Questions Re: Circle C

[BusyBlond]

Hi, I'm taking my step-daughter on a cruise in August on the Triumph. She will be 12 at the time and will be moving up to circle c. she has cruised twice before, but was 8 and 10 on previous cruises so I was able to sign her in and out of kids club. I understand that Circle C doesn't work that way. could anyone fill me in on the details. I'm not thrilled about the idea of her being free to come and go, but i dont' want her to miss out on the fun either. She is a good kid and I'm not concerned about her misbehaving, but we will be on a ship with thousands of people I don't know and I'm pretty over protective. Any tips and feedback would be appreciated.

[Chimaygrandcru]

I had my daughter in circle c a few years ago when she was 13 and I was a little concerned as well. Like you I was not afraid of her being bad I was just concerned about her wanting to leave and trying to find us on the boat. What we did was purchase walkie talkies so when I either wanted her to meet us some where or if she wanted us we were able to contact each other. This worked out great since they are not in the room the whole time. Circle c has a lot of activities all over the boat. We are leaving this week and my daughter will be in club 2o and the walkie talkies are already packed.

[cjknox]

Hi, I'm taking my step-daughter on a cruise in August on the Triumph. She will be 12 at the time and will be moving up to circle c. she has cruised twice before, but was 8 and 10 on previous cruises so I was able to sign her in and out of kids club. I understand that Circle C doesn't work that way. could anyone fill me in on the details. I'm not thrilled about the idea of her being free to come and go, but i dont' want her to miss out on the fun either. She is a good kid and I'm not concerned about her misbehaving, but we will be on a ship with thousands of people I don't know and I'm pretty over protective. Any tips and feedback would be appreciated.

 

What my mom did with me was make herself clear under which circumstances I was able to check out of the kids club: 1. If there is a club activity outside of the club or 2. If there is an emergency. Otherwise she'd have to come pick me up. Your daughter sounds like a good kid so if you set clear boundaries I'm sure she'll be fine. Like you my mom is very protective (that's a good thing) but now that I'm 18 I can roam the ship at my own discretion. :rolleyes:

[bm6pm5]

We have put our daughter in Circle C twice and she had a great time. She is also a pretty responsible kid. We set up basic ground rules for her to follow. No hanging out in others cabins or ours basic times to check in. We kept post it notes in our cabin for checking in at certain times and to let each other know where we were at to meet up. I really never stay in one spot for to long anyway and would see her lots of times that she did not even know about without even looking for her. If you'd see one of her new friends you would see her nearby.

Usually when they sign out it is with their new friends because they don't want to do the planned activity. Then go back later for the next one.

The one thing that you should make sure to do is to get her there the first night as that is when they kind of make their friends. They will get into a group the second day but it is easier the first night.

[CatlinSTJ]

Go over the rules with her beforehand and set up regular meeting times. I know my girls and they understand but we still review safety points before each trip.

 

- Don't go to or in anyone else's stateroom

- Don't walk alone

- Make your check-in and curfew times

- If someone bothers you, find me or a crew member immediately

- Stay in the public areas

- Use common sense and stay aware of your surroundings

 

Our girls are 14, 17 and 6. The teens are old enough to go about on their own and the ship is pretty safe as long as they follow the rules. If they are at a late night activity, they get a curfew and have to walk back together.

 

 

Next cruise: Carnival Breeze June 2014

[mousey]

Go over the rules with her beforehand and set up regular meeting times. I know my girls and they understand but we still review safety points before each trip.

 

- Don't go to or in anyone else's stateroom

- Don't walk alone

- Make your check-in and curfew times

- If someone bothers you, find me or a crew member immediately

- Stay in the public areas

- Use common sense and stay aware of your surroundings

 

Our girls are 14, 17 and 6. The teens are old enough to go about on their own and the ship is pretty safe as long as they follow the rules. If they are at a late night activity, they get a curfew and have to walk back together.

 

 

Next cruise: Carnival Breeze June 2014

 

This is exactly the same rules we had for our DS all the years we traveled with him when he was younger. He's 18 now and has lots of cruises under his belt. Once he and his friend that was traveling with us broke curfew...we had consequences that they knew about ahead of time and when we enforced them...they never tried anything stupid again. If you enforce any indiscretions of the rules...they will respect you and not make the same mistake again. Even the nicest of kids (like my DS and his buddy) will make a poor choice at some time and in their teens kids are sometimes a tad rebellious. If you set up rules and consequences for breaking those rules, and enforce the consequences when or if they break the rules...things will go well.

 

We also, when he was much younger (9-11) used walkie talkies. But once he turned 12 he was embarrassed to use them so that's when we compromised and used the post-it notes and set specific times and places to meet and check in with him. He was so happy not to have to lug around the walkie talkies that he was never late to meet us and many times, on his own, came looking for us to see what we were doing.