Can I Take Baby Food on the Norweigan Cruise

Norwegian Cruise Line – The Norwegian Precious stone

The Norwegian Jewel

The Norwegian Gem (Official Site from Norwegian Cruise Lines)
Sailed February 2011

NYC –> Commonwealth of the bahamas & Florida

Andrew (@AH) & Family unit (Infant 10mos.)

Some of the reactions I received when I told family, friends and swain travel bloggers that I was going away for a week on a Nickelodeon themed prowl aboard the Norwegian Precious stone were very surprised. This was in fact a very unlike press trip than the ones I am used to taking. For starters I was not traveling alone. I decided this would exist the ideal getaway for my wife and 10-calendar month-old son to take with me.

My personal experience taking a Norwegian cruise was a little rocky, and it had naught to practise with the transport sailing through choppy water either. Upon arrival at pier 88 in New York City, I handed over my numberless to a porter at around 1:30pm and the gentleman tagged each and told me they would be in my room earlier we departed at 4pm. Well one hour later we received 3 out of the four bags. That's fine as my wife and I realized they have hundreds of bags to deliver and maybe purse number 4 is simply going to bear witness upwardly in a few minutes. Another 60 minutes goes past and notwithstanding no fourth bag.

The Norwegian Jewel, photo courtesy Andrew Hickey

With the cruise leaving in less than xxx minutes and the missing bag extremely important to us as it was filled with a week's worth of baby food and formula, we decided to ask NCL staff for assistance. They seemed dislocated and unable to reply our research. We explained that this missing bag is pretty of import as our son will have no food until at least 48-hours from now when we park this big gunkhole in Florida. One NCL worker informed me that bags often times get lost and go deliver anywhere from 24 to 48 hours after. Really? Information technology happens oftentimes? Well that really didn't sit well with us every bit this was not the manner we wanted to kicking off a calendar week at sea. Minutes later an NCL worker knocks on our door and tries to paw us a ruby-red bag. Dandy, but nosotros were missing a black bag. "Are yous sure this isn't the purse", the NCL said to me. I responded, "yes it is not red, but a black duffel bag as I explained to you earlier." Well finally at effectually 530pm, they establish the missing purse and my married woman and I felt a footling better now that we knew our son would have food for the rest of the week.

This particular prowl as stated earlier was departing from New York City, which fabricated it very convenient for myself and many other families that were non looking to hit the road or wing in the sky for their family vacations. Stops along the mode included a twenty-four hours in Port Canaveral, with excursions to places like Universal Studios, a solar day at NCL'due south private island Great Stirrup Cay in the Commonwealth of the bahamas and a 24-hour interval in Nassau, Commonwealth of the bahamas with two days at bounding main to start and finish the week.

I will say that the cruise feel was definitely something new to me. While I did enjoy a media filled weekend on the Norwegian Epic final summertime, this was truly the existent deal as I got to interact with both press and regular everyday families going on a much needed winter vacation.

Pros:

Food On Norwegian Jewel – photograph courtesy Andrew Hickey

Food: Lots and lots of information technology. When you take a Norwegian cruise, chances are you will never take an empty stomach and yous volition come up domicile a few pounds heavier. From the buffet manner breakfast, lunch and dinner at the Garden Cafe to restaurants with encompass charges that range from $x-$25, you will have plenty of places to park yourself and sus scrofa out. I enjoyed the breakfast buffet each day that included pretty much everything you could possibly think of having in the forenoon.

Staff: The workers on NCL exercise only that work…really hard and always with a smiling on their face. The staff made our week and my son took a real liking to some of the waitresses that fifty-fifty remembered his name and yelled information technology out when they saw him walking through Garden Cafe or by the pool. My wife and I were peculiarly thankful to the staff at Cagney's that entertained the baby while we enjoyed an hour long three-course luncheon each day.

Excursions: While nosotros did not take full advantage of the excursions, I spoke with people on the cruise that felt they had enough of fourth dimension to enjoy a twenty-four hours at Universal in Orlando and some time in Nassau. We did savor our 24-hour interval at NCL's Slap-up Stirrup Cay private isle. Information technology is currently under construction as they are expanding the island. Information technology will be complete by the terminate of this twelvemonth. I highly recommend visiting early in the day as the island gets packed.

NCL Jewel Cabin view 1

NCL Jewel Cabin – view 2

Accommodations: Our cabin included a king size bed, a burrow and a bunk bed that came out from the wall. The bathroom was large and the terrace was roomy with 3 chairs and a small table. Plenty of room for 2-iii people to sleep in comfortably for a week without going mad and throwing someone overboard.

Cons:

Additional Fees: When I am booking something chosen "All Admission", which this prowl was dubbed as part of the Nickelodeon theme, I do not desire to encounter tons of hidden fees and other ways for the cruise line to shake money out of my wallet. For example soda cost $2.25 a can. However cola lovers could buy a special NCL mug for $sixty, which provided y'all with unlimited refills throughout the week. Really? $60? When was the last fourth dimension you spent that much on soda in a month? Another gem, or in this case precious stone, was the housekeeping fee that charges guests $12 per person per solar day to make your bed and vacuum your carpeting while you are slurping downwardly pricey soda. More than i guest complained out loud about this hidden fee that could cost upwards of $48 a day for most families. That's but madness. I was informed that you could haggle the price down, but why is this even in place? According to NCL information technology is there to help pay the difficult working staff that cleans invitee's rooms. Hmm.

Crib made safe past Mrs. Hickey – Photo courtesy Andrew Hickey

Not baby friendly: I was not the only one on this cruise with a baby. NCL tells you alee of time that they offer high chairs, which they do, yet good luck finding a tray for the chair. Yes they accept hundreds of high chairs and from what 1 staff member told me simply iii trays…on the entire ship! Why? I saw aroused parents trying to feed their little ones without dropping food into their laps. NCL workers attempted to just button the chairs close to the table, however that does not always piece of work since some tables were as well high and most were marble or plastic, which could injure the baby if they driblet their head suddenly. Parents would run over to our table when they saw us finishing up a meal equally if information technology was a parking infinite in Manhattan. Then there was the crib in my room. NCL provided me with a rickety, jail-like metal crib that felt very unsafe. My wife used her MacGyver skills and wrapped some towels around the top of the crib so the niggling guy wouldn't scissure his brand new teeth on the cage, er I mean crib.

Pricey doctor'due south visit: I understand how big companies "get you" with price gouging one time they have you at their hotel, on their plane, in their arena or in this instance on their ship. From $xvi beers to $35 shirts to charging for internet, yous always will meet these tactics to make more money from guests. Merely when I am stuck on a transport for a calendar week and I demand to visit the doctor, it should not cost $105 to come across him. 1 day on the cruise our son was acting up. He was in plainly English pissed off. My wife and I noticed he was tugging at his ear. Normally we would have waited a day or 2 to see if he continued doing this before going to the doc, nosotros felt a bit anxious on a prowl. Thinking if might be an ear infection, we made our way to the doctor on the ship. It volition cost yous $105 during office hours to encounter him, off-hours information technology goes up to $148. Oh and if you think it is funny that a ship's doctor has office hours, you will observe information technology hilarious that they are only from v-6pm when the ship is at a port. This charge really had me scratching my head and actually disappointed me that NCL would price gouge on something similar a person's health.

Bully Stirrup Cay, Commonwealth of the bahamas – photo courtesy Andrew Hickey

All Access…not really: Many parents, and their kids, were very disappointed with the lack of Nickelodeon character appearances on the cruise. I never got a chance to meet Spongebob Squarepants (I know tragic). While he was effectually the send, many people felt that characters similar Spongebob, Dora the Explorer and other "A-listers" should have been around more than often on the cruise. I swear I saw the same iii or four characters everywhere I went.

Checking out was a disaster: That might exist a flake harsh, but that was the phrase I heard more than once from guests attempting to get off the boat when the cruise returned to the Big Apple. Even with my V.I.P. admission, I have to say the departure process on this cruise was awful. Massive lines of very tired and unhappy looking people with luggage made for a very difficult to navigate deck seven. In one case I got off the boat I was placed in a line for people with babe carriage. Here I waited with a very tired and impatient baby for an lift to accept me down to get my luggage. Forget going through the regular passport line, catch a porter and take the much faster moving line out of the pier.

Will I cruise over again? Probably not. The thought of a cruise was never my platonic manner to see the globe, but as a traveler I wanted to experience information technology at least once in my life. Nevertheless I tin run into it being a great way for many families to spend quality time together and see new destinations in the process. I was just turned off by the "nickel and diming" Norwegian Cruise Line did to guests that already forked over thousands of dollars of their difficult earned money to spend a week at sea.

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Source: https://havebabywilltravel.com/baby-travel-destinations/cruising/review-norwegian-cruise-line-the-norwegian-jewel/

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