Is 3.5yrs old too young to appreciate?

[Evie2929]

My youngest of 3 will be 3.5yr at the time of sailing. I haven't booked yet but may consider another cruiseline if she is too young to appreciate DCL.

[wcook]

While many of us think we understand what goes on in the mind of a 3.5 year-old, none of us really do. Sure a 3.5 year-old will "appreciate" a Disney cruise. But they might just as well appreciate a RCI or NCL cruise. Or they might just as well appreciate sitting in a sand box dumping dirt on themselves.

 

To me, the bigger issue is whether the rest of the party will appreciate taking the 3.5 year old on the Disney cruise. There will be a lot more children the same age. Many more families. Crew and wait staff used to such children every single cruise. Everyone will be a lot more understanding.

[jlk82]

We have the Dream booked for April 2012 when my DD will be 5 1/2. We may opt to do a September 2012 cruise if the rates are better. If so she'll be a month away from 6. If you're trying DCL just for your DD, I'd personally wait until she's a little older so she can really remember it. HTH.

[Host Mick]

Your little girl might not remember much of it but you sure will. She's going to have tons of fun aboard the ship with you and you're going to take a bunch of photos and enjoy it with her.

[Shebbieal]

I took my granddaughter when she was 3. She is 11 now and I am taking her again for the 4th time,,she has sooo much fun. I don't know if she really remembers the time when she was 3 but she adored it. She loves looking at all the pictures!!

 

Sherry

[stsomewhere]

Your little girl might not remember much of it but you sure will. She's going to have tons of fun aboard the ship with you and you're going to take a bunch of photos and enjoy it with her.

 

This. You will enjoy watching your little one have fun

[Ellanora]

Your little girl might not remember much of it but you sure will. She's going to have tons of fun aboard the ship with you and you're going to take a bunch of photos and enjoy it with her.

 

Definitely. But also - it's been almost exactly a year since our extended family Disney cruise, just a 3 night on the Wonder, and one niece turned 3 on the ship, and the other turned 4 the following month. Both girls still remember lots of things from that cruise. Getting to hug Cinderella and Minnie and Tiana - they still talk about it. Meeting Daisy Duck in one of the elevators, it was lucky timing, no photos, but they got to hug her too. Seeing Pocohontas in one of the stage shows. The pirates dancing, and the fireworks over the ship. They don't remember every moment of course, but the big stuff still sticks out, and they BEG to go back on "the princess boat." :)

[maritimecruiser]

My little one was 3.5 last winter when we went on the Wonder. She seemed to really enjoy herself. She has a really poor attention span, I was very unsure of dinner in the dining room, entertainment in the theatre, etc. But she was so fascinated with everything, she was excellent!! She loved every minute of it. I take trips with my family every year, my oldest was 2 I think when we took her on her first cruise. Everyone always says to me "why bother, they won't remember it". Then why bother with anything you do then if that's the attitude, do we keep them in our house and do nothing until they're 7 or 8 just so they will remember? I think these experiences shape who they are and who they will become. So what if they don't remember every detail, they will enjoy themselves with ship activities and with you, its family fun, it is SO worth every second!! So my answer is yes!

[orville99]

Providing your 3.5YO doesn't experience "character terror" you should all enjoy the cruise. Our 3.5YO runs away screaming whenever a Disney character gets within 20 feet of him, so we're waiting until he gets over that before we do a Disney cruise with him.

[CariBear]

It all depends on your child. My DD went on her 2nd cruise when she was 3.5 aboard the Disney Wonder. She had only been exposed to daycare for about 4 months at the age of 1 1/2....and then she was at home with me full time. So when she went on the Wonder she was overwhelmed by the sheer number of children in the kid's club. Way too crowded for her to feel comfortable and thus she cried everytime we tried to take her. She has never been afraid of characters as she had been going to Disney since she was 1....so the added benefit of the characters onboard didn't really mean that much to her as we saw them at the parks often. Backtrack 5 months earlier to our experience aboard a Princess ship and it was totally different. The Caribbean Princess had a small kids club (about 16 kids in the 3-5 group) and my DD had such personalized attention that she did not want to leave the club. She still talks about our "princess" cruise...and rarely mentions the Wonder.

 

Every child is different.

[Benspapa]

We actually took our first Disney Cruise when our son was 15 months old. We limited it to cruise only because we knew that he was too young to endure the parks (although we look forward to the day when we can share that with him).

 

I had worked for a Travel Agent through highschool and college, consider him a personal friend 20 years later and still book all of my travel through him. After a disastrous week in Florida when my son was 8 months old, I called Bob to ask what we should do for a vacation we were planning around the time my son would be 15 months old. Having been on many cruises of all different varieties (transatlantic, repositioning, 1 week Caribbean) it never occured to me to book a cruise - Disney or otherwise. But Bob, without batting an eyelash suggested a Disney Cruise. His rationale - Ben won't remember it, but he will enjoy it (lots of character exposure, no waiting in lines), and you will feel much more relaxed knowing that just about everyone else on the ship has kids and thus, you are not distubing anyone.

 

We limited ourselves to a 4 day cruise as a trial run. Over the 4 days we had lots of magical moments. Everyone from the waiters, to the photographers, to the cruise staff and entertainers were child friendly and went out of their way to interact with our son. We used the childcare facilities for a total of 6 hours (3 hours for dinner one night right around my son's bed time and 3 hours another day right around nap time.)

 

Our son seemed to enjoy the magic of it all - being able to get one on one time with Pluto who got down on all fours so that he would be the same height as our son. I will always remember the sight of our son running down the promenade, giggling, with the soft light of sunset bouncing off his blond hair. Disney did a great job of seating us with another family of a 18 month old. And while we definitely experienced the occaisional meltdown in the dining room, the good news was that the 1st seating was filled with folks with kids our age, so we were not out of place. In the end, my partner and I felt like we experienced a vacation for the whole family - probably not one our son will remember - but a happy couple of days for him and a special time for us to share with our son.

 

We are scheduled to take a 4 night cruise on the Wonder in a few weeks when my son will be 21 months. Can't wait to see the difference in how he experiences it this time around.

 

So to answer your question in a long winded way - I think Disney Cruise's work for kids of any age, so long as your expectations going into it are realistic.

[hobbit1]

My daughter was mealy three on our last magic cruise 2 months on she still can remember every thing and nearly every week asks can I go on mickey's ship so 3.5 in my opinion would very much enjoy it if they are fan Disney fan

Well we are booking the dream in 2012 so she can once again enjoy

[besito20]

Your little girl might not remember much of it but you sure will. She's going to have tons of fun aboard the ship with you and you're going to take a bunch of photos and enjoy it with her.

 

 

 

Ditto! Our DD will be 3 yrs old on our Wonder cruise next year and I'm sure she won't remember it but I know she will love it and we will love seeing her excitement and will be able to tell her alllll about it when she gets older. :)

[dreaminofsun]

I hear this question a lot about Disney World. I always here people say, "we are waiting till they are older" and I just think that is unfortunate. Disney is so magical for a young child. Although, kids of any age will enjoy Disney, the older they get the more they understand reality. For example my kids were 2 and 4 on our first visit to Disney World. At that age they thought that it was actually Cinderellas Castle (in that Cinderella and Prince Charming actually lived there). It was so much fun for us watching them be so in awe of everything.

I feel the same way about Disney Cruise Line. It is great at every age for different reasons! If you have the means, go and make memories. You never know what the future will hold Time spent together as a family is precious.

[Host Mick]

I hear this question a lot about Disney World. I always here people say, "we are waiting till they are older" and I just think that is unfortunate. Disney is so magical for a young child. Although, kids of any age will enjoy Disney, the older they get the more they understand reality. For example my kids were 2 and 4 on our first visit to Disney World. At that age they thought that it was actually Cinderellas Castle (in that Cinderella and Prince Charming actually lived there). It was so much fun for us watching them be so in awe of everything.

I feel the same way about Disney Cruise Line. It is great at every age for different reasons! If you have the means, go and make memories. You never know what the future will hold Time spent together as a family is precious.

 

+1

Well said.

I have a ton of videos and photos of my kids on DCL and at Disneyland and elsewhere. Occasionally, one of them will mention that he remembers doing something and I'll think wow, he was two when we did that.