Baby Splash Zones

[moneyman702]

Hello All,

 

My wife and I are considering a cruise sometime next spring or summer, but this will be the first time we ever cruise with a little one. Our son will be 16-20 months based on the window I'm looking at. 

 

I'm well aware that babies who aren't fully potty trained are not allowed in the pools, and neither are swim diapers. However, much like RCI, I understand that some of the newer ships have splash pads specifically for younger kids who aren't potty trained or who are in swim diapers. Can anybody give me a list of those NCL ships?

 

Our decision definitely still hinges on what the COVID situation is at the time, so this is still a bit of a pipe dream. 

Edited January 15, 2021 by moneyman702

[BirdTravels]

You will need to have your 20 month-old potty trained if they are going to use any of the facilities (#8 on the Rules).

 

[moneyman702]

28 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

You will need to have your 20 month-old potty trained if they are going to use any of the facilities (#8 on the Rules).

 

I understand that about the Aqua Park in general. I was under the impression that several newer ships had an area (possibly in the same general area of the ship) that is separately filtered for younger children in swim diapers. This is definitely the case on several newer RCI ships, but as is the case with RCI, you cannot find definitive info on this anywhere. MSC also apparently has some ships with baby splash pads that are separately filtered and comply with the CDC VSP. 

 

I have seen photos and other posts from folks mentioning this area does indeed exist on at least Getaway, Breakaway and Epic. 

[BirdTravels]

31 minutes ago, moneyman702 said:

I have seen photos and other posts from folks mentioning this area does indeed exist on at least Getaway, Breakaway and Epic. 

Not that I know of. 

[moneyman702]

6 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

Not that I know of. 

Fair enough. The more I dig into it, the more it sounds like these areas aren't separately filtered. DCL is really the only line that is good about making the information on this readily available. 

[chengkp75]

1 hour ago, moneyman702 said:

Fair enough. The more I dig into it, the more it sounds like these areas aren't separately filtered. DCL is really the only line that is good about making the information on this readily available. 

The only ships that have water facilities for non-potty trained children are the Disney ships, and the RCI Oasis, Quantum, Freedom, and some Voyager class ships.  No other lines have invested in these areas.

[BirdTravels]

1 hour ago, moneyman702 said:

Fair enough. The more I dig into it, the more it sounds like these areas aren't separately filtered. DCL is really the only line that is good about making the information on this readily available. 

There is no information on the facilities because they don't exist on NCL. 

[moneyman702]

54 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

There is no information on the facilities because they don't exist on NCL. 

Thanks for the clarification. Looks like NCL is out for now. Back to RCI. 

[moneyman702]

1 hour ago, chengkp75 said:

The only ships that have water facilities for non-potty trained children are the Disney ships, and the RCI Oasis, Quantum, Freedom, and some Voyager class ships.  No other lines have invested in these areas.

That is what I had read. Looks like I'll be going for either Oasis or Quantum Class then. We were on Independence in December 2019 and didn't love it. I've heard that Navigator may also have something after her refurb/amplification a couple years ago, but nothing definitive. We loved Mariner, which makes it seem so strange that we didn't like Indy considering Freedom class is essentially Voyager Class on steroids. 

 

We were supposed to be on NCL Encore this past October, but we all know what happened there. We will definitely be looking to sail NCL once little man is a bit older and can enjoy it a bit more. DCL and RCI win for now. 

 

Thanks for your help. 

[MoCruiseFan]

2 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

There is no information on the facilities because they don't exist on NCL. 

 

Thank God they don't.  Sounds like a disease breeding center.  If someone does not mind their kid swimming in the toilet then by all means let them swim in the toilet in their cabin.

[moneyman702]

26 minutes ago, MoCruiseFan said:

 

Thank God they don't.  Sounds like a disease breeding center.  If someone does not mind their kid swimming in the toilet then by all means let them swim in the toilet in their cabin.

They are splash pads, not pools, and have their own filtration separate from the other pools and water features. I'm sure there is plenty of nastiness from adults and potty trained children in the regular pools, too. 

[MoCruiseFan]

3 hours ago, moneyman702 said:

They are splash pads, not pools, and have their own filtration separate from the other pools and water features. I'm sure there is plenty of nastiness from adults and potty trained children in the regular pools, too. 

That changes nothing about my post.

[chengkp75]

6 hours ago, MoCruiseFan said:

 

Thank God they don't.  Sounds like a disease breeding center.  If someone does not mind their kid swimming in the toilet then by all means let them swim in the toilet in their cabin.

 

6 hours ago, moneyman702 said:

They are splash pads, not pools, and have their own filtration separate from the other pools and water features. I'm sure there is plenty of nastiness from adults and potty trained children in the regular pools, too. 

Since they are designed by the CDC as part of the VSP (Vessel Sanitation Program), they are far from "toilets".  There are very definite design and operational requirements to keep the splash area safe.  First, there is a crew member assigned, whose only duty is to supervise the splash area, and close it down whenever a problem happens.  There is no more than 2" of standing water, and will immediately drain if shut down due to a "fecal incident".  The water has a higher turnover rate (how many times it is filtered per hour) than other water facilities on the ship, and has a UV sterilizer that the water passes through while being filtered and chlorinated.  The pool supervisor is also to ensure that parents change their children frequently, there is a changing station nearby, and the ship has a supply of  swim diapers available.

 

The CDC did a study of land based public pools in the US a few years back, applying the requirements of the VSP that cruise ships use to these land pools (where they have no jurisdiction), and found that 70% of them would be in violation, and over 60% would be closed down immediately.  When it came to swim diaper splash areas, over 80% of these land facilities would be closed down immediately for contamination.

 

[moneyman702]

5 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

 

Since they are designed by the CDC as part of the VSP (Vessel Sanitation Program), they are far from "toilets".  There are very definite design and operational requirements to keep the splash area safe.  First, there is a crew member assigned, whose only duty is to supervise the splash area, and close it down whenever a problem happens.  There is no more than 2" of standing water, and will immediately drain if shut down due to a "fecal incident".  The water has a higher turnover rate (how many times it is filtered per hour) than other water facilities on the ship, and has a UV sterilizer that the water passes through while being filtered and chlorinated.  The pool supervisor is also to ensure that parents change their children frequently, there is a changing station nearby, and the ship has a supply of  swim diapers available.

 

The CDC did a study of land based public pools in the US a few years back, applying the requirements of the VSP that cruise ships use to these land pools (where they have no jurisdiction), and found that 70% of them would be in violation, and over 60% would be closed down immediately.  When it came to swim diaper splash areas, over 80% of these land facilities would be closed down immediately for contamination.

 

Right! I believe they also regularly drain these areas and refill them due to how small of a volume of water they require conpared to other pools, and the obvious concerns they mitigate as best as they can.

 

I'll just throw it out there: humans are kind of subconsciously gross, and children are worse. There is some inherent assumption of risk of getting sick when it comes to grossness in anything we do, and particularly boarding a vessel with thousands of other humans.

 

If these pads with all their special filtration were an issue, the CDC wouldn't let them fly. Thanks for posting the information I didn't have the time to find. The main pools don't circulate and clean water nearly as much, so you are primarily relying on the solution to pollution being dilution, and nobody loses any sleep there. 

 

As somebody who is more than acutely observant of other folks nasty habits, I could probably easily list 10 other things that are far grosser for my money than this. I'll stop short of calling myself a germaphobe, but I sanitize and clean more than most folks do. 

 

 

[chengkp75]

21 minutes ago, moneyman702 said:

The main pools don't circulate and clean water nearly as much, so you are primarily relying on the solution to pollution being dilution, and nobody loses any sleep there. 

Not really.  The CDC requires a significantly higher chlorine concentration, and continual monitoring and continual dosing of chlorine to reflect changes in body load in the pool than most land based pools, and certainly home pools.  Chlorine is the main agent fighting against infections from pool water.

[moneyman702]

1 hour ago, chengkp75 said:

Not really.  The CDC requires a significantly higher chlorine concentration, and continual monitoring and continual dosing of chlorine to reflect changes in body load in the pool than most land based pools, and certainly home pools.  Chlorine is the main agent fighting against infections from pool water.

Ahhh. I stand corrected. Regardless, I'm agreeing with your rebuttal of the "giant toilet" argument. 

[Albinroo]

On 1/16/2021 at 2:25 AM, moneyman702 said:

Thanks for the clarification. Looks like NCL is out for now. Back to RCI. 

Just to add that we have been on NCL getaway and NCL Joy, both have splash parks for kids with swim diapers. So they do exist.

[chengkp75]

2 hours ago, Albinroo said:

Just to add that we have been on NCL getaway and NCL Joy, both have splash parks for kids with swim diapers. So they do exist.

Question, since I know that NCL's past decisions have been to not have them, were the cruises in Europe or the US, and were there signs specifically allowing swim diapers, or were there just kids in diapers in the splash area.  The EU's ShipSan program allows kids in swim diapers in any pool or splash area.

[mjkacmom]

2 hours ago, Albinroo said:

Just to add that we have been on NCL getaway and NCL Joy, both have splash parks for kids with swim diapers. So they do exist.

Just because there were kids in the splash parks doesn’t mean they were supposed to be there, to the best of my knowledge NCL has splash parks for potty trained kids. RCL and DCL have some ships with small splash parks for diapered kids (I don’t think kids without diapers are allowed).

[Albinroo]

2 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

Question, since I know that NCL's past decisions have been to not have them, were the cruises in Europe or the US, and were there signs specifically allowing swim diapers, or were there just kids in diapers in the splash area.  The EU's ShipSan program allows kids in swim diapers in any pool or splash area.

Both cruises were in 2019, on Getaway in Europe and Joy in US/Panama Canal. You may be right, but we did ask the staff to be sure and were welcome with our baby in swim diapers. Or did we perhaps just ask on Getaway and assumed it was the same on Joy a couple of months later? Can't remember for sure, perhaps I just assumed it was the same as on Getaway and  DCL  (haven't been on RCI) but good to know that may not be the case.