Allure of the Seas...good ship for toddler?

[wolffma]

Hi there,

 

My family is set to sail on the Western Caribbean cruise on Allure of the Seas. We are a family of six. The ages of our children are: 11, 8, 4, and 2. I am starting to second guess bringing the youngest. He is not potty trained, so pool access is extremely limited. If we only had the two little ones, his cruising would not be in question. However, I don't want to miss out on shore excursions and onboard activities with my older two because he can't participate. My questions are for those that have travelled with little ones. Is the nursery clean? Are staff members friendly with toddlers? Do you have to bring snacks, or are they provided for them? My sister is more than willing to babysit for the week, so I do have backup options. I'm just wondering if there is really much for him to do, or if he will be just as happy at home with cousins his age.

 

Thanks for the input!

[cb at sea]

Yes...the nursery is clean and the trained staff is great. I'm not sure about snacks, but there are plenty of items on the ship, so no need to pack snacks!

 

If you have someone at home to watch him, that might be the way to go....that way, you aren't "holding back" the older kids on active excursions and such...and of course, you won't be paying an additional person price! That said, this ship offers alot for everyone, so you really can't go wrong, whichever option you choose!

[flhokie]

We just sailed on Allure with a 2 year old and had a fantastic time! We used the toy lending from the nursery. DD loved the bag of toys and they were very clean & in good condition. The nursery was very clean and well organized! DD really enjoyed her time there. I honestly thought we would take her more, unless we were doing specialty dining we didn't feel the need/desire to. She had dinner there--when she checked in they asked if I wanted them to feed her dinner. They have certain menus certain days. She had baked chicken, mashed potatoes and vegetables. They asked what she was allowed to drink too. When I picked her up they told me exactly what had eaten & had to drink.

 

We worked really hard on potty training before the cruise for the H2O Zone. Ironically, I saw more little ones trying to climb into the baby section than kids in the baby section trying to climb in the big kids area.

 

DD love the Aqua Shows, Ice skating shows and Blue Planet. She also loved the carousel, playground area on Boardwalk, face painting, balloon animals, toddler miniature golf (separate toddler area next to miniature golf with fun liitle animal sculptures, small clubs & big foam balls), character breakfast and the promenade (she loved the fountains under rising tide).

 

It wasn't the same as cruising without DD, but we still had a great time. DH watched DD when I wanted to go to the spa and we took DD to the nursery when we went to Chops. Those were the only 2 things that we did that weren't really appropriate for DD.

[KJENN]

We took DS on Oasis at 16-17 months old and had a great time! We are taking DD at 18m. on the Freedom of the seas as well.

 

DS LOVED the carousel on Oasis, plus the play structure on the boardwalk, loved the character breakfast, parade and a lot of the shows too. The kids club had a large playroom stocked with tons of toys that we could go up and play with, we also borrowed toys to take back to the room.

 

We did my time dining which was nice b/c we could eat as needed, and he went to the nursery a few nights. I was very impressed with the nursery, very very clean, well trained staff... no hesitation at all about leaving him there (it was nicer than our daycare!!)

 

DS loved the small pool for non-PT'd kids, it was very tiny but adequate enough for him and it was one of the main reasons we chose the Oasis.

 

We didn't do excursions, just got off the boat at the private island and went to the beach, walked around falmouth/cozumel- neither interested us, and I didn't want to cart a carseat and won't consider riding without one. This time we are going to try an excursion to swim with dolphins for DS and DH, so will be carting the carseats with us.

 

We had a blast, and have a ton of great memories.

[Mack2]

The toddler splash area is attached to the kid's H2O Zone... I have a picture of the H2O zone here:

 

 

The filtered toddler area is like this:

(from Google Image Search)

 

That's the Baby Splash Zone

 

 

 

I ships that don't have a filtered Baby Zone... you're looking at the Inflatable Duck tub.

 

The kids will LOVE the Allure... even the Toddler.

My son cried disembarking a cruise once... He was two. He LOVED the cruise and was so upset he had to leave. (and he couldn't go into the water, either)

There's so much to do and see, especially on the Allure or Oasis.

 

Hope you guys have a GREAT time!

[IttaBit]

My kids are 13, 7 and 2. We're sailing next summer and I think this is the perfect ship to take all your kids, including the youngest. I'm guessing the older kids are used to having siblings limit certain activities and will be just fine. We're going to Disney World next week and my kids know that there may be things we don't do because their sister is too small and they accept that. To be honest, I think my 13 and 7 yo would kill me if I left their 2 yo sister at home.