How do you know when your child is ready to come out of Adventure Ocean?

[cruisingwith6]

We are cruising for the first time with our kids on a non-Disney Cruise (they are 6, 9, 11 and 14 years old). We loved the pagers Disney uses so we know when the kids either wanted to be picked up (younger one) or left the kids club (middle two)..they would just send us a text message and we would leave the show or wherever we were and go pick them up or meet them at the stateroom. I have read that RCI only has pagers for the littlest cruisers but not for 6 and up. Is this correct? If so, anyone have a suggestion (other than make the rounds between the 3 age groups hourly) on how to stay in touch? I don't want them to feel stuck in the kids program but I also don't want them wandering around the ship alone..I have read that walkie talkies are very annoying to other passengers (plus not sure my 6 year old can hold the button down and talk clearly. I've seen him in action playing with his friends on one) and the logistics of having a walkie talkie for each of the kids plus one for us seems a little silly. I have heard of rental phones from RCI but can't find specific info on them...I guess we would need 5 of those as well though??? We would really love to use a pager if that is allowed as one pager would do the trick for all three of the kids in Adventure Ocean. We will be on the Mariner in 3 weeks. Thanks for any help!

[4merlurker]

They do have phones for rent - I believe they are around $25/each - could add up if you need one for each child! :eek:

 

My kids were 13, 11 & 10 when we last cruised. I didn't want to be "married" to the kids club all day so I signed a permission slip allowing them to sign themselves out. The first 2 days we did "hover" around the club because we didn't want the kids signing in and out and roaming the ship, but quite honestly, they NEVER wanted to leave the club!!!

 

~connie

[Sandra*]

My 13 year old had free rein at the teen club, they didn't have to sign in or out. We had to give permission for our 11 year old to sign himself out but we did have the pager for our youngest one (then 3) and told the staff members to page us for any of the kids if it was a problem. Maybe rent a phone for the 11 and/or 14 year old and get them to be in charge of making sure the 6 year old and 9 year old is fine in the club and doesn't want to come out? I know on the Monarch, the 9-11 and the under 6 were all in the same area (different rooms) but my 11 year old could easily go to his brother to check up on him.

[cruisingwith6]

Thanks for the help and suggestions! I didn't realize our 6, 9 and 11 year olds could actually see/ talk to each other in the kids club. That would be great as just one phone in our 11 year olds DDs hands would suffice and she could call if anyone wanted to come out. She is very responsible but I still don't want her to be able to check out without us on such a big ship. On Disney we let the 9 and 11 year old check themselves out but insisted they page us first with a text message as to where they were headed. We would always meet them at that point.

 

Where do I rent the phones? Anyone know if there is enough or do I need to do it first thing when we board? Thanks again!

[Sandra*]

I would ask at the front desk area right when you arrive at the ship since I'm not sure where you pick up the phones from. The Adventure Ocean staff were handing out the pagers for my youngest one (3 yrs old) when we did the registration for our kids. One suggestion would also be to let the staff know you'd like your 11 year old to have access to the younger's program if needed. We had no problems with the staff there, they were extremely accommodating. I'm sure there will be no problems. Another suggestion I've seen on the boards is to bring small walkie-talkies and give one to your 11 year old instead of renting a phone there.

 

I agree with you on not wanting your 11 yr old to wander. Our 11 year old could only sign himself out if his older sister picked him up. Strangely, they wouldn't let her sign him out but would let him sign himself out with our permission...even when we said that we'd sign to let our daughter pick him up. :confused:

 

Have fun!

[CruiseHobbit]

They do have phones for rent - I believe they are around $25/each - could add up if you need one for each child! :eek:

 

 

 

~connie

 

I have never cruised with RCI before. That would be great if you could rent a phone. I would suggest you rent one phone for yourself, and any of the kids would be allowed to call you when they were ready to leave. I am going to be on the Carnival Miracle in August. Does anyone know if Carnival has similar phones? I was also wondering if you could put them on vibrate, so you could leave them on during the shows and dinner without bothering anyone?