Allure of the Seas for babies?

[wolffma]

Hi there,

 

My family is currently scheduled to sail on Allure of the Seas. We are a family of six. The ages of our children are: 11, 8, 4, 2. We are all booked to travel together. However, I am a little nervous taking the 2 year old. My sister has offered to babysit for me, so we do have a backup. My question is for those who have traveled with younger ones. Will there be enough to keep him entertained on the ship? He is not potty trained, so most of the pools are out. Is the nursery service clean and friendly? Or, would he be better off staying with cousins his own age?

 

Thanks for your input!

[LisaT91403]

My family is currently scheduled to sail on Allure of the Seas. We are a family of six. The ages of our children are: 11, 8, 4, 2. We are all booked to travel together. However, I am a little nervous taking the 2 year old. My sister has offered to babysit for me, so we do have a backup. My question is for those who have traveled with younger ones. Will there be enough to keep him entertained on the ship? He is not potty trained, so most of the pools are out. Is the nursery service clean and friendly? Or, would he be better off staying with cousins his own age?

 

I think you will probably get a lot more replies if you post in the Family Cruises forum here:

 

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

 

Having said that, we went on Oasis when my had just turned 3 years old, and we had a blast. There were people ranging in age from 3 - 93 in our group, and really there was something for everyone. However, I think it really depends on what you want out of your vacation...because traveling with a 2 year old is different than traveling without one.

 

You are right that the pools are a no-go for your son. There is a small area where he can play...just a couple of inches of water, but most "babies" seem happy just to splash around there. If he's closer to 3 than 2, he might not be so interested in it.

 

He can ride the carousel, go to the family events on the boardwalk (things like face painting, balloon animals, etc.), and go to many shows (DS3 enjoyed the ice skating and diving shows). There are also many opportunities to meet Dreamworks characters; my son had no idea who they were, but still thought it was fun to see the penguins and giant panda. You can check out a bag of Fisher Price toys, or play with the FP toys up near the nursery. There are also "mommy and me" type classes once each morning, as I recall. And of course, on port days, I'm sure your 2 year old would have a blast at the beaches.

 

We did not use the nursery since our son was too old for that, but I hear it's clean & friendly. We did use the in-cabin babysitting each night so that we could eat our "adult dinner" in peace, go to the casino & shows, etc.

 

Let me know if you have questions, and also post over in the Family Cruise section.

[SMASHROX]

We have used the nurseries on both Oasis and Allure. The first time DD was 6 months old, second time she was 14 months old. We had very positive experiences both times with the nursery staff. They adhere to staff to baby ratio of 4:1 if I recall. We used the nursery for half the nights on our 7 day vacations so that DH could have some nice "parents only" meals.

[wolffma]

Thanks for the replies! I just posted on the other board. I would take him, no question, if we only had the younger two. I just don't want to miss out with the older two boys. I'm torn!!