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kitkat343

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Everything posted by kitkat343

  1. I'm really disappointed in this because last time I went to Jamaica the ship stopped in Ocho Rios, which is right next to Dunn's river falls and Dolphin's cove (a really nice animal place for kids). Now, its an hour drive each way to these attractions from Falmouth. An overnight in Falmouth would make it easier to reach these attractions, but I don't know why they would want to route the ships in Falmouth versus Ocho Rios (if anyone knows of better excursions closer in Falmouth please tell me since I'd love to know!)
  2. As a general rule, having travelled with my kids on many cruises I'd recommend private excursions whenever possible. If you can afford private (just your family) excursions that will let you control the itinerary and take breaks whenever you need to and stay longer where your kids are interested. You don't want to be waiting around for 50 people to be loaded onto a bus, or wait for everyone to take a bathroom break or wait for stragglers to return from independent time on the tour. The private tours made a big difference in terms of how much we have been able to see on vacations with kids. In St. Petersburg, cruise ship tour bus passengers had to wait on line because the museums staggered entrance to prevent bottlenecks. Since there were only 3 of us, we could park closer to the entrance and not wait on line. My oldest was 3 when we went to St. Petersburg, and he hit his limit after an hour in the Hermitage. I took him to the cafe, bought him cake and sent my husband ahead to look at the impressionist paintings (we'd seen my favorite - the Renaissance paintings first since we knew this was likely to happen). My son completely recovered thanks to the sugar, and we continued on and were able to visit al the major attractions in two days. Please note one issue - Norway was the only place we've visited so far where car seat laws are enforced on taxis for small children. We wound up stuck a few times in Stavanger and Bergen because the ports are too small for extensive public transportation, and cabs were forbidden to transport us. So be sure to prearrange all of your transportation - the Norway tour office confirmed later that cab companies are required to provide car seats upon request, but since we tried to arrange transportation last minute we were not able to book transportation in Bergen. In Olden, you can email Olden adventures since they run busses to both the Loen Skylift and Briskdal Glacier and they can hopefully advise you on how much time both will take. We did both easily, but were there 3 days after the Loen Skylift opened, at a time when there weren't even ship excursions running there yet. I've read on the forums of lines there, and obviously can't comment since my experience was so long ago it isn't relevant. But Olden Adventures or tripadvisor can hopefully let you know how much time you'll need for both. Someone here or olden adventures might know where the official port website is, and hopefully the times are listed there (Cunard does the same thing, and I. had to research port times from the official port websites for my last cruise to plan private excursions). The skylift was amazing, but quite expensive, so it's hard to predict the weather far in advance and know if its worth it but Olden adventures might know whether tickets to the Skylift tend to sell out now. The Flam railroad certainly will, so that you'd need to buy ahead of time and hope for the best in terms of weather/visibility. Go to the buffet on the first morning with a. diaper bag, and bring back yogurt, fruit and cereal (you might need plastic bags since most ships stopped using boxes of cereal) so you are never stuck with a hungry, cranky child in your room during the times when there are few food options available. Bring snacks (technically only sealed food can exit the ship) with you so you can feed your child whenever they are about to melt down. My review of my Norwegian cruise in my signature line might be helpful - this is a great trip with kids and I hope you have a wonderful time!
  3. Good luck to you and the rest of the passengers!
  4. We travelled with a 2 year old and took the troll car most of the way. The ground is not paved, and I could not push the stroller easily for the remainder of the hike. I left the stroller by the side of the trail and my 2 year old was able to slowly but steadily make it to the glacier. I honestly did not expect him to make it (we sent my husband and 6 year old ahead to the glacier) and I actually would have been fine with just the bus ride to the glacier and the troll car (we did the Loen skylift that day also so this was the second activity for us). As we approached the time I had set for myself to turn around, I asked the people returning how close we were and they told me to keep going because we had almost made it. So we kept going and I was very glad to have seen the glacier. So I can safely say a push chair (stroller) is not an option. Babywearing wasn't an option for our family because we aren't strong enough to carry our child for long periods of time, but it might be an option for you. But the troll cars can sell out in advance so you'd need to plan that if you think it is the best option for you - it really depends on your level of physical fitness, and hopefully someone whose done the whole hike can comment (I can only comment that you should leave the stroller at home because pushing it over twigs and rocks in the unpaved ground isn't a good option. The troll car was a really nice ride for our children, but your baby might also like being in a carrier - lots of babies look really happy in there! Oh, and Norway is great for travel with kids. The Loen skylift was extremely accessible, as was Geiranger and the Flam railroad.
  5. We were in Bergen on one of those days and took the prebooked tram up the mountain we had already paid for (we prebooked it since I'd read that the lines are really long on beautiful days to buy tickets on the spot). It was so foggy you couldn't see anything. We were traveling with a 6 and 2 year old, so the kids loved the ride even without a view (and they also loved the playground on the top of the mountain) but if it had just been us it would have been a waste.
  6. The mainland parts of Honduras are extremely dangerous. The tourist parts of Roatan are very safe. Roatan - like Jamaica and Cartagena - is not a port to wander off in by yourself or to get in a random cab in, but if you book a RC tour or prearrange a private excursion you will be fine. This is actually one of my favorite ports for families, since there are wonderful animal excursions and excellent snorkling/diving. We've used Bodden Adventures twice, and they can take you to the monkeys/sloths. South Shore Canopy has an excellent canopy walk (we traveled with kids so didn't have a chance to zip line but their zip lines looked great). There's an iguana farm and really nice beaches. You can find a tour provider on tripadvisor or check the CC destination forums.
  7. I'm so sorry. I agree they were probably stolen because an employee would would have moved them inside your room. I make custom magnets for my kids to play with and leave them inside the room on the walls to play with for safety (our neighbors will probably figure out we have kids in the cabin but I figure its a. bit safer to not broadcast the fact that we have kids in this cabin to everyone on the ship). I bring a cheap unimportant magnet to put on the door that I don't care about so its easier for the kids to find our cabin, and I don't care if it disappears (which happened once but I brought a backup). Unfortunately, you should probably only hang replaceable magnets on the doors because sometimes kids take them and relocate them as a prank and sometimes people steal them because they like them- and it seems like you were the victim of the latter given which magnets disappeared. There are some people who have gone to security about this. Personally, I'd feel like it was too small an item to spend my time and NCL security's time trying to track down a thief (obviously if someone stole my purse or phone I'd go to security and ask them to review the tapes.) but that's up to you.
  8. Please note that Norway has very strict laws regarding car seats - cabs are absolutely not allowed to transport children without car seats. That was probably the most frustrating thing of traveling with a 2 and 6 year old to Norway. The country is generally really easy to travel for families on a cruise except for the cab issue. We also sailed from Southampton, and at one point in London, my kids got hit by jet lag and started to hit their limit. It was raining, and I hailed a cab. I searched on google, found a pizza restaurant with decent reviews 4 blocks away. The very kind and honest cab driver made sure I really wanted to travel such a short cab ride with the kids. I thanked him and explained- if I don't get my kids out of the rain and feed them immediately, they will melt down and we will be done touring for the day. We fed them pizza, they got their second wind, and we continued on. But in Norway the cabs absolutely refuse to transport children without car seats. You should actually consider writing to the travel office to find out how old the kids need to be because every single cab we asked in Norway refused to take us without a car seat. When my kids were tired and cold and being rained on (which happened at one point nearly every day) on previous cruises we could just hop in. a cab or take a bus or subway to get the kids a treat and help them get their second wind. In Norway, you are literally stuck. And you have to drag exhausted kids to their next destination. After the cruise, I contacted the Norway tour office and they explained that cabs are not allowed to transport children without car seats, and that if you book the cab in advance they are required to provide a car seat. Once we realized the problem, we tried to book cabs for later ports but we were already sailing and the cab companies either ignored our emails or said they were already booked. So please preorganize your transportation everywhere. We brought a car seat, and had it in Geiranger because we had private transportation for the whole day there. If you book a larger tour, you will probably be on a bus and not need to worry about a car seat there. In Loen, Olden Adventures took us by bus directly to both the Loen Skylift and Briskdal Glacier so that worked out really well for kids. The Loen skylift is very accessible for strollers. The briskdal glacier has troll cars you can rent for most of the hike to the glacier and my 24 month old was able to complete the short hike left to the glacier independently (the bus ride there and troll ride are beautiful so I was totally prepared to not make it and had sent my husband and 6 year old ahead to the glacier and would have been totally happy even if we didn't make it) In Flam, the Flam railroad is a 1-2 minute walk from the port, and we'd prearranged a tour for the afternoon. So those three ports (Flam, Olden and Geiranger) went really well for our kids logistically. We had a lot of trouble with our last two ports. The public transportation system isn't perfect in Bergen because it's such a small town, so if you stop there you'd need to figure out how to get around. We had the additional complication of the fact that the weather was truly awful, and turned what should have been a short walk from the port to the tram into a tough one. With better luck with the weather and a little better preplanning you should be able to make Bergen work (we didn't really, but given how awful the weather was it was hard to appreciate anything anyway on that particular day). Stavanger was also difficult because we tried to wander around there, which wasn't really worth it anyway (the highlight of Stavanger is Pulpit Rock but we can't handle that much of a hike with small kids). There's a decent small boat ride you can take with Rodne that will get you closer to the waterfalls, and is a pleasant way to pass time but Stavanger isn't a must do destination if you can't access pulpit rock. It's entirely possible a cruise tour or red line bus would solve all your problems - we are just used to traveling independently and didn't realize ahead of time this might be a problem since it was the first time we'd been denied a cab due to a lack of a car seat. There's a lot of information about our cruise in my signature line. We had a car seat with us, and installed it whenever we had transportation for the day. The problem was that we couldn't drag it around in places where we only might need it sporadically like Bergen and Stavanger, and that's how we got stuck. If you aren't planning on bringing a car seat, try the destination forums or tripadvisor and I'm sure they can recommend cab companies that might have a car seat. Good luck - its an amazing trip with kids!
  9. The DR is currently refusing to allow the prime minister of Haiti to land in their country because they don't want to get involved. You can keep an eye on the very long thread in Labadee since RC would probably start canceling that port first (they've done that in the past when the violence in the county is deemed too dangerous to dock). Hopefully, you will be okay. There was.a whole mess of NCL cancelling the DR for nearly a year after running a ship aground there, and not notifying passengers before final payment. I found out from the private vendors I contacted in the DR that I might not be docking. They all offered a full refund if the ship doesn't dock, so you can arrange a private excursion there without additional risk. Good luck.
  10. We couldn't get KSF to apply to a sailing leaving mid January after schools were back in session. The ship also was having propulsion (or some other mechanical issue) which caused it to cancel ports through December. I shrugged, figured it wasn't worth the risk given the high price, and booked a Xmas cruise with Cunard. They did a really lovely job, but don't have as many amenities for kids. I'll be happy to keep looking for cruises on RC and hopefully something will work out at some point.
  11. As noted above you absolutely need to check airfare price before committing. You also might want to look at the reviews for this ship. They start here https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=712820 . If you go backwards in time, you can see when it was in Europe last year (clicking through the next review). I sailed the getaway and periodically check the reviews. There were issues in Europe reported with ports being shortened, missed and with the disembarkment being disorganized, cutting down on time to explore Europe. If you get a good enough deal and know what to expect, you might have a good time overall.
  12. I'm primarily writing because we travelled with a 2 and 6 year old to Norway and wanted to note that my cruise review in my signature line might be helpful for you. Also, I sailed on Cunard more recently with kids if you wanted to know more about that. Depending on where you go, some excursions are remarkably accessible for children and travelers with disabilities. Our three favorite ports in Norway were all extremely accessible for our 2 year old. In Flam, you are a two minute walk from the Flam railroad, which offers an amazing view. In Olden, the Loen skylift is completely accessible for people in wheelchairs and has beautiful views (I have read about long lines but don't know since we were there 3 days after their opening when there were no shore excursions available yet). In Olden, the Briskdal Glacier offers a troll car that takes you most of the way to the glacier. My 2 year old was able to hike the short flat distance left to the glacier, but we went fully expecting him not to make it and were completely prepared for that to happen (note this would not be good for a wheelchair since the ground is uneven. Your mom can look at videos on YouTube to see if she'd want to go). Honestly, I would have been happy with the drive to the glacier and troll car ride if we didn't make it all the way to the glacier, because the glacier has been hit hard by global warming. Geiranger is also an excellent option for people with limited mobility, since you ride in a bus to really beautiful sites and its only a few hours long. I'm going to be honest with you - with my children's ages Pulpit Rock wasn't an option for our family, And without Pulpit Rock, I don't really think of Stavanger as a port that is a highlight. You can take a Rodne cruise around, which is a pleasant way to spend a day. Check the times you are scheduled to be in port carefully because you need a longer port day in order to safely make this hike and return back in time. But that's a pretty significant excursion and I think you'd be better off with Olden, Flam or Geiranger than Stavanger. Alesund is much beloved port on this forum (I haven't been so others will be more helpful). I'm not familiar with most of the ports on your itinerary, so please listen to the other helpful members of this forum who can better advise you on the cities. But I would encourage you to try to aim for shore excursions with your family - even with a 2 year old we were really glad we went on them.
  13. Yes, Cunard takes tendering very seriously - they actually denied me a tender because my 2 year old son couldn't pass the step test on his own. We told Cunard we would take the test carrying him across, and they still refused to let us go. It took us nearly an hour of arguing with the front desk to finally be issued a tender ticket, by which time the tender boats were sailing half empty and no one bothered to check tickets. When we got to the tender, the crew on Cunard did exactly what the crew on Princess did the year before - the employee on the ship picked him up and handed him to the employee working on he tender (basically they carried him across). I later wrote to Cunard prior to writing my review of the cruise, and Cunard confirmed their policy is to allow parents to take the step test carrying their kids. I sailed Cunard again last Christmas, and this time they left written instructions in each cabin about the step test which stated that children can be carried. In terms of Roatan, I docked both times I was there but am familiar with ports in which when too many ships dock, some must tender. In St. Lucia I docked the first time I was there and tendered the second, a year later. The OP should absolutely contact the special needs department, but also can check cruise timetables to see how many ships will be docked in Roatan on their day of sailing. The Roatan board or special needs department or the private vendors might know how many ships can dock in Roatan before tendering is required. In terns of private vendors, we've used victor bodden twice, and there's also (I think Daniel Johnson) who is frequently mentioned. If you like animals, hopefully their monkey/sloth visits or iguana would be accessible. Oh and as a general rule for the future, please read reviews carefully on NCL before booking with them - I've seen reviews from cruise critic members that ports that were listed as docked at time of booking switching over to tendering after final payment, and travelers with mobility issues couldn't get off the ship. Just check the reviews of the ship you are interested in on cruise critic to see if that issue had occurred on previous similar itineraries for your ship prior to booking. I don't believe I've seen this issue mentioned on RC, so hopefully it won't be a problem for you.
  14. It could be a sea day. If this were a longer disruption, since the Dominican Republic and Haiti are on the same island, that would be a very close substitution geographically if there is room (Carnival owns a port in Puerto Plata that can hold two cruise ships, which they will rent out whenever there is space. There's a second port in Puerto Plata too).
  15. A 75 year old passenger with mobility issues died getting on a tender ship on Cunard after she fell in the ocean, so the rule on Cunard is that unless you can pass a step test to demonstrate physical fitness you are not allowed to tender. You should contact RC's special needs department to see if there is any chance of you getting help, but I think unfortunately from the ship's perspective there is simply too much liability if ship employees help you get on the tender. I also recall that Roatan was (at least for me) dock, not tender. I am very sorry.
  16. NCL's policy is that each room must have a guest over 21. NCL obviously doesn't routinely undertake daily checks of where passengers are or where they are sleeping each night. But if there are noise complaints or other complaints from fellow passengers, NCL does have security cameras everywhere in the hallways and after a complaint they might investigate. If they find out a 15 year old was occupying a cabin by herself, they would have the right to throw the whole family off the ship. That would likely only happen if there was some sort of problem or disturbance that occurred in the minor's cabin. My son is irresponsible, so that's a legitimate concern for me. The OP's child sounds very responsible, so she needs to determine whether or not she believes it is safe for her child to occupy the cabin across the hall from her by herself. But she is taking the risk of being thrown off the ship if there are any problems, because she is technically in violation of NCL policy by doing this. And there are also the safety issues raised by this - the level of risk the parents believe exists for a minor girl who is in a room by herself of danger from other passengers or crew, which obviously even the most responsible child cannot mitigate.
  17. It does appear that things are getting worse https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/04/haiti-declares-state-of-emergency-amid-double-jailbreak-gang-violence.html According to cruise timetables, a ship was scheduled to dock there yesterday and the next scheduled ship is: 5 Night Western Caribbean Cruise Ship Explorer Of The Seas which is scheduled to dock on 3/6. I guess we'll know on Wed if RC will need to temporarily redeploy its fleet.
  18. yes, they will allow you to get extra keys. However, it is forbidden for her to be in a room by herself so if there are noise complaints or any other problems they might throw you all off the ship (I don't know your kid so I don't know if this is something you need to worry about.). My 13 year old isn't getting his own room for a very long time for good reasons, but I don't know your kid so I can't judge her.
  19. The ship was in fine shape. We didn’t expect a luxurious ship - and didn’t get it, but it’s a perfectly reasonable ship in fine shape that took us to an itinerary we liked. The service was excellent. If you find a good itinerary at a good price you should book with this ship if you are an itinerary person. If you are more of a the ship is the destination person you might be happier on a newer ship.
  20. Precovid, there was some talk of rc allowing tours into mainland Haiti to see the real island. It was deemed too dangerous then, and certainly is now. I really would have liked to visit an orphanage or school and dropped off supplies but it’s definitely not an option currently.
  21. Kids 12 and under can order from the kids menu for free. If our experience with our kids was any indication, they do not care if children under 12 also share in their parents' dishes as long as they don't order anything more than the kids meal. We had 2 kids under 12 who ordered kids meals and ate some food off our plates also. It's really between you and your 12 year old if the two of you will both be happy with half an entree. If your child were over the age of 12, I think you'd need either the dining package or to order something off the menu (at least an appetizer or dessert) and share and I think they'd probably be okay with it, but we got the meal package for our 13 year old (we have 3 kids so we get 2 rooms and our 13 year old was at the second guest on one of the rooms). Please note that all kids meals come from one central kitchen, so they can take forever to arrive and your food will probably be there first. And I think they'd have a really hard time telling you not to share when they've served you food while your kid sits at the table waiting for a grilled cheese.
  22. I've dealt with poorly trained phone reps on all cruise lines, so another option is to say "let me check with my husband on that and I'll call you back," Then you call back and pray for a competent call center rep (there are some, but not many but sometimes you get lucky). The Plan B is still a good last resort, but hopefully it won't come to that
  23. This family really wants the older child as guest #2 especially if they are going to Moderno or Teppanyaki (we didn't get charged for kids meals at either of those restaurants for our kids under 12 ordered at either venue, but they are a bit more challenging since one is an all you can eat and Teppanyaki is very restricted in terms of seating and I think they might have the right to charge you).
  24. I do think that irregardless of where the cruise originates, the op has a legitimate fear that someone on a cruise might say or do something unkind to her child. My last 3 cruises have been out of ny, and my advice to the op would be the same if they were sailing out of ny. As a general rule, there’s a lot of support for the lgbtq community in Manhattan, but incidents can still occur.
  25. I would recommend speaking to the kids club staff during the open house hours. There's a few hours the kids club is open on the first day where the parents can register the kids, meet the counselors and show the children the kids club area. I would hope the youth staff would be supportive of your child, and you will have a better sense of how supportive they are once you meet them. I would strongly recommend telling them at registration and each time you drop your child off that if your child isn't happy to please call you immediately (you can request a phone but they don't always give them to parents of older children without disabilities). With my kids, they wouldn't call right away unless I told them to call because some parents get annoyed when they have to pick their kids up before closing. If they know you want to be called if your child is unhappy, they'll call you right away. When you talk to the staff at the open house registration hours, ask them how full they expect the kids club to be. Drop off (especially the first session) is a long chaotic line right at opening times. The counselors are trying to settle a lot of kids in at once. If the kids club isn't full and you don't have to worry about losing a spot (this happens rarely on vacations) then you might want to consider dropping your kid off 10 or 15 minutes into the start of the session to miss the chaos of the first drop off. But you know your child best and know whether its better for them to be at the kids club at the start of the session - its just something to consider. And a note to other parents - it really isn't a great idea to skip the registration if you have a complicated situation like wanting your kids to move up or down an age group. There's a long line of people who did register their kids who have to wait behind you in line while your child's complicated registration gets sorted out. Everyone who wants to have in depth conversations with the kids club staff should go to the open house reregistration. It's a lot harder for the counselors to learn about your kid when there are 50 people in line trying to check their kids in. Oh, and when my son was 2 he had the most gorgeous beautiful curly blonde hair that I didn't have the heart to cut. He looked like a girl and was constantly mistaken for one. I just told everyone who said how beautiful a girl she was that he was a boy and not to feel bad about their mistake because it was my fault because I didn't have the heart to cut his hair. We took a Cunard cruise to Norway and people seemed really nice and supportive. He's 8 now and I did finally break down and cut his hair when he was 3.
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