ncl spirit questions

[jennifer22780]

ok so i wasnt even thinking about my 8 month old not being allowed in the pool with us... so ill look for a inflatable pool/tub. how is the deck area ? enough space for a pool? my 8 month old niece will be there too, and id say makes more sense to have one pool rather than two tubs!

 

does anyone know about the childrens areas and if i will be able to bring the baby into any of them even during set hours? im assuming the "no diaper in the pool areas rule" means pooty trained kids only, not take the diaper off your 8 month old lol. ;)

 

also, if we are doing excursions through NCL, do we need to bring our car seat? (we are being dropped off and picked up in NY - a friend is driving our vehicle, so we planned to leave the seat behind)

 

thanks in advance!

 

any advice/opinions/thoughts on traveling to bahamas with my baby would be appreciated...

[8thlivewire]

Hi Jennifer22780 !

 

We're leaving Sunday on the Spirit for the Florida/Bahamas trip ! This will be our 2 year old son's 1st cruise - we're taking an inflatable tub I got at Babies R Us - it's rectangular - I just thought this shape might fit into spaces better than a round shape.

 

As far as the car seat goes - we're driving to NY, but we're not taking the car seat on the cruise. We didn't even plan any excursions - we're just going to wing it and see what happens !:rolleyes:

 

I realize my son is older than your 8 month old - but I'll try to submit a review of our trip soon after we return home, since I see you're leaving soon also ! - I'll let you know how it goes in the Bahamas with a little one !:)

[jennifer22780]

thank you!!! and have a great time!!!

[KerCar]

ok so i wasnt even thinking about my 8 month old not being allowed in the pool with us... so ill look for a inflatable pool/tub. how is the deck area ? enough space for a pool? my 8 month old niece will be there too, and id say makes more sense to have one pool rather than two tubs!

 

does anyone know about the childrens areas and if i will be able to bring the baby into any of them even during set hours? im assuming the "no diaper in the pool areas rule" means pooty trained kids only, not take the diaper off your 8 month old lol. ;)

 

also, if we are doing excursions through NCL, do we need to bring our car seat? (we are being dropped off and picked up in NY - a friend is driving our vehicle, so we planned to leave the seat behind)

 

thanks in advance!

 

any advice/opinions/thoughts on traveling to bahamas with my baby would be appreciated...

 

Hi~

 

We brought an inflatable tub on the Spirit last year and it fit perfectly between two lounge chairs. The children's pool area is pretty big, but it will get crowded if there are lots of kid's on your sailings. If you do bring a pool, I'd suggest a smaller one that will fit between two chairs. Next to the pool, there is an enclosed area with ride-on and climbing toys for babies.

 

On our sailing last year, the kid's crew opened up each day for an hour or so for Time for Tots. Parents and their children could go in and use the equiptment and toys, etc.

 

Here's my review of the Spirit from last year:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=572026

 

The Spirit is a great ship:)

[kat89447]

Go with the inflatable tub. I have heard and my friends said they were perfect on the decks. Fill them with the water from the showers on deck if they have them and you should be able to empty them in a drain on the deck. Since few rooms have a tub they work great in the shower and deflated fit well in a small pool bag. I have heard on these boards that there are excusions that go by ferry (no car seat) and have also heard that car seats in taxi's are iffy. Some cabs don't have seatbelts to support them and others do. Some islands don't have child seat laws. Check the boards for where you are going and see if there is mention. I know in Bermuda they have similar laws to the US and taxi's are equipped for seats.

We have the same issue on our family reunion cruise with my niece(2). She turns two on the cruise so for most of it she doesn't qualify for the kids camp, my sister is trying to potty train her as we speak. lol She's a water baby and might not take kindly to the pool rules if she's still in a diaper. Don't forget the blow up toys for the pool. Have a great time.

[8thlivewire]

Here are the snippets of my review that have to do with kids -

 

Kids Club/Arcade/Pools–

Our 13 year old daughter didn’t want to sign up for the Kids club – I didn’t force the issue. I signed up our 2 year old son on the 2nd day. I was given a pager, but no one ever paged me. He went for 2 hours – when I came back they said he started to cry and they held him the whole time. So, don’t assume that if they’re not calling you – everything’s O.K. I’m glad I only stayed away for 2 hours – would they have held him for 3 or 4 hours ? Anyway, he wouldn’t go back after that – which was fine. They also had times set aside that parents could come in and play with their child – we did this once and he loved it. They have a pretty nice play area with a ball pit/climbing area and they got out bins of toys – blocks/cars,etc. for them to play with. We only went to this once – it just seemed like the times interfered with his nap !

 

Both of the kids enjoyed the arcade – it was really big ! All kinds of games/air hockey/jukebox. Our 2 year old just liked to sit on the car/motorcycle games – cheap entertainment – we never had to put money in for him !

 

The Buccaneer pool looked like lots of fun. My son is not potty trained, so I took along an inflatable bath tub which worked great. He only got to use it once – it was pretty chilly weather. I did use it to give him a bath, too – plenty of room in the shower. There was also a small oval pool off to the side that had about 5 inches of water in it. Just a note about the enclosed play area by the kids pools – don’t go in there in your bare feet ! The flooring is some kind of black rubber – I was in there in my bare feet and it took me 2 days to scrub the black off my feet !

 

All of the pools were closed on Friday, the last day of our cruise, because of the rough seas. The Tivoli pool looked like a wave pool. That was kind of a bummer because that was one of our warmest days !

Deck 7 (Promenade) was our favorite to just sit and relax ! I took cars/trucks for my son to play with and I just sat on the deck with him and he played for hours – I liked playing on Deck 7 with him because there were no steps for me to worry about him falling down !

 

Here's the link to my full review -

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=761007

 

We had a great time on our cruise ! We have 2 kids - daughter, 13 and son, 2 - they both had fun ! It was nice to just be able to spend time with them without having to stop to do daily chores and stuff !

 

Happy cruising ! Any other questions - I'll be happy to answer if I can !