I am taking a 2 year old and a 4 year old on the MSC Opera - am I crazy?

[noxis]

If you want to avoid us we set sail on 15th June from Southampton up the Fjords. You have been warned ;) We are nice people but they *are* toddlers and we do our best to control them... are there many other young families with very young children? I know from previous experience it is usually families and older folk (which is fine).

 

It is a surprise birthday present for my wife, she is going to find out 3 days before. We both love cruises and have been on several right up until our first child was born. In fact we have been on the MSC Opera before several years ago (maybe 6 years ago?). For our honeymoon we did a 2 week Caribbean cruise with Royal Caribbean (freakin amazing!). She has done Princess cruises and we did our first cruise together on the Ocean Village (meh).

 

I have already paid so no backses (I got a really good deal of £1208 for all four of us) but I am starting to get the parental panic. The beds for the children come down from the wall, they are small children and use to sleeping in beds but I am now worried they will roll out and fall on us.

 

I also plan to take on board soft drinks, you think this will be a problem?

 

We are likely to be up early and bed early just because that is the childrens routine, the MSC Opera entertainment was... mediocre as I recall (best entertainment I have seen on a ship was in fact on board The Emerald) so I am not too fussed about this and I guess breakfast will be a lot easier at 7am. Obviously I have booked the first sitting at 6:30pm which is perfect for us.

 

How strict are the formal nights on the MSC? My daughter loves wearing dresses but it is a punch up with my 4 year old son to get him into anything other than a T-Shirt. I am not much of a suit wearer but have always made the effort with previous cruises. I expect my wife will go spare with 3 days warning before the cruise trying to get new dress(es).

[Skier52]

If you want to avoid us we set sail on 15th June from Southampton up the Fjords. You have been warned ;) We are nice people but they *are* toddlers and we do our best to control them... are there many other young families with very young children? I know from previous experience it is usually families and older folk (which is fine).

 

It is a surprise birthday present for my wife, she is going to find out 3 days before. We both love cruises and have been on several right up until our first child was born. In fact we have been on the MSC Opera before several years ago (maybe 6 years ago?). For our honeymoon we did a 2 week Caribbean cruise with Royal Caribbean (freakin amazing!). She has done Princess cruises and we did our first cruise together on the Ocean Village (meh).

 

I have already paid so no backses (I got a really good deal of £1208 for all four of us) but I am starting to get the parental panic. The beds for the children come down from the wall, they are small children and use to sleeping in beds but I am now worried they will roll out and fall on us.

 

I also plan to take on board soft drinks, you think this will be a problem?

 

We are likely to be up early and bed early just because that is the childrens routine, the MSC Opera entertainment was... mediocre as I recall (best entertainment I have seen on a ship was in fact on board The Emerald) so I am not too fussed about this and I guess breakfast will be a lot easier at 7am. Obviously I have booked the first sitting at 6:30pm which is perfect for us.

 

How strict are the formal nights on the MSC? My daughter loves wearing dresses but it is a punch up with my 4 year old son to get him into anything other than a T-Shirt. I am not much of a suit wearer but have always made the effort with previous cruises. I expect my wife will go spare with 3 days warning before the cruise trying to get new dress(es).

Question 1 "rolling out of bed"?

You can always get extra pillows as a barrier. I've even heard they do bed guards but it's only hear say. You could always purchase a couple of bed guards and take them on board with you.They usually fold flat and as you're not flying there is no weight limit to worry about.

 

Question 2 "carrying on drinks"

All your baggage will be x-rayed and you will most likely be asked to surrender bottles of liquid for safe keeping until you disembark. So it is likely to be a problem carrying it on.

 

Question 3 "Son's clothes"

There should be no problem with your son's attire as the dress code is not enforced except for NO jeans in the MDR on Gala nights

 

Question 4 "breakfast"

The best place for breakfast and lunch is the MDR (Waiter service), but the buffet should be OK at 07:00

 

MSC entertainment has vastly improved over the past year to 18 months, well on the bigger ships it has. On Divina last October the entertainment was fantastic. I hope it is the same on Opera as i'm sailing on her about a month after you, it'll be my 2nd cruise on her as she was our first MSC cruise back in 2005.

 

All the MSC cruises I've been on (8 so far) have had loads of children , large and small, it's what MSC are renown for as the kids go for free, except port charges and taxes. you'll not have to pay service charge for kids as they are under 14y.o.

 

 

Don't worry, you'll have a fantastic cruise and the fjords are amazing.

 

pete

[sthelder]

It's definitely feasible, but as kids club do not accept 2yo toddler (unless a parent is around to supervise), you may have less times together as a couple.

 

During our Med cruise, only three places they scanned our handbags, embarkation port (Genoa), Marseille and Valencia.

 

In Marseille, plenty of water left over in the bottles we brought on shore and we also brought some local Horchata drinks in Valencia on board, both without issues.

[mtsnd1900]

Good bit of information there - thank you. We are in a similar position, here is what we decided upon..

 

 

• If the beds do not work out, I can jump up there. Wont be the first time.
  
• Dinks can sometimes go into a duffle bag, and checked with your luggage at the curb. We have done this on other lines, namely Carnival.
  
• Formal nights - try to do the first one, do something along the lines of pizza by the pool for the second (if there is a second) formal night.
  
• This line is kid friendly - but I was not aware of the no-less-than-2yrs old in the kids club area.
  
• Might be able to do the family entertainment, but if your kids are like mine, some of the adult stuff may be missed.
  

My other concerns were going to be if there was enough room in the stateroom for the baby stuff. A car seat, Jeep baby stroller, etc. Presumably, there is and we would not be the first to have a lot of stuff in the area.

 

 

Have fun!

[noxis]

There do appear to be some travel bed guards available, I am not sure if it is OTT though.

 

I am also not sure how portable this first one really is!

 

http://www.bambinodirect.co.uk/Safety_1st_Portable_Bed_Rail__35020721/version.asp?refsource=BAfroogle&gclid=CKryobL46rYCFe3MtAod7kQAlw#maindesc

 

There are also some inflatable ones that seem quite cunning and probably more portable:

 

http://www.tesco.com/direct/dream-tubes-microfibre-junior-bed-spare-sheet-blue/571-1578.prd?pageLevel=&skuId=571-1578

 

Starting from Southampton and just driving to the dock does give us more flexibility than I am use too.

[RoadTripFanatic]

I haven't been on the Opera but we just cruised on the Divina this month.

If you want to avoid us we set sail on 15th June from Southampton up the Fjords. You have been warned ;) We are nice people but they *are* toddlers and we do our best to control them... are there many other young families with very young children? I know from previous experience it is usually families and older folk (which is fine).

 

It is a surprise birthday present for my wife, she is going to find out 3 days before. We both love cruises and have been on several right up until our first child was born. In fact we have been on the MSC Opera before several years ago (maybe 6 years ago?). For our honeymoon we did a 2 week Caribbean cruise with Royal Caribbean (freakin amazing!). She has done Princess cruises and we did our first cruise together on the Ocean Village (meh).

 

I have already paid so no backses (I got a really good deal of £1208 for all four of us) but I am starting to get the parental panic. The beds for the children come down from the wall, they are small children and use to sleeping in beds but I am now worried they will roll out and fall on us.

 

DD has been sleeping on the top bunks since she was 3. She loves it. They do have a guard a rail. We always lined it with pillows but we did get smacked a few times d/t falling pillows.

 

I also plan to take on board soft drinks, you think this will be a problem?

I think it depends on the port. On our cruise in the Med we had no problems at all. In fact I put a thing of Lemoncello through while in port and had no problems. It will probably be easier to take a little bit on board from each port.

 

We are likely to be up early and bed early just because that is the childrens routine, the MSC Opera entertainment was... mediocre as I recall (best entertainment I have seen on a ship was in fact on board The Emerald) so I am not too fussed about this and I guess breakfast will be a lot easier at 7am. Obviously I have booked the first sitting at 6:30pm which is perfect for us.

 

How strict are the formal nights on the MSC? My daughter loves wearing dresses but it is a punch up with my 4 year old son to get him into anything other than a T-Shirt. I am not much of a suit wearer but have always made the effort with previous cruises. I expect my wife will go spare with 3 days warning before the cruise trying to get new dress(es).

 

I wore dress pants to dinner on formal night and I had no problems. DH wore a shirt and tie.

[sidari]

noxis ... Hope you are aware that this cruise is a "Line Dance" cruise ! sure the kids will enjoy it.

[noxis]

noxis ... Hope you are aware that this cruise is a "Line Dance" cruise ! sure the kids will enjoy it.

 

Ah yes I read that in the roll call thread. My wife loves such things as do my children, I will... erm.. take the photos.

[noxis]

I haven't been on the Opera but we just cruised on the Divina this month.

 

 

I wore dress pants to dinner on formal night and I had no problems. DH wore a shirt and tie.

 

Are you saying that the pull down beds on the ship have a guard rail? That would be excellent if so. I did call them and ask on the phone and they said they don't.

 

I've always wondered what DD and DH mean? I've seen it used on that awful netmums website.

[Skier52]

Are you saying that the pull down beds on the ship have a guard rail? That would be excellent if so. I did call them and ask on the phone and they said they don't.

 

I've always wondered what DD and DH mean? I've seen it used on that awful netmums website.

DD = Dear/Darling Daughter

DH = Dear/Darling Husband

 

 

You may see OH which is Other Half

 

 

Pete

[sthelder]

Are you saying that the pull down beds on the ship have a guard rail? That would be excellent if so. I did call them and ask on the phone and they said they don't.

 

I've always wondered what DD and DH mean? I've seen it used on that awful netmums website.

 

It does seem from the photo some sort of guard rails, but not very obvious. What cabin category you will be in?

 

http://www.mscnetwork.com/Image-Bank/Image-public.php?eLang=1&dLang=1&eCountry=1&kids=8055,1&Page=4&Image_ID=13884

 

 

DD - Darling Daughter, DH - Darling Husband, so forth for DW and DS...