A 12 year olds onboard account

[ombavia]

We will be on our first cruise in September to Alaska. I'm wondering about an onboard account for my son. Can you set one up with a pre authorized amount? or will he have free access to all of my money.:D

[PhoenixCruiser]

What cruise line?

 

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[Happy ks]

It's very important to have a serious talk with your child about their onboard account before you board the ship. His account will be tied to yours and you will be responsible for any and all charges he makes. Don't wait for the surprise at the end of the cruise.

 

I know I've read more than once about parents receiving enormous tabs for things like Internet charges, the kids buying their new friends rounds of soda. I don't know about games in the arcade, if they need coins for that or not, something to check out ahead of time.

 

I can tell you what I've done with my kids in the past. They earn their own vacation funds in the way of chores, or they can spend their own money from gifts they have received. They knew what their daily budget was and they knew every time they got a receipt it was for a charge. We also will give them a certain amount once we get there, to pad the account, but we don't tell them about it in advance.

 

Happily, both of our kids learned to be careful with their money and had some left at the end of vacation, to be able to purchase a souvenir if they chose to.

 

You can also go on the TV in your cabin and check the daily charges, that way you can nip it in the bud if your child is going over limit.

[Keith1010]

Most cruise lines will let you have a shipboard account for your children.

 

If you think your child can handle this and not abuse it you'll be fine. If not, then I would pass on the account.

 

I would do two things;

 

Be sure to go over the rules with your child as to what and what it cannot be used for.

 

Second, most cruisel lines let you see an updated copy of your shipboard account at anytime during the cruise insead of waiting for the preliminary statement a day or so before the cruise ends and the final statement early morning of disembarkation. So, I would check with the reception desk from time to time to take a look at the account just so you can monitor spending.

 

Keith

[chasetf]

Reminds me of a famous Ronald Reagan quote: "Trust, but Verify".

 

If you can trust you kid, and work with him/her like the previous posters mention..... just be sure to keep checking during the cruise. ;)

[Cruise Gypsy]

Reminds me of a famous Ronald Reagan quote: "Trust, but Verify".

 

If you can trust you kid, and work with him/her like the previous posters mention..... just be sure to keep checking during the cruise. ;)

 

Well said.:)

[PhoenixCruiser]

If you can trust you kid, and work with him/her like the previous posters mention..... just be sure to keep checking during the cruise. ;)

 

Agreed, and please make sure they know that they have to log-out when done using the Internet service (if applicable). We have read several threads about parents who were shocked (to say the least) when they had a $600 + bill because their kids did not end their online session :eek:

 

Another tip - please tell them that even if they get cell-phone service on the ship, they (you) will, most likely be charged the roaming fees. In addition, using the phones on the ship is about $8.50 per minute.

 

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[Happy ks]

On our last cruise, we did use our cell phone for brief calls to our kids at home, around 9 minutes total (2 phone calls) the charge was about $2 per minute, totalling $17.95. We didn't email them as we needed immediate responses from them, it worked for us.

 

My advice would be to not let them take their cell phones and to not allow them Internet priviledges for the week. They will live :)

[darladelight]

You may also be able to set up an on board credit account using cash.

[rondonna]

We will be on our first cruise in September to Alaska. I'm wondering about an onboard account for my son. Can you set one up with a pre authorized amount? or will he have free access to all of my money.:D

 

 

Our last cruise all three of our teens (2-13), 1-16 :) had free use of our onboard account. We had no problems. Just go over the rules with them. Then check your account each night.

[CaptData]

This is what we did with the eldest grandchild. We set up a $50.00 limit on her card. We showed her how to check her account so she knew how much was left. She went over by $2.00. We paid for her tips beforehand.

[blindrid]

Not a 100% sure so someone here needs to verify: I think you can have a key only card issued. That may be a little overboard but certainly a consideration. I know when I take my grandkids for the first time, I will consider it if the line will not put a daily limit on it. I've known too many friends that arcades, etc really eat it up like bar bills do to mine. . . .

[aes621]

We were wondering about this, as we are first-time cruisers who printed our boarding passes for our cruise (Alaska, Island Princess 7/02/07). We had to enter credit card info for our DS before we could complete the process (he is 8 years old). While we are assuming he will be either with us or in the kids program most of the time, and he does not have much awareness of how easy it is to charge with a credit card, we are a little concerned.

 

Our plan is to see if they can set a limit, or issue a key-only card once we get on board. If not, we will just have to supervise him and check our account often.