Just cruised with a 17 month old--our experience

[cantwait2cruise]

Here's a little background. We mainly went on this cruise due to a large amount of family going, my parents, sister and her husband, two sets of aunt/uncles, couple of cousins and some other friends of the family all went, a group of 28. We were hesitant to book when we learned that we had to pay a full 3rd person fare for our daughter, but went ahead b/c it's so hard to get a big group together to go.

 

I didn't expect to get "my money's worth" on what we paid for DD, but I don't believe we will cruise again until our children are old enough for Camp Carnival (I'm also expecting baby number 2 in Sept.).

 

Our DD is pretty high strung and is not the most easy going. She's on a pretty good routine at home and although we deviate from it sometimes, I guess I didn't realize how much security it brings her. She whined and cried more on this trip than she has in months. She was extremely clingy to my husband and if he was around, then she was not happy until she was in his arms.

 

She was either wide open or sleeping. I got a lot of sleep on the cruise and being 14 weeks pregnant, that was nice. But it was exhausting trying to keep her pacified and entertained for 7 days. She didn't want to sit in her high chair at dinner and she usually doesn't have an issue with this at home even at longer dinners at restaurants. I actually started dreading dinner every night. DH and I barely spent any time together, b/c even though we were with family, my parents keep her full time while we work, so I didn't them to keep her much since it was their vacation too.

 

There were bright spots. She had a lot of fun and was so funny telling everyone "Hi!" All of the crew loved her. She enjoyed the beach at Grand Cayman and riding around in her stroller looking at everybody in the other ports and on the ship.

 

But overall, I really do think we will wait until both of our kids are old enough to do Camp Carnival b/c it just wasn't worth the money we spent on this vacation. I was actually ready for the cruise to be over (I also picked up a bad cold on Wed. so that didn't help). Oh well, you live and learn. I'm happy to be back home and back in our routine. I'm also hoping baby #2 will be a little more laid back and easy going like my husband. Unfortunately, DD is a little too much like her mommy, ha ha.

 

If anyone has questions, please feel free to ask.

[Julienatul]

My DD (age 3 now)is high strung too and we just had DS (3mo) and he is so laid back so it can happen. I told my husband I'd have 10 more if they were all like him :). Fortunately my DD does better on a cruise than at home and has gotten much easier now that she is older. Sorry you didnt have the experience you were looking for.

 

Julie

[lds26]

So sorry to hear that your 'vacation' was more 'work'. Glad that you had at least a bit of rest time anyway. Good luck on your next child being the "cruise dream baby". Thanks for posting.

[Karysa]

Thanks for posting. You can never tell how children will be when they are away from home. I am glad to hear that you got lots of rest because that means that at least, thank heavens, she slept well. Not sleeping for a week and being pregnant would have made it that much more difficult.

As a side note, my high strung, perfectionist, has grown into a very laid back and most pleasant 15 year old daughter. I would have never in my wildest dreams thought that about 12 years ago.

 

Karysa

[Warmer Climes]

I'm sorry your vacation was a disappointment. When my three older kids were little, we rented a ski cabin every winter and it was more work for ME than staying at home, so I definitely sympathize with you. (I eventually told DH "No more ski vacations!")

 

Cruising is great when they can go to the kids' club most of the day. Now with my youngest being 10, cruising is a fabulous vacation. It will get easier for you!

 

Barb

[amjebrown]

I often think of a vacation with kids as a "relocation of responsibilities". I figure cruising must be easier than camping :)

[VillaHappy]

Reading your post brought back a lot of memories for me. My kids are currently 9 and 5. We always take them on vacation, and when they were younger, it was much harder to really relax and have a good time.

 

It WILL get easier!!! :D

[lilrere]

If you are reading this thread and stressing just remember every child is different. We just returned from a 8 night cruise with a 14 month old and it was wonderful. He was a terrific traveler and it was so much better than I ever dreamed! The key for us was we brought Grandma!;) No matter what you just have to remember it will be a totally different vacation with children. I will say I always read a book on a cruise and needless to say there wasn't much time to relax!!:eek:

[Loves_Dogs]

Thank you for taking time to share your experience. Hopefully others will read it and learn. As previous posters have said, each child is different but it does get easier. My kids (now ages 19 and 29) were very different. I personally never cruised with small kids, it just seemed like too much work. That being said, my son would have done great on a cruise as a toddler but my daughter, well, lets just say that I am sure we would have 'chalked up' a few complaints from surrounding cabins. I just would NEVER have been that inconsiderate to even attempt to take her as a toddler.

Better luck on your next cruse!

[cantwait2cruise]

I did keep my word and we haven't cruised since 2009 when DD1 was 17 months old and I was pregnant with DD2.

 

We are going on a 5 day cruise in March to celebrate our anniversary and our girls are now 5 and 3 years old. Here's to hoping they like Camp Carnival and we can get some down time. :)

[dijid]

Thanks for sharing your experience. If it helps, I always thought 18 months was about the peak of the worst age for traveling with my kids. Loved traveling with the babies (who will sleep anywhere and don't want to crawl around). And liked it again once they were out of all the baby gear - diapers, sippy cups, stroller (mine were out by 3), etc. But those in-between times - well, it didn't last forever!

[rebeccalouiseagain]

I have routinely posted that I think between the ages of 9 months and 2 years are the worst times to travel. When a toddler first starts to walk and isn't very verbal it really is challenging.

 

My two boys were never really fussy unless retrained for more than 10 minutes in a high chair. It really isn't a great time to travel because they just want to run, run, run.

 

I remember being on a cruise with my then 13 month old and getting dirty looks from people because he was running through empty lounges (I let him) but what else could I do. They have to run around- it's part of being a toddler. He always wanted to climb steps. So I was forever climbing the stairs inside and outside to keep him busy. It was work.

 

We spent evenings taking turns watching him and he never wanted to fall asleep- so we ended up walking around the ship even at night.

 

On a positive note- My son was all smiles- he thought the ship was a fantastic playground. The crew loved him.

[SadieN]

I often think of a vacation with kids as a "relocation of responsibilities". I figure cruising must be easier than camping :)

 

It is!

[Tiny.Trekker000]

Thanks for sharing your experience. Although not exactly what you envisioned, I am sure trips down the road will become much more enjoyable.

 

My friend was looking to book a cruise with her babies and this will be good to share with her.

[cantwait2cruise]

Thanks for sharing your experience. Although not exactly what you envisioned, I am sure trips down the road will become much more enjoyable.

 

My friend was looking to book a cruise with her babies and this will be good to share with her.

 

This is down the road now-I originally posted this thread almost 4 years ago and took a 4 year hiatus from cruising.

 

We are now cruising with 3 and 5 year old girls and hoping it's a little easier!

[cantwait2cruise]

Thanks for sharing your experience. If it helps, I always thought 18 months was about the peak of the worst age for traveling with my kids. Loved traveling with the babies (who will sleep anywhere and don't want to crawl around). And liked it again once they were out of all the baby gear - diapers, sippy cups, stroller (mine were out by 3), etc. But those in-between times - well, it didn't last forever!

 

I agree that 18 months is tough in general. I was about 3 months pregnant with my second daughter at the time of this cruise when my first daughter was 17 months. I often said during that time that if I hadn't already been pregnant not long after she turned 1, I would have probably waited b/c of dealing with that in between period around 18 mos where they want to do so much, but can't communicate all that well.

[B_Mc]

I know exactly what you mean about the importance of a routine and the security it provides.

 

We work to keep our DS' day as routine as possible when we've cruised (at 10 months and 22 months). Often it has been a struggle as ship meal times and activity times often conflicted with his sleep, but when we prioritized his schedule life was a lot easier.

 

Hope you can enjoy another trip when the LOs are a bit older!

[travelhound]

It will be interesting to see how your next cruise goes. Sorry your first wasn't what you'd hoped. I agree with pps who said that's a tough age. We booked our cruise when dd was about 16 month (22 mo at traveling). For a few months we thought we made a mistake, but by the time it came to go, she had come a long way in a few months. It wasn't like any of our previous cruises, but it was a great family experience. However, she's pretty easy to entertain and head off tantrums and that makes a big difference. We're doing Disney in Sept and our next cruise won't be until June of 2014. She'll be three then so it will be an entirely different experience. No diapers for one --- yeah!!!

[crusinmama06]

Luckily I skipped that age on a cruise! Hahahahahahahaha! As much as we have cruised and as long as we have been cruising - somehow I managed to skip that "in between" stage.

 

We cruised at 7 months - totally immobile - WOOHOOO!

 

And the next cruises for both of my girls they were 24 months celebrating their 2nd birthdays on ships that have kids clubs ;) (of course, 4 years apart)

 

And we even celebrated 3rd birthdays on ships that started their kids clubs at age 3 LOL! ;)

 

Welcome back to the cruising world! :D I hope that your next experience is MUCH better than your last!

[rm1247]

Crusinmama06, did your daughter(s) turn 3 on the ship? I'm asking because that will happen to us, the second day of a long cruise on RCI, and I'm dearly hoping they'll let her in AO (the ship does have a nursery, which is my (expensive) backup plan).

 

This will be DD's third cruise. The first one at 7months was a breeze. The second one at 17 months was very challenging and my husband said we weren't cruising again until she could be in the kids club. I talked him into this one because of the nursery. ;)

[Mack2]

I was really lucky, I guess... We took my daughter on her first cruise with us when she was about 18 months old...

 

I have that pic I like to show off here in CruiseCritic.

 

 

but the first time we took a young one on a cruise was when my younger son turned 2... and my wife was a few months pregnant with my daughter.

 

Explorer of the Seas

 

 

But we got brave, and took my daughter on a Disney Cruise when she was 18 months

 

I remember having a good time... I mean, I also remember having to deal with a kid in the middle of a meltdown at dinner, and having to finish dinner really fast because we took the meltdown out of whichever MDR and wouldn't go back until they stopped...

 

But we have such nice memories... I'm glad this thread made me go look for those pictures....

[dijid]

I was really lucky, I guess... We took my daughter on her first cruise with us when she was about 18 months old...

 

I have that pic I like to show off here in CruiseCritic.

 

 

.

 

That's a cute pic. I know it's not intentional to have the tree in the background look like she's spouting antenna, but combined with the adorable innocent look, it reminded me of Cindy Loo Who from the Grinch. :)

[Mack2]

That's a cute pic. I know it's not intentional to have the tree in the background look like she's spouting antenna, but combined with the adorable innocent look, it reminded me of Cindy Loo Who from the Grinch. :)

:)

 

I've had friends tell me that I should have told her not to hold the ostrich like a bowling ball.

:o

[crusinmama06]

I always LOVE Mack's pictures :D they make me smile :)

 

 

 

Crusinmama06, did your daughter(s) turn 3 on the ship? I'm asking because that will happen to us, the second day of a long cruise on RCI, and I'm dearly hoping they'll let her in AO (the ship does have a nursery, which is my (expensive) backup plan).

 

This will be DD's third cruise. The first one at 7months was a breeze. The second one at 17 months was very challenging and my husband said we weren't cruising again until she could be in the kids club. I talked him into this one because of the nursery. ;)

 

And to answer this - unfortunately I could never get a straight answer from RCI. My problem with them has always been - call and ask 5 different people - get 5 different answers - take the average answer and somewhere in there is the TRUTH.

 

So when we did the "3rd birthday cruise" I actually had to move our Freedom sailing one week because originally we were going to sail and our daughter was to turn on Day 2. So because I couldn't get a solid answer about AO - I moved the sailing to the following week so she would BE three ;)

 

I know - not the answer you were looking for - sorry :(

[cruisegirl06]

We did a cruise with DD at 16 months and it went as well as could be expected. We got through MDR dinner every night (after the nightmare of trying it navigate the buffet while carrying a toddler the first day at lunch - that never happened again on that cruise), but didn't make it through any of the evening shows (I think we tried 2 or 3 and walked out at various points when her patience was wearing off or she was wanting to run up on stage). I think having a balcony made it all manageablele, we could easily go outside and she enjoyed sitting outside with us - that and paying to bring aboard several bottles of wine to enjoy on the balcony :)

 

We are doing WDW and DCL this fall, she will be 2 then. I figure after a few days at the parks, we will want a "vacation" and the fact that they have a nursery is a HUGE perk. They also make it very easy with transferring luggage and whatnot. She is 18 months right now, and its tough - very active, can't communicate too well, and prone to toddler meltdowns for no apparent reason, I'm hoping it improves a little before our trip, but if not we'll manage it. I refuse to stop living just because we have a little one (but we do make necessary adjustments along the way)