Jewel...questions about the under 3 crowd

[SusanMelody]

I am looking to book the Jewel 4/08/07 for myself, DH, and DD ( age 2yrs2months at that time). Is there a zero entry pool? Has anyone used the kid's club with a 2 year old? Any comments would be appreciated. Debating between Disney and NCL. I have sailed with Disney before, but not NCL.

[KeystoneCruiser]

No diapers, not even swim diapers are allowed in the NCL pools, including the kiddie pool.

 

As far as the kids club, they do take 2 year olds but they do not change diapers. If the child is not potty trained, you will be given a beeper and paged when a change is needed. This includes the after hours and port time babysitting so you basically cannot leave the ship while in port if your child is in babysitting.

 

The Kids Club is open 7-10 p.m. in the evening and other times during the day while at sea. It is not open while in port. There is group babysitting available between 10 pm. and 1 a.m. and while in port for an additional fee.

 

Hope this helps!!

[YogiMia]

Sorry I don't have an answer to your specific question, but I will be sailing NCL Jewel on first cruise ever with DS (8 yrs. old) and DD ( 6 yrs. old) and am also curious how the Kids Club work. Thankfully, I don't have to worry about diapers anymore.:D

[SusanMelody]

Thanks Keystone Cruiser. I have a 15yo DS and a 13yo DD, who have been cruising for years, but it's been quite some time since I have had to worry about diapers, kiddie pools and kids clubs. NCL seems to be one of the best lines (along with DCL), for kiddies under 3.

[KeystoneCruiser]

YogiMia (love the name by the way): Ask some specific questions and we will be glad to help. I have a daughter, now 8, who has already been on 3 cruises and heading toward 4 this summer.

 

She has loved the kids club on the Star both times and the Kids Pool Area on the Star is great. I wasn't impressed with the Kids Pool on the POA.

 

As far as Kids Club is concerned, most of their activities are free and kids are grouped according to age. (2-5, 6-9, 10-12, 13 up) The Kids Club is open from 7:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. each night and during the afternoon on sea days until 5:00 I believe. There are many activities and "theme nights" for the kids. Between 10 p.m. and 1:00 a.m. and during times at port, NCL offers group babysitting that you pay for. You must sign up the day ahead of time and there must be enough kids in order for them to have it. (I don't know what that number is nor do I know how much it costs since we never have used those options).

 

There is an orientation meeting the first night of the cruise. Make sure you go, lots of good information. Kids under 13 CANNOT sign themselves in and out of Kids CLub, only the people that the parents authorize can do that. (in our case, it was my spouse, myself and my mother in law). I have never been concerned with the safety of my child while she was at Kids Club.

 

Ask any other questions that you may have.

[Scotch]

I'm also considering the Jewel for our next family cruise, by which time DS will probably be around 3 1/2 and we hope to have a 1 year old as well. One thing I LOVED about the Disney kids' play areas was they allow parents and kids to go together to use the club facilities without signing the kids into the camp. At the time we sailed the Disney Magic DS was 18 months and very shy, so he never would have tolerated us leaving him at camp but DH and I took turns every day taking him into the Oceaneering Club to play with the toys and watch the other kids and councelors who were in the supervised camp. We were able to be "visitors" basically during any time the Club was open.

 

Does NCL allow such "family" useage of the kids' facilities on any of its ships, particularly the Jewel?

[broadwaybaby]

I would certainly recommend pushing the 'potty training' prior to your cruise. It's so hard to have a little one who wants to swim but can't because they are not out of diapers.

 

We were on the Dawn last summer, and they were very good about monitoring the pools for kids who were wearing diapers, or seemed to young to be without them.

[abbylynn]

We just got back from the Jewel with our son who will be 3 in 4 months. He loved the kids program and is still talking about it. Our son isn't fully potty trained yet (he was partially trained before we went on the cruise but the toilets on board scared him) so we were given a "handy phone," which the counselors used to contact us when we were needed. We were called 3 times during the week (once because DS was tired and crying and twice because he said he had to use the bathroom). I also saw them give a handy phone to a mother who was afraid her son might have an asthma attack.

 

The kids program is open on sea days from 9-12, 2-5, and 7-10 and on port days from 7-10. There is group babysitting available from 10-1 and on port days if your child doesn't need a handy phone. I believe the fee is $5 an hour for the first child and $3 an hour for siblings. You have to sign up by 8pm that night to take advantage of the sitting after 10. We never used the group babysitting. We had lunch in Tsar the day we were in Jamaica and 2 of the kids program counselors came in with 3 kids who were in the group babysitting for the day to have lunch.

 

They don't allow kids under 2 to play in the Kids Club even with parents. However, they did have toys and balls setup in one of the Lifestyle rooms on deck 12 for younger kids and their parents. DS and I even went in there one day when it was empty so he could play with his cars on the floor and no one bothered us.

[abbylynn]

Double Post

[sharonax]

We were on the Jewel 3/19 -3/26 with an 8 year old daughter and an 18 month old son. Our daughter LOVED the kids club and had to go every night from 7 - 10. We even changed dinner reservations so she could eat with us and not be late.

Although they say no swim diapers in the pool, there were many babies in the main kids pool as well as the baby pool. They have a deck on each side of the pool that has about 6 inches of water in it where a lot of the babies played too and no one ever said anything. They have a separate adults only pool, so people who didn't want to be around the kids could go there. They also let parents take the babies down the big slide with them. We must have done this 50 times with our son as he loved it!

We also took our 18 month old to the Cirque Bijou show and he loved it and lasted the entire show.