COcruise

Exactly YOLO! Never know when you’ll be back so book the Pisa and cinque terre trip. Then report back and let us know how it was!!! So jealous!!!

Sounds amazing! Have the best time!! We loved the Prima. if you disembark from Rome, pre book transportation. The taxis at port were charging $500 (has to be illegal?!!) but ours was much less ($150 for a big van and private driver that was waiting for us). I think you can do both especially if they guarantee return in time. Might be a long day but you only live once! Pisa was not somewhere I’d want to spend tons of time anyways. 30 min was plenty. Too many people. Get great shoes and get kids walking now to prepare and break in shoes. I made my husband prep lol We work out but 30k+ miles a day….. Ooooooof 😅 ibiza and Mallorca had taxis at the port waiting. Many have phone numbers on the side so we’d take a pic for later. We took the bus in Mallorca/walked and taxi back. Ibiza we called a taxi when ready at the beach club. Many text too. Mallorca….. we almost missed the ship because the taxi cue in city centre was INSANE. Like a 40 min wait. We almost ran the miles back. Also tried Uber and they kept cancelling. We got the monthly international cell package through Verizon (cheaper than daily and didn’t deal with SIM cards). Definitely recommend. It was $100 for the month and worked in every country. Also download Uber, bolt and cabify. Some don’t work at the port some do, depends on the region. Otherwise we’d hail a taxi like the old days. Also bounce app is great to safely store stuff if on an excursion or if you want to do something without stuff like the beach (car seat for us!). Gibraltar was the one port we didn’t have 😞

Yes this! We did an Airbnb in Rome with a washer/dryer and it was amazing.

The slides were barely used in our sailing in October. We were not in one of these rooms so I can’t speak to that. I would recommend to not stay below the haven sundeck, very loud overnight when they move around chairs.

We did Prima in Oct (with a 10 month old). There is a ton to do for kids, water slides, regular slides, kids club, arcade, mini golf, a go kart track, it goes on and on. We stayed in the haven and loved it, doing another in a few weeks (different ship) also haven. Worth it with kids!

We just did almost all ports with a 10 month old on Prima, so a little different than with older kids. Europe is so kid friendly, kids are welcome almost everywhere. We had no days at sea on the 10 day cruise. Get off on all of them 🤪 we did our own stuff each port. Pisa on our own and took the bus to the leaning tower. It was fun to walk around and see it once. We would've climbed to the top but I think no young kids allowed - kids might find this cool, get tickets ahead of time. The town by the port has nothing. The second day we would’ve done Florence by train but there was a train strike the week we were there. Bummer but next time we’ll do it. We spent a bit in Lisbon before the cruise and LOVED it. Ibiza we took a taxi to a kid friendly beach club and rented a day bed beach front. We went in off season but I hear some have blow up water stuff for kids when in season. Barcelona has so much to see, depends on if your kids will hang for sights or not. Sagrada familia is awesome (need tickets in advance) same with park guell and the other guadi sights. La boqueria is awesome (the market) and great food for everyone, just watch your stuff for pick pockets. Marseille was so fun to explore the narrow winding streets up to the castle at the top. Lots of great food. Rome was our favorite, we did all the sights so again if your kids will hang there’s so much to do! Happy to dig up more info, we just went in October and spent almost a month in Europe plus the 10 day cruise.

Thank you SO much for this review. Do you think it is possible with a kiddo on your back or front/side carrier? We are super active and have an almost 1.5 year old on our upcoming cruise. We really want to do this but I can't find anyone that's done it with a young kiddo.

Thank you so much for this info! Do you have any idea why NCL restricts the age on this (and literally every baths excursion) to 5 years old? The only thing I can think of is the walking, which isn't an issue for us. Thanks!

We did an NCL tour to a beach resort back in 2018 and loved it. I’ll see if I can find the name.

Probably not? I would say if haven is in the budget (no idea what ship you’re on) the upgrade may be worth it with a baby. We did 10 days with our 10 mo and had a great time. The priority embark, disembark and then priority disembark at the ports were great, along with the other amenities.

We had different noise issues, under the haven sun deck and they would drag around furniture all night long. We thought it would be quiet since not under the restaurant but learned our lesson. 15916.

You can only request an FCC once. email the price drop email and they will respond after a few days. We got an FCC for our Oct European cruise and got a little over $5k. I think we got lucky and the reprice was a fluke. Anywho, my letter only had the adjustment amounts and no fine print or restrictions. Beware, tried to book a 4 day cruise and it didn’t work. Come to find out they are only good on cruises over 7 days and it is good one year from the disembarkation. I couldn’t find it on the website but the info is in the other letters so I didn’t argue.

Coming full circle in this for anyone that stumbles upon this post. We’re in London now after 3 weeks in Europe including our 10 day med cruise on NCL. If you want to take your baby on a cruise - do it! The staff on NCL were amazing and there was so much to do even with a baby. They provided a pack and play which was great. Every restaurant had high chairs. They offered to bring whatever our baby needed and even made her baby food from blended veggies at dinner without us asking. We were in the haven and our butler noticed our baby loved bananas and made sure we had fresh fruit every afternoon for her. babies can’t go in the pool since they are not potty trained, bummer but fine. We switched off. We got off at every port except one day; the overnight in Livorno we only got off one day. We had no issues finding baby supplies in every port to replenish. We did all excursions on our own and used a variety of transportation methods (bus, train, Uber, taxi). Very easy to navigate and it was nice not to be stuck on a 12 hour NCL excursion with a baby. We also found we did the same excursions but for a fraction of the price. We had zero issues getting around ant any of the ports or in Lisbon. Walked 15k to 30k steps and beyond a day each day with the Zoe Travel stroller (Lisbon and all the cruise ports) or used a carrier (Sintra). The travel was great for the cruise ship, we took it everywhere. We used a combination of stroller and carrier for places such as the catacombs and underground tour in Naples and also at the Vatican. The only port where the stroller struggled a tad was at the Roman Forum; we wheeled it backwards up and down the hill and it worked fine. It performed great at all other ports and at Palatine Hill and Colosseum. We’re in fairly decent shape and had to carry the stroller up sets of stairs here or there but never found it to be troublesome. Did break a sweat a few times but that’s okay - earned another beer? We actually found thar Europe is far more family friendly than the US. Only caveat is there are not many changing tables in public so make sure you have a travel changing pad and use practice using stroller for a change when in port. Do it!!!

Wow thank you. Great explanation! Sounds like what happened, only a few lights came on for maybe 5 or 10 min and everything else was out (who knows exact timing, very sleepy and so bright it woke up the kiddo) then all lights came on and off several times and couldn’t be shut off for a bit. I asked a few employees but they all just said ship lost power and it hadn’t happened before. I was just curious/nosey (lol)

I agree. I was more curious and NCL didn’t say anything formally. Just a tad scary but I know there are backup generators etc. We actually are enjoying this ship and the itinerary, except for the fact they move patio furniture around on the haven pool deck above us at 4 am and it’s quite loud. Lesson learned. Otherwise, it’s been great and we would cruise Prima again.