mjkacmom

Ah. Did not know that. Good to know.

Wrong post.

We were going to try to purchase passes on our November cruise on the Breakaway, but after reading how hard it is to purchase them (arriving very early at the port to be in the first group let onboard, and practically running to guest services), we decided to just to spa passes, and not start our vacation with stress!

My kids are young and one is in preschool and the other isn't old enough for school. You keep your kids safe by watching them while they're on cruise lines, home or wherever. When I said i will keep my kids safe I meant it. That's the job I signed up for. Even when they get 18 and married, I will still do everything in my power to keep them safe.

You signed on to keep them safe, but also to prepare them for the world. You only get about 18 years, and they go by very quickly. Our job as parents is not to raise children, but to raise adults. You do your children a disservice if you don't allow them more independence. Sending a timid, nervous, unprepared kid off to college is not doing him or her any favors.

I have three teens. My 15 and 17 year olds were fine on the ship without constant adult supervision. I was the mean mom, and made them come back to the cabin at 1 am - most other teens were still out. At home, they can go to the beach with friends, take the train into NYC, go out to eat, shop, movies, sporting events - dd17 even took the bus to Boston, alone, to visit her boyfriend (she has also flown alone many times). Next year, she will be away at college.

And the thought of any of my kids being 18 and married?! That would be one of my worst nightmares!

They are best when served fresh - on a buffet, they are sitting out for a while.

Do the math - a spa pass is $199.

If you are not in any hurry, leave your luggage out, and just pick a disembarking time. We took our luggage off once when we were in a hurry, and there was a huge delay. We find it might easier to let them deal with the luggage, and then grab a porter when we gather it up at the pier (saves a lot of time at customs - worth the tip).

It's recommended that baby bottles are sterilised until baby is 12 months old. Just take along a plastic tub that will fit a couple of bottles and use sterilising tablets with cold water.

Not here! When my oldest was about a month old, I asked the pediatrician when I could stop boiling the bottles. She laughed and said there is never a need to sterilize - babies need clean, not sterile. Think about it - babies put things in their mouths all of the time that aren't sterile. And babies over a year old should not be using bottles anyway.

It's a matter of their liability insurance. They won't make an exception. EM

I know on NCL, they absolutely won't make any exceptions - I assume it's a liability issue. And obviously, if a toddler isn't behaving at dinner, and annoying other guests, that child should be removed from the dining room (and this is coming from a mom of many).

I left my oldest when she was just one (grandparents live in town), and left the other four kids when they were babies, as well (five kids in six years - needed a break!). Since then, DH and I have gone away many times without them, and they've gone away without us, on school trips, vacations with friends, etc. (the oldest is 17, and will be away at college next year anyway). Heck, dd17 was away three weeks over the summer on vacations with friends and dd12 at least two weeks. I'm jealous!

It's healthy!

NCL Breakaway! Our favorite so far (and tons to do - my kids range in age from 10 - 17, and they loved it).

We love NCL, but they changed their kids club program, and now it's 3 and up. I do think they have an organzied play time for the under 3's, with the parents. None of the ships have any water play for the diapered set - however, half of my kids were potty trained by 2 1/2 (and all by 3).

I do find that freestyle dining works really, really well with kids of all ages.

The Ultimate Beverage Package is $49/day plus gratuity - so it is $56.35/day per person. All adults in the room must purchase it. If there are minors in the room, they must purchase the soda package. Bottled water is not included with the soda.

 

I just purchased the UBP on Breakaway and drank Grey Goose without issue. It's cocktails under $8.50, wine under $10 and bottled beer under $5.50 and draft beer under $5.95. I drank some drink of the days and some frozen drinks and they're covered as well, you just don't get the souvenir glass. I drank GG Orange with diet sierra mist and that was covered.

 

Hope that helps.

Yep, every cocktail I had with GG was covered (and I drank quite a lot of them!). I'm usually a wine drinker, but had so much fun trying new drinks (including every drink of the day).

So, he got to the ship too early and had to wait (you would think he learned from a previous cruise he took), his fridge leaked, he missed the lifejacket demonstration at the muster drill (it's only about 15 seconds, easy to miss), room service took an hour (that's how long I expect it to take...), people put towels on chairs (like every single cruise ship and resort), spoons too big at breakfast, not enough hot water (never experienced that on a cruise or at a hotel - oh wait, yes, I have)... The folks on the Titanic had it better!

FYI - LOOSE rhymes with MOOSE

LOSE rhymes with CRUISE

If I was doing Cable Beach I would do a hotel package. The public beach has no facilities and may not be the safest option.

To see some of the city walk to Junkanoo Beach, swimming is good here for young ones.On the way back you can walk to the Pirate Museum. Its a very nice safe and clean walk back to the ship.

Junkanoo is the public beach on Cable beach, and has facilities (and I believe it's safe - across the street from a police station). Cabbage beach has no facilities, and rough water.

You can't pre-book spa treatments. You really don't need to pre-book specialty restaurants, either. It's really easy to burn through $450 OBC!

Since it's the busiest travel week of the year, you might not be able to buy day passes anyway.

I'm going to mention this because I am a NCL fan, and this is your first NCL cruise. The first week of November, every year, is NJ's Teachers Convention. Most schools are closed that Thursday and Friday, some are closed Tuesday for election day, and some are closed the entire week. Therefore, many families choose to vacation that week, and since airfaire to Orlando is extremely high (due to the convention), lots find cruising out of NYC to be a good deal.

We have sailed twice this particular week (we have children in school), and last month, there were about 1800 children on our Breakaway sailing. It was a very full ship, the terminal was packed, you needed reservations for shows, etc. Didn't bother us a bit, but if you are not prepared... Just didn't want a sailing full of kids to make you dislike NCL.

On our Epic cruise I was a little freaked out because I could not book our meals ahead of time since we have 2 kids. Never, not once, did we have a problem getting in when we wanted to but we eat early maybe 7 pm would have a wait.

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Why couldn't you book dining? We have 5 kids, and booked restaurants ahead of time. We were charged for all adults, but they refunded the money in the form of OBC after we dined.

I would expect Atlantis to be pretty heavily booked, since some schools have off that week for the holidays. They might not even be selling day passes.

Sorry to jump in on the post but i have a UBP question

 

I am primarily a cocktail drinker, now having seen some pictures of menus a lot of them are between $7 and $9 (plus gratuity). Im thinking that it probably wouldn't be worth my while purchasing UBP....... am I right?

 

Also I am assuming that as the gratuity is added onto the price of each drink that the price limit on UBP would not take this into account, i.e. a $8 cocktail + 15% (say $1.20) therefore the drink price is £9.20 and not included under UBP.

Is this right??

 

My head is starting to spin a little now :D

 

Thanks

Most cocktails are included, and if you should happen upon one that is not, they will most likely be happy to make it for you so that it is covered (or just cover it).

Not true. I don't know why people keep posting this. If your kids have a medical emergency, they will be treated. Have any of you ever wondered what happens when someone has a bad accident or car crash? Do responders and medical personnel wander about asking about who gives consent for treatment? Totally ridiculous. I'm an R.N. and it's called implied consent. Medical professionals are not going to let your children suffer, be sick or die because you are out of the country and there is no "letter".

I always give my parents a letter when I leave my kids with them, as does my sister. Last summer, both my dd and her dd came down with swimmer's ear while my sister was away, and I was out for the day. Luckily, my sister gave my mom the letter - the walk in clinic would not treat my niece without it. They had my mom call me, and allowed my dd to be treated, after talking to me.

It's not always a life and death emergency, and writing up a letter isn't very difficult. I don't know why a parent would not take this step (I always sent them along with my kids when they travelled with others, too).

Out of interest, how would a walkie-talkie help?

So that junior can call you when a strange man tells him he has a puppy and some candy in his cabin, asking if it's okay?

The difference between a cruise ship, and the mall, is that someone who causes harm in a mall can walk out, and drive away. On a cruise ship, that person can be located ASAP. It's a lot less expensive for a child predator to walk into a mall, vs. a cruise ship. And the danger is rarely strangers - it's uncle Bill, coach Jeff, Father Pat, Jimmy's brother, etc.

Kids shouldn't be alone (travel in at least 2's), enter someone else's cabin, go with someone other than their parents, and should follow the rules. Dd17 and ds15 were off with their teen groups (including Nassau) on our last cruise, and our dd10, ds10, and dd12 were given some freedom (but mostly were with us, or in the cabin). At home, all are allowed age-appropriate freedoms (the youngest are allowed to go out to lunch with friends once a week, walk a few blocks to their friends' homes, and walk to school, the oldest allowed to take public transportation to the city or shore).

- Pricing for drinks is somewhat strange. $2.65 for a coke is fair, but $9,99 for a beer and even $16 for a cocktail is just too expensive.

Where did you get those prices? Most cocktails on the Breakaway were about $7.50, and wine about $8.50, and I didn't see any beer close to $9.99 (DH drank Newcastle all week, and it was covered by the UBP). Prices here at home are higher, and I'm headed to an annual even in Philadephia this weekend, where, at the hotel, the house wine in the lobby bar is $15 a glass (hope it didn't go up).

In Nassau you could do a day pass at a hotel (Hilton, Sheraton), go to the zoo, and Blue Lagoon looks very tame (but I think I'd want to be closer to the ship with the baby - I remember bringing one of my kids to the beach for the first time, only to find out he hated it).

They could get some pool and beach time at the hotels, and the water is very gentle on the beach.

1. Tighten up the nonsmoking areas. Maybe one side of the ship balcony rooms could be nonsmoking.

 

2. Not to start an arguement or debate. This is just my opinion/preference. We like traditional cruise dinning. We would like to be able to have a set time/table and maybe wait staff. I have talked to others that would also like this option. Freestyle is great for some but others do like the traditional dinning. We like the way Carnival does it with anytime dinning but we can still choose traditional dinning.

Oh no, do not take away freestyle dining! It's the reason we won't cruise any other line (I've heard anytime dining isn't as good as freestyle).

I would like a larger breakfast room service menu (with hot items), better beer selections, a private island that the ships can dock at, and a new itinerary out of NYC for 7 day sailings.

ETA, a new format for the UBP, where you don't have to see the charges. It is a constant worry until the last day, when they are taken off (since this is a relatively new program, and there have been some variations of what is and what isn't included).