Westerdam Review
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We just returned from our first cruise. One of our close friends is a travel agent and mentioned a great deal on balcony cabins back in July. As we had never cruised before, we thought we would give it a shot, and given that we would know several onboard (including others with children) we thought it would be fun. My husband and I are in our late 30s/early 40s and my son is 7.
Embarkation went very smoothly. We purchased a case of wine the night before and simply left that with the porters at the pier (in the regular cardboard wine box). We boarded at approximately 12:15 and there were no lines at all. We headed to the lido and waited for our cabin announcements. Cabins were ready quickly, and we were very impressed with the stateroom. We had a VD category cabin on the 4th deck. Our luggage (and the wine!) arrived very promptly. Although the room is small, it has very well designed storage which allowed us to unpack all 4 bags plus 2 carryons and stow the luggage under the bed.
Kids Club -- We went to a Club HAL intro meeting the first night where they gave us the schedule for the next sea day. Our son loves "kids club" type activities and was very excited to try his first shipboard club. There's not a lot of info here in the reviews or on the boards about the club, so I'll go into a bit of detail here. Basically, on each sea day and days where we are scheduled late in port, they begin the activities for ages 3-7 at 9:00 am and conclude at 11:00. Then, if not in port, they have afternoon activities from 2:00 - 5:00 pm. As we had late seating, this allowed us to grab room service or food from the lido for him prior to our dinner. Then the club opens back up at 8:00 and concludes at 10pm, although extended care is available from 10:00 - 12:00 pm at a cost of $5/night CASH and IF YOU SIGN UP when dropping your child off at 8:00. (My husband forgot to do this the first night, but they were great about it) During the day there are scheduled activities about every 30 - 45 minutes and there is a "theme" for each night session. My son loved the club, and when the entire week's list of activities arrived the next day he eagerly went through and marked each session that he wanted to attend.