communicating with teens on ship

[junebugbill]

How to reach/communicate with teens while on ship. Ages 14 & 17. Mature and responsible, but want to keep track of them and reach tem when need arises.

Any constructive ideas?

 

Thanks in advance.

[Dream Fish]

I noticed last year a lot of people were using those small hand held walkie-talkies.

[DebDenC]

a couple of years ago, we took my daughter and three friends on a cruise. We used post-it notes a lot. They were to leave a note my door generally telling me where they were, and I left notes on their door telling them where I was going to be if they needed me. Worked as well as anything else!! I also told them there were only a few hard and fast rules - they were to stay with at least one other person at all times, no underage drinking, and absolutely no going to any non-public place on the ship. They ate with us on formal nights, and we planned shore excursions that we could all go on. I felt very responsible for them, but they stuck to the rules and we all had a great time.

Debbie

[junebugbill]

Good suggestions. Does the range of the walkie-talkies cover the ship? Anyone with actual experience with them? What about "house phones" like at a hotel, for leaving messages. (Do they even have phones on a ship?)I'm sorry if these questions seem silly, but I've never been on a cruise ship before and have been very reluctant ever to take a cruise. Though we are fairly well traveled, this is a big step for me.

[Toyz711]

you will see people with dry erase boards on the doors...post it notes, everything and anything that works. i used a little dry erase that hung over the door handle, just to let the family know where we were (on the ship).

the family just used the phone messages...since hubby and i weren't in the room that much, we got the messages a little late.

you have to be careful with walkie-talkies, some use the same channel the ship officers/staff use. you don't want to interfer with ship's operations.

[fsdj1097]

Good suggestions. Does the range of the walkie-talkies cover the ship? Anyone with actual experience with them? What about "house phones" like at a hotel, for leaving messages. (Do they even have phones on a ship?)I'm sorry if these questions seem silly, but I've never been on a cruise ship before and have been very reluctant ever to take a cruise. Though we are fairly well traveled, this is a big step for me.

 

We have sailed with our teen-age nephew the past 2 years and have had fairly good success with the frs radios. The youth areas are well supervised and staffed with college-aged HAL crew members.

 

The teen and youth areas do have telephones that you can call to request information. While teens may excuse themselves from the activities, tweens and children must be signed out by parents.

[SoccerMom#3]

We started off using walkie talkies on our cruise a few years ago and gave up after about 2 days. Even though there are a lot of channels, it was hard to actually hear my son. Everytime I heard "Mom" I thought it was for me so then we went to him using my first name (which isn't too common) and that still didn't work. Too much static and too many people using walkie talkies.

 

We ended up using the sticky note system and that worked well.

 

I agree with the previous poster in that my kids are not allowed in any cabins other than their own. No exceptions.

 

Also I started off giving my son a pretty early curfew and since he came in when he was supposed to, I gradually let the curfew be later and later, again though I had to know where he was.

 

He was great about being back in the cabin when I told him to although he did want to stay out all night on the last night of our cruise. Being the mean mother that I am :), I told him no and said he could stay out till 2:30 which I thought was quite generous given that he was 13 at the time. He actually came back to the cabin at 2:00.

[rclcruzer]

You could bring the walkie talkies along, they come in handy in ports, when you are close to the ship at some port shops, to let them have a little freedom, even though you are relativley close to them. We brought them on our first cruise, our boys were 11 and 14, worked ok, sometimes to much interferance with other users. Now, with our kids being 14 and 17, we use the house phone to leave messages which they know to check at the times we tell them to, and sometimes notes on the door, or slipped under the door. They have curfews, and they are pretty good about it, however last year on the Freedom they both made SO MANY friends, they were getting back later and later every night!! (well, not too late!) What a great time they had, only saw them at dinner (which was a must :) and ports. Have fun, set the ground rules before you board and let them have fun:) ;)

[dkelly2323]

My experience with the radios is hit and miss. We always bring them but the further you go downstairs on the ship the less they work reliably. For the upper decks and ports where the town is really close to the dock they work excellent. Try and find a channel that is lightly used and then agree on 3 others to use if having problems hearing. (eliminates the guess work to which channel you said to change to; just say I'm changing channels)

 

Hope this helps

[junebugbill]

Great replies. Thank you all so very much.