Albinroo

 Thanks, this is so great!! Looking forward to your review. Did you notice if there was a lot of young children onboard? And also, did you ever stay onboard during the port days, did most people get off? We are doing this cruise next month and hoping the ship will be somewhat empty and relaxing during port days as we have already been to most ports. Even lived in one of them! 

Thanks, I am feeling better and better about Princess kids club, seems great! And just being together watching the beautiful Atlantic ocean between play times sounds pretty nice too!

We have previously been on the Disney transatlantic when we had 1 baby and we loved it but next year the Sky princess is going to Copenhagen which works better for us, as well as the date in April rather than the Disney Magic TA to Barcelona in May. My only worry is that our kids will get bored on the many sea days on Sky Princess, has anyone done a transatlantic with young kids and can advise? We have 3 kids aged 6, 3 and 1. They don't really speak English so the amount of other kids on board is probably better less than many. The only real upside I see to Disney is that they have free Disney movies showing and the splash area, but going over the Atlantic in May is probably too cold to use the pools much anyway? And I have heard good things about the Princess kids club, anyone with experience? I guess what I'm really asking is do I dare book the Sky Princess or will I regret in April and wish we were on board Disney? I guess they have the characters too, which is nice...

What language does he speak?

While totally agree that often kids don't care and they will still play 'together' without speaking the same language one thing to consider is your child's personality. Will he be worried/anxious about not understanding the teachers? Talk with him first, explain for him to follow the other kids. If the teacher says to line up, he may not understand but if he follows the crowd of kids lining up he will be fine.

 

I would also consider making a small pocket size picture flip book (small one). Have a photo for bathroom, food, and some other key words for him to be able to get his needs across if the teachers don't understand him. Then he can go in knowing he can tell his teachers when he needs something and he won't have to stress about not having the right words. Of course, you can also teach him some key English words.

Thanks for these great tips! We speak Swedish, btw. I will indeed talk to him and explain that he should do what the other kids do, and great idea about rhe picture flip book :). Thanks!

I'm confused. You are apparently very flown in English. Heck, your grammar is better that most people who speak just English. So why doesn't your child know English?

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We're Swedish! Most Swedes know English very well by the time they're adults, and I happen to like writing, reading and grammar, so I'm better than most. But we don't learn it until we start middle school, and my 3-year old knows only a few English words. It's hard to teach them at such an early age when they really only hear Swedish around them.

Think about this though. Put ten kids and everyone speaks a different language and put them in a room with toys. I can guarantee you that they will find a way to communicate with each other. Kids don't think like adults. They aren't born with hate or racism or any other bad thing. Those are learned from the adults around them. Kids see each other as equals. Even kids with disabilities are discriminated against. They flat out ask what happened to their arm etc. They pick up a toy and either share or don't.

Very true! Thanks to all for your helpful replies, I feel a lot more confident going now, whichever cruise we end up doing. But children really interact in multiple ways, not just by spoken language, so I'm sure he'll be OK.

We are planning to go on a Caribbean cruise at the end of January. We have previously been on Disney Magic (Transatlantic) and Celebrity (Alaska) with our son - and also on RCCL VOTS Northern Europe but that was before we had kids.

What we love about cruising are two things; the food and being on the sea. We aren't in it for the shows, the alcohol, the casinos or in this case even the ports (since we've visited the Caribbean before).

But with a 3-year old obviously we can't just sit and relax on the balcony all day, but with him not speaking English we think the kids clubs might be too scary for him. We are also bringing his baby brother who will be 8 months when we travel, so not much entertainment needed for that one...

We are considering Disney Magic, simply because we've been on it before and we like that there is so much open hours on the clubs so we can join him there.

But we are worried there will be a massive amount of children onboard, which will most likely be a bit intimidating for our son when he can't understand or join them. How many young kids are there usually on a Disney cruise in off season? On the transatlantic there weren't too many but I'm guessing a 5-day in Bahamas might be very different?

Other ships we are considering are the Regal Princess, Norwegian Epic and RCCL Independence of the Seas. Do you know if their pools are heated? Any family activities suitable for young children?

Any helpful advice would be highly appreciated, I just can't seem to make up my mind!

We sailed with a 9month old on Disney Magic last year. It was great!

For food, don't worry. We brought some fruit pouches to carry around and give in the room when we didn't want to go out etc. In the dining room, the wait staff were more than happy to prepare whatever we wanted, pureed or minced. Our son didn't eat that much anyway, but they still kept serving him huge bowls of pureed food every evening. Although if he wanted solid that was fine too!

During breakfast and lunch there was so much to choose from both on the buffet and a la carte, so there was always suitable food for a baby. The one thing I would bring is a sippy cup and a bib or two :)

I would recommend two umbrella strollers, which we had - but haven't really compared with anything!

Any questions, feel free to ask!

We did a transatlantic cruise with our 9-month old last year and it was fantastic!

The good:

Family time. Seriously, at that age (and still at 1 if I remember correctly) they are just so happy to be around you, it doesn't matter much what you get up to. And the fact that you don't have to cook or clean means much more focus on being together and that will keep any toddler happy most of the time.

We brought lots of diapers and got some fruit pouches from Whole Foods before the trip but other than that I didn't really feel we were in need of anything. We were on a Disney cruise but at that age our son wasn't really interested in much of the activities so I'm pretty sure most cruise lines would have been fine.

The bad:

If you are going for the shows and the bars etc, it might be a bit harder. We just enjoyed relaxing in our room our walking around with our son asleep in the stroller at night so it didn't really bother us.

It's a shame that small children aren't allowed in the pool, but I know some people brought inflatables, and for us it wasn't too much of a problem since our son was happy doing other things anyway.

Anyway, if you have any questions feel free to ask. We're going again in July, when he'll be almost 2!