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Young Children on HAL?


Mjroth13
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I've been combing through the threads and see bits and pieces of people's opinions but would love to hear from families in our similar situation. We have kids who will be ages 5 and 7 at time of sailing (thinking June and Alaska sailing). Can anyone advise of:

1) how the room/beds worked; what is the best room type (we have a girl and a boy so no sharing beds)

2) are there excursions that they would be good to go on?

3) on Carnival, the kids club had a dinner portion so that they wouldn't always have to eat with us, do they have that on Holland? It wasn't at the kids club but in the buffet/grill.

4) does the kids club take the kids to the pool area?

 

Thanks so much for your input!

Michelle

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There was a great thread recently. Family with 2 young kids on HAL. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2623040

 

Check that out. Lots of good info.

As to best cabin, that depends on you. Hal does have some big inside cabins and you can get a quad in most categories except some suites on certain ships. Check out halfacts.com for lots of pictures.

 

Dinner. Club Hal does not do dinner. This is what we did as ds had no interest in sitting through MDR dinner and we love MDR dinner. We would get Anytime Dining Open Dining and a ressie for a 2 top for about 7:15-7:30. We would take ds to the lido at 6ish, let him eat and we would just have a glass of wine and a snack. Then back the room to get ready for our dinner, drop him off at Club Hal at 7pm, and head off for our evening. Ds got fed what he likes and didnt have to sit still longer than necessary. We got MDR dinner alone. Worked great.

 

Club Hal doesn't go to the pool that we ever saw.

 

Excursions: Lots of wildlife. Whale watching in Juneau is fun. The Bering Sea Crab Fisherman Tour in Ketchikan is great!!

Edited by fatcat04
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No cruise line takes the kids to pools...too much liability. If you want the kids at the pool (must be out of diapers and totally toilet trained), you will have to do that.

 

Heck, my brother and I had to share beds at times on vacations....not a big deal!

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We did a June Alaska cruise with small children on HAL’s Westerdam. We had an absolutely fantastic time on this cruise but be warned that HAL is not as family friendly as what you may have grown accustomed to on Carnival or similar cruise lines. My kids, who normally love to go to the kids club, refused to go to Club HAL after the first day. Said it was terrible. The pools lack the high energy found on other cruise lines.

 

We booked a balcony stateroom and it was more than adequate for our needs. One kid slept on the convertible sofa and the other on a bunk right above the sofa.

 

At dinner, our waiter was excellent, but you could tell that he had a hard time adjusting his service to small children. It felt as if he didn’t deal with small children frequently.

 

Lastly, the age demographics skew a bit on the older side, so we didn’t see as many small children as we’ve normally seen on other cruise lines. Some older fellow cruisers even acted a bit disgusted at the sight of children onboard, even if our kids were sitting quietly at the buffet.

 

Ashore, we tried to keep things simple and kid friendly, so several times we planned our own activities. We visited Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau, hiked the Sitka Historical National Forest and visited the Alaska Raptor Center in Sitka, participated in a Duck Tour in Ketchikan, and walked around on our own in Victoria. All great activities which the kids thoroughly enjoyed.

 

We would’ve loved to go kayaking, dog sledding on glaciers, or taken a flightseeing helicopter ride, but once again, we tailored our activities based on the ages of our children. Maybe we’ll do all of these when they are older and we return to Alaska!

 

 

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Edited by Tapi
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The Bering Sea tour is great, and 5 is their minimum age so you'll be fine. We saved money booking all of our excursions privately, and the link for this one is http://www.alaskacrabtour.com/Book_Your_Tour_Now.aspx

 

We traveled to Alaska while I was pregnant with my first, and loved the helicopter to the dogsled on glacier excursion. There have been children who have loved this (we were there with a 11 year old from San Juan who had never touched snow before so this was a really exciting excursion for her!) but other children have become afraid on the helicopter ride, and its a pretty expensive excursion. If you do decide, please book directly with Temsco, and try to book for Skagway instead of Juneau since the weather is more stable there. Book as early as possible in the morning, since they'll try to rebook you if weather is projected to clear up later if your original flight needs to be cancelled (although we travelled in late May, the shoulder season and they might be completely booked during the regular season and not able to reschedule you).

 

Whale watching is a bit tough - you need to be aware of the fact that you are highly likely to only see tails and splashes of water. Looking through the tripadvisor reviews, people either love whale watching or they get bored after a half hour (which is not great with kids who would then be trapped on the boat). If you do decide to book this, Harv and Marv are excellent operators.

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We just sailed to Alaska this past June with our 8 y/o. We sailed on RCI, so can’t help with HAL but I did post a review with lots pics. Here is link to our review:

 

Our Alaskan Adventure - Review of our June 22 2018 Radiance Southbound Cruise

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2650720

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

1) how the room/beds worked; what is the best room type (we have a girl and a boy so no sharing beds) We have had a drop bunk and sofa bed, then the adult bed underneath. We have had this set up in ocean view and Inside. I know that there are some balcony rooms that will take 4 as well.

2) are there excursions that they would be good to go on? I found that some HAL excursions were older aged so did them on our own if we knew we had lots of time. Just do your research.

3) on Carnival, the kids club had a dinner portion so that they wouldn't always have to eat with us, do they have that on Holland? It wasn't at the kids club but in the buffet/grill. I think the club opens at 7 for after supper. We did a variety of things, including kids eating and one of us leaving to take kids to club. Near the end of our cruise we found another couple that always took their kids to supper at the Lido buffet then up to the kids club and went for a late dinner. The kids club does take them for lunch if they are in the club on port days. On sea days it usually closes at 11:30 and reopened around 1:00. We found the shutting for meals to work as it gave the kids a break and we ate meals as a family. It was common for them to do a ice cream run mid afternoon or a snack run in the evening.

 

Unlike the person above, our wait staff has always been fabulous with kids. I usually state on the first night that I would like a fruit plate or veggie plate for the kids when we arrive and a milk. They have always happily brought it. They would also hunt down things if it wasn't on the daily kids menu (pizza, nuggets etc.) to keep a kid happy. I have high ratings for HAL.

 

4) does the kids club take the kids to the pool area? Never, as above.

the kids club did sometimes goes on adventures around the ship. Some people really enjoyed watching them (you could tell by their faces lighting up) while others gave the stink eye. But whatever. My kids LOVE Club Hal the best. We have sailed Disney x2, HAL x2, RCL x1. They still ask about HAL - unfortunately the itinerary didn't line up with our dates this year.

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We chose Princess for Alaska and our kids loved it. Our youngest was about 9 or 10 at the time and actually preferred their kids club to Carnival because it was more physically active. I rejected HAL off the top for the older demographic, so I can’t compare that but can give very positive marks for Princess

 

 

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Princess does a nice job to Alaska, and I'd also note that my son was happy on both kids clubs, but I thought Princess' was a lot better. We were on a HAL cruise with only 5 kids (the cruise went to Guatemala, Honduras and Costa Maya so it didn't attract a lot of kids, although we all loved the itinerary including my 3 year old) so that might be why the Hal kids club didn't do much with the kids - mostly gluing stuff to paper plates. The princess kids clubs always had real arts and crafts and activities, and a lot more staff. Both HAL and Princess have a strong reputation in Alaska, so either way it should be a great cruise.

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We took Princess to Alaska so can not comment on the ship. But because Alaska is a US destination, it is a great place to rent a car for the day and do your own thing. A few visits to the destination boards, and you will have more than enough options to keep you happy in port.

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  • 1 month later...

We went to Alaska on HAL with our son, age 10 at the time. I hate to be negative, but the kids club was very uninviting. It was dark, and the counselors weren’t particularly friendly. They did nothing to reach out to our son to make him comfortable. He refused to even try it. We have cruised Celebrity, and it was a different story. No bells and whistles or theme characters, of course, but a really professional and upbeat kids club operation. I actually felt HAL was boring for the adults, too, and we’re a little on the older side for parents (late 40s). I won’t take a HAL cruise again. 

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