Anyone every had this problem?

[Voyager]

Most of the charges came from the surf station. This seems to be internet accesible computers in the childrens AO program. On MOS they have a wall of computers in the back corner of the 9-11 AO room. Some of the computers have games only but some of them have internet access. They have a place at the top of the keyboard for you to swipe your card and it is clearly marked you will be charged per minute. I don't really think the kids would read this though. It seems they charge .25/minute. There are many, many .25, .50, 1.00, and one for $235. She must have just enjoyed swiping her card and left the internet on one time for an extended period. When I found out what had happened and went to investigate the "surf station" the attendant didn't even know how to operate the online computers to show us how she would have used it.

 

As far as the gift shop, I never saw any receipts or merchandise. It seems she and a friend were buying candy. This was a small amount of the charges.

 

The other bulk of the charges are in the arcade: $40, 40, 10, 40 etc. Since the kids have to walk through the arcade to get to the kids program she was tempted to play. I guess.

 

We did allow our daughter to sign herself in and out of the kids program. She is usually a responsible child. She was in the room when I would tell her to be and checked in with notes throughout the day. She always knew where we would be and enjoyed her freedom she doesn't ordinarily have.

 

We did get a copy of the authorization form from the ship and wished they had followed our instructions. Anyway this has been an expensive learning experience.

I am sorry your vacation may have been ruined over this. What I dont understand is that any average 9 year old knows, you dont get anything for free. When planning your vacation was it discussed what her allowance would be. Surley she would want to buy some souveniers. On many of the cruises I took my son on, he asked me flat out how much the arcade games were. After all, you cant go to the arcade in the mall and play the games for free. She did not look at one, not ONE of the reciepts they gave her? I'm sorry but I would like to think that your daughter is smarter than that. Am I incorrect? Does she have learing disablities? I'm being serious here.

Secondley, I think that letting her sign her self out of the club, and making her return to the room when she should and leving notes is unresponsible parenting skills. How would the loss of the $600.00 be in comparison to the lost of a child. I normally mind my business when it comes to this but you know what? This is my business ! Everytime a child turns up missing in my state guess who pays for the search? We do. I live just a few house from where Carlie Brucia (sp) used to live. How many of you have ever had to personally see, walk by, a wall of memorial items for a little girl they found dead behind a church? Teddy bears, cards, flowers, dolls. What if the waitress in the Denny's resturant last week decided to mind her own business when she realized the little girl with the man may be the missing girl?

I dont care who flames me for this. It is my responsibility and right to post my concerns. Some may post that its not about her parenting skills but about the miss use of the seapass card. I see/have a problem with both of the issues. We are all responsible for our children. And as far as having the cruise line remove the 15 hour jaunt on the internet. No way. Yes, it may be thier fault but it would never have happened if this little girl did not act so irresponsible. I say leave it on and have her pay that back too. Why bail her out? What lesson would be taught/learned?

Flame away all those that want to look the other way or not discuss the big white elephant in the room. There have just been too many children missing and the OP does not know how lucky she is that someone didnt snatch her daugher up.

 

Marilyn

(not even wearing a flame resistant suit- I can handle it)

[Grayce]

After reading this I talked to my kids about our upcoming cruise and what they are allowed to charge on their cards. We talked about how the soda sticker will let them have pop for free etc. but how they have to pay for internet and video games. My understanding is the kids have access to video games and internet in the adventures ocean club. Since they will not be under my direct supervision at the adventures ocaen club I would not be able to monitor their use of the computer/video games. If it wasn't for the OP bringing this topic up I would never have known they can charge these things on their cards.

[szdiver]

I may be looking for things that are not there, but the older brother could just as easily have used the little girls card to keep himself out of trouble. Who would turn in their brother? She could be less guilty than we expect. Has anyone even thought about this angle?

[later]

As stated, check your sea pass charges every day on the TV. The arcade is adjacent to the kids program rooms, but they are to stay in the rooms unless they sign themselves out or they are on a tour and/or scavenger hunt with their group. As far a gift shops I don't think there are any near the kids program as far as I can remember. Nearest food/drink to buy would be a Johnny Rockets which is also adjacent to the kids area.

 

 

At any rate, it is up to the parent to determine if they want there child to check themselves out of the kids program. My 9 year old daughter has her sea pass activated and we discuss a spending limit for the entire cruise. I check it daily. We keep all receipts for back up if there is a discrepency. We will not let her check herself out of the program until she is at least 15. If she is not in the program she is with us.

 

I wish to thank the OP for the warning about the sea pass though. It has given all of us parents things to think about and talk about with our children before we go on the cruise.

[cruise.freak]

As said in a earlier post kids that age don't realize the bill they are raking up. My daughter is 11 and could sign herself in and out of camping and had a set spending amount. We did check out account every other day and on one day close to the end she had 40.00 in arcade which she got in trouble for even though it is a little amount. She had no idea the amount she did and it so easy for a child to swipe their card and lose track. If RCI said they locked the account I feel they are partially responable.

[famoussd]

Wow..$600.. where were you guys this whole time??

[sunshine 229]

VoyagerOriginally posted by voyager :

What I dont understand is that any average 9 year old knows, you dont get anything for free.

 

 

Well lets see about this, on the cruise ship the kid sees that you can go through the buffet lines and get as much of that food as you want for free. And then if they have a soda sticker, they can go to any bar or drink waiter, show their card and get soda for free. On the Voyager we could play mini-putt for free, although at home we have to pay to play at the local mini-putt. And if the soft ice cream machine was working we could just help ourselves to ice cream on the voyager, for free.

 

Yes, I can see why a 9 year old child must be seriously retarded not to see 'you don't get anything for free' on a cruise ship.:rolleyes:

[theodoru]

Both my grandchildren have gone on cruises with me in the past, but never on RCCL. This is the first time I have heard of internet access in a children's program. The other cruise lines seem to disable children's ability to charge by default, and only turn it on if the parents request it. I have never allowed my 9 year old granddaughter to charge anything, and it has never occurred to her that she could. However, if she sees other children swiping their cards in AO and using the internet, I know she will pressure me to allow her to do this also. Once she got on, she would lose track of time and have no idea how much the charges were. I have no intention of allowing this, but I can hear the begging and whining already!

[justaknucklehead]

Get real Sunshine, nobody was watching this kid. They let her leave notes in the room as to her whereabouts. She had free reign of the ship. Why would that be even a little bit ok? Once the other kids found out her card was good, they probably all used it. Who would ever know? This is not RCCL's problem, this is a parental lapse because they thought she would be safe on a ship without supervision.

[cruzincurt]

As usual, it's someone else's fault.

[sunshine 229]

Get real Sunshine, nobody was watching this kid. They let her leave notes in the room as to her whereabouts. She had free reign of the ship. Why would that be even a little bit ok? Once the other kids found out her card was good, they probably all used it. Who would ever know? This is not RCCL's problem, this is a parental lapse because they thought she would be safe on a ship without supervision.

 

If you read my post again I think you will see that I made no comment about whether this child was being watched by anyone or not. My comment was directed to the statement that, " any average 9 year old knows, you dont get anything for free."

I think the guidelines between what is 'free' and what is an added charge on a cruise ship can be a bit blurred, especially for a 9-year-old child. That is the point I was making in my post. I wasn't critiquing the OP's parenting skills.

 

I think it is a good ploy you tried there though, when you can't argue with a point someone has made, change the subject and talk about something else:D

 

If you want me to discuss other points though, I will say that I think RCI was more negligent here than the parents. They allowed someone to make charges to the parent's on board account without the parent's consent.

 

I think a few people have already pointed out that there are several opportunities for a kid to spend money within or very close to the AO area of the ship, so there was no need for the child to be roaming the ship from stem to stern to run up this bill.

[98Charlie]

....I will say that I think RCI was more negligent here than the parents. They allowed someone to make charges to the parent's on board account without the parent's consent I think a few people have already pointed out that there are several opportunities for a kid to spend money within or very close to the AO area of the ship, so there was no need for the child to be roaming the ship from stem to stern to run up this bill.

And, to me, that is the answer to the OP's lament.

• They asked that the child's card not be activated for charges.
  
• They were told by a representative of the cruise line that it was taken care of.
  
• RCI's representative failed to provide a service as promised.
  

End of story.

 

I'm a big fan of personal responsibility and having a back up plan. However, the parents took the word of the RCI representative. Yes, they might have been more proactive in checking the bill. But, they were certainly under no obligation to do so. Their obligation was to notify the purser's office when the charges were first seen, which they apparently did.

 

Further flailing away at the dead horse: From what the OP described, the lion's share of the charges were made in and near the Kid's area.

 

Charlie

[tripman]

Just a pet peeve of mine, saying food is free on a cruiseship...it isn't free.

[PhoenixCruiser]

Wow..$600.. where were you guys this whole time??

 

Exactly, however since the OP hasn't commented further, I guess we'll never know :eek:

 

 

###

[justaknucklehead]

I don't believe the gift shop or the pool bar is near AO. Is it?

[Tra4]

OMG, so RCI failed in deactivating the card. They were wrong. BUT, my gosh, either way there is no doubt any 9 year old didn't know they were charging 600.00!! Get real!! I have a 10 year old and last year she was 9 on the Mariner. She knew her card was activated, Not because I told her ( I didn't), but her friend charged and my daughter tried also. It worked, and she charged, but promptly told me. She had a 40.00 limit and only charged maybe 15.00.

 

My 9 year old was either in AO or with me--she could not be alone long enough to charge 50, let alone 600. No child should be alone on a cruiseship long enough in 5 days to charge this much!!!

[98Charlie]

I don't believe the gift shop or the pool bar is near AO. Is it?

Absolutely correct.

 

The OP stated

Most of the charges came from the surf station............It seems they charge .25/minute. There are many, many .25, .50, 1.00, and one for $235.

AND

As far as the gift shop, I never saw any receipts or merchandise. It seems she and a friend were buying candy. This was a small amount of the charges.

AND

The other bulk of the charges are in the arcade: $40, 40, 10, 40 etc. Since the kids have to walk through the arcade to get to the kids program she was tempted to play.

So, the majority of the charges were made in a very limited area of the ship.

 

First and foremost and parenting skills (or lack of) notwithstanding, RCI failed to do as they promised. Period.

 

Charlie

[98Charlie]

OMG, so RCI failed in deactivating the card. They were wrong. BUT, my gosh, either way there is no doubt any 9 year old didn't know they were charging 600.00!! Get real!! I have a 10 year old and last year she was 9 on the Mariner. She knew her card was activated, Not because I told her ( I didn't), but her friend charged and my daughter tried also. It worked, and she charged, but promptly told me. She had a 40.00 limit and only charged maybe 15.00.

 

My 9 year old was either in AO or with me--she could not be alone long enough to charge 50, let alone 600. No child should be alone on a cruiseship long enough in 5 days to charge this much!!!

OP didn't say that the child didn't know that she was running up a bill. The fact is that the majority of the charges were made in AO or in the nearby arcade.

 

The OP stated

Please be aware this can happen and learn from my mistake double check your childrens cards and check your seapass account daily.

• Her kid did wrong.
  
• She's glad that they found out on day 5 instead of the end of the cruise.
  
• She hopes others will "learn from my mistake".
  

 

How about a "thanks for posting"?

 

Hey, Roanoke: Thanks for posting.

 

Charlie

[VikingRob]

For what its worth you can put a limit on the seapass cards. We just got off the Mariner earlier this month and I put a $50 limit on my 12 year olds card and a $150 limit on my 18 year old. You simply do this at the guest services desk on the ship. This worked great for us because it let her get ice cream or a treat with her friends and it let us pace our sons drinking for the week.

[sunshine 229]

For what its worth you can put a limit on the seapass cards. We just got off the Mariner earlier this month and I put a $50 limit on my 12 year olds card and a $150 limit on my 18 year old. You simply do this at the guest services desk on the ship. This worked great for us because it let her get ice cream or a treat with her friends and it let us pace our sons drinking for the week.

 

Just a friendly warning, if I were you, I'd duck now. Given the hypercritical tone of this thread I'd expect the insults to start flying your way soon, " OMG you let your 18 year old drink? what kind of parent are you? do you know that your son could turn into an alcoholic? do you condone that sort of behavior by 18 year olds? Yadda, yadda, yadda. Oh yeah I forgot, " your son must be a terrible person." :rolleyes:

[beachguy]

Just a friendly warning, if I were you, I'd duck now. Given the hypercritical tone of this thread I'd expect the insults to start flying your way soon, " OMG you let your 18 year old drink? what kind of parent are you? do you know that your son could turn into an alcoholic? do you condone that sort of behavior by 18 year olds? Yadda, yadda, yadda. Oh yeah I forgot, " your son must be a terrible person." :rolleyes:

 

(Beachchick here)

 

Considering that RCI allows 18-year olds to drink beer and wine with parental consent, I doubt you'll see the responses you are expecting. Most posters here are aware of this RCI rule and are probably, like me, glad to hear of a parent who allows something that is not in any way against the rules, but monitors their child's behavior at the same time.

 

If you are so upset about the responses on this thread, you might want to consider not reading it anymore.

 

Yes, I think the OP brought up a good point (one that's actually been discussed before, but bears repeating)--RCI is notoriously bad about deactivating kids' Seapass accounts. All parents should verify that it is deactivated and if not, go and insist that it be deactivated.

 

However, I think it's good that other posters pointed out that (1) the parents should have been monitoring the account from the beginning, if for no other reason than that mistakes can be made on any account; (2) a typical 9-year old today knows enough about money to "get" it when they are required to sign for something and there's a charge shown--the 2 youngsters in our lives know how money works and understand enough about charge cards to know it's like spending money (although 9-year olds often don't understand the significance of the amounts of money); and (3) the dangers of allowing a young child to roam freely on the ship--yes, that's what they did by allowing her to sign herself in and out of AO, plus there were obviously significant amounts of time where there was no actual communication between parent and child--the OP may not really have considered that a cruise ship is exactly like a small, contained city with all the dangers inherent to children.

 

beachchick

[justaknucklehead]

Well said, Beachchick.

 

I don't fault any parent for allowing their 18 to 21 year old children to drink beer on wine on a cruise. It's the one's that want to see if they can get away with their 17 year olders doing it. Everybody is all about the "what can we get away with" attitude and ask those questions on this forum. My response to them is "read the rules and follow them". The rules are there for a reason.

[sueinphilly]

I think alot of problems would not happen if the norm was to NOT ALLOW for charging on a child's card (say 12 yrs and under) and that you would need to do something if you DID want to allow charging. Opt in instead of Opt out. Also, we have heard conflicting accounts of putting a cash limit on a card for children. Some say it works, some say they let the kids go over the limit.

 

This is not the way things should be, too wishy washy. Under 13, NO charging enabled unless you approve it (signature required) and cash limits adhered to.

[Happy ks]

Yikes, what a shocker! But, being a parent, I can see where it could happen. My (usually) very responsible teenage son ran up a $200 phone charge playing an internet game a couple of years ago. We had purchased him and his sister a shared laptop, it came with 6 months of "free" internet service. However,he being used to the cable connection I have, had no idea about the phone charges from dial-up providers. Even though there was a warning at the beginning of the game of a per minute charge, he did not read it. Fortunately, he had enough cash in his savings account to cover it. We cancelled the "free" internet service that very same day.

 

So, a lesson is learned, I have no criticism of the OP, they know what can happen now. It's a good thing for other parents to read, perhaps it will save another cruiser from a similar experience. While I also think children need to be more closely supervised, it's just not fair for us to criticize, we don't know her or her kids.

 

Sunshine 229, I do have to comment on your post, there is nothing "free" on a cruise, it is all pre-paid, included in your cruise fare. I see this (free comment) written on these boards from time to time and it can be misleading, thinking that food, ice cream, entertainment is "free". If that is the case, it sure is one expensive, tiny cabin for the price we pay to cruise. Parents should talk with their kids in advance about all of this. Adults should also take it into consideration, before they start signing charge slips, so there is no shock at the end of the week.

 

So, to other parents, this can be a wake-up call. Make sure you discuss not only behavior, but finances prior to any vacation. I remember years ago, when we first started vacationing with our kids, I wrote up a mini contract with my kids, explaining what was expected of them on an airplane, waiting in lines, spending $$, anything I could think of. During the vacation, if they had a complaint, or if they weren't behaving, I reminded them of the contract they had signed with us. I'm sure a lawyer could take it apart, but it sure worked for us at the time!

[sunshine 229]

Originally posted by Happy Ks

 

Sunshine 229, I do have to comment on your post, there is nothing "free" on a cruise, it is all pre-paid, included in your cruise fare. I see this (free comment) written on these boards from time to time and it can be misleading, thinking that food, ice cream, entertainment is "free".

 

 

I take your point. Would my post be easier for you to agree with if I said that the food in the buffet, the ice-cream from the machine and the rounds of mini-golf were 'included' in the price and would not result in additional charges and that I think it might be difficult for a 9 year old on a cruise ship to differentiate at times between what is 'included' and what is not, and will result in an extra charge?