Single parent

[sophiejo-x]

Has anyone cruised with just their child? I'm a bit anxious

 

 

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[moki'smommy]

I've been a single parent for 23 years. I've taken my daughter on cruises "alone" since age 4, on DCL since age 7. The big down side is that you pay a full adult fare for a little person who eats only chicken noodle soup and chicken fingers.....but then they grow up and want only steak so it all evens out, I guess.

 

Nothing to be worried about. One hint--we had a rule that she had to go to the programming for one activity each day. My hope was that she'd make a friend, have fun, and want to spend time there but if that didn't happen I got a 1 hour break. it worked for us.

 

Dinner seating (if you make no requests) is typically with another single mom or a 2 parent family with a same sex/age child as your own--usually one child only. Sometimes there will be 2 or 3 single parents with a child at the same table. It's amazing but it almost always works. What they don't do is seat you with a multiple child family so the connections within their group are already made and you are the outsider.

Edited January 6, 2015 by moki'smommy

[lissarenee]

All this is nice to know!!! Will be traveling with my 3 year old in September!!!! My friend wants to tag along but we will see!!! In all reality it would save me money ;)

 

 

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[moki'smommy]

Yes, having another adult along would mean that you could pay child's fare for the 3 year old. Some considerations--if you travel at 2 years and 11 months, your costs will be even less. Of course, that could put you in a more costly season, negating the savings. Also "under 3" rides the DCL bus free.

 

The Wonder is the only ship where the big bed can divide into 2 twins. If you plan on one of the other ships, depending on your sleeping plans, you might want to be sure you have a cabin that "sleeps 4." If you get a "sleeps 3," you'll be sharing the big bed...which may or may not matter to you.

[JMHDisney]

I cruised on the Wonder in May with my son. I called before the cruise and asked that they seat us at a table with other kids who were my son's age. They claimed they didn't do this, but when we got there we were with a couple with a boy my son's age and a grandma with her son who was a year or two older. I was surprised by how much we all had in common.

 

I second the suggestion of kids club time. As a single parent, it is hard to get down time. On sea days I would go to "fancy breakfast" (he loved the pre-breakfast pastry trays in Tritons) with my son, then drop him at kids club for a couple hours while I hit the spa, read a book, or just relaxed. Then we would meet back up for lunch and other activities. Sometimes he wanted to go back in the afternoon for more kids club time. Most relaxing vacation I have had since my son was born!

 

They also do "single" lunches. I never made it to one but my understanding was they were for any solo travelers and it wasn't intended as a pick up spot. :)

[moki'smommy]

The single lunches are listed as for "single parent or cruising solo." They are a chance to meet other singles and are supervised/hosted by a member of the cruise staff. No, they don't feel like a "meat market." They are just a "meet and greet" time to get to know people.

[sophiejo-x]

I've been a single parent for 23 years. I've taken my daughter on cruises "alone" since age 4' date=' on DCL since age 7. The big down side is that you pay a full adult fare for a little person who eats only chicken noodle soup and chicken fingers.....but then they grow up and want only steak so it all evens out, I guess.

 

Nothing to be worried about. One hint--we had a rule that she had to go to the programming for one activity each day. My hope was that she'd make a friend, have fun, and want to spend time there but if that didn't happen I got a 1 hour break. it worked for us.

 

Dinner seating (if you make no requests) is typically with another single mom or a 2 parent family with a same sex/age child as your own--usually one child only. Sometimes there will be 2 or 3 single parents with a child at the same table. It's amazing but it almost always works. What they don't do is seat you with a multiple child family so the connections within their group are already made and you are the outsider.[/quote']

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[sophiejo-x]

I'm not very good on the forum, thanks for you replies. Makes me feel much better. We are travelling on the magic in September.

 

She will definitely be doing activities everyday as you said this will hopefully make her make some friends. The seating also sounds like a good idea, especially if it's kids around her age

 

 

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[jaydeemdm2015]

I've travelled on several cruises with my now five year old. It's brilliant. Yes kids pay an adult price but the kids clubs are priceless. Eating in restaurants always been just the two of us if not travelling with extended family. Perhaps sharing a table might be fun now though.

 

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[sophiejo-x]

I've travelled on several cruises with my now five year old. It's brilliant. Yes kids pay an adult price but the kids clubs are priceless. Eating in restaurants always been just the two of us if not travelling with extended family. Perhaps sharing a table might be fun now though.

 

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Did you request to sit yourselves? I'm hoping to be seated with people so I can have some adult conversation 😃

 

I don't mind paying the adult price, I wanted to go just both of us, just started to get bit worried about things

 

 

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[jaydeemdm2015]

Did you request to sit yourselves? I'm hoping to be seated with people so I can have some adult conversation 😃

 

I don't mind paying the adult price, I wanted to go just both of us, just started to get bit worried about things

 

I didn't request anything aside from first sitting. Once onboard you can always change things though

 

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[SDJen]

I've done 3 cruises with my daughter on Disney and have #4 and #5 booked if that tells you anything :)

 

Our first cruise was when she was 5 and as others have said its a great vacation for a single parent. There is plenty of fun things to do together but it's also an awesome way to have quiet time to do your own thing.

 

One suggestion would be to find your cruise meet thread (on another site there are very active meet threads) and chat with everyone there. There might be another single parent or a family with kids your daughters age that you can "meet" before the trip. On our 2nd trip we did this and met a family that we are still friends with. Our first cruise we were seated with a family of four with daughters about the same age as mine and we had a great time!

 

You will have a great at time! Don't be surprised if you book another while on board:D

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

Yes' date=' having another adult along would mean that you could pay child's fare for the 3 year old. Some considerations--if you travel at 2 years and 11 months, your costs will be even less. Of course, that could put you in a more costly season, negating the savings. Also "under 3" rides the DCL bus free.

 

The Wonder is the only ship where the big bed can divide into 2 twins. If you plan on one of the other ships, depending on your sleeping plans, you might want to be sure you have a cabin that "sleeps 4." If you get a "sleeps 3," you'll be sharing the big bed...which may or may not matter to you.[/quote']

 

Couple of things...

 

Regarding DCL bus transportation: True under 3 doesn't pay, but particularly at peak times they will require that the child sit on your lap. Happened on the first bus from MCO for my cruise last February - there were several families with under 3s who they had put in individual seats and a DCL rep came on the bus and said that all under 3s who had not had a seat purchased for them had to be in the lap of one of the paying guests in their party. They fill the busses based on the number of people who paid for the seats, so while one or maybe two MIGHT slip by, if people who were assigned to a bus cannot find a seat (they don't worry about together...just empty seats) they will come on and check that the lap babies are truly in laps.

 

And regarding the bedding, it's been reported that they are in the process of block-changing the cabins on the Wonder currently - changing (thankfully) to one Queen bed (which will also be the height as on the other ships so that luggage fits easily) as well as refurbing the carpet, etc. because the overhauling drydock like the Magic got can't happen until the Panama Canal is done unless they want to lose out on the Alaskan market. So it won't be long until the horrid split beds are a thing of the past.

[Lovedisneycruise]

Hi, I too have been a single parent of 2 for 25 years. While I could not afford to take them on a cruise when they were young, I have been cruising DCL with my daughter (my youngest child) the past four years. They always seat us with other mother/daughter combos, same sex young couples, but never families with young children.

 

I have taken my children to Disney World alone when they were young and it gave me a great sense of accomplishment at that time in our lives. I felt safe and we had a great time. Honestly, I think it would be even easier and more relaxing to cruise as a single parent of young children since you don't have the running around of WDW and can also take advantage of the kids' clubs and get some time to yourself, which was always in short supply for me.

 

You will have a wonderful time and yes, will probably want to book another one while onboard. At least that's what I do now! :)

[moki'smommy]

Hi, I too have been a single parent of 2 for 25 years. While I could not afford to take them on a cruise when they were young, I have been cruising DCL with my daughter (my youngest child) the past four years. They always seat us with other mother/daughter combos, same sex young couples, but never families with young children.

 

I'm guessing that your daughter is no longer a young child. We have always been seated either alone or with a single child of about the same age as mine. Sometimes that child was with a single parent, sometimes a 2 parent family. As she got older (teens), we were seated with other dyads of a mother or grandmother with a female teen....and ultimately we were seated with adult couples and singles (making my then teen daughter the youngest at the table). I don't know how DCL does it, but somehow these seatings almost always worked out great. If you have a seating arrangement that doesn't suit you, talk to the head server on the first night--like after dinner. They will move you before the second night.

 

OK, a funny story. We were sitting in the terminal waiting for boarding to start. There was an elderly couple sitting near us; the woman probably hard of hearing and obviously not aware of how loudly she was yelling. She was reading her KTTW card, asking her husband what each thing on it meant. You guessed it--she got to the table number (we'd already learned that she was on the same rotation we were), and my daughter whispered to me in panic mode. We simply stopped by dining changes and were moved prior to the first dinner....in fact we were seated with friends we'd met on line before cruising, and have been the best of cruise buddies ever since.

[driftingaway2017]

I am a single parent, and while I have never cruised Disney, but have cruised quite a bit with my daughter. I agree with the others, cruises are great vacations for single parents.

 

My last vacation was an all inclusive in Mexico, and while it was wonderful, the children's program, at least for teens, wasn't great. They didn't have many activities, so my daughter didn't want to go. On most of our cruises, the kids programs have been great. In fact, my daughter would often ask to go spend time there! Many programs will also take the kids for dinner, as well.

 

In the past, I had been anxious believing that I might be the only single parent cruiser onboard! But, I have found that not the case. I have met several other single parents while on cruises. In fact, my last cruise there was a adult daughter and mother that had been cruising together since the daughter was young. Very neat. Anyway, I hope you have a great cruise!

[Capt_BJ]

Honestly, I think it would be even easier and more relaxing to cruise as a single parent of young children since you don't have the running around of WDW and can also take advantage of the kids' clubs and get some time to yourself,

 

Absolutely!

 

Mom is a tax CPA so when the kids were small dad would take them away for a week so mom could do a full court press and move returns during peak season, and later during 'spring break' when kids were home from school

 

We did WDW a couple of times and Universal once and then were on a first year MAGIC cruise on DCL .... spring break approached and I asked the kids, "what do you want to do this year?" Obviously they'd all ready conspired and replied, "Disney Cruise."

 

Fat chance said I and then started thinking and doing some digging . . .

 

- we could do a 4 day cruise for less $ then I was typically spending to do a park, between admission, hotel and meals ... we lived near enuf to drive to WDW or PC so that was a wash.

 

- Dad did not need two days to recover from chasing the kids around the park ... kids LOVED the clubs, so dad could sit around the pool and read books

 

- Dad did not have to eat park fast food .... kids could to hot dogs and pizza all day if they wanted but dad could eat real food.

 

- At night the clubs were built in baby sitter so dad could enjoy the adult clubs for a little while at least.

 

We did this 4 times .....

 

{Dad and youngest did their last 'spring break trip' when dd and I went to Cayman for a week of diving her last spring of college. End of an era for us!}

 

early one

 

last one

[moki'smommy]

Doing cruise as single parent is definitely easier than doing parks as a single.

[trevette1981]

So glad to read this! We went to Disney last year and I enjoyed it, but I was SO tired. I didn't get to relax any, felt like I was constantly moving. May have been my own fault for trying to see everything. LOL!

 

I'm sure a cruise will be a lot more relaxing! Also glad to hear how dining will be set up. I didn't want to be the only single mom/single passenger at dinner.