Ice Skates on Explorer

[denisemac]

Does anyone know if I can bring my 5 year old sons hockey skates on board with us?

I think I read that the smallest size they have available is a 2 and that will be much too big for him.

He loves to skate so much and I think he would get a kick out of skating on a cruise ship!

Thanks in advance for your answers.

[lady_cruiser]

I have seen other people bring their children's skates on-board but I seem to remember the skating times open for the cruisers isn't more than a two or three hours every day.

 

The rest of the time the rink is closed due to the cruise ship's ice skaters rehearsals, etc.

[dmalcolm]

You can bring them, but it probably is not worth the hassle, unless you don't mind the extra luggage. The sheet of ice is very small and there are very limited hours for public skating and, during those time periods the ice is packed with people shuffling around the ice in a circular pattern. It is not a particularly satisfying skating experience for kids who skate on a regular basis and who like to skate with speed and manuever around the ice.

 

My older daughter is a competive figure skater (and they do have additional hours of ice time for high level skaters who bring their own skates) but because of the size of the ice, even she did not think it was worth hauling her own skates, since she was not able to practice most of her program on such a small sheet of ice. When you see the skaters from the show skating on this ice, it is truly a sight to behold. They are able to manuever around these very tight areas and get up enough speed for combination jumps.

 

If you have room in your luggage, then you may want to consider bringing them, but if you don't, then don't feel bad because there are so many other fun activities to do on the ship that he will never feel like he is missing anything even if he does not skate.