HAL with son under 3

[NYreadytogo]

We are going on a HAL cruise in a few weeks (Veendam). Our son will be just under 3, and not toilet trained, so he can't use the kids club, and our daughter is only 9 months old. I am wondering if HAL allows us to take them to the Club HAL space if one of us stays (just so they have somewhere to play), or if there is any way to borrow toys from the program.

[cantw8togo]

I can't remember if they had toys that they loan out, but I recall they gave out colouring pages when we were on the Volendam. They have a fenced in tennis court/basketball court where kids can play with balls to their hearts content when there isn't a scheduled activity there.

[tamsocal]

Our experience was that Club HAL was too crowded for the <3 twins to play and HAL did not offer "playtime" like Princess or Carnival when the program was closed. their programs allow parent/toddler to come in from ~12-2p when the 2+ year olds were not having a program. HAL was just closed to all on our ship. We never inquired w/ HAL if it was allowable or Policy for the <3 yr olds to be in w/ the 3-7 yr olds if they were accompanied by us. But the gals in the club always told us we could stay-- We just chose not to-- it was a zoo & my kids had just as much fun coming w/ me to Bingo or Trivia and the shows, etc.

 

We have borrowed toys on other cruise lines but didnt ask on HAL -- honestly didnt see any in CLub HAL that we would have found appropriate for our then 1 yr olds, since their program was for 3-yr olds. We had to fly in to port so we brought a few small toys/books form home so didnt need anything

[tcv cruiser]

We were on HAL's Zuiderdam in January of this year, cruising to the Mexican Riviera. Our son had not yet turned three (born in March). He was not yet eligible for the children's program which made the trip somewhat difficult at times and had I known more, we would have been more prepared.

 

Make sure you bring toys for your 2 year old. We understood that we could borrow toys from club HAL but this was not the case. They did lend us a colouring book and I had some crayons so this kept us busy part of the time. I also highly recommend lot of books and a portable DVD player. I was against the idea of the DVD player when my friend suggested it before we left but I broke down and got one just before we left as I thought it would be helpful in airports and airplanes. It turned out to be a godsent on the ship.

 

We were fortunate that HAL let him play in the children't area - with our supervision. However, this was not possible until day 3. It seems that whether to allow this is up to the discretion of the club HAL manager. At first we were told no. Given the number of children on board who were old enough to be eligible they felt they would be too crowded. However, by day 3 it became clear that many of the children on board were not going to use Club HAL so they sought us out to tell us that we could bring our son in to play during certain ours. I really appreciated that she actually went to the trouble of finding us to tell us this. It was fabulous service in my opinion. We did go to CLUB HAL for a while each day. The be honest, it was kind of dark and small and my DH and I didn't love being there. Our son also got restless and while he enjoyed his time there, he never wanted to stay very long. We could be there but he wasn't included in the organized Club HAL activities that children just a little bit older than him were participating in and this frustrated him.

 

For the most part, our son was entertained wandering the outside decks. He loved this. We actually spent hours and hours just exploring the ship. We were fortunate in that he was toilet trained so we could use the pool. They don't allow un toilet trained children with swim diapers in any of the pools. We did notice that some children were in the pool with swim diapers peeking out from their swimsuits. Whether they were "caught", I don't know. We certainly weren't going to tell anyone. :) Some lines allow children in swim diapers and I think they all should in at least one pool but HAL does not.

 

I wish that I had realized ahead of time how overstimulated our 2 year old would get on the ship. By the second day he was bouncing off the walls and I soon realized there was just way too much going on for him. We stopped spending so much time in busy areas and found that if we did busy activities part of the time (meals etc.) and interspersed this with quiet time reading and playing in the cabin and time exploring some of the quieter parts of the ship it seemed to work best.

 

All in all, we had a great time but only after we adjusted our expectations.