Help Dining with a 3 year old Boy :) on the Sunshine

[salleeweidman]

We are sailing in April with our 3 year old son. We have main dining early seating. My question is, are there options for him while we are dining. I know he will not be able to sit through an hour meal, but we would like to enjoy the main dining room. I did see that they have a children's only meal from 6 to 6:45. Any suggestions would be great.

[sunset785]

We brought our then 2 and 4 year old last year with us on the Magic and had early dining. The kids would finish up way before the adults. Camp carnival opens up at 7 so one of us would take them then while we enjoyed the rest of our meal. We only did this on nights when they were very restless.

 

 

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[manmachine]

We are sailing in April with our 3 year old son. We have main dining early seating. My question is, are there options for him while we are dining. I know he will not be able to sit through an hour meal, but we would like to enjoy the main dining room. I did see that they have a children's only meal from 6 to 6:45. Any suggestions would be great.

 

 

Unless things have really changed you can take him at 5:45 or so and they will keep him until 10pm at no charge.

 

It was a real nice thing when our kids were that age.

 

 

I have cruised A LOT

[amyh13]

At 545 or so, you can check them into Camp Carnival in the buffet restaurant. They will have an area roped off. They can eat with their friends and then they take them to camp after.

 

We do Anytime dining so if we aren't moving fast enough to catch the camp at 545, we will get DD something to eat from the lido or pizza and go to dinner after the club opens at 7. My son is 11 now so he enjoys eating with us in the dining room. My daughter is 7 now but in the past, the dining room dinners exceeded her attention span. It may be different this year. I usually let her choose.

 

When they were your kids age, the pretty much ate with the club every night and my husband and I had a date every night! That is what sold me on cruising.

[missholly24]

You can take him to Camp Carnival for dinner at 6pm. (My husband would just leave the dinner for a few min to take them). They may meet in the lido at that time. Long dinners are rough with a toddler. We did it often and it wasn't fun. Our boys enjoyed eating with little friends and being able to move around much more than a 2 hr sit down with parents :)

[salleeweidman]

Thank you so much for your help. I think we will try to have him go to the camp. I may be able to talk my 16 year old into eating with him as well. She looked at the menu yesterday and said this food is way to fancy.

[ldalvarado]

There is a kids menu in the mdr

 

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[njmomof2]

Thank you so much for your help. I think we will try to have him go to the camp. I may be able to talk my 16 year old into eating with him as well. She looked at the menu yesterday and said this food is way to fancy.

 

Tell her not to worry.

 

While she's welcome to order from the kids menu, if she sees something that she thinks she'll like, but it has sauce or something else, then tell the waiter and they can adjust it for her to make it more plain. My mom doesn't do spice or sauce or seasoning well, so they will make something for her that is simple and plain.

 

You can almost always get pasta, grilled chicken, steak or even hamburgers in the MDR. At least have her give it a chance to see if she'd like it.

[Foxinspace]

You could stop by the dining room when you first board and see where you are seated. If your in a booth I found my DD was okay, she could be fairly active but not disturb others around us, we just seated her on the inside.

 

If you want to try the MDR but have it be a bit less formal, stop by for a sea day brunch. You can try them out in the space and see how it goes, but if you have to cut it short it's less stressful.

 

I don't have any experience with the camps but here are a few other ideas...

 

We've taken turns walking out our kid during meals. If we aren't eating (between appetizer and main course) one of us will take our DD out to walk for a few minutes. A game of chase up and down some stairs will run out her wiggles and she is ready to come back to the seats.

Another idea is to order desert when you order your main course and ask them to bring it to go. That way if things are getting hairy you can always take your desert with you and leave early.

Bring a few special NEW toys with you on the cruise and break them out just for dinner. A carefully timed new car or paw patrol can keep a small person happy through a main course if they are done eating and you aren't!

 

Whatever you decide, have a great time!!

[FloridaMommyof3]

I've found that when I got a table for just myself and my kids and not with tablemates we got in and out of there very quickly, usually under an hour. That may be an option as well.

[gannk]

We just had our 2 and 4 year olds sailing on Valor. Some nights, they ate with Camp Ocean and some nights they ate in the MDR with us. They loved they children's menu, and everybody was attentive to them.

 

 

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[heath7767]

I was on the Sunshine last month with my 3, 6, and 8 year olds. We did the dining room every night, and it was wonderful! I can't even tell you how much the dining room staff doted on my kids, especially my youngest. They give a kids menu and crayons in the dining room, and the servers brought out the kids' entrees with the adult appetizers to move things along. They also did everything from offering to cut the little ones' food to making hats out of napkins and singing songs to them to keep them entertained.

We don't eat out a lot at home, so I really didn't know how it would work out, but the service and attention my kids got was far superior to regular restaurant experiences at home. Eating in the dining room was one of their very favorite parts of our trip!

[paschickling]

We cruised with our 2 year old and 5 year old, they both did just fine sitting through the meal and we had your time dining on our last cruise. They have a children's menu and had high chairs available. I plan to do early dining for the next cruise, my PVP recommended it because the wait staff will be able to have things ready and waiting for us a bit more easily.

 

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[jsglow]

We started cruising when our kids were about 14 and 12. You know, those somewhat challenging years where they don't like anything, mostly themselves. An absolute highlight for them was the MDR experience where waiters would dote on them like adults. One night my DW and I went to the steakhouse while they went to the MDR alone. We had advised our waiter beforehand and they got extra special 'white glove' treatment. One of the best nights they remember as middle schoolers. All grown up.

[summersigh]

We have friends with young children. They like to have family dinners but also like to have "date night".

Their solution is to go to the Lido with the kids shortly after it opens for dinner. They help the kids get their meals then have coffee themselves while the kids eat, enjoying the family. When camp opens they drop the kids there are off for their "date night"

..... sounds like the best of both worlds to me :D

[suzbcruiser]

We cruised last June with our then 2 1/2 year old son. He is WELL versed in eating in nice restaurants, but even so I'm always prepared for a possible outburst or whatever. I emailed the maitre d of the Freedom about 2 months before we sailed requesting a private table, specifically a booth, for our family so as to not disrupt the dining experience of anyone. I also brought packaged snacks (gold fish crackers, fruit snacks, etc.) to have as an "appetizer" for him. We also had mini play doh containers with us at all times and a few small cars or trucks. In addition to that, we would have multiple movies downloaded onto our cell phones as a last resort. He did great with all of the above and lasted through a full dining experience every night. We tried Camp Ocean and he hated it so it wasn't an option for us during the week. We cruise again this May and he will be 3 1/2 and I will do all of the above again. Of course we will try Camp Ocean again and fingers crossed he will like it!

 

 

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[cruisinqt]

Bring your tablet with preloaded cartoons and videos that he loves and a pair of his favorite headphones. With that to occupy him and the staff bringing his food out really early, he should be ok. I've found that the staff are used to dealing with little ones and keeping them happy.

[salleeweidman]

Tell her not to worry.

 

While she's welcome to order from the kids menu, if she sees something that she thinks she'll like, but it has sauce or something else, then tell the waiter and they can adjust it for her to make it more plain. My mom doesn't do spice or sauce or seasoning well, so they will make something for her that is simple and plain.

 

You can almost always get pasta, grilled chicken, steak or even hamburgers in the MDR. At least have her give it a chance to see if she'd like it.

 

 

Thank you :) We always tease her about eating beige. It needs to be beige in color and in flavor. We are traveling with my mom too, who does not eat any spice.

[SadieN]

Thank you :) We always tease her about eating beige. It needs to be beige in color and in flavor. We are traveling with my mom too, who does not eat any spice.

 

 

Eat at the buffet, seriously. Sis has a slew of beige buffet food photos.

 

 

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