we lost our 4 year old

[bill turcotte]

we had two cabins with a door between them . Our twin girls were in one room and we were in another. The Door between the rooms were partly open . At some point in the night our 4 year old openned the heavy room door and walked down the hallway . She did not know how to get back to our room . So like all 4 year olds not knowing what to do ..she cried . She knocked on every door that was in front of her . Luckly for us a women was having trouble sleeping and did not understand why still child kept crying . She open her door and saw our little girl .

The women had no idea where our room was or who the girl belonged too . She got dressed and brought her to the main desk . .How they found us . The ship Officers did not know who our girl was ,but they knew what deck they found her on . So they looked up every picture of every child on that deck untill they found my little girls picture .

When we bookedf our cabins we had to say one parent and one child are in one cabin and one parent and one child in the other cabin . Then once we got to our rooms we just changed so two kids were in one room and two parents in the other room . We would not be a problem except if the main desk is trying to call your room to see if your child is missing . Thats what happened . The officers called the room where my room where sleeping . My other little girl picked phone said hi to the offices and dropped the phone and went back to sleep . Out of room - -to finish the story

[khm1]

Wow! You were lucky that nice lady found your child and did the right thing! You were very fortunate that it turned out as well as it did. I know that it was scary for you, but it could have happened to anyone. Kids have a way of doing the craziest things to scare us to death!!! This makes me think of a thread not too long ago about taking a door alarm for a child's ajoining cabin.....

[ckekjhaze]

Wow! Glad your little girl is OK. I have 3 daughters and we always booked resorts that allow 5 in a room because of fear of what happened to you.

[kitty9]

OMG, I shudder at the thought of what might have happened, like her wandering out on deck to the pool or whatever. I'm thrilled beyond belief that nothing bad happened to her, thank God. I guess this is a lesson for all parents who may have a somewhat cavalier attitude on children being in their own cabin and their safety. Even being in a connecting cabin can have it's dangers. Again, I'm soooo happy your little girl is safe.

[cb at sea]

I think ship's should put some sort of interior lock...like a chain or dead-bolt on the doors..something that wouldn't accidently engage if the ship is rocking....

But, there are magnetic alarms you can buy to attach to doors, so you'll know if they're opened....with a wandering-age child, I'd bring one!

[mjkacmom]

I think ship's should put some sort of interior lock...like a chain or dead-bolt on the doors..something that wouldn't accidently engage if the ship is rocking....

But, there are magnetic alarms you can buy to attach to doors, so you'll know if they're opened....with a wandering-age child, I'd bring one!

 

Actually, there should be a deadbolt. OP, how scary. Was she too shy to give them her name? We always have a kid room (we don't fit into one hotel room or cabin), but deadbolt the door, and threaten the kids. Even if you were in the same cabin, this could've happened while you slept.

[karatemom2]

I think ship's should put some sort of interior lock...like a chain or dead-bolt on the doors..something that wouldn't accidently engage if the ship is rocking....

But, there are magnetic alarms you can buy to attach to doors, so you'll know if they're opened....with a wandering-age child, I'd bring one!

 

I agree. I didn't know about door alarms. We had a problem with my elderly mother-in-law who has Alzheimer's. We took my in-laws on a cruise and twice she got up and wandered out of the room at night and a crew member brought her back both times. My father-in-law never even heard her walk out of the room. We could have definitely used a door alarm. Wish I had known about it before.

[bill turcotte]

In the end ..every night we would put a chair and a bunch of extra pillows in front of the door . Just to keep them from even being able to open the door .

The women who found our girl was great .. we bought her a drink every time we saw her and wrote a nice letter to NCL on how great the crew was ..

[crusinmama06]

You have just confirmed to me why my husband and I have always said that we would sleep separately if we ever booked two cabins.

 

Connecting cabins or not, those kids are squirmy little creatures. ;)

 

Throwing the chair in front of the door is a good idea. :) Glad you had a happy ending. :D

[mary_228]

I had a similar situation. Luckily the cabin steward found my son (age 5)and knew exactly who he belonged to. Glad everything worked out ok. As someone else posted, this could happen even if your child was in your room.

[alj1208]

Does any of the conventional childproofing equipment work on cabin doors? The alarm is an option, but what about door knob covers and the like?

[2112]

During our last cruise, my then 3 year old son kept opening the door and I really was becoming fearful that he was going to open it in the middle of the night while we were asleep and walk right out. My top comment on the comment card they gave us at the end of the cruise is that they really need a security chain or something just like every hotel and motel on the planet has, which would solve this problem. I really don't understand why ships don't have them.

[khm1]

Does any of the conventional childproofing equipment work on cabin doors? The alarm is an option, but what about door knob covers and the like?

Good Question!!!! I think that RCL has lever door knobs. I have seen the child-proof covers for these. I wonder if they would fit.........:confused:

[Onessa]

This is also a good reason to have your kid wear the muster bracelet that most lines provide -- most have enough info on it to limit where the cabin is. We used to use a sharpie type marker to add contact info to the back of the muster bracelet when our DD was very young.

 

There are door alarms available, my cousin uses one when she travels with her family -- her mother had a brain injury and tends to "wander off" at night. In a family suite in a hotel -- her DM was sharing a bed in one room, the DM managed to get up from the bed, through the shut/locked door of the bedroom, past this woman (who had positioned her own cot pretty much blocking access to the suite door), and it was only the alarm going off that alerted the family! Cousin said the mom must have climbed up over a chair to get pass her! :)

[kassimer1]

I am glad your little one is ok.

[Julienatul]

wow, luckily your little one was found and was safe. I know my 1yr old was able to open the cabin door to our stateroom this last cruise. Luckily he is so small I keep a constant eye on him. I can only imagine when my kids get older. I think we will not do connecting cabins our put one adult in each just in case.

[bplazo]

That is a very good idea about having an ID bracelet on a child.

 

OP, does your child maybe sleepwalk? I did it quite a bit when I was a child and woke up serveral times outside.

[queenL]

How terrifying! I'm truly glad that you had a happy ending. We don't do adjoining rooms for just that reason. That said, it is still possible for little ones to open the door and wander off even in the same room. We do have the magnetic door alarm thing. We used it on the last cruise. In the middle of the night, the motion of the ship dislodged the magnetic pin. The alarm scared the Bejeepers out of me! At least it does the job though, but you may have quite a noisy night if the seas are rough. IMO, it works better in hotels then cabins. I have personally found that none of the standard door safety knobs we use at home have worked on the cruise. We push our stroller in front of the door and lock the wheels (she has yet to figure out how to move it when the wheels are locked) and use the alarm thing. It would be great if cruise ships used chains.

[RoadTripFanatic]

That is very scary. Don't feel too bad because you were in a seperate room. It could happen anywhere!! My little brother escaped at the age of 9 from a hotel room where there were 3 other people in the room with him! Two of them were our parents. He was sleep walking and managed to walk out of our room, down the hall, in the elevator and back to the room. He was pounding on the door to be let back in. My Dad kept telling my mom to ignore it because it was probably a drunk!! (We were actually staying in a Casino in South Lake Tahoe!!) Mom looked up and said Where is X? Dad looked out the window and there was his 9 year old boy! The rest of the trip Dad put a chair or other piece of furniture in front of the door.

[burnsoc]

Glad to hear it turned out OK. We always put these on the kids while on vacation. http://www.safetytat.com/

[patseacruiser]

I was going to take my 10 year old niece last March on a cruise with me. I am a very heavy sleeper so I bought a door alarm. Yes I know she's 10 but she sleep walks sometimes so it worried me and I purchased one of those door alarms. Everyone who has a child with them even if they are sleeping in the same room with the child should have an alarm. I know it would be easy for someone to walk out of the room if I was sleeping.

[Maryscooking]

Thanks for posting this, and I am glad everything worked out! We didn't have a problem with DD on our last cruise, but I do think I'll invest in the door alarm for the next one, just in case.

 

One of my renter's 9 yr old daughter sleepwalked out of her room, downstairs, out their front door (unlocking it first) and down the street to finally end up knocking on her friend's door at 11pm. And her mom didn't know she was missing until the daughter was being returned by said friend's parents. It can happen to anyone.

[irun5k]

This is also a good reason to have your kid wear the muster bracelet that most lines provide -- most have enough info on it to limit where the cabin is. We used to use a sharpie type marker to add contact info to the back of the muster bracelet when our DD was very young.

 

I was thinking the same thing. Next time we cruise I'll take a sharpie and add the cabin number on the bracelet. It would definitely speed things up in the case of something like this.

 

I've also thought about a static cling door decoration or something that my son would recognize, although I was thinking about doing that just for fun- so he could be the one to point us to our cabin when walking with us down a long hallway. It might have an added benefit if he did get down the hallway a bit on his own and was lucky enough to change directions and come up upon our door again.

 

No doubt about it, this is a pretty scary thing to experience. On the upshot, I'd much rather this happen on a cruise ship than anywhere else. Imagine this happening at a Holiday Inn- or worse, a Holiday Inn in a questionable part of town.

[dmr19]

Glad to hear it turned out OK. We always put these on the kids while on vacation. http://www.safetytat.com/

 

 

Burnsoc, Thanks!

These are much nicer than my solution: I sharpied our cabin number right on my son's arm. Looked like a prisoner.

[Colorado Kat]

Or have them wear something around an ankle - like runners wear when they don't want to carry much id?

 

I agree with putting a chair/stool in front of the door. Maybe sideways on the floor - tougher to move?