First cruise with kids?

My wife and I️ have cruised quite a bit, and are finally taking our two sons 5 and 9 next week! No real specific question, just looking for things you have learned from cruising with your kids.

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Take them to the kids club on the first night. This is when they make friends. On some ships they have an open hour in the arcade for the kids. (Watch out for the kids sea pass allowing them to use the arcade at other times - could be expensive) Check the compass or ask one of the kids club staff. Its another good way of getting them mixing. Ask for the kids menu in the Dining Room. They can choose from that and/or the main menu. The waiters are very good at accommodating the kids requests. They will have a fantastic time!

Hey thank you for posting this!!! I have no advice, but I am in the same boat (no pun intended.) My husband and I are taking our daughters (6 & 7) on their first cruise next month!

One thing I would check is your 5 yr olds height and what he can and cannot do on the ship. I would let him know before going so there isn't major disappointment. Rock climbing is age 6yrs+. The rest is by height I believe 46" and 48" are the key heights we came across for Harmony (slides and water slides)

Our daughter is 4.5 and going on her second cruise in February (last cruise was Oct 2016). While our daughter doesn't nap at home she will nap on the cruise to allow her (and us) to be up late into the evening. Something worth considering based on how much sleep your 5yr (and potentially 9 yr) old requires. We bring her old sound machine (white noise) and have that running while she/we sleep to help drown out noises. We only use it for travel but find it very worthwhile to lug around!

We LOVED the My Family Dining last time. The camp staff picked our daughter up about 40min into our supper and took her to the kids club while we finished our meal. This time around we are doing my time dining though to allow us to attend more shows/activities. Our daughter will attend the majority of the entertainment (aside from the comedy show and likely Grease). BUT she is very trained to be in a theater as we take her almost monthly.

We don't yet take her on shore excursions (most aren't rated for age 4 and those that allow 4 yr olds aren't really something that would capture her attention long enough to allow me to also enjoy). We greatly enjoyed being on the ship in ports on Allure. We had the pools near to ourselves so made those our swim days. There was more than enough on the Allure to keep us busy without ever getting off the ship.

We don't get up early enough for the character breakfast (7:45am gulp). But we had a ton of time with the characters throughout the ship last time around. My daughter even got to ride the carousel with 2 of the characters (2 separate days). They took her hand and brought her on the carousel.

For kids in general:

Lanyards for the kids' key cards.

You can visit customer service and allow spending as desired, perhaps $20 increments.

Use the app for texting. Only a small per person cost and full internet package is not needed.

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My children were 5 and 6 on their first cruise. The pools were too deep for them so we became human jungle gyms when they were tired from swimming. I wish we had brought floaties for them. They can order off the adult main dining room menu. My boys always ordered shrimp cocktail. Back then they could get milk without a drink package at dinner, not sure if you still can. They didn’t like the kids club then but on their next cruise at 8 and 9 we couldn’t get them to leave lol. We just did lots of things with them on the 1st cruise so they didn’t cry at the kids club, no biggie. We let them eat whatever they wanted since it was vacation! They did a good job of eating fruits and veggies because there was such a variety I didn’t mind when they had 2 scoops of ice cream and 2 cookies after dinner, the waitstaff spoiled them! Take some of their toys for down time. We took mad libs on the last cruise, parked on deck 4, and sat and laughed for hours! We also had the kids bring books to read. Have fun!

It's a vacation...there's really no mystery about it! The kids will enjoy the kid's club..so take them on the 1st night for "orientation"..that's when everyone is "new"....let them have fun.

Research your ports (a guidebook is useful!)...so you will know what is in each port, and can cater to everyone in your family!

Wear bathing suits onto the ship. That way you do not have to wait for your luggage. And it will be one of the slowest times to use the pool.

We sailed on Liberty. It was their second cruise. The first cruise was carnival. They are 9 and 6. Liberty has the swim vests so we didn’t need to bring one for the younger one. They liked that the pool was not salt water. Dd6 liked the kids club and spent some time there. Ds who was not quite 9 was not a fan. He preferred the kids club on Carnival, possibly due to more video game access. The wait staff was great. Dd convinced them it was her birthday and they sang happy birthday to her. They also sang it to ds since the following week was his birthday. My parents cruised with us so they took them shopping and bought them stuff. We went on the excursions and they had fun.

For kids in general:

Lanyards for the kids' key cards.

You can visit customer service and allow spending as desired, perhaps $20 increments.

Use the app for texting. Only a small per person cost and full internet package is not needed.

 

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The kids club gave out lanyards. I kept their cards on my lanyard. I didn’t want them taking it off and losing it.

Just off the Freedom with my two kids (9 and 10). This was their 4th cruise, the first being at ages 5 and 6. Sign the kids up for kids club (Adventure Ocean) the first afternoon. You can get free lanyards their for their sea pass cards. Let your kids know they will be in different age groups so they won't be doing activities together in kids' club (age groups are 3-5, 6-8, and 9-11). Mine were disappointed on our first cruise they would be separated. This is strictly enforced, although on sailings with less kids like our last one, they combined the two older groups for the week. You'll be able to get the club itinerary and schedule the night before to see if your kids are interested in the day's activities. Just a note - the 9-11 group allows the kids to check themselves in/out of the club. If you don't want that, do not initial that part of the waiver you fill out on the first day. We did not want our kids to be able to enter/leave without our permission, but that's a personal choice. Adventure Ocean is free until 10 pm. Late night session from 10 pm to 2 am is $7/hr per child. They do plenty of family activities (group games, scavenger hunt, etc.) as well.

Bring activities to the dining room if you plan on going to the main dining room or specialty restaurants. We would bring phones/tablets/books/coloring supplies. Some may look down on this, but realize an average dinner can be at least an hour, with 1.5 hours (and sometimes more!) more common. This can be a long time for younger kids to stay still. Adventure Ocean does allow the kids to dine with them in Windjammer as well (you need to sign up in advance for this). DH and I would usually do this one night of the cruise and check out a specialty restaurant kid-free.

My kids love the pools. Life jackets are now provided on all ships along with lifeguards, which is great, even though we always keep a close watch on them. We'll usually spend a little time at the arcade as well. I suggest not planning extensive shore excursions at every port, especially if they're early morning departures. We find we enjoy using the pool the most on port days, when the ship is less crowded. Kids love ice cream machine on the pool deck as well as virgin strawberry daquiris. We did the ice skating session - usually they'll have open skating on sea days (you need to wear long pants and socks). Depending on the ship/itinerary, they usually have at least 1 parade and various opportunities to meet the Dreamworks characters. We did the character breakfast when the kids were younger (and it was still free!). It was okay, but not sure if I would pay for it. Mini golf and sports court are fun.

I'd be happy to answer any other questions - have a great cruise!

What ship? We went when our kids were around that age on Allure. There is so much to do.

Many will say to go to the kids club when you board and sign them up. The clubs are supposed to be very good with organised activities. Our family didn't use the club. For us, it is family vacation time and our time to spend together. We spent time at the pool(s), played mini-golf, explored, did scavenger hunts, used zipline and flowrider (not sure if your ship has those), watched every show (but comedy), etc. There were always activities going on or we just found things to do.

Depends on your ship, but we were on Oasis class with MTD. I tried to time the dinner and shows such that they didn't have late nights every night. that way,they were not over tired. One night was the Aqua show and another a movie, but I think the rest were reasonable. WOrked out well. We are not booked on Symphony. They don't know but they do ask if we can go on a cruise again.

P.S. - Not sure how good swimmers your kids ours. Our younger one isn't great and so we picked up a life jacket at Target. It gave us piece of mind at our beach stops. People also talk about puddle pushers (name might be wrong but it's something like that)

My number one tip is pace the days, there is no need to do everything at once with little ones.

Excitement kept are then 5 year old going initially whilst we did everything the ship had to offer. Then we had the tiredness fall out and upset one evening (our fault).

We changed the pace and then all good, he loved it. He didn't take to the childrens club on the first cruise but the second onwards we couldn't keep him away!

Life jackets.

Not for the pools on the boat but rather out on the beaches. In our experience the kids don't want to get out of the ocean, ever. Especially if there are fish to see.

Appreciate all the response! We are INDY one week from today :)

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If you are on a ship with an ice rink and plan to try skating, long pants and full socks are required for everyone.

Warn them against climbing on rails.

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