Cruising with kids

[_wilson]

Hi all,

We are new to the cruise form of travelling and are wondering whether you would recommend a cruise for a family with a toddler?

 

If so, are their any you would suggest are particularly little people friendly?

[Esilef]

Cruising with kids is great. Your toddler will have a great time plus the ships cater for kids.

[Mum81]

My Mum and Dad actually took our son on his first cruise when he was 18 months old and by the look of the photos he had a great time.

 

We first took him when he was 4 years old. We personally think cruising is by far the easiest holiday with young children. Your cabin is just down the hall if they get tired and mum and dad can take turns staying in for the nap, while the other parent can still enjoy the ship/activities. There are no taxis to catch home after dinner and no car seats to worry about. You only have to unpack once, which means you can take a few toys. The latch on the balcony door is quite high up, meaning you can book a balcony room and not spend every minute stressing.

 

We have always found Carnival to be great for kids. Toddlers would love the "splash zone" water park. If your little one is old enough for the kids club, you might even get a dinner alone.

 

The only 1 thing we have found is don't expect too much out of your port days. We learnt very quickly that kids will fall asleep on expensive excursions and the heat can make them very irritable. Also a lot of the islands are just not equipped to handle little ones. eg. no changing facilities etc. Just be prepared to only get off the ship briefly or not get off at all and you will have a great time. We actually now look forward to having the ship to ourselves on port days when everyone else is off.

[joybook]

We took our kids and grandkids (a party of 10 altogether) on a cruise about 2 years ago. The grandkids (4 of them ) ages ranged from 11 down to 3. No worries at all and the kids loved it. Just be aware that they will demand a fair amount of your time and yes they will tire quickly. They did not use kids clubs etc and stayed with us. Our decision to shout them a cruise has been one of the best deicions we have ever made. We had a wonderful time.:)

[craftygirl15]

Our 5 year old son will be going on his 5th cruise this month - his first cruise was when he had just turned 1 and he actually started walking onboard that ship. We've travelled with him on both Royal Caribbean and Carnival.

 

If you cruise with Royal Caribbean, just be aware that your little one needs to be toilet trained before they're allowed in the pool - Royal's rules say no nappies/swim nappies.

 

Otherwise, we've had great times with our boy. He doesn't go in kids club much - prefers to spend the time with us. The staff generally adore the little kids and look after them so well. They will also help with any specific food requests - when we were on Rhapsody once, each night we had a standing room service order for a bowl of mashed vegies/meat for our toddler. Otherwise, the staff go out of their way to make sure that you and your little person are well looked after.

Edited March 23, 2015 by craftygirl15
Typo

[mtn_couple]

You'll have a blast! We started cruising with our son when he was 2 (Carnival allow kids from 2 to use the kids club and will change nappies. All other lines its 3+ and fully toilet trained). We've just booked our next cruise which will be our son's 4th and he's 4 years old. The staff LOVE kids and will dote over them constantly, and it is VERY safe. Most lines you can ask for a cot in your room - this is also great for a play pen. We always book a balcony room so when our son sleeps early some nights we can relax/chat/read on the balcony and not have to sit inside quietly in the dark while he sleeps.

 

Have a think about what your child likes and book a ship accordingly. Carnival and Royal are kid focussed and attract a LOT of kids, especially in the school holidays which means a PACKED kids club and lots and lots of kids but it also means waterslides, character parades and other 'kid' focusses activities. Our son is reserved and quiet and HATED Carnival and Royal for this reason and refused to go to kids club because there were so many children. But our last (and next) cruise was on Celebrity Solstice, less kids, more luxury therefore quieter kids club (there were only 9 kids aged 3-8 on our voyage) and he LOVED it.

 

All lines welcome and look after kids great, but they all have different activities and attract different types of people, personally we prefer galley tours, foodie events and sipping martini's in the martini bar on Solstice rather than the belly flop comps, noise and drinking of Carnival, but each to their own, some love that....... and kids have different tastes too..... just pick a ship and itinerary that suits you and yours.