Joel&Hall

Hi,

Our family is off on a cruise in November and after some advice, any advice or tips would be great!

In Port Villa we are wanting to go to Hideaway Island but only wanting to stay for a few hrs, how often do the ferries run to and from the Island also what time can you first head over in the morning? Also are there local taxis waiting to bring you back into town? We are also wanting to do the Secret Garden Outdoor Cultural Tour through our cruise, has anyone done this tour? What did you think? we are travelling with 3 kids 5 and under.

Does anyone have any tips on things to do in Lifou & Suva?

Also in Noumea we are wanting to go to Amadee Island but am only wanting to stay for the morning so we can spend some time exploring the town, our cruise ship only offers full day tours, are we able to get there and back easily on our own? Or can anyone recommend a local tour company that does half day tours? Anything not to be missed?

Thanks so much for your help!

We sailed Celebrity Eclipse a few years back when our daughter was 2 & had an amazing time! The staff & service were really great & we felt spoilt the whole cruise. Our daughter was to young for kids clubs but we took her once a day to the open play which she enjoyed & we would also sit up on the grass area & relax while she played. We liked the buffet for lunch and dinner I would say 90% of the food we had was enjoyable & only a few times we werent impressed but that can happen anywhere. Mostly the other guests were lovely but we did get a few comments about why we would bother bringing her etc but we didnt let that worry us, we were sailing in the Baltic though so hardley any kids at all on board. I would definitely book with Celebrity again. Have a great time!

Cant wait to follow along on your journey :-)

First, congratulations! ! We did a baltic cruise with Celebrity when I was 15 weeks pregnant, it was great! I had to get a letter from my midwife which was emailed to the cruise company by my travel agent just stating how far along I would be during the cruise & that I was fit to travel. Im from Australia so our trip also included a 24hr flight each way with stop overs in Singapore & Thailand which I was cleared for & had no problems. My midwife said to just exercise the same caution you would at home, eat/drink appropriately, rest, obviously dont do any crazy activities lol, we mostly just strolled around taking in all the amazing sites on our cruise. The cruise staff were really great & our room attendant even brought me cookies every arvo because I couldn't eat the canapes lol. I would go to your Dr & sort out any sea sickness meds that r safe to take while pregnant and make sure you bring them with you so if you do get sick you know what you are taking is safe. Have an awesome trip!

When we were on Celebrity Eclipse in the Baltic we tried to book in room baby sitting as soon as we got on, they told us they were already booked out, later in the cruise we called again and was able to get 1 night from 8pm-11pm.

I havent gone through and read every comment, but i sailed on Celebrity Eclipse in 2013 when i was about 14 weeks pregnant, and found it quite easy to avoid all the no no foods, i would eat pastas or meat and veg type dishes, there was also lots of soups, burgers etc your list is what we r told not to eat in Australia, though we r also told not to eat soft serve, frozen yogurt out of machines and not to eat any salad that u dont make fresh urself so i understand what u mean about it being difficult to eat 'out' rest assured it is quite easy to manage & if u have any questions im sure they wont mind answering :-) everyone was lovely and helpful.

Hi,

We are looking at doing a 12 night South Pacific cruise some time in 2016, we are looking at Royal Caribbean (voyager of the seas) & Carnival (spirit). We will be travelling with our 3 children who will be roughly 2, 3 & 5 was just wondering who people would recommend out of these 2 for a cruise with 3 young children?

Also does Carnival have any rooms that would accommodate 5 people in 1 room or would we have to get 2 connecting rooms? Also does Carnival have a babysitting service? I know that our youngest wont be able to participate in kids club but am hoping to still have some adult time.

With Royal Caribbean we are looking at a family panoramic oceanview that we have seen on Voyager of the seas, but just looking at their booklet it doesn't look like Voyager has the royal babies/tots program that we could drop our youngest off at. Is this true? Has anyone stayed in a famiy panoramic oceanview? What did you think?

Thank you for your help!

We did a Baltic cruise on Celebrity Eclipse last year with our 2 year old daughter and had a blast!!

We stopped at Bruges, was gorgeous and so easy to just stroll around and explore on your own, go for a horse drawn carriage ride through the town and have some waffles (delicious!)

Warnemunde, if you aren't going to go to Berlin, Warnemunde is nice but a little boring and your older kids probably wouldn't enjoy it to much. Again we just strolled around, played on the sand at the beach and took our daughter to a park then walked along the water front and ate ice creams.

We loved Estonia the old town walls are great to see, and there is a hotel that has a KGB museum in some 'secret' rooms at the top of the hotel that the KGB use to occupy, they are small but it is very interesting if you enjoy that kind of thing. There is an awesome authentic restaurant in the main food area that is great to visit, my husband got bear and elk sausages lol.

There is some nice shopping in Stockholm and a visit to the Vasa is a must, it is an old boat that was brought up from the bottom of the ocean, it is still in tact and so cool to see.

Helsinki there is some lovely markets on the water front in town which are nice to stroll through and there is a beautiful church near by as well.

St Petersburg is of course the highlight, a private tour is a must, then you can tweak it how you like. We saw all the major sites over 2 days Church of the Spilled blood was a favourite

We went end of May early June and it was perfect weather.

I hope you have a great time!

Thank you! I think I have decided on Alaska as I think it will be a bit more relaxed and that the girls will have more fun on it we will save the Med until the girls are a little bit older. We are thinking we will fly to Vancouver with a stop over in LA to take the girls to Disneyland :D we will probably spend a few days in Vancouver and are planning on going to see Banff, Jasper & Lake Louise etc, then do our cruise we are looking at one that starts in Vancouver and finishes in Anchorage and then doing a tour from there before flying home. It will be an amazing trip! Now to decide when we want to go :D

Thank you for such great responses! We would love to do a Caribbean cruise but we live in Australia and are planning a big America trip when the girls are older so will do it then. Kerry's Girls who did you do your private tours though? Would like to see what is on offer and general prices as that would help us to decide. Thanks very much!

We travelled on Eclipse with our 20 month old, cant help with the formula sorry but staff were very helpful, they did have several hours of play time that you could take young children to for toddler time, however on the ship we were on they would only let one parent in at a time with the child which wasn't ideal as we wanted family time. No one ever mentioned that we could take toys back to our room but we didn't ask either. Go up onto the grass area on the top of the boat, our daughter loved running around up there and we could sit and enjoy a drink while watching her. Have a great cruise!

Thanks for the advice everyone, yeah with the Med we are worried about the kind of excursions they would have and the length of them so Alaska does seem to be the better option at their age. Another question, what kind of excursions did you do with your kids in the Med & in Alaska? & were their many other children on the boat?

Thanks!

Hi,

We are thinking of booking a cruise in the not to distant future and are trying to decide between doing a Med cruise or a Canada land trip including an Alaskan cruise. We will be travelling with our 2 daughters who at the time will be roughly 3 & 5 & are after opinions on what cruise would be best with young children. Would love to hear from people who have done either (what was good/ bad, would you do it again etc) & would also like to hear what cruise line you did it with.

Thanks!

We tired to upgrade to a suite after final payment on our upcoming cruise when I saw that the price had dropped a lot, our travel agent called celebrity and was told no that's not allowed. So only US customers must be allowed to do this, that is very annoying :(

How much would it cost to catch a taxi from the pier to Tivoli & how long would it take?

Thanks for your help!

Hi,

My husband and I will be doing our first cruise on Celebrity Eclipse this May with our nearly 2 year old daughter, I know she will be to young to be left at the Fun Factory but is it true that we can take her there & sit & play with her with some of the toys?

Thanks!