Which ships have the best pools for us and a 5 year old

[suzan99]

Hi,

 

We are trying to plan a cruise for October. We have been on Disney and although loved the cruise the pools were very small and Disney is so expensive we just did it once and will try another cruise line.

 

Our daughter loves to be in the pool but hates water sprays and anything water that goes over head. We also want a pool where we can swim together as a family. On Disney the only pool you could do that was so small and crowded that you could just stand because there were 100 other people cramd in the pool.

 

We are thinking Libery or Freedom but it looks like the H20 zone is a lot of sprays and not much pool. Are there options to swim together on RCL ships? What about the newest Carnival ships?

 

We also would like a good kids club. That's her favorite part of the vacation. We went to an all inclusive in Mexico and the pools were super big and wonderful but the kids club has limited hours which is why were are thinking of doing another cruise.

 

If anyone has pictures of the different pools on the ships - I'l love to see them - sometimes the brochure/online photos make them look bigger than they are.

 

Thanks for anyone's help :)

[jennb]

IMHO - cruise ship pools are not the greatest for little children - especially when the ship rocks and rolls (they are fairly deep). We sailed the Grand Princess and she had a splash pool for children outside of the kids' club which my DD liked.

 

You may want to focus on an intinerary with lots of beach time instead.

 

We're going on the Carnival Liberty in July, so I can't comment on it yet.

 

Good luck.

[suzan99]

Unfortunately she's not that fond of swimming in the ocean unless there are no waves. Which islands are best for this kind of swimming? We went to Orient Beach at St. Martin and the waves were too big for her, but the beach next to Coral World in St. Thomas was great - no waves and you could see lots of fish.

 

She doesn't mind if the pool is deep - she is fine with floaties on and is fine with 3 1/2 -4 ft water and no floaties.

 

Also which ships have saltwater pools vs. fresh water?

[jennb]

Princess has freshwater pools. I do believe that the rest have saltwater pools (I'm sure some one will correct me if I'm wrong).

 

We've been to Princess Cay and Half Moon Cay - both were very sheltered, spectacular beaches. Fine sand and warm water with little/no waves that I recall. These are private islands - you may wish to look for an itinerary that includes such a call - Princess for Princess Cay and Holland America/Carnival for Half Moon Cay. (I give the edge to Half Moon - it was amazing).

[provenienbam]

Some of the newer NCL boats have pools apart of the kids club. They are very nice, slides etc.

[PattyW]

NCL Dawn (and I think Spirit) has a terrific kids pool area. The area has one tiny pool (maybe a foot deep) for little kids and a larger pool (where you could swim as a family) that came up to about my hips (I'm 5'8"). There are two smallish water slides and a hot tub as well. My 5 year old thought it was the absolute best kids' pool area ever. There are these 2 bone shaped water guns that can be faced into the pool, but they easy to avoid.

 

The only negative of it is that the area is completely separate from the main pool area and there is no bar service or bar anywhere around. So if you are they type who would like a nice drink while you lounge as your child (or your child and her father) play, you'd have to go for a little walk to get your drink.

 

Here are some pictures of the Dawn's pool area that I found on webshots:

 

The bone water guns

 

The bigger part of the kids pool

 

The smaller kids pool

 

One of the water slides

[wrp96]

Princess has freshwater pools. I do believe that the rest have saltwater pools (I'm sure some one will correct me if I'm wrong).

 

RCCL's Freedom of the Seas, Liberty of the Seas, and Independence of the Seas all have freshwater pools. RCCL's other ships have saltwater pools.

[rebeccalouise]

If your child loves to swim- do a cruise line with fresh water pools.

 

My son loves to swim but will not swim in saltwater on the ship or on land.

 

Having said that, he did like the pool on Radiance of the Seas. That wasn't deep and he didn't have to "swim" He could just wade in it. He also loved the waterslide on Radiance. But he did not care for AO.

 

I have cruised Cunard and they have freshwater pools and a nice playroom with ballpit and outdoor bikes and a little tykes playhouse. My son (age 7) and I have sailed them three times. Really lovely ship.

 

I also think Princess is a good option because they have freshwater pools. Princess has really nice hot tubs that you can use and not use the bubbles. My son was 5 at the time and could swim around in there it was so big. Naturally he didn't do this if adults wanted to use it but the hot tubs were seldom used. He enjoyed the Fun Zone on Princess.

[helenb]

I would recommend Princess. IMHO, it's the best mix for an all-around family cruise, other than Disney. Most of their ships have a large covered pool for families (as well as an outdoor pool for families and an outdoor adult pool). There is no waterplay, so there aren't any sprays, but as a previous poster said, it might be deep for your kids, so bring water wings if they can't swim well. Personally, I like the covered pools because on cold cruises (like Alaska) it's too cold to swim outside and on warm cruises I'm afraid of sunburn. It's nice to go swimming without having to slather sunscreen on everyone, KWIM?

 

Just so you know, on Celebrity and RCCL, the covered pools are also the adult only pools. We found this out on our RCCL Alaskan cruise and were very upset that the kids weren't allowed in there when it was clearly far too cold for them to use the outdoor pools.

 

The Kids' Clubs on Princess are also very nice (on the newer ships). If you want pictures of anything, LMK and I'll post some.

[crusinmama06]

Well RCCL Freedom/Liberty/Independence has THREE pool areas on each ship. And they are all FRESHwater.

 

This is the main pool area which has two freshwater pools with different depths...some people call this the "Sports Pool"

 

 

This is the H20 zone with the sprays. But not EVERY area of that is spraying. You can simply go to an area with no sprays and shallow water.

 

The front side has the sprays, but you can just step away from them...

 

 

You can take her in the "lazy donut (no sprays) on the left hand side of the pic

 

 

The kid hot tub...

 

 

The adult solarium for you, also has the centilever hottubs

 

 

[suzan99]

Thanks everyone. The pictures are great!

 

Susan