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Questions about Adventure Ocean, Child Care, etc. while cruising


Blulady

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Hi everyone,

This has been an ongoing discussion in our family for quite some time.  There are no grandbabies yet, but the future is bright 🙂  

 

Here is the hypothetical:  Parents want to take a cruise and the grandparents will keep the kids - let's say they are a 2  year old and 1 year old.  The grandparents live out of town and still work so they will be placing the kiddos in a daycare or get a sitter where they live for the daytime hours.  Grandparents say, "there's a couple of ads in the paper, we'll just call and see who is open and who is cheapest."  To me, that would not be acceptable - a daycare/sitter needs to be interviewed, vetted, background checked, etc., especially with children who are too young to communicate well.

 

So, if you wouldn't just leave child with 'just anybody' on land, why would you on a cruise ship?  We don't know any of these people, we haven't checked their references, background, etc.  

 

The current discussions about it that we are having are in light of what happened last week on another cruise line with a male crew member hiding in the women's bathroom near the kids' club taking photos in that bathroom.  

 

So, to those of you who leave young children in care of crew - are you concerned? and why not?

And, are there those of you (like me), who say, "no way would I leave my child with people I don't know"?

 

Thanks in advance for your answers!

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This is a really good question and gave me pause. When my children were younger (12 and 14 now), I would only leave them with babysitters that I trusted or people that were highly recommended to me by people I trusted. Who knows what kind of training they had? My kids survived, obviously, and have some funny/great memories from their times with babysitters.

Royal Caribbean, on the other hand, has to train each of their crew members that work with children very specifically to meet standards of care. This means they know how to medically help, emotionally help, and what "age appropriate" actually means. They know why you would do activity XYZ with a 3 year old but not with a 10 year old. They are constantly being watched by other crew members, parents that come in, and children that are there. There is no way RC would employ someone in the childcare arena that they didn't rigorously train to meet requirements or feel would be inappropriate in that setting. The employees there take their jobs very seriously and work hard to make sure the children are properly cared for and having a great time.

From personal experience, I was apprehensive about childcare on board when we first tried it. I think all my fears were alleviated when my children begged not to leave and kept asking to go back, even when the area was closed, LOL! Every time I popped in there, all the children there looked happy. It was a bit surprising! So, we've found the childcare on board ships to be positive, trustworthy, and a relief for us.

I think being protective of your children/grandchildren is very natural, and I understand where your fears are coming from regarding childcare on board. However, you can be assured that any child there will be cared for properly and positively.

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15 minutes ago, Cactus527 said:

This is a really good question and gave me pause. When my children were younger (12 and 14 now), I would only leave them with babysitters that I trusted or people that were highly recommended to me by people I trusted. Who knows what kind of training they had? My kids survived, obviously, and have some funny/great memories from their times with babysitters.

Royal Caribbean, on the other hand, has to train each of their crew members that work with children very specifically to meet standards of care. This means they know how to medically help, emotionally help, and what "age appropriate" actually means. They know why you would do activity XYZ with a 3 year old but not with a 10 year old. They are constantly being watched by other crew members, parents that come in, and children that are there. There is no way RC would employ someone in the childcare arena that they didn't rigorously train to meet requirements or feel would be inappropriate in that setting. The employees there take their jobs very seriously and work hard to make sure the children are properly cared for and having a great time.

From personal experience, I was apprehensive about childcare on board when we first tried it. I think all my fears were alleviated when my children begged not to leave and kept asking to go back, even when the area was closed, LOL! Every time I popped in there, all the children there looked happy. It was a bit surprising! So, we've found the childcare on board ships to be positive, trustworthy, and a relief for us.

I think being protective of your children/grandchildren is very natural, and I understand where your fears are coming from regarding childcare on board. However, you can be assured that any child there will be cared for properly and positively.

Thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience.  Does RC have documentation somewhere that shows the different training and vetting that they do?  I would feel SO much better about all of this if there was something.  

Again, thank you very much!

 

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15 minutes ago, Blulady said:

Thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience.  Does RC have documentation somewhere that shows the different training and vetting that they do?  I would feel SO much better about all of this if there was something.  

Again, thank you very much!

 

I found this to talk about qualifications: https://www.alaskacruises.com/cruises/royal-caribbean-kids-programs.html#:~:text=You can feel confident leaving,with children ages 3-17. and this https://www.royalcaribbeanpresscenter.com/press-kit/2/youth-and-teen-program/ and this (look near the bottom for info) https://highseascruising.com/royal-caribbean-kids-clubs/

In terms of training and requirements, I'm not finding specifics online except for the last link above. I'll keep looking, but you could also call RC and ask. Maybe someone else on here knows? 

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From Royal's website - 

Quote

All children’s activities are supervised by male or female youth staff that must have a four year University degree or international equivalent in Education, Recreation or a related field. All staff also has at least three to five years qualified experience in working with children ages six months to 17 years. Nursery staff must have the same above qualifications as well attend a 30 hour Nursery Training where the curriculum and hands on experience is in line with Florida State Standards of care.

https://www.royalcaribbeanpresscenter.com/press-kit/2/youth-and-teen-program/

Edit: Looks like Cactus already posted that, but leaving for posterity 😆

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A few observations from my own experiences:

  • If you're worried about injury or a major issue, I wouldn't be. It's a very controlled environment and they have strict protocols for everything. The kids are behind walls where other adults can't get to, and the check-in and check-out processes are tight.
  • If you're worried about the kid getting upset or freaking out, the best thing you can do is check in on them often. Even on the Oasis ships, you can get to the AO from just about anywhere on the ship in 5 minutes. Take turns checking on them every half hour or so. If they're fine, give it an hour. You can easily peak in and see how they're doing. If you're worried about them seeing you and getting upset you can usually do it in a way where they don't spot you. 
  • I've found the staff to be hit-or-miss. Much of the time you get staff who legitimately loves kids and enjoy spending time with them, and other times you'll get a group that's more ambivalent and operates more like a babysitter. Talk to the staff and get a sense of their overall vibe. After the first hour or first evening at AO, ask the kid if they had fun. Ask them if the staff was nice. 
  • Finally, if your kid is outgoing, encourage them to make friends with some of the other kids. It's a great way to get them to want to go back when they have new friends they want to see. If you see the other parents you can make plans to go back the next night and the kid might be excited to see them again. 

 

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You have to have a little faith in a company or organization's vetting process, or else you will constantly be living in fear and not enjoying life.  I do trust Royal and have had nothing but good experiences with them.  In fact, my kids will be enjoying Adventure Ocean next week during spring break.  Granted they are older (2 teens and a pre-teen) and know how to react when they see something dangerous or inappropriate, I still have to trust that Royal has a vetting process that will ensure their safety and wellbeing while they are participating with Adventure Ocean.

With that said and to address you conversation of the male crew member acting inappropriately on another cruise line -- this can happen anywhere even with the best vetting processes, interviews by parents, and pristine background and experience.  Church youth pastors, school teachers, friends, and even family members that you trust, and think you know, can act inappropriately around the children at any given time without prior indications.  We see such cases in the news all the time and everyone is shocked because they never thought the perpetrator would have ever done such a thing.

As much as you try, you will never bring the risk level of leaving your child with someone else to 0%.  There will always be a degree of risk.  I do believe Royal does everything it can to mitigate risk within its childcare offerings, but it will always have a degree of risk that you cannot overcome or clearly foresee.  You can continue to shelter your kids from the world because you are afraid, but they will ultimately lose out on great opportunities and experiences.

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One big difference between a cruise ship kid's program and that ad in the newspaper is that RC has a reputation to uphold as a family cruise line, so they have a vested interest in making sure all the rules are followed.

This compared to some fly by night babysitting services on land that equate to your aunt babysitting for a few hours because she needs the cash. That's not to say there aren't reputable private daycares. There definitely are.  Just the cruise ship has a bit more at stake to ensure a quality product.

 

I had an issue with one of the AO staff on a recent cruise. It was more of a "bedside manner" thing and not regarding qualifications. But the AO director met with us and it was handled properly and I think it was a learning moment for an admittedly inexperienced staffer.  Everyone was happy in the end.

So even if there are issues, be assured AO will do its best to ensure quality.

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1 hour ago, DoomSlayer said:

You have to have a little faith in a company or organization's vetting process, or else you will constantly be living in fear and not enjoying life.  I do trust Royal and have had nothing but good experiences with them.  In fact, my kids will be enjoying Adventure Ocean next week during spring break.  Granted they are older (2 teens and a pre-teen) and now how to react when they see something dangerous or inappropriate, I still have to trust that Royal has a vetting process that will ensure their safety and wellbeing while they are participating with Adventure Ocean.

With that said and to address you conversation of the male crew member acting inappropriately on another cruise line -- this can happen anywhere even with the best vetting processes, interviews by parents, and pristine background and experience.  Church youth pastors, school teachers, friends, and even family members that you trust, and think you know, can act inappropriately around the children at any given time without prior indications.  We see such cases in the news all the time and everyone is shocked because they never thought the perpetrator would have ever done such a thing.

As much as you try, you will never bring the risk level of leaving your child with someone else to 0%.  There will always be a degree of risk.  I do believe Royal does everything it can to mitigate risk within its childcare offerings, but it will always have a degree of risk that you cannot overcome or clearly foresee.  You can continue to shelter your kids from the world because you are afraid, but they will ultimately lose out on great opportunities and experiences.

Thank you very much for taking the time to share your thoughts - I truly appreciate it.  For now, this is all hypothetical - my only child is the ripe old age of 33 🙂  

 

You and the others have made some incredibly valid points - again, I truly appreciate you taking the time.

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54 minutes ago, Blulady said:

Thank you very much for taking the time to share your thoughts - I truly appreciate it.  For now, this is all hypothetical - my only child is the ripe old age of 33 🙂  

 

You and the others have made some incredibly valid points - again, I truly appreciate you taking the time.

Your time may come for round 2 -- the grand children.  My 23 year old daughter and her husband have a 1 and a half year old.  I keep telling them to get the little one potty trained so I can take them all on an adventure.  Not sure how much we would use Adventure Ocean in that case because Grandpa (me) would probably be having too much fun with the little one at that point.

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