Cruising with a 2.5 year old...are we crazy?

[nicoleds]

Trying to decide if we should take a cruise in December. We have yet to travel with our kid. I would love to hear some tips/tricks about cruising with a toddler. Also would love to know the logistics of travelling with a kid...how does bedtime work when you're all in one room? How are the kids clubs? Do I need a stroller? I don't even know where to start, any tips will help.

 

TIA!

[Jamesatgsu]

We took our 3 year old on the Fantasy last year. It wasn't great, but she also didn't feel well most of the day. We thought the kids club was terrible because they constantly kept calling us and it often felt like it was just because she was the only kid in there so they didn't want her there. Your child can nap in the kids club, and night owls is available until 1am (which our daughter stayed at and there were a good number of toddler aged kids at).  On port days you can basically drop them off all day. On sea days you'll have to pick them up in the afternoon (they aren't fed lunch and the kids club closes at 2 IIRC), and then can drop them off at dinner (5:30 IIRC) where they eat on the Lido deck (there will be small corner somewhere for them). They are fed snacks.

 

If your child doesn't take well to being left with strangers, it will not go particularly well. If they do, they will probably have a good time.  All things considered, I'd only take a 2.5 year old if I needed to. That said, cruising with a 2.5 year old > Not cruising.

 

I would not bring a stroller. 

[SBNDers]

22 minutes ago, nicoleds said:

Trying to decide if we should take a cruise in December. We have yet to travel with our kid. I would love to hear some tips/tricks about cruising with a toddler. Also would love to know the logistics of travelling with a kid...how does bedtime work when you're all in one room? How are the kids clubs? Do I need a stroller? I don't even know where to start, any tips will help.

 

TIA!

 

I might take a weekend vacation to see how your child handles travel before you book a cruise. Cruises are great, but if you have an unhappy child, a week on a ship could be a little stressful. 

 

We took a cruise (with my two sons and their wives) when my grandson was 7 months old, then again when he was almost 2 1/2 and his new sister was 1. It was work and required some planning, but HANDS ON Mimi and Grandpa have been on 20 cruises, so we didn't mind filling in for their parents. Not for everyone, but I booked adjoining staterooms. I figured that IF we needed them fine, otherwise door closed and locked. So we didn't mind one morning at 4AM when our grandson decided to wander into our room (without his parents waking up). lol

 

The camps are for select times only, so depending on what you want to do without your child(ren), you would need to secure baby sitting services. Especially in the evenings.

 

A stroller is a MUST. Our last cruise we had a double stroller and two car seats (used on land getting to/from hotels and port).  Sometimes two people aren't enough to handle everything. 

 

I guess if I had to summarize - take grandparents or another couple with children for "job sharing". Just my opinion.

 

    

[sabres431]

59 minutes ago, nicoleds said:

Trying to decide if we should take a cruise in December. We have yet to travel with our kid. I would love to hear some tips/tricks about cruising with a toddler. Also would love to know the logistics of travelling with a kid...how does bedtime work when you're all in one room? How are the kids clubs? Do I need a stroller? I don't even know where to start, any tips will help.

 

TIA!

 

  Cruising with a baby is fun, but know the limitations.  We are have cruised with our 3 year old twice already(7(NCL) & a 12 day(MSC))  We went when our daughter was 9 months and 1.5.  We are going in April on Carnival Pride with our daughter and our 1 year old son.  I highly recommend the Family Cruising board for tips.  We use the Summer Infant 3D Lite stroller.  Its affordable and durable.  Its fits down the hallways and through the doors on the ships, folds up easily, and has a basket below.  

  Depending on whether your child is potty trained, know that they can't go in the pools with a swim diaper.  We brought a small inflatable pool on our last two, but Carnival does not allow that.  We took turns going to the casino.  We would take them to the kids club during designated times where we could play with her since she was too young for their services.

  Try to keep the nap schedule if possible.  It's not always possible and the stroller is a great napping place too.  Bring extra everything!!! And bring their favorite(small) toys for in the room.

[Denverdonkeys]

Also, you're not crazy. I think the idea about a weekend trip is a good one.

 

See my reply to the other topic for more details, but having some grandparents is great too! potty trained is a must in my opinion, otherwise there are even more limitations.

 

For bedtime, one us (or both) just stayed in there and we went to bed earlier than normal. that's fine, or you can do night owls, pay the fee, and i would guess they fall asleep there on little cots (that's what i have read before).

 

We have never had issues with camp staff calling us or trying to get us to pick up our sons, but we also went during spring break when the ship was full.

 

Some points were made about what your kids might see, it is a fair point, you cant control everything they see or hear. other people are enjoying their vacation in a different manner, so be prepared for that.

 

But you are asking advice, so you seem like you care about this experience, so I am going to believe you are a parent who is conscious about how your child is behaving. Accidents happen, tantrums happen, loud noises (happy, bad, sad, angry, etc.) happen- how you react is what matters to most of the guests around you. Ignoring it in the MDR and letting it happen sucks for other guests. Taking them outside to talk and get through it, totally respected. I think the wait staff love kids.

 

ENJOY IT! 

[nicoleds]

Thanks everyone for the info! Lots to think about I guess lol

 

We absolutely understand that this won't be like our previous vacations, so no worries there. Rest assured, we won't be those parents who stick around for everyone to enjoy their kid's tantrum, we'll remove him swiftly :)

 

I'm honestly prepared for this to be a complete ***** show, so anything above that level would be fantastic hahaha

[kitkat343]

At 2.5, how well this will go really depends upon your kid.  Some kids love to explore, and are really flexible about nap times and bedtimes, and separate easily from their parents.  That's going to be a completely different experience than taking a 2.5 year old whose sleep routine gets disrupted if they are late for a nap and they become really cranky, or a child who can't be dropped off at the kids club.  

 

It might be too late for this, but if possible, please try to sail during the school year.  The emptier the kids clubs are, the less overwhelming they will be and the more time the counselors should have for your kids.  Princess allows children under 3 to attend the kids clubs under parental supervision, so that might be a nice compromise if a parent is fairly certain their child won't separate and needs a vacation and doesn't have grandparents to leave the children with.  It's less of a break than a drop off program, but it was pretty easy in the kids club since the staff did the work of watching my son and I could just read a book.  The kids club staff on Princess was great at helping my  2 year old son, bringing him art supplies or helping him with whatever activities he wanted to do.  The staff on Cunard wasn't great with his younger sibling we we sailed when he was 2 years old, and they were really unmotivated to do their job, despite the kids clubs being nearly empty since we sailed during the school year and there were fewer than 10 kids on board.  That 2 year old was used to daycare, so we just needed them to play with him for 5 minutes or so until he adjusted to the kids club.  The staff initially tried to argue they were too busy to help him (at the time they argued they were busy there were two counselors and three children, which consisted of two older kids happily playing a game together and my 2 year old.)  After we insisted they'd need to help our child, they did a better job, but it's stressful if the counselors are unmotivated.  However, we've sailed Princess, HAL and NCL with kids, and the counselors on all the other lines were really motivated and helpful.  But the quality of the counselors is  hard to predict ahead of time, and will make an enormous difference in terms of whether a young child is likely to stay at the kids club (we were at Beaches Turks and Caicos when my oldest was 4, and the counselors were really struggling.   A kid had gotten lost from the kids club a few weeks before we visited, and as I observed the kids club staff I immediately realized how that happened - when they led the older kids to lunch and other activities on the grounds outside of the kids club they had one counselor at the front of the line, and no adult in the back, so it was easy for a kid to get distracted by the beautiful grounds and exciting water rides and Sesame Street characters walking around.)   My oldest was a very social kid, so he was just happy at the kids club playing with the other kids, but everywhere I went I met parents whose kids were happy in daycare but refused to stay in the kids clubs at Beaches because the counselors weren't very good.    At 2.5 you have to be prepared for that possibility, and it sounds like you have the right attitude towards this.  

 

We needed a stroller, and used it to get around the ship/on excursions. You might want to scout out the location of the steward carts before heading out, since a stroller usually can't pass those in the hallway and sometimes you need to go different directions to have a clear path to the elevators. We found that private excursions for just our family worked better than ship ones, since we controlled the itinerary and could return to the ship if our kids melted down (which thankfully never happened).   But if you're going to the beach, a ship excursion might be fine (we were doing a lot of city exploring, so the ability to stop and give our kid a break/stay longer where they were interested saved us a bunch of times).  If you ship still uses cardboard cereal boxes, get a bunch of those for snacks in your room/on excursions in the buffet during breakfast.  You can keep fruit and yogurt in your room, but I'm not sure if you are allowed to take sealed yogurt containers off the ship and you cannot take fruit off.    

[mjkacmom]

At that age you really need to research what lines and ships will offer what you want. Some ships have nurseries for that age, some kids clubs, some nothing. No pools allow swim diapers, a handful offer small splash areas for diapered kids.

[cb at sea]

I would advise a balcony cabin at the very least....it will give YOU someplace "to be" when your child is napping or down for the night.

You're a family, and families vacation together, for the most part.  If you've cruised before, you will know that this will be a bit different than what you may be used to.  But...that's how family vacations work!

[NEGeekymama]

Both our kiddos were around the same age as yours on their first cruise.

As other have mentioned, if they're not potty trained yet it makes things a little more complicated. RCCL wouldn't take our kiddo at all because she was under three AND not potty trained, so we could only go to the open house style kids activities. Disney was different, and we could send our youngest to their nursery (had to pay, though). We did a Carnival shortly after that, and she still wasn't fully potty trained; the kid's club did take her, but we'd have to go help her use the restroom/change her pull-up.

 

Logistics like that aside, both our girls LOVE cruises. 

 

A really, really useful thing to buy is a battery operated night light. Makes a huge difference for our youngest. 

 

We also let them pick out what "fancy clothes" they want to pack, along with one (or two) toys/stuffed animals, and their favorite blanket.

Be patient at meal times; we basically adopted the "I don't care what they eat so long as they eat" vacation rule, which has made life a lot less stressful.

[wampuscat7]

We took our daughter on her first cruise at 20-ish months, and it was fantastic.  We were on Oasis of the Seas, and the staff were so incredibly kind. They absolutely doted on her. Especially in the buffet area, the service was excellent. Offered to bring us drinks and high chairs so we didn't have to get up, played peekaboo with her, etc. We only left her in the nursery one evening, but it was fine. She was sleeping when we picked her up. We also appreciated that the ship had an area where we could take her to play and stay with her. (Some RCCL/RCI cruises do have nurseries, as do some NCL cruises. I would choose a ship with a nursery.) Also the entertainment was great. She enjoyed the ice skating show and the diving show. The highlight of the trip was the carousel on the ship, which she was ga-ga for. We rode it several times a day. She also loved her first beach and her first time in the ocean. The ship also had bags of toys that you could check out from the kids center and take back to your cabin. 

 

Changing diapers was a bit of a challenge. We always went back to the room while on the ship. The worst was in Labadee, and I had to change her while she was standing. 

 

We loved it so much that we took her on her second cruise a few months before her 3rd birthday. Again she had a fantastic time. This was a Carnival ship, and again most staff were incredibly nice. Our waiter in the dining room always had a plate of fruit waiting for her to give her something to eat while we looked over the menus. On that trip she particularly loved dancing to the bands, the Dr. Seuss parade/show/reading, and the splash area. She also really loved the Italian restaurant and watching the open kitchen area. And the self-serve ice cream. She was potty trained for that trip, and we did not use the child center since the grandparents were with us. (Although I did bring pull ups and had her wear them at night and on the airplane out of mommy fear. She was fine.) 

 

Of course on both trips we took it slower than usual, spent more time in the cabin than usual, and went at her pace. If she needed a nap, we accommodated that. If she got loud, we left the area to find a place for her to run around where she wouldn't bother people. There are quite a few places on a cruise ship for a kiddo to roam if you look. 

 

We did take an umbrella stroller on both cruises. It held up fine even over the sands in Labadee and the uneven streets in San Juan. It folded up small enough to stick in an unused corner of the room. 

 

We did have a balcony room for both cruises. She really liked watching the water, birds, ports, etc. I also bought some window clings that she liked putting up on the windows. 

 

We're scheduled for her third cruise soon, and she's so excited for the big boat. 

[Kerry's Girls]

I actually found that cruising was the best vacation for the baby/toddler/preschool ages.  The kids love the schedule of cruising, sleeping in the same bed and eating in the same place every day and I love someone else doing all the cooking, cleaning, meal planning, etc.   Always somewhere to go play, dance, wander, etc.  Kids are spoiled in the dining room, get to try lots of new foods, the rocking helps them sleep better, etc.  Great vacation with little ones and mostly the only way I traveled until my girls were older and we started doing more land-based foreign travel.  

[INeedAMaiTai]

Not crazy!  My oldest (now 12) went on her first cruise at barely 2.  And since then I have traveled with my subsequent other two daughters.  We have been on a cruise at least every year since 2008 and it has been fantastic for our family!  It's a lot of work, but being a parent is anyway.  I'm happy to answer any questions or concerns you have about it all.  From breastfeeding (my middle was 6 months on her first) to dealing with luggage, I have answers for you if you want to chat.

[chipmaster]

Ah terrible twos, who knows, kids change a lot, our three kids were the greatest joy and we vacation everywhere with then including cruising.

 

I'd be surprised if there are any kids-club that take anyone not out of diapers, check your cruise, better get a nanny if you want personal time, you got a decade of high maintenance but great rewards ahead. 

[john watson]

Most cruise lines have a minimum age for children in the kids club of 3 years old.  If they are under 3 the parent has to stay in the club with them continuously.  This needs looking at on the relevant cruise lines website as it makes a big difference.

 

Regards John