Cruising with toddler, my review

[izzymommy]

We just got back from our 5 day cruise on the MS Ecstacy with Carnival. Overall it was a great trip. I am posting this on the family board so that people can read what it might be like for them to cruise with a toddler. This is a review I already wrote up for another board so some of it may not really apply to family cruising. Also, for people who aren't first time cruisers it really isn't that informative...

 

Pros and Cons of Cruising: Overall the trip went very smoothly and I think cruising is a really good value for the money. There are a lot of pros and cons to cruising and there are things I would do differently next time. The ship is basically a enormous floating hotel. There is very little stress involved in cruising, the smallest detail is always taken care of. Safety is never a concern. You get to visit ports of call that you might otherwise have never thought to visit. As for the cons, it isn't the most adventurous way to travel, you certainly aren't going to absorb any local culture in your short stay at any port, but the cool thing is that you can get ideas of places you would like to return for a longer duration like we did when we found Xcaret. Cruising is also not the most romantic or intimate way to travel. You are on the boat with approximately 800 other people. The rooms are nice and always impeccably clean, but still very small and you can only spend so much time in there before you get a little claustrophobic. I would totally recommend cruising for large groups of friends and family, but not necessarily for a honeymoon or romantic getaway. Of course this is just my personal opinion, as there were a lot of honeymooners on the cruise. But the cruise was perfect for us because two of my oldest friends came on the cruise and one of my newer friends and her husband and 15 month old baby came. I met Michele when we were both pregnant and Isabella and Sienna are very close in age. I HIGHLY recommend traveling with friends that have children the same age as your own. First, they understand and respect the constraints of traveling with children. Second, you can swap babysitting like we did and get some alone time.

 

The ship: Our ship was the MS Ecstasy, one of Carnival's "fun ships". Like I said earlier the ship is just a big floating hotel with lots and lots of amenities. It had 2 main dining rooms in which all major meals were served, several restaurants, a sushi bar, and a 24 hour buffet. The buffet room was one of the ugliest rooms I have ever seen in my life! The ship had some seriously tacky decor in certain areas. It was supposed to be a New York theme, but it just looked pretty tacky and outdated in a lot of areas, but this didn't detract too much from the cruise since it was something to laugh about. The ship also had 3 pools, a fully equipped gym and spa which was the most tastefully decorated part of the ship. There was a big theatre, a casino, several bars and tons of areas to just lounge around. The lido deck was always a fun place to hang out and just people watch. I only got in the pool once and about 3 seconds was enough for me. The water was frigid and splashes all over the place. There is always something to do on the ship at all times. We never went to any shows because they are really late, but I don't think we missed out too much. Isabella really enjoyed the ship. There was always something for her to look at or get into. She is in a phase where she loves climbing stairs so we did a lot of that! There was a play area near Camp Carnival and that worked out really well. The kiddie pool looked okay, but we never got in. I don't think Isabella would have liked it too much since the water sloshed around a lot. Camp Carnival looked like a lot of fun and seemed really well organized. I was disappointed that Isabella was too young.

 

Food: Any and all food you consume while on the ship is completely free. The only thing you have to pay extra for is sodas and alcohol. There is the 24 hour pizza buffet and soft serve yogurt. We chose to dine in the main dining room for most of our meals. Those meals were mostly above par. The waiters were extremely formal, really too formal considering that this cruise embarks from Galveston and our fellow passengers are not the most sophisticated lot. But the wait staff was always very friendly and extremely accommodating. Our waiter, Goran, was from Croatia and we determined that he never actually said the word "no" to us the entire time we were on the ship. He always had some really nice way of refusing us, but never "no". It became our mission to get him to say "no", but he never cracked! Anyway, the dinners were pretty good, the highlight being formal night when they served lobster tail. The appetizers were my favorite part. Carnival's soups are amazing! Breakfast was great as well. I had bagels and loks one morning, but for the rest of the trip I had eggs benedict. It was the best hollandaise sauce I have ever had. Besides the pizza, the buffet was best avoided. It smelt really bad and looked worse. My husband fell in love with the french fries, but I pretty much avoided this area. The sushi bar was open from 5 to 8 pm every night so we always grabbed a few pieces before or after dinner and it was surprisingly good with a pretty diverse selection. The waiters were always really great with Isabella and never acted like she was a hassle. Dining was probably the hardest part with Isabella. She is extremely active and has a hard time sitting still so a 4 course meal is a lot to ask from her. We took turns walking her around the dining room quite a bit. She is a good eater so she basically ate what we ate. If you have a picky eater I would recommend maybe bringing some snacks to the dining room just in case. Outside of the main dining room it is really easy to find food for the kiddos. There is fresh fruit on the buffet at all times, as well and juice and milk. I'm not sure if formula is available, but if you have a baby on formula I'd check or just bring your own.

 

The service: All I can say about this is that you really are treated like royalty for the entire time you are on the ship. This is one of the best parts and the most hard part to adjust to back on land. Our room steward was from India and he was extremely helpful and our room was always very clean and the beds were turned down every night with mints and one of Carnival's cute little trademark towel animal sculptures. The staff on board is almost entirely foreign with what seems like almost every single country represented. That was another very cool part. The staff was much more interesting than our fellow passengers. They always have interesting stories to tell. What makes it more amazing that they provide such great service is that they are away from their friends, family and country for 7 to 9 months of the year! If it were me I would be seriously cranky watching all these people get to vacation with their friends and family every week! The only problem I had was when we got down to only one diaper and we had one full day left. I couldn't get anyone to tell me where I could find more diapers. They don't sell them in the gift shop and our steward was clueless about it. We did end up finding them in the infirmary for $1/diaper. The people in the infirmary were really nice. The other baby on our trip had an upper respiratory infection and they were really great with her and promptly gave her some anti-biotics. We also had a few issues with the photo shop, but it is really too petty to even mention here.

 

The ports: This was another great part of the cruise. Since we had Isabella we chose more low key excursions and that turned out to be a very good decision. My two single friends spent $80 on some wretched Eco-jeep excursion in which the "included meal" was a bag of Doritos. If you have kids, or even if you don't you should choose your excursions wisely. They are very expensive and it is really disapointing if they are no fun. It is a whole day of vacation wasted. Do research and ask around for advice. Our first stop was Puerta Maya, Cozumel which is a cute little port with lots of shopping, but like most places in Mexico, the shopping gets very repetitive and being a port town with lots of tourism the prices were no better than the states. We spent a total of $10 between both ports of call. We took a 10 minute bus ride to Playa Mia, a nice private beach. The beach was average, nicer than a Texas beach, but not anything to write home about. We had access to an open bar and a really GOOD buffet while we were there. Isabella loved the sand and jumping the waves with her dad in the ocean. The water was very rough so we were not able to snorkel. Overall a good time though. After the beach we went back to ship to get cleaned up and then back out to see the town. Again, not much to get excited about. We took a cab to the downtown area. We looked for a local restaurant that someone had recommended to us, but could never find it and made a big mistake by eating at Senor Frogs! The drunk Americans were too much! I felt horrible having Isabella in there and our bill was outrageous for what we got. Live and learn. Our next port was Playa del Carmen. The port was UGLY, but we took a bus to Xcaret, an eco-water park. This was the absolute best thing about the entire trip. Xcaret is an amazingly beautiful place! The beach was like something from a dream or a movie set. It was pristine. The park is huge and has all kinds of wild life, dolphins, turtles, jaguars, etc. There main attraction is an underground river which you can snorkel. We didn't see a lot of fish until the very end, but the caves and rock formations were amazing. We did not have nearly enough time at this place and will definitely go back on my own and I highly recommend it to anyone! It is a perfect place for families with children of all ages. It would also be great for just couples or singles or whatever. It has something for everyone.

 

Overall I would give our cruise experience a 7.5 out of 10. It was a very good and inexpensive intro to cruising. I will definitely cruise again although I will do a few things differently. I would like to wait until Isabella is a little older and can take part in the ship's activities for children. She was a little too young at 16 months since they start accepting them at 2 years old. I would definitely like to go on a longer cruise with more exotic ports of call and I would do a little more research in choosing the ship. I hate to harp on the decor, but I would like slightly more elegant surroundings next time. I will probably choose a different Cruiseline next time as well just for a different experience.

 

Hope this helps! Enjoy your cruise!

 

Chandra

[Gem at Sea]

What an articulate, informative review! This is what a search for. Our group will have a three-year-old, and all other ages, but it is surprising what interests people when we are trying to learn all we can. Thanks!