Family Cruise with 1 1/2 Year Old Grandson

[Bama Fan]

Since babies aren't allowed in the splash areas, what is there to do with a toddler (1 1/2) during the day.  We'll be on the Valor in October with a family group of 10.

[StolidCruiser]

At that age, you’ll pretty much be toting him around with you everywhere you go (except for pools/hottubs and adult-only areas).

 

Cruising with a toddler is hard work. 😀

[mdsgu]

1 minute ago, StolidCruiser said:

At that age, you’ll pretty much be toting him around with you everywhere you go (except for pools/hottubs and adult-only areas).

 

Cruising with a toddler is hard work. 😀

Yep.  Been there, done that....quite a few times!

[elcuchio24]

unfortunately not much. We stayed away from cruising for a few years when our boys where under 2. We did one cruise with our first son at 1.5yo, and legitimately there is no organized activities at that age group. Sometimes they have 'playtimes' in the kids club but the parent needs to be there the whole time.

 

We did AIs when they were smaller, and now that they are both over 2yo, we are back to cruising. 

[Tapi]

Our kids started cursing at 13 months of age. As others have said, on Carnival, there’s not much to do except for the entertainment that you can personally provide. There’s “night owl” babysitting after 10pm, but we never used it since at that time of night, we were tucked in anyway. 

 

If you are looking for a cruise line that may provide more activities for children under 2, I recommend that you look at other cruise lines like Royal Caribbean or Disney which do provide activities for children as young as 6 months of age. 

 

On Royal, there’s the Royal Babies and Tots program with all day activities (albeit for an extra fee). On select ships, there are pools which are temperature controlled and separately filtered specifically for children who are still in diapers. We sailed with our son twice before he turned 2, once on Carnival and once on Royal. The difference in our enjoyment was like night and day.

 

We love our children dearly, and we are huge advocates of spending as much quality time together as possible, with a huge emphasis on quality. Unfortunately, when you’re together 24 hours a day on vacation without any breaks, there may be plenty of time together,  but the quality of it becomes questionable. That’s when we consider children’s programs to be absolutely valuable. 

[Bama Fan]

I was afraid of that......Thanks for all responses.