Cruising with 2 (part 2)

I didn't realize that I had so much to say about my first day on the ship. So, I think this will be the last part of Cruising with 2.

As I said before the kids were going to entertained in The FUN ZONE with the other 3-7 year Pelicans . Each age group had their own room to play in with their own counselors (or teacher as the kids called them). When we were at sea Kylie and Peyton could join their friends (up to 45, 3-7 kids were on this cruise) from 9am-12pm, 2pm-5pm and 7pm-10pm. When we were in a port the kids could be in The Fun Zone from 8/9am-5pm and then 7-10pm. They had a lot of time to do several activities, including playing PS II, board games, watch movies, do crafts, face painting. They also had late night babysitting from 10pm-1am at an additional rate of $5/hr per child. I also picked my kids up before 10pm. No need for anymore expenses and the kids were completely worn out anyway.

The second day at sea, the kids were super excited to go play and do whatever they could with new friends. Peyton had me paged 2x the first day. He wanted to be with mommy. But, after that, he never wanted to leave. Kylie one day had a melt down and had me pick her up and Peyton stayed to watch a movie. A lot of the time the kids hung out in with the other little Pelicans. Some of the time they wanted to swim. I took them swimming 4 days out of the 6. One day, it was too windy to swim and one day they were in time-out from the pool.

Princess cruises will not have their staff change a diaper, so I was called a couple times when Peyton had a poopie-doop. Peyton is still in his potty training stage and the poopie is not coming along yet.

The first day we swam together I tried several of the pools. The two main pools were way too deep for me to be with 2 non-swimmers, even with swim vests. I found the kids little pool and the kids were super excited about it. But, of course 1 foot deep did nothing for me and we were in the shade. So, the day that Kylie had her melt down we found a pool that was 3 feet at one end and about 4 feet at the other (although it was a circle pool). We spent the rest of our swimming days in this pool. Although, I loved this pool because it allowed me to sit in the water and let the kids paddle around I also HATED this pool. They had so much chlorine in the pool the ends of my hair turned sea foam green. I figured it was because I have dyed hair. NOPE!! Kylie's hair end also turned green (but, not even close to the color I am still sporting). Everyday after swimming or just hanging out the kids were so exhausted they took a nap.

When Kylie and I were done swimming I had planned on doing an on board scavenger hunt, so I took her with me. There were 10 people altogether (most people were still in Port), so Kylie and I were a team and we ran around the ship and collected items. We were not the first to arrive back, but we did come back second. We found 11 out of the 13 items and won 2nd place with 3 other teams. We walked with a Silver Medal. Kylie was so excited she worn her medal all day long. After our game we went and had Tea. Everyday at 3:30-4:30 they served English Tea. We had our tea, cookies and scones and chatted with other passengers. I continued to go to tea 2 more days. I really enjoyed this and thought it was one of my most favorite things that Princess had to offer.

Princess also offered true English Pub lunches 2 days, but I never went. There was comedy shows ( I went to 1 out of the 4) and production shows. They had a production called I can Dance. I went to watch it the 2nd night and left within the first 20 mins. The singing was okay and the dancing was okay, but it was a little boring.

The thing I did the most was gamble. I won and lost and won and lost. But, in the end I won...not much but, I won. I borrowed $5 from my dad and played the penny slots and made a mistake and hit the play 350 button and won $27.00. I cashed out, cashed in my cash, paid my dad his $5 and paid part of my tip bill with it. I played $2 in another slot machine and won 15.00. I cashed out, paid more off my tip bill and then went back to the roulette table. This is were I spent most of my time and money. I would lost money and then my dad would let me play his chips and I would win money. I cashed in several time and gave him half of what I won.

I think both kids really enjoyed their experience in The Fun Zone and liked their teachers. I was surprised with all the things they got to do and take home. They got a T-shirt that they colored in themselves, a drinking cup, lots of prizes for games they played, cards they made, key chains they made and lots of coloring pages. The last cruise I took with Carnival (owned by Princess), you had to pay for all the big extras. With that being said, I think Princess really did do a good job with my kids. But, I do compare it to Carnival and their staff and know that Carnival is geared a lot more to my children's ages.

The last thing I have to say: Tips on Princess are $10.50 a day per person, no matter what the age of the child is. So, my tips or what they called HOTEL Charges were $220.50 and this would be taken from your credit card or you could pay cash for it. I was really disappointed that this was there policy. I could have fought it but decided against it since both my kids were in The Fun Zone. I did talk to one dad whose 13 month old also had to pay tips even though she was with her parents the whole time. My experience with Carnival last year (same cruise to Mexico) was children under 2 did not have to pay tips. So, I thought Princess policy was bad.

All in all we had a good time. The kids really enjoyed themselves, my parents had fun and I was sadly disappointed with the serves and the food, but I had a nice time as well. I know the next time I take a cruise with my children I will stick to a more KID FRIENDLY cruise line like Disney or Carnival.