Sailing with a toddler

[keithm]

What are you planning to do when you take your <2 year old child does what all normal less than 2 year olds do - makes a fuss and starts crying? You as well as the rest of the people in the specialty dining venue have paid extra for a pleasant dining experience and they do not want to share it with a crying child. You will not want to have paid extra to dine there and have to hopefully leave with your crying child and miss the dining experience.

 

Get a baby sitter if you can and if you can not - eat in the buffet. Do no eat in the MDR because nobody there also wants to hear your crying fussy child.

 

The ship restaurants are not Denny's type restaurants where crying children are expected.

 

I note that you are also apparently planning to bring your toddler on ship excursions. My same comment applies. Nobody wants to share a ship excursion with a crying fussy toddler.

 

DON

Lighten up love..you were a child once,too.(I think!)I've seen few toddlers aboard & most were perfectly behaved. The only one that wasn't was taken out by the mother for a few min. & then brought back in. I think most parents will do their best & not let a crying child keep crying through the whole meal.

[Rob the Cruiser]

DW and I chose not to have children. That does not make us child haters. We prefer not to be around children but that does not make us child haters either. Having said that, we have never witnessed bad behavior of children on a cruise. Not once. OK, maybe the early teens that jump on the elevator, push all the buttons and jump back off. Gee...how awful. I don't recall but I probably did that on elevators when I was a child and laughed like crazy. Too bad I can't say the same about a few lounge-chair hogging, line jumping, drunken, foul-mouthed, smoke-on-the balcony adults. BTW - That doesn't make me an adults hater either. :p

 

Ending on a lighter note, we were on a Caribbean cruise last December. One morning while we were enjoying a coffee in Cafe' al Bacio a mother and small child, 4-5 years old perhaps, sat next to us. The happy little boy was busy with his coloring book and drinking a cup of warm milk. Once he finished, he started fidget and whimper which was our alert to move on. Before we could get up from our chairs, the mom looked over at the boy and said "Santa is watching". Terror struck the child and he immediately went back to being his happy self. All of us who witnessed mom's quick action laughed. She smiled at us and said, "Works every time!"

[Byron_1978]

The other venues have no limit, but I've never seen a child's menu in Tuscan or Silk Road, and I can't think of anything that an under 2 would eat in those restaurants.

 

You clearly haven't met my under 2 year old.

I just checked the menu of Tuscan Grille, and there are more items on the menu that he will eat than there are that I will eat :cool:

He just loves food. He will eat steak, sôle meunierre, all kinds of seafood, all kinds of soups or pasta's...

Obviously we cut it in small pieces so he can eat it (and also a smaller size portion than an adult), but he just loves it.

 

He will be on his first cruise in less than a month (Eclipse) :D

[Jem 12]

Hi Byron 1978 you took the words out of my mouth, all 5 of my grandchildren have a much more sophisticated palette than I have, I guess it was what they have been brought up with. On a recent cruise with our family my daughter asked me if it was ok to order off the adult menu for the kids and I told her they have paid exactly the same fare as the adults so they can have whatever they want providing they will eat and enjoy it.