What age did you start letting kids stay in their own cabin?

[mama_2_boys]

We are a family of 5 trying to decide between the Deluxe Ocean View or 2 non-connecting interior or ocean view rooms. The prices are all similar but I'm torn since they do not connect. I'm not sure I want to sleep separate from my husband but I'm also not sure I want to let the kids stay in a room solo yet. Thoughts from anyone that has been in this situation are appreciated.

[OCruisers]

How old are your children?

[mama_2_boys]

The two that would be in their own room are 11 and 13. The younger one would be with us.

[OCruisers]

When our older one was 13, we got them their own cabin which was sometimes across the hall from us.

Never had a problem.  

[mama_2_boys]

9 minutes ago, OCruisers said:

When our older one was 13, we got them their own cabin which was sometimes across the hall from us.

Never had a problem.  

Thank you. I know they would love it but I'm generally overprotective so I wanted to see what others had done.

[packer99]

My kid went on a Washington DC trip at age 11 and it was only kids in a room. As long as they are super close I think they would be fine. But I do think you technically have to book an adult in that room when making a reservation.

[gerif]

6 hours ago, packer99 said:

My kid went on a Washington DC trip at age 11 and it was only kids in a room. As long as they are super close I think they would be fine. But I do think you technically have to book an adult in that room when making a reservation.

No, you don’t but you do need to call, cannot do it online. As long as they are your children, they can be across the hall or next door. You can get an extra key to their cabin. 

[packer99]

19 hours ago, gerif said:

No, you don’t but you do need to call, cannot do it online. As long as they are your children, they can be across the hall or next door. You can get an extra key to their cabin. 

 

 

Norwegian has these requirements. I know you can switch rooms at time of boarding and get keys etc but technically you have to book an adult in the cabin. So it had to be adjoining, you can't book down the hall

 

https://www.ncl.com/cruise-faq/age-requirements

 

 

 

 

Edited February 13, 2019 by packer99

[gerif]

1 hour ago, packer99 said:

 

 

Norwegian has these requirements. I know you can switch rooms at time of boarding and get keys etc but technically you have to book an adult in the cabin. So it had to be adjoining, you can't book down the hall

 

https://www.ncl.com/cruise-faq/age-requirements

 

 

 

 

Since OP posted on an RCI forum and is sailing on RCI,  Norwegian rules are kind of irrelevant. 

[mjkacmom]

15 hours ago, gerif said:

Since OP posted on an RCI forum and is sailing on RCI,  Norwegian rules are kind of irrelevant. 

And actually NCL won’t let you book even connecting cabins if there isn’t someone 21 or over in one of them (but they don’t care who sleeps where).

[alj1208]

Every family is different, but we are getting connecting cabins for peace of mind. Our son is 12 (an only child, no friend coming with us, so he'd be alone). We aren't sharing a triple because our DS is really tall --  5' 8" already -- and wouldn't fit on the trundle bed that serves as the third "bunk" on Celebrity. So, we sprang for connecting cabins, although it is expensive.

 

If I had two boys, ages 11 and 13, and they were relatively mature and responsible, I would consider side-by-side cabins but would probably be a little nervous about it.  I would make sure there is a way to communicate instantly, such as  cell phones, walkie talkie or even a baby monitor just for communication (to make it more like everyone is together). I would set extremely clear rules about not letting anyone in the room, staying in the room when expected, safety, what to do in case of emergency. I will add that my parents always did split up when we got side-by-side rooms until we were maybe 16.

Edited February 15, 2019 by alj1208

[SimplyMarvie]

I figure that since RCCL makes me pay an adult fare for my 13 year old that he's adult enough to be in the cabin alone. We're doing an outside for us, and an inside across the hall for the kids (7, 11 and 13) with the understanding that the 7 year old will almost certainly end up in our room because he's afraid of the dark. 

[ginger123snaps]

My boys are 11, 11, 10.  I would never give them their own balcony cabin.  I have a future suite with interior room directly across from us booked.  I figured its like them sleeping upstairs at our house.  Having said this...for some reason I'm still a little uncomfortable with the set up and seriously considering cancelling the booking.  It all just depends on your kids maturity and your comfort level I guess.  I most likely am cancelling!

[gerif]

On 2/14/2019 at 11:41 PM, SimplyMarvie said:

I figure that since RCCL makes me pay an adult fare for my 13 year old that he's adult enough to be in the cabin alone. We're doing an outside for us, and an inside across the hall for the kids (7, 11 and 13) with the understanding that the 7 year old will almost certainly end up in our room because he's afraid of the dark. 

You pay adult fare for a six month old as well so I’m not understanding your logic. 

[LuCruise]

Our kids will be 14 and 10 by the summer .  That will be the first time they will be in their own room, but it is connecting to our room.  I'm not yet comfortable putting them in a non-connecting.

[SimplyMarvie]

On 2/16/2019 at 8:12 PM, gerif said:

You pay adult fare for a six month old as well so I’m not understanding your logic. 

 

We booked with RCCL's kids sail at 60% off promotion -- and they define kid as anyone 12 and under. So, if he's old enough to pay an adult fare, I figure he's old enough to be in a cabin with his brothers without another adult fare. 

 

[mjkacmom]

1 hour ago, SimplyMarvie said:

 

We booked with RCCL's kids sail at 60% off promotion -- and they define kid as anyone 12 and under. So, if he's old enough to pay an adult fare, I figure he's old enough to be in a cabin with his brothers without another adult fare. 

 

I wouldn’t base the safety of my children on RCCL’s definition of an adult, heck Disney considers those ages 10+ adults.

[SimplyMarvie]

1 hour ago, mjkacmom said:

I wouldn’t base the safety of my children on RCCL’s definition of an adult, heck Disney considers those ages 10+ adults.

 

I get that... but I'm really not concerned. They're literally across the hall from us if anything goes wrong. Considering that my 13 year old (like most kids in the country we live in) has pretty much free rein around the city via his bike and public transit and gets himself and his brothers to and from school it feels very prissy and overprotective to worry about what he and his brothers would get up to in an interior cabin five feet from their parents. I mean, I'd expect abuse of room service and minecraft marathons, which isn't that different to what happens in the hour or so they're home alone every day before we get back from work.

 

Your mileage (and kids) may vary. 

[mjkacmom]

2 minutes ago, SimplyMarvie said:

 

I get that... but I'm really not concerned. They're literally across the hall from us if anything goes wrong. Considering that my 13 year old (like most kids in the country we live in) has pretty much free rein around the city via his bike and public transit and gets himself and his brothers to and from school it feels very prissy and overprotective to worry about what he and his brothers would get up to in an interior cabin five feet from their parents. I mean, I'd expect abuse of room service and minecraft marathons, which isn't that different to what happens in the hour or so they're home alone every day before we get back from work.

 

Your mileage (and kids) may vary. 

Actually, I’m a very permissive parent, my kids walked to school starting in second grade, could walk/bike all over town at 10, public transportation to NYC or the shore at 15... My biggest issue with teens on a cruise has been failure to come back to the cabin at 1 am (and at one point I had 5 teenagers). It’s one of the reasons we get connecting cabins, we go to bed before them, but I’m a light sleeper, and will wake often until they’re all back. On our last cruise, my 14 year old was found in the game room at 1:30 playing monopoly, lost track of time.

 

But it sounded, from your response, that you were miffed to not get a child discount for the 13 year old.

[SimplyMarvie]

6 minutes ago, mjkacmom said:

Actually, I’m a very permissive parent, my kids walked to school starting in second grade, could walk/bike all over town at 10, public transportation to NYC or the shore at 15... My biggest issue with teens on a cruise has been failure to come back to the cabin at 1 am (and at one point I had 5 teenagers). It’s one of the reasons we get connecting cabins, we go to bed before them, but I’m a light sleeper, and will wake often until they’re all back. On our last cruise, my 14 year old was found in the game room at 1:30 playing monopoly, lost track of time.

 

But it sounded, from your response, that you were miffed to not get a child discount for the 13 year old.

 

I mean I was a bit peevish about, so you're not wrong... but it wasn't really that big a deal. It would have been nice to have the discount but wasn't the deciding factor for any of this. 🙂

 

We live overseas in a country that gives kids a really HUGE amount of freedom at a very early age, so it's always hard for me to dance that line between Israelis who think I'm a horribly overprotective helicopter parent and Americans who think I'm a thin line away from a CPS call. We haven't cruised much since they were littler, so it'll be interesting to see how that plays out on the boat. 

[gerif]

4 hours ago, SimplyMarvie said:

 

We booked with RCCL's kids sail at 60% off promotion -- and they define kid as anyone 12 and under. So, if he's old enough to pay an adult fare, I figure he's old enough to be in a cabin with his brothers without another adult fare. 

 

Well, that makes sense - not to me, but . . . .

[cb at sea]

It really depends on your kids, and the independence you've been teaching them.  I was babysitting at 12 years old....so was my daughter....no problem being in a room close to me.  Even if it's not connecting, it's probably closer than their bedrooms are to you at home!  You have to lay down the ground rules, and know your kids will do as you say.

[Athankfulheart]

I agree with those who stress that it really depends upon the kids. You know your own children best so you would be the best to make the decision. Personality, upbringing, maturity, environment and experiences all play into how ready a child would be to have independence at home, in your city, at a hotel, amusement park or on a ship. I was ready for my kids to be in a cabin without an adult way before I was ready for them to walk the ship without an adult. We do have security and safety rules in place with our kids and we check to make sure that they are obeying them. I think that is an important part of thier being ready : Recognizing why we have rules and obeying them.

My children got along well, and there were mature and responsible ones among them, so we began splitting cabins on thier second sailing. I wanted them with adults for thier first sailing as they learned to navigate a new way of travel. From then onward, we put them across the hallway or next to our cabin. For years our family has sailed in 3 cabins and is now small enough to sail in two. On our last cruise we had a spa balcony and the 4 kids had an inside across the hallway and down a few doors. Their ages on this sailing were 11,13,14,17. On their next sailing we have 2 inside cabins next door but not connected. 

[SugarTwist]

Our boys ages (18,16 and 15) along with our 8 year old (soon to be 9) little girl will be across the hall from us.  She usually ends up in the room with us 98.9% of the time because the boys are always gone having fun. On our past cruises they have been next door to us. 

[plaz70]

Our first cruise they were 9,9 &10.  We get connecting cabins if we can. If not, they are still right next door and we get everyone keys to both cabins.  They are now 15,15 & 16 and I would be comfortable with them a few doors away, but I'll always get everyone a key to both cabins.