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Photo Review! Our Family's Spring Break Aboard the Rotterdam!


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After teatime, we decided to hang out in the Explorations Cafe for a bit. Our kids really enjoyed playing Chinese checkers and Chess in there! And the vibe and views were very relaxing! There was also a selection of excellent books you could check out while in there!

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Any kids books or games on-board?

 

(Thank you so much for this review!! I just read the entire thing and it's eased my mind about bringing my 4yo along!)

Edited by lkturtle
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I'm so glad you found this post again. I had not seen it. We have cruised since our son was 6 and we have always had a wonderful time. He is now 16 and we have his much longed for baby sister, our surprise baby, as well. She will be 16 months on our cruise in the spring with her grandmas. This makes me feel more confident having a littler one onboard. Get our little Mariner started early.

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What a great accounting of your trip! Many thanks for taking the time to share it with us. We frequently take our grandchildren cruising with us as we feel it is important for them to learn how to behave and to have the educational benefits of travel. They love cruising as do their parents who get to come along.

We are taking the whole gang to Norway next summer on Nieuw Statendam so hope you will do a review of your spring trip in 2019 as well. It has been a pleasure.

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Any kids books or games on-board?

 

(Thank you so much for this review!! I just read the entire thing and it's eased my mind about bringing my 4yo along!)

 

Hi! They did have some games such as Battleship, Chinese Checkers, Chess and lots and lots of puzzles! I don't recall seeing children's books, but I wasn't looking for them either...I hope you have a wonderful time! Our kids loved it!

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I'm so glad you found this post again. I had not seen it. We have cruised since our son was 6 and we have always had a wonderful time. He is now 16 and we have his much longed for baby sister, our surprise baby, as well. She will be 16 months on our cruise in the spring with her grandmas. This makes me feel more confident having a littler one onboard. Get our little Mariner started early.

 

Love this! How special! I'm sure you'll have an amazing time!

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This is really a very special thread. We shall be on this cruise in April. Your very thoughtful review of your cruise will help us tremendously with planning. Thank you.

 

I'm so glad you found the review helpful! Please let me know if you have any additional questions I can help answer. We absolutely loved the cruise! One of our favorites so far!

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What a great accounting of your trip! Many thanks for taking the time to share it with us. We frequently take our grandchildren cruising with us as we feel it is important for them to learn how to behave and to have the educational benefits of travel. They love cruising as do their parents who get to come along.

We are taking the whole gang to Norway next summer on Nieuw Statendam so hope you will do a review of your spring trip in 2019 as well. It has been a pleasure.

 

Thanks for reading along! And I agree with you about the importance of traveling with kids!

 

We are already excited for our cruise in March on the Nieuw Statendam! I'll definitely try and do a review on it when we return home! Your trip to Norway sounds like it'll be amazing!

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So much good stuff in this review. Very helpful to have HAL specific info.

 

I did have a question or two if you don't mind. We have done land travel and utilized the pack n plays. Our son started travelling at 3 mos. but we never did a cruise when he was young enough to need one. We have a pack n play reserved for our daughter who will be 16 mos at the time of our next cruise on HAL.

 

Was the HAL pack n play the standard size one you normally find in hotels? Also how difficult was it to move around in the cabin with it up? We have balcony cabins (3 total, 1 for us and baby, 1 for one grandma and our son, and 1 for other grandma) and the pack n play will be over near the couch next to the balcony. Just wondering about it's footprint in the cabin.

I plan to bring a couple pack n play sheets and her special blankie.

Any other advice for space saving and cruising with baby on HAL?:)

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So much good stuff in this review. Very helpful to have HAL specific info.

 

I did have a question or two if you don't mind. We have done land travel and utilized the pack n plays. Our son started travelling at 3 mos. but we never did a cruise when he was young enough to need one. We have a pack n play reserved for our daughter who will be 16 mos at the time of our next cruise on HAL.

 

Was the HAL pack n play the standard size one you normally find in hotels? Also how difficult was it to move around in the cabin with it up? We have balcony cabins (3 total, 1 for us and baby, 1 for one grandma and our son, and 1 for other grandma) and the pack n play will be over near the couch next to the balcony. Just wondering about it's footprint in the cabin.

I plan to bring a couple pack n play sheets and her special blankie.

Any other advice for space saving and cruising with baby on HAL?:)

 

Hello! Glad you found the review helpful!

 

We were provided with a standard sized pack n'play for our cabin. It was at the bottom of our bed (configured as a king) and up against the sofa (that was also turned into a bed at night for our son). All in all, I'd say it wasn't too crowded at all, and we were only in an OV cabin. So for you in a balcony cabin, I wouldn't worry too much about space!

 

Our general cruising with baby tips that we've done with our children are to: take a white noise sound machine, pack a sponge and small jar of washing up liquid if you'll be taking sippy cups or pacifiers, ask for extra towels and hang them on the side of the pack n' play to darken it if your baby goes to bed early (we remove these before we go to sleep at night), take an inflatable/portable high chair so if you go to random dining locations on the ship or in port, you don't have to wait for a high chair or worry about if the venue has one (these are cheap on Amazon and so convenient). I also travel with a ton of baby medicines/pedialyte/thermometer, etc., just in case of an issue. One time our son (who was 1.5) started showing some symptoms of being sick on a cruise, but it turned out just to be teething. It was nice to be able to check on him and monitor him without having to see the ship's doctor.

 

Have a great time. Let me know if there are any other specific questions I can help answer for you!

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Thank you so much for the helpful info and great suggestions.

The inflatable high chair, didn't even know they made those. I found a couple on Amazon I will look into.

And using towels to darken the pack n play, especially when you have a highly distractible baby. Good.

Our main concern was really just being able to access the balcony door while keeping the pack n play up for naps. Sounds like we are good. We have connecting room too so that will help as well. It will be an adventure but that is what travel should always be anyway.

The family travel medicine bag. Yes, we restock it every trip. First aid kit and all otc meds. Pedialyte is a good addition. (y)

She has her own plane ticket for that trip on SW so thankfully baggage space is a non issue plus we do the unlimited laundry so I don't have a day of laundry when I get home lol.

Thanks again for being so generous with your time and great information. :D

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Great pictures and reviews. I am now an oldtimer, but have very fond memories of extensive travel with my parents from 6 months old and visited many states and countries. Keep traveling with the kids, as everyone will have memories for many, many decades.

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Now we always eat in the main dining room when we sail, and our children do quite well eating there. We eat out regularly at home, and I feel confident our kids know how to sit quietly and not make a mess when they're dining out. That being said, as soon as we were seated, there was a table of 4 sitting behind us that made it quite clear they weren't thrilled to see our children on the ship. They were probably in their 60's and 70's, and commented quite loudly, "I can't imagine why they'd bring their children on this cruise. What can there be to interest children on a ship like this? They must just be the type of people that travel with their children simply for virtue."

 

Now, I'm not going to lie, I was pretty shocked to overhear this and it did make me nervous about my children possibly not behaving just perfectly throughout their meal! This was the first time I felt that perhaps it was a mistake to book this cruise...We enjoy the quieter, smaller ship atmosphere and our children are very well behaved. In fact, the party ships make us feel a bit uncomfortable. At the same time, I kind of worried we'd be under the microscope and people would think because we had young children, that they would disrupt their meal somehow.

 

We also believe that traveling with our kids is a valuable education, in and of itself. Showing them different parts of the world, encouraging them to taste different types of food, and learning about people who look and live differently than they do is very valuable! So while the ship may have not been full of crazy adventures for little ones, it was important to us to take them along so they could experience and learn something new. We've traveled with our kids since they were infants. My son added his 36th country to his list of places visited on this vacation, and I don't believe for a second that we'll ever regret that!

 

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Loving your review and so sorry you ran into a group of snobs on the ship. Those kind steal a lot more from cruise enjoyment than children ever do.

 

We'll be on the Rotterdam next month, so I'm anxious for your updates. Thanks.

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  • 1 month later...

Thank you so much for this review! My husband and I are taking our 2 year old on the Eurodam to Hawaii in October, and most of what I have read up to now has made me feel like we may have made a mistake booking on HAL. We are always conscientious with our son and making sure he is not bothering others around us but I was starting to feel like even if he was well behaved we may still not be very popular!

 

Sounds like the vast majority of passengers really enjoyed having your kids aboard, too bad about the one table that felt the need to openly voice their opinion. I really do feel like people do not understand how much that may affect someone. I will never forget a flight we took to Cancun when my son was a year old, we had a lady sitting beside us that was loudly talking to her sister across the aisle about how horrible we were for taking our child on a flight and that people with children should stay home. It was even crazier because he slept almost the whole flight and didn't cry or make any noise. Even though I don't believe that parents should keep their children home all the time, I still felt awful and was so embarrassed.

 

Good for you for taking your children with you on your travels, they will be better adults for it!

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yvrkate,

Well bless her heart, some people are just naturally rude.;) She must be a real joy to all those around her lol. :p

 

We have had our share of rude comments and stink eyes while travelling with our son who has been doing road trips since he was 3 months old, flying since 2 years old, and cruising since 6. Thankfully not too many though. We just keep truckin'. :D

 

Enjoy your cruise and your sweet baby!!

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  • 4 months later...
16 minutes ago, sailawaybellaluna said:

Just catching up on the final comments on this review. Thanks everyone for reading along!

 

At 21,000 hits, I would say your wonderful trip report was a Big Hit. Thanks again for taking us and your adorable family along with you.

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On 1/22/2019 at 8:51 PM, OlsSalt said:

 

At 21,000 hits, I would say your wonderful trip report was a Big Hit. Thanks again for taking us and your adorable family along with you.

Thanks so much! I enjoyed re-reading about our trip this week. It was really wonderful!

 

Excited to board the Nieuw Statendam with my family this year for our Spring Break! I'll try and write a review on that trip as well!

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  • 1 month later...

My fave thread so far on the HAL boards! Such a great review and lovely pics - thank you. 

 

We are taking our two out of school next year for term 3 and we are doing the August/Sept Baltic & Viking Passage on the Zuiderdam for 29 days. They will be 9 and 11. 

 

When we asked the school for permission, the principal said, 'no schoolwork- just reading and a travel journal each day - no better education for children than travelling'. 

 

I've loved reading how the majority of passengers you encountered loved the kiddies on-board - our two are going to LOVE that.

 

 

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