Considering a cruise on the Eurodam with children and need opinions!

[CruisingCatherine]

We are not new to cruising but new to HAL. We are a family of 5 with three children 12, 9, and 10 months(our suprise Navigator souvenir;)) at time of sailing. HAL is offering us an Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Eurodam in October for a wonderful price that would allow all 5 of us to cruise in one regular oceanview stateroom as opposed to the suites we have to get on most other lines. As we have never cruised HAL before I have many questions. Any help I could get answering these questions would be great!!!

 

1. What is the average age on board? We have been on a cruise where the average age was 70+ and my children were the only ones in the kids club. Not much fun for them.

2. What is your opinion of the kids club?

3. Do the staff go out of their way to be attentive to kids or are they ignored as if they aren't even there?

4. Do they have a sail away party and pool activities?

 

I am sure I will think of more questions later. Thanks again.

4. Are there adult only areas and dining? If so, what are they.

[twinkletoes4445]

We are not new to cruising but new to HAL. We are a family of 5 with three children 12, 9, and 10 months(our suprise Navigator souvenir;)) at time of sailing. HAL is offering us an Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Eurodam in October for a wonderful price that would allow all 5 of us to cruise in one regular oceanview stateroom as opposed to the suites we have to get on most other lines. As we have never cruised HAL before I have many questions. Any help I could get answering these questions would be great!!!

 

1. What is the average age on board? We have been on a cruise where the average age was 70+ and my children were the only ones in the kids club. Not much fun for them.

 

We've only cruised once, and it was in February 2007 on a 7-day Caribbean cruise. We're in our 50's and we were some of the youngest on the ship. The average age was late 60's and up. We saw very few children. I'm not sure what the demographics will be in October. I know that holidays, spring breaks and summer usually attract a younger crowd. We had a wonderful time on our cruise.

 

2. What is your opinion of the kids club?

 

I really don't know anything about the kids club.

 

3. Do the staff go out of their way to be attentive to kids or are they ignored as if they aren't even there?

 

I've read that the staff goes out of their way to do things for the kids. I know that when we were on our cruise, there was one little boy (around 3) and he was the center of attention at dinner. On formal night, he had a little tux on...talk about a cute little guy.

 

4. Do they have a sail away party and pool activities?

 

I don't know about pool activities, but the pools were pretty empty, so your children could swim and have a wonderful time. HAL did have a fun sailaway...with drinks and a band.

 

 

4. Are there adult only areas and dining? If so, what are they.

 

I don't believe there are any adult only dining areas. There may be some restrictions at the Pinnacle Grill, but I could not say that as being a fact.

 

I'm sure someone who has children and has sailed HAL will come along and give you a much more detailed an accurate description of what HAL offers for children and what their experiences were.

 

I can understand your dilemma. It would be nice to be in a regular cabin rather than a suite (which can get much more pricey), but you also want to make sure your kids are happy. Whatever you end up doing, I hope you have a lovely time.

 

PS...Loved the "Surprise Navigator Souvenir." :)

[cccole]

I hope that those who have cruised on the Eurodam with children will respond. I have been on the Zuiderdam with 3 teens and they had a great time. We did not use any of the HAL kids clubs or adult only areas but my teens had a great time. Cherie

[CruisingCatherine]

Thank you both so much for your input. Hopefully, more people with kids will respond. We are newbies with HAL so any help I get is appreciated.

[J Alex's Mom]

We cruised on the Eurodam in December with our 8-year old son. There were quite a few children on board as this was a holiday week -- I'm not sure about October.

 

The Club HAL facilities on the Eurodam are improved over those from the Westerdam -- there's more rooms and different activities.

 

There's more detailed info including the daily program for the 'tweens on my prior post http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=891537&highlight=

 

While the average age of HAL is generally a bit older, the crew really love the children and enjoying having them aboard.

 

While the aft pool is adult only (at least in policy -- they seem to lack enforcement of this), there are no adults only restaurants. Our son has grown up with the occasional fine dining experience and is a bit of a foodie, so we took him with us into all the specialty restaurants (Pinnacle, Tamarind & Canaletto). He loved the Tamarind -- they will offer to make the dishes a bit less spicy for the kids. He particularly loved the soups, the spring rolls and the wasabi steak.

 

Some posters in the past have discouraged parents from bringing children into the Pinnacle. IMO, it totally depends upon the child and their food tastes -- I've seen loud/rude/misbehaving adults as well as children, age is not always an indicator. If they will be bored with an hour and a half dinner, or prefer chicken nuggets & fries, save your money and grab dinner at the lido for them prior to the evening kids club, then make reservations at the specialty restaurants during the Club Hal hours.

[hammybee]

Most school-aged children are in school in October so I would not expect there to be many kids onboard at this time of year. If the company of other children is important to you, you might have more luck on Carnival or RCL and even then, they are more apt to be younger than your two oldest children. But then again, you never know how many families will take their children out of school or cruise with home schooled children.

 

Given the lack of school-age children, I would make certain that Club HAL will be operational, before booking, if the facilities are important to you. If the numbers do not justify staffing, there may be very limited services available. I may be mistaken, but feel it possibly unlikely that crew would be dedicated to Club HAL if only a handful of children are onboard.

 

As an aside, I was not aware that HAL accommodated 5 in a cabin, especially an outside cabin. Is it the crib for the 10 month old that makes a difference?

[CruisingCatherine]

hammybee,

 

Luckily, our school district has started a year round calendar. Our children get a week off every fall. This is always our vacation time.

 

Yes, we are allowed five in the cabin because one of the occupants is an infant. On Carnival, Princess, and RCCL we have to either book connecting rooms or a suite. Very costly! The cheapest option is $3800 for a family oceanview stateroom with one of these cruise lines. This is an itenerary that we are not crazy about.

 

HAL is offering us a 7-night Eastern on October 11th. For all five of us in a balcony room VF, HAL is asking $2500.

 

This is a deal that is hard to pass up!

[hammybee]

hammybee,

 

Luckily, our school district has started a year round calendar. Our children get a week off every fall. This is always our vacation time.

 

 

How fortunate that you can travel and take advantage of off season pricing. Nonetheless, I think you will find very few other children onboard which may impact the Club Hal experience. On the otherhand, I could be wrong and the value will attract others, like yourself, who might have sailed with Carnival or RCL.

 

Be aware that HAL imposes it's Hotel Charge on all occupants of the cabin ( not sure about the baby). I think some of the other cruise lines charge less for children. So if cost is a factor ( when isn't it? ) make sure that you add $77, per cabin occupant, to the overall cost of the cruise.

[GOLDENBONNY]

We are not new to cruising but new to HAL. We are a family of 5 with three children 12, 9, and 10 months(our suprise Navigator souvenir;)) at time of sailing. HAL is offering us an Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Eurodam in October for a wonderful price that would allow all 5 of us to cruise in one regular oceanview stateroom as opposed to the suites we have to get on most other lines. As we have never cruised HAL before I have many questions. Any help I could get answering these questions would be great!!!

 

1. What is the average age on board? We have been on a cruise where the average age was 70+ and my children were the only ones in the kids club. Not much fun for them.

2. What is your opinion of the kids club?

3. Do the staff go out of their way to be attentive to kids or are they ignored as if they aren't even there?

4. Do they have a sail away party and pool activities?

 

I am sure I will think of more questions later. Thanks again.

4. Are there adult only areas and dining? If so, what are they.

 

 

We cruised with 17 and 1 year old(our souvenir from costa))),so we did not used any kids club,but we had lots of kids on board.my advise book cabin with balcony,so you can enjoy fresh air ,when baby goes to sleep.We loved Eurodam and HAl,its not gonna be our first choice of cruising,we prefer biger ships,but HAL is very nice line with best food we ever had on any line.

[GOLDENBONNY]

How fortunate that you can travel and take advantage of off season pricing. Nonetheless, I think you will find very few other children onboard which may impact the Club Hal experience. On the otherhand, I could be wrong and the value will attract others, like yourself, who might have sailed with Carnival or RCL.

 

Be aware that HAL imposes it's Hotel Charge on all occupants of the cabin ( not sure about the baby). I think some of the other cruise lines charge less for children. So if cost is a factor ( when isn't it? ) make sure that you add $77, per cabin occupant, to the overall cost of the cruise.

 

Yes,they charge same amount for baby,but you can adjust it

[Travalerie]

1. What is the average age on board? We have been on a cruise where the average age was 70+ and my children were the only ones in the kids club. Not much fun for them.

2. What is your opinion of the kids club?

3. Do the staff go out of their way to be attentive to kids or are they ignored as if they aren't even there?

4. Do they have a sail away party and pool activities?

 

I am sure I will think of more questions later. Thanks again.

4. Are there adult only areas and dining? If so, what are they.

 

Hi

I think I just responded in part to another thread on the RCCL board...but to answer your questions here....I do not think the staff was able to be attentive because at times they were overloaded with kids. My daughter was in the 3-7 age group, so it may have been different for the older kids. The times when there were 3-4 kids playing in the kids club it was great. The times when they were going on scavenger hunts around the ship with 15 3-7 year olds, it was not. We often followed close behind the group to make sure our daughter was ok. We knew she wanted to play but we also knew that they were short staffed. Your kids are older and are more independent. But a 3 or 4 year old still needs help going to the bathroom even when potty trained, if nothing else to open the large door. Their staffing did not allow for that and a few kids had accidents because there was not the attention given to making sure there were bathroom breaks, or watching the signals from the kids. Again not an issue for your kids.

 

If you trust your kids, they are independent and responsible they should have a good time. There are a lot of activities-morning session, afternoon session and something at night. There were no pool activities or sail away parties. Pool activities would have been dangerous, not nearly enough supervision. This is what happened at HMC. There was no sign up list, one person watching several kids and it could have been a disaster. I don't mean to sound negative because we had a wonderful cruise.

 

Its hard to the beat the great prices and the food and service is far superior to RCCL in my opinion. The only problem with our cruise was the smoking and there just was not adequate staff for Club HAL. It still was ok, because we just let her play and stayed close without being overbearing. We just kind of let her dibble and dabble. It was not our expectation that Club HAL was going to take care of our daughter the whole cruise either. So the lack of staff did not ruin our trip. We just quickly learned and adjusted to the situation.