Club HAL's "open door" policy

[travlin4fun]

What exactly does this mean? the brochure states that for all but the youngest group of kids, Club Hal has an "open door" policy. Does this mean my 9 year old can come and go as she pleases?

 

Or do I check her in and check her out? I'm not sure how I'd feel about her roaming around on her own, even though she is very mature for her age.

[Old As Dirt Mom]

Travlin4fun:

 

Recently I was able to take a tour of HAL's ship Zaandam prior to its weeklong journey to Alaska and back. I asked for, and recevied, a HAL Youth Program Guidelines brochure. Here, verbatim, is the paragraph regarding the Tween program (ages 8-12):

 

"Tweens, ages 8-12 year olds, are free to come and go on their own from activities. They must sign themselves in and out, noting the time they left and their next location. Please either give your tween a stateroom key or arrange a time and place to meet after activites have finished. After 10 pm, it is required for a tween to be picked up by a parent from After Hours (fees apply after 10 pm). If parents/guardians do not feel comfortable allowing their child to sign themselves in and out, they can be accommodated into the Kids' Program (ages 3-7)."

[travlin4fun]

Thanks, Middle-aged-mom!

 

That's exactly what I wanted to know!

[Old As Dirt Mom]

Thanks, Middle-aged-mom!

 

That's exactly what I wanted to know!

 

You are most welcome. Have a wonderful cruise:)

[5 in OK]

We just got off the May 21-28 Westerdam sailing. I was a little nervous about my 10 and 12 year old being able to check themselves out too. But it worked out great! We gave our kids guidelines that if there was ever a need for them to check out earlier than we had agreed upon (not feeling well or just not enjoying the activity) that they had to leave together and go straight to the room and wait for us to return. They also have these scavenger hunts all around the ship that they have to be checked out to do (they are in groups of 3 or 4 and go all about the ship to find their scavenger items).

 

Parents are given the choice to allow their children check out privileges - you can sign a form that only allows you to check them out.

 

The kids really enjoyed being treated like a grown up kid - and we handed them thse privileges with strings attached - if they didn't follow the guidelines they lost the perks! :) Needless to say we never had to revoke anything - they loved HAL and I don't remember them ever checking out early.

[sarasmile]

I was a little (actually a lot!) nervous about this for my 8 y/o as well but echo 5 in ok's post- we were on the same cruise at the same time.

 

The line in the book is actually a litle misleading because you can tell your child that you do not want them to leave club hal without you.

 

My daughter did have sign in/out privledges for the activities they had planned (they can't do a lot of the activities with out it, like scavenger hunts- my dd's absolute fav thing about club hal) but we told her she was not to leave club hal after the activity time was over without us.

 

I saw most kids in the tween age group being signed in and out with parents waiting at the end of the time... and I thought she said that they did not actually let the kids go at the end of the session without a parent picking them up.

 

I did was not ever asked for the password, but I think it was clear that my husband and I were the parents (although they did ask me if I was her sister! :p ).

 

The teen group is not supervised at all and they come and go as they please. They have a facilitator rather than a supervisor.

 

Hope that helps!

[formercruisestaff]

 

My daughter did have sign in/out privledges for the activities they had planned (they can't do a lot of the activities with out it, like scavenger hunts- my dd's absolute fav thing about club hal) but we told her she was not to leave club hal after the activity time was over without us.

 

I saw most kids in the tween age group being signed in and out with parents waiting at the end of the time... and I thought she said that they did not actually let the kids go at the end of the session without a parent picking them up.

 

I did was not ever asked for the password, but I think it was clear that my husband and I were the parents (although they did ask me if I was her sister! :p ).

 

The teen group is not supervised at all and they come and go as they please. They have a facilitator rather than a supervisor.

 

Hope that helps!

 

Club HAL staff are allowed to release tweens without parental supervision - they only ask for passwords for those parents signing out kids (aged 3-7)

 

As for your teen comment - I, of course am not familiar with how your cruise ran so I will not assume that all teen counsellors behave alike. However, after running teen programs on 5 HAL ships I can confidently say that I DID supervise the teen program and that our LOFT facility is never open without Club HAL supervision. We plan, run, and supervise teen programs from 11am-midnight on seadays and 5pm-midnight on port days. Of cours we have no control over teens if they are not in our program, but that goes the same for kids who are not in our program.