Cruising the Norwegian Dream with kids age 3 & 5

[alv0729]

I just went on a cruise with my family on the Dream to Bermuda out of Boston. We had with us 3 children ages 3, 4, and 5. Here are some helpful hints from a no-nonsense mommy and teacher to navigate your vacation to be more smooth and relaxing with kids.

The Kids Korner-- This is a service the ship supplies to all different age groups of children. The staff is fully checked out. My sister-in-law called NCL to ask about background checks and was told, all staff is checked to work with children. My children enjoyed playing here a lot. On days at sea-- their hours are typically 9-12, 2-3:30, 7-10. On days in port, they have evening hours. While these hours are not pay-as-you go, it is customary and courteous to leave a tip at the end of the trip for the staff (we thought $10 per child, per day to be split among staff- they switch out among a few ladies- was good). There are extra hours at a pay-by-the-hour basis. The activities for ages 2-5 range from pirate parties, dinosaur activities, blues clues, un-birthday parties, prince and princess night, pajama parties, etc. They sing songs, read stories, play games, make crafts, and watch movies.

Your kids will leave the kids korner with many a hat and craft. I suggest taking pictures of them with their crafts and hats and telling them off the bat—“you may choose 1 hat to take home and 2 crafts. All the rest are going to be left on the ship, but we have pictures of all of them.” Otherwise you will have difficulty packing all of the stuff, who knows, maybe you WANT to keep it all—just be prepared.

The kids korner bathroom ages 2-5= I figure since the "potty" is such a big deal at this age, that this does deserve mention. Children in diapers are allowed in the kids korner. Those parents are given beepers. The kids korner staff does not change diapers-- EVER. Start your time with a fresh diaper, and with all the fruit aboard the ship, be prepared to be beeped at least once a play period. For the children who are potty trained yet receive help with TP-- it appears they receive NO assistance in the bathroom. While that is a messy prospect for many parents, consider the day and time we live in and deal with the messy pants later-- I suggest pull-ups and throw them away instead of bringing home dirty underpants-- the pull-ups will also help with any accidents-- we bring enough clothes to have to worry about extras for accidents.

Don’t feel guilty about leaving your kids in the kids korner—believe me, they really focus on making the kids time there a vacation fun time for them. Yes they want to play hard and you want to sit and relaxing, dragging them around during all your relaxing time will not be fun for them.

The Pool—The pool is not big. It was not posted everywhere but there were signs that said that children who are not potty trained are not allowed in the pool. Thank you Norwalk virus—but even as a parent of young kids, I don’t want to be swimming around in pools with a lot of kids in swimmy diapers anyways. Let’s face it, we all know what those swimmy diapers hold and don’t hold.

Around the perimeter of the pool is a section that is around a foot deep—good for 3 & 4 year olds to play and splash around in. Then there is the drop-off into the 3.5’ and 6’ section. On days at sea, the pool has as many waves as the ocean. It would be easy for a small child to lose their footing on the 1’ section and fall into the deeper section or bang their head on the side. Be prepared—not just sitting on the side of the pool in those times, but being one step behind them. On days in Bermuda, the kids loved the pool, and you can sit on the side and relax while they play. There were children in the pool with life-jackets and “swimmies.” I suggest the blow-up variety for packing sake.

The restaurants with kids—Yikes, this was the source of most of our confusion. Let me help you avoid most of it hopefully. The buffets—there are no trays and the buffets are usually crowded. As parents, we need at least 8 hands to coordinate a meal here. Maybe once or twice I saw someone carrying a tray. Ask one of the staff for one and save yourself the headache of a million trips for 1 meal. Also, bring your children with you in line while another adult scouts out a table, the last thing you want is to be juggling food, making sure kids are following you and trying to find a table at the same time. Kids in line may be a little annoying at first, but trust me—if they are a part of the food choosing, they will be more likely to eat what you’ve put on their plates. There is always fruit salad, apples, bananas, milk, and rolls at the buffets. Worse comes to worse- ask a member of the staff for a bowl of peanut butter and be happy!

The sit-down restaurants and kids. They do have a kids menu at the sit-down restaurants—it remains the same each night: chicken nuggets, pizza, hot dog, grilled cheese, pbj, pasta (with butter, cheese, marinara, or meat sauce). Dessert- ice cream and fruit. If my kids were the food tasters for yours—I’ll tell you—the nuggets are ok, the pizza is good, the pasta with meat sauce is weird and the pbj didn’t have enough pb or j and the fruit cup—“what is that white flaky stuff on top—can you pick it off mommy?” It was coconut. The menu comes with crayons and a few little coloring activities on the menu—boring to my kids. Drinks—ask for the little cups rather than the big stem water goblets for their drinks. We did order a large plate of steamed veggies for the kids to split most nights. Ask for extra carrots otherwise you will wonder how to split the 8 carrot slices and be left with turnips and parsnips in the plate.

The meal timing with kids in the sit-down restaurant. This is my only complaint about this cruise. When you go out to eat in your home town and you say, “Please bring the kids food out first,” to your wait staff, that is what happens. This is not such a simple request with language barriers between guests and wait staff. Many of the wait staff thought—the kids dinners should be timed with our dinners even though the adults had 2 to 3 rounds of salad, soup, and appetizer first. When we tried to explain this to waiters, instead of the wait staff saying, “I don’t understand,” they just yessed us and did it again the next night. If you eat in La Tratorria—the Italian Restaurant- it is on the 11th floor and that kitchen only prepares the Italian meals while the kids meals are prepared in the kitchen on the 9th floor. Yes, the ketchup is only on the 9th floor as well- request it immediately with the meal. That night our kids waited an hour and a quarter for their food. We got there at 5:30 when the restaurant opened. We asked again and again for their food, even to the maitre-de. Little luck. When they finally got their food at 6:45, we were all so annoyed, they ate until 7pm and my husband brought them to kids korner. Save yourself the energy, get to the restaurants at 5:30—When the waiter or waitress comes for your orders—give them the kids orders ONLY, ask them to put those in right away and bring them out right away and let them know your kids need to be done their entire meal by 7pm in order to go to the kids activities. Then have them come back for your orders. You won’t be done eating by 7, but your kids will be and 1 adult can drop them off for an evening of fun in the kids Korner, come back and you can all enjoy dessert in peace and quiet.

I would certainly say that free-style meals and children are not a good mix. There is a lot to be said for a wait staff that sees you every night at a specific time and is working for your tips—they always bend over backwards to please the kids—They know, happy kids, entertained, through a smooth mealtime with food and beverage being brought out promptly makes mommy & daddy happy too leading to better tips. Besides, when you have little ones—you pretty much eat at one time only, you aren’t varying your meal time.

Bermuda and kids- Our first time in St George, we had researched and found out that Tobacco Bay beach was only .8 miles from the ship. Great, an easy walk with a baby carriage.--- DON”T MAKE THIS MISTAKE! It is a very steep hilly walk on narrow poorly paved roads with rare sidewalks. There is barely room for 2 cars to pass by each other, never mind pedestrians walking along the side. That .8 miles takes around half an hour with a baby carriage and a little boy walking along side complaining all the while. Take a cab—only around $7 for the whole family one way to Tobacco Bay. As a matter of fact. If you have a 4 or 5 year old, bring toy snorkel equipment from a shop at home (Christmas Tree shop-- $3.99), swimmies, and in your beach bag—toss a few bread rolls from the buffet to feed the fishies. This is the cheapest “excursion” you’ll ever have—bring a camera that records video and takes pics and have a ball. My 5 year old had a ball snorkeling. He will tell you he saw rainbow fish, bumblebee fish (They were little and had yellow and black stripes), and squid. All of this, just a few feet from the rocks and the swimming area. He and I snorkeled together to see all these fish. It was amazing. I would suggest bringing swim shoes. I think this is a party beach at night and there can be an occasional piece of broken glass from a beer bottle. The beach is shallow and protected from the surf by many rocks—it is very calm waters. It has a public bathroom and a foot washing station.

Do get a bus pass for a day and go to the Bermuda zoo & Aquarium. It is tiny—children ages 4 and under are free. Kids ages 5 and up are $5 and adults are $10. My kids love this place and it is really the right size for them—small. There is a playground at the end of the zoo part. Really $25 for us plus bus passes was just right. The aquarium part is air conditioned. My brother-in-law brought his 4 year old on a NCL sponsored excursion—horse drawn carriage ride. It was over an hour long, hotter than you’d want, a very bumpy ride and the driver talked about Bermuda culture and history. All fascinating perhaps to an adult, to a little one—She just wanted it to be over so she could go swimming.

I hope that all this information is helpful to you on your cruise with little ones. Remember it is a vacation for everyone. Lighten up on bed-times, eating healthy, and schedules. Children really are resilient. You will do naps when necessary, but don’t be a slave to your schedule. We are home, went right back into the bedtime, nap time, healthy food routine. Yes we had a few break downs on vacation and coming home getting use to the schedule again (“What, no french fries with every meal?”), but in all we are back to normal only 3 days later. Have a great time!

[JPV072900]

Thanks for the great review. Do you think you'll go on the Boston to Bermuda cruise again?? Do you think your children would want to do another cruise in 2009 when the really nice NCL Spirit goes out of Boston?? I hear the Kids Club on the Spirit is even better, and there's more places to eat on that ship!! How did you enjoy the cruise?? Isn't it such a great vacation for the entire family? I feel that a cruise is great because where else can you go that you can leave the kids somewhere and not worry about them while you enjoy such a great time doing whatever you prefer!!!:):):)

[alv0729]

Ha Ha Ha-- Did anyone compare our names-- both initials ending with a V. Hmmm. I wonder if we're related!?

[goodml]

Great review. Glad you (both of you:D ) had a great vacation.

[amd1234]

Thanks for the great review. We are taking our granddaughter who is 3 and a 1/2 and my daughter has been apprehensive about leaving her at the Kids Club. This is a family vacation and we wanted our daughter to have some down time and enjoy a few hrs. alone.:confused: This review was most helpful and I will make sure my daughter reads it.. Thanks again.. Did you go to Horseshoe Beach or St. Catherines??

[alv0729]

Thanks for the great review. We are taking our granddaughter who is 3 and a 1/2 and my daughter has been apprehensive about leaving her at the Kids Club. This is a family vacation and we wanted our daughter to have some down time and enjoy a few hrs. alone.:confused: This review was most helpful and I will make sure my daughter reads it.. Thanks again.. Did you go to Horseshoe Beach or St. Catherines??

 

We went to neither though others on the ship did. We went solely to Tobacco Bay. We really like the snorkeling there. Tell your daughter, we went last year as well on the Majesty with our sons (age 2 and almost 5 then) and I was nervous too. They did a lot to make me feel comfortable about leaving my kids in their care. Have a great time on your trip! Also, the kids club is in a room with one wall of windows to the hallway. That also made me feel comfortable because I knew I could always peek in and that other parents were as well. When you register-- you have to provide all signatures of people eligible to pick up and drop off your children and they do check those until they get to know you. It is a small room and no one enters or leaves without the staff knowing who, when and with who. You also have to sign in and out.

[alv0729]

oops

[CruisinEurope]

Do you mind sharing what type of cabin you had? We are looking at the Jade and we have 4. Myself, DH, DD7 & DS5 (at time of sailing).

 

We were thinking of cramming into an oceanview to save $$, but that thought is slowly waning on me.

 

Thoughts ???

 

Is the upgrade to a balcony or mini REALLLLLY that worth it?

[alv0729]

I am not really a queen of cruise knowledge. We had an ocean view cabin on the 4th floor--with port hole. It was a cabin for 3 with a connecting room to my mother-in-law. One of my sons stayed in her room. she goes to bed very early-- we were able to have nights out as she went to bed and stayed with the kids. We could do nap time not in the dark as we would sit in the adjacent cabin and the kids would nap in the other. The space was sufficient for us as we really weren't in there much. I will tell you this ship did not have a tv channel devoted soley to kids. They had 1 movie channel and it had Bee Movie, Cars, Enchanted-- but it would go from a kids movie to an adult movie. We brought a portable player and that is how we sanely got ready for dinner or for the day. I am a thrifty gal and would likely not upgrade-- as you saw from my post-- no $45 a person excursions-- just rolls and a cab ride.

[alv0729]

2 things my hubby told me to add: Kids Korner takes the kids to sit-down dinner one night at 6 and on another night, they go to the show.

[pumpkin228]

Thanks for the great review. Do you think you'll go on the Boston to Bermuda cruise again?? Do you think your children would want to do another cruise in 2009 when the really nice NCL Spirit goes out of Boston?? I hear the Kids Club on the Spirit is even better, and there's more places to eat on that ship!! How did you enjoy the cruise?? Isn't it such a great vacation for the entire family? I feel that a cruise is great because where else can you go that you can leave the kids somewhere and not worry about them while you enjoy such a great time doing whatever you prefer!!!:):):)

 

I'm going to have to agree with JPV here about another cruise in 2009, I mean the Spirit looks like a great ship, and really you can't get better than dropping those kids off. I hear on the Spirit the kids club is open all day everyday!!!!!!!! So how about it, let's say May 29th! :D :confused: :p

[alv0729]

Ha Ha Ha, you two conspiring together! ;) I know I would want to go again. DH and I went on a cruise in Feb and last July. He is the cruise fanatic. I am the queasy one, though I am the first to admit that a cruise is a nice family vacation. We will pay attention to dates when we book the following year and as long as our DS is doing ok in school, we will strongly consider it for when the band is back on the ship.

[pumpkin228]

Ha Ha Ha, you two conspiring together! ;) I know I would want to go again. DH and I went on a cruise in Feb and last July. He is the cruise fanatic. I am the queasy one, though I am the first to admit that a cruise is a nice family vacation. We will pay attention to dates when we book the following year and as long as our DS is doing ok in school, we will strongly consider it for when the band is back on the ship.

 

JPV we got it in writing!!!!! :D