NCL 2/25 Dream review - with our young kids (x-posted on NCL page)

[Jayhawk]

We just got back from a weeklong cruise on the NCL Dream, departure date 2/25/06. We took our 24 month old and 3 1/2 year old girls Since Cancun was still cancelled, we had a total of 3 days at sea and 3 days in port (Cozymel, Honduras and Belize). The following is my review of the week, mostly intended for those going on this trip with small children (I have cross posted on the family cruising and NCL page.)

 

Kids Club: The kids program was pretty good. It was relatively small, but then again, so is the ship. In the 2-5 year old program, there were never more than 12 kids there at any time (with 2 counselors), and they were all in a small room, with no "gym" area as on other ships. You could drop them off for as short or long as you wanted between 9 a.m. - 12 p.m, 2 p.m. - 5 p.m., and 7 p.m. - 10 p.m. You could pay for sitting after that but our kids were pretty worn out by 9:30. We found the program very convenient for having some alone time in the morning, as well as watching shows after dinner at night. We used it 3 mornings for about 2 hours each and 5 evenings after dinner so we could watch a show. Our kids were pretty young, but really liked the program. I'm not sure if older kids would enjoy it as much, but the 6-9 year olds seem to be having a good time when we looked in. They had a couple "parades", a pirate party, Blues clues party, PJ party, played with a big parachute, Dora and Pooh videos, face painting, pizza making, and quite a bit of "open play". They were very strict about giving you a pager if you have child in diapers and would not let us leave the ship (using the paid babysitting program) on port days. We were prepared for that, but were still hoping we could leave for a short adventure excursion - just to the two of us - but no dice. We were never called for a wet or dirty diaper, but our youngest struggled quite a bit on the trip, and we were paged 3 times to come and pick her up when she was fussy, including the night were in the middle of dinner at the Bistro! So we had to bring her with us and set up a DVD at the table while we finished our $40 meal. Our older daughter loved the kids program.

 

In Cozymel, they were still using tenders. [We actually didn't see anyone working on building piers, but I'm sure they were doing so somewhere….] We purchased a ship excursion so that we could be one of the first on the tenders (excursions had priority over other passengers.) It wasn't an excursion as much as an entrance fee to Playa Maya, which was a beach we went to with the kids. I thought it was incredibly overpriced for the amount of time we were there - $33 for each adult and $23 for the 3 1/2 year old. It included drinks, but you don't drink much with toddlers. If I would have done my homework on cc, we would have gone to Paradise Beach for much less or another beach for free. We went out on the second tender available (our tender time was 12:15), didn't arrive at the pier until 1:30, and took our own taxi (and paid $15 each way) to Playa Mia to arrive at 2. By 5, we had to turn around and head out in order to make the last tender back. The kids enjoyed the beach, but again I thought the entrance fee was expensive. The highlight was my husband went parasailing for $55 (the kids and I were in the boat, and they enjoyed that as well).

 

In Roatan, Bodden was booked so we rented a cab and driver for the day through Islandertours for $80. His name was Enrique and he was Carlos' brother. He did a really good job. My husband did the East end canopy tour ($45) by himself while I took the girls to the Iguana farm ($8 for the 3 of us), which they loved. Enrique helped me since I was alone with both girls. The older one was a bit freaked out by the iguanas, while the younger one was chasing them around and wanting to feed them! He was also patient when your youngest was fussy in the car, but he had a small son and was accepting of the fussiness. Then we went to the West Bay in the late afternoon for time at the beach.

 

In Belize, we had our only "successful" excursion. We took the girls cave tubing. We told Yhony at cave-tubing.com that we really wanted to go but weren't sure if we could get off the ship without out youngest. (Trust me, I would have paid almost any amount of money to get time on one of those islands by ourselves to do some "adventure" excursions.) He let us bring our kids along, which I think was an exception. It worked out surprisingly well. The hardest was the walk through the jungle, and that was 45 minutes at a fast pace. My husband had to carry the youngest on his shoulders the entire time, and I had to carry the 3 year old for about 1/3 of the walk. The girls sat on us in each of the tubes, and the youngest actually fell asleep as we were tubing through one of the caves. I can't speak enough about how wonderful they were. The youngest even did pretty well one the one hour bus trip there and back. We stopped for a good (and cheap) lunch on the way back - all for $50 each ($40 for the kids). It was twice the value and half the cost of the ship, as we went through 2 caves and down the open river.

 

Meals: The meals were pretty good. The had a wonderful kids menu at the main restaurants. The buffet (sports bar) was packed for breakfast and lunch and we could normally not find a seat. The lunch buffet was not very kids friendly but the grill outdoors was, but it also usually had long lines. At the bistro, the lobster was GREAT, the steak was a little dry, and the service was incredibly SLOW.

 

Pools: None of the pools allowed diapers (swim or otherwise), but we took our younger one to the small pool on aft 9 in the shallow part for a few minutes at a time and no one said anything (we had her in a swim diaper, and covered it with plastic pants, so she was pretty well insulated.)

 

Shows: The Stardust shows we attended were pretty good, and I enjoyed the dancing. I agree with earlier posters that they weren't always age appropriate - at least PG13 rated. Some nights they took the kids to the shows which seemed a bit much for our 2 year old. The magician/comedian should not be missed, and of course the newlywed show is always a highlight. We weren't able to participate in the murder mystery dinner (disappointment) because kids were not allowed and it was during a time the kids club wasn't open.

 

Overall: I'd give the complete experience a B- to C+, but it had very little to do with the ship or ports, mostly with your youngest daughter, and that was disappointing. We had cruised when the oldest was 9 months and had a great time. I thought my expectations were low enough, but I guess they weren't! Would I go again? Yes, but only when the youngest was a bit older. I was frankly shocked at how poorly she did vs. my expectations. Our older one would have been just fine at this age, the younger one just has adjustment issues. She whined through most of the meals. Fortunately, the staff was very patient with us. I think next summer, when they are 3 1/2 and 5, it will be much better.

[mruhaak]

Thanks for your trip report! What size room were you in? Just curious as I was considering NCL in the future with our 2 young children, but the rooms seemed so small compared to Disney which we went on in January. So I felt like I would have to upsize to a bigger room and then the cost was about the same anyway.

 

I sympathize with your problem with your 2 year old. We took our 2 1/2 DS on the Wonder in January and it was a rough time for him. It's the age I think! It was all so overwhelming for him. I honestly think 9 mos. IS easier than 2. They don't have the mind of their own at that age!!

 

I will have a 9 mo. old this coming January so I guess I will find out!

[Jayhawk]

Well we DID cruise with our oldest when she was exactly 9 months and it was MUCH easier (provided they're not mobile yet!)

 

I think the rooms were pretty decent sized, for a cruise ship. It was an outside window cabin, and (150 SF??) and there was a curtain you could close and have the kids on the sofa bed and you could be on the other side. We actually had a pack and play for the youngest and didn't pull out the sofa for the oldest, she just slept on it, and then pulled the curtain shut and had our king size equivalent (2 twins) on the other side.

[Jayhawk]

Well we DID cruise with our oldest when she was exactly 9 months and it was MUCH easier (provided they're not mobile yet!)

 

I think the rooms were pretty decent sized, for a cruise ship. It was an outside window cabin, and (150 SF??) and there was a curtain you could close and have the kids on the sofa bed and you could be on the other side. We actually had a pack and play for the youngest and didn't pull out the sofa for the oldest, she just slept on it, and then pulled the curtain shut and had our king size equivalent (2 twins) on the other side.

 

Good luck :) !!

[mruhaak]

Well that sounds encouraging! Maybe I will start looking at pricing on oceanview for NCL then. Thanks!

 

Have you tried traveling with Grandma or relatives? We tried bringing Grandma on the last trip... but frankly she was actually more work than she helped with the kids. She is an "older" grandma and had never cruised before.

[Jayhawk]

My parents went to Hawaii 2 days after we got back and Chris' are cruising in Mexico next month. So they weren't interested. We did consider flying a friend of ours to help, but at the end it would have been at least an extra $1000, and the cruise was already so cheap we didn't want to almost double the price.