Sailing with a 1 and 3 year old- help me decide what cruise!

[dentistmEL]

My family is planning to go either on the Royal Carribean Oasis or a Disney cruise. WHich do you think has better child care services? We want to be able to put the 1 year old in childcare so we can enjoy some of the cruise as well without them. Any thoughts on either of these?

[YOWmom]

Tough question... I'm a fan of Royal but have not yet sailed them with the kids (ages 7 and nearly 3). We sailed Disney last year (for DD's 2nd birthday) and Flounders nursery (where your 1 year-old would be) was excellent. The staff were terrific, and I felt the little ones were very well cared for. However, I cannot say the same about the kids club for ages 3 and up - because they do not have the children divided by age, it was kind of a free for all (ages 3 to 9 in the same room), and very little one-on-one attention. Although we loved the overall Disney experience, my normally very outgoing 6 year old did not want to go to the kids club unless one of us went there to play with her (so I spent a fair bit of time there with both kids and was not impressed with what I saw). I would actually be very reluctant to send a 3 year old in there on their own... We just got back from a cruise on Carnival and I thought the general atmosphere in the kids club was much nicer, and a lot calmer with all of the 2 to 5 year olds in one area, and 6 to 8 year olds in a separate room! Also, given the premium you pay for Disney, you might want to wait until your kids are just a little bit older to get the most out of the experience, and stick with Royal for now...

[boulders]

I agree with the points above. DS6 has sailed on Disney, RCCL, Princess and Carnival. Disney was his least favourite and Princess was his favourite. (I just asked him). There is very little organization to the Disney kids club. DS was 4. he was mostly fine because there were electronics available, but he was scared by some of the stories and the characters who came into the room. He got in trouble for punching the gorilla from Tarzan.

 

RCCL does a good job of separating the kids into developmentally appropriate groups and providing them with age appropriate activities. Their kids clubs dont have the wow factor in their appearance, but they provide a better overall experience.

 

DCL has had "issues" with their kids club lately. They used to allow parents in the kids club. Then they banned that in December and started having open houses in one of the two clubs for long stretches so that parents could play with their kids in one area and the other area was reserved for kids whose parents dropped them off. Then they started allowing parents in with the kids who had been dropped off. Frankly, they don't give me confidence that they know what they're doing at this point.

[sonogal]

We have had nothing but great experiences with the Disney kids clubs. Now we didn't have to use the nursery but the older areas were great. They do have 2 separate areas connected by a back, contained hallway. If the child wants to go to the other room, they can with one of the counselors. There is a recommendation of which room a certain age should go in and certain activities take place in each room due to these age groups.

 

On a prior Carnival cruise, I was extremely disappointed with the kids club. Our kids didn't want to go there at all. We are now booked on RCCL for March and am eager to compare.

 

One of the other things to remember, I think the Disney nursery is willing to change diapers and doesn't cost. However RCCL may charge and page you. Not sure of their policies but you may want to check on that before making a decision.

 

Happy Sailing

[karid08]

We were in the RCL Allure last August and our 2 yr old went to the Royal Tots program. We really liked it. They give you a cellphone at no charge and you can call anytime to check on your child. They give you a little bag the day you sign up and you bring your diapers and change of chothes and whatever you think your child is going to need. The girls there were REALLY nice and we felt very comfortable leaving our daughter there. She is very shy and would sometimes cry when we left her there, but only for a few minutes. Oh, they charge $8/hour for the royal babies and tots program, but I think it's worth it. We usually left her there for only a couple of hours at a time, so it wasn't bad at all.

 

We're now going on the Oasis in a little over a month and will definitely use their tots program again. When we were trying to book this coming cruise, I called multiple cruiselines and it's very hard to find one which has a toddler program. Some of them offer babysitting in cabin, but we're not comfortable with that. So we decided to go again on RCL, only this time on the Oasis. They're AWESOME ships!

 

Also, the activities and shows with the Dreamworks characters are really great, but the cruise still doesn't feel like a children's cruise. I really can't say enough good things about the RCL Allure when you travel with kids. It was so good, only 6 months later, we're going again on an RCL Oasis class cruise!

 

Hope this helps.