More pool confusion from RCCL

[milton333]

From a live chat history with customer service at RCCL, re: the Freedom of the Seas:

 

[CS]: [4:48:41 PM] Thank you for contacting Royal Caribbean International, this is [CS], how may I help you?

[Me]: [4:48:41 PM] I have a question about the kid's pool area on Freedom of the Seas. We will be traveling with my 2 year old son, who is potty trained. It seems that there is a 3-foot deep children's pool, which will be a bit deep for him. Is it okay if we accompany him into the children's pool and H2O zone?

[CS]: [4:48:54 PM] Hello [Me]

[4:50:35 PM] You will be ok to accompany the child in the H2O zone, however, the main restriction is potty trained and pull up diaper free. They request the children are 3+.

[Me]: [4:52:15 PM] He is potty trained, but under 3. So, is he allowed into the pool or not? I'm confused.

[CS]: [4:53:30 PM] The H2O zone is not the pool. It is a splash area. The pools are restricted for 3+.

[4:55:14 PM] I have accessed another document that only stated that children must be potty trained/pull up diaper free. It did not restrict their ages.

 

:rolleyes:

[DragonMouse]

Looks like he's obviously not reading ALL of your question.

 

I think IF your child is potty trained and you're in the pool with him...I doubt anybody is going to tell you to proove his age and kick you out. They probably only set the "3" limit because by then the percentage of toddlers commonly trained by then (alas there are a LOT of toddlers that are not...then what). I haven't been on Royal yet but Carnival has similar rules. I haven't seen any parent and child evicted from the pool as long as it seemed reasonable the child wasn't in diapers.

 

I don't know about Royal...but Carnival's pools are salt water.

[cb at sea]

Freedom's pools are fresh, treated water pool...the ship's below Freedom class are saltwater.

[crusinmama06]

Freedom's pools are fresh, treated water pool...the ship's below Freedom class are saltwater.

 

Except one of Enchantment's Main Pool is fresh (maybe someday you will read my responses to your posts and correct your answers because you always post this. ;))

 

Milton - Seriously - WHEN did they start this? :eek: I am so glad my kids are past this age because I would want to scream right now if I was trying to determine a cruise line based on this convoluted info. :eek:

 

OK, first of all, proving that the RCI reps have NEVER stepped foot onboard a ship, the H20 zones DO have pools - they are actually QUITE deep, look - 5 foot 7 inches deep

 

 

[crusinmama06]

Wow! Who put those POOLS in the H20 Zone? Milton, shhhh, don't tell RCI, they don't know they have pools there. :p

 

 

[crusinmama06]

And Milton, the "official" word from RCI...the child has to be "completely" toilet trained. Well mine was by 2. There are no age restrictions in RCI's onboard policies. Don't look for any. ;)

 

Onboard Policies

Q: Are there any restrictions regarding children in the pools?

 

A: Please note: Due to public health regulations, children in diapers, swim diapers, pull-ups or who are not COMPLETELY toilet trained are not allowed in the pools, whirlpools or H2O zone. Children in diapers or who are not toilet trained may use the Baby Splash Zone specially designated for them on the Freedom of the Seas®, Liberty of the Seas®, Independence of the Seas®, Oasis of the SeasSM and Allure of the SeasSM.

[milton333]

I don't know about Royal...but Carnival's pools are salt water.

 

FWIW, this is another source of debate and confusion. John Heald has blogged that Carnival's pools are chlorinated, not salt water. Each cruise line is fairly vague about how their pools are treated.

 

One other thing that confuses me about this chat is the reference to the H2O zone as a splash zone. But isn't there a small, pie-shaped area of about 2 inches of water for babies in swim diapers, which is called the "baby splash zone"? :confused: If there's more than one area called a "splash zone," and one of these is off-limits to swim diapers, maybe you can see why parents are confused?

 

This all started because I was looking at a pic of the circular pool in the H2O zone, which was showing a depth of 3 feet, and just wanted to check that there was no issue with me going in there with my DS. Don't know where all the "age restriction" business came from, nor does the CS rep's walking back of the original statement on this inspire confidence. Now I don't know if I can expect someone on the ship to try to enforce a "3+ policy" that may or may not exist. :rolleyes:

[Cshgrand]

My son was 2.5yrs when we were on enchantment last new year and was dry throughout the day by then. He is small and looks young for his age but we were never challenged on his age prior to using pools - we used solarium (restricted hours and only on cold days into and out of Baltimore) and both outdoor pools.

We took his swim vest which was bulky in the suitcase but really necessary because of the pool depth.

[crusinmama06]

This all started because I was looking at a pic of the circular pool in the H2O zone, which was showing a depth of 3 feet, and just wanted to check that there was no issue with me going in there with my DS.

 

Are you talking about the "Lazy Donut"? That's what we (those of us on the RCI board) call the Lazy river type pool in the H20 zone. It has a current moving the water. You would HAVE to go in there with your 3 year old. So the answer is YES. I didn't know you were talking about that. I thought you meant the actual swimming pools in the H20 zones (swimming pools, there are 2 of them, both OVER 5 feet deep).

 

What you are actually talking about is the current circular pool - often called the Lazy Donut - But it moves like a Lazy River - you get in it and it MOVES YOU around in a circle. The child would need you in there. It is 3.5 feet deep

 

See, my youngest needed a life vest when she was with my oldest - the water was moving her so fast. (I took the picture then of course, jumped in...lol)

 

 

 

[crusinmama06]

FWIW, this is another source of debate and confusion. John Heald has blogged that Carnival's pools are chlorinated, not salt water. Each cruise line is fairly vague about how their pools are treated.

 

I don't care what JH says. His pools are saltwater. They might be clorinated saltwater. But they are no doubt saltwater.

[Ellanora]

FWIW, this is another source of debate and confusion. John Heald has blogged that Carnival's pools are chlorinated, not salt water.

They are both chlorinated, and saltwater, and JH has said both things on his blog. A quick search on his blog found multiple instances of both statements:

 

For example, early this morning we drained all the water from the swimming pools (the pools are saltwater, if you didn’t know).

 

We do indeed chlorinate our pools at the levels determined by United States Public Health and these levels are strictly monitored on board

 

Now to get somewhat back to the original topic (sort of :p) are the H2O zones on Oasis/Allure as nice as the ones here in the Freedom class pictures?

[Momto3cuties]

Milton - We were on Freedom of the Seas this past May - our 2 year old DD was potty trained. She played in the H2O zone (not the baby splash that was a small area off of the H2O zone) and swam in the pools (with my DH or I), both those in the H2O zone area and the main pool. No one asked her age while swimming in the pools. I think it was pretty clear she did not have a swim diaper on. The Adventure Ocean staff does "patrol" the H2O zone on sea days and I did see them speaking to a woman whose son was in the H2O zone with a swim diaper on. They also were reminding kids to slow down around the pool deck, as it was slippery.

 

Now on either side of the pool with the back waterfall there are two small areas - they are NOT the baby splash area, but part of the H2O zone. This is where I saw kids with swim diapers and RCCL staff trying to explain that this was NOT the baby splash area. The baby splash area is the small area that butts up to the "lazy river" pool (the pie shaped area)- cruisinmama's picture shows it all clearly :)