Need Help With Norweigan

We are normally Princess cruisers, but we can't wait til December for our next cruise so we want to sail with NCL this summer out of Boston (we can drive to the port...yeah!!).

Questions:

The ship is the Dawn - is that an older or newer ship?

We are travelling with a 1 year old who obviously cannot sleep in an upper berth...does NCL provide cribs/playpens?

If so, is there space in an inside room for a playpen? The floor plan didn't look great but hard to tell. On Princess ships (newer ones at least) you can actually tuck the playpen in the closet (closet does not have doors) so it's out of the way and away from the light of the TV etc which works very well.

If there is anything else I should know about the ship, room etc pertinent to a 1 year old, please let me know! Thanks for your advice!

We are normally Princess cruisers, but we can't wait til December for our next cruise so we want to sail with NCL this summer out of Boston (we can drive to the port...yeah!!).

 

Questions:

The ship is the Dawn - is that an older or newer ship? The Dawn is 12 years old. We sailed on her from Boston about 6 years ago, and loved it.

 

We are travelling with a 1 year old who obviously cannot sleep in an upper berth...does NCL provide cribs/playpens? Haven't cruised with little ones, but from when I worked there, I believe so.

 

If so, is there space in an inside room for a playpen? The floor plan didn't look great but hard to tell. On Princess ships (newer ones at least) you can actually tuck the playpen in the closet (closet does not have doors) so it's out of the way and away from the light of the TV etc which works very well.Probably pretty tight, you might find more room if you go the two twin bed route, and put the crib between

 

If there is anything else I should know about the ship, room etc pertinent to a 1 year old, please let me know! Thanks for your advice!

My experience is a few years old, but I don't believe they do diaper changing in the kid's club (someone may have newer info), and there are no pool facilities for non-potty trained children. You may want to bring a small blow up pool, and fill it on the pool deck for him/her.

My experience is a few years old, but I don't believe they do diaper changing in the kid's club (someone may have newer info), and there are no pool facilities for non-potty trained children. You may want to bring a small blow up pool, and fill it on the pool deck for him/her.

You can't leave a child under 3 in the kids club.

You can't leave a child under 3 in the kids club.

No worries...I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving him anyways! :)

We sailed the Star with a one-year-old. They did provide pack and plays (we had to call) and we were able to fit one next to the couch in our room. We had a balcony room (which we never did pre-kids, but has been a blessing now that we have kids with naps/earlier bedtimes), and I'm not sure if the room size varies between ships, but the pack and play fit fairly well (not much space left to walk around, but still functional).

When we sailed (nov '12) they had the baby playgroup that you could go to with your under-3s. I think it was usually painting, coloring, music, etc. some little activity, but a nice diversion. They also left toys out during parts of the day in the "under 2 zoo" so I would take DD up there to play on sea days.

We brought a tiny blow up pool for her to use on the balcony since she couldn't go in the big pools. I think we only used it once, and we could have easily gotten away with not having it, but if your little one loves to swim its something to consider.

We also brought a bunch of cheap toys (dollar store, happy meal, etc.) that I would dole out during dinner if she got antsy. We did multi-course dinners in the MDR every night (I think) and only had to take her out for a walk on one or two occasions (the toys and pre-meal snacks helped!)

We've been in an inside with a pack n play on NCL Pearl. It's tight, but it works. Push the beds all the way to one side and then the pnp just squeezes next to it. That's really the only option. I guess you could put it between the bed as twins, but the space is the same.

Bring all of the wipes and diapers you think you'll need since you won't find them onboard easily. Since you're driving it will make it easier. Our dd was drinking a lot of milk at the time and always liked it right when she woke up and before bed. Since they only have the cartons on the buffet in the morning we took extra and put it in our fridge. Also grab some extra cereal boxes. If you're going on shore any snacks that are packaged can be brought off the ship.

If you have any other questions, let me know.

I traveled with twin one yeAr olds and have before and since then too. I recommend a small amount of toys for them to play in the room, but the baby play area was awesome for some crawl/ walk time.

I second the diapers and wipes recommendations as they are hard to come by once at sea. Bring extra!

I don't know how many solids your baby eats, but my kids were picky and ate more jar food and snacks from home though they did well with items like yogurt and bananas. Have some things for port days since I couldn't always find cheerios.

We were on the Jewel last month with our 10 month old. They provided a pack and play. We were in a mini suite (I wanted a tub to make baby bath time easier) and we were able to put the pnp in the closet. It came right up to the bed that way but it was much better than having it take up all that space in front of the couch! We folded it up everyday to get it out of the way, I can't stand clutter!

They have a program for the under 3 set with one or two group activities per day. Look for the "Guppies" events in the Daily. As mentioned above you can't leave them but instead stay and play with your kids in a group. Sophie was a little too young for most but we went to a few and enjoyed it. They also have a toy room where you can take your little one to play. This was completely unsupervised so obviously you need to stay with your child ;)

The Dawn is an older ship but we were in her sister ship the Star 2 years ago and found she met our needs nicely.

We took a blow up pool (bathtub actually) for Sophie and just set it up on deck for her to splash in. I'm not sure who enjoyed it more, her or the other passengers watching her. I was really worried about it beforehand that we'd be flogged for doing it but everybody was really tickled by it... Or at least those who weren't kept their distance!

Edit to add, on the Jewel anyway I was surprised to see that they actually sold wipes and diaper cream in the gift shop. I don't recall any diapers though. Of course the price was what you would expect it to be for baby supplies in the middle of the ocean but at least they had them! We took her on Carnival in January when she was 7 months and they had nothing at all. Fwiw we way overpacked on diapers and wipes and literally used just half of what we brought... The perks of driving to port.

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We sailed on the Dawn when our youngest was 2. We picked NCL because kids club started at that age versus older on other lines. I am not sure if they upped it or not.

They would not change diapers - we would be paged if he needed changing and swim diapers were not allowed in the pools.

Now NCL has changed the beginning age for the kids club to be three. As a pp said, there is a play area/activities for two and under but a parent needs to attend. We were just on the Pearl and our dd recently turned three. She went to the club once during our trip. She liked it, but I'm not sure if she would have done it before then. I'm guessing they may have had a lot of crying two year olds.

I was on the NCL Pearl with a 6 month old in an oceanview. We also put the pnp between the bed and the wall. The room steward set it up beside the chair, leaving absolutely no space to walk. I pushed the bed all the way to the one side and put it in the corner beside the bed and he left it there for the rest of the cruise. It worked out great and we didn't feel too crowded.

For the Dawn you may want to look at the obstructed view cabins on deck 8. They are usually priced just slightly higher than inside cabins, but give you more room. The OX category has the least obstructed view, but the OK category gives you just as much floor space with just less view. We have stayed in the first cabin OK back from the OX (8566 / 8066) and there was only a small lifeboat in our view. By pushing the bed to one side gives extra space in the cabin. Another advantage to deck 8 is the Blue Lagoon, where you go almost any hour for a quick snack or drink.