Children left on ship

[Sarahbear666]

Hi, I've just seen on a Facebook thread that children can't be left on the ship without an adult. They said it was a new rule. Is this true?

 

I have a 10 and 16 year old who both will want to stay aboard for most, if not all, ports and I don't want to make them leave their friends. But neither do I want to stay aboard myself!

 

Ship is Indy.

 

(btw - I'm asking for recent experience of rules, not parental advice about whether or not I should leave them - I have no plans to be a long way from the ship at any port)

 

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[Biker19]

(btw - I'm asking for recent experience of rules, not parental advice about whether or not I should leave them -

You'll get it anyway.:beer-mug:

[myfuzzy]

Ok, let me put this out there. You said 10 & 16 year old want to stay on board a cruise ship.....unsupervised....while you go ashore. UH NO WAY....You are the parents, you call the shots. I am going to guess they didn't pay their own passage, soooo. Maybe if they DID go with you, reluctantly...they might actually learn something or have a good time....AWAY from their "friends" . I am going to assume, by friends, you mean newly acquired "friends" just met on the ship. One word comes to mind TROUBLE, you need to keep your eye on them at all times.

[ARandomTraveler]

They probably mean kids who are little enough to be in adventure ocean. If your kids are old enough to hang out on their own, nobody would know if you were on the ship or not.

 

 

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[myfuzzy]

They probably mean kids who are little enough to be in adventure ocean. If your kids are old enough to hang out on their own, nobody would know if you were on the ship or not.

 

 

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So you are say a 10 year old is responsible enough to be left alone on a cruise ship maybe being "watched" by a 16 year old.....yeah, right

[Sarahbear666]

The 10 year old would be in adventure ocean, not watched by the 16 year old.

 

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[Sarahbear666]

We did this in 2014 with no problems. Like I said, kids in adventure ocean and us walking distance from the ship.

I'm comfortable with my parenting decisions thank you, I just want to know if the rules have changed.

 

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[WestTexasBySea]

Whenever we would check into Adventure Ocean they would always ask us where you are going to be and would ask if you where going off the ship if it was a port day. You can leave the ship and I did ask what happened in an emergency. They told me they would attempt to contact us via our cabin, emergency contact info, etc. I have left the ship with my children in Adventure Ocean, but my parents where always on board. I probably would leave them on ship if my parents weren't there if I wasn't going to be too far away, being able to get back to the ship in less than 30 mins - 1 hour. I guess you have to judge it by your kids. In a true emergency you are relying on the ships staff and procedures if you were on the boat or not. They have called my cabin a couple of times to say one of my kids got bumped in the head or wasn't feeling well and at times it may have been an hour or so before I got the message and the staff always did a great job handling the situation before I got there. I would suggest making sure if you are going to leave the ship having a way to be contacted via cell phone. We cruised on Allure in March of this year.

[mjkacmom]

I’d have no issue leaving the 10 in OA, or leaving a 16 year old on the ship. My 17 year old starting going to NYC with friends at 14, and has an overnight babysitting job next month. So far I’ve raised to into adulthood with zero issues.

[Sarahbear666]

Thanks everyone. I'm hopeful that there is no rule change. The children thrive on a bit of independence and we want the holiday to include family time as well as time for us each to have our own fun.

 

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[ONECRUISER]

My kids either left ship with me or had Grandma/Grandpa on board, was 15-20yrs ago and they are adults now. That's way I handled it, not judging. Has been cases when parents got left behind when ship sailed. One time do remember off hand was 2 families traveling together, at least one parent was on the ship, the other parents had to catch up 2-3 days later...

[blueboys24]

I have a 12 yo and 9 yo and have literally just come off indy. They allowed my 12yo into adventure ocean and we did leave the boat to go ashore for a few hours while they were in kids club and was no problem. hope this helps

[Sarahbear666]

I have a 12 yo and 9 yo and have literally just come off indy. They allowed my 12yo into adventure ocean and we did leave the boat to go ashore for a few hours while they were in kids club and was no problem. hope this helps

Thanks, that really does help!

 

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[gerelmx]

This is from Celebrity, RCI parent company

 

Parents/guardians are reminded they are responsible for the actions of their child/young adult at all times while on a Celebrity Cruises cruise vacation.

 

 

Celebrity’s minimum age to sail unaccompanied on sailings originating in North America is twenty-one (21). The minimum age to sail unaccompanied on sailings from South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand is eighteen (18). Celebrity Cruises retains the right, on rare occasions, to raise the minimum age to sail unaccompanied on any sailing when local laws require or permit such a modification.

For voyages originating in North America, no guest younger than the age twenty-one (21) will be assigned to a stateroom unless accompanied in the same stateroom by an adult twenty-one (21) years old or older. A guest's age is established upon the first date of sailing. This age limit will be waived for children sailing with their parents or guardians in connecting staterooms; for underage married couples; and for active duty members of the United States or Canadian military. Certain other restrictions and conditions will apply; such as compliance with the age twenty-one (21) alcohol policy, and proof of marriage for underage couples or proof of active duty military status required.

[yuvraj]

Not sure what measures they have to enforce. Most likely they don't have systems to check whether you are leaving the ship without your children.

 

I tend to conform to the rules. So in my case, I would check at guest services and if the rule is that you can't leave them behind then I wouldn't. I would also try and get a definitive answer from RC (I usually use the Crown and Anchor email) so I have any response in writing.

 

Fortunately I no longer have that problem as my children have grown up. They were always well behaved when young so if it was permitted, I would have had no problems leaving them on the ship.

[cruisinforabruising]

This is from Celebrity, RCI parent company

 

Parents/guardians are reminded they are responsible for the actions of their child/young adult at all times while on a Celebrity Cruises cruise vacation.

 

 

Celebrity’s minimum age to sail unaccompanied on sailings originating in North America is twenty-one (21). The minimum age to sail unaccompanied on sailings from South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand is eighteen (18). Celebrity Cruises retains the right, on rare occasions, to raise the minimum age to sail unaccompanied on any sailing when local laws require or permit such a modification.

For voyages originating in North America, no guest younger than the age twenty-one (21) will be assigned to a stateroom unless accompanied in the same stateroom by an adult twenty-one (21) years old or older. A guest's age is established upon the first date of sailing. This age limit will be waived for children sailing with their parents or guardians in connecting staterooms; for underage married couples; and for active duty members of the United States or Canadian military. Certain other restrictions and conditions will apply; such as compliance with the age twenty-one (21) alcohol policy, and proof of marriage for underage couples or proof of active duty military status required.

 

This has nothing to do with what the OP is talking about.

 

OP I just came off the Allure 2 weeks ago. While we didn’t have our kids with us on this trip we did take a tour of the Adventure Ocean area for my neighbors to see. You can still leave your kids on the ship as of 2 weeks ago and still (with your signature) allow your kids to self sign out on days that you are not in port. If you are talking about no adventure ocean I don’t have an answer for that because my kids are not that old yet. Hope this helps.

[grandgeezer]

It's all about risk versus reward. Though the odds are really low that anything would happen, you have to ask yourself, if something would happen while we were on shore, and they couldn't get in touch with us, how would we cope with it?

[Biker19]

This is from Celebrity, RCI parent company

 

RCCL is the parent organization over both RCI and Celebrity. They can have very different policies even if under the same overall parent organization.

[Sarahbear666]

Thanks everyone for your input. Someone on the Facebook thread asked RCI so I thought I'd share the response here in case anyone was following...

 

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[OCruisers]

Should be no problem in most situations on port stops. :)

[ditmar2007]

I’d have no issue leaving the 10 in OA, or leaving a 16 year old on the ship. My 17 year old starting going to NYC with friends at 14, and has an overnight babysitting job next month. So far I’ve raised to into adulthood with zero issues.

At 16 i lived alone, paid rent, and cooked my own dinner. Plus went to high school. And went interrailing around Europe.

 

I think a 16 yo can manage him-/herself and a 10 yo a couple of hours on a ship loaded with adults :D

[bizeemom4]

Met up with a lady in the elevator a few weeks ago. She was telling everyone about the excursion she had been on that ended with a car accident and 2 people being taken to a hospital in Barbados. It’s too big of a risk of a “it might happen” for my family. No way.

 

 

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[Melrosgirl]

Personally if I’m going to be walking around and shopping in port such as in Falmouth where the ship is right there, I don’t see the problem. I wouldn’t go on an excursion without my minor kids though if no other adult was on board. I’m a worrier though

[spookwife]

The 10 year old would be in adventure ocean, not watched by the 16 year old.

 

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but the 10 year old can sign themselves out of the kids club programming.

[spookwife]

At 16 i lived alone, paid rent, and cooked my own dinner. Plus went to high school. And went interrailing around Europe.

 

I think a 16 yo can manage him-/herself and a 10 yo a couple of hours on a ship loaded with adults :D

 

at 16 I wanted NOTHING to do with my younger siblings and would have heartily resented being stuck having to babysit on a cruise ship full of very cute boys. and my younger brother would have relished the opportunity to be unsupervised.

 

as long as the OP trusts their younger child to not leave AO, and there haven't been any recent issues with incidents involving kids whose parents went ashore without them that necessitated a rule change, its a personal decision. one that will be judged harshly no matter what the parent decides.