Water park fun

[thesnoopster2]

My little boy is a water baby.  He loves the water parks.  He is 5 years old, but most of the water slides are too big for him.  A lot of them have height restrictiones and he is about 2" too short for the big ones.  Planning my first trip on NCL and I'm coming over from MSC Seascape that basically had a Great Wolfe lodge with toddler sized 2' pool, smaller watersides, spray guns, the giant bucket, ect.  Best I could see was the Breakaway class and specifically the Encore.  Any other recommendations that might have anything better or similar on NCL ships?

 

Also, difference between balcony suite vs family suite.  I've service though cc and best I could find is family is closer to family activities.  However on the Encore I was seeing every other room was a family and then next was just a club.  I was looking at 14th deck and for instance 14200 and 14202.  One is listed as family, one is just a club.  If the reason why it was family was closer to the action, well in this section of the ship, every other room is one thing and then the other so it isn't a location based thing.

 

To compare water parks, here is a link to what MSC has.

 

msc seascape pirates cove - Yahoo Image Search Results

[mitsugirly]

Most of the NCL ships have a "kiddie" waterpark section. Some with smaller/medium slides, water squirting different places, bridges to cross, water buckets and so on. But a lot of them are more of a splash pad with all of those activities in them. You can go to NCL's page and look up what each has to offer or just do a google search for pictures. 

 

We just got off the Encore. Their "family" pool, which is located next to the kids splash area, was around 4' deep.  

 

I'll enclose some pictures I took of the waterpark area as a visual for you.

 

 

 

 

 

[mjkacmom]

A family balcony will be closer to the kids clubs, a club balcony is a balcony with a bigger bathroom and some perks.

[Sailing12Away]

Also for family vs 'regular' cabin designations - depends on the ship, but sometimes just an easier way to say that a particular cabin can hold up to 4 guests. Some of them simply refer to the cabins being on higher decks, but as you've already seen there are some regular balconies that will also hold 4 on the same higher deck for a smidge cheaper price. So honestly - just marketing at the end of the day.

 

As for which ship would be best for your little water bug - look at the deck plans. Cruisedeckplans.com has a good compilation of each ship with thousands of photos of the public areas where you can see recent actual photos (not marketing photos) of what the ships have to offer.