Passenger card for children

[PurpleMoonlight]

Do children get given their own passenger card to open the cabin door and pay for things?

[davecttr]

Yes for teenagers? and it can lead to interesting happenings. Apparently a couples 2 young teenage daughters had their own cards and went on a spending spree in the jewelry shops costing thousands, negotiations resulted in the goods being returned and the card charges dropped. moral - you can put blocks on various types of spending.

[PurpleMoonlight]

That's what worried me 😂

 

Thanks.

[Lady Meer]

Our 6 year old grandson had a card to get on and off the ship and open the room door, but it had no ‘spending’ power. Guest Services can change the facilities on the card for you.

[PurpleMoonlight]

That's a good option, thanks.

[lebreos]

as above yes - my now 8 year old never gets hold of his.... when he does i will bear in mind the spending blocks.. wife mistakenly tried to buy alcohol with it on a recent cruise - waiter said no..... lol

 

[JDB78]

I think on the 2 cruises I've had with P&O, when I checked in online, it didn't let me complete the process unless I attached a payment card to each passenger even though 1 was a teenager and another aged 7. The 1st cruise I went to reception to remove the card from the children on the 1st day but on the last cruise I just left it. It shouldn't be like that though - surely must be some laws about minors having the ability to run up credit card bills - suppose its similar to stories I've heard with kids online games on tablets and mobile phones.

[PurpleMoonlight]

Oh that's interesting JDB78. It's been eight years since I cruised and the credit card was recorded at embarkation. There wasn't an online process then.

 

[9265359]

7 hours ago, JDB78 said:

I think on the 2 cruises I've had with P&O, when I checked in online, it didn't let me complete the process unless I attached a payment card to each passenger even though 1 was a teenager and another aged 7. 

 

Well that's particularly stupid of P&O.

 

I suppose the option is to do this -  Life on board | P&O Cruises (pocruises.com)

 

If you do not register a payment card during online check-in, you will not be able to complete the online check-in process. Instead, you will need to check-in and register a payment card when you arrive at the terminal. The check-in team at the terminal will ask you for your credit or debit payment card. 

 

Perhaps if all families with children did this then someone in P&O might poke their IT team to fix the issue.

 

7 hours ago, JDB78 said:

The 1st cruise I went to reception to remove the card from the children on the 1st day

 

Then if the card can be removed, then the alternative is to register a payment card and print the boarding cards, then email P&O withdrawing that card from your children's use. 

 

And if P&O are too inefficient to process that instruction given by email, well that's now their problem.

 

7 hours ago, JDB78 said:

suppose its similar to stories I've heard with kids online games on tablets and mobile phones.

 

No it isn't.

 

With phones and tablets, both Apple and Android allow the parent to sent up restrictions on spending by children (and many more restrictions, such as needing to approve downloads, setting time limits, etc.).

 

When setting up a new phone or tablet these days that is one of the first questions you are asked - is this phone or tablet for you or is it for a child.

 

The problem is that parents don't take advantage of those restrictions on the phones or tablets they give their children, or they do set them up but they are not careful enough with the password, or they simply give the child their phone or tablet to play with, forgetting that it doesn't have any restrictions on it.

 

Whereas with P&O they are insisting that a 7 year old child has full access to a credit card with no restrictions offered.

 

A generous person might say that P&O doing this is simply incompetent, a less generous person might say that P&O is being dishonest because they want the child to run up costs on ice creams, sweets, drinks, etc. without the parent's knowledge until it is too late to object.

[Vampiress88]

Both mine have always had a card that lets them off and on the ship. Opens the door and also allows them to spend. Mine have used it a few times when getting ice cream etc but I lost out on the 5% discount cos they hadn’t been on as many cruises as us and also Scarlett decided to get double scoops for her, we did have words about good choices but it was a lesson for the both of them. We weren’t very cross, more amused but have to have some responsibility. 
 

georgia did once order drinks including a pint, she was sat sunning herself next to the hot tub while hubby was in the hot tub. He watched as she flagged down a waiter, ordered everyone drinks then the waiter came and told hubby that he’d need to sign for it. She must have been listening to our conversation as I’d said I would get drinks when I came back, I’d gone to the cabin for suncream. She was 6. 

[Cloudyrain]

My son has always had his own card as it’s needed for getting on and off, but I just keep his card: he is always with a parent or in kids club so there is no risk of him running up a bill.

 

although I repeatedly try to use his card to buy drinks. The last time the waiter said “excuse me madam, but you do not look like a 6 year old boy” 😂😂

[ParisHilton]

7 hours ago, Cloudyrain said:

My son has always had his own card as it’s needed for getting on and off, but I just keep his card: he is always with a parent or in kids club so there is no risk of him running up a bill.

 

although I repeatedly try to use his card to buy drinks. The last time the waiter said “excuse me madam, but you do not look like a 6 year old boy” 😂😂

 

Can you normally get on and off as easily as you would say in a hotel. So if you are in port somewhere, fancy a disco nap and then want to go back to land , you just walk on and off. I guess there is at least someone checking your card when you get on, but is traipsing on and off discouraged?

[davecttr]

24 minutes ago, ParisHilton said:

 

Can you normally get on and off as easily as you would say in a hotel. So if you are in port somewhere, fancy a disco nap and then want to go back to land , you just walk on and off. I guess there is at least someone checking your card when you get on, but is traipsing on and off discouraged?

Your cruise card is scanned every time you leave or enter the ship and I believe there are no restrictions on the number of times you can leave the ship. In overnight ports you can come and go during the night as well. This can apply to crew as well. One ship I cruised on has regular overnights in Maderia and, duties permitting, crew are allowed ashore as long as they are fit for duty next morning. Apparently MacDonalds is heaving at 1am. The lovely coffee port ladies looked a bit tired at 7am having returned to the ship in the wee hours 😴😁

[Son of Anarchy]

5 hours ago, davecttr said:

Your cruise card is scanned every time you leave or enter the ship and I believe there are no restrictions on the number of times you can leave the ship. In overnight ports you can come and go during the night as well. This can apply to crew as well. One ship I cruised on has regular overnights in Maderia and, duties permitting, crew are allowed ashore as long as they are fit for duty next morning. Apparently MacDonalds is heaving at 1am. The lovely coffee port ladies looked a bit tired at 7am having returned to the ship in the wee hours 😴😁

I remember many moons ago in Istanbul.  Sat next to us in a bar were some of the crew having some of those big several pint tubes of beer late into the evening.

 

When we were getting back on board at Valencia this year there was a crewman in front of us taking back an enormous amount of McDonalds takeout, presumably for his shipmates.  All the food would have been cold by then though.

[Cloudyrain]

12 hours ago, ParisHilton said:

 

Can you normally get on and off as easily as you would say in a hotel. So if you are in port somewhere, fancy a disco nap and then want to go back to land , you just walk on and off. I guess there is at least someone checking your card when you get on, but is traipsing on and off discouraged?

No restrictions on getting on and off, and it’s scanned and beeps every time you get on/off so they can check for no shows. You also have a little security check to go through when you get back on board and that can be a bit of a faff if you have children and it’s super busy so it might put people off getting on and off all day long - I know it does me 😂

[Slugsta]

For us, the distance from the port to anywhere also affects how often we want to get on and off (or off and on!). A quick stroll/shuttle bus is a different matter from a long shuttle or tender transfer.

[tring]

On 8/4/2023 at 7:12 AM, davecttr said:

Yes for teenagers? and it can lead to interesting happenings. Apparently a couples 2 young teenage daughters had their own cards and went on a spending spree in the jewelry shops costing thousands, negotiations resulted in the goods being returned and the card charges dropped. moral - you can put blocks on various types of spending.

 

If the teenagers were under  18, legally they cannot form a contract, so they would not have had to pay for the goods, unless they were, "necessaries", such as a bottle of water.  Quite a risk for the Jewellers there.  You would think their staff would be better trained.