NCL with 16 month old - Bermuda

[my $.02]

Thinking of booking the 7 day Bermuda cruise with our 16month old. DW and I have been on 8 cruise's, all with RCCL, but this Itin looks like a nice one to break in the little guy. Also, we have never been to Bermuda and would like to see it.

 

Question, it does not look like NCL offer's anything for kid's under 2, is this true?

 

Has anyone done this cruise with kid's? If so, can you tell me the good/bad?

[NYreadytogo]

As I wrote in the other post, we were on the Dawn to Bermuda from NYC when our son was 13 months old. They always had at least 1 room set up with toys and books for children under 2, where you can go in with your child- there was no supervision or staff. It was hard to find- so ask at the front desk if it's not clear in the planner.

 

This was our second time on the Dawn, and we don't really like it too much (it looks old and NCL always has bad organization), but the cruise itself was fine. Bermuda was great, and we went everywhere by bus with our umbrella stroller. Horseshoe Bay had a little cove to the right where there are big rocks, and it's totally calm and very popular with babies. Our son hates the ocean in general, but he liked it there, so we went there on 2 of the 3 days. This was the baby's 3rd cruise, but the first without grandparents to watch him, and we felt we got to go everywhere and see everything with the baby.

[GOLDENBONNY]

Thinking of booking the 7 day Bermuda cruise with our 16month old. DW and I have been on 8 cruise's, all with RCCL, but this Itin looks like a nice one to break in the little guy. Also, we have never been to Bermuda and would like to see it.

 

Question, it does not look like NCL offer's anything for kid's under 2, is this true?

 

Has anyone done this cruise with kid's? If so, can you tell me the good/bad?

 

 

We went once on NCL and we will never do it again.If you been cruising on RCCL you will not like NCL.

[my $.02]

Being a loyal RCCL cruiser, RCCL is my first choice but, their cost for a 5 day is far higher then the cost for a 7 day (in a suite) in NCL.

 

I am open to new lines and would think that we would still have a very good time.

 

We don't want to fly as we live in NJ, so cruising out of NYC or Cape Liberty is a must.

 

Cant seem to find any other interesting cruise for a good price in the April/May/June time frame.

[14ersco]

There is a CC group cruise on the Dawn for June 7; see the link in my signature for prices and more info. This an all-inclusive price and I have not been able to beat the prices through a normal reservation. The Dawn has a child's pool area on the aft; though not sure on the rules for swim diapers. A big difference between RCI and NCL is the Freestyle dining. We found this handy with DS to not be locked into a set dining time, just eat when he is hungry. He is looking forward to having mac n cheese available 24/7 at the Blue Lagoon. :p

[beachchick]

We went once on NCL and we will never do it again.If you been cruising on RCCL you will not like NCL.

 

We also have cruised with RCI (our fave line so far), but thoroughly enjoyed our NCL cruise as well. Even had we not enjoyed it, I would never tell someone else that they would not like NCL simply because we hadn't. It's simply untrue that every single person who enjoys or even prefers RCI "will not like" NCL. Many of us do.

 

The fact that NCL accepts 2 y/os into the children's program is a plus for some parents. (Obviously it won't help in this instance.) NCL has such a broad range of dining options, all open dining, which is also a plus for many parents, as well as adults.

 

With the introduction of Freestyle 2.0, there are (supposed to be) more options or times for the Under 2 Zoo crowd. I can't speak from experience about that.

 

I also can't speak specifically about the Dawn, but she is only 6 years old and was designed with Freestyle in mind. As far as I know, the rules for swim diapers have not changed, even in regard to the small children's pool: No swim diapers of any kind (due to CDC regulations and based on their specific rules). I know some parents flaunt that (one even said that the cruise line should basically ignore or butt out of the issue, regardless of the rules or how it affects others and their children). I'm sure that you will not, even though it will be a disappointment. It sounds like Bermuda has some wonderful options for families traveling with toddlers.

 

beachchick (who became a grandma this week!):D

[CC Help Michell]

We also have cruised with RCI (our fave line so far), but thoroughly enjoyed our NCL cruise as well. Even had we not enjoyed it, I would never tell someone else that they would not like NCL simply because we hadn't. It's simply untrue that every single person who enjoys or even prefers RCI "will not like" NCL. Many of us do.

 

The fact that NCL accepts 2 y/os into the children's program is a plus for some parents. (Obviously it won't help in this instance.) NCL has such a broad range of dining options, all open dining, which is also a plus for many parents, as well as adults.

 

With the introduction of Freestyle 2.0, there are (supposed to be) more options or times for the Under 2 Zoo crowd. I can't speak from experience about that.

 

I also can't speak specifically about the Dawn, but she is only 6 years old and was designed with Freestyle in mind. As far as I know, the rules for swim diapers have not changed, even in regard to the small children's pool: No swim diapers of any kind (due to CDC regulations and based on their specific rules). I know some parents flaunt that (one even said that the cruise line should basically ignore or butt out of the issue, regardless of the rules or how it affects others and their children). I'm sure that you will not, even though it will be a disappointment. It sounds like Bermuda has some wonderful options for families traveling with toddlers.

 

beachchick (who became a grandma this week!):D

 

I agree with Beachchick about telling others they "won't" like something just because we didn't (or "will" for that matter -- everyone's mileage may vary!). Like the OP here, we are always open to new lines and though so far in many ways we thought HAL was the "best" (we don't travel with kids) we also like RCI, NCL, and Carnival, too. We are sailing the Dawn next April and really looking forward to it; we picked her in part because she's a persistent "favorite NCL ship" among the regulars on the NCL board here at CC -- many people love her and her crew.

 

Congratulations to you on grandmahood, BC! :)

[calikak]

We haven't done Bermuda on NCL but did cruise with them in October with our then-16-month-old son, in a suite. We had an awesome time and DH and I agreed that it was one of our best cruises ever, but a lot of that had to do with the fantastic staff on this particular ship (the Sun). Some thoughts:

 

1. As described above, there is no formal program for kids under 2 on NCL, but they did have a room available with age-appropriate toys where the kids under 2 could play. On our ship it was only open during certain hours, you had to check the daily activity sheet for times.

2. NCL only charges port fees/taxes for kids under 2, so often it can be a cheaper option than other cruise lines if your child is under 2.

3. On our cruise, it just so happened that nearly all the kids onboard were in diapers (it was during school season so there were almost no school-aged kids onboard). There was a sign near the pool saying no swim diapers, but there was a tacit agreement among all the parents that nobody was going to say anything about anyone else's diapered kid using the wading pool, and none of the crew ever said a word to anyone using that pool. We also brought along a little splash pool for the balcony and filled it with our ice bucket, and that worked great too if your sailing doesn't have the splash pool as an option. There were a couple of drains in our balcony where we could pour out the water.

4. The suite perks on NCL are amazing. If you can swing the cost of a suite, it is totally worth it, especially with a young child. Having the option to have dinner from the dining room (and from the specialty restaurants too) delivered to our suite on a white table cloth course-by-course after our son had gone to bed at night was really awesome. Also our butler did things like keeping our mini-bar stocked with whole milk, so we didn't have to remember to get some from the buffet to have ready for morning wake-up time. Also, they had a special restaurant for suite passengers for breakfast and lunch that was always empty when we'd go down there, so you could enjoy a sit-down meal without having to worry that your loud child was bothering other passengers.

5. The crew on our ship totally doted on our son, can't say enough nice things about them. We really felt welcomed.