Royal Caribbean has started to pilot new technology so that parents can track their children after a huge reaction to reports of kids behaving badly onboard cruise ships,
Earlier this year, Royal Caribbean’s International President and CEO Michael Bayley said it’s probably time” to think about ways to expand and enforce Royal Caribbean’s kids curfew, remarks that sparked a huge furor with hundreds of comments to the Cruise Passenger and other websites.
Currently, the cruise line has a curfew of 1am for all passengers 17 years and under.
Bayley said: “It’s probably time for us to take a look at [the curfew]. I think the idea of curfews in some of the bars is a great idea.
“And you know what they say, everybody loves their kids, but they’re not so fond of everybody else’s kids.”
The new program is being piloted on the world’s biggest ship Icon of the Seas. It will also be tested on her sister ship, Star of the Seas.
The pilot program involves children wearing wristbands. They can also download the Royal Caribbean mobile app so parents can track them using their mobile phone signals.
However, some cruisers are worried about the safety of their children onboard, fearing anyone can monitor their movements, leaving them at risk from predators.
Talking points and concerns for cruisers
- How could this help with onboard safety and behaviour? One obvious benefit of the technology is that if parents look away for a few moments and their child goes missing, they’ll be able to track them down quickly. Furthermore, parents and children are able to find each other more easily, this should reduce incidents of kids being accidentally split up with families and becoming distressed or panicked. There is also a good chance it could have a preventative effect, kids are less likely to do something naughty or go somewhere they’ve been told not to if they know that their parents can see their location.
- Will ‘irresponsible parents’ even use the technology? The reaction of fellow passengers has been cautious. Cruiser Helen Bartlett made the point that she believes irresponsible parents are to blame for incidents of bad behaviour from children, and these parents might not even be the ones who adopt the technology anyway. “The parents that are responsible and the kids that behave with use these, it’s the feral ones running around and making a dam nuisance of themselves that need tagging.” While this technology will help responsible parents keep an eye on what their kids are up to, it will still be on the parents to be responsible and use the wristbands and application.
- Should this be extended to teenagers as well? Cruiser Brittany Jackson is a big fan of the new idea but thinks the wristband tracking should extend to teenagers as well, rather than just being focused on children. “Excellent idea! It should extend into the teen years too, this is way overdue!” Many cruisers do feel that problems relating to children onboard don’t lie in young children, but rather in teenagers. Various cruisers have reported accounts of teenagers up to pranks or mischief such as knock and runs, blocking elevators, throwing food, and so on. Furthermore, young children are often likely to be in the kids’ club anyway, whereas teens are more often left to roam the ship. For these reasons, some cruisers think it would be a better idea for the technology to expand to teenagers as well, where it could maybe then have the preventative effect mentioned above.
- Could the technology accidentally have the opposite effect of what is intended? Will tracking be wrongly used as a substitute for parent supervision? One concern that cruisers have expressed is that the new tracking technology could actually end up having the opposite effect of what is intended for the technology. The worry is that many parents who might normally want to keep their eyes on their kids will instead feel a bit more lax, and let their kids go running off, knowing they have the security of being able to track their location at any given time. This would mean even more unsupervised kids running around Royal Caribbean ships, which is a common complaint and debate amongst regular cruisers. For example, cruiser Lance Kerney remains alert that the technology be used just as a safety feature, not as a replacement for careful and watchful parenting. “Great technology. I hope it is used in the event of a missing child and not in place of parental supervision. I love cruising but ships are not 100% safe. Any crime that can occur in the real world can occur on a ship. There is no substitute for the watchful eye of a parent for a child under 12.”
What else are people saying?
The general sentiments towards the program seem to be extremely positive, with curiosity as to how it plays out onboard.
Naas Yancey has already tested it out on Icon of the Seas and said even after just one day at sea she felt the program made a huge difference to her large family group.
“On Icon right now and it is amazing! A little glitchy at times, but overall works wonderfully and is a great tool!
“We have 6 kids under 13 in our large group and it has been helpful and it’s only day one of our sailing!”
Regular Royal Caribbean cruiser Adriana Latimer says: “This is great, my kids love the independence they have on the ship but sometimes you need to find them earlier than you planned to meet back or they lose track of time etc. I would love this for our whole traveling party, not just kids!”
Angela Duke recalls an incident she had on a recent cruise where she had to help a crying child and believes the new wristbands could prevent similar situations.
“On my last cruise, I found a seasick little guy crying his eyes out by the pool area. He had a walkie-talkie in his stateroom to contact family- they didn’t respond.
“So I took him to guest services- he begged me to stay with him. His parents had to be called twice over the announcement speakers! Poor little guy!”
Glen Wardle says it’ll be a good tool to make sure particularly naughty children haven’t wandered out of their kid’s club.
