babies on board?

[deepher1234]

hi. i'm traveling with a large party from my family and my baby who is 8 months old on the dawn this summer. (please no comments about how you'd rather not have babies on board - there'll be plenty of people to take care of her and she is a very good child). my question is...

(i) what time do the restaurants start serving dinner - the earlier the better for us as she goes to bed quite early and we'd rather be in the restaurants when no one is there so that she doesn't bother anyone at all, and

(ii) will the specialty restuarants charge us even though she won't eat anything?

[CruisinMatt]

NCL's Freestyle offers 24 hour room service. Since you are worried about the baby bothering other guests in the dining rooms, why not have the person watching baby on any given night stay in the cabin and order from room service?

 

I have never been on Dawn, but my experience on other NCL ships is that there are quite a few people who are lined up to get in for dinner prior to the restaurants opening.

[smeyer418]

Unless you are in a suite with Butler service the room service menu is limited(but good). With Freestyle someone can stay with the baby while others go eat and thgen have time to be relieved and have a regular dinner...As for the specialty restuarants I don't think they will charge you.

[zimmerjulie]

On the NCL cruises I have taken, the dining rooms have opened at 5:30 pm for dinner.

[Fam of 5]

To give you answers and some unsolicited experienced advice

 

1. I believe the dinner seating starts at 5:30 there shouldn't be any problem with the baby in the restaurant. I have brought all my kids to restaurants since they were born (it's a good way to teach them young how to sit for a dinner) and to this day (now 10, 14 & 15) they have perfect table manners and we are proud to bring them anywhere.

 

2. In the specialty restaurants they will not charge you for the baby, we met people last year that took their 1 yr old to Le Bistro and the waitstaff was wonderful towards her.

 

3. Relax and enjoy your trip.

[KeystoneCruiser]

My sister in law will be taking her 12 week old on the Star with us on July 17 and she plans to take the baby to the dinning room with us for all meals. She has also selected shore excursions that will allow her to take the baby on those as well. We have talked with NCL and they do not charge for the baby to take the shore excursions or to be in the specialty restaurants. They also do not charge the $5 per day service charge. There also is no fare fee for the baby. (the baby does have to pay the government port charges though, figures its the US Government...lol) According to what we have found out, if the child is under 3, there are no charges.

 

I wouldn't worry about the baby in the dinning rooms either, I have seen babies in the dinning rooms before as well.

[zimmerjulie]

Keystone Cruiser,

I have seen what you describe for babies, but have always had it explained as children under 2 qualify for these discounts, as opposed to 3. Does this sound right?

[Zeno]

Seriously I would not worry unduly about a 6 month old in the dining room (as long as she has been fed first). On our last cruise we saw a couple of young babies in the dining room - they mostly slept.

[Lisa63]

Another voice of experience here...

 

By all means, bring the little one to the dining room with you, especially as you've already stated you'll be going early. With school out, I'd expect lots of kids on N. Dawn during the summer -- and they'll be making far much more noise than an 8-month old. I can tell by your questions that you are the type of parent that would take your daughter out of the room if she started crying loudly.

 

One more thing --- be ready to have the crew pamper your little girl like you've never seen. :)

[raria]

Hi,

 

The topic of babies is touchy. Many people tell you

what they want to believe or see happen. But here

are the facts from someone who researched the topic

and put the research to practice a few weeks ago.

 

Once again, no flames, the only opinion that

accounts is NCL's opinion because they run

the cruise ships and we are all their guests!!!

 

Overall NCL appears to be chasing the "baby" market

and are very receptive. There were literally hundreds of

toddlers (2-4 year olds) and about a dozen babies < 6 months.

They waive all participation fees for resteraunts, shore excursions

and of the four couples with small babies I talked to, four of us

got chosen for upselling to BA rooms ...

 

Embarkation

------------

 

If the baby starts crying then

an NCL agent will ask if you want to

go to the front of the check-in

line. This happened to me.

 

Fees

----

 

The child pays no fee if they are under 2.

They only pay port charges and taxes which

works out to be about <$200 for the Dawn.

Note that for insurance the baby should get

the rate of $29 from NCL, they inadvertently

charged me the higher $89 rate.

 

Documentation

--------------

 

You need to take the baby's passport or

a raised seal birth certificate (i.e. not a

photocopy). You also need your pedetrician

to provide a letter saying the baby is fit

to travel. FAX this letter to NCL before hand

and then phone to confirm it was received and

was adequate, bring it with you to the cruise.

 

Resteraunts

-----------

 

They start serving at 5:30pm and

5pm on the night you are in Nassau.

They do not charge a surcharge for

the baby. Many wait staff have children

of their own they have not seen for

months so you will have a problem

that they will want to play with the baby,

so you may want to bring a bassinet that

covers up to indicate she is not to be

disturbed.

 

If you eat between 5:30pm till 6:30pm there

are no queues that I saw. After 8:30pm there

are few queues as well.

 

Babies Crying

-------------

 

In the main resteraunts there is a large buzz

so unless they are a very loud persistant crier it won't be

a problem. In the speciality resteraunts things

are much quieter. Bear in mind that in all bathrooms

on the ship (including public ones) there are no

change stations!

 

If the baby cries too much, then just request

your resteraunt meal to be sent to your room.

I did that and the maitre'd ??? was fine with it.

Its actually a great way to get good room service

food!

 

Bedding

-------

 

Ask for a crib to be put in your room with

a sheet.

 

Pool

----

 

They won't let the child in the pool unless they

are potty trained. Personally, I wouldn't let my

child submerge their head in the kids pool.

[TexEm]

raria--thanks for the great info. We're trying to decide about our next family cruise for 7/06, and going to Hawaii on the Pride of America is one option we've discussed. The other is doing the Caribbean on the Caribbean Princess--when I called Princess, they told me they don't have a children's rate, they charge for anyone at any age. So if that's true, I would definitely go with NCL because of their policy. We'll probably be taking my grandson (who'll be 9 months old at the time) and hate having to pay for him as a third person in a room, when he won't be eating much or using most of the other services. Does anyone know about other cruise lines policies? Thanks.

 

Mary

[zimmerjulie]

TexEm,

I believe NCL is the only line among NCL, Princess, Royal Caribbean, and Carnival that commonly does not charge a cruise fare for those under 2.

[Host CMLA]

The other is doing the Caribbean on the Caribbean Princess--when I called Princess, they told me they don't have a children's rate, they charge for anyone at any age. So if that's true, I would definitely go with NCL because of their policy. We'll probably be taking my grandson (who'll be 9 months old at the time) and hate having to pay for him as a third person in a room, when he won't be eating much or using most of the other services. Does anyone know about other cruise lines policies? Thanks.

Hi Mary. I don't have any information about which cruise lines charge for kids but I wanted to go into WHY some cruise lines charge for someone of any age even if they don't use any of the services, etc. Ships have a passenger capacity and if you're cruising during a popular week for families, there could be 500 kids under two years old on the ship (exaggeration but trying to make the point) and if that cruise line doesn't charge for under two years old, then they're not able to book other paying passengers because of capacity issues. Some cruise lines may charge for any age so they don't miss out on revenue because of passenger capacity. It's the same reason why some cruise lines limit the number of third and fourth passengers allowed in each room even if physically there's enough space. Because the ship may only allow 2000 passengers, the cruise line wants as many of those passsengers as possible to be paying customers. However, as a consumer, I'd go with the one that didn't charge. The cruise line trying to make money isn't my concern. :)

[smeyer418]

Cruise critic did a report about who charges but I can't find it now. Here is what they do have

http://www.cruisecritic.com/cruisestyles/articles.cfm?ID=155

 

as for pools, what you can do if the baby isn't potty trained is bring a blow up pool that you can get from a dollar store, fill it up with an inch of water and the child will have instant pool...

[sasi cruiser]

By all means take the baby to the dining room. We were on the Majesty in May my granddaughter (7 1/2 months turned 8 months on the cruise) was treated like a princess by all. (5:30-6:00).You can order from the dinning room the dinner for that evening if you should chose to stay in for dinner. We have been on 20 cruises and there have been a time or two where we didn't feel like going to the dining room and have had the dinner sent to our cabin. I was on the Dawn in April and there were 940 children and the week later over 1000. Children are a blessing a beautiful gift. We should enjoy them always. Enjoy your vacation.:) The charge for the baby was the gov. fees and port charges. That's NCL.