Magnusm

We've travelled a lot with our two kids, now 9&7; their #1 preferred trip is a cruise. We've stuck with NCL as they have loved every one (started when they were 5&4). Done Getaway twice plus Dawn and Jade; stuck with warm itineraries in the Caribbean and Mediterranean. Booked on the Escape in Feb. If you stick to any of the Epic+ ships they'll have blast; so much to do. Kids club also seems well run, lots of activities, small enough groups they get to know other kids.

My kids, 3 and 5, didn't care much for the character breakfast. Better opportunities to meet the characters and as others have said the food was not very good. One thing I will likely not do again. Some other kids seemed to really enjoy it so for me it was worth trying, but won't do it again.

Did the Getaway in May with our 3 and 5 yo's.

They didn't really care much for the pajama jam, so that is one thing I will skip next time. Some kids really seemed to enjoy it, but I think some of the group participation activities better suited kids older than 3. Food was really nothing special either. Not a good use of $$$ for me.

Everything else, including the kids club they really enjoyed. Mine would go on average for an hour or two a day. For me it was the perfect combination of they were always happy to go whenever we wanted them to so we could go to the Illusionarium show etc, but they didn't demand to go all the time.

It was our first NCL cruise and already have booked our next.

Main disappointment for my 3yo was that he was 38" tall and some of the bigger slides were 40" min so he was not happy his big sister could go and not him. The kids wading pool would keep him entertained, but favorites were probably mini golf and the kids rope course.

In St. Thomas we did the aquarium and beach activity and St. Maarten we rented a day room at the Divi hotel and spent the day at the beach there. Both worked well for us, but the glass bottom boat looks good too.

You'll have a blast I'm sure.

To answer the pager question, they will give you one if you aren't sure where you are going to be. If you say you are going to dinner at "xyz" typically no pager, if you are going to be wandering around and not sure exactly where you'll be they'll give you one. Guess they don't have enough for everyone to have one.

We had one about half the time on the Getaway a month ago.

FYI my kids absolutely loved the trip (age 5 and 3).

There is a fairly active thread over on the NCL board that says that on Wednesday NCL will be announcing no more balcony smoking effective 11/1/14, so I'd wait until then to be sure before you make a decision based on smoking policy.

We didn't much use our balcony on the Getaway a month ago because of the smokers next door. Will be happy to see this change.

Everything mentioned above is included.

I was on the Getaway a month ago with basically the same set-up so I'd expect the requirements to be the same. I had a 5 yo DD (43") and 3 yo DS (38") so had to deal with this a lot as they were right in that zone.

Firstly nothing (other than kids club, maybe the main roles course) was based on age. It was all height (and for the drop slides also weight dependant).

For the 3 non-drop slides it was I think 40" (don't recall exactly). Either way oldest could use them (with a couple inches to spare) and loved them, youngest could not and was very disappointed (though only the smallest of the slides I would have said was suitable for him anyway).

For the drop slides it was 48" and 99 lbs min.

Spider web was 43"- which was tough to do so my youngest couldn't have managed it any way, oldest loved it. The bungie trampoline was also I think 43", so, oldest could do it and did a couple times. Line was often pretty long so didn't bother much.

Ropes course was fun, but clearly way above anything a 5 yo could do. Requirement might have be 48" for this, not 100% sure as kids were no where near being able to do it no matter what the signs said. Definitely saw 10-12 yo's on it, but not younger.

They did have a neat kids mini ropes course which I saw kids around 2 or so on. My youngest really liked it, oldest thought it was just for little kids and only did it a couple times, which was fine as she had plenty else to do.

The rock wall was more of the same theme - oldest was just big enough to use it, youngest was not. This was probably the one he got most upset over after seeing his sister do it. My DD got all the way to the top and rang the bell (definitely with help from the staff who were great and cheering her on as were many of the guests waiting).

Overall had a great cruise, ship and staff were amazing and already booked another NCL cruise for Feb (on the Dawn). Though I would probably wait until my youngest is a bit taller so he can use more of the activities before we go back to either the Getaway or Breakaway.