Europe Cruise with toddler - how to choose?

[spooky1323]

Hello All!

 

We (my husband, son - 2.5 yo, myself) are new to cruising 🙂 We have a Royal Caribbean cruise booked in May on Symphony of the Seas to make sure we like cruising - but I think we are going to love it. As a bit of background - we went to London/Paris for two weeks last October and while we had a fun time - it was a bit much with a toddler, changing hotels, taking the train, trying to find family friendly food options etc. this lead us to looking into cruises because the room/food/kids club is all there on the ship but you get to travel to fun places! 

 

Assuming we like it - we are looking to book a cruise for 2021 to somewhere in Europe. We are open to Northern Europe/Mediterranean/other things we haven't considered? Norwegian has an itinerary for 2020 that is Norway/Ireland/Scotland and that sounds amazing! but...I don't see that offered for 2021. I'm getting overwhelmed with trying to research each cruise line only to find more cruise lines and a ton of different but similar itineraries across them so I thought I'd reach out to this community to see if anyone had any recommendations.

 

Timeframe: Anytime in 2021 - any recommended or not recommended times to go?

Passengers: 3 (2 adults, 1 child - 3-4 years old)

Ideal Itinerary: Norway/Ireland/Scotland (not finding this for 2021 though?), open to the Mediterranean, Northern Europe, Baltic 

Cruise Length: ideally more than a week - 9-12 days but flexible on that

Cruise Line: I've mostly been looking at Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Norwegian (would love a newer ship but not a deal breaker if there are some toddler friendly things) - completely open to other cruise lines as there's so many out there

Budget: $5-10k (not including flights/excursions)

 

completely open to suggestions or recommendations...things I haven't thought of or should consider.

 

Thanks so much!

[jocap]

Check ships leaving from Southampton, because many go to Norway,  round the British Isles, or to the Baltics. You'll find RCI, Celebrity, Princess, P&O, Cunard, MSC and other lines. All of those will have facilities for a young child.

 

[Essiesmom]

Personally, I would not take a toddler to the Med.  Any time.  Think /talk about why you want to go to Europe, what YOU want to do/see.  And how that is gong to be impacted by a child with little patience, needing snacks and a nap.  If I had to go, I would chose Northern Europe/Baltic.  I think there are more child friendly attractions there.  But I would invest in a copy of bot the Rick Steves books on cruising:  Scandinavian and Northern European Cruise Ports  and Mediterranean Cruise Ports.  Read about what you can do and see in the ports that interest you, and how much you can do in the time you have in port.  Consider what you think your toddler could tolerate.  Then go about choosing a cruise.  EM

[Host Kat]

@spooky1323

 

Howdy and welcome to Cruise Critic!

 

Thank you for your first post on the First Time Cruisers forum. 👍 

 

However since your inquiry concerns your family taking their first cruise, I have moved your thread to our Family Cruises forum where it will be more on-topic. The majority of your fellow Cruise Critic members that have sailed with their families frequent this forum. Please browse through the thread titles here looking for threads of interest. You will find your fellow Cruise Critic members may have posted questions and received answers that will help you.

 

Also, there are many Cruise Critic articles that should be helpful too. Here are a few:

 

What to Expect on a Cruise: Family Cruises

What to Expect on a Cruise: Cruise Rooms for Families

Family Cruise Tips

Best Cruises for Kids

Best Shore Excursions for Kids

5 Best Cruise Lines for Babies and Toddlers

Checklist: Is Your Kid Ready to Cruise?

Family Cruise Hacks

 

I sincerely hope this will be helpful and glad to have you aboard Cruise Critic!

 

Happy sails,

 

Host Kat

 

Edited January 21, 2020 by Host Kat
Typo

[kitkat343]

Hi, we took our 3 year old to the Baltics (which he absolutely loved), and our 6 and 2 year old to Norway (which they really loved but we struggled with a  bit more).  

 

We book private tours so we can see the cities, and control the itinerary (which can make all the difference with a  toddler.) And then when we get back on the ship, we immediately put our kids in daycare since we need to rest.  Its been a great balance that lets us see the world and not be overwhelmed by the logistics of traveling with toddlers.

 

Norway was a bit more difficult logistically because there is no public transportation since the towns are so small (except for Bergen, where there is some limited public transport).  Cabs are barred from transporting children without car seats.  They are required to provide car seats if you book them ahead of time, but the weather is unstable in Norway so you can wind up in the rain and cold standing  at a cab line where all the waiting cabs  will refuse to transport you.  So although Norway was beautiful, I found it logistically a bit more difficult to manage than the Baltics, where the incredible public transportation system made it very easy to DIY.   However, if you know about this ahead of time you can book cabs or rent a car for the day or use the HOHO buses or book private tours with transportation.  Please also note that the heritage fjords are requiring new emissions standards, and therefore older/ not retrofitted ships will not be able to visit them (these include places like Geiranger; you should post any itinerary you are interested in on the Baltic cruise forum since people there will be able to advise you on whether it is likely the ship will need to change its itinerary.  Some cruises have shifted itineraries, others haven't adjusted for these regulations last I'd checked on those forums). 

 

For the Baltics, most of the ports are very close to where you dock, with the exceptions of Germany (where you might want to consider just exploring northern Germany and not traveling all the way to Berlin with a toddler) and Stockholm where larger ships dock further away and you'd want to find a smaller ship that docks directly in Stockholm since it will be easier logistically and you'll be able to sail through a beautiful archipelago.  

 

You can see my reviews of both cruises in my signature line which describe places kids would like to visit.  I've also sailed to the Med before kids, and while beautiful, that might  be a bit hot, plus you'd need to research the distance between where the ships dock and the ports (that depends on where your ship goes - some of the ports in the med are a little challenging logistically - such as Rome, and Santorini which is close but logistically challenging, but other ports are really easy to manage).

 

Oh, and long term if you live on the East Coast the 10 day partial Panama Canal cruises are very easy logistically and visit really interesting places (Cartagena was beautiful, plus you can visit Costa Rica and see the canal).  My 2 year old loved that trip too.

Edited January 21, 2020 by kitkat343

[kitkat343]

I forgot to mention that with a toddler as long as the kids clubs are good, the ship amenities are less important than with an older child who would love laser tag/circus/bumper cars.  We have traveled mostly on older, unimpressive ships since we pick cruises for the itinerary and as long as the kids club is strong, we haven't had any issues.  The kids clubs were very strong on Princess and NCL, and were fine on HAL but it seems they might be cutting their already not great hours so please double check that.  The kids club on Cunard was not as strong, since the counselors weren't as caring as the other lines.  Many families have reported on these forums being very happy with the kids clubs on RC, although we haven't had a chance to sail them yet.  Disney is a potential issue for toddlers, since children aged 3-12 are in the same kids club and younger kids can get overwhelmed by the unstructured kids clubs. This, combined with the huge additional cost, would make it something you should only sail if you really love Disney and want to be on a disney ship.

Edited January 21, 2020 by kitkat343

[Kerry's Girls]

Took my twins on a Med/Egypt/Turkey cruise for their 5th birthday - it was fantastic.  The most important thing was to take private tours so we could go at our own pace and choose our own itinerary (no museums/shopping, yes to ice cream stops and playgrounds).  I think the Baltics are better with little ones - less travel time to the main areas and the weather is more comfortable.  But I would choose what you want to do, then make port plans with realistic expectations.  I actually enjoyed Europe more with my little kids than before them because instead of rushing from place to place to see everything, we slowed down and enjoyed our day exploring and playing in a new place every day.