Once there was a time when nary a baby’s cry nor a dirty diaper would be found on a cruise ship. Children that young were neither seen nor heard because, frankly, when parents went on cruises it was to be an escape.
Ironically, the Escape not only embraces little ones, it markets them.
That’s the Norwegian Escape, the first ship in the Breakaway Plus Class that’s due to arrive in less than a year. Yesterday, some of the things that will make the ship special were unveiled. Among them — and a first for Norwegian — are childcare facilities for children from six months to three years.
That’s diaper time.
The nursery will include “an active area for play time and age-appropriate activities and a separate space for napping.” What it all adds up to is the growing philosophy in cruising of leaving no stone unturned. If there’s a way of convincing parents of babies — especially first-time parents, who often won’t leave a room without their new-born, never mind their home — to go on a cruise while on maternity leave, that’s a new market.
At one end of the Escape, so to speak, you have 60-plus Baby Boomers behaving much younger at Jimmy Buffett’s 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar.
At the other end, you have…babies.
Today at portsandbows.com: Norwegian's new ship — fun for families
Norwegian Sky
4 nights
January 12, 2015
Miami (return): Grand Bahama Island, Nassau, Great Stirrup Cay
Inside: $199
Cost per day: $49
www.ncl.com