Jlk88

7 hours ago, riki said:

your child might have slept in a bed with no rail. but this is a ship that might rock during the night and that is very dangerous.

My 7 year old fell out of the bed and thankfully our beds were placed under his bunk so that the child fell onto our bed. 

Our cruise was almost 4 months ago and she did great in the upper bunk. There was a rail on it. 1 year old alternated between the crib and our bed.

Not Celebrity, but we just cruised with an 11 month old. Totally doable. I dressed him mostly in rompers and a few short/t-shirt combos. Only 1 or 2 outfits per day. My kids were never spitters, though I hear that gets better around 6 months. We got him a plaid collared romper for formal night. It was much more fun dressing up my 3 year old because she loves to dress up. 

Get baby used to sleeping in a pack n play. Mine ended up co-sleeping most of the time. He would NOT sleep in the hotel pnps at all. Carnival has actual mini cribs and he did sleep in that for 3-5 hours per night before joining us in bed.

If baby is crawling, but not walking (very likely scenario at 8 months) try to find somewhere everyday to let him crawl around. My son got super restless on days when he was in a baby carrier or stroller a lot.

Eat in the main dining room as much as you can. The buffet is kind of a pain with a baby (and toddler in our case). We had to have DH find a table with the kids, then I would go get their food and drop it off. Then I would go get my food,and when I got back DH would take his turn getting food. Better to just be waited on in the MDR 🙂

4 minutes ago, kctwinmommy said:

 

Then I guess you got lucky. Although I realize lemonade is a juice. My son would always get pineapple juice with his BB card throughout the day and then at dinner as well. You are supposed to get the following...

Please note: The following beverages are included in the price of your cruise and are served in the main dining room and 24/7 in the Lido Restaurant: non-bottled water, lemonade, iced tea, hot chocolate and non-specialty coffee and tea. 

She got apple juice and orange juice. 

ETA: we had your time dining and different waiters each night. I think it's just not heavily advertised. After all, apple and orange juice are in the dispensers for free on Lido until lunch time. 

13 hours ago, kctwinmommy said:

There aren't any juices at dinner that are free. Our son would always drink the juices, not much into soda, so he'd get the BB card so he could get juice all day and then at dinner.

Just last week I ordered my daughter juice at dinner 3 times in the MDR and milk twice. We we're never charged for any of it.

You can totally get juice for free at dinner in the main dining room. I am just off the Elation and my daughter got juice with dinner and breakfast a couple of times, no problem. None of us had a beverage package.

I went on a cruise to the Bahamas in January 2015. It was cold (68-69) and windy. Our snorkeling excursion in Freeport got cancelled. In Nassau we took the ferry and walked to Atlantis just to walk around and sit at the beach. It was too windy and cloudy for me to consider swimming, and I am from the Midwest! The locals were wearing parkas. 

I think the Bahamas in January are hit or miss, and based on my big miss I won't do it again. I'll be there in 2 weeks though and fingers crossed for better weather!

16 minutes ago, grandmarnnurse said:

Just because you are at a port that you can’t fly home from, it doesn’t mean you won’t have to. Accidents/emergencies happen everywhere, even just out to sea. When we were notified that there was an emergency back home in 1995 with our daughter, the ship got within a safe distance of an island with a small airport. We were tendered in, flown out on a little puddle jumper to Antigua, where we caught an Air Canada flight back to Toronto. If you need to get home, the cruise line will assist you in doing so, but a passport is an absolute necessity. I would never risk cruising without a passport AND good travel insurance. 

We are comfortable with our decision. If freak accidents were requiring people to fly home with any sort of regularity, then the cruise lines would be requiring passports. Like pp said, hundreds if not thousands of people cruise each year without passports with no issues. If we were going on a long cruise, or knew we would be using them more in the next 5 years, we would have gotten them for the kids. For this trip, they won't have them.

DH and I have them, but we didn't get them for our kids for our upcoming cruise. It's only a 5 night with 2 ports, one of them being HMC which we couldn't fly home from anyway. We are taking a Carnival excursion in our other port. On my previous cruises I have never taken my passport off the ship.

I researched this a little myself and didn't come up with anything. We ultimately decided to drive (16 hours!) to Jacksonville in 2 weeks for our cruise. Partly to save money on flights, and partly because of the car seat Hassel. 

My kids are 11 months and 3.5. Honestly in your shoes I would just bring the car seats. With 3 year olds, if I had to pick between lugging car seats and lugging strollers, I would choose the car seats and not do excursions that require excessive walking.

It sounds like you travel a lot, so the ride safer travel vests might be a smart investment.

7 minutes ago, TravlnStyle3 said:

 

@1025cruise do you have an idea of how they fit 4 people into a balcony room?

So, I've never been on Princess, but my family of 4 is cruising in a carnival interior cabin in 2 weeks. My baby is 11 months and daughter is 3.5. We requested a crib for the baby, and the plan for 3.5 year old is to sleep in the upper Pullman. She has slept in a regular twin bed since age 2 with no rail so I'm not worried. If she doesn't like it we will put my husband up there instead.

At 4 and 1 you guys could do a similar arrangement.

22 hours ago, obx_fintoo said:

For the littles, the kid's club can be fun and they have Dr. Seuss' parade, storytime and photo ops.  Also, the Cat in the Hat and Thing 1 and 2 have been known to dance at Sailaway!  Hope you guys have fun!!

Thanks! My oldest is old enough for the kids activities, but my youngest isn't. He will probably enjoy the characters though!

Thanks for the review! We board in 2 weeks. We aren't Cheers or Casino people, and we have little kids, so our experience will be different for sure. Mostly looking forward to half moon Cay and our private island excursion in Nassau.

10 minutes ago, ozziebound said:

Hi everyone,
I have a similar (sorta) decision to make, but you’re welcome to let me know if you think it should be a separate topic...

We’re going on Ovation of the Seas in about... 80 days.

We’re in a corner spacious ocean view (11050 i think) and it seems like it’s quite large with an interesting shape. Should be good for our two kids (6 and 3). I think the room only has a pull out sofa, and not any pullmans. (I don’t think I’d want even our six year old in a pullman anyway.)

So our kids sometimes aren’t that great at sharing a bed.

I’m thinking of getting one of those blow up beds (I may have seen them discussed here in the family forum) on Amazon. There are three that get reviewed against each other and people like. One is aero bed and i forget the names of the other two.

They all have some sort of ridge around the edge to help prevent the little one from falling off, and that’s a big reason i like them.

Any thoughts? Anyone brought one of those aboard before? Can we be sure the pump will work with the ship’s outlet? Is there a chance the RCI room steward will say they’re not allowed?

Thanks!

Adam


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

My 3 year old has slept in just a regular twin air mattress when we go camping or go to my in-laws cottage since she was about 21 months, no problem. I would get one of those over a special toddler one especially if your youngest is 3. That way you can use it longer and adults could use it too if needed (not necessarily on the cruise, but in general).

Assuming you are in the USA, the outlets will work fine for an air pump. You could also get a battery operated one if you prefer.

I'm not sure if they are "allowed", but you are allowed to bring your own pack n play, so I don't see how an air mattress would be different.

It took them 5 days (3 business days plus weekend) for mine, but it was approved as well!

7 hours ago, Shidah said:

You can’t really leave when you want, they have designated times for each ship to return, although some people on our cruise had had enough early and went back on another cruise ships return time.  If you can get the food off the ship I think you will be okay.  I don’t recall Balmoral going through bags.  I don’t recommend Balmoral at all, and personally would not return.  With young kids who will be happy with just sand, it might be ok though.

What did you not like about it? I read mixed reviews, but a lot if the negative ones had to do with animal encounters which we won't be doing. Our ship only offers Balmoral and Blue lagoon, and I figured I'd save $60 and to Balmoral. I'm not opposed to switching, though my kids are too young for anything more than playing in the sand and splashing in the shallows. We don't want to go to junkanoo. 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2629131-princess-cays-fire/?page=6

According to this, ships will be calling there again starting on Feb 4, and no Princess itineraries are being changed.

We are cruising to Nassau and HMC at the end of the month. 

In Nassau we booked the Balmoral island beach break (without lunch) for our family of 4. Our kids are both under 4 so too young for most excursions and free to Balmoral. My questions:

1. The youngest is 11 months. Would it be worth it to bring a stroller (for the walk to the ferry and back to the ship) or would a baby carrier suffice?

2. I read reviews that the return shuttle drops you at the straw market. How far is that from the ship?

3. What is the water temp like? I am hoping since it is a shallow beach, it will be warmish. We live in the Midwest, so are used to cooler water temps.

4. I know they say "no food or drink can be brought to the island" but how strict are they really? Our plan is to eat a big breakfast on the ship and then return for a late lunch, but I was hoping we could bring our own water bottles and a couple of those fruit applesauce pouches for the kids? Would they really confiscate water and baby food?

TIA!

12 minutes ago, sanmarcosman said:

Were they not legal tender?

Keep in mind this was 8 years ago, but somehow I still had this in my email!

How horrible, but thankfully nobody got hurt! Hope it's up and running again soon.

At the risk or sounding rude, won't it be horribly crowded to have two ships at Half Moon Cay? 

I am supposed to call there on the Elation at the end of February and am really looking forward to it. It worries me a little bit to think about how crowded the beach and buffet area could get with double the passengers if another ship gets rerouted there on our day.

Has anyone ever been there with two ships in port, or on a megaship? Was it fine?

I do see the other point of view. If I was supposed to call at Princess Cays, I would rather share HMC than go to Freeport or have another sea day.

I was supposed to stop there on a carnival cruise in 2011. Several weeks before sailing they switched it out for Costa Maya due to not having enough reputable tenders.

The Legend did in 2011. I'm not sure if that changed with renovation.

It is super easy to submit. When I did it, the link that I provided to the excursion website didn't work, so I got an email from Carnival stating that I could resubmit or reply directly to the email. I replied directly with the link and my claim was approved!

This was for Balmoral island in the Bahamas though, no experience with Belize.

15 minutes ago, Just_Beachy22 said:

Jlk88, I just read your comment after mine posted - please know mine was not directed towards you! 

No worries! Different people have different ideas of what they want their vacation to look like and that's a-ok!

You are not supposed to share, but I don't buy a drink package (I absolutely cannot fathom spending $700 in one week on beverages. I would MUCH rather put that money towards excursions!) 

I do know that there is a 5 minute wait time between ordering drinks, so if you do try to sneak it, you will have to do one at a time and have yours kids take turns.

DH and I are fine with the provided beverages (water, regular coffee, juice at breakfast, iced tea and lemonade), with 1 cocktail or beer per day each and maybe a specialty coffee with dessert. If more drink variety is your jam, then it may be worth it for you to try.

On previous cruises husband has worn dress slacks, button down, and jacket, and I have worn bridesmaid dresses on elegant nights. This time we are going on a 5 night, so only one elegant night. We are bringing our small children and trying to keep extra unnecessary stuff to a minimum.  DH will wear a button down shirt with tan dress pants and brown shoes that he can also wear on another night or two with a polo. I will be wearing a dress that's nicer than a sundress, but not a cocktail dress. My daughter will wear a party dress and the baby will probably wear a collared romper.