Teen "house arrest" on the Oasis

[bajathree]

"There is more to this story than is being told...or known."

There may well be, but do we really need to know the details? Whether or not something else was going on isn't really something we need to know. The Captain seemed to feel that the violation was serious enough to merit the punishment he meted out and that is good enough for me.

 

Might be good enough for you.....but there is a BIG difference between a kid who innocently fell asleep in another cabin with friends and one that was found either drunk or possibly in possession of drugs....and the punishment should certainly reflect that difference.

[uksimonusa]

I'm curious. How does the ship captain enforce a "house arrest"? The Oasis is a huge ship. How would they know if the parents/kid complied?

 

In cases like this they will post a security guard outside the cabin 24/7, have seen it a couple of times

[nomad098]

A lot of people on here jumping to conclusions based on some very sketchy information

 

All we know for sure is that a 15 year old boy made some bad choices that had serious repercussions for all on the ship

 

The OP stated that he could not understand why a parent would not know where their child is at 4 am

and then went on to say that their is a series of events that lead up to the Captain making an announcement over the cabin address system

 

This suggests there is a time line of events that lead to this and the parents may have known their child was missing for quite a while before the 4 am announcement

 

A Captain that in no uncertain terms tells his guests that the parenting of children is the responsibility of the parents and not his crew at the beginning of a cruise gets my full support and applause

 

A Captain states the same thing after a sleepless night,where he has been worried,concerned,annoyed,embarrassed,relieved and a whole other bunch of emotions would still have my full support but the applause would not be as enthusiastic.

 

We do not know if they are bad parents we just know the boy made some poor choices

 

We do not know if the punishment was too lenient or too harsh because we do not know the facts

 

For all we know it could have been the parents that offered this punishment as a resolution

 

All I know is that judging other people based on incomplete facts leads to a lot of injustice

[sdear]

I think Captain's should do this more often. There is a very generous curfew in place ( IMO ), and parents should be held accountable to make sure their kids are in place by cerfew time. If parents knew the stiff consequences getting on the ship, they might not be so lax about letting them run rampid on the ships.

 

My kids are grown now so I dont have that issue to think about...but I can't imagine putting my head down for the night not knowing if they are back to the cabin.

 

Cheers to the Captain !

[hbr777]

Is this not a commentary good or bad, but there were lots of kids, tweens and teens on the Oasis last week. Being honest, I rarely saw them with parents during the day or evening. For a tween or teen, it really was a good time, it seemed. Deck 15, back near the teen club, mini golf, etc... was a kid's zone, for sure.

[darceyg]

When we were onboard the Indy a couple of years ago in our second week of the cruise we kept meeting gangs of teens on the stairwells. One group in particular had made an awful mess scattering potato chips delibrately. Some were running through the corridors, and it was well past midnight. Others were playing on the lifts. An elderly passenger and his wife who both had walking sticks were waiting for the lift , lift stopped it was full of teens they laughed in their faces and took off in the lift. It was disgusting! I went to the customer services and complained, apparently I was not the only one. Staff said they would send someone straight away? We went back to our cabin but could still hear youths running around until our neighbour opened the door and told them in no uncertain terms *"$&^$£**! We never heard them again.

I just wondered where the parents were?

Please note, I am not tarring all the teens, goodness no, but it's quite sad and unacceptable that this minority group behaved like this.

[temple1]

[quote name='hbr777']I just got off Oasis today.

A 15 year old male did not come back to his cabin on Thursday. His mother noticed at 4 am that he had not returned. She had not seen her son since dinner.

Two announcements had to be made to locate the boy, waking up a ship of 8,000+ crew and guests at 4 am. The boy was located in another person's cabin.

[/quote]



[quote name='hbr777']
The captain explained that in cases such as this, crew look for the child in public areas. Then announcements are made in public areas. It is only as a last resort that announcements are made to the cabins.

TWO announcements were made, around 15 minutes apart.

The captain did not get all public relation-y on this. He was p*ssed and let his disgust shine through.[/quote]

If the announcement was made at 4 am then the family probably noticed much earlier. The family had to determine they could not locate their child, notify security, a search of public places by the crew and then the last resort - the public announcement. I have had no experience with the procedures to know how long it would take or how long the family searched on their own.

A little better than not noticing until 4am but not much.

Like the rest posting, I think the Captain too the correct action. I doubt they would have been escorted off if it was a port day if no illegal activity was involved (imho), but his cabin confinement might have been for more days.

[marci22]

[quote name='nomad098']A lot of people on here jumping to conclusions based on some very sketchy information. [/quote]

It's a sport! Anyone may participate!

[hbr777]

[quote name='nomad098']The OP stated that he could not understand why a parent would not know where their child is at 4 am
and then went on to say that their is a series of events that lead up to the Captain making an announcement over the cabin address system

This suggests there is a time line of events that lead to this and the parents may have known their child was missing for quite a while before the 4 am announcement[/quote]

Actually, during the Q&A session (which was great, by the way) the captain said that the parents had not seen the boy since dinner time. At 4 am the mother woke up and realized the kid was not in the cabin.

The impression I got from the captain from what he said at the Q&A is that he was very angry with the parents. And yes, he said that there was a security guard posted outside the cabin.

The Q&A was a riot; one woman actually asked the captain what proof he had that he was mentally and physically fit to captain the ship as she had had a bad experience a few years back with a crazy captain. The captain responded that he has no proof that he is sane, and non that he is insane. He said they check his eyes every year to make sure he can see. He was actually pretty funny. He also laughed aloud when asked where he cruises, and responded, "I don't cruise for vacation. I have never been on a cruise."

[Cindy]

[SIZE=3]Bravo to the captain![/SIZE]
[SIZE=3][/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]We were on the Grand Princess several years ago when the booming voice of the captain came over the PA system about 3 a.m. They were looking for a 16 year-old young "lady" who hadn't returned to her cabin. Apparently she had found "superior" accommodations.:rolleyes:[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3][/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Believe me, when you are sleeping and all of a sudden the captain's voice comes on, it's very startling!:eek: The captain apologized twice the next day for waking up the entire ship, and both times he reminded the parents they were not on vacation from their responsibilities. He said they had exhausted other possibilities to locate the girl before making the ship-wide announcement.[/SIZE]

[nomad098]

[quote name='hbr777']Actually, during the Q&A session (which was great, by the way) the captain said that the parents had not seen the boy since dinner time. At 4 am the mother woke up and realized the kid was not in the cabin.

The impression I got from the captain from what he said at the Q&A is that he was very angry with the parents. And yes, he said that there was a security guard posted outside the cabin.

The Q&A was a riot; one woman actually asked the captain what proof he had that he was mentally and physically fit to captain the ship as she had had a bad experience a few years back with a crazy captain. The captain responded that he has no proof that he is sane, and non that he is insane. He said they check his eyes every year to make sure he can see. He was actually pretty funny. He also laughed aloud when asked where he cruises, and responded, "I don't cruise for vacation. I have never been on a cruise."[/quote]

Now that shines a whole new light on the subject

If you had posted that near the beginning I would never have posted

[hbr777]

It was very startling. It was not the captain but a female voice that made the announcement. I didn't think of a teen - I was thinking that an adult might have met an untimely end. It was hard to sleep afterward.

[hbr777]

[quote name='nomad098']Now that shines a whole new light on the subject

If you had posted that near the beginning I would never have posted[/quote]

Go back and read my original post, Nomad. I did say that. I think you would have posted anyway. As matter of fact, I'll repost my original post here for you:

[COLOR=Navy]I just got off Oasis today.

A 15 year old male did not come back to his cabin on Thursday. His mother noticed at 4 am that he had not returned. She had not seen her son since dinner.[/COLOR] [COLOR=Navy]

Two announcements had to be made to locate the boy, waking up a ship of 8,000+ crew and guests at 4 am. The boy was located in another person's cabin.[/COLOR] [COLOR=Navy]

The captain made his disgust known with his own noon announcement admonishing parents to parent their children. I was also at his session an hour later where he takes questions about the ship, and this topic came up. He was very blunt about his disgust with the situation.[/COLOR] [COLOR=Navy]

The captain put the boy under cabin arrest so to speak; he was not allowed out of his cabin for the last full (sea day) of the cruise and one parent had to remain with him at all times.[/COLOR] [COLOR=Navy]

Some people felt the punishment was too harsh - others, not harsh enough.[/COLOR] [COLOR=Navy]

I wonder if they would have made them disembark, if it hadn't been a sea day? [/COLOR]

[steelman24]

If parents would be parents not children them selfs!

[nomad098]

Sorry my mistake

I thought there would have been a time lapse between the announcement
and the parent waking up to find her child missing

[akcruz]

[quote name='debache']As parents we tell our teen-age children the rules, as our own parents did....but, just like when we were teenagers, what they told us and what we tried to get away with is 2 different things....the teen disco closes at 1:00....people want to hang the parent....the parents could have been searching for him for a couple of hours before they even contacted guest service....If God gave us teenagers first, there would be no parents..I am not saying the punishment is wrong, I am saying don't judge the parents, since none of us know what the parents did or did not do...[/QUOTE]





[quote name='cndcruiser65']Must be nice to be so perfect. Sometimes kids just make stupid mistakes and as parents we cant control that even when we try.[/QUOTE]

How many of you who are blaiming the parents have or have had teens recently?

I have 2 and can tell you the best parent in the world could have something like this happen. My DD, now 22, is an honor student, follows the rules to a T and is always spoken about in the highest regard. I just recently heard about some of the things she did on one of our cruises when she was a teen :eek: Nothing harming anyone or anything else, but boy was I surprised. She was in the same cabin as us, in by curfew each night, etc.

My DS is just 17. On our recent Allure sailing, our kids were in a cabin across the hall. We met the kids he was hanging out with and checked on him often (he is a very different kid than DD, who hung out with us most of the cruise). He was in by curfew each night, yes I got out of bed and went across the hall to check, until the last night. About 15 minutes after curfew he was not back yet so I sat in his cabin for a bit waitibg, then ended up getting dressed and went looking for him. I was shocked at the number of kids still out. I did not find him, anger raging, headed back to my cabin, where DH said check his cabin. There he was "sound asleep" in bed. I let it go at that point, but we had a nice long talk the next day, and punishment. He had seen me walking around and knew he was in trouble. He thought since it was the last night he could push it a bit, he knew if it was earlier in the cruise he would have been with us for at least the next full day, our rules.

For all the rules and supervision you can provide, unless you are joined at hip you do not know what even the best kids are doing when they are teens. A little freedom is needed or you get the crazy wild adults I have a problem with.

I agree something more had to be going on, and I am glad the captain was not afraid to deal with it.

[RazorbackIslandGirl]

At 15yr old my kids would have begged the captain to put them in the brig! That would be the LAST vacation I paid for either of them!! Hell would have no furry like this Mamma!! But let's face it, when they didn't check in on a regular basis, I would have had my own search party!! Parents... PLEASE step up!! Now that's my rant for the day!:D

[nelblu]

[quote name='Langley Cruisers']RCI [B]absolutely has[/B] a teen curfew. It was not obeyed, in this case.
.[/quote]

Bravo to the Captain. The curfew, in this case, would have no impact as the kid was'nt roaming the ship, but in someone else's cabin.

[lady_cruiser]

Too bad that Carnival can't follow Royal Caribbean's view on teen curfews. This is one reason we sail more on RCL than other cruiselines - security!

[celebrity]

There was a thread a few months ago re a girl that could not be found by her parents. I don't recall the entire story but when she was found, her father made her wear a t shirt that identified her as the girl that had gone missing. Does anyone else recall that thread?

[Paulxyz2004]

Bravo to the Captain for doing this and I hope these folks will be blacklisted by the cruiseline as well. It´s time for people to realize their actions or non-actions will have consequences and it´s never too early for a kid/teen to learn this.

[matj2000]

[quote name='J & G']Stirring the pot, are we???? You really can't be serious, so you must be just pot stirring.....
[/quote]

[SIZE=3]Nobody here does not really know what happened, or if it is even true.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3][/SIZE]
[SIZE=3][/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]But you will have 100+ posters bashing this kid & family and taking one side of the argument.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3][/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]So I prefer too look at things from the opposite point of view.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3][/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]What kind of discussion is it if everyone repeats the same thing?[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3][/SIZE]
[SIZE=3][/SIZE]
[SIZE=3] [/SIZE]

[PLEIKU68]

When they get home they will probably contact the Resolutions Desk and ask for a credit since they had to spend a day in the cabin. :eek:

[klingoncruiser]

This is a great captain and I am sure one embarrassed set of parents. :mad:

[keishashadow]

Parenting involves the responsibility of raising their kids to whatever standards they hold dear. Said rearing to include setting clear-cut boundaries and the punishment that will be doled out if the rules are broken...akin to what they'll experience in their adult life.:rolleyes: If they don't get schooled by the parents or elect to chuck the life lessons and go their own way, somebody in RL of authority will eventually set them straight when their behavior infringes on society.

All kids test the water in one way or the other, all part of maturing. We've all had our moments;). imo just seems odd that an otherwise aware kid would push the envelope so and pull such a dumb stunt on a cruise ship vs back home in more familiar territory. :confused:

Parents are responsible for their minor charges, even on vacation. If the they didn't make sure the kid was secure in his berth before they called it a night, the captain's time out should've included the parental units too.