 

Yes, it would mean internet packages, but I wasn’t sure if you knew about it.

 

Oh, and I forgot to mention that you can set up your texting for voice recognition, so if you father has troubles typing on that tiny keyboard, he can just speak into the microphone and it will type for him!

[aruzinski]

The WiFi package is the way to go. You can use WiFi calling on the ship and don’t even have to worry about texting. Check with Either your carrier or the celebrity IT people when you get on board to help you.

[bEwAbG]

We used walkie talkies on carnival and they worked just fine. I think people some are discouraging you because they dont like others using them and cant find a way to mind their own business.

 

They're frowned upon because the people using them are often completely oblivious as to how loud they're being yelling back and forth, accompanied by the screeching sounds of the device. Just as it is impolite to talk loudly on a cellphone in a public place or to cackle loudly all night in a restaurant. It's the imposition on everyone else that is considered rude.

 

As has already been pointed out, how well they will work is dependent on a variety of factors, so your experience on one ship may not translate to another.

[phoenix_dream]

We used walkie talkies on carnival and they worked just fine. I think people some are discouraging you because they dont like others using them and cant find a way to mind their own business.

 

You can always buy a set from amazon and return them after the trip if they dont work.

 

Have a great cruise!

Don't agree with you regarding people's intentions. For the record, have tried them on several cruises with Celebrity years ago and had a very hard time getting good reception anywhere on the ship. So just because they worked fine on Carnival doesn't mean they will on Celebrity. Also back in those days, there were a number of people who were very inconsiderate in their use of walkie-talkies - didn't care where they were or what was going on they had no problem being 'loud and proud'. No consideration whatsoever. The bottom line and most important point that I think people are trying to make (I prefer to give people the benefit of the doubt) is that they really did not work well as a solution, coupled with the fact that there are so many better solutions now -which have been noted.

[amomx5]

Thank you all for your suggestions and discussion. I believe we will try a combination of communication avenues. I really want this cruise to be special for my parents as I don’t see my Mom traveling like this again. I have gotten such a wealth of information from Cruise Critic. It is wonderful that wherever we live we can can all share in the love of travel and cruising! Smooth sailing everyone :D

[Orator]

Wishing you and your family a most memorable cruise.