Kids using Royal app

[Joseph2017China]

15 hours ago, 5Stripes said:

Wow you got lit up by all the "we know everything crowd, how dare you...".  But, did you ever find a solution?  We have a couple of 9 year olds that we would like to be able to let them some freedom on the boat.  Since RC doesn't let us bring our helicopters, I wanted to use the app, so that on a friggin ginormous boat with 6000+people, we could easily let our kids know when it's time to come home, eat, take a bath, whatever.  

 

Since I didn't raise my kids in this mystical time when somehow on an 18 deck ship kids just showed up when you needed them, I'm curious how other solved this.  @biker19 please let us know how you managed to solve this problem.

In the old days, not many years ago, parents and kids communicated by words, not gadgets.  They were told what the expectation was, such as where to show up and what time.  They even had watches given to them.  If they violated any rules, they were punished, and any freedoms revoked.  Basically my kids were scared not to miss a meeting time.  We did this all without phones or gadgets. 

[gatour]

15 hours ago, Grandma Dazzles said:

 

You can meet at specific times and places for lunch, dinner, etc.  

 

Are you planning to let them use Adventure Ocean?  You can arrange to meet after a session ends.  I believe you will have to sign permission to allow them sign out privileges at age 9.  

 

You can leave notes in your cabin, or on the cabin door.  

 

Keep in mind kids are busy - swimming, playing in the sports court, ice skating, not all things are conducive to carrying a phone. 

 

You said yourself that the ship has 6,000 people - not sure I would want to give 9-year-olds hours of freedom.  

 

 

 

 

We didn't start cruising unitil I was seventeen, however I pretty much grew up at Walt Disney World.  Starting when I was 10 or 11 our parents would let us do the Magic Kingdom (it was the only park at the time) on our own and if we were staying at a hotel on the "beam"  We could go to the park or the other hotel on our own (the Contemporary had an amazing game room as compared to the Poly)  How did we handle just like you posted above.

 

If you think about it although the ship is big there are only so many places someone can be.  Before WiFi, me and my wife could much pretty much find each other fairly easily.  However, we would leave notes in the cabin or voicemail on the phone.

[KatWoman92]

32 minutes ago, Joseph2017China said:

In the old days, not many years ago, parents and kids communicated by words, not gadgets.  They were told what the expectation was, such as where to show up and what time.  They even had watches given to them.  If they violated any rules, they were punished, and any freedoms revoked.  Basically my kids were scared not to miss a meeting time.  We did this all without phones or gadgets. 

 In the old days, many years ago, people didn't have indoor plumbing either.  Not all progress is bad, for heaven's sake!  

 

[KatWoman92]

40 minutes ago, Joseph2017China said:

Yes, but the rest of us, don't want to babysit preteens for.  I think it's a great idea, to help limit the amount of freedom allowed. 

 

Holy cow, this thread! 

 

According to one poster, I'm a helicopter mom.  According to you, I'm giving my children too much freedom.  LOL 

[leisuretraveler223]

16 hours ago, Biker19 said:

Went old school and told the kids when/where to meet - though that was before apps and 9 year olds having cell phones. You either trust them or you don't.

 

When my wife and I took her four kids on a cruise for the first time, I felt this was too.  This was before the app.  I was like "no way I'm giving them a wifi package just so they can be on their phones!  So, the first evening, we made a plan to meet up at a certain location at a certain time to see what everyone was up to.  When the time came, my wife and I had to leave the lounge and wander to our arbitrary meeting point.  And the kids were in the same situation. They were like "we WERE having fun in the teen club but had to stop and come here".

 

I then realized that I could be hung up on my ideology all I wanted but it wasn't making the cruise easier for me either.

 

Yeah, we got them wifi and my cruise was better!

[KatWoman92]

4 minutes ago, leisuretraveler223 said:

 

When my wife and I took her four kids on a cruise for the first time, I felt this was too.  This was before the app.  I was like "no way I'm giving them a wifi package just so they can be on their phones!  So, the first evening, we made a plan to meet up at a certain location at a certain time to see what everyone was up to.  When the time came, my wife and I had to leave the lounge and wander to our arbitrary meeting point.  And the kids were in the same situation. They were like "we WERE having fun in the teen club but had to stop and come here".

 

I then realized that I could be hung up on my ideology all I wanted but it wasn't making the cruise easier for me either.

 

Yeah, we got them wifi and my cruise was better!

 

Same.  It worked great for us.  And, the cool thing about the app is that on certain ships, you don't even have to buy the wifi to use the messaging.  Bottom line is DO WHAT WORKS FOR YOU.  Not all innovations are bad.  

[Darth Duane]

This is due to the children's online privacy protection act. Gathering information from anyone under 13 is illegal even with their consent. There are ways to make it work legally with parental consent but most companies just limit their age to anyone over 13 to just avoid the whole issue. 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children's_Online_Privacy_Protection_Act

[Nashna]

5 hours ago, KatWoman92 said:

 

Holy cow, this thread! 

 

According to one poster, I'm a helicopter mom.  According to you, I'm giving my children too much freedom.  LOL 

 

Don't let the geezers get you down.  For some reason, folks think that anything that is not done exactly the way they did is wrong.  Times change.  Get with the program.  I am so tired of my baby boomer generation inflicting their opinions on the younger generation.  Bringing up children in 2019 is a totally different experience than other parents encountered 40, 30, 20 or even 10 years ago.  The poster asked about the RCCL app; not your opinion of their childrearing.   Criticism is not productive.  

[James Baird]

On 12/10/2018 at 4:31 PM, amcb said:

Hello Everyone.

 

More questions on the Royal app.  My DD who is 10, was trying to sign up for the app but it said she had to be 13 to use it.  Is this correct?  Seems to limit the usefulness for the chat feature it keeps reminding me about if that is the case.

 

Thanks in advance,

amcb

I had a similar problem.  My son turns 12 on the ship.  I was able to download the app for him on his iphone and create a user name and password.  For his birth date I just entered one that was inconsistent with what RC has on our reservation.  I was able to do it and our cruise showed up on his app.  I am curious if the chat will work with him or not.  I did buy him VOOM so it probably will not matter but since he has the app at least he can view our calendar, the daily activities, etc.

 

Jamie

[5Stripes]

11 hours ago, KatWoman92 said:

 

Same.  It worked great for us.  And, the cool thing about the app is that on certain ships, you don't even have to buy the wifi to use the messaging.  Bottom line is DO WHAT WORKS FOR YOU.  Not all innovations are bad.  

 

11 hours ago, leisuretraveler223 said:

 

When my wife and I took her four kids on a cruise for the first time, I felt this was too.  This was before the app.  I was like "no way I'm giving them a wifi package just so they can be on their phones!  So, the first evening, we made a plan to meet up at a certain location at a certain time to see what everyone was up to.  When the time came, my wife and I had to leave the lounge and wander to our arbitrary meeting point.  And the kids were in the same situation. They were like "we WERE having fun in the teen club but had to stop and come here".

 

I then realized that I could be hung up on my ideology all I wanted but it wasn't making the cruise easier for me either.

 

Yeah, we got them wifi and my cruise was better!

I used to love air travel because no one could reach you for a few hours.  Then Wifi on planes.  I love cruises for the same reason.  Once that's free/cheap all my vacations will be in the middle of the desert somewhere.  

 

Our kids don't have phones yet and are too young to let roam about too much.   But I read about the messaging app being free and thought it might afford them some opportunities to get ice cream or watch a movie....  Plus it seems to have a location finder on it too.  The phones on Disney Cruises were awesome for this.  Trying to replicate that, for free. 🙂

 

If the boat doesn't sink because we didn't do it old school, or our kids didn't steal anyone's pearls, I'll report back with how it went.

[Mr. Candyman]

5 hours ago, James Baird said:

I had a similar problem.  My son turns 12 on the ship.  I was able to download the app for him on his iphone and create a user name and password.  For his birth date I just entered one that was inconsistent with what RC has on our reservation.  I was able to do it and our cruise showed up on his app.  I am curious if the chat will work with him or not.  I did buy him VOOM so it probably will not matter but since he has the app at least he can view our calendar, the daily activities, etc.

 

Jamie

 If your child is unable to use the app due to an age restriction, try signing in under your name on their phone.  I haven't taken my cruise yet, so I haven't had ship experience using the app but I've been tinkering with it only on my phone but logged in under my wifes name, my name, and my daughters and been able to access everything so I don't see any harm working around it that way

[Biker19]

10 hours ago, Mr. Candyman said:

 If your child is unable to use the app due to an age restriction, try signing in under your name on their phone. 

That would work for general use, but you need separate logins for the chat/texting option to be usable.

Edited March 26, 2019 by Biker19

[Mr. Candyman]

6 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

That would work for general use, but you need separate logins for the chat/texting option to be usable.

Thanks Biker19 for the info. I previously set up the kids so they could get their crown and anchor points but I did not think of creating an actual account for my 2nd oldest.

[KatWoman92]

13 hours ago, 5Stripes said:

 

I used to love air travel because no one could reach you for a few hours.  Then Wifi on planes.  I love cruises for the same reason.  Once that's free/cheap all my vacations will be in the middle of the desert somewhere.  

 

Our kids don't have phones yet and are too young to let roam about too much.   But I read about the messaging app being free and thought it might afford them some opportunities to get ice cream or watch a movie....  Plus it seems to have a location finder on it too.  The phones on Disney Cruises were awesome for this.  Trying to replicate that, for free. 🙂

 

If the boat doesn't sink because we didn't do it old school, or our kids didn't steal anyone's pearls, I'll report back with how it went.

 

I'd be wary of sailing on any ship with one of those newfangled navigation systems.  Make sure there's a guy with spyglass in the crow's nest.