JUST RETURNED FROM PRIDE with 22 month old twins

[trace1208]

Ok so we were on the Pride for a week with 22 month old twins. Honestly DH and I would not have made it alone. Although enjoyable, quite tiring. As far as swimming, there were lots of diapered children in the pool, no problems, that was a relief. I brought my side by side double stroller, no problems fittin in the halls. The steward set up and broke down the 2 cribs everyday. Kids enjoyed all the food and loved the pool. There were too young for the camp which i knew going in, but we did sned them one day to the babysitting. The 3 days it was offered were right through their nap and lunch time, not very convinient, but one day they slept early, so we sent them from 1-3pm. I felt bad leaving them cause they were the only kids there, but they were fine. We did not use the nightime sitting they would usually fall asleep in their stroller about 830 and then we all took turns sitting with them til dh and i were ready to turn in about 10 1030. We also had a cabin nect to my parents, so some nights we put them down and sat next door. We got off ship at all 3 spots, did Dunns river falls in jamaica, shopped in cayman, and went to a resort in cozumel. No problems.

 

Overall great time, just as I said, DH and I could not have done it alone, we have 5 other family memebers to help us. Any questions I am more than happy to answer!!!

 

:)

 

Tracy

[6rugrats]

Diapers were allowed in the pools? Yuck. Clearly against Carnival's rules:

 

Due to United States Public Health (USPH) Regulations, we do not allow children in diapers, in swimming diapers or those not toilet-trained in the pools.

 

But you were aware of this and the health risks and yet, apparently took your diapered children in anyway. I guess another person who thinks the rules do not apply to them:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=18756297&highlight=#post18756297

[CKEA_Cruising_Family]

Was this the first sailing out of Baltimore? We're sailing on 5/30 from Baltimore and curious about getting to the port and the embarkation process. I know you only used it once but how was the Camp area? Our kids are really looking forward to Camp.

 

I'm also shocked they allowed diapered children in the pool.

[cruisingram1]

... We also had a cabin nect to my parents, so some nights we put them down and sat next door.

Tracy

 

I've done a fair amount of research on adjoining and connecting rooms since we always cruise with my daughter's family, including two young girls. If memory serves from our trip on the Pride, if you had balcony cabins, you should have been able to get them to open the divider between the two. Connecting rooms on the Pride only accommodated two persons per room.

 

I have found that most, if not all, RCL and Celebrity ships have connecting rooms that will accommodate more than two persons. It is very helpful to be able to have children sleeping in one cabin and adults up and active in the connecting cabin. Only two Princess ships (Diamond and Sapphire) have this option. Not sure about NCL and HAL. But for this reason alone, we will now book only RCL or Celebrity, at least until the girls are older. This also allows my daughter and son in law time out and we can go to sleep and not worry about having to keep checking as the door is open between the two cabins.

[Nicole721]

Was this the first sailing out of Baltimore? We're sailing on 5/30 from Baltimore and curious about getting to the port and the embarkation process. I know you only used it once but how was the Camp area? Our kids are really looking forward to Camp.

 

I'm also shocked they allowed diapered children in the pool.

 

They weren't allowed. The signs are still on the pools, so clearly people were ignoring and breaking the rules with full intention because security wasn't throwing them out.

 

OP- glad you had a great cruise, but just because other kids in diapers were in the pool doesn't make it "legal" for your kids to do so, too...especially since you knew the rules and seemingly ignored them. You even made a post about kids in the pool, where many people told you why it wasn't allowed and you said you wanted to cancel your cruise because of it, so clearly you knew the rules and decided to break them. I'm glad you weren't sailing with me, because I probably would have had the security guard remove all diapered kids from the pool.

[trace1208]

Wow talk about hostility.....I would have taken the children out of the pool if I was asked to but I wasnt. I did not see any signs saying that they werent allowed anyway. There were a lot of children with swim diapers, not just mine, so lucky for you you were not there, because obviously you would have been very upset. I did encounter several people complaining about my children making noise in the dining room at breakfast and dinner, and it just makes me question why people sail on ships when they know they will have children on board, for that stick to adult only sailings. Regardless, I enjoyed my trip and enjoyed taking my children in the pool everyday!!!!!!!!

 

As far as the rooms, we did not have connecting, we had rooms next door. We requested the balconies be opened, but they limit the amount they can open and by the time we requested it, they were at their max.

 

The camp area looked good, like I said at the time they were only 2 children in there, but they seemed to enjoy themselves.

 

And no this was last sailing out of Miami.

[trace1208]

And yes I did post prior to the cruise questioning the rules, and was fully prepared with an inflatable pool, but was never told to take the children out....so yeah I guess I think the rules dont apply to me....I would do it again, hopefully we will never be on the same ship, but regardless by my next trip my kids will be potty trained because that is just a full gurantee that they wont have an accident in the pool.....right.....yeah full guarantee!!!!!!!!

[kimba16001]

trace1208, thats funny i can relate i have 2 boys under 4 and we are going on the pride in august. did you request the crib b4 the trip or when you got there? is it a pack n play or actual crib? was the pride updated and attractive to the little ones(colorful and stuff)? did you guys do any excursions? i have lots of questions and i really do appreciate you taking the time help others with kids

[trace1208]

Hi Kim

It was an actual crib, just smaller. Ship not very colorful, very artsy, lots of naked ladies lol

Excursions

Jamiaca we did the falls, obviously did not climb them, just sat in the water at the bottom and then went to dolphin cove

Cayman

just shopped

Cozumel

booked a day pass at Wyndham, we really enjoyed it, and my diapered children also swam in those pools, lol

 

My sil booked the trip for us and arranged with the ta about the cribs, they were there when we got to our room. at first the steward said he had no where to store them everyday but we realized the crib folded and fit under the bed, with our luggage, DH would fold in morning so we could move around and the steward stored one under our bed and one under my parents bed so the room was free. The kids also loved playing on the balcony. All the staff and most passsengers were very friendly and great with the kids. We did use the harnesses a lot to let them run around and not be cooped up in the stroller the whole time, and the pools were great with the splash areea, about a foot deep, and about 6 feet wide surrounding the deeper part of the pool. My kids did awesome we put the water wings on them and we would sit in the splash part and they climbed in and out of the large pool as they wanted, they LOVED THAT. They also enjoyed the ice cream areas and did great eating the cones from the bottom up lol. Overall not relaxing at all, but a lifetime of memories for all of us!!!

[cruisingram1]

Wow talk about hostility.....I would have taken the children out of the pool if I was asked to but I wasnt. I did not see any signs saying that they werent allowed anyway. There were a lot of children with swim diapers, not just mine, so lucky for you you were not there, because obviously you would have been very upset. I did encounter several people complaining about my children making noise in the dining room at breakfast and dinner, and it just makes me question why people sail on ships when they know they will have children on board, for that stick to adult only sailings. Regardless, I enjoyed my trip and enjoyed taking my children in the pool everyday!!!!!!!!

 

As far as the rooms, we did not have connecting, we had rooms next door. We requested the balconies be opened, but they limit the amount they can open and by the time we requested it, they were at their max.

 

The camp area looked good, like I said at the time they were only 2 children in there, but they seemed to enjoy themselves.

 

And no this was last sailing out of Miami.

 

I guess we were just lucky. We did not ask to have our balcony opened until several days into the trip because we did not know they opened. Why would they limit the number of opened balconies? Does the closed balcony add to the integrity of the ship? Or is it a convenience thing... they have to be closed and no one wants to do it? It seems like such a simple request. But good to know for the future it's not a done deal even if they do open.

 

And in defense of children in swim diapers - unless you frequented a message board and asked and have been part of the discussion, it's pretty common place to see young children in swim diapers in regular pools. While the OP might have read that this was not allowed, it IS allowed in pools all over the world. That's why they sell swim diapers! Hard to understand why cruise pools would be exempt. And when she saw other children swimming, she put her child in too. To be honest, when we were on the Pride, we were clueless. I saw other little children who were obviously not trained in the pool and my granddaughter used the pool. We certainly did not feel we were breaking the rules and we did not see any posted signs. In hindsight, they were probably there.. we just did not notice them.

 

There are a lot of things about cruising I did not know until I started reading this message board. But membership here is just a mere fraction of the cruising population. So when you see someone breaking a rule that has been discussed on CC ad nauseum, the rule breaker probably has no idea that they have committed a major faux pas.

 

As far as animosity toward children on ships, I think this comes basically from people who have sailed a lot and remember "the old days" when cruising attracted an older population and want it back the way it was. If you've ever been to Vegas, you will see that a good number of adult only venues now go out of their way to attract younger clientel. Bottom line, it adds to the profit by increasing the user base. Obviously, the ships want the kids.. that's why they have instituted kid's programs, kid's menus and keep adding water features that attract children. While I understand the old timers wanting "peace and quiet" your children and mine (grandchildren in this case) are just as entitled to cruise as they are. We make sure our kids are respectful of others around them, but we do that on land too. I have suggested numerous times in threads that complain about children, that the person choose a week that children are in school. Of course, prescooolers can travel any time.

 

Glad you had fun with your children. I LOVE cruising and think it's a fantastic multi generational vacation since there's something for everyone and no one person has to cook, clean and plan. I do suggest for ease of traveling with little ones, you check out the connecting rooms on RCL and X. It does makes things so much easier in the evening and naptime.

[trace1208]

thank you crusin gram, and I would just like to say I obviously did not encourage my children to act up at meal times, I had toys, crayons and other things to occupy them, but they are toddlers and lose it sometimes one couple at breakfast actually stormed off screaming that we were ruining their trip...I never saw them before or after that lol, the funny part is the kids were a little fussy but as a parent, sometimes you tune it out and dont even notice, I never intentionaaly set out to disturb anyone and when they were acting up we removed them from the dining area. Oh well, wont discourage me from traveling or allowing my children to enjoy travelling with us!!!!

[cruisingram1]

Hi Kim

It was an actual crib, just smaller. Ship not very colorful, very artsy, lots of naked ladies lol

 

On more than one occasion my then three year old granddaughter would blurt out "that lady's boobies are sticking out" - especially when waiting for the dining room to open. And you can just imagine her remarks when we came upon David in all his glory at the top of the atrium glass elevator. At eye level no less! I did think Carnival could have toned down the naked art.

 

But I have to say that the crew on every one of our cruises (especially our first Carnival when there was only one 14 month old with us) were fantastic! It's a great getaway vacation for young mothers. I wish I had had this available when my children were little.

[wrp96]

And in defense of children in swim diapers - unless you frequented a message board and asked and have been part of the discussion, it's pretty common place to see young children in swim diapers in regular pools.

 

Except that the OP specifically started a thread about this issue before her cruise and was told unequivocally the rules and why so she knowingly broke them anyways.

[trace1208]

OMG its like the pool ****s here, lol so i broke a rule. You know everyone talks about smuggling liquor on board, no one gets crucified for that. Whatever you guys can bash all i want, I took in them pool get over it!!! I would do it again if I had to and was not asked to get out of the pool. If I was asked to get out of then I would have and got their inflatable pool, but I wasnt!!!

[crusinmama06]

Trace - ick - you knew better and did it anyway. Sorry but that's just ewwww.

 

I am praying there are no babies in swim diapers on Triumph. I KNOW that Carnival was more lenient about it because their crew members have a "Who cares" attitide.

 

I don't want the pools shut down because of accidents. Cause then that ruins it for those us us with older kids who didn't ask to swim in feces. :eek:

 

Did I mention ewwww?

 

cruisingram1 - the difference from land based pools is large amounts of chlorine to kill the bacteria. You can't fill a ship pool with large amounts of chlorine because you would be constantly emptying that back into the ocean (not good for the sea life ;) )

 

So on land - yes, buckets of chemicals. Diapered children in pools. Chemicals can counter act the accidents, to a point.

 

On sea - no use of chemicals. Nothing to counteract the bacteria. So that's why it's just ick. ;)

[cruisingram1]

cruisingram1 - the difference from land based pools is large amounts of chlorine to kill the bacteria. You can't fill a ship pool with large amounts of chlorine because you would be constantly emptying that back into the ocean (not good for the sea life ;) )

 

So on land - yes, buckets of chemicals. Diapered children in pools. Chemicals can counter act the accidents, to a point.

 

On sea - no use of chemicals. Nothing to counteract the bacteria. So that's why it's just ick. ;)

 

You read my mind! I was just going to ask (and hopefully not start an all out war) about why it's okay on land but not okay at sea. So exactly what does a pool on a ship use to kill bacteria? Let's be realistic.. there are 4 year olds that are technically potty trained don't always leave the pool in time! So do they test the water on a ship to make sure bacterial levels are down? They must have some ability to keep a pool clean without harsh chemicals. We had a pool for years and rarely emptied it so I'm not sure why they can't come up with a way to chlorinate and dump only when in port. I guess this brings up a whole new question of just how pools work on a ship. I'm really curious if anyone knows. I thought I recall seeing an empty pool or two on our first Carnival cruises years ago. I know the kid's pool was emptied and filled constantly. Maybe that is why.

[crusinmama06]

You read my mind! I was just going to ask (and hopefully not start an all out war) about why it's okay on land but not okay at sea. So exactly what does a pool on a ship use to kill bacteria? Let's be realistic.. there are 4 year olds that are technically potty trained don't always leave the pool in time! So do they test the water on a ship to make sure bacterial levels are down? They must have some ability to keep a pool clean without harsh chemicals. We had a pool for years and rarely emptied it so I'm not sure why they can't come up with a way to chlorinate and dump only when in port. I guess this brings up a whole new question of just how pools work on a ship. I'm really curious if anyone knows. I thought I recall seeing an empty pool or two on our first Carnival cruises years ago. I know the kid's pool was emptied and filled constantly. Maybe that is why.

 

The pool water on Carnival ships is just ocean water - period. They may run it through some kind of filter to filter out the sea life...lol...but basically the salt water pool is just that - the ocean.

 

From what I understand, they do not use any chemicals to keep the "pools clean". That's why they are empied EVERY night. And some pools need to be emptied more than that because of accidents.

 

They make rules that say - no unpotty trained children in the pool. And yes, bacteria can happen from someone who doesn't wipe well enough (ewww again). And it can happen from a older child who has an accident. BUt you would hope that if an older child had an accident, they would tell their parent would would alert the crew. (I know I'm living in a fantasy world...lol)

 

And we are not talking about urine. That is sterile (still yuck but sterile). We know someone peed in the pool. But the babies would be pooping in their as well. We've all had babies in swim diapers. We know it doesn't hold in solids and pretty much turns into a poop soup in the wet diaper. :p

 

I don't want to be poop police but I also don't want to have my kids get sick on a ship because someone else is claiming that it's their vacation. I've spent a vacation in a ship's medical center...don't want to do it again. :(

[trace1208]

one of the pools was emptied on our ship on a sea day,

[crusinmama06]

Oh and cruisinggram - just to let you know the difference on the ships that allow it. The water in baby pools on the RCCL and Disney ships that have an infant splash area is VERY shallow. As in, less than an inch. THAT water is circulated through a filtering system designed to remove bacteria. And older children (on RCCL) are not allowed in the baby splash area. My 5 year old daughter was removed when she was playing with a baby. I am guessing it's because they are trying to minimize other passenger's contact with the bacteria. So let's say a baby in the splash pool did poop in a diaper, they try to minimize the contact with that by not allowing older children in that pool. Because the older children could hypothetically take the bacteria from THAT pool and move it to the regular pools which would infect more people.

 

I wish that Carnival was more strict with training their crew. It isn't all about ONE person's vacation.

 

And yes, some have been infected with Legionaires from ship's hot tubs. So it's not all safe. :(

[Lady_Jag]

OMG its like the pool ****s here, lol so i broke a rule. You know everyone talks about smuggling liquor on board, no one gets crucified for that. Whatever you guys can bash all i want, I took in them pool get over it!!! I would do it again if I had to and was not asked to get out of the pool. If I was asked to get out of then I would have and got their inflatable pool, but I wasnt!!!

 

You can cop an attitude and try to justify your actions all you want, but the fact is you endangered the health and well-being of the other children and passengers on board by blatantly breaking this very important rule.

 

Sorry you feel "crucified," but you need to understand that yes, people will become very angry when you purposely go against health regulations just because you didn't want to be bothered blowing up an inflatable pool.

 

If you really NEED someone to tell you not to break the rules, then I am asking you now for future cruises - PLEASE do not let your diapered children in the pools! It's inarguably unsanitary.

[crusinmama06]

one of the pools was emptied on our ship on a sea day,

 

Then there was an accident in the pool. That's the reason they would empty a pool on a busy sea day. If you would have talked to the crew, they would have told you the reason. So passengers on your sailing were kept from using the pool on a sea day because someone went against the rules.

 

Even if it wasn't your twins that did it (I am not saying that at all) It wouldn't have been safe for them to be swimming with other babies in diapers with no chemicals to control the bacteria levels. Consider yourself lucky.

[cruisingram1]

The pool water on Carnival ships is just ocean water - period. They may run it through some kind of filter to filter out the sea life...lol...but basically the salt water pool is just that - the ocean.

 

I guess I never gave it much thought. There was a pool, there was water in it, I don't like to swim, but the girls do. I thought I read that Princess does not have salt water pools.. so how do they keep the water clean? What about RCCL? Salt water too?

 

The girl's swim school COULD NOT allow children with disposible swim diapers in the pool, (health dept rule which they enforced very firmly) but rather young children up until the age of FOUR (even if they were potty trained) had to wear material swim pants with tight elastic around the legs. But if a child had a poopy accident, the pool was emptied of children and super chlorinated for a several hour period.

 

Thanks for information. I'm sure there is a whole science of pool sanitation.

[6rugrats]

OMG its like the pool ****s here, lol so i broke a rule. You know everyone talks about smuggling liquor on board, no one gets crucified for that. Whatever you guys can bash all i want, I took in them pool get over it!!! I would do it again if I had to and was not asked to get out of the pool. If I was asked to get out of then I would have and got their inflatable pool, but I wasnt!!!

 

Yes, people do get taken to task for smuggling liquor, but you are comparing two different issues. If someone boards with on a bottle of rum, they are not hurting anyone but the cruiseline's profits.

 

If your child in diapers defecates in the pool, the entire pool must be emptied and scrubbed, and no one can use it for the day. And, you have no idea what bacteria are leaking out of those diapers, even if you see no apparent fecal matter, which could put someone else's health at risk. As pointed out, there is no chlorine in the water to kill the bacteria.

 

You knew in advance this wasn't allowed. Someone pointing this out to you is not hostile, merely fact. All the people who took diapered children into that pool were selfish and did not care about anyone else but themselves. It does not matter that someone didn't ask you to get out.

 

It's like saying, "No one stopped me from robbing that liquor store, so it must have been alright."

[crusinmama06]

I guess I never gave it much thought. There was a pool, there was water in it, I don't like to swim, but the girls do. I thought I read that Princess does not have salt water pools.. so how do they keep the water clean? What about RCCL? Salt water too?

 

Princess is suppose to have a strict no infant in the pool rule. But I haven't been on them so I haven't seen them in action.

 

The ships that have "fresh water" isn't really fresh water. It's filtered ocean water. Still no buckets of chlorine. The RCCL ships that have fresh water - same thing.

 

They empty the pools at night. Refill and filter the water during the day. But it's all ocean water.

 

Both RCCL and Princess employ "Deck Patrols" and their sole job is to keep an eye on the pool decks and make sure that no rules are being broken. I took a picture of the Deck Patrol on RCCL. She was asking parents to remove infants from the pool and redirecting them to the splash zones. And she was asking older kids to stay out of the baby pool.

 

[6rugrats]

Of interest - read OP's post in this thread, it's #9 - it just gets better.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=19297067&highlight=#post19297067

 

For those too lazy to click, here it is:

 

I was in COzumel on Thursday, hadnt even heard of the swine flu. Came home Staurday and SUnday morning my 2 year old was running 104 fever so we took her to er and thats where we found out about it, but she was cleared of it, very nervewracking, especially since I have been feeling crappy (even so before our trip) very cautious though, good for Carnival

 

Hmmm. Could child have gotten some type of bacterial infection from the pool?