EOS newbie! TONS of questions!

[jaz0308]

Hi! I am new to these boards and also new to cruising! I will be cruising the EOS out of Bayonne on 6/27/13 for a 9 day Bermuda/Caribbean cruise. As background it will be me, DH, DS5 and DD3 along with my parents, and my brother and his family which includes 4 girls aged 5-11. MANY questions are coming up and I hope someone here can help me or direct me to the proper thread. This board is a little overwhelming!

 

1. Can I bring a stroller on board and also use it at the ports?

 

2. What is the current policy on bringing wine on board? I know alcohol is not allowed but have seen different posts on wine!

 

3. How about bringing juice boxes? My DD is an apple juice aholic and will not be happy with apple juice at only breakfast! Also, is it permitted to fill a small thermos with juice at bkfst and keep it in the room fridge?

 

4. What are the soft drinks included in the drink plan? Is it only soda or are there other options?

 

5. The kids club for 3-5 year olds...my kids are non swimmers so I would not feel at all comfortable leaving them in a pool area. Is the kids club completely enclosed or do they take the kids to the kiddie pool? Any experiences good or bad with the kids club? I wouldn't mind a small break now and then but am a pretty overprotective mom!

 

Will leave it at this but I know we have tons more questions! Thank you to anyone who can offer some help to a confused planner!:)

[sotong]

Hi welcome to cruise critic, I can answer some of the questions.

 

Strollers can definitely be used, lots of tips about these on the family cruise site, think you need to keep them in your cabin and not leave them in the corridor.

You can bring 2 bottles of wine per cabin on board

Officially no juice boxes can be brought aboard but seems that you will be ok especially if you can't get the type of juice on board, seems to vary depending on where you board, others may be able to be more specific

Soft drinks are from the soda gun only, usually coke, diet coke, tonic, sprite ...

My dd is 10 so can't comment on 3 to 5 year olds in the cub, again loads of info on the family cruise board including the schedules

 

Have a great cruise, Gillian

[gerif]

Hi! I am new to these boards and also new to cruising! I will be cruising the EOS out of Bayonne on 6/27/13 for a 9 day Bermuda/Caribbean cruise. As background it will be me, DH, DS5 and DD3 along with my parents, and my brother and his family which includes 4 girls aged 5-11. MANY questions are coming up and I hope someone here can help me or direct me to the proper thread. This board is a little overwhelming!

 

1. Can I bring a stroller on board and also use it at the ports?

 

2. What is the current policy on bringing wine on board? I know alcohol is not allowed but have seen different posts on wine!

 

3. How about bringing juice boxes? My DD is an apple juice aholic and will not be happy with apple juice at only breakfast! Also, is it permitted to a small thermos with juice at bkfst and keep it in the room fridge?

 

4. What are the soft drinks included in the drink plan? Is it only soda or are there other options?

 

5. The kids club for 3-5 year olds...my kids are non swimmers so I would not feel at all comfortable leaving them in a pool area. Is the kids club completely enclosed or do they take the kids to the kiddie pool? Any experiences good or bad with the kids club? I wouldn't mind a small break now and then but am a pretty overprotective mom!

 

Will leave it at this but I know we have tons more questions! Thank you to anyone who can offer some help to a confused planner!:)

 

1. Yes. Most people bring an umbrella type as they take up less room in cabins/elevators.

 

2. You may bring two 750 ml bottles per cabin in your carry-on.

 

3. Yes and yes. We also fill sports bottles with water and lemonade to carry around or take on excursions.

 

4. Not sure what is in the freestyle machines as we are not soda drinkers but fountain sodas only at bars and dining rooms.

 

5. Adventure Ocean does not take the kids to the pools ever.

[DM_KidAtHeart]

Hi! I am new to these boards and also new to cruising! I will be cruising the EOS out of Bayonne on 6/27/13 for a 9 day Bermuda/Caribbean cruise. As background it will be me, DH, DS5 and DD3 along with my parents, and my brother and his family which includes 4 girls aged 5-11. MANY questions are coming up and I hope someone here can help me or direct me to the proper thread. This board is a little overwhelming!

 

1. Can I bring a stroller on board and also use it at the ports?

 

2. What is the current policy on bringing wine on board? I know alcohol is not allowed but have seen different posts on wine!

 

3. How about bringing juice boxes? My DD is an apple juice aholic and will not be happy with apple juice at only breakfast! Also, is it permitted to fill a small thermos with juice at bkfst and keep it in the room fridge?

 

4. What are the soft drinks included in the drink plan? Is it only soda or are there other options?

 

5. The kids club for 3-5 year olds...my kids are non swimmers so I would not feel at all comfortable leaving them in a pool area. Is the kids club completely enclosed or do they take the kids to the kiddie pool? Any experiences good or bad with the kids club? I wouldn't mind a small break now and then but am a pretty overprotective mom!

 

Will leave it at this but I know we have tons more questions! Thank you to anyone who can offer some help to a confused planner!:)

 

FYI EOS can mean Enchantment or Explorer. Yes, someone could figure out which ship by looking up the other info you gave, but it would be some trouble to do so.

 

1. Don't know about strollers.

 

2. You can bring 2 bottles of wine per cabin. Best to bring them in your carry-on unless you want a trip to the naughty room.

 

3. I doubt there would be any problem with bring juice boxes for your daughter. You can bring anything you want to your stateroom and put it in the fridge.

 

4. What soft drinks are available with the soft drink package varies by ship and particularly by whether or not they have freestyle machines.

 

5. Don't know about this one. But I can't imagine they would do or allow anything unsafe with small children.

[flowers44]

The Explorer has the Free Style Machines. The choices out of those machines seems almost endless. Never have purchased the soda package but I know it is available on Explorer.

 

An umbrella style stroller would be the best for space reasons if your child will ride in one. They take up a lot less space then regular strollers, as you know.

 

You can bring the juice boxes on. Just make sure they are in a factory sealed package. You can take bottled water and soda as well, again in factory packaging.

 

There is a shallow pool in the kids area with slides and toys around it. The children are always supervised. They are not in the main pool area of the ship. The kids have ID bands on their arms and the parents have to be identified before they are allowed to take kids out of the kids area. Never have used it since we are grandparents but the whole program seems very well run and supervised.

[cb at sea]

If you want to take the kids to the pool, YOU will have to do it! The kid's club activities are inside....most kids under 12 LOVE the activities...give it a shot!

[silygirl77]

It will be my first time on the Explorer too. I have used the freestyle coke machine though, because they have one in a close by movie theater. They have flavored water and flavored seltzer, hi-c and lemondade in addition to soda take a look at the flavors on this page:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Cola_Freestyle#Flavors

[gerif]

There is a shallow pool in the kids area with slides and toys around it. The children are always supervised. They are not in the main pool area of the ship. The kids have ID bands on their arms and the parents have to be identified before they are allowed to take kids out of the kids area. Never have used it since we are grandparents but the whole program seems very well run and supervised.

 

When did you experience this? I've never known the kids' club to take them swimming.

[jaz0308]

Thank you all so much for your responses...very helpful! And sorry about the EOS...didn't realize there could be confusion. Yes, it is Explorer of the Seas. I am a regular on the DISboards but this cruise thing is a whole new experience for me...just getting my sea legs!:rolleyes:

[MrsPete]

Yes to the stroller. Consider an umbrella model that folds small and choose a balcony cabin so you'll have a place to store it and other kids' items. A balcony cabin is also the cheapest way to have some separate adult space after you've put the kids to bed.

 

2 bottles of wine, must be carried on.

 

No problem with juice boxes. Yes, you can fill a sports bottle with apple juice and bring it back to your room. Or have juice delivered through room service. However, you will not have a refrigerator. The thing that looks like a refrigerator is really a cooler, one of those things that you can plug into your car. It will keep cold things cold /warm things warm, but it will not bring room temperature things to cold. You'd be better off sticking to juice boxes, which require no refrigeration or bringing a small cooler. By that, I mean an ice cooler. Your room steward will keep you supplied with ice.

 

Soft drink package really means sodas.

 

Kids club does not take kids to the pool. Small kids stay in their club room. Older kids go with their clubs to ice skate, to the dance clubs (shut down just for them). Every night you'll find the next day's kid's club activities on a page on your bed. So you'll know that they're doing story time 9:30-10:00 . . . Arts and crafts from 10:00-11:00 . . . And so forth. They'll tell you exactly what the kids' clubs are doing for meals so you can either plan to leave your little ones in the club to eat with friend's or you can pick them up to share lunch with the family, but you'll know not to pick them up mid-meal.

 

Also look for family times in various locations: they'll have an hour for families to take kids to the disco, an hour for families to skate, an hour for families only at the rock climbing wall. While family is a broad term, this really means it's a time set aside for people with small kids to bring their families without fear of being overcrowded by teens and adults, who can overrun the small children.

 

Your kids are perfect ages for swim lessons, and personally I'd do that before the cruise, but you should plan to sail one of the ships that has a kids' splash zone. They'd enjoy that more than a pool. I cannot tell you off the top of my head which ship's have this feature, but it's easy to find.

[EMED2010]

Thank you all so much for your responses...very helpful! And sorry about the EOS...didn't realize there could be confusion. Yes, it is Explorer of the Seas. I am a regular on the DISboards but this cruise thing is a whole new experience for me...just getting my sea legs!:rolleyes:

 

We are going on Explorer in April and it's only my second cruise. I'm a big DISboard user too. We've been to Disney 9 times but now my kids are adults so DH and I are moving onto cruises (although we're doing a 3 day trip to Disney in the Fall, LOL). Welcome and hope you enjoy your cruise. I hope to post a review when we're done. I've done a review over on DISboards so I'm hoping to give it a try here.

[funinthesun86]

We are going on Explorer in April and it's only my second cruise. I'm a big DISboard user too. We've been to Disney 9 times but now my kids are adults so DH and I are moving onto cruises (although we're doing a 3 day trip to Disney in the Fall, LOL). Welcome and hope you enjoy your cruise. I hope to post a review when we're done. I've done a review over on DISboards so I'm hoping to give it a try here.

 

There are a lot of us DISers around here!