2 y/o Friendly Cruiselines

[djmess]

I cruise a ton with my child who is now almost 13. A friend just asked me what cruise line is the most friendly for a 2 y/o. I'm out of that market, so I need you CCers to help me out.

 

I know there are things to do with kids age 2 on almost all lines, but which lines offer some drop off time or babysitting time and if they offer baby sitting for 2 y/o, what is the cost?

 

My friends are not looking to dump their kid. Just trying to see if they can get a couple hours of "adult time" - Dinner, casino, spa treatment.

[jdkbrim]

Carnival lets 2-year-olds participate in the kids' camp. They do not need to be potty trained. I believe on all other lines 2-year-olds can only be dropped off with a "for fee" babysitting option....hours of availability varying from ship to ship.

[MommaBear55]

Some Disney and some Royal Caribbean ships have pool play areas for those in diapers.

[kitkat343]

In addition to Carnival that was mentioned above, Cunard also allows 2 year olds into their kids club programs. All the Disney ships have nurseries that will allow you to leave your child for a fee, as do newer or refurbished Royal Caribbean ships. The newest Norwegian ship, the Escape, also has a fee based nursery. Princess will allow children under the age of 3 to visit their kids club under parental supervision (one of the other families sailing brought their nanny, so they were able to have the nanny supervise the child in the kids club.)

[William234]

We sailed Royal Freedom with our then 14 month old. It was nice because it had the baby splash zone which allows diapered children. This is only on Freedom class and Oasis class. All other ships do not permit diapered children in their pools for sanitary reasons. (Disney does have a toddler splash zone but it is not a pool if I remember correctly.)

 

We did use the for fee babysitting on freedom once. They give you a phone so they can contact you. They do allow you to leave the kid in their care while you leave the ship but you can't be reached as the phones only work on the ship. We did not do this as we didn't feel comfortable just leaving him.

[djmess]

Thanks Guys,

 

I think my friends are not interested in Disney. But I will refer them to the Norwegian Escape and It looks like Royal's Oasis Class ships and of course there is always Carnival. Do I understand that Carnival allows 2 y/o in their clubs on all ships?

 

My friends wanted to sail out of Tampa, so it would be Carnival

 

And of course I will refer them here to chat with all of you.

Edited February 24, 2016 by djmess

[William234]

Thanks Guys,

 

I think my friends are not interested in Disney. But I will refer them to the Norwegian Escape and It looks like Royal's Oasis Class ships and of course there is always Carnival. Do I understand that Carnival allows 2 y/o in their clubs on all ships?

 

My friends wanted to sail out of Tampa, so it would be Carnival

 

Royal has the Brilliance of the Seas in Tampa, but that doesn't have the baby splash zone. I think it has the nursery though. Can someone confirm? Oasis is moving to Port Canaveral I believe in October which is an easy drive from Tampa.

 

Our next cruise is on Oasis before it moves to PC.

[cruisegirl06]

We've done Disney, Royal, and Norwegian with under-3s and have a Carnival cruise coming up.

 

As others have mentioned, Carnival is the only of these that lets the 2YOs in the kids clubs for "free" and drop-in, we'll be sailing them with a 2YO in April so I can provide feedback after that.

 

Royal (some ships only, I believe) and Disney both have nurseries where you pay by the hour (I think Royal was $6-$8 depending on time of day, and Disney I think is $10 now? These numbers may be wrong, it's been a while since I looked at these!). These need to be reserved in advance, although we've had luck calling day-of and getting additional time booked if we are flexible :-). On both of these the kids were around 1 year old and enjoyed them, but they are more "nursery" based, so I don't know if an older 2YO might be bored?

 

Norwegian - this was 3 years ago on Star - did NOT have any drop-off programming. They did have playgroup type activities that you could go to with your child, but that was the only option. I think some of their newer ships may have additional programming.

 

Just make sure you are checking the ship they are interested in. The facilities/programming can vary by ship (it sounds like you are looking into this)

[kitkat343]

We took a really nice Carnival Cruise out of Tampa that would be great for kids. It is the 7 night western caribbean, which goes to Roatan, Honduras, Cozumel, Mexico, Grand Cayman, and Belize.

 

In Roatan , Bodden Adventures can let you have a hands on experience with monkeys and parrots and other animals at the Bodden home. There is also a nice iguana farm. We also greatly enjoyed our eco walk at South Shore through the suspension bridges. The bridges are a bit challenging for our son who was three years old at the time (which we fully anticipated prior to booking) but overall quite manageable. A two year old would probably need a lot of assistance, so you might want to skip this.

 

In Belize, there is an outstanding zoo, and Grand Cayman has a nice turtle farm and nice beaches.

 

http://www.cruisesonly.com/results.do?wdos=3&places=ALL&days=3&Month=ALL&c=1&p=TPA&porttype=E&SType=P&ptype=c&type=c&shoppingZipCode=Zip+Code&SType=A&clp=1&sort=7&Search=&IncludeSeniorRates=false&IncludeAlumniRates=false&AlumniCruiseId=false

[BCCRUSINGCOUPLE]

We took our 8 month old on Carnival for his first trip. While is was to young to be left with the kids club they did have babysitting at night which for a small fee let me and the DW have a hour or two out. We usually always sail princess but was very impressed with Carnival kids club