Night Nursery

[jfhandel]

Hello All

 

We have just returned from a great first cruise on P&O's Oceana. One of the great bits about it was the Night Nursery - we could leave our 10 month there for the evening and he would be looked after. The concept and the delivery were excellent.

 

I have had a look on the web, and it seems P&O is pretty much unique in accommodating under-2s in this way (the exception being Ocean Village..which is owned by P&O/Carnival anyway). Does anybody know of any other lines that do this?

 

Cheers

 

JFH

 

(ps given that lots of you are US-based, I'd thoroughly recommend P&O for an alternative to US lines in and around Europe, especially if you are after a bit of a British experience!)

[crusinmama06]

You asked about other lines....they are few and far between. ;)

 

When you say "night nursery"...what are the times? Carnival watches under 2's for group sitting after 10pm.

 

RCCL, Celebrity and Azmara have in cabin sitting for one year olds and up.

 

Disney has Flounders nursery for 12 weekers and up.

 

Thanks for the info about P&O. I would love to hear more about your cruise. :)

[jfhandel]

Sure...we took a 12 night cruise, ex-Southampton, to the Canary Islands, Madeira, Lisbon, and Northern Spain. Whilst most of the ports are fairly well known to Europeans, anyone else is unlikely to know much of any of them bar Lisbon.

 

With the exception of Lisbon, which is well worth a longer visit, the ports themselves are generally not much than pleasant stops, and you needed to hit the road to get the best out of most of them. We couldn't really do this due to having a little one in tow, but we knew this when we booked and were fine with it. Additionally, we'd visited a couple of the stops before and so had had the chance to get out and about a bit.

 

I'm not sure if P&O is marketed to the US, I suspect its sister line, Princess, is generally more frequently positioned for this market...but its well worth a look. Its definitely a British experience!

 

The food is excellent, but is slightly geared to British tastes, with plenty of curries (somewhat appropriate given the preponderance of Indian crew). There is a traditional pub on board, and officers in their dress-whites are often to be seen on deck and at dinner - we shared a table with the ship's doctor one evening who proved to be a real character. Our departure from Lisbon was accompanied by The Gread British Sailaway, with much waving of Union Jacks and singing of Rule Britannia - all very amusing! Oceana has a tradtional teak promenade deck, which I was pleasantly surprised to see frequented by a hard core of promenaders doing laps of the ship at all hours.

 

The captain and bridge crew were most amusing stiff upper lip types, as evidenced by the early morning and midday announcements throughout the ship (the latter courtesy of Oceana's third officer, who was more than happy to sing parts of it).

 

Note that everything on board is priced in sterling, but in consolation there is no service charge levied on drinks.

 

And finally, the childcare, and in fact the overall service, was excellent. My wife is very picky when it comes to childminding etc and she was really impressed by what she saw.

 

Hope this gives you (all) a flavour...

 

JFH

[CLARE7678]

I have to say we cruised on Oceana last November and from experience I must say P&O have the top card in regards childcare. Other cruise liners are very good in regards to providing childcare whilst the kids are awake but the night nursery on Oceana was a god send. My children then 4 and 18 months would have kids tea, get showered and then i would take them up to the kids club. My eldest would play with the older kids whilst my youngest was settled in a cot to sleep the night away while we had a stress free evening. In the middle of our courses I would nip back up to the night nursery to check on the little one and more often than not the eldest would climb into a little camp bed at the side of his cot. The staff were excellent and I had full confidence in their abilities and they even supplied a pager so they could cantact you whenever they needed. We would return for the boys after the show and carry them both fast asleep to their beds. We have booked Princess this year and I know now that they dont offer the same facillities so i just hope we and the kids have as good a time. Other cruises could definately learn from p&O