RikkuCat

You didn't ask about carriers, but my second is enormous - did you know that they make toddler carriers? They're both larger and designed to distribute a larger child's weight better for the parent. We have a Lillebaby toddler carrier (and I love it - OMG I love it), but Tula also makes a toddler carrier that's really highly rated. My younger son is 16 months now and over 30lbs, but we started using it when he was maybe 11 months or so. I don't remember how much he weighed or how tall he was at the time, but he was wearing 2T clothing. The difference between the Lillebaby and the Ergo 360 (which I loved) was night and day as far as supporting a larger child goes. I can wear my son in front-carry, it's so supportive (maybe for an hour or two) and I can keep going all day with him on my back. If you enjoy babywearing or think it would be helpful, it's an option to consider!

We've actually never brought a stroller on a cruise, but I would be comfortable checking one. We check strollers on airplanes and we've never had an issue, though it does happen. If it did, it wouldn't be the end of the world to us - but if not having it would significantly impact your trip, I would hand carry it. I agree with the PPs and would leave everything else at home. You can get food steamed or pureed (the crew LOVE babies and preparing food for them. We actually had a hard time getting them NOT to puree everything for our older son on one cruise, as we did BLW and he never ate purees). Definitely don't bring the walker - he might love it, but he can do without it for a week and it's one less (really bulky) thing to carry.

Our kids are slightly older than yours (16 months and 4). We don't have a cruise booked until this summer, but we do have an international (non-cruise) trip booked for early May. For now, we are staying calm and seeing how it plays out over the next month or two. The hysteria level is high right now because there are so many unknown factors. Either this will all fizzle out beforehand or it will be a big enough issue that there will be no question of canceling our trips. 

They said nothing about a note when we had asked about kids with severe allergies. Just to leave the pen and they give you the pager. On carnival they do have soy milk (it was sweet, I had never tried it before but I tasted every cup they brought for him just to make sure). Some ships have almond milk, my son liked it but it was bland to me but he is used to almond milk at home. You also order dinner the night before so it is prepared in a different area and they can substitute things to make it dairy free. Of course the buffet is always harder (didn't even think about butter on the buns...) Thankfully my son has a tummy and rash issue nothing overly serious. You can special order for breakfast and brunch in the dining room as well. We brought prepackaged safe snacks for ports and also grabbed extra boxes of cereal from the buffet.

 

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Thank you so much, this is very helpful! He tolerates baked milk, so we don't need to worry too much about ingredients, just avoid obvious dairy. He's never had an anaphylactic reaction, but we carry epi-pens just in case because he had a rather severe reaction (bad hives) the first and only time he tried milk, so we don't know what might happen next time. Luckily accidental butter exposure has only resulted in a more minor rash (though we still avoid it). Good to know that they have non-dairy milk options. I figured it would be available, even if the only option is soy.

They don't feed the kids in the clubs, so you shouldn't have a problem. Sometimes, they'll take them to dinner, but you have to sign up for that. And, contact "Special needs" before you sail, and let them know which allergies he has....they are very good with special needs!

Great to know, thanks! I didn't even think of calling in advance, but I'll do that.

Thanks, that's helpful! We've never cruised on Carnival, so we might look into that. Our son also as a dairy allergy, so I'd be a bit worried about them giving milk to the kids and not watching closely while other kids were drinking milk. He knows not to drink someone else's milk, but if a teacher gave milk to him, he would probably drink it thinking it was milk that was Ok for him to drink.

We'll call and ask about their policies. I expect they'd require a doctor's note to leave an epi-pen.

Hi everyone! We’ve been taking a break from cruising for the past couple of years, since we wanted to wait until our son was old enough to use the kids programs. We thought we’d have to wait until he’s three, but just realized that NCL has a “Guppy Nursery” on the Escape for kids under three. (We usually cruise NCL, though we’re open to other options). I think he’d enjoy the kids programs on sea days and it would give us a chance to go to the spa or have a quiet lunch or whatever.

I didn’t even think of this until now, but do cruise lines accept kids with food allergies in their kids programs? I would call and ask for policies, etc before booking, but just wondering what others have experienced. I would have him eat meals with us to avoid the issue as much as possible, but do they provide snacks, drinks, milk, etc to the kids? If so, does anyone know how they handle allergies (special bracelet, photo of the kid and info on allergies, etc)? Can we leave meds and are staff trained to administer them in an emergency?

Unrelated to the allergy question, if anyone has used the Guppy Nursery on the NCL Escape, I’d love to hear your experience. Our son will be 2.5 if we book when we’re thinking about booking and since he’ll be on he higher end of the age spectrum, I’m wondering whether the programs are age appropriate or if he’d be better off if we waited until he was old enough to go into the 3+ program.

Congrats! I was 14/15 weeks pregnant on our last cruise and had a great time. I think it was an ideal time to take a cruise during pregnancy (completely random, as we booked the cruise before I was pregnant), but every pregnancy is different. I didn't have morning sickness at all, so I didn't need to worry about it on the cruise.

Two other things to watch out for:

1) I felt very lightheaded (close to fainting) on both flights at this point in pregnancy. My OB said it is very common, as your BP can be lower than usual in early pregnancy. Not sure what to tell you, but I don't think I'll fly at that point next time if it can be avoided - and never alone. I would cruise again, but from a port we could drive to.

2) If you're going to a hot-weather climate, be very careful about staying hydrated. No problem on the ship, but make sure you pack extra water for excursions.

I second the spa pass recommendation! We sailed on the Breakaway in Feb and the spa was a FANTASTIC place to spend the sea days when it was a little too chilly to lounge on deck in a bathing suit (at least for me).

We loved Uptown Grill for breakfast. It was never crowded on our Breakaway cruise - in fact, it was almost empty a lot of the time. There's a smaller selection of food there than at the buffet, but we preferred the atmosphere at Uptown, since it's quieter and outdoors. If I recall correctly, they had breakfast sandwiches, omelets, various side items (breakfast meats and potatoes), fruit, yogurt parfaits, bagels, and probably a few other things that I didn't notice or can't remember. My only beef with Uptown was that they don't open until 8am - while I can generally wait or grab something light if I wake up earlier than that, it didn't work for us on early port days.

I'm like you and enjoy eating in the MDR for breakfast, but I found it inconvenient on the Breakaway. Taste and Savor were open for breakfast, but only for about an hour each - and they overlapped by a half hour, so you only had an hour and a half window to go to breakfast in the MDR. O'Sheehan's is open earlier for breakfast if you need an earlier option, but I found myself at the buffet for breakfast twice on the Breakaway, which is NOT normal for me.

For lunch, I thought Uptown was Ok. Prior to our cruise, I had seen it described as made to order sandwiches and salads and I was expecting a NY deli with salad bar or something. They did have sandwiches on our cruise, but only two selections each day and it was generally something like pastrami or corned beef - not my personal favorites. Other than that, they had burgers, hot dogs, brats, fries, potato salad, pasta salad, and a very random beet salad. It was all fine - it's just not my style for lunch. I liked the beet salad, though, and enjoyed a brat or something one day. I think we only ate there once for lunch because it was just a little too fast-foody for me. Good once in a while, but not what I want to eat every day! If that sounds good to you, you'll probably love it - my husband sure did! On the plus side, if one person wants something lighter and the other wants a burger from Uptown, it's very easy to run down to the buffet to get a salad and bring it back upstairs to eat together.

If you have to go a certain week, you want a certain cabin, or you see a good deal, it makes sense to book now - especially since you want to travel during school vacation week and cabins are already selling out. In general, however, if your travel dates are flexible, you don't have your heart set on a certain cruise, and/or don't want a particular cabin, there's no need to book now if you're still considering options. In your case, since it sounds like you have to travel that particular week, I'd go ahead and book. The other factor is airfare, which usually doesn't go in any direction except up. Given that you need to fly and you're concerned about the cost, book it as far in advance as possible and lock it in. It doesn't sound like you're waiting for anything, other than perhaps for a better deal to come along. If you're happy with the price now, book it - you can always get your fare adjusted, rebook, or cancel before final payment, as others have mentioned.

That said, we don't book early - but our situation is different. We can travel pretty much anytime, but we don't like to book too early because something ALWAYS comes up: a work trip, big project, family event, whatever. (Sure, we could cancel or change our plans prior to final payment, but that's a hassle that we don't need - it's easier to book later.) We usually have a pretty good idea what our schedules will look like about 4-5 months out and can start looking at dates and talking about possible destinations. I like to book land vacations a little earlier than cruises, since there are more moving pieces - but for a cruise, I am comfortable booking 2-3 months out. We usually seem to book right around final payment date - I think the earliest we've ever booked a cruise was a week or two before final payment and the latest was about 30 days out. This works for us because we're pretty flexible in travel dates, departure ports, cabin choice (we won't book a lower cabin than a balcony, but don't care where we are on the ship), and we always use points for airfare (which have no blackout dates).

Is this is cheapest way to go? Probably not - but we've always been happy with the prices we've paid. If I was trying to minimize the price that we paid so we could take more cruises, I'd probably do more research on the best time to book to save money - but that's a moot point because we don't have time to take any more vacations than we normally do. We're happy with what we end up paying and that's the bottom line.

They add an 18% gratuity automatically (included in the UBP if you have it), so you don't have to tip extra unless you choose to. Same with the specialty restaurants - 18% is added (included in the UDP if you have it), so you don't actually have to tip extra.

That said, we like to tip at least 20%, assuming that the service is good. We have always tipped extra on past cruises and will continue to do so now that the auto-gratuity is higher. We don't carry cash on the ship and just add it the additional tip to our drink receipts. We don't usually stick to one bartender, but if we intended to stay in one place for a while and have several rounds of drinks there, we might give a larger tip on the first round instead of smaller tips each round.

Agree!! The drinks with the non-alcohol factor are not the same. Most of the 'specialty drinks' are very filling (fufu) with a bit of alcohol. I actually wonder how many 'drinks of the day or sail away drinks' have the alcohol that you paid for....one has to trust. :)

LOL, I'm afraid I might be SOL on the non-alcoholic cocktail front, since I like my cocktails to taste like booze. Oh well, I will enjoy a non-alcoholic daiquiri or two over the course of the cruise and a seltzer with a splash of cranberry if I want something other than water when DH has a cocktail. Or maybe I can find an amazing bartender who will be able to help me out!

Ariel was available a few years ago but last year it had been replaced with the St. Regis. The Ariel Brut is quite good. Fre is another option. Try them all and when you find one you like, just bring a few bottles onboard with you. I had mine in a rolling carrying and when I was pulled over by security I explained that it was sparkling cider and they waived me through. The Martinelli Sparkling Cider is about $2.99-3.99 a bottle.

Thanks so much! I guess I have some wine-tasting to do! ;) Will need to find a place to pick some up in Miami, if I decide to carry it on - but I can't imagine that will be hard to find. I actually do like the Martinelli sparkling cider - my mom buys it for holiday dinners for the non-drinkers and I tasted it years ago and don't remember it being bad.

If you don't find any NA wines you like, you could always go for virgin mixed drinks - daiquiris, etc. Even after I was old enough to drink alcohol, I stuck with virgin strawberry daiquiris for years because I liked them! I'm sure the bartenders/servers can give you some suggestions for other drinks to try as well.

Thanks, that's my backup plan! I enjoy a fruity drink sometimes during the day, but prefer wine with dinner and a martini if I'm having a cocktail. I need to find a good resource for non-fruity non-alcoholic drinks!

Thanks, everyone! I'll try the St Regis - it looks like they have it at my local wine store. It's only $6.99, though, which makes me nervous - but better to try it now than waste more money trying it on board. The Chardonnay has good reviews on the site for my local store, but I'm not a big Chardonnay fan - will try it on the recommendation, though. The Cab has pretty mixed reviews and I'm a little scared to try it, but if I hate it, at least it's cheap.

Anybody know if they have other options on board, or just the St Regis? Ariel makes the highest-rated non-alcoholic red in the local store's reviews.

I can't imagine that this is a super-popular subject, but surely SOMEONE must know, right? ;)

Does anyone have any information on non-alcoholic wines available on NCL? I checked the published wine list and did not see any, but I'm sure they must have at least a couple selections. I'd love to find out what is available so I can test-try a bottle at retail price instead of paying cruise line price for a wine that I may not want to take a second sip of...particularly since I've never tried non-alcoholic wine before and don't even know if I like it.

Can anybody educated me on this? I've never ventured into non-alcoholic wines before, but I'm pregnant for the first time and hoping to find something to drink with dinner that seems a little more adult than sticking with water. Are non-alcoholic wines generally sweeter than regular wines? Do they come in different varietals, or just white or red blends? Are any of them any good? I'm far from a wine expert, but I don't drink cheap wine (life's too short for it, right?), either. I usually go for bold reds or dry whites. I'm also looking for a sparkling option, since we'll be celebrating our anniversary on board. If I bring my own, does a corkage fee still apply, even though it's non-alcoholic?

Even if nobody has any info about the non-alcoholic options on the NCL wine list, if you know ANYTHING about non-alcoholic wines, please chime in! For whatever reason, I have it stuck in my head that non-alcoholic wines are all very sweet - say it isn't so, LOL! :D

Nah, your coworker doesn't know what she's talking about - maybe she was referencing cruising in general as being more popular with the retired crowd.

We're in the same age range (32 and 35) and cruised on the Breakaway last year. It's a great ship - one that I think is very well suited towards younger couples, with or without families. In comparison to the same itinerary (NYC to Bermuda) that we did on the Star a few years ago, there's SO MUCH to do on the Breakaway. We were bored on the sea days on the Star, but not on the Breakaway. In fact, we liked the Breakaway so much that we booked the Getaway for this year. I don't think you guys will hate it, unless you fall into the category of people that think it's just too big of a ship. We've also sailed on the Carnival Pride - same itinerary you did - and in terms of the ships themselves, we definitely preferred the Breakaway.

In June, you'll see a younger crowd on any cruise, since school will be out for the summer. We usually cruise when school is in session, but we've generally found a pretty good mix of ages on our NCL cruises. Breakaway seemed to have a younger crowd than previous NCL cruises, but I've never felt out of place (age-wise) on any NCL cruise.

It's also possible that your coworker thinks Bermuda is boring or wouldn't appeal to you. If you haven't been there before, do some research on what to expect. A Bermuda cruise has a bit of a different atmosphere, since you're docked in one place instead of sailing to multiple ports. Personally, we really like that - it gives you an opportunity to get to know the island a little better and to come and go as you please without worrying about what time you need to be back on board. You're not having sailaways every day, but NCL still does a lot of deck parties, if that is important to you - can't speak on how they compare to non-Bermuda cruises, as we didn't spend a lot of time on the ship when docked in Bermuda either time we've cruised there. Bermuda isn't as much of a party port as some other places we've docked - no Señor Frogs in the port, at least as of the last time we went! There are a few places to get a drink and one spot that's open late night, but you'll find night life on the ship as well. In general, Bermuda is a very English island and it isn't quite as casual as other islands that you've probably been to. There is a lot of great stuff to do there and absolutely beautiful beaches. We love Bermuda - definitely want to go back!

If you have the UDP, you can book online without incurring a fee - unless they've changed the process since we made our reservations. I went through the process of making a reservation and the total came out to $0. If it rings up as the normal cover fee, the UDP is probably not reflecting on your account yet. (In which case, you can either check back in a few days, call NCL, or wait until you board).

I'd be very interested in seeing the statistics of which promo options people are picking. If I had to guess, I'd say that the UBP is probably the most popular and the UDP probably a distant second. I'd imagine that the majority who choose the UDP are either non-drinkers or pretty light drinkers. And that many people who choose the free UDP are people who would have purchased it anyway. I'm sure that there will be more people with the package since it's a promo than there otherwise would be - but will it significantly increase the crowds? I'm not sure. I've never purchased the UDP because we sometimes eat a night in the MDR, O'Sheehans, in port, or at an a la carte restaurant - but it was the best free option for us. However, we would have been at specialty restaurants 5 or 6 nights out of 7 anyway - so us having the package doesn't make a big difference in the numbers at specialty restaurants.

No, but we found decent snorkeling along the rocks on both sides of the third beach. It is not a crowded area and there are some trees, so if you adjust the position of your chair (or move to another one) as the sun moves, you should be able to find a shady spot all day. We brought our own snorkel gear, so I can't speak to the quality of the rental stuff. You are a distance from the facilities on that beach, but we prefer that for a quieter atmosphere.

A 25% discount on a la carte restaurants with the UDP seems better than a 20% discount, so I think we're coming out ahead...or at least, we will if we have the UDP and take advantage of the discount at a la carte restaurants. The auto-gratuity is still no big deal to me, as I have always tipped at specialty restaurants.

Between the noodle bar now being free and a higher discount on a la carte dining, I'm not unhappy.

@poison7fl Thanks for posting the security message, I saw that as well. While we will certainly take reasonable precautions, I'm not too worried about this. The two events described in the message took place at night and the victims are not identified as tourists or US citizens, which leads me to believe that this is "normal" crime that has nothing to do with tourists. I have not traveled extensively in the Bahamas, but that has been the case on several other islands that we've traveled to more than once - rumors spread about a place being a "high crime area", but when you look into it, you find out that the crimes are drug-related, not in tourist areas, or they occur in the middle of the night. We'll definitely we careful and stay alert, but I think that's probably what's going on here. Not to say that there isn't a fair amount of petty crimes committed against tourists, but that's true of most places - it happens in my own city.

Thanks for posting a readable version of the new menu!

I have to say...I was expecting more. We rarely order room service because the menus are so disappointing, so I was hoping that the new menus would be more exciting. The best I can say is that the new RS menu sucks slightly less than the old one. It is what is is, though - and the new menu is better than the old one, if not too exciting.

While there isn't anything on there that I desperately need to try, we may order once or twice. I'd rather get up and get something better for breakfast, but I'll try the hot items if DH wants to some morning. Or if we want a late night snack and we're already in the room, I'm sure we could find something we'd be willing to eat - we have before, even with the old menu. Glad they expanded the dinner options beyond the crappy sandwiches. I've always been more a fan of the kids menu - grilled cheese and a salad.

We've been to Fish Fry several times and can't wait to return in May. Very easy walk. Go out of the port, quickly past the persons offering cabs, scooters, carriages, hair braids, etc. and go right. The road will be somewhat curvy, but, it is a good walk passing the beach with great views of the ships in port. Best of all, the newer Fat Tuesday's that has opened on the way. Been there twice now. I'll have a drink there, jump off the bar area into the water, its great. Then head to Fish Fry/Arawak Cay. Oh Andros, Twin Brothers, Goldies, all are good, especially for conch fritters, with lots of hot sauce. And you have to have a "Goombay smash"! :D

Thanks! I'm so glad to see that Fish Fry is getting so many recommendations! It was our backup plan last year and I was hoping to do it this year, but some mediocre reviews on TA had me worried. We're definitely going to try it out, and maybe Fat Tuesday's for a drink on the way there or back, too!

Food opinions are very subjective. Personally, we like having multiple options on where to eat.

Just my opinion: While I wouldn't say that the MDR food on NCL is bad, I wouldn't want to eat it every day. For me, there isn't enough variety - though I think the new menus are a huge improvement over the old ones. I generally find the food to be fine, but nothing exciting. While I don't expect to be wowed on a cruise, I get a bit disappointed if I order a meal at a restaurant (cruise or land restaurant) that is not as good as I can cook myself. Sure, I don't have to cook or clean up - but wouldn't it be better if I could not cook, not clean up, AND be happy with my meal? ;)

In contrast, we're usually much happier with our food and overall experience at the specialty restaurants. While they're certainly not 5-star dining, I think the food is better in all of them than it is in the MDR - by a pretty wide margin, in some cases. I'm not sure if we'd purchase the UDP, but I'm happy that it was offered as a free perk when we booked.

That said, food preferences are REALLY subjective. The MDRs are well-attended and there are a lot of people on here who swear by the food and think the specialties are overrated. Try both and see what you prefer.