Cruising with very young unvaccinated kids

[craig01020]

10 hours ago, PumpkinPatches said:

I just want to get a sense for what the community thinks

I wouldn't make the final payment unless I knew that my children would be fully vaccinated by sail date. That's certainly possible, but not a certainty. Sorry.

[PumpkinPatches]

29 minutes ago, Homosassa said:

Why are you all assuming that Grandparents don't have a life and can drop everything to babysit for an extended period of time?

 

OP, I completely understand wanting to cruise with your young children and seeing the world through their eyes.  

 

We have many fond memories of cruising with our daughter (first cruise at 18 months) and the complete delight she took in each experience on board.

 

That being said, I don't know if I would gamble that vaccinations will be available for those two and up in time for you to finalize plans.

 

Perhaps erring on the side of caution would be the best decision and coming up with a Plan B where your family can safety be together is the way to go.

Hey, thank you so much for your comment.  Seriously.  Yes, my kids are young BUT they are really excited to see the Eiffel Tower (we had 1.5 weeks of pre-cruise fun planned).  They will totally enjoy it, and they also have memories of the 2 other cruises we have taken with them.  Plus my older one remembers being in Hawaii when she was 16 months old and can recall specific things that I barely remember myself.  my littlest one has no memory of Hawaii since she was inside my tummy, lol.  

 

We do have a backup plan.. actually 2!  There is a 1-week cruise on Odyssey of the Seas we could take, or we can keep our flights (fly into Paris, fly home from Rome) and create our own land itinerary and make our way from Paris to Rome in 3 weeks and explore on our own.

 

So thank you again for your comment 🙂 I love showing my kids the world and I think that it truly does make a difference in their lives.  

[a1betpr]

50 minutes ago, PumpkinPatches said:

We do have a backup plan.. actually 2!  There is a 1-week cruise on Odyssey of the Seas we could take, or we can keep our flights (fly into Paris, fly home from Rome) and create our own land itinerary and make our way from Paris to Rome in 3 weeks and explore on our own.

 

I like the sounds of backup plan #2...ditch the cruise altogether and see Europe on your own. We have fond memories of Paris when our son was 4 and making things like trips to the Louvre more engaging by creating flash cards of the major works and playing "find that art!"...plus we hung an end-of-trip couple of days at Paris Disneyland over his head throughout the trip. 

 

Of course you still need to be careful pre-paying for too much stuff because much of Europe is seeing another Covid spike right now and who knows if even your plan C will come to fruition.  Over the last 18 months I've had to cancel trips to Iceland, Japan (twice!) and (just last week) the Christmas markets in Eastern Europe, so I know how hard it is to make that final call and click "cancel" on things.  Our plan B has become the NCL Joy on Dec 4 but it will not compare to what we had planned for 3 weeks in Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, and Hungary.  Unless of course one of our Haven bids is accepted...

 

Anyway, good luck with your decision and your trip, whatever you decide!!!

[sanger727]

If it were me, I would switch to the backup plan. I don't see any way NCL will change the vaccination rules in time for your cruise. We are two years into COVID and while things are better COVID is still going strong. The pandemic won't be "over" in the Spring. 

[PTC DAWG]

Memory of a trip at 16 months?  Call Ripley’s. 

Edited November 10, 2021 by PTC DAWG

[Laszlo]

13 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

Memory of a trip at 16 months?  Call Ripley’s. 

Yea really.....

[SliderNc]

I have many fond memories of cruising when I was a young boy with my family so I can understand how excited your kids are.  My daughter who was 3 on her first cruise remembers bits and pieces of it and has been asking us to take her on another one.  She's getting her wish for spring break 2022 on the Joy and another cruise in July on Encore to Alaska.

 

As for the dilemma you are in and the fact that you have other plans, I would be leaning towards the other plans.  I don't see NCL lifting their 100% vaccination and the risk of getting very young kids vaccinated in time has too much uncertainty right now.  I would be looking to adjust my trip and make the best out of a situation that doesn't seem like it's going to get better or change in the near future. 

 

We live for experiences in our family and all of our trips we have taken with the exception on one cruise, we have brought our daughter.  While not what you want to happen, I would work hard to make whatever you decide to do the best and safest experience for your entire family!  I wish you the best on your decision and future plans.

[rimmit]

I would go the land trip option.  We’ve drug our kids, now 6 years old and 10,  all over the world since they were 3 months old, including countless cruises (TAs, northern europe, med, australia, etc.), road trips, and land trips so I am not new to dragging kids through everything concept.  We did a multi city europe trip when they were 3 and 7 years old through Paris, Prague, Budapest and Moscow and while we love cruising,  found this easily to be one of the most memorable trips we took.

 

It’s just nice to have a trip on your on pace, especially in these European cities where there is so much to see and not worry about getting to the ship.  Also given the undertainty, its just a pain to keep cancelling and rebooking things over and over.  

 

Just given the level of uncertainty I think a land option would be highly enjoyable.   There is obviously no kids club on land, but there is definitely more unique and interesting experiences.  Plus all the inevitable hiccups that turn into memories down the road.  My 3 year old ended up in the ED in Paris.   Thankfully,  european healthcare is much cheaper than the US.  Paid $54 USD for the visit that would have been several hundred in the US.

 

In short,  given the undertainty I would go with plan B.  Its a great option, albeit not a cruise, but one that will create just as many if not more memories. 

Edited November 10, 2021 by rimmit

[Turtles06]

1 minute ago, rimmit said:

My 3 year old ended up in the ED in Paris.   Thankfully,  european healthcare is much cheaper than the US.  Paid $54 USD for the visit that would have been several hundred in the US.

 

You were overcharged!  🤣 I ended up in the ER in Paris, with a follow up the next day, and was charged 0.  (I was shocked. I was sure my credit card would have been the second thing they wanted to see, after my passport.) 

[ChiefMateJRK]

3 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

Most people have *someone* in their lives who can take on the kids for a bit.

I would say that very few have someone who can and/or will responsibly take on kids for a week plus.  I would never leave kids that age with anybody for multiple days while I go and frolic on a cruise ship.

[JamieLogical]

7 minutes ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

I would say that very few have someone who can and/or will responsibly take on kids for a week plus.  I would never leave kids that age with anybody for multiple days while I go and frolic on a cruise ship.

 

I must know a lot of the privileged few then? In my case, as a child, we were left with our babysitter who babysat us out of her house and had kids the same ages as us, when my parents went on vacations alone. My sister, who is divorced, leaves her kids with her ex husband when she and her fiance want to travel alone and vice versa for her ex and his fiance. All of my coworkers have parents or siblings who will either stay with their kids or who would have the kids stay with them. I don't know anyone with kids in my real life who doesn't have someone those kids could stay with for a week or two.

 

Edit: I forgot to mention that once my oldest brother was married, he and his wife would come stay in our house with my younger sister and I when my parents traveled alone.

Edited November 10, 2021 by JamieLogical

[Cilosgirl]

You have a good plan B and C so you can wait until final payment to make a decision. I have a March cruise booked and am still waiting on my 8 year old to be vaccinated. I have until Jan 4th to make final payment and I’m praying that NACI approves the vaccine with enough time for her to get both doses. It’s stressful.

[Homosassa]

4 hours ago, PumpkinPatches said:

 

 

 

 

So thank you again for your comment 🙂 I love showing my kids the world and I think that it truly does make a difference in their lives.  

It definitely makes a difference to expose children to new places, new cultures, and new ideas on how things are done.

 

My daughter was talking to her third grade teacher about the trip to Hawaii we went on when she was six.

 

Wanting to see if my daughter had any idea of where Hawaii was, the teacher asked if she could drive there (we lived in Maryland).

 

Much to the teacher's surprise, my daughter told her she could drive to the west coast (she suggested Interstate 70 from Maryland to Utah to start with and then find another road west), but then the teacher would have to fly to Hawaii.

 

The teacher could also fly from Baltimore to Hawaii but it was a "really, really long airplane ride."

 

The teacher was very amused and told me of the conversation during the parent teacher conference. Besides the airplane information , she was impressed on the IS 70 tip. Yeah, we had also taken road trips out west.

[PumpkinPatches]

1 hour ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

I would say that very few have someone who can and/or will responsibly take on kids for a week plus.  I would never leave kids that age with anybody for multiple days while I go and frolic on a cruise ship.

We're actually going to be away for over 3 weeks... so yeah that is kinda tough for us.  Not to mention, my kids are already super excited to see the Eiffel Tower. Like REALLY excited.  I wouldn't be able to go to Paris and visit the Eiffel Tower without them and feel good about it.  lol.  They actually have a whole Paris bucket-list, like they want to go to a café and drink apple juice, lol!  And my 4-yo has been asking me to teach her French.  So yeah going without them is totally not possible!! Haha

[The Traveling Man]

On 11/10/2021 at 5:05 AM, glennmartin said:

once everyone has been vaccinated there will be no problems but the kids can catch and transmit to others 

 

we have no disney in the UK so we need to fly everywhere

You can take the Chunnel train to Paris to visit EuroDisney.  I haven't been on that train in a couple of years, so I'm not sure what the Covid protocols are, but I don't think they require vaccinations for children.

[phillygwm]

There are two issues here:  1) Will NCL let unvaxxed kids (or anyone else) sail?  I doubt it and, frankly, I hope they don't.  Nothing personal but many people choose to sail NCL BECAUSE it's relatively "locked down" in terms of vax policy.  That said, there are other cruise lines with more permissive policies so perhaps those might be an option?  2) Is it really appropriate to take kids to the Greek Isles?  That was my last cruise and I didn't notice much that would be of interest to young kids off-ship.  To be honest, the ports were so overrun with tourists even I, a middle-aged adult, had a difficult time enjoying it though that would be a good reason to go now.

 

 

[glennmartin]

On 11/11/2021 at 6:59 PM, The Traveling Man said:

You can take the Chunnel train to Paris to visit EuroDisney.  I haven't been on that train in a couple of years, so I'm not sure what the Covid protocols are, but I don't think they require vaccinations for children.

euro disney is like going to pasta at olive garden 

[sparkygirlfamily]

On 11/10/2021 at 8:04 AM, goldmom said:

I have an odd question about this.  What if you make final payment and then NCL cancels your booking because there are unvaccinated children on your reservation?  Would NCL then refund the cruise fare or only issue a FCC?

The other thread mentioned that NCL was the one who originally cancelled their booking because they had children under 12 on their reservation.

I understand you don't want to cancel and you could wait and see what happens, but it would also be very stressful to possibly not know if the vacation will happen until the last minute and be stressing for the next several months.  Personally, I don't see NCL changing their policy any time soon. 

Good luck whatever you decide.

The answer is no, unless you have a cancel for any reason clause on an insurance policy that most vendors required be purchased within 30 days of deposit.  I just went through this with NCL and my recently age eligible for vaccine child.  We would be in the penalty phase and were facing losing our entire payment for continuing with a reservation with a child too young to vaccinated.  

 

Our pay/not pay final deposit decision point was that my 10 year receive her first dose and be scheduled for her 2nd dose before final payment needed to be made.  She has dose 1, 3 weeks later dose 2, 2 weeks later "fully vaccinated" then 3 weeks later we sail.  Even with this timeline we had to jump through hoops as the sail safe had stated age 12 and over.    We had to escalate the issue and have the contract printed that states if there is a discrepancy between the contract and sail safe website that the website governs.  The website was recently updated to now simply state age eligible for vaccine children if fully vaccinated are welcome to sail.  

 

For the OP - I would see if your deposit can be moved to 60 days before the cruise and would use a similar pay/no pay final deposit decision point.  If the kids are not vaccinated before the final payment the trip will need to be cancelled on NCL.  A 60 day before sailing final payment window does not leave much time for vaccination.

[mjkacmom]

On 11/10/2021 at 2:23 PM, JamieLogical said:

 

I must know a lot of the privileged few then? In my case, as a child, we were left with our babysitter who babysat us out of her house and had kids the same ages as us, when my parents went on vacations alone. My sister, who is divorced, leaves her kids with her ex husband when she and her fiance want to travel alone and vice versa for her ex and his fiance. All of my coworkers have parents or siblings who will either stay with their kids or who would have the kids stay with them. I don't know anyone with kids in my real life who doesn't have someone those kids could stay with for a week or two.

 

Edit: I forgot to mention that once my oldest brother was married, he and his wife would come stay in our house with my younger sister and I when my parents traveled alone.

My parents watched our 5 kids when we took a cruise for our 10th anniversary, my sister used to fly in to NJ  from Chicago every summer to leave them for a week so she and her husband could go to Europe. Growing up, our parents left us with neighbors.

[AwesomO]

I think leaving YOUNG children at home to travel abroad,  especially on a cruise ship, would be challenging. It would be more difficult to reach the parents if there were any questions or concerns. Obviously if there's an emergency they can be reached, but idk, I'd have trouble trusting anyone with my kids while they're so young for a week if I was somewhere that made it difficult to get ahold of me. It's also fine if you hate traveling with kids, but a lot of us really enjoy those family times, even if it does add some stress. I personally love cruise ships, especially NCL, with little kids because there's so much to do simply walking out of your stateroom. Land based vacations that require me to pack my kids into their car seats and drive to go somewhere are less relaxing. When they're ready for their nap, we just walk back to our room that's right there. So easy. Especially when I live close to a cruise port and don't even need to fly in!

 

That said, NCL won't be lifting their mandate any time soon, if at all, and certainly not by Jan. At best you can hope for vaccines to be available to children under 5 (and be ready and willing to give to your children). Took awhile for 5-11 year Olds to be approved though and there's currently no rough ETA available for under 5s, so I wouldn't count on it. I'd save the trouble and anxiety of worrying and either try to find another cruise with a similar itinerary, or make it land based as others have suggested. 

[The Traveling Man]

6 hours ago, glennmartin said:

euro disney is like going to pasta at olive garden 

Yes, but you were the one who said you didn't have a Disney Park in the UK, so you needed to fly everywhere you wanted to go, thus running into challenges with unvaccinated children.  I simply pointed out that there are other travel options to get to a Disney Park.

[LoveThatCorgi]

On 11/10/2021 at 3:35 PM, PumpkinPatches said:

We're actually going to be away for over 3 weeks... so yeah that is kinda tough for us.  Not to mention, my kids are already super excited to see the Eiffel Tower. Like REALLY excited.  I wouldn't be able to go to Paris and visit the Eiffel Tower without them and feel good about it.  lol.  They actually have a whole Paris bucket-list, like they want to go to a café and drink apple juice, lol!  And my 4-yo has been asking me to teach her French.  So yeah going without them is totally not possible!! Haha

I totally understand taking them regardless of age!   Our almost 18 year old son took his first flight at 15 months and has had a passport since he was less than 2.  He's cruised, flown and car-tripped to a lot of places.  There are a lot of really fun (and funny) memories, some he remembers and some he doesn't.  There was something special in every trip.

 

Today I am struggling with something I didn't see coming.  He doesn't want to go anymore.  What happened???  He was supposed to inherit my love of travel?!?!  😉

 

"Are you sure you don't want to go on a cruise to the Mediterranean?  We'll see the Colosseum and visit Pompeii.  How about the Panama Canal?  Want to go to New Orleans?"  He agreed to a Caribbean cruise for Spring Break 2022, and so right after he starts college next fall, his dad and I are headed to Italy for a Med cruise without him.

 

I guess my point is they grow up really fast, and whether they remember it or not, you will!!!

[mommysoncruiser]

I am just like you. I take my kids everywhere I go. They are so well versed in travel and more empathetic to different cultures. My children love to travel and would not give it up for anyone. I 

would never leave them home in order to travel. They go wherever I go! They love land based as well as cruising. We do both frequently and are booked for lots of travel next year. My 4 year old will be 5 in January so I am relieved that he can travel without the exclusion ( getting him vaxxed). Covid has been a nightmare for us since we travel/vacation at minimum 3 times per year. Next year we will be gone most of the year. I love when parents take their children on adventures to see the world 😍🥰.

Edited November 16, 2021 by mommysoncruiser

[ChiefMateJRK]

12 minutes ago, mommysoncruiser said:

I would never leave them home in order to travel. They go wherever I go!

Wasn't the other poster talking about an 18 year old?

[julig22]

My family was considering a short cruise to Mexico, where we would celebrate for an 8yo's birthday.  No thanks, she'd rather have a party at home with friends.  Not saying young kids don't enjoy traveling but sometimes they might prefer something else, given a choice.