Children at Camp while you go to port

[rice5899]

Has anyone ever left their children at the camp while you are at a port and just went off and did your own thing. We have a 5 and 2 year old and I am not really for that, but hubby wants to do something that the kids cant do

[OceanDreamin]

I haven't done so yet, but am STRONGLY considering doing so when we go to Ensenada. My DD is six, and my friend's girls are 5 and 7, and we are strongly considering leaving the three of them in Camp Carnival while we go to Ensenada. Having taken my DD to Camp Carnival on the Pride (although we did take her ashore with us then), I feel very comfortable leaving her on board in their care.

[Kerry's Girls]

I would have no problem doing this, as long as it was on a ship sponsored excursion. I grew up vacationing on cruise ships and now take my toddlers, and it's a great way for mom & dad to have a little adventure while the kids are comfortable and happy on board.

 

Have a great time!

 

Best,

Mia

[cmmarch]

Our kids are 10,8, and 5 and I do not think I would consider doing that. With all that goes on in the world today what if for some reason you did not make it back to the ship????or there was an emergency of some sort on ship or on land.....medical or otherwise. Not likely scenarios but ports are not USA and you could hit a unexpected snafu/accident, etc...you are in another country.....

Everyone has a different comfort level but I would not do it.:rolleyes:

[Bvillemom3]

Is that even allowed? If it is I would be all over that!! We have 3 kids

16, 13, and 10 and We want to do things that they have no intrest in doing!!

[Kerry's Girls]

It's absolutely allowed, and on every cruise many, many kids are left on the ship while their parents go on excursions. There has been a great deal of discussion on these boards about this topic, and it really boils down to everyone having a different comfort level. In my view, the safest way to do it is to go on a ship sponsored excursion because they guarantee the ship will not leave without you (though there have been extreme examples posted here about a couple of times ships have left, seperating parents and children). In my view, the kids are safer on board - even on the slim chance that something horrible happened to me and I didn't make it back, but I'm probably on the mid-way spectrum as far as risk taking. For those who are more comfortable with little or no risk, then there are lots of excursions you can take your children on, so if something happens, you're all together - or it's sometimes nice to enjoy the empty ship while in port.

 

Best,

Mia

[tribbs1]

Even if you do it and not on a ship sponsored excursion I have a hard time beleiving that the ship will depart without the parents. I have no doubt that they will not want the responsibility of taking care of kids whose parents didn't arrive on time to the ship.

[mjmalino]

Whereas I see the different points of view for taking and leaving kids on the ship while parents do excursions, I would like to share my view. Granted, we have only taken 1 cruise thus far, but anyway here is my thoughts. After being on our cruise earlier this month with my DH and 2 DS (ages 9 and 8) I do not think that I want to leave them in the capable hands of the kids camp while I was off the ship. My reason? My kids really loved the funzone and would ask to go there as much as possible. For our family, the times in port were the times that we did things as a family. So, for me, going into ports without them is taking that time away from us as a family. Also, I think of the ports as being a great educational experience for my kids. In Alaska, my kids learned about totems, whales and glaciers while with us in ports just to name a few. Our next cruise probably won't be for about 2 years, but I would like to do either mediterranean or Europe (my 9yo is putting his 2 cents in for Europe so he can see France), again, experiencing the ports can be a very fun and educational experience which is why I don't think I would leave my kids on board.

[cruisead]

tribbs, ships have left when parents missed the ship. My DH and I were on a cruise with our three boys when that happened. Two kids,6 and 8, had no mom or dad until the next port. I think there's a poster here who tells of when their daughter had a seizure on board the ship, and thankfully her husband was on board while she was off seeing the port.

[Cruisin' Chick]

We have left our child onboard as we felt she enjoyed herself more onboard than going into some ports. For example, in Puerto Rico, she wouldn't have enjoyed the trek up to Ft. Morro. But we usually don't go on excursions or too far from the pier. Or we take a ship's excursion. In Hawaii, though, she wanted to get off the ship.

[rice5899]

My thought is what if the boys start asking for us and we are not on the ship

[crusinmama06]

I think there's a poster here who tells of when their daughter had a seizure on board the ship, and thankfully her husband was on board while she was off seeing the port.

 

That's me. ;)

 

And actually we were BOTH on the ship cause the ship sponosored excursion (kayaking) was cancelled at Castaway Cay due to weather.

 

Long story short...my husband was suppose to be on a kayak. Instead he was in the cabin with our youngest and he noticed that she was "breathing funny" during her nap. She was actually seizing. She had caught a virus on the ship, she stopped breathing, turned blue and needed immediate attention. I happen to be in the ship's medical center getting some cough medicine for my OLDEST when the ship's staff started running around. A nurse grabbed me and said that my daughter was being brought in. I thought it was my oldest. Then I see my husband come running in with my youngest and she is BLUE. :eek:

 

They intebated her. Shot her up with drugs. And there she stayed for 2 days in the ship's hospital before being medically evacuated to Port Canaveral Medical Center.

 

I hate to think what would have happened if my baby had been in a kid's club and not with us. I know they would have gotten her help...but we needed to be there.

 

So now we NEVER leave the ship without our kids. There is just nothing that I need to see without them. If we can't do it as a family then we don't do it. Those type of excursions can wait. They will always be there. But like I learned, my kids may not be. :(

[lrizit]

Holy crap Michele, I almost started crying! How terrifying! I'm glad she's ok!

 

I agree, though, I won't leave them. I'm just terrified that I'd miss the ship or something would happen and then they'd be left without me. *shudders*

 

I try to take a trip a year with just the hubby so we have time together too.

[Branwen]

Wow, how scary. I'm so glad that everything turned out okay.

 

I don't think I could ever leave my kids on the ship while I was in port. That is way out of my comfort zone.

[rebeccalouise]

Cruisinmama- I really give you credit for getting back on a ship after that episode with your daughter.

 

I was on vacation when my then 2 year old had a seizure- it is absolutely without a doubt that scariest thing I have ever experienced. My husband wasn't there. My older son was 14 and he called 911, while I craddled my baby in my arms. I had no idea what was happening and thought my son was dying. It took me two years to go back to my parents condo at the beach- where it happened.

 

I really don't like that condo because of what happened there. It is just something I'll never forget because even though it turned out to be a "febrile" seizure- I really felt like my son was dying and I didn't know what to do! Horrible. I feel for you.

[Workmom2]

OMG! What a terrifing situation for both of the moms that shared their expierences- I cannot imagine how scary it must have been for your faily to go through that type of situation.

My scary situation happened this past March on NCL- We had just got off the ship at Maniznillo (sp) and turned around just as a 6 year old had falledn off the gangway and landed in the port ocean in between the ship and the peir- it was the worst situation I have ever expierenced in all my travels. The dad and a tour director jumped in to rescue her- she ended up fine, however, she was pretty shook up and so were the on lookers.

I had both my kids there at the time and kept them really close and tried to keep it together as best as I could, but was nto really successful at that.

On the ship the dad was highlighter at one of the shows- that was pretty much the end of the ordeal.

Not sure if this October I will leave my kids on the ship. But if we go off the ship they are going to be right ny my side with me and my hubby holding on to them.

[crusinmama06]

Cruisinmama- I really give you credit for getting back on a ship after that episode with your daughter.

 

I STILL can't go back on a Disney ship cause the whole thought just makes me sick. I can't even watch the travel channel when that ship is on. It just brings all of the memories back.

 

My husband was dead set against allowing her back on a cruise ship, but I just take a few precautions. I never travel Jan-March cause the cold/flu season is just in full swing on the ships. And I carry a vial and a syringe with me of diazepam...her neurologist gave it to me. So IF it happens again and we aren't around medical personel, I can take care of it myself.

 

Hers was called a "complex" febrile seizure because she seized for 40 minutes.

[cruisead]

She seized for 40 minutes???? Oh my God, I cannot believe how you handled that. My youngest son has asthma, and even with that, we would never, ever have left the kids on the ship while we went off touring. Murphy's Law always seems to apply---if anything bad can happen, it will. I guess things like this just go when you decide to become a parent---you have to learn your life is changed and you have to sacrifice to be a parent. Now that the boys are grown, we can do all those things we couldn't when they were young.

[Luxuriate]

I can not imagine giving it another thought concerning leaving him with the ships kid's staff. A little background, my son has been in an in-home daycare since he was two months old. He is now 2 1/2 years old. He is very used to going to daycares and playrooms. He is a very happy and well-adjusted child. If I knew he would have more fun on the ship with the ship's staff I wouldn't hesitate to leave him while I traveled on an excursion. That is, as long as the ship's staff didn't have a problem with it.

 

Cheryl

[lexxity]

I can see the case from both point of view. I suspect that, personally, I wouldn't be comfortable leaving my son onboard during an excursion, but having never done that yet I don't know. He starts nursery one morning a week next week (eek!) so I will see how I feel doing that.

 

We are doing a carribean cruise next year and would love to go snorkelling, but I don't know how he'd get on doing it. He is a real little water baby, but being in the ocean would be totally different. So I am thinking we may leave him onboard for a morning, but then again I am worried about what it something happens. We will probably end up taking him with us and taking turns to snorkel.

 

Europe would be different, at least there I know that the standards of care would be comparable to home and I also know that my mobile (cell phone) would work ship to land and viceversa. But by the time we go on a Med cruise he will probably be 3 or 4 so could cope better with a longer land excursion.

 

Kids eh?:D

[crusinmama06]

I can not imagine giving it another thought concerning leaving him with the ships kid's staff. A little background, my son has been in an in-home daycare since he was two months old. He is now 2 1/2 years old. He is very used to going to daycares and playrooms. He is a very happy and well-adjusted child. If I knew he would have more fun on the ship with the ship's staff I wouldn't hesitate to leave him while I traveled on an excursion. That is, as long as the ship's staff didn't have a problem with it.

 

Cheryl

 

Gabriella goes to preschool/daycare too but there is one BIG difference. In the daycare, if she gets hurt, she gets taken to a local hospital that I can drive to.

 

On the ship, IF the child has a medical emergency, you may not be able to make it to where the child is.

 

When Gabriella wouldn't stop seizing, the doctor talked to the ship's captain about putting Gabriella in a tender boat and taking her to the closest air field...which was an airfield in the Bahamas, then taking her by army transport to Port Canaveral Medical Center.

 

It ended up that the waves were too high to safely put her in a tender boat so the captain opted to take the whole ship back to port canaveral a little early.

 

If I hadn't been onboard and they did fly her back to the states, what then? :eek:

[ChristieNJ]

Our kids are 10,8, and 5 and I do not think I would consider doing that. With all that goes on in the world today what if for some reason you did not make it back to the ship????or there was an emergency of some sort on ship or on land.....medical or otherwise. Not likely scenarios but ports are not USA and you could hit a unexpected snafu/accident, etc...you are in another country.....

Everyone has a different comfort level but I would not do it.:rolleyes:

 

Those, too, are my EXACT feelings!!!

And Michele, good lord!!! What a horror!! I'm SO glad everything worked out well for you. What a scary, horrible situation! :(