HAL-kid friendly birthday party?

[Lerin]

We're in the process of planning a cruise on HAL which happens to fall over my son's birthday.

 

In reading through their website I found a section which states; "kid-friendly birthday parties can be arranged with advance notice"

 

Has anyone ever used this service or seen another child having a birthday on HAL? I'm curious what is involved. I did a search here and on Google and only came up with adult celebrations on HAL(which include flowers, wine and other things that aren't appropriate or appreciated by a young child)

 

Also does anyone know if it is allowed to bring balloons, decorations or cake onboard?

At the very least we'd like to decorate the cabin for him and have a family celebration with cake on the verandah. I know the ship has cake, but I'd love to have a more "child like" cake such as Thomas the Train or Mickey.

 

Thanks in advance :)

[Scrapnana]

You might want to post this on the HAL forum as well.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=171

[cruisead]

They will not allow the cake to be brought on, but decorations are just fine as long as they aren't fire hazards. Oh, and no candles.

 

HAL isn't known to be a child friendly cruise line. On our cruises, the average age seemed to be well over 65. If your cruise is when school is in session, there will be very few, if any, school age kids on board. That's probably why you haven't been able to find any information about kid friendly parties.

[Lerin]

Thank you for your responses. I will re-post my thread over at HAL.

 

I just was over at the HAL board and a woman of a 4-year-old posted about her son's birthday. Sounds like they went all out, even got the bakers to make a cake with yellow ducks and stuff on it.

 

I used to have big concerns about the demographic of HAL but they have convinced me there are quite a few things for children and there will be some on board. Not that it matters because due to our schedules and other logistics, it is the only cruise we can take anyway. It's easy to pick a cruise when you have only 1 option! The hard part is trying to give my son the proper birthday without a party.

[boulders]

Hmmm. DS had his 7th birthday on a HAL ship last year, and there was no mention of kid-friendly birthday parties. I did a search of the HAL site and I couldn't find a reference to this either. :confused: Can you point me in the right direction?

 

Regarding demographics, the demographics on our summer 3+ week HAL cruise were just fine. There was a wide range of ages, including 300 kids. I preferred that to the 1000+ kids on our Royal Caribbean cruises during school breaks. It depends more on the time of year more than cruise line.

[Starlight Durban Cruising]

They will not allow the cake to be brought on, ...

Is this based on experience? I think that most of us know that no food may be taken OFF the ship (government regulations). Other postings on food being taken ashore have talked about that part of it, and then I have also read postings which referred to the fact that food brought onboard will not be permitted to be stored in the ship's refrigeration units - so if the birthday cake is not eaten on day 1 or 2, then it could be a little stale.

 

Not sure of when OP intends to hold the party, but I think that it might be easier to hold the party at home, and then do something really small onboard - and order the cake from the coffee shop onboard. If the OP intends taking a cake onboard then it clearly would need to be carried by hand.

[Lerin]

Hmmm. DS had his 7th birthday on a HAL ship last year, and there was no mention of kid-friendly birthday parties. I did a search of the HAL site and I couldn't find a reference to this either. :confused: Can you point me in the right direction?

 

.

No problem. It's on the website in the section on Club HAL where they give general info on ages and activities.

From their site:

Additional Family Services

Holland America Line serves a wide variety of kid-pleasing food, including special sandwiches, tacos, hamburgers, hot dogs and pizza. Baby food, high chairs and booster seats may be requested in advance of boarding. On sea days, babysitting services are available through the Front Office for a small surcharge for children 3 years of age or older. This service is provided by staff on a volunteer basis, and may not always be available. Babysitting service is not offered while the ship is in port, although Club Hal does offer activities for children aged 3-12 between 8:00am and 4:00pm on port days. Special kid-friendly birthday parties can also be arranged with advance notice.

 

Thank you all for your responses here and at the HAL board.

We will bring decorations for the cabin and speak to HAL about making a child-friendly cake. Also to the staff in Club HAL about maybe doing something special along with the other kids on board.

Edited October 22, 2013 by Lerin

[HALrunner]

Hey Lerin- sorry I have been off CC for a few days. If you don't mind sharing- how old will the birthday child be? Do you know if you will be in port or at sea?

 

I am the woman from HAL with a four year old birthday experience:) Even though the demographics of HAL are older, it is the only line we cruise even though we have a 4 & 6 year old. As a matter of fact, the 6 year old is already a 3 start mariner!

The night before his birthday, after he was asleep, we decorated the cabin with yellow streamers and tons of balloons. When he woke up he was SO excited. It doesn't take many balloons/streamers to fill up a cruise ship cabin;) Club HAL had a little party in the evening (even though on that sailing there were only a couple other kids) and had a huge sign on the Club HAL door. He wore a yellow "Birthday Boy" shirt that grandma made him and a little birthday crown. Everywhere we went people were wishing him a happy birthday- even the captain went out of his way to say hi to the birthday boy! We told him we would do whatever he wanted on his birthday (it was a sea day). We were bummed when all he wanted to do was go to Club HAL! We hung out with him in Club HAL and played games.

As I noted on the HAL board, be sure to politely remind the head waiter, pastry chef etc in the days leading up to the birthday. Be sure to tell them (within reason) any special requests. We told them anything yellow and they made several fondant yellow decorations- race cars, ducks etc. His oddly spelled name was even spelled correct! The over the top cake was better than anything we could have done on land and even had candles on it (big taboo to have open flame on a ship!). Even though there aren't many kids on HAL, the staff goes absolutely gaga over them because many have kids at home and sadly miss their birthday parties.

We brought some small (wrapped) presents on board for him to open. The theme of our celebration was "yellow" because our son was super obsessed with anything yellow. You could easily pull of a theme throughout the day, if you want any help with ideas just let me know! I LOVE planning kids parties:)

[Darwould]

Be forewarned that the question on HAL is not ...child having a birthday, it is "When did you last see a child on the ship?"... We've seen as few as ONE child on the whole ship!!!.

[Scrapchick]

Not really very accurate to say that.... I've been on many HAL cruises with my daughter and during school vacations there are many kids on board, sometimes a couple of hundred over the summer... When I have cruised during school time, no matter which cruise line, there have been almost no children on board. That's not exclusive to HAL at all. I just got off the Caribbean Princess... If I saw 10 kids out of 3000 passengers I'll be amazed. School time will always limit the number of kids on board.

 

HAL DOES skew older, no doubt about it. But we've had many family vacations on board and my now 12 year old has always had a great time and has been treated very well. She has celebrated birthdays on board and the staff have always made her feel special. My only grip was the front desk on which ever HAL ship we were on wanted to charge us $2 per balloon to put a couple of balloons on the door... I think it was the Nieuw Amsterdam...

 

We have found HAL has worked well for our small family. They try hard with kids and don't get a lot of credit for their efforts sometimes.

[felix9]

So many people say that HAL doesnt have children but lots of parents says they are cruised with them with kids. This will be our first HAL cruise this month and they confirmed they will have 120 kids on the Thanksgiving cruise..

 

I'm sure they will do something for your son.

 

I'm looking forward to my teen and 9 yo having a great time on a ship not overrun with kids...

[cruisegirl06]

We love HAL. I haven't sailed them as a parent, but sailed as a teenage and an adult. I think it is DH and my favorite cruiseline, specifically in terms of food and service. We can't wait until our kids hit the magical age of 3 and they can take part in Club HAL, in the meantime we'll likely stick with lines that have a nursery available. I think smaller numbers in the kids club can be a good thing. I feel like both sailings I did with HAL as a teen had about 20-30 teenagers on board which was enough for us to have fun but probably few enough to keep it relatively calms compared to some ships.