Programs on ships for 2-years baby

[mesje]

We want to spend a week on a Caribbean cruise with our 2-years son, but since i havent been yet on any cruise, i dont know if there are some clubs, playgrounds or programs for such small children. We are thinking about Celebrity summit ship, but i have read that there are activities for age groups: 3 - 6 and above. Does it mean, that this ship and provided children activities will not be suitable for mybaby? Or is it better to choose another ship, reviews of which officialy present activities also for babies under 3 years ?

Another question - is baby sitting service on ships responsible?

Thanks for every advice

[cb at sea]

On all but Disney or Carnival, there are no facilities for 2 year olds...and they don't need anything, really....they don't even know where they are....it's up to you to entertain your baby!

RCI does offer in-cabin babysitting...other lines do, too. All are on a "first come, first serve" basis...if there is some crewmember willing, they will baby-sit. Runs about $10 per hour, or so.

[poppan]

We just got off a two week cruise on Celebrity with our 2.5 year old twins -- we had a great time and they did too. Their kids program starts at 3 y.o. so we could not drop our kids off there. However we were able to use the "Fun Factory" as long as we were there with our kids. They loved the slide and ball pit as well as all the toys. (Caution: you must be toilet trained and out of diapers to use the ball pit.)

 

We utilized the in-cabin baby sitting twice. We requested the same woman the second time and got her again. We were told the new policy is one babysitter per child (old policy was you could have up to 2 kids from the same family) so we had to pay $8 x 2 babysitters = $16/hour, 3 hour minimum. So that was a bit steep and we did not utilize the service as much as we planned to. However the one sitter, Gina, was wonderful and I trusted her fully.

 

We had a great experience with our kids on X and would do it again in a heartbeat!

[RENMama]

i dont consider my 2yo a baby. :)

sure shes MY baby but not a baby in any way.

 

like others have said, if you want to drop the baby off or have babysitting there are cruiselines that will allow that. we are cruising carnival again because they will take not potty trained 2 year olds for drop off.

 

if you want parent/tot playtime, every cruiseline that accepts kids has that.

[beachchick]

On all but Disney or Carnival, there are no facilities for 2 year olds...and they don't need anything, really....they don't even know where they are....it's up to you to entertain your baby!

RCI does offer in-cabin babysitting...other lines do, too. All are on a "first come, first serve" basis...if there is some crewmember willing, they will baby-sit. Runs about $10 per hour, or so.

 

NCL also has facilities for 2 year olds. Their program starts at 2 and allows non-potty trained youngsters, but the staff do not change diapers. Parents of non-trained children are given pagers so they can come and change their child as needed.

 

I disagree that a 2-y/o won't know where he or she is. At that age they are no longer babies and are starting to have fuller memories.

 

beachchick

[jam82]

The Summit is a nicer ship than any Carnival ship I have been on, but there will be no group child care for your 2 year old. I have heard from this board and others that no exceptions are made to this rule because of liability.

 

We choose to cruise Carnival because of Camp Carnival. DH has NO interest in doing Disney and I didn't want to have to be paged to change a diaper on NCL. For us, Carnival is our only choice for cruising until DS is 3. DS will be going on his ninth cruise later this month, so we have had alot of experiences with Camp Carnival. I have only good things to say about them. It's a great program.

[larronry]

This will be my son's 3rd cruise (he's 4) and I have to say that having a program available to even give you a few hours here and then of alone time is well worth the having less pampering. Of course some children are a lot calmer then my son as my son has a lot of energy. When I say a lot I really mean it.

 

I remember being told bring a stroller because a toddler will get tired having to walk from one of the ship to the other. Well my little one walked the jogging track on the Celebrity Millenium (full length of ship) for 2 hours every day after breakfast. Several times later in the day and would go up and down the elevator walking the length of the ship on various floors.

 

On Carnival last year the program was wonderful, the staff was wonderful, and I liked having a phone so that anywhere I was I can call and check or they could call me. My son doesn't adjust to change well so there were issues. And yes still going up and down elevators, stairs, and walking the length of the ship.

 

I honestly don't think I would take a cruise again that my son couldn't go in a kids program. Even if I only planned on using it for a couple of hours a day (which is all I suspect my son will be able to handled again). Family vacations are great but as a parent I have learned that we need a deserve breathers.