HAL & kids?

[efoote01]

Just wondering if bed rails are available upon request for kids?

 

Also, are we given beepers for our kids when they are in the kids club if they want to be picked up? Just wondering if I need to get walkie talkies & if anyone has suggestions on which work best that would be great!!

 

Thanks to all.

[jkrislc]

I do not believe HAL has bed rails. If they're needed, I'd consider looking into an inflatable travel version of one. I believe Cuddlebugs makes one. As for pagers, Club Hal does not have any. When you sign your child in, they simply ask where you're going to be. I suppose if absolutely necessary, they'd page you over the intercom.

 

Keep in mind the the Club Hal facilities are quite small on most HAL ships and are only open for approximately 3 hour blocks at a time (e.g., 8:30-11:30, 1-4, 7-10) each day except for port days.

[amster65]

Disney cruise lines would me my pick for kids. :)

[RMLincoln]

The upper bunks have bed rails. There's a picture of one (which I sent in) in Joanie's Sticky Thread at the top of the HAL board; look at Volendam, Dolphin deck. Other options might be to use the sofa pillows next to the bed or even extra pillows on the bed. i used the sofa pillow to cushion around the ladder to the top bunk after i stubbed my toes twice!

 

My experience with walkie talkies is that they ours didn't work too well on the ship through the many steel decks and were annoying, plus needed to carry battery chargers. " Your mileage may vary."

 

How old is your child? They can sign themselves out if you give permission for this if they are 9 or older. m--

[edmusic]

I'm sure your family will totally enjoy this cruise, but generally, 'HAL' and 'kids' don't go together in the same sentence.

[jkrislc]

The upper bunks have bed rails. There's a picture of one (which I sent in) in Joanie's Sticky Thread at the top of the HAL board; look at Volendam, Dolphin deck. Other options might be to use the sofa pillows next to the bed or even extra pillows on the bed.

 

I was thinking of the sofa bed, not the bunk, so thanks for the clarification. The pillows are a good suggestion as well. I forgot that we used the two lounge chairs as "rails" in our SY on the Oosterdam and that worked quite well. However, in a regular cabin, that wouldn't work as you wouldn't have the extra chairs.

 

BTW, this is the travel bumper I was referring to that is inflatable. It has a strap to loop under the mattress and I'm pretty sure you could get it to work on a cruise bed. http://www.amazon.com/BedBugz-Portable-Bed-Bolster-Blue/dp/B000KYJ2E6/ref=sr_1_1?s=baby-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1324667640&sr=1-1 We tried it when Costco was selling them, but returned them and opted to use pillows.

[GeriatricNurse]

Disney cruise lines would me my pick for kids. :)

 

DCL is great for adults, with no kids too! :) And their private island, called "Castaway Cay" , with a pier, beats "Half Moon Cay" by far! ;)

[Harry1954]

I'm sure your family will totally enjoy this cruise, but generally, 'HAL' and 'kids' don't go together in the same sentence.

Our 9 year old grandson and our daughter (his mom) were on the Eurodam with us in November for a cruise. We have done many HAL cruises and this was the first time we ventured to take a child with us. He had a great time .. not only did he love Club Hal, he enjoyed dressing up for dinner on formal nights and learning how to conduct himself in a more formal setting.

The funny part is that the crew caters to the kids .. our grandson learned how to sing Happy Birthday in Indonesian.

 

After getting back to the world I asked him what his most fun part of the trip was - he said Club Hal. So ... I do not mean to be contrarian ... but, knowing that many parents would like to vacation but not leave their children behind (we raised 5) .. this can work .. but you must approach it as a civil and mature adult ... it is not a Disney Cruise .. it is a mini-max as we say in decision theory .. minimize your maximum regret - have kids along but have an adult cruise as well.

good luck ...

Harry

[Guest LoveMyBoxer]

I'm sure your family will totally enjoy this cruise, but generally, 'HAL' and 'kids' don't go together in the same sentence.

 

Then you need to tell HAL to stop advertising towards families! HAL kids facilities are not small on the larger and newer ships. They are only small in the older and smaller ships. I cannot believe that people here are still trying to discourage travelers with children from sailing HAL. If we current HAL cruisers don't introduce the younger generations to the HAL experience, then the HALL experience will die and HAL will be no more!

[Megsie1000]

Of course HAL is good for kids. My children LOVED Club HAL. My nephew has been on multiple HAL cruises and loved every single one of them. The crew adores children. You will be right at home with kids on HAL, IMO.

 

The upper berth has a rail. My 3-year old is sailing with us in a few weeks. The 6-year old is going on the upper berth and the 3-year old is going on the pull-out sofa. It is against the wall, so we only need one rail and I got an inflatable bed rail to take with us. Ordered it from Amazon. They also carry them at onestepahead online or from their catalogs.

[edmusic]

To almost everyone I tell we are going on a HAL cruise, the immediate response is "Oh, the old folks cruise line." That's the perception and there is some truth to it.

[Friend100]

To almost everyone I tell we are going on a HAL cruise, the immediate response is "Oh, the old folks cruise line." That's the perception and there is some truth to it.

 

Totally agree, but that should not discourage family from trying HAL. Similarly, the general perception is that Disney cruise is for kids and family but I don't think any adults without children should be discouraged from trying it.

 

My family has done 2 DCLs and we enjoyed both of them. We will be trying HAL next week and very much looking forward to it. We know they are different, and totally prepared that it will be a different experience. I think we will enjoy it.

[efoote01]

Thanks everyone for all the great info. Didn't know about the blocks of time for the kids club...she should be fine then. Very cool bedrail thing.

 

We have done DCL but honestly I'm mickeyed out. Tried Princess last year but was not happy w/the upper bearth thing as my daugther is a mover while she sleeps. I was thrilled that Holland had sofa beds pretty much standard.

 

We are on the Noordam in April during Springbreak so I am sure the ship will be full of kids.

 

Happy Cruisin everyone.:)

[rebbie123]

Thanks everyone for all the great info. Didn't know about the blocks of time for the kids club...she should be fine then. Very cool bedrail thing.

 

We have done DCL but honestly I'm mickeyed out. Tried Princess last year but was not happy w/the upper bearth thing as my daugther is a mover while she sleeps. I was thrilled that Holland had sofa beds pretty much standard.

 

We are on the Noordam in April during Springbreak so I am sure the ship will be full of kids.

 

Happy Cruisin everyone.:)

 

 

We are going on the April 4th sailing on the Noordam this spring. My kids (ages 10 and 6) love Club Hal. We have been on 2 other HAL cruises and my kids did not complain about being bored. They love the swimming pool, Club Hal, dining at Canaletto, Half Moon Cay, and ice cream! What's not to love about being on a cruise!!

[Guest LoveMyBoxer]

Thanks everyone for all the great info. Didn't know about the blocks of time for the kids club...she should be fine then. Very cool bedrail thing.

 

We have done DCL but honestly I'm mickeyed out. Tried Princess last year but was not happy w/the upper bearth thing as my daugther is a mover while she sleeps. I was thrilled that Holland had sofa beds pretty much standard.

 

We are on the Noordam in April during Springbreak so I am sure the ship will be full of kids.

 

Happy Cruisin everyone.:)

 

Noordam has a wonderful kids club. Our Son LOVED it when he sailed in 2006 and 2007, he was 6 & 7. He still remembers it to this day (he's almost 12). Oh, and P.S. he knows and knew how to behave and dress for the appropriate venue!

 

[efoote01]

We are going on the April 4th sailing on the Noordam this spring. My kids (ages 10 and 6) love Club Hal. We have been on 2 other HAL cruises and my kids did not complain about being bored. They love the swimming pool, Club Hal, dining at Canaletto, Half Moon Cay, and ice cream! What's not to love about being on a cruise!!

 

We are on the same sailing.

[Viesczy]

Everyone else has chimed in about the rails, I've never known HAL to have them but it can't hurt to ask the folks in the know (HAL).

 

As for HAL being only "old" passengers, I dunno if I'd say it is any older Princess. Being honest and with my filter set off, Princess has some walking/talking pieces of jerky as passengers. We had been docked in Tortola (I think but could've been another port, I'm @ work so I don't have the pix & I know the port by the date) on the NCL Jewel along with HAL V class (don't recall the boat as it is on the pix) and a same sized Princess (again, don't recall the boat as it is on the pix), we were marvelling at how folks coming off the Princess seemed dramatically older than the HAL passengers. Nearly all of the Princess passengers seemed like they had somehow gotten on the Princess boat thinking that Charon was the captain and it was going to ferry them across to the land of the dead they looked so bad and seemed to be in such horrific shape! If I said think "zombie" and the first thing that popped in your head looks 3 times better than the Princess passengers! When I talked to passengers from both, they had similar lenth cruises (10+ days).

 

We ran into the same situation a few days later in Aruba too with different ships, more life coming off of HAL than Princess.

 

Length of cruise determines the passenger age more than the line any longer, and especially if it is a V class.

 

Derek

[mearsfansinboise]

While the HAL demo definitely skews older and no-kids, we are early 40s with young children and our little family had a fantastic time. We got in to a routine of taking the kids to Club HAL when it was open, and picking the kids up for meals - sometimes not for lunch though as Club HAL would take them to the Lido for lunch. Our kids ate off the adult menu - they loved the chilled soups, and we loved them being able to order a steak and not have to worry about the price as we do in regular land restaurants. Dressing up in their good clothes for formal nights was a treat for the kids and of course good family photo ops. Not a lot of little ones though....maybe a dozen in Club HAL last time we sailed. Suspect there will be the same on our Hawaii cruise come April as it's after typical spring break time.

Conversely, we did sail DCL and the kids really liked the attention they got on HAL vs. DCL just because of the sheer mass of children.

[wiseguycruising]

I'm sure your family will totally enjoy this cruise, but generally, 'HAL' and 'kids' don't go together in the same sentence.

 

We have over 400 kids on Westerdam on Holiday cruise that just got home today. My kid enjoyed Club Hal. They opened 8am to 11am, 1pm to 4pm and 7pm to 10pm. They have all types of programs for kids. Even on Christmas day all kids have chance to take picture with Santa and got gift.

[Himself]

I think that children are more welcome on the HAL ships than they might have been ten or 15 years ago. Their program has improved. In the lat 1990's children looked boored. Today they look happy and like they are having fun.