Emerald Princess - no children's pools

[Dorset Cruiser]

If Emerald is the same layout as Ruby (which I am led to believe is right) then there is definitely no children's pool of any description. There IS a great kids club with a lot of outdoor space and an outside car track etc but no wading pool. I know because our two non-swimming grandchildren had to splash around in the water at the edge of the main pool:(

[caber]

I was on Emerald in April, 2007 and am sure I found a shallow pool in a quiet spot with nobody around.

[PescadoAmarillo]

I was on Emerald in April, 2007 and am sure I found a shallow pool in a quiet spot with nobody around.

They may have made a change since then; there are no shallow pools on the Emerald. I looked specially for one.

[NoGvmnt]

But were they smoking? ;)

 

No, but they DID turn off the Auto-Tip.:D

 

Jim

[velvetred]

For those that are sailing to Princess Cays - there is a kids pool at this port. My nieces and nephew enjoyed the kids area. It is staffed by the kids club staff and there is a nice play area. If your children want to swim in the kids pool at Princess Cays there is a requirement that a parent or authorized adult supervise their swim time. I know this is not on the ship but just thought the OP might want to consider itineraries with Princess Cays for her kids.

 

BTW - I don't think it is kids that most cruisers don't like - I think the problem is kids with parents who fail to supervise them properly. I can't tell you how many times I have observed young children running wild on a ship, butting in front of adults in the buffet line without so much as an excuse me, running up and down the halls, blocking the stairwells, kicking the back of my seat at a show, etc. and the parents are no where in sight or choosing to ignore the fact that their children are being rude and disruptive to other guests. Of course, I have also been on some cruises where the children on board were very well behaved and I give kudos to the parents of those children.

[Dorset Cruiser]

For those that are sailing to Princess Cays - there is a kids pool at this port. My nieces and nephew enjoyed the kids area. It is staffed by the kids club staff and there is a nice play area. If your children want to swim in the kids pool at Princess Cays there is a requirement that a parent or authorized adult supervise their swim time. I know this is not on the ship but just thought the OP might want to consider itineraries with Princess Cays for her kids.

 

BTW - I don't think it is kids that most cruisers don't like - I think the problem is kids with parents who fail to supervise them properly. I can't tell you how many times I have observed young children running wild on a ship, butting in front of adults in the buffet line without so much as an excuse me, running up and down the halls, blocking the stairwells, kicking the back of my seat at a show, etc. and the parents are no where in sight or choosing to ignore the fact that their children are being rude and disruptive to other guests. Of course, I have also been on some cruises where the children on board were very well behaved and I give kudos to the parents of those children.

 

 

I quite agree it is up the the parents (and grandparents:)) to ensure good behaviour in public areas. Our two grandchildren (5 & 3) are very 'lively' at home but we try to ensure that they behave appropriately in public. Must work because on our Ruby cruise, my DS and his partner were often told what nice children they had. We ate at a large traditional table sited in the any time dining room every evening and apart from a couple of occasions when the little one got extremely bored and kept straying from her chair, they were really very good.

[myraid]

We were on the Emerald in December and can confirm that there is kids pool in the kids area, but it is not much bigger than a hottub and it is deep. I think you can only access it from the kids club, but you can see it from Skywalkers.

 

Our DS (3) loved the main pools. He had his water wings and just floated around- even loved the "waves" in the pool created when we were at sea. He also liked splashing around in the large ledge all around the pool where the water laps up.

 

On another note, we were on the Grand Princess 2 years ago and they have a true splash pool- it is shaped like a whale- the body was a shallow splash pool and the mouth was a mini splash pad with fountains coming up from the ground. Our DS who was 2 at the time loved it, and they did allow swim diapers- in fact they came and checked the water for bacteria every day- sometimes we saw them checking 2-3 times a day.

[Casey]

I have been a member of CC for many years. By the number of posts I have you can see that I lurk alot. This thread really gets to me...We are very young grandparents 45 & 43, we are taking our grandson with us on our upcoming cruise. We feel very blessed to be able to have the money to do this. I am so sick of all the people on these boards bashing children. I am so excited to be able to cruise through the eyes of a 7 year old. Lighten up everyone. I would sure hate to have alot of you as a parent or grandparent!!!

[flhokie]

As several other posters have said, the issue is as much, or more, with the parents as with the children. I love kids, but have been on flights and cruises where the blatant disregard of the parents has resulted in the kids negatively impacting the experience of others (I'm sure experiences like these impact people's thoughts on the subject).

 

Example 1: Grand Princess, Med Cruise. Kids (mostly in the 8-12 year-old range) were running all around the ship at all hours (including well after midnight). Several times they woke us up in the middle of the night and we had to open the door to ask them to stop (the kids and the parents got mad at us). They often ran into other passengers. They were also having contests where they blocked the stairs and jumped down them (2 kids ended up with broken legs from this). There were many well behaved children on the ship (they were still enjoying their trip), but youth security was kept very busy with the others. When speaking with the youth security officers, they said that the parents would yell at them when they told them that the children needed to obey the rules (even though some of the rules were to ensure the kids didn't get seriously hurt or hurt others).

 

Example 2: On a flight, there were 2 kids (approx. 2 & 4) in the row ahead of me. Mom and dad were in the center seats with the kids in the aisle seats. At first the kids were playing quietly in their seats (mom was reading a book and dad was "sleeping"). Then a lady on the aisle in front of them started "playing" with them with a stuffed animal. The kids started squealing very loudly. The more they squealed the more the lady would do with the stuffed animal. Mom and dad continued to read and pretend to sleep. After about 10-15 minutes of this loud squealing, with no end in sight, the flight attendant approached the kids and asked them to use indoor voices--the parents got mad at her.

 

Example 3: On a flight, a child started blowing a whistle. Mom had packed a metal whistle in her bag of things to play with on the plane and didn't see anything wrong with daughter blowing a whistle continuously in a closed in space (the flight attendant finally had to put a stop to it).

 

Kids don't have to be "perfectly" behaved, but their parents need to recognize what's appropriate behavior for the situation (and take responsibility for it happening).

[Cruising Greek]

We took our three-year old on an NCL cruise last April. I don't know if we're just exceptionally good parents, or our daughter is just a great kid, but people were complimenting us about how good a kid she was. We were flattered, of course. But what we couldn't quite figure out was why her behavior was such a surprise. We took her in to the main dining room and ate dinner just like anybody else would. We'd always get a lot of "looks" when we were being seated, but by the end of the meal, the same folks who were obviously concerned that their meal was about to be ruined by a little brat were the ones telling us what a wonderful daughter we have. :confused:

 

We had similar experiences on our recent cruise on the Emerald. We always take our daughter (3 years old) with us to restaurants and other places so that she gets used to them and knows how to act accordingly. So on our cruise, she knew exactly how to behave in the Dinning Room.

 

Well, you should have seen some of the stares we got from neighboring tables when they saw a 3 year old sitting down for dinner. It really amazes me how some people react. Are we supposed to hide ourselves at home until our children are teenagers?!

 

We use our cruises and other vacations to get back the quality time with our daughter that we lose out on during our work weeks. We both work, and cherish our vacations as a time to spend 24/7 with our daughter.

 

Thankfully, she LOVES cruising. Others have mentioned that that's why they have Disney Cruise Line. Trust me, we would LOVE to go on a DCL cruise. But when you compare the prices, Princess and RCI provide much more value for us, and we can even put the difference away for our daughter's college fund, lol.

[Cruising Greek]

Why would they make a "splash pool" 5 feet deep? I never go up there, so I always assumed what they called a "splash pool" would be shallow enough for toddlers to wade. What's over there by the tricycle track -- it's not a wading pool?

 

Youth and Teen Center

Fully equipped centers for children and teens with outdoor and indoor play areas, toys, video games, splash pool, teen disco and a complete schedule of activities.

 

When we saw splash pool, we were excited for our dd. Once we got onboard, ALL of the pools seemed to be at least 5' deep. We made the best of it, and I got a workout holding my 3 year old the entire time we were in the pool. Luckily, we have some large waves a few days at sea, and I sat with my daughter on the edge of the MUTS pool and watched the pool waves splash us. She had fun, but a shallower pool would have been appreciated.

 

The "Splash Pool" was being used by teenagers hanging out. It looked like a hot tub without the heat.

[Cruising Greek]

Sorry to disappoint all you kiddie phobics but I'm taking two of them on the Emerald Princess this September so lock up your grumpy grannies because we are going to have some FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Good for you! You paid as much or even more for your cruise. Enjoy it with you kids and make lots of happy memories!