Too Many Unsupervised Kids

[trishy]

We were on the 7/7 Magic cruise and were appalled at the number of children (as young as 5 years old!!!) running around the ship without adult supervision. These kids were throwing objects down the stairwells and over deck 4, running down the hallways at all hours(especially after midnight!), knocking on doors and banging on walls. Some were sitting in groups outside the elevators and talking/laughing loudly. When the crew members would start their "round-up" they would just run to the other end or up the stairs to get away. During the Hercules matinee show in the Walt Disney Theatre, two children were throwing objects on stage, running onto the stage, and jumping on their chairs - no parents were in sight!!! Darrin (cm) talked to them prior to the show, but they continued their disruption by heckling at Hades during the show! Problem is - there is no excuse for this behavior. Disney provides childcare. However, if children are behaving in this manner, there needs to be punishment (IMO) of a monetary cost of childcare for children left roaming the ship in a disruptive manner. Maybe this will teach those parents "on vacation" that their parental responsibility does not end the moment their "vacation" starts. Others are on vacation too and do not appreciate disruptive, ill-mannered children loose on a ship.

Other than that, the cruise was great

 

[jlima]

I agree that there were too many unsupervised minors on the 7/7 cruise. I never saw any as young as you did, but on at least 2 nights of the cruise, when I left Flounder's after picking up my little one I didn't walk to the forward elevators, because I would have had to walk by all the teenagers hanging out on the benches across from the movie theatre. I walked to the mid-ship elevators instead.

I saw many groups of teenagers roaming the ship, and many just riding the elevators up and down. Didn't expect to see this.

 

[Chattyaholic]

July and January cruising. We went in January, had 900 kids on board but never experienced any of the unruly children that you did. I was extremely afraid of having to endure things like that, but I was amazed at how well behaved they all were and except for the shows we rarely even saw them anyway.

 

[tezb]

We were on the 7/7 cruise and I expected to see this just as our cruise last July. This is what the teens do...Hang Out. As long as they're not bothering anyone or being rude, etc, I don't mind it. I have 3 kids and 2 are teens. They are good kids and we trust them to have some freedom on the ship as long as they can prove they can behave appropriately. If not, the freedom is taken away. My DH and I ran into them several times and they were always acting appropriately. We also had walkie talkies to keep in touch. I also tell them if you start acting inappropriately, DCL will take the privileges away and all it takes is one person to ruin it for everyone. If Disney thought it was a real problem I'm sure they would put a stop to it and start giving curfews by now. As for the younger group of kids, the youngest I saw on their own were 10-12 yr olds. Again, I expected this so it wasn't an issue for me. We are responsible parents and I don't think we're shirking our responsibility by letting our teens have some freedom on the ship. This is their vacation too and they cannot have this sort of freedom at home. I wish I could have gone a cruise when I was a teen.

 

[trishy]

As long as they're not bothering anyone or being rude, etc, I don't mind it.

Good, we're on the same page. I understand that a lot of these children were given their first taste of freedom on this cruise and most of them showed good judgement. However, it's the handful of unruly ones that will ruin it for them all if DCL gets as many complaints on future cruises as they said they did on this particular cruise. That's why I would like to see the parents for the "unruly few" receive the punishment instead of DCL restricting the freedom of all future junior cruisers. This is the only area I had a problem with. The cruise itself was exceptional.

 

[Mr.Darcy]

On our last cruise *7 dayer* we were surprised to see alot of kids roaming at very late hours. our concern was with safety. Just look what happened when a kid was dared to jump off the ship and did it. there were some lovely young girls walking alone. I know I woudln't want my 14 year old to wander alone on the ship. I dont know the people on the ship well enough to trust my kids alone with them. I was also amazed at the ages of the littler kids using the elevators by themselves and using the pools without there parents around. Hope nothing ever happens, but just because it's Disney doesn't mean it's always safe.

 

[mmouse37]

I was also on the 7/7 Magic and experienced groups of kids roaming the halls. I did not encounter any disruptive behavior from them but there was a small bunch of boys being very loud at times. They seemed to ride the elevator quite a bit. I believe people all over the ship started calling him "elevator boy". This is not a title I would want my child to acquire on a cruise. What happened during the matinee was unacceptable. Parents should not not just drop their kids off in a theatre if they are not responsible enough to sit like ladies and gentlemen.

We did encounter one child during the ice carving demo. The CM's advised all parents that the tools being used were extremely sharp and to watch out for flying chunks of ice. They moved the children back to a safe distance. One little boy kept coming up and tried touching the ice as it was being worked on. They had to tell him several times to keep back. Finally the father showed up from somewhere and told him not to move. I think the child should have been taken away from the scene and held by the parents until the demo was over - but that's me.

I agree with Tezb that children should have a certain about of freedom. I did let me teens have almost free reign but I also warned them of the consequences if anything inappropriate happened. The fear of losing their freedom kept them responsible. I do not have perfect kids and I am not a perfect parent, but I do think kids have to experience some things for themselves. They need to know privileges will be taken away if they misbehave. I did worry about my youngest (13) out late and I did check on her quite a bit. I gave her the lecture about not talking to passengers or crew and never to be in a position that might put her in danger. I felt better when I knew my 6'1' 250 lb. sixteen year old was looking after his little sister.

I hate to say kids will be kids, but they will be. It's up to us as parents to keep an eye on them.

mmouse

 

[tezb]

Just wanted to add....While were talking so much about unsupervised kids...there are a few adults who need supervision! Twice we encountered fights starting on the ship w/ adults. Once we were in the movie theatre watching Spykids and the fight that was starting between 2 adult families (don't believe they knew each other) was more entertaining than the movie. They were fighting over seats or something involving an adult purposely sitting in front of her child (not completely sure the details) and she was even swearing at the other man. Everyone needs to check themselves and behave appropriately.

 

[D L and K's Mom]

We came across a lot of unsupervised children to aboard our Wonder Cruise. I was very, very surprised at the ammount of young (5 & 6ish) children in the pools. I noticed a lot of parents laying on chaise lounges reading, going to the bar to get drinks and dozing. I may be a worry wart but with so many kids packed into such a small space and a water slide I just sat on the edge and dangled me feet in while my kids were swimming. I think people need to watch their children more closely near water. We saw a very young child fall and get a bloody nose while running to the water slide...no parent in sight . One of the waitors who were walking around with smoothies took care of the situation. As to the teenagers hanging out. We did see a few small groups of teens sitting on the stairs etc but they were never noisy, quite the opposite they smiled while we walked by and moved when DS came by in his wheelchair. WE had no problems with noise in the halls etc.

 

[ILuvDVC]

I was also on the 7/7 cruise, and didn't see this behavior. Ok...you caught me, I was in bed by 11:00 PM...I didn't see any kids running in the hall or wondering around alone. My son is 9 years old, and on the curise, 9 year old are allowed to check themselves in and out of the kids club. I know, on one occasion, he and a friend were walking down the stairs, and he had his ship toy (the one from the gift shop) and he dropped it, and he never saw that toy again. If it hit anyone...he's sorry, but he would love to have his little ship back. Oh well.....he said he was not playing in the stairwell...might have been another kid.

 

[GOOFY D]

I was on the same cruise. I think the issue was that I heard somewhere that there was an abnormally high number of teens on the cruise, so they were more noticeable. Most of the kids were generally well behaved. There were some very unruly kids and a lot of the "playing in the elevator" going on (i.e. pushing all of the buttons and jumping out). It is hard enough to get an elevator as it is. There was also a lot of goofing off in the stairways and we even observed a teenage boy jump from the loft of a flight of stairs to the bottom and hitting his head hard on the ceiling (he drew some blood). I do think some got out of hand, but I do not know what the answer is. Hopefully, it does not become a problem or teens will start to lose priviledges.

 

[tezb]

Goofy,,, I don't really think the problem was with the teens. They were pretty tame even though there were about 300. The ones more noticeable were pre teen kids who were too young for Common Grounds. I also think trishy was really talking about real young ones being unsupervised...like 5 & 6 yrs old. This is just my opinion but I have 2 teens and a 9 yr old so I saw the teens often. From what I saw, they were well behaved, polite and just hanging out...but I don't know what they did late at night.

 

[trishy]

Quote from a thread titled: the most Magical vacation EVER!!!!


"However, the only problem I saw was lack of parental supervision. I had no problem asking kids to not jump on other kids if they did not have parents to supervise. The lifeguard did also interfere with some of the bigger kids that were out of control. The responsibility for the kids is the PARENTS job, not Disney's!!!"

Obviously the 7/7 cruise wasn't the first one with this problem.

I didn't intend to label any particular age group because the issue isn't the age of the kid, but the lack of parental supervision at any age. After experiencing the "madhouse chaos" of Castaway Cay (adults bickering over chairs - what's happening in this world?) I realize there are problems at all age levels. However, parents are still responsible for their children's actions. Personally, I think 10 and under should not be allowed to check themselves in/out of programs and 15 & under should have a midnight curfew. I know, but I'm a believer that even the best child can experience bad judgement now & then. Just don't do it where people are paying over $8,000 for a restful vacation.

 

[tezb]

trishy...I agree w/ what you're saying about it being the parents responsibility. But as far as asking kids NOT to be kids when they're on a cruise...I think it's unrealistic, especially on a Disney Cruise. If they act up, they don't think about the price everyone has paid for the trip. Kids are self centered and selfish when it comes to things like that. This is their vacation too and I think they can be excited without being rude..there is a difference. There are 2500 plus people confined to one ship and there are bound to be conflicts, kids bothering others, etc. Parents cannot constantly be responsible for everything their kids do. Yes, generally good kids do make mistakes w/ bad judgement now and then but that's how we all learn. I was reading a thread on Vero Beach and someone had the same complaint from there saying that too many kids were unsupervised while their parents were doing their own thing. Unfortunately, this seems to be a common occurrence these days. I guess that 's why I wasn't so surprised on the 7/7 cruise because it was the same way last year on our 4 day Magic. I just don't think it's realisitc to ask others to behave in a perfect manner because you're paying for an 8000. vacation.

 

[wildernessfamily]

Hi everyone,
I was on the 7/14 cruise and while I did see teenagers hanging around they were not the problem. I was on an elevator and a little girl of 4 or 5 got on by herself and was going to the pool by herself. That was scary..that parents let there little ones roam. I am a teacher and I guess I always feel like I have to watch out for kids it made me a little nervous. It certainly would have tuned me off in the movies to see kids being disrespectful or parents arguing with others. I wonder just how much security must they have around the ship?? I have never hear of major problems? has anyone?

 

[AnnaS]

On our 7/21 cruise - there was one incident that was disturbing. I was trying to make hot chocolate and there we two boys - had to be under six, climbing that counter and getting hot water. I tried to help him and said I would get it for him, why someone would send someone so young to get hot water for them is beyond me. Well I don't think they spoke english. Another lady and I were shaking our heads - they did this filling up twice and just as we realized they were playing, they spilled a cup of hot water on a man who was holding a child and another child walking next to him. He did get burned - I told the lifeguard right away - He was asking them where their parents were. Again, not sure if they spoke english, I walked away after that.

 

[DisneyCruiseluvr]

Regarding "Wilderness Family's" question about security on the ship ... we were told by one of the chief officers that there are several security cameras all over the ship that are constantly being monitored. Of course, it would be nice to know that there are security people walking the decks of the ship at all hours of the day and night (and supervising the entertainment areas), but at least security cameras are in place in most areas.

 

[Sue aka ILoveMickey]

We were on that cruise too, it was our first. D.H. 2 teen D.D.'s and myself. When I tell people we were on the Disney Cruise, they ask if there were alot of kids. I guess there were (we were told they were going to exceed the 4 tons of ice cream which is the norm, that week) but I don't remember being overwhelmed with kids. My D.D's were usually out 'till 2:00 am, but they usually didn't start the teen dances until 11:00-11:30. We had the late dinner seating, so usually weren't finished with dinner until after 10:00 pm. The only incident I heard about was that a group of teens were hanging out by Rockin Bar D Listening to the music, and were asked to move out of that area. I told them it is an adult only area and they had no bussiness being there. We also tried to have an earlier then 2am curfew, but it's kind of hard to punish them (when they didn't abide) when your on vacation. I do remember kids messing with the elevators. Usually I took the stairs we were on deck 7, so it was just easier. Perhaps the later dinner seating had us avoiding the little ones at the 6:30 shows and dinner, don't remember any problems there.

 

[tweetsie]

The children that cruised on the June 14 Wonder cruise were extraordinarily well behaved. There were 900 children cruising at that time. We hardly even saw children unless we were at the pool. My daughter is 6 years old and we would always check her into the Oceanneers Club (as a matter of fact she wanted to go there because she had so much fun).

 

[leanne2255]

We cruised last November for our 25th Anniversary, and people thought we were crazy taking the Disney Cruise, with "all those kids". Had to say that we did not encounter any rowdiness, nor did there seem to be that many kids on board. I would cruise in November again, but probably would think twice about a summer cruise if there were going to be 900 kids on board.