Am I crazy to consider this cruise with a 4 yr old?

[ladeeesquire]

Its the Oceania 16 day transatlantic making stops in Brazil, one of the canary islands, morrocco and ending in barcelona. Dh and I love the itinerary, the price is great, the dates match up with my babysitter's holiday schedule and my older son is going to be in spain so we can visit him... really it couldn't be more perfect.

 

So, am I crazy to take a 4 yr old on this cruise? Am I setting myself up for misery? Will the other passengers hate us? We tend to keep to ourselves when we travel/cruise so don't care about the social aspect too much. She's an extremely well behaved child but she is a child afterall. She normally travels quite well. We don't do the kids clubs because, well, its just not for us at this point in time so that's not an issue.

 

Looking for advice and comments.

[notentirelynormal]

I think it's a great idea. Our last cruise my 5 YO grandson said about the 7th of the 10 days, that he wanted to go home. Why? He just wanted to grab a few toys and come back. He missed them. So, you might want to bring a few home toys with you and bring them out mid cruise.

[imsulin]

Think a Brazilian VISA if you want to visjt Rio.

[Kerry's Girls]

I did a 14 day crossing with my twins for their 4th birthday on Princess (from LA to Hawaii and back) and it was bliss for all of us. I don't know anything about your cruise line, but there is nothing about the itinerary or length of cruise that would bother me. And Barcelona is such an amazing city for kids. I know there were lots of passengers surprised to find kids on such a long Princess cruise, but we didnt encounter anyone cranky about it.

 

Best,

Mia

[cb at sea]

I don't see why anybody else would mind if your child is there...they won't be the ones taking care of her! You already know that this won't be a "romantic" vacation, it will be a "family" vacation....different, but just as good!

This is a total non-issue!

[onthelake]

Can't speak about the Oceania but we started with longer cruises when my son was about that age. It was never a problem. He did the kids club occassionally - and you may decide to as well since there will be very few kids (most likely) and my son always found that much more fun - more attention, closer relationships with the other kids and more leaway in the activities. Check it out the first night or open house and decide from there.

 

We never traveled with many toys since there is a tendency to accumulate things along the way. He had a small pillow and stuffed toy to sleep with and maybe a few hot wheels cars or the like. We have always been happy just to sit on deck and watch the waves, look for turtles, etc. We also used the sports court when not in use to let him run off some energy in a safe environment.