What do you do on sea days?

[ToddlerMom]

I'm trying to decide between an itinerary with 3 sea days versus one with 2 sea days. What do you do on a sea day? For the 3 sea day itinerary, we'd be leaving from NYC so it would be cold for at least 2 of the 3 sea days.

 

With a little one is a trip with more sea days be preferable?

[cb at sea]

Depends on the person! My hubby HATES sea days...he's not into sunning, and the ship's casinos never seem to favor the gambler....

 

I like sea days...I could sit by the pool all day, every day....therefore, I would never cruise in the cold!!!!

 

It really depends what you're cruising for....if it's the ports, pick an itinerary with lots of ports! If you're cruising for the ship, sea days are a good way to use the ship and it's amenities.

 

As far as a child....age will be a factor...how little is your little one? Most ships don't offer much for the under 2-3 crowd (depending on cruiseline and ship!) Diapered kids can't use the pools on most ships. Some do have a splash zone for the diapered ones, but not all do...so check that out!

[Lionesss]

Stay up late the night before a cruise day.

Go to early breakfast............crawl...........

Sleep by the pool, explore the ship.

Safe travels.

[chipmaster]

Sit down breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner. Hit the gym for cardio in the AM and weights in the afternoon!

 

Kids do the pools and kids club.

 

Shows/comedy stuff at night

 

Don't think I could handle more than two straight sea days :D

[Friend100]

On sea day, I like to relax and not thinking of what I need to do.

[alj1208]

We cruised with our 5 year old last March with two sea days. I am probably in the minority here, but for me, more than two sea days would have been tough in terms of finding things to keep our son busy. He liked the kids club and the pool, but we felt two sea days was more than enough. I might have felt that way even if we had cruised without our child. If your child is too young for the kids club, it would be that much harder to have extra sea days.

[Cruisin' Chick]

You didn't say which cruiseline. And how old your toddler is. Some cruiselines start their kids' program at 2 years of age.

 

My daughter was 23 months of age on her first cruise, so she missed getting into Camp Carnival by one month. But she still was busy, exploring the ship on a three-day cruise.

 

When she was old enough to be in the kids' program, she preferred being with the other kids, doing the arts and crafts and other activities. We would check out the adult fun such as trivia.

 

We actually prefer sea days. We had about eight or so sea days on each of our last two cruises, and we were never bored. But then, we were on Princess. Last December, our daughter was 13 and she spent much of her time onboard with a few others in her age group.

[Ggdean]

We did a 7 night 2 years ago with a 18 month old and a 3 year old out of Baltimore in december so we had the cool days. Plenty to do especially if the kids can go to camp. Just back from a 5 night with a 5 year old, 3 year old and 19 month old and the older two did the camp and baby explored with mom and dad.

 

Sea days. Breakfast. Take older kids to camp. hubby and I would take 45min-1hr with baby either in cabin or walking around while other parent relaxed. Then pick up kids for lunch, hit pool, waterslides. We brought a baby pool for 19 month oid but never used it since he was perfectly happy playing in the runover water by the slides and pool. Then snack time. Then baby to cabin for nap and older kids might go back to camp or hang with mom (or dad). Took turns napping with baby.

[G&TQ]

Our son is 6 and for sea days we would go to breakfast, then he wanted to go to Ocean Adventures, we would head to lido for reading and relaxing (not in the sun) and then we had to pick him up for lunch after lunch we would hit the pool and then it was back to OA for him. Nap time for us:rolleyes:. Then back to lido or browsing the ship. We would pick him up intime to get ready for dinner have dinner and then he would be back in OA and we would head for the shows. Yes he spent alot of time in OA but loved every minute of it. He is an early riser 6:30 so we would be up early and bed at 10:30ish.

 

We had plenty of family time and alone time.

[Julienatul]

We wake up early unfortunately because DS (2) and DD (6 ) dont sleep in. We grab breakfast at the lido, walk around the ship a bit, head back to the cabin for a little playtime until camp carnival opens at 10, drop the kids off, do a little relaxing/ sunning until lunch time, pick up the kiddos from camp, eat lunch and take them swimming, a little more sunning, relaxing on the lido and back to the cabin in the late afternoon to get ready for early dinner, then hit the show of the night and possibly take the kids back to camp or DH goes to bed with them while I explore the ship with family.

[nessz79]

Ours have only been Caribbean cruises, but our sea days mostly go like this:

DH gets up early and goes to the gym for 30-45 minutes. When he gets back, we slowly all get up for the day. Breakfast around 7-8 AM. Lido deck with the kids to swim, sit out, etc. Kids go to Camp Carnival for an hour or two. Lunch, usually in the MDR. Kids go back to Camp Carnival for another hour or two. We relax by the pool or in our room. Sometimes we take the kids back to the pool. Get ready for dinner. Dinner in the MDR. After dinner, explore the ship some, check out activities. We're in bed by 10 most nights.

 

I would just check out as many activities as you can and definitely get your child involved in kids' activities as long as they are 2 or older (on most ships).

[Tggrtoes]

We love sea days, but having 2 cold days out of 3 might be problematic for us as we like hanging out on our balcony or by the pool.