NCL Jewel with 2.5 year old, just got back

[lolakat]

Just finished the 7 day Florida/Bahamas cruise on the NCL Jewel with my 2.5 year old daughter. This was DD's 4th cruise with NCL but really the first one where she was old enough to use the organized kids activities. In general we like NCL and I did like the Nickolodeon activities but I was very unhappy with the other kiddie activities on board. We still had a wonderful vacation overall.

 

We attended the Nickelodeon "Dora dance party," the Charecter breakfast (with Dora, Diego, Sponge Bob, Patrick, and Angh (?)) and the Nick Jr. Story time with Dora. My DD really enjoyed these activities and the Nick staff were well organized and very good with the kids. The charecter breakfast was a little slow to start. They tell you to arrive at 8:30 but the charecters didn't start until 9:15. By then most of the kids were done eatting and antsy. The staff takes pictures to sell you later but will also take pictures with your camera if you ask them too.

 

The Jewel has a "kids pool" area with a paddle pool that is 10 inches deep with a small slide and a full sized hot tub for kids only. THe hot tub is in front of the paddle pool and completely blocks it off from the rest of the deck. It feels like a cave. There were many kids in swim diapers in the paddle pool (which is not supposed to be allowed but NCL staff did not say anything. There was a sign affixed to the paddle pool stating the diapers are not allowed). There were also many 9-11 year olds playing in the paddle pool and knocking over the little ones. We only spent a few minutes in there before retreating to the courtyard pool near our cabin. There were also children in diappers in the courtyard pool. One was really just an infant. I don't think it is supposed to be allowed but to be honest I couldn't find the sign in that area that informed anyone of that. The mom could easily not have known the rule. We got lucky and DD was potty trained for a couple of months before the cruise.

 

We signed DD up for the kids club but I was very unimpressed with them. The sign up on the first day was chaotic and no one seemed to be in charge. I decided to try her out at one activity which was supposed to be an "underwater adventure with Captin Snook" When I went to drop her off there was just one counseler working the door and about 15 2-5 year olds watching TV and playing with blocks in a small room. I felt uneasy but (foolishly) decided to give it a try anyway. I noticed a minute after I left that she hadn't given me or my daugter wrist bands. I went back to ask a counseler about it and she basically brushed me off. I left with a very uneasy feeling and waited right outside the club. DD only lasted 10 min then cried and I picked her up. When I picked her up they noted that we didn't have wrist bands but didn't make a big deal about it. I guess they remembered me from drop off but the whole thing gave me a bad feeling. I didn't bring her back and I don't think I'll feel comfortable with it until she is much older.

 

We went to 2 family activities. Lego time and Pizza making. Both were fairly unstructured but provided a nice diversion for the kids on sea days.

 

The "under 2 zoo" is an embaressment for NCL. It was in a small conference room where they had put a dozen or so broken and dirty appearing toys. There were 4 puzzles 2 of which had missing pieces, several leap frog readers (only one of which actually worked), 3 giant dice, and 2 tents shaped like a bus and a fire truck. It was pathetic and NCL should really put some time/money into improving this or just get rid of it all together.

 

The staff was really great with DD and many of them knew her by name. We went to the specialty resturants without any problems. I do use a DVD to help her through the long meals. I know some folks don't like this but it works for us. They were able to get her a kids meal at any resturant. A few of the waitresses even made her oragami animals while we waited. I have always been very happy with the service on NCL in general and with their interaction with my daughter in particular.

 

Overall my daughter had a great time and I enjoyed my time with her. I reread my comments and they sound negative compared to how I feel about the cruise as a whole. I guess I was disappointed with the kiddie activiteis but found that I didn't really need them to enjoy the whole cruise experience. This trip did make me realize that I might need to consider switching to a line that is more known for kids activities (DCL, RCCL) as DD gets older. We have a cruise planned on DCL for next spring so that will give us something to compare it to. I hope someone finds these comments helpful. Please let me know if I can answer any specific questions.

[Julienatul]

Does NCL offer Nick Jr activities on all sailings now or is it just the specific week you sailed? I remember hearing about the nick cruises that were a specific week to sail with the characters but Im still unclear about that.

[lolakat]

I believe the Jewel and Epic now have some Nickelodeon activities on every sailing. It is not a completely themed Nick cruise but there are a few activities each day. In addition to the activities I mentioned in the opening post there were 3 scheduled charecter meet and greets, a "Slime time live" show, and a couple of Nick game show like activities by the pool. There were more activities in the kids club itself that were Nick themed. You could easily be on the ship and not see them at all if you didn't want to.

 

I think they are doing a couple of completely themed Nick cruises for next year. They recently announced the dates on Jewel and Epic but I don't know them off the top of my head. I guess those dates will have much more Nick related stuff going on all the time. None of the other NCL ships have any Nick related stuff as far as I know.