Is Royal's water slide restriction typical?

Took our 4-year old on Royal Caribbean's Adventure of the Seas this past week. It's got a small 'Splashaway Bay' water park for kids who aren't tall enough to ride the big water sliders. There's a purple slide with a 42" height requirement, and in the baby splash zone a little yellow water slide.

Long story short, our child was maybe an inch too short to be allowed on the purpose slide, but wasn't allowed on the yellow without a swim diaper even though she's long-since been potty trained and the ship's swim diapers didn't fit her (no surprise; kids her age & size have generally been potty trained for some time!).

I started a thread in the Royal Caribbean section, where I see our little girl is not the only one who's been excluded, but I also want to hear from others about their experiences on different cruise lines.

Do some Carnival and NCL ships have water slides for kids? Have you run into this type of problem on any line besides Royal Caribbean?

Since this will affect a number of families on a mass-market line that caters to families, people should know about it in advance.

Richard.

It sounds like the yellow slide was in the area for non potty trained children. If so, that is very typical--potty trained children cannot play in the area for non potty trained children for safety reasons.

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Actually they could...if wearing a swim diaper (whether potty trained or not). The problem is there was effectively no water slide for kids under 42 inches who were potty trained (which includes a lot of young children families bring onboard cruise ships), but slide service for kids taller or in swim diapers.

If your kid fell in the 'gap,' and the ship's swim diapers didn't fit (again, probably a lot of kids), your kid was effectively shut out of water slide access, even though he/she could see kids both older and younger sliding away.

This gap should be addressed. I wonder if Carnival or NCL do?

Richard.

Actually they could...if wearing a swim diaper (whether potty trained or not). The problem is there was effectively no water slide for kids under 42 inches who were potty trained (which includes a lot of young children families bring onboard cruise ships), but slide service for kids taller or in swim diapers.

 

If your kid fell in the 'gap,' and the ship's swim diapers didn't fit (again, probably a lot of kids), your kid was effectively shut out of water slide access, even though he/she could see kids both older and younger sliding away.

 

This gap should be addressed. I wonder if Carnival or NCL do?

 

Richard.

I don't know about slides for little kids on carnival but they do not allow any kids not potty with a swim diaper in any water areas. My son was only 15 months old when we took him so I didn't pay attention to the kid water play area.

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As I noted on your other thread, the crew member who told you your child had to be wearing a swim diaper in the baby splash area was incorrect. That is total nonsense (not on your part, but what they told you). Whether or not a child has a swim diaper on or not has nothing to do with the safety, sanitation, or operation of the baby area. The only restriction should have been explained that anyone who is potty trained and uses the baby splash area needs to shower before going into any other water facility. The biggest problem is cross contamination from the baby splash area's water system to the other water facility's water system, and wearing a swim diaper has nothing to do with this. I know this from years of dealing with USPH regulations on the cruise ships, and from the USPH training seminars.

Actually they could...if wearing a swim diaper (whether potty trained or not). The problem is there was effectively no water slide for kids under 42 inches who were potty trained (which includes a lot of young children families bring onboard cruise ships), but slide service for kids taller or in swim diapers.

 

 

 

If your kid fell in the 'gap,' and the ship's swim diapers didn't fit (again, probably a lot of kids), your kid was effectively shut out of water slide access, even though he/she could see kids both older and younger sliding away.

 

 

 

This gap should be addressed. I wonder if Carnival or NCL do?

 

 

 

Richard.

NCL and carnival don’t have water areas for non potty trained children, so they do not have a “gap”. Different ships have different slides with different height/weight requirements. Some have slides with no minimums. You would have to check the specific ship.

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Carnival doesn’t allow non-potty trained children in pools or splash areas on almost all of its ships. Their water parks almost all have little slides as below. Their bigger kid slides have different heights that vary by ship between 40” and 48”. We can’t cruise the two newest (Vista and Horizon) as our children are not yet 48” and would be upset if they couldn’t slide! We select which ships we cruised based on the slides and pools!

Our issue was that our potty-trained 3.75 year old daughter was only 25lbs...so the pool people didn’t believe she was actually trained because of her size!

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I'm sorry this happened to you, and I've never sailed RC so I can't help you. Did you email RC to confirm what their policy is?

We sailed on Cunard with our 2 year old. On tender ports, Cunard requires a step test for all guests to ensure they can step 18" independently (this isn't generally a bad rule, since there are some larger guests with disabilities who could get hurt or hurt a crew member trying to make this tender if they aren't physically capable of climbing into the tender boat). The problem was that they also applied this rule to our 2 year old son. As you can imagine, our 2 year old cannot achieve this by himself (although it amused the hell out of the other passengers waiting for the tender who were watching him try). My husband offered to take the step test carrying our son, and the people running the tender refused and stated the child must do this himself. We went to the purser's desk, who were totally confused and seemed to not know if the child needed to do this by himself and asked for more time to look into this. A half hour later, they called us and gave us a voucher for us to enter the tender. When we reached the tender, the ship employees said hello, and proceeded to do exactly what Princess did when our oldest was two - they picked up our kid and easily transferred him to their boat (they technically aren't supposed to help anyone, but our kid was a lot safer with them doing it than us. We were perfectly capable of doing it, but appreciated their help. I don't think they are likely to get hurt carrying a 2 year old but wouldn't want them carrying adults, since someone could get hurt there). When I returned, I wrote to Cunard and they confirmed that everyone - including children - must pass the step test, but a child can be carried by a parent and if the parent can carry the child across the step test they will be allowed to tender and carry their child onto the tender. So I'd suggest you write to RC to clarify exactly what their policy is regarding the non-potty trained pools since it's possible a lot of their employees could be confused. I'd also be interested in hearing if anyone else has experienced this or if you just met one (or possibly more) confused employees on your cruise. So sorry about your experience.