cruising with a toddler

[Maa9144]

Hi,

 

I have never been on a cruise but am trying to plan one for my mother's 63rd birthday. We will likely be going in September and I have heard good things about RCCL. I have a 19 month old who will be a little over two years old when we go. I am not interested in dropping her off in the kids club( I know she is too young) or having her swim in the pools as I can"t swim myself. Does RCCL have good play areras where me and my toddler can play together while my mom does her own thing?. Also how is the food on RCCL?. I thought of doing celebrity and would also welcome feedback about play areas on celebrity if anyone knows. Thanks so much in advance.

[cb at sea]

The food is so subjective....it's fine, but don't expect more than mainstream restaurant food...no 4-5 star!!! There's plenty, so you'll never go hungry!

[PattyG12]

If your toddler is over 2 there is an Adventure Ocean area. I didn't think my grandson would like it but he LOVED it!! If you're really not interested in dropping her off, they have other areas that you can play with her (I believe there is a Crayola area and they have story time as well).

 

Also, if she's potty trained, you CAN take a 2 year old in the pool. There is a really nice ledge that you can play and splash in.

[PH8]

There's a great section here on CC for families with kids......just thought you might be interested..

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=49

[DrD]

I brought a toddler once and decided it would have been far better to leave him at home.

 

You pay full price for everything. The fare is ridiculous considering how little they do. You have to pay full tip (especially now that it's autocharged.)

 

My toddler didn't have all that much fun and of course has no memory of it. We had to take another cruise to recover from our cruise.

 

We did get some great pictures though.

 

He was a handful though so your experience may vary.

 

Now that he's older he goes on all our cruises and loves it.

[flhokie]

I would highly suggest checking out the family cruising board on here. You will find a lot of helpful information on cruising with a toddler.

 

We've cruised many times, but are taking DD on her 1st cruise in May on Allure. She just turned 2. Here is what I've learned...

 

- All the RCCL ships have a Royal Babies & Tots program. There are organized activities a couple of times a day where parents can take the kids (must stay with them). There is usually a compass with this information. There is usually an area with toys set up where parents can take the little ones to play.

 

- Some ships have a nursery where little ones can be dropped off. You have to reserve the time & there is an $8 per hour charge for this. Some ships offer in room babysitting (much higher cost).

 

- There is a toy lending program where you can check out a bag of age appropriate toys to use in your stateroom, etc. You can exchange these if your child gets bored/wants to try other toys.

 

- Several of the ships have a small splash area for non potty trained little ones.

 

We've always found the food to be very good on RCCL and Celebrity. I don't know much about children's programs on Celebrity. I have heard much on the family board about RCCL being very family friendly. Celebrity does have good children's programs from what I've read, but not much has been said about programs for those too young for those programs.

 

We plan to use the toy lending program, attend some of the organized sessions (how many will depend on how much DD enjoys them) and plan to use the nursery one night to go to dinner at Chops (children aren't allowed in specialty restaurants after 6 pm). As of now we plan to use the splash area for non potty trained little ones, but we are actively potty training so maybe we'll have more options if she's fully using the potty by then.

 

We are scheduled for main seating dinner, but are fully prepared to eat in Windjammer or another place if DD has issues sitting through dinner (plan to take stuff to occupy her, but you never know).

[Maa9144]

Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to respond so far. I had no idea RCCL had organized activities for toddlers. I doubt she will be potty trained by 25 months but you never know. That is very helpful. I will post this on the family site as well. Does anyone have experience with a toddler and celebrity?. How are their play areas?.

[Robinhill]

Hi,

 

I have never been on a cruise but am trying to plan one for my mother's 63rd birthday. We will likely be going in September and I have heard good things about RCCL. I have a 19 month old who will be a little over two years old when we go. I am not interested in dropping her off in the kids club( I know she is too young) or having her swim in the pools as I can"t swim myself. Does RCCL have good play areras where me and my toddler can play together while my mom does her own thing?. Also how is the food on RCCL?. I thought of doing celebrity and would also welcome feedback about play areas on celebrity if anyone knows. Thanks so much in advance.

 

They have a Fisher Price playtime for the Mom (or Dad) and toddler to play different activities with like one of the kids staff helping to keep it going. It is quite nice. They also have toys you can borrow and take with you for the child to play with etc. They really do a nice job. I have taken my grandson on 3 cruises so far (he just turned 6). he loves them. He has been going since he was 2 as well!

[sunshine0503]

I think it's all what you make of it. We took our kids when they were 3 and 6 on their first cruise. We really wanted to make sure our kids were old enough to go to the Adventure Ocean program if they wanted. As it turned out, they LOVED it and rarely wanted to spend time with us. However, we did make sure we did family activities, as well. Our kids did great on the cruise. And the staff was wonderful. Our son, who was 3, was so tired out after a day at the beach and being in the sun, having had a shower right before dinner, would fall asleep at dinner every night!! They would bring out rolled up table cloths for him to rest his head on the chair! It was great!

[RCCL Fan]

which ship are you considering? We did Allure with our daughter when she was 2 it was perfect!

[elephant98]

Cruising can be great with a toddler so long as you choose a good ship, a good stateroom and try to keep her pretty close to her daily eating and sleeping schedule. We took our son on 6 cruises (5 on RCCL and 1 on NCL) before he turned 3 and was eligible (age and/or potty trained) to be dropped off at the Adventure Ocean kids program. We had a great time each cruise and there was plenty to keep us busy.

 

First, the RCCL ships --

There are lots of things to do on the Freedom class and Oasis class Royal ships with toddlers. Those ships have a dedicated play area with toys for parents to play with their toddler throughout the day; a toy checkout program; a designated splash zone (with heated water) for non-potty trained children near the big kids H20 Zone; free Dreamworks character breakfasts; and a Dreamworks character parade just to name a few things. Should you choose, there is also a nursery that you can drop off your child for supervised care ($8/hour, I believe). We chose to use the nursery a couple of times so that we could do "dinner and a show." Otherwise, there were plenty of family activities to keep us busy throughout the day.

 

Next, the stateroom --

Assuming you will be booking multiple staterooms, try booking connecting staterooms. It will be easier to put your little one down for sleeptime if you can slip next door while she drifts off to sleep. (A white noise machine or a white noise app on your smartphone will help drown out any noise you may make in the room, not to mention noise from the hallway).

 

If you don't have connecting staterooms, you still have options that allow you to slip out of the room during sleeptime. How? Bring you baby monitor (with picture, so you can see). On the Freedom class ships, we booked a cabin just 10 to 15 feet away from the library on deck 7 or business services on deck 6. During the long afternoon naps and evening bedtime we could sit and read a book or play a board game, while listening to the music coming from the promenade. On the Oasis class ships, it was much better. There, you can book a Central Park View room on Deck 9 (or even a Central Park Balcony stateroom on Deck 10), and pretty much have your run of the entire Central Park area. The baby monitor works great.

 

Finally, the toddler's daily schedule -- Toddlers like a routine. At least ours did. So, we did our best to keep him on the same breakfast, lunch, dinner schedule he had at daycare. That was pretty easy to do. Lunch and breakfast were never a problem. As for dinner, we had standing My Time Dining reservations with the same waiter/assistant waiter. They were very attentive and made sure to bring out his food first each night and not wait for the courses.

 

Barring a shore excursion, nap time was pretty easy to swing as well. Of course, that meant we couldn't roam the ship during naps. Hence, the use of the baby monitor so we could escape the room to a nearby place. His nightly bedtime seemed to get later as the cruise progressed partially because he slept in longer in the morning (don't we all) and because he was so excited. This was a pleasant bonus for us.

 

If you hop on over to the family board, you will come across lots of helpful reviews and tips.