MrsT3030

I love seeing people’s food combinations in the buffet (shout-out to the lady with a chocolate cupcake in the middle of a place, surrounded by heaps of clams, this week on the Jewel). 

I didn’t tip him at all 😟 

We raised twice to concierge and once to guest services and received no change in service (in fact, by the end of the cruise we were receiving anything from our butler at all - not even a jug of water!)

I realised how privileged it sounds to even write that sentence but we really didn’t have a good experience at all.

Just stepped off the Jewel here in Singapore after a great week. We booked a suite, really looking forward to utilising the butler service.

We didn’t see him at all for the first two days (and we were in our cabin plenty). We eventually saw him and he told me he was going to explain the service. He then proceeded to tell us fairly obviously information about the boat (like where we could get breakfast), but nothing around how he could help us, nor did he ask if we needed anything.

All we asked for all week was to have water, milk and cookies ready at bedtime. Some nights we didn’t get this at all, it was simply ignored. Any time we called him to remind him or to ask a question, it was met with a frosty ‘ok’ and then he’d hang up.

I assume this isn’t the norm but perhaps it is? Did we miss something or do something wrong? 

I've just realised if it's Ventura, she has a covered pool so you can still sit on a lounger by the pool! The sun gets quite warm through the glass roof- and we went North to Norway! It does get busy there on cool days we found.

Now that is a great selling point!

Yes, cruising from the Uk. It's an Iberia cruise rather than Med actually I believe.

DH has always wanted to sail from Southampton and there happens to be a ship going on the exact right days for us. I can't get my head around cruising in cold weather.

I hope our little one will use the kids club!

We are looking at a med cruise in late March this year - stops are Portugal, Spain and France. We are seasoned cruisers but have only ever cruised in the heat (Caribbean and Bermuda from US ports).

What is a chillier cruise like? What do you fill your days with? We are used to being able to sit at the pool on sea days.

Is the boat rockier in the cold?

We are a couple in our 30s with a 3 year old.

We have always opted for a balcony cabin with our daughter as it allows us to sit elsewhere while she naps during the day. Just something to consider.

Yes I will be posting more about our experience with Guppies but IMO it's more for the under 2 crowd. It's a small area and although they do activities it seemed more to be sitting and playing with toys. Which my 2.5yo doesn't do for too long. More to come...

I will look forward to hearing more then! Great review :)

I'm sure this will come later in your review but I am curious to know if you found the Guppies room to be suitable for a 2.5 year old or if it seemed more suitable for babies? My daughter will be days off of her 3rd birthday on our cruise and I am wondering if Guppies will be ok for her in terms of keeping her interested.

Great review. Looking forward to hearing more. We are sailing in Jan and our daughter will be a few weeks shy of 3 so looking forward to hearing your experiences.

Okay - I'm confused -

 

I have a grandson that will be 9 months old when we cruise so I know he qualifies - my granddaughter will celebrate her 2nd birthday 3 weeks before the cruise - so will she be in this group as well, or is the cut off age 2 years old?

 

Thank you!!

I'm pretty sure it's up to and including 2 years.

The ones posted on this page are for the 6 month - 2 year old group. There are separate programs for older age groups.

My DD will be in that group, but she'll be right at the upper end of it and the activities looked geared towards children at the 6 month end rather than the almost 3 end, so I was curious how the almost 3 year olds, who aren't old enough for the above group, are catered for in this group.

I'll have a two and a half year old nephew on that same cruise, we could set them up on a blind date??

We definitely should. We are cruising with my sisters and brother-in-laws so my little one is also travelling with her aunties and uncles!

These are great. Thank you. I will be interested to see how the include the older kids in this. Our DD is almost 3 when we go and some of these activities look very young but I don't doubt the kids clubs are used to adapting to kids at the upper ends of the age ranges.

As long as she isn't at anything I'm at ;):rolleyes::p:D:eek:

I was so angry when I saw this and couldn't work out why anyone would be so mean and then I saw the name! :D

Pretty sure you might bump into her once or twice

Our Freestyle Daily stated that "after 11pm, must be 18" or something like that for Howl at The Moon. Kids are welcome before that time. Please abide by whatever is written in your daily after that time. (I've been on cruises where parents think it's cute to keep little princess sitting there until midnight requesting Frozen songs and such. The piano players were annoyed, the crowd was ready to kill the parents, etc. Finally staff kicked them out, but it shouldn't be necessary.) But I digress... She can enjoy After Midnight and Million Dollar Quartet, too. I haven't seen Supper Club yet, so not sure about that, but I do know that you'd have to pay full price for her. Also, there are always plenty of piano players and singers various places around the ship.

Thanks so much. This is very informative :) no danger of anyone in our party still being awake past 11 but so glad she can hear some music earlier in the evening.

We are crushing on Jan 2nd on the Escape. We travel a lot and my almost 3 year-old is like a mini-grown up, so loves shows, restaurants, music etc. She is always well behaved so easy to take along everywhere with us. Is it unlikely we'll use the nursery onboard as it looks a bit babyish for her (she'll be just a few weeks away from turning 3 when we sail annoyingly).

On our last cruise (Carnival) she joined us for everything we did - listening to music in the evening, all the shows, all the dinners.

I wondered what was and wasn't 'children welcome' on the Escape? Can she come along to Howl At the Moon, for example?

Thanks!

In my experience, they usually cook too much at Teppanyaki and the people around the table are encouraged to take extra meat and finish it all. Not to mention the mountain of fried rice that is always left over (which I guess goes to the crew dining room? I don't know).

 

So if a child is eating off your plate, you will probably end up being served more food than if you weren't sharing. And as you said, there is a difference between a 3 year old and a 10 year old, and I don't know how old everyone's children are in this thread.

I do wonder about this. I would like to eat here and have a 2 year old. She eats next to nothing (:rolleyes:) and there is no way I would pay $20 for her, but I hate to think she couldn't have some rice and meat from our plates.

To me to be old enough to have a "good time and remembering it" has nothing to do with why I took my sons as young children, or why we are taking our grown sons, and their significant others, and my 17 month old grandson. My reason is simply because I love and cherish the time I spend with them. To my husband and I one of the "best parts" of our cruising vacations (20+) has been the time we spent with our sons, and now our grandson.

Not to be judgmental, but its the difference in what we like and what you like or would like. I know that for now your prime focus seems to be drinking and partying all or most of the night, while my main focus is being with my family. Perhaps some day you will feel differently.

Spoilt

I share this view 100% My 2.5 year old has been on so many vacations I'd be embarrassed to tell you. She has almost 20 flights under her belt including two cruises, with a third this year. She is the most wonderful travelling companion and enjoys every trip and remembers most. Makes it sound like we are very wealthy people but we really aren't, we just always travelled a lot and continued to do so once our daughter was born.

Partially.

 

As referred to earlier I get why, I'd rather it be consistent.

 

Selfishly, DD will be 3 months short of three if we sail at our usual time next year.

 

So too little for the kids club, but would hopefully be toilet trained by then and very different from being a baby-baby of 6 months.

 

We will cruise regardless, I may not bother with the Escape next year and wait for it to be nearly new rather than brand new, as the childcare wouldn't be a perk that would make up for paying the premium of a new ship.

 

Then again I may get giddy and book it anyway cos I love a new ship!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm in the same boat (pun not intended!) my DD will be 5 weeks off of 3 when we sail next year. She is long potty trained, talks as well as any 4 year old and is used to being around older kids in the childcare she attends at home. I do worry the nursery might be babyish for her. That said, I'm glad to have it available and hope she is able to enjoy it.

I know I may come off sounding like a jerk and I sincerely do not mean to, I don't get why you need to bring your kids who are that young. Granted I'm not a parent but is that hard to find a sitter? You would think if it was a family vacation you would want your kids there for the duration of the vacation. Like I said this post was not meant to come off mean or spiteful at all just curious.

Just from my only personal perspective as a mother, I wouldn't leave my child at home for a week because I love her and would miss her immensely.

I also had someone ask me this question recently too, from the same perspective.

Just wondered if anyone had heard any more on this yet. The ship sails this month but I still don't see any info!

Following closely as I'd like to know the answer.

I also have never found the food to be terrible on any cruises but would recommend Carnival for good food. What they lack in glamour, they make up for in good food, we found.