joeyjpaul

Hello,

We are going to be on the Carnival Pride in Feb/Mar out of Baltimore going to Cape Canaveral, Nassau and Freeport with kids 10,8,8 and 5.

Do we need any travel vaccinations? The kids doctor recommended Hepatitis A and B vaccines along with one for travelers diarrhea. We will only be in the Bahamas for 10 hours, and we don't plan to eat at any local establishments. (Hiring a private snorkeling boat in Nassau and doing to dolphin excursion in Freeport).

Any suggestions? What have other people done. We are from Canada, so travel Vaccines is one of the few things that our medicare doesn't cover.

Joey

We have a party of 8 (4 Adults, 4 kids) going in February, and for our stop in Nassau we are going to be chartering a boat for us to do Snorkeling, tubing and going to a beach. Our 10 year old has high functioning Autism, and we think that this will be a good way to avoid some of the crowds and be able to have a lot of flexible fun.

http://www.shoreexcursioneer.com/nassau/private-charter-boat-snorkel.html (upto 6 people)

https://bahamascruiseexcursions.com/NassauPrivateSnorkeling.htm (This is the one that we are doing)

In Freeport we are going to do the Dolphin excursion (I know its expensive, but the kids like dolphins).

Joey

I picked up some rings for us at Dollarama, as they have now disappeared from the Dollar stores, and since we are leaving in February from Baltimore, I don't think they would have any on the way to the port.

Are there any Dollar stores near Port Canaveral? As that is our first port of call.

Joey

This is my first cruise with kids, but we love beach vacations. We camped for a week this Spring at Assateague National Sea shore, and went to Pensacola Beach and Hunting Island state park (SC) on our way back from Texas.

My older kids (8,8,10) are all strong swimmers, still in the ocean with waves, I am much more comfortable with them wearing life jackets when playing and swimming. They like to actually swim in the wave (over there head). [Debating if we bring them along with the wetsuites (see other thread) on the cruise].

I always stay close to them when they are in the ocean, just in case.

The risk of a shark attack is minimal (far more risk from drowning), so I don't worry about that when swimming. I actually saw a shark on the Beach once in Texas, it was cool (although it did freak out my 2 boys, but my daughter didn't mind).

Joey

This is part of the reason that we are doing a Sunday to Sunday cruise. I'm just starting to look at mass times as we drive to and from the port of Baltimore.

Hello,

We are traveling on the Carnival Pride out of Baltimore at the end of February. Coming from Canada we all have 'shorty' wetsuites which we use to extend our swimming season. Should we bring them on the cruise? (They are a little bulky). I've seen lots of videos of people going down the slides with swim tops, can we go down the slide with a wetsuit?

What is the water temperature like in the Bahamas at that time of year as we have already booked a private snorkeling excursion from Nassau?

Just for reference the kids will be 5,8,8 and 10.

Joey

My Kids really like the Dr. Panda series. There are a lot of them to choose from, some are free and some are a couple of dollars.

Joey

We were looking at a couple of options, and since there are 6 of us, flying is too expensive (we drove from Ottawa to Austin last summer). So we narrowed it down to a 4 day cruise out of Florida, a 5 day cruise out of Charleston SC or a 7 day cruise out of Baltimore. With the extra day or two drive needed in both directions (and associated hotel costs) the 7 day out of Baltimore was the same price (or even a little less expensive). We are counting on having at least one cold day in each direction, but a cold day on the Cruise should be better than a cold day driving.

Joey

We are going on the Carnival Pride out of Baltimore (save on airfair) with my wife, 4 kids (10,8,8,5) my Mother and my Aunt. We are getting 3 adjacent balcony rooms and the kids are sleeping with Grandma and their great aunt.

Joey

What about the Hershey chocolate factory?

We are coming from Ottawa for the Feb 28th cruise with 4 kids, so we will definitely be stopping at the Hershey chocolate factory on the way down.

Joey