P&O ships baby friendly? - travelling with 18 month old

[caroden]

We are thinking of taking a short 7 day Western Europe cruise next year with P&O, possibly on Azura, Ventura or Britannia. We will be travelling with my daughter and her 18 month old son. Has anyone had any experience of life on board with a baby? If so how did they find it? We understand there is a night nursery provided so Mum and Dad can eat and see the shows whilst baby sleeps. Has anyone used this service and what was their experience in general of cruising with a baby?

 

Also, was the baby charged at a reduced price and a cot provided in the cabin?

 

Any recommendations or advice welcomed.

 

Carole

Edited July 3, 2014 by caroden

[Kamloops50]

We are thinking of taking a short 7 day Western Europe cruise next year with P&O, possibly on Azura, Ventura or Britannia. We will be travelling with my daughter and her 18 month old son. Has anyone had any experience of life on board with a baby? If so how did they find it? We understand there is a night nursery provided so Mum and Dad can eat and see the shows whilst baby sleeps. Has anyone used this service and what was their experience in general of cruising with a baby?

 

Also, was the baby charged at a reduced price and a cot provided in the cabin?

 

Any recommendations or advice welcomed.

 

Carole

 

I have seen 18 month old's on board . They are to young for the kid's clubs. They won't be allowed in the pool with a diaper on. You'll probably have your hands full looking after the baby especial if it's walking/crawling.

There might be a reduced rate . As to the cot , be prepared to bring your own or make one from the coach.

Edited July 3, 2014 by Kamloops50

[rooftop]

They will provide a cot in the cabin if requested.

 

18 months is too young to be left with the staff in the children's club (2 years minimum) but you can certainly use all of the facilities if a parent/guardian stays with the child. Obviously some of the activities will be not suitable due to age.

 

Any child who is not fully toilet trained needs to wear a swim nappy when in the swimming pools.

 

Our experience is the waiters and everyone else did their best to help although ultimately you have to care for the baby 24/7 (except when in the night nursery (if they settle!))

[terrierjohn]

Carole, we sailed with our Son, DIL and 8 month old Grandson about 3 yrs ago and they thoroughly enjoyed it. There is a lot of info on the P&O website in the Q&A section under How can we help, type in your questions and check it out.

From memory P&O provided a cot for the cabin, they used the night nursery all the time during the evening and had a pager if needed, which was only once. P&O also have baby food including formula and infant jars. There is childrens tea time every day in the buffet, often with Noddy, as well as a special Noddy breakfast.

Pick one of the family friendly ships and you will have a gtreat time.

[Niclia]

We cruised on Ventura with a 17 month old and it was great! There is a baby room (doubles as night nursery) with toys which you can use during the day but its unsupervised so you have to stay with the child. There is also a largeish outdoor play area they can use. Toddlers can use the little pool outside the nursery to paddle in.

 

Cots are provided (plus lots of other items if you want).

 

We did a fly Med cruise and had to pay for a seat and luggage allowance but I know under 2s can be £100 on some cruises.

 

Happy to answer any other questions you have.

 

 

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[caroden]

Thanks for your replies. Can anyone tell me what sort of charge is made for a baby sharing the cabin? I thought I read somewhere that on some cruises babies go free?

Edited July 3, 2014 by caroden

[terrierjohn]

Thanks for your replies. Can anyone tell me what sort of charge is made for a baby sharing the cabin? I thought I read somewhere that on some cruises babies go free?

Very unlikely to be free, and in peak times it will be quite expensive up to 50% of adult fare, but at least P&O don't apply auto gratuities to childrens accounts. Your TA or P&O will give you a definite price, or you could just do a dummy booking on their website.

Edited July 3, 2014 by terrierjohn

[Thejuggler]

Night nursery is excellent, but only while the child is asleep. As soon as the child wakes up the staff will try and comfort them for 5 minutes, but as there are lots of children in the room you will be paged to come and collect them if your child doesn't drop off so they don't wake others.

Edited July 3, 2014 by Thejuggler

[the english lady]

We are thinking of taking a short 7 day Western Europe cruise next year with P&O, possibly on Azura, Ventura or Britannia. We will be travelling with my daughter and her 18 month old son. Has anyone had any experience of life on board with a baby? If so how did they find it? We understand there is a night nursery provided so Mum and Dad can eat and see the shows whilst baby sleeps. Has anyone used this service and what was their experience in general of cruising with a baby?

 

Also, was the baby charged at a reduced price and a cot provided in the cabin?

 

Any recommendations or advice welcomed.

 

Carole

Never had children so cannot answer your questions, you might want to read this thread though ref pricing

 

http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2060970

 

General thought was the family was getting a good deal price wise, but baby does not go free.

P and O do seem to provide everything else baby might need in the cabin though..cot-bedding etc.

[Alan Flett]

It will be fine. I have 2 daughters and they have been on cruises ever since they were 9 months old.

 

You usually pay a flat fare of around £299-£399 for a child under 2, but this was on a 14 night cruise in the middle of the school holidays so not sure how much it will be for a 7 night one. Once they are over 2 you pay a percentage of the adult fare which increases in school holidays obviously.

 

You ring P & O before you go and request anything you need (travel cot, baby bath, steriliser etc) obviously you won't need some of these but they are there should you wish.

 

The cabin steward will make up the cot bed for you every night when he makes up the other beds.

 

As has been mentioned there is a play area for under 2's in the children's club although there isn't a great deal in there and this becomes the night nursery of an evening.

 

When we went on one cruise our oldest daughter was 22 months old and was a little bored in there to be honest but we took her into the 2-5's play area as we were staying with her (you can't leave them with the reef rangers until they are 2). They were fine with us doing this however I think they are a little more strict now and may not allow it but they are usually quite accommodating.

 

Food wise they have everything you would imagine for children including petit filous yoghurts etc.

 

What you will fine is the waiters are excellent with the young children and love messing about with them in the restaurants. Many have young family at home and miss their children and you can see they genuinely love kids.

 

The night nursery is excellent if your child does settle. I would say over about 4/5 cruises of 14 days we have only been paged about 4 times as they do try to settle them and any children that do wake they try to take them away from the others. Each night we used to order some hot milk from room service at about 6.30 (it takes 1/2 hour to cool down!) and give it to our daughter in the cabin, she then fell asleep and I carried her up to the nursery. This can be tricky at times as some people are ignorant and talk loud when in the lifts however most are excellent and just comment quietly on your child. When you get to the nursery that can also be awkward as kids are running round screaming. That said despite some people on here thinking kids are the anti Christ many children do go 'Shhhh' to their friends when they see you with your child asleep.

 

If your child can be put down awake and will settle then it would be really easy but you do have people coming in and out with their children so it could be a little awkward doing this.

 

The nursery is usually open until about 2am but we were never later than just after midnight to be honest as you still have to get up with them in the morning.

 

Also children can go in the pools as long as they wear a swim nappy.

 

I have to be honest I would highly recommend taking any child on a P & O cruise as the facilities for them are second to none and will give you some time of an evening for yourself if your granddaughter settles in the evening.

[caroden]

So can the babies eat in the restaurants with you ordo they have to eat before you?

[Hasthagotnowtmoist]

So can the babies eat in the restaurants with you ordo they have to eat before you?

 

 

Entirely up to you.

 

 

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[Niclia]

We only ate in the restaurants in the evening! There is a children's menu with standard kids meals like salmon, chicken breast and fish fingers (the choice doesn't change at all during the cruise) or you can ask for a smaller portion from the main menu. They'll bring the children's meal with your starters.

 

 

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[caroden]

Thanks everyone! Your response has been really appreciated. My daughter is much less worried now about cruising with a toddler.

Carole

Edited July 5, 2014 by caroden

[MickD]

A few people are wrongly stating that children can go in the pools with swim nappies, this is totally untrue.

No cruise ships let un potty trained tots in the main pools.

Not saying you wont see people letting their kids do this, but it is against all elf and safety rules.

Apparently swim nappies cant contain fecal matter properly and they dont want you swimming past ang getting a mouthful :eek:

 

Cheers Mick.

[KarenR_UK]

A few people are wrongly stating that children can go in the pools with swim nappies, this is totally untrue.

No cruise ships let un potty trained tots in the main pools.

Not saying you wont see people letting their kids do this, but it is against all elf and safety rules.

Apparently swim nappies cant contain fecal matter properly and they dont want you swimming past ang getting a mouthful :eek:

 

Cheers Mick.

 

As Mick says, this isn't allowed & is quoted on P&Os WebSite

 

Children

 

Children are welcome to use the friendly family pools. All children must be toilet trained before using any of the pools. Swim nappies are not accepted. This is due to health and safety reasons.

 

The link is https://ask.pocruises.com/help/PO/fleet/cunard_pools (cunard:confused: - it is for P&O's ships, I double checked :))

[Niclia]

On Ventura in May toddlers with nappies were allowed in the pool outside the kids club (I think its called the Splash Pool). We didn't use it but I remember it as I wasn't expecting there to be anywhere for a toddler to use! There was a bit about it in the welcome Horizon, it was in the Captain's welcome speech and the kid's club staff told us about it. So there is (at least on Ventura) somewhere for toddlers and babies in nappies to use!

 

 

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