First time on HAL questions - Kids Club times and dress codes

We've sailed on NCL twice now which we realled enjoyed. However over the last couple of years NCL has removed many little "perks" and so we're trying other lines. We're booked on the Feb 26th Mexico sailing out of San Diego 2 adults and 2 kids (5 and 3). We have the "Open dining" option booked.

Kids Club:

HAL's web site is not clear on hours for the kids club? On NCL we liked to let the kids eat early in the buffet, then drop them off at kids club at say 6pm. We'd then have dinner in the MDR, some nights watch a show and then pick them up. What are hours and procedures for kids club on these cruises? Our kids loved NCL and are very excited about going on a cruise again so I hope they'll enjoy HAL's as much.

Dress code:

We always worse chinos and a button up shirt (long or short sleaved, no tie) to the MDR every night we went but didn't go as far as a tie - With HAL should I pack a more formal button up shirt and tie for "formal night"?

For the kids would it be ok to keep them in regular "kids clothes" in the MDR?

Outside of formal nights in the MDR are chinos and a button up shirt fine?

Many thanks!!

Welcome and all reports so far have been good for HAL children's activities, particularly on this cruise since it is one of the shorter ones and there will be more young families. But sorry, I don't know the hours. Sounds like a good idea to have something available during dinner hours for the children so the parents could dine alone those nights.

However, seeing the young children dressed up for formal night was always a delight which often meant a pretty party dress of some sort for the girls, bows or bandeaus in the hair and just a long sleeve shirt with a tie for the young boys, though some were in their small little suits and looked terrific. And they all looked very expectant and understood this was a very special occasion when they were all dressed up like that. So for formal night, some of the children did come to dinner with their parents.

Hope someone else can help you with more specific answers, but you will find the dress guidelines bend a lot when it comes to what kids wear. But hope you will also consider the specialness of the formal nights and the magic they bring when it also includes dressing a little more out of the ordinary and getting to share that "adult" time with the other dressed up diners. ebay is a great place to get special occasion items for young people.

Club HAL will be open on sea days from 0900-1130, 1300-1600, and 1900-2200. On port days they will be open from 0800-1600 and 1900-2200. After-hours Club HAL is available, with prior coordination, for a charge of $5 per child per hour from 2200-2400.

Your plan of taking them to the Lido then dropping them off so you can enjoy dinner in the MDR is a good one, just a tad later than in your original post. Kids under 7 cannot sign themselves in and out of Club HAL, so one of you will have to physically drop them off and pick them up every time.

Regarding the dress code, chinos and a button-down shirt are perfect for "smart casual" nights. For formal night you will want a dark suit and tie or a tuxedo. Tuxes are available for rental if you don't own or want to bring your own (but you have to arrange this in advance of your cruise).

If you choose to bring the kids to the MDR any night, they will be welcome in any clothing but you and they will probably have more fun if they dress up a bit. Kids at that age tend to enjoy it, especially if mom and dad are also dressed to the nines!

Thanks - Doesn't look like the kids eating first then us having dinner will work since the kids club appears to be closed until 7pm. We could eat @7pm but then we'd miss the first show - by the time the second show starts kids club has ended....

The $5 an hour babysitting could help fill the time gap at least for some of the nights if this fits the travel budget for this cruise.

Thats true - you could get in room baby sitting for an hour or two at 6-7pm then? That would work as I could likely run back to cabin @7pm to take them to kids club... then continue dinner...

Or pay babysitting for the two hours ($10) so you can enjoy and finish your dinner and then drop them off at the HAL Club when you are done. Everyone runs into extra travel expenses putting their own trips together and you are facing your own unique ones traveling with small children on a ship, but the good thing is there are some wonderful opportunities here to make this all work if you want some alone dining time while on board.

Is the only charge for after hours or do they charge on sea or port days?

What about tipping the child care center staff is there a rule of thumb?

Lynn

Attached is a link with info on our travels with children over the last 3 years on 3 different HAL ships.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1321587

hope this is hopeful. Some info may not pertain to you and your ports but the basic children info is good.

re: dress code.

you didn't mention if your 5/3 YO were boy(s) or girl(s). This year my DD is the oldest of our group (6YO), in fact, she always the oldest child in our group. DS is 4YO.

DD always dresses up in the MDR. non-formal night is a sundress.

formal night is her fancy dress. she likes to dress up so it is easy.

Along with white stockings with black patent shoes and she's ready to go.

DS....gets easier every year. When he started at 2YO it was button down shirt from Children's Place + khakis. Took forever to get that shirt on him. He hated button downs. Every year it is easier and this year, no problem.

That's his formal wear. long shirt + khakis and dark keens. He looked fine since I wore my formal dress, DH was in a suit and tie (he does Hugo or Armani - got a fashionista husband) + DD in her dressy clothes. On non-formal nights, DS wore khakis + short sleeve polo or another button down.

Next year when he is 5, we might try a suit.

Sometimes MDR is a bit chilly so I have a black wrap (shawl) and kids have a little sweater in case they get cold since we are usually sitting there for 2 hours.

Let me know if you have more "kid" questions. Every year it gets easier and easier and we've got our system down. Pick up new ideas here and there, every little thing helps to make our annual cruise a great one.

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Let me know if you have more "kid" questions. Every year it gets easier and easier and we've got our system down. Pick up new ideas here and there, every little thing helps to make our annual cruise a great one.

It is great to hear from someone with young children who is choosing HAL ships, when we keep hearing they are "only for older people". What makes them a good choice for your younger families when there are other cruise lines intentionally targeting the younger groups of passengers? What is HAL doing right and where could they do better? Thanks.

To the OP, if you would like to see a sample of the activities in Club HAL, you can go to the family board, find any post by crusinmama06, in the end of her signature there is a link which has a sampling of kids club info for all of the cruise lines. People e-mail them to her, and she keeps it updated:D

It is great to hear from someone with young children who is choosing HAL ships, when we keep hearing they are "only for older people". What makes them a good choice for your younger families when there are other cruise lines intentionally targeting the younger groups of passengers? What is HAL doing right and where could they do better? Thanks.

We took our then 10 year old daughter on her first cruise in May. We were on the Eurodam in the Mediterranean. We like the quiet atmosphere on HAL. Our daughter went up to Club HAL every evening. She could sign herself in and out which she really liked. She enjoyed the activities and the attention from the Club crew even though there was a distinct lack of children aboard that week. I think there was a total of 13 in our kids' age groups (her brother was 17 but he didn't really get involved with the kids except once to play cards). Since we were travelling at the end of May most kids would probably not have been able to miss school so close to the end of the school year. Our kids were home schooled so not an issue for us. She also enjoyed dressing up for formal night. We are booked on the Veendam to Bermuda for June and I am pretty sure there will be a few more kids aboard. We are hoping not TOO many :D. Our son (now 18) is talking his friends into joining us. They are 21 year old identical twins so we are trying to bring the average age on HAL down a bit :rolleyes:

Diane

It is great to hear from someone with young children who is choosing HAL ships, when we keep hearing they are "only for older people". What makes them a good choice for your younger families when there are other cruise lines intentionally targeting the younger groups of passengers? What is HAL doing right and where could they do better? Thanks.

My six year-old daughter has sailed on six HAL cruises with us and loves them every time. Of course her experience has evolved as she's grown up, as has our way of enjoying the cruises.

What is HAL doing right? For starters, they are maintaining their elegant, placid cruise atmosphere even while welcoming more families on board. The Club HAL counselors have been universally friendly and caring--the kind of people you're instantly comfortable leaving your children with. They provide a variety of experiences for the kids, and plan both structured and free play time. There is time for movies and video games, but also for sports, crafts, board games, scavenger hunts, word puzzles, cooking classes... you name it! Our daughter never gets bored and truly looks forward to her time at Club HAL.

What could they do better? I do wish the Club HAL hours were more extensive, not so I can dump my daughter there all the time, but because sometimes the start and end times weren't the most convenient. I understand why they have to, because there are only so many counselors available and even they (of seemingly infinite patience) need a break from the kids. Also, on some of the ships, the Club HAL areas looked pretty beat-up--they don't seem to get the same TLC as the rest of the public areas. Other than that, nothing I can think of!

Thanks for all the tips everyone - very much appreciate it.

I think to keep things simpler we'll just eat at Lido during the formal nights as it involves bringing less clothes given limited luggage. I'll bring Chinos (and all my shirts are button types anyway) so we can sample the MDR some nights outside of formal.

Sounds like we could also get the formal night dinners delivered to the cabin instead if the Lido didn't have the same menu selection? (From what I recall the formal nights often have the more exotic menu items that I like).

Club HAL sounds perfect for our kids (smaller, less crowded etc) - As a parent I do think better hours would be great. For example the gap from 4pm to 7pm is somewhat problematic if you wanted to have a quiet early sitting MDR dinner while the kids were at Club HAL, catch the early show and then get to bed before it was too late for the kids. If I recall NCL covered this period since that is what we did some nights.

Baby sitting could work but I think I'd feel somewhat strange about that given it would be as stranger (not Club HAL staff I presume?) in the cabin alone with the kids?

On tipping we always tipped the NCL Kids club crew well - I presume the same happens on HAL since they're not included in the $11 pp per day pool?

Baby sitting could work but I think I'd feel somewhat strange about that given it would be as stranger (not Club HAL staff I presume?) in the cabin alone with the kids?

 

On tipping we always tipped the NCL Kids club crew well - I presume the same happens on HAL since they're not included in the $11 pp per day pool?

The baby-sitters come from the pool of front desk personnel, so you are correct that they are not Club HAL staff. Still, I would consider them trustworthy and perfectly suitable. Keep in mind that baby-sitting is only available when someone from the front desk wants to offer the service, though--if they're all on duty, tired, off on a shore excursion, or whatever then you may not be able to get the service.

As for tipping, we have never tipped the Club HAL staff. Maybe my thinking is off, but we assume those who are staff and officers are properly compensated by HAL for their respective roles. We tip generously to the crew (room stewards, dining room stewards, Neptune Lounge attendants, etc.) but have never tipped those in Club HAL.

We just got off the Westerdam with our 4 and 9 year old. My daughter wore a sundress every night and my son wore cotton pants and a button up shirt on formal nights and a nice collared golf type shirt on less formal nights. He wore a tie one night and vest (very briefly however). On casual nights, he wore long (below the knee) khaki shorts with a nice shirt. We took them to the dining room almost every night, followed by the show.

I have noticed (at least on this sailing) that "formal" is far less "formal" than it was 7 or 8 years ago when we were on HAL last - adults and children.

Just a hint...if you plan to eat in the Lido often, bring a tray from home (like the cafeteria types). There are none on the ship. It is light so get one from Target or somewhere. Throw it in your luggage. Throw it in your bag when you dine. Easier to get 4 glasses of water and/or juice with a tray then multiple trips. Sometimes both parents are not dining at the same time, you don't want to leave your child at the table alone so you bring your child(ren) and then have to worry about them, others walking around w/ hot food and you with your food and you only have 2 hands. not a good thing for 5 and 3 YO carrying food on a moving ship with others walking around with food also unless it is a small plate of bread of something.

On the last night (12/11/10) the Nieuw Am. was very very rocky. DH wasn't too well and staying the in room. Me and my kids (age 6 and 4) went to Lido and it was a pain. It was semi-busy but we got a table near one food station and stayed and only got the food from that station which was fine since it had all the main courses.

Room Service is good for the AM if you're leaving to go somewhere early.

Thanks - a tray is likely a very smart idea!!

Also how does getting MDR food served in the cabin work? I realize you can take a look at the menus when they get put out around lunch time and then you have to order room service the first hour the MDR is open.

All of that would work great for us timing wise. However I'm not sure where they'd put the food for four? We're in a VF Cabin (4016) on the Oosterdam. Is there space with the balcony and how do they manage the courses - bring it all at once (appetizers, entrees, deserts)? From the NCL size balcony rooms we've had in the past there wouldn't really be room...

Thanks!

from what I've read on the other postings re room service you can request whatever time you want and different courses at different time. Forget that. You have kids. Get it all at once. We had the inside cabin and it was fine for breakfast. DD on the pull out sofa, DS by the desk, DH on the chair and me on the bed. We eat picnic style. Remember you might get everything you want or not. We've had iffy service during our 12/5 trip. We get 1/2 of everything we ordered or not at all and items missing. My sister next door would get double of some things. Hit and miss for us. Too busy to call and order for more food and no time to wait so we ate what we got. Not worth our time complaining. Just luck I didn't have to cook.