Travelling to ports of call in Europe with a toddler

[Jen-Jon-Freya]

Hi guys, wondering if anyone can help! We're looking to book a cruise in a few weeks, it will likely be some kind of central Mediterranean with Royal Caribbean. We have done a smililar cruise twice on the NCL EPic - once as a couple and once with a 1 year old. My question is how do you travel from the ship to the ports of call, in some cases a good few hours to say Rome with a toddler? Last time we hired a car and bought a car seat with us. I know some destinations are accessible by train too. Can you book with the ships tours? Would they be able to take a car seat on the coach? Would a private transfer company take your car seat and store it for the day? Any other suggestions would be great! Thanks

[cb at sea]

Buses and trains generally have no way to attach a car seat, so none are needed.

 

If you hire a car and bring your own car seat, the seat will stay in the car until you return to the ship.

[Kerry's Girls]

For families, private tours are easiest in Europe (and often not more, or less than paying for the ship tours). One exception is Rome where it's easy to walk to the train station with your stroller and take the train to/from the city. There are step by step directions with pictures taking you from port to the station on the internet. This is what we planned, but when we got off the ship there was a guide with a large van who offered to take us with some others on a tour of the city. Better to arrange ahead of time so you don't have to run back to the ship for the seat, but it was a really nice way to go and we didn't have the annoying shopping stops that the ship tours have. You may want to check your roll call and see if others with kids would like to go in on a van tour, or just look at the ports of call board and pre-book a tour guide with a car.

 

Have a great time!

 

Best,

Mia

[kitkat343]

We did the Baltics with our 3.5 year old, and a private tour (for just our family) really saved us in St. Petersburg. There is so much to see, and a private tour maximizes your chances to have a wonderful experience and see the wonders of Europe. Whenever my son got tired or whiny, we were able to stop and get him food. We could customize the tour to his interests, and stay longer in places that fascinated him. We were able to see the highlights of each destination (the rooms in Catherine's palace got a bit repetitive after awhile and we saw a few in the beginning and then jumped to the amber room).

 

It is also really important to do a lot of research so you know exactly what you want to see. We identified key artworks and rooms in the Hermitage, so we were able to see everything we wanted in the one hour our son was patient and interested in the art.

 

I would strongly recommend avoiding a ship tour - our only bad tour with our son on 3 cruises was the ship tour in Panama we had to take because the canal authority won't let you off the ship in Gatun Lake unless it is with a ship tour. There was a dreadful wildlife cruise, with no wildlife and my son got bored and disruptive. We weren't told ahead of time that at the end of the tour we'd need to wait in the port for an unspecified amount of time until we could reboard the ship. Our son was exhausted and needed a nap, and we couldn't drive around to let him sleep or travel to things that would keep him awake and interested.