greenfroggie

Hi,

Just came off the Maasdam with our 2 yr old. The room with the pack and play was tight but doable. Not sure where you plan on having the 4 year old sleep? You can't do a pull out and a pack and play as the couch doesn't come out. We're pregnant with our second and was thinking we couldn't really do it with that sized cabin in the future. If your okay with your 4 yr old sleeping in your bed (tight) than maybe? Or sleeping on the couch next to the pack and play. Or DD wouldn't wake up as we walked around the room but she's a pretty good sleeper.

The kids club would work for the 4 year old they have puzzles and video games. There's no toys or jungle gym stuff for the 2 yr old. They won't even allow you in there. On Princess they had said activities and let us use them if we supervised her.

BTW there were tons of kids on our cruise. Probably about 5-10 under 5 and another 10 under 10. Nobody was really running or doing anything crazy.

The buffets were great and the staff was very friendly. Dinning rooms was also good. For us we caved in and did the ipad/iphone thing this time as not to make a scene. Occasionally our DD would freak a bit but nobody publicly cared. She was overall excellent and we got lots of compliments. We order food for her to come asap etc.

There were a few other kids who made some peeps, nobody seemed to get upset. Honestly the crowed was much younger/forgiving than I expected. Pretty sure everyone with kids ate at the dinning room and everyone was happy. Nobody expected the staff to "entertain" any of the kids, but some did. They all have kids at home and miss them terribly and want to smile and see yours happy.

The ports are all very walkable. We didn't do any pre made tours. We did do a PEI bus tour which worked great though there are things to see in Charlottetown.

QC has a very steep incline. You can take a funicular up if you want. I carried my DD in a carrier (I'm pretty fit) but it drained all the energy out of my legs. I had also gone for a 10 mile run just before so it could have been that.

Sydney is very barren and not much to do.

Bar harbor has some shops but also fairly small. Still both walk-able and self guiding is fine.

What we did is looked to see where the public parks were and worked our way there to let our DD have some time on the swings etc. That's our strategy. Most ports had one within a mile.

Just came off the Maasdam and it was terrific! It's in excellent condition and the staff are top notch!

I would also just consider what's easier to come home from? We're Canadian so going home from Montreal - Toronto was a cinch. I can't speak for going from Halifax to Bar Harbor customs, but doing BH USA - Hali CAN customs was very easy. Just hand in a form by 5pm and you're good.

Hi,

We were on your cruise as well and had a fabulous time! I was apprehensive about it all based on some of the reviews here of the ships but found no problems with plumbing/cleanliness etc. It was all great.

The buffet food was probably the best I've had in a long time. (Princess' (my last 2 cruises) buffet is tasteless to me).

I was totally shocked in a good way how easy it was getting on at the start and getting on and off at all ports. So quick and painless.

Those bed animals are funny. My 2 yr old daughter would freak out every night when she saw them! The googly eyes just unnerved her.

Hi Just to follow up: The Maasdam was very good and I liked our route. We're in Canada so it was easy heading home etc.

I'm not sure if your Lil One needs a pack and play or not but it works in the rooms. It's fairly tight as you'd imagine but it works.

Bar Harbor is the 'trickiest' port if that's really even a thing because you needed to take a tender. It's a pretty small town. We didn't bike around nor see anyone really biking there. Most of the biking we saw was in Halifax. You can just rent them by the waterfront. I don't know if they had seat attachments as they were the cruiser type of bikes.

But the boat was really nice, there were lots of kids of all ages and we and our DD had a great time.

Off the top of my head I'd even say something like Celebrity? But like others I choose itinerary first. Doing my first HAL this weekend actually and I'm closer in age to OP than the 'average age' on HAL. But that's generally been the same across the board.

We've found people to make friends with on all ships so far. Even the Japanese cruise in Japan on the Sun Princess.

We're about to embark on this exact cruise in less than 3 weeks! Same family of 3. We're on the Maasdam heading North/West. Will let you know how it is.

It's a reminder in human nature. Especially at the end of a cruise where people expect you'll never see them again.

We had one of our best cruises ever on Sun Princess. This past winter we did a Crown Princess SA cruise. Day and night difference in food, service, etc. We find the same with other cruise lines.

 

I think that part of being loyal is consistency and the expectations/standards that have been established on previous cruises. We see less and less consistency. Loyalty is something that is earned and for us consistency is a large part of that. Hence we are not loyal to any one cruise line.

 

Besides, why on earth would we be 'loyal' to a big corporate entity? They will typically find a way to take advantage of it.

Interesting. I've traveled on both those ships on my last two cruises and I liked the Crown a bit more in the end but it was probably equally good. I think location has a lot to do with the overall feel of the cruise in the end. We had the Sun Princess in the Japanese islands and felt someone odd to us as 99% of the travelers were Japanese and the menus were Japanese (with what felt like 5 English ones to share among the rest of us), no drink packages etc. and a very odd gym situation.

Also interestingly I've also had a SA (which I am imagining you mean South American and not Africa or Asia) and had a hard go of it even though it was a very high end cruise (Sea Dream). I think that's a difficult market to do (we had a lot of issues in Brazil), and well the food wasn't as off the charts as it was advertised. In the end SDYC stopped doing that itinerary and some of us did another cruise with them in the Caribbean and had a fantastic time.

I have not sailed with HAL before but my wife has. She's done 4-5 HAL cruises but is only a first tier member on their rewards. We may be part of the not loyal to one line as we've both been on many (me about 10, her about 30) cruises on various lines. I am excited to see what HAL is all about this summer, but for ideas like "they just don't make them like they used to", well you're right its the market, it's always changing. I don't think anyone is forced to take one cruise over the other, and from the scan of the mariner club 'rewards' its not really that fulfilling.

I do see this type of post happen often on different cruise line boards.

For us its simple. We like the general concept of the cruise. And it still works for us as our lives has changed. We won't do it every vacation but maybe once a year a cruise is a lot of fun and still very different from a land vacation. (I hate sitting around in one place).

We're travelling with our cute toddler this summer and while she's adorable and "experienced in crusing" I had a few specific questions for this boat:

1) The kid zone or whatever its called - is 3+ but do they allow supervised kids to come? What kind of activities do they have? any jungle gym stuff? a&c? is it just video games?

2) Do any of the pools allow for swim diapers? We're totally fine to not bring her in to any pools but might as well ask.

Thx!

I don't know what Princess has, but if it is an actual app (downloaded from google play or itunes and installed) it would be easier to incorporate messaging. What HAL is doing is just a local (on ship) web site.

Princess is an app, but it only works on the boat over the ship's wifi (still free for this service). You sign in with your name and cabin # etc. But all the schedules etc pull you to a static webpage.

http://www.princess.com/ships-and-experience/onboard-experience/activities/princess-at-sea/

i think we have the city mini it reclines and is an umbrella... don't know the cost.

we didn't use it for onboard only if we were about to go outside the ship.

a carrier is far more useful and i found most excursions it was easier for me to just walk around with my 14mo on my chest. she loved it (hated it months earlier so luck i guess).

early dinner is good. depends on how well your kid sits there for an hour or so. ours was pretty good at about 14 months but she would start to throw things as the night went on. thats when it was time to leave.

Buy diapers in port before you leave - store them in your stoller bag or a garabge bag to go to your room

If you need quiet time to let your kid walk around (ours just picked up walking at 14 months on our cruise) or just to crawl around - the bars/lounges are empty during the mornings/mid afternoon. Great place to just let them be (supervised of course).

Sometimes you can bring your kids to the play areas if you're supervising them as well

usually most ppl go gaga over your little one its pretty cute

This seems very behind the times? On my last Princess cruise the app also had a passenger to passenger messenger function. That was incredibly useful. I don't know what their target is here but it seems like if they're advancing why not go all the way?

Actually, good wine is pretty darn expensive on board HAL. For a bottle that I pay around $40 - $45 for, they charge around $125 - $150. I am going to bring 4 bottles and pay the $18 on each. That should do for all of our dinners.

To be fair that's not any different from any restaurant on land.

As a drinker of Scotch and full bodied reds I find myself not often willing to spend $50 at a restaurant for a double of what I drink at home for almost the price of the bottle. I think Scotch is probably a higher markup than red.

For a $40 Amarone a restaurant will charge $160 (4x)

For a $70 bottle of medium level scotch a restaurant will charge $15-20/ oz. (7x)

I've also read here on CC of passengers who submitted a doctor's letter to HAL if they couldn't consume alcohol, and were exempted from also having to purchase a package offering alcohol if other cabin occupants had purchased one.

Thanks. Would they still be required to purchase a non-alcoholic package? if that's the case it's really not worth it. My DW drinks water, and while she could have a cup of coffee per day I guess, she wouldn't while pregnant. Or 10/day :halo: to make the package worth it.

Beverage packages must be purchased by all occupants of the stateroom??

So my pregnant DW and my 1 YO DD would be purchasing alcohol packages if I want one...right. :eek:

I'm a frequent enough cruiser and this is my first HAL cruise. I'm a bit shocked by that fact.

Not that I can't just buy drinks on my own but this policy seems beyond silly.

Sailed with a 1YO last year who will be 2 this time when we go in the summer.

We did Princess.

Highlights that worked for us:

+ They were good with putting a pack n play but despite requesting one they had to bring in it after we got there - its still a plus having it. But if you're looking for that first nap right after you get there it might be hard

+ Bring stuff from home - for sure - blankies and toys etc. We bought some dollar store stuff for her to mess around with - even simple things like a closable container - that's the best toy :)

+ Not all cruises will let your kid play if under 3. Princess did have a play place but you couldn't leave them alone. No baby sitting (we took turns at night to go out).

+ I think all cruises are flexible for food - we did get steamed veggies for our LO and by night 3 they already had it ready when you'd get there.

+ all the restaurants and buffets have high chairs

+ an umbrella stroller is handy - we didn't use for on ship though just to go off.

- pools were a non go but it was fairly cool so we didn't care too much

+ We looked for a room with a tub rather than a shower - our LO was not a fan of water poured on head. Might be better this time around but still got a tub.

+ tip - don't fly with diapers if you can buy in the city you're leaving from and put them in the stroller bag or even a garbage bag with a label to go to your room.

+ sound machine was a good tip (at least we use one). Though you can dl some free programs to your cell.

This time we're going with HAL. It doesn't seem to have the same program for under 3 but we'll make due I guess. There's only one ship day and the ports are very easy.

I know there was an old thread on this but I was encouraged to make a new one.

The itinerary is the same - Boston to Montreal, timing is the same. If you were to choose between the two ships, which would you go for?

The old thread preferred the Maasdam, but it was from 2012. A lot can change in 5 years. Are the ships still clean/service good?

We'd be taking our toddler who will be about 2 if that matters.

I'm thinking of doing this cruise with my family this summer. I know its like 5 years later but these are still the two ships going at the same time. Is the preference still the Maasdam? Any changes with either?

My dd was an infant when we went to MX. We brought our own and it made for something to rock her in when she wasn't falling asleep.

We asked the cab co if they had seats and they ended up bringing a forward facing one for us. Now that would be okay but my wife insisted we had our own.

Leave the bathroom door slightly ajar? Other than it may swing back and forth. I often do that in hotels even for me because its much harder to find the bathroom in a foreign place.

Stayed in D3 something recently. Room was great size and very clean. Balcony was a bit gross but I find that on all princess ships. Starts with their gross blue pad and ends with the rust. Lots of room in the suite if your used to regular balcony rooms. Bathroom very large.

Just got off the Crown. She is in acceptable shape. The public areas were fine. The chairs in the Horizon Court were always sticky and mismatched at the tables. We had a minisuite with a lot of rust on the balcony that looks like only a dry dock will fix. The plastic mat on the balcony deck was very stained as was the deck furniture. The soft goods were worn. The sofa and the curtains were particularly bad and in need of replacement, quite shabby, actually.

Mostly agree with this. Didn't really notice any problems with the chairs in HC. Everything in public areas felt clean and good. Also had a mini and room was clean and good. Balcony was gross but there's plenty more of the ship than the balcony and the balcony was not the reason we took a MS.