Balcony safety with a 15 month old

[naisy]

We will be on the Pride of America in less than 6 weeks and just saw a picture of the balcony.

http://www.02cruise.com/lines/norwegian%20cruise%20line/pride%20of%20america/photos/pride%20of%20america%20cat%20bg%20stateroom%207680%20oceanview%20with%20balcony%202.jpg

 

It looks like to me that a baby could crawl right thru the railing!! Does anyone know of netting or lightweight plastic guard that we could get? I've been looking online for something.....but it looks like most everything has hardware that need to me installed. This is making me very nervous. Anyone have any suggestions?

[cb at sea]

A 15 mo. old won't be able to GET to the balcony without adult help....just don't take the child out there unless you're holding them! You'll be faster than your child...and won't allow such a thing to happen!! I really don't think you'll have to worry once you've seen it in person.

[nlt46]

Really

I don't think a child could slip under. There is really only a couple of inches and you will always be there. No problem. I can understand your concern, however. Until you see it and get the feel for it, you worry.

 

Nancy

[CruisinIsMyThang]

Most ships don't have those types of balconies anymore. Most of them are balconies that is one solid piece of clear plexiglass that comes to chest high on an adult. But do remember, balcony doors are very very heavy, and your child is not going to end up out there unless you are out there with your child. Call the cruise line and see if they still have these types of balconies or if they have installed the solid clear plexiglass ones. If you are still nervous go for an oceanview cabin instead. Save yourself some money, and some piece of mind if it will make your vacation stressful for you.

[naisy]

This is my grandson....but we have balcony cabins side by side with the son and dil. Final payment has made, so its too late to change anything. Funny thing is....we were on the Pride of America 2 yrs ago and didn't really notice railings until I looked at pictures of our cruise recently. Maybe I am just being the overprotective grandma. I guess I thought the balconies were all plexiglass too. I will definatley call the cruiseline and see if they still have the same railings.

[alj1208]

I am the mother of a super-active and impulsive boy, and when he was a toddler, he would have walked off a cliff if we weren't watching him 24/7! I became very good at makeshift child-proofing when I couldn't find a product to match a particular situation.

 

Since you can't change the cabin, maybe you could bring an old sheet and attach ties to the ends to secure it to the railing. Or, purchase some cheap netted fabric. Maybe bring a small stapler and some ribbon to create the ties where needed. Bring a scissors to cut it to size. Any extra material or long ties could create a strangulation hazard, so you'd have to be careful. Put it up only when you are out there with the baby. Obviously, this would NOT be a substitute for supervision, but it might give you some extra piece of mind while you are out there with him.

[gerif]

How about one of those backpacks with the leash for when he is out there? You might want it for port days as well if he is a "runner." There was a toddler down the hall from our cabin on one cruise - the minute the door would open, he would be off and running down the hall as fast as he could go. As soon as he was caught, the leash came out. Sometimes that's the only way to control an active child - I should know as I had a leash and harness myself, and that was over 60 years ago.

[Julienatul]

My very active and daredevil of a just turned 2 year-old did very well on our Miracle balcony last month. The plexiglass is very high as you can see from my signature photo. He could have crawled under the partitions I guess if he lied flat on his stomach but we were out there supervising him the entire time on the balcony. Hi toys did go under a few times. There is a very heavy door with about a 2ft threshhold to step over to get out onto the balcony so there is absolutely no way you child could get out there on his/her own without an adult opening it for them. We played out there for hours each day and he was fine and no where near in danger at anytime. I did not let him move furniture near the plexiglass or climb up on anything out there.

[Scrapchick]

I remember cruising with my DD when she was this age. It's hard for me to imagine that such a young child would ever be left alone even for a second, and certainly not on a ship balcony. No child this age would be able to open the door to the balcony unaided, or the cabin door either.

 

I think you will find you are worrying needlessly. So long as the adults are supervising the child adequately, this really should be a non-issue once you are on the ship and see how it works.

[youngestof9]

on Epic our balcony door had a lock which I had to raise my arm up to switch to unlock. Not reachable at all by a child. Not sure if that's fleetwide. We also had plexiglass. I understand it's a newer ship, but I would call NCL to see if it has plexiglass.

 

also ask on the main NCL board - maybe some recent Pride sailers will help :)

[tkportersat]

I will have a 10 1/2 month old with us and I am not even going to let anyone bring him out on the balcony. If we are outside we can leave the door open, and leave him in his pack and play to be near us. Call me paranoid but I don't care....:(

[courteliz24]

We were just on RCCL Liberty with my 19 month old. The balcony door was super heavy to open from the inside. I had troulbe opening it, even with my mommy arms. The plexiglass was at least 1 foot above my sons head. We kept the chairs and table way back from the rail. However, we were always out there with him. Only thing we were cautious of was holding him out there. My son is big and a squirmer so we if we picked him up out there, we stayed away from the railing just in case he would try to squirm out. Otherwise we had no problems. He loved looking at the "boats" in port and waving to the people. Don't stress about it. Just use common sense and you will be fine.

[cruiserNC]

Our daughter first cruised in a balcony when she was 2 years old. We decided even before we left that she would not go on the balcony for any reason. We enjoyed our balcony when she was sleep or at Camp. We also kept a chair in front of the balcony door and had chimes on the handle and explained to her she couldn't go out. She never even questioned it the whole week. Chances are at that age they couldn't open the door if they tried but with stuff like that I feel you can never been to cautious.

 

Now that she is 4 and we cruise in April we a formulating a new plan as for some reason she believed she is a grownup already LOL.

[naisy]

Thanks everyone for your input and suggestions. I'm not too concerned about him being able to open the door by himself.......but I guess we were hoping to spend some time on the balcony with maybe some bubbles, toys or something. Will probably wait and check it out when we get on the ship and see if we can MacGyver something like ajl1208 suggested or just not take him out there at all. I was just surprised to see this type of balcony railing.

[Jenbo57]

We were on the POA last May; I just looked at all of my pictures and all of the balconies are "open". Yikes! We're cruising with my grandson, who'll be 16 months old then, in December. I guess I'm glad we're sailing on Carnival, where all of the balconies have Plexiglas!

[cajuncat]

Back to the original question, I would suggest a Peapod tent http://www.amazon.com/KidCo-PeaPod-Portable-Self%252dInflating-Travel/dp/B001HY40P4/ref=sr_1_1?s=baby-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1296018533&sr=1-1

[naisy]

Back from our cruise and the 1st thing I asked for was something for the balcony. Here is a pic of what they did.....

[Ula]

Back from our cruise and the 1st thing I asked for was something for the balcony. Here is a pic of what they did.....

Just saw that photo, honestly no way with a young child. That would scare the heck out of me. Kids are smart and fast.