Very impressed with P&O with an infant

Hi there

I just wanted to let others in similar circumstances know that P&O seems to be an excellent choice for families travelling with infants. We've never cruised with P&O before but are now booked on a 7 night Fjords cruise on Britannia. We've enjoyed many cruises on NCL and Celebrity but assumed our cruising days would be put on hold until our DD is at least 3, until a friend recommended P&O.

I must say I'm very impressed so far. The fare for our DD is only £99 compared to full price with other lines we looked at, they have booked us a cot, baby bath, bottle steriliser and bottle warmer. They have also reserved enough baby food and formula milk (Hipp Organic and SMA) as she will be weaned when we sail. Another very impressive feature is the night nursery which is free to use. This means we will be able to enjoy a few relaxed dinners and shows. The staff are qualified early years childcare staff and give you a pager in case they can't settle the child back to sleep. You can either put your little one to sleep in one of their cots or leave them in their buggy if already asleep. The nursery shuts at 2am giving you plenty of time to enjoy an 'evening out' on ship.

I must say I'm really impressed. I haven't come across a better value and more baby friendly holiday than this.

P&O have got an excellent childrens club "The Reef" for all ages, I have taken dd there for twelve years now. Independent child participation starts at 2 years of age; which is a year younger than almost all other cruise lines.

Night Nursery for 6 months to 4 year old children runs from 6pm until 2am with last admission at 11pm. All collections must be done at least 15 minutes before the end of a session. As has been said this is free as is all other club participation. As a safety issue 2 year olds to 12 year olds are required to wear colour coded wrist bands, issued at initial boarding embarkation to indicate their specific muster stations in the event of a drill or emergency to assist sorting them out. Signing in/out for this age range requires an approved adult to be registered with the club to deposit/collect child/ren. This is organised by parent/s at childrens first registration at the club facility, so grandparents, uncles etc. can be listed by parents to assist if parents want this. You get a Reef Tick sticker stuck on your cruise card and entered in the child's log.

High chairs are available around the restaurants and staff will usually assist in obtaining one in the buffet or freedom restaurant, club diners will soon realise the regular waiters know the requirement if you are doing MDR with children. At 5.30pm it's the early afternoon tea for children where you could opt for trying to feed just the children in anticipation of sending them into Night Nursery or Childrens club as appropriate and have a meal later as a couple.

Another money saving tip (lol) is that there are no tips, or auto-gratuities charged to children until they are twelve years of age. This is not so on many US lines where babies pay full rate as do all other children. There is an opportunity to hand cash tips to the Youth Team Reef Crew at the end of the cruise and it is easy to fund this from what the children have not paid in auto-gratuities.

Regards John

Thanks for the additional advice John, it's good to know that tips are not expected until kids are much older and that the kids clubs start early too. This may become our line of choice if we enjoy Britannia. Of course we will remember to tip nursery staff, we're getting free babysitting!!

Oh and another thing, you only need to drop off a box of nappies at the port luggage check in - no need to pack them in your suitcase unless you're flying to join the cruise.

I've been taking my daughter on P and O since she was 3; she's 21 this year and we're still having a summer cruise together! Now we can use the adult ships too.

We always found the Childrens' Clubs superb; the only down side was that we saw very little of DD because she loved them so much. In the early cruises before my husband decided he really didn't like it, we used Childrens' tea and had a later 2nd sitting meal as a couple while she was looked after in the club. They used to show Disney and similar films in the evening after tea, and if children fell asleep they's put a blanket over them. Many times we picked her up and carried her back to the cabin, put her to bed, and she'd wake in the morning and ask how she got there!

As others have said, not charging gratuities for children means you can give the Youth Crew, who are all trained and safety checked, a good tip for the superb job they do.

Older children can sign themselves in and out. i believe this is now from age 11 or 12, but my daughter was able to do it from the age of 9 which made her fell very grown up not having to be collected by Mum.

Older children can sign themselves in and out. I believe this is now from age 11 or 12, but my daughter was able to do it from the age of 9 which made her fell very grown up not having to be collected by Mum.

This facility has been recently withdrawn, my daughter was 12 years eleven months and three days old on a recent cruise and was disappointed that she could not do this anymore. The privilege starts when they are 13 now or a few days after we returned to Southampton as my daughter saw it.

Princess incidentally have different rules and they have age bands where self signing is the rule and a younger age where it is not allowed plus an intermediate age where parents decide independently on both signing in and signing out. Parents going ashore when children are in the club facility is also permitted whereas P&O it is a no no. On port days on Princess a compulsory lock in prevents all self signing exits by the children.

Regards John

Hi

We have no interest in a baby friendly cruise, but it was just so refreshing to have someone post really positive news rather than complain that I read it all !

Thank you and happy cruising to all of you :)

Thanks to all, forgot about the children's tea in the buffet, thanks for the reminder. Ideal for feeding a messy baby just before her normal bedtime (hopefully in the night nursery!)