Cruising with a 3 year old-Tips!!

[LeeW]

If you are going into Labadee and your daughter likes trolls you might want to check on the photo-excursion/safari there. Has goodies for kids and dance party when they get back to the ship. Pricing is a bit weird - on Allure it costs for kids but not adults, even if it includes the water park and coaster.

[Babygirl08]

Hey all- Our 1st family vaca is in 2.5 weeks on the Oasis. It is the 1st time our daughter is going on a cruise. Anyone have any tips/tricks or things to do/avoid? We are currently on deck 8, Large Int stateroom. Hopefully the upsell fairy calls us with a good offer but if not, we are totally ok where we are. Our room has the pullout, vs pullman. Let me know what has worked/hasn't worked for your family! Thanks!

 

Your house is more child-proof than you realize. Your cabin will have lots of things in reach of the Little One that usually are not in reach at home. Just be aware.

 

Other than that, enjoy! We cruised once with our daughter still "in-belly" and then have been cruising with her since she was a year-and-a-half.

[KSH120]

Our daughter was 3 on her first cruise last year (and our son was 6), and I have to echo what everyone says about kids club - that is the reason we keep booking cruises. A nice mixture of family time and adult/alone time.

 

My best advice is to break all the rules - ice cream often, stay up late, and down time using electronics. Some new toys would also be useful to keep her occupied in the cabin.

 

We also found that with dining, the "family time" dining works well enough if you have the early dinner, but if you have late or flexible dinner it is even better. Our kids prefer the buffet anyway, so we feed them there when it opens, bring them to kids club at 7, and then have an adult dinner while they are having fun at a princess or pirate party.

[mylifecompleted]

LOL Love it! The trip is his gift;)

 

Yea we weren't really PLANNING this, but we just had to replace our AC at our house and we have had a really rough few months with medical stuff and just everything hitting at the same time and we are super stressed. we found a stupid cheap deal on this sailing for the 3 of us and I was like I KNOW it is more money, but we need to get away and just relax for a few days. I conned him into it but he is really excited :) Little one asks every day if its time for vacation yet lol.

[mylifecompleted]

If you are going into Labadee and your daughter likes trolls you might want to check on the photo-excursion/safari there. Has goodies for kids and dance party when they get back to the ship. Pricing is a bit weird - on Allure it costs for kids but not adults, even if it includes the water park and coaster.

 

YES! we have this booked. She is under 4 so we can't add her until we get on the boat :( I may see about swapping it for the one with the coaster or slide rather than the water park because we don't plan on doing that anyway. at least hubby and I will do the coaster!

 

Did you do it by chance? wondering what the goodie bag is like at the end.

[Koyal]

We will be on this cruise too. We also have a 2.5 year old son and 4 year old daughter who will be on their first cruise.

[beth395]

Following this thread for all your great tips and tricks. We will be on the Oasis in March and my son will be just over 3. Have to start potty training soon to get ready for Adventure Ocean. He loves his school/daycare and I'm sure will enjoy it. Just have to get that potty thing under control. He is also allergic to peanuts... another thing for me to worry about!

[mylifecompleted]

We will be on this cruise too. We also have a 2.5 year old son and 4 year old daughter who will be on their first cruise.

aww yey! your daughter should be in the aquanots group with mine. she is so excited to make friends! are you planning on taking her there at all?

[mylifecompleted]

Following this thread for all your great tips and tricks. We will be on the Oasis in March and my son will be just over 3. Have to start potty training soon to get ready for Adventure Ocean. He loves his school/daycare and I'm sure will enjoy it. Just have to get that potty thing under control. He is also allergic to peanuts... another thing for me to worry about!

 

not sure how he does but with my daughter, we just talked about it for like a week and said okay on this day, diapers are going bye bye and we let her pick out a big gift that she would get at the end (we got rid of binky and did potty training at the same time eek). Once we hit that day, she was just nakie for like 2 days straight and we went potty every 20 min or so and by the 2nd day she was pretty good and by day 3 we were done.

 

Not sure if that will work for your kiddo but giving her a timeline and a goal she was all for it!

[CamaCama]

I didn't read the other comments but here's my PSA... don't be like us and forget the stroller. :o My youngest was 2.5 and we forgot it and it was the worst thing we could have done, would have been SO easy to nap her on the ship in the stroller at the pool, have her sit in it during shows, walk around ports with it, instead we had to hold her a lot. So, make a list and put STROLLER in bold.

 

Also bring...

 

 

-Medicines (Tylenol & Motrin-we needed this and glad we had it, kids seasick chewables just in case, vitamins)

-Snacks for the room

-Hand sanitizer

-Anti-bacterial pump soap for the room (we have a thumbsucker so this is essential lol)

 

And don't go crazy with shoes, we brought a lot for our girls and they ended up wearing 2 pairs each, natives/crocs for the pool and flips at night.

 

We had to bring our girls last minute last year on Allure (2 days before) and they were 3.5 and 7, we had to wing everything. They both loved adventure ocean and went 4 of the nights, they loved ice skating and the shows, carousel, build a bear, it was a great week. Enjoy!

[RomanceMama]

Yea we weren't really PLANNING this, but we just had to replace our AC at our house and we have had a really rough few months with medical stuff and just everything hitting at the same time and we are super stressed. we found a stupid cheap deal on this sailing for the 3 of us and I was like I KNOW it is more money, but we need to get away and just relax for a few days. I conned him into it but he is really excited :) Little one asks every day if its time for vacation yet lol.

 

Sounds like this is just what you all need. One of the best things about cruising with the family is that there is something for everyone. My husband plays basketball during the day but knows he will find me up on the sun deck camped for the day. So he comes and goes. The kids when with us would spen most of their time in the clubs. and we would meet up for dinner. We were on one cruise when the kids were probably 16, 14 and 8 and they were in an inside cabin across the hall. I got up the first morning and knocked on their door - no answer. The room steward was in the hall she's says, " Oh mama, they're already gone. They went to breakfast, came back and then the older ones were dropping the little one at his club and then going to theirs. They said they wanted to let you sleep." Yep, that beacme the daily routine. We would meet up for meals.

 

Take this time to relax and regroup. Sounds like you guys need it. ;)

[mylifecompleted]

I didn't read the other comments but here's my PSA... don't be like us and forget the stroller. :o My youngest was 2.5 and we forgot it and it was the worst thing we could have done, would have been SO easy to nap her on the ship in the stroller at the pool, have her sit in it during shows, walk around ports with it, instead we had to hold her a lot. So, make a list and put STROLLER in bold.

 

Also bring...

 

 

-Medicines (Tylenol & Motrin-we needed this and glad we had it, kids seasick chewables just in case, vitamins)

-Snacks for the room

-Hand sanitizer

-Anti-bacterial pump soap for the room (we have a thumbsucker so this is essential lol)

 

And don't go crazy with shoes, we brought a lot for our girls and they ended up wearing 2 pairs each, natives/crocs for the pool and flips at night.

 

We had to bring our girls last minute last year on Allure (2 days before) and they were 3.5 and 7, we had to wing everything. They both loved adventure ocean and went 4 of the nights, they loved ice skating and the shows, carousel, build a bear, it was a great week. Enjoy!

cRAP I FORGOT BUILD A BEAR lol she is gonna lost it. Grandma gave her $$ so i assume this is where it will go. Do you happen to recall the pricing? similar to shore prices?

[mylifecompleted]

Sounds like this is just what you all need. One of the best things about cruising with the family is that there is something for everyone. My husband plays basketball during the day but knows he will find me up on the sun deck camped for the day. So he comes and goes. The kids when with us would spen most of their time in the clubs. and we would meet up for dinner. We were on one cruise when the kids were probably 16, 14 and 8 and they were in an inside cabin across the hall. I got up the first morning and knocked on their door - no answer. The room steward was in the hall she's says, " Oh mama, they're already gone. They went to breakfast, came back and then the older ones were dropping the little one at his club and then going to theirs. They said they wanted to let you sleep." Yep, that beacme the daily routine. We would meet up for meals.

 

Take this time to relax and regroup. Sounds like you guys need it. ;)

 

 

Yea i am glad we are going. We got such a good deal my mom is going a month after us on the same ship/itinerary. I know little one will want to be in the club a lot but I hope she will be good. she is hitting Threenager status with a vengeance LOL. Hopefully she will be too tired to complain and fight :)

[CamaCama]

cRAP I FORGOT BUILD A BEAR lol she is gonna lost it. Grandma gave her $$ so i assume this is where it will go. Do you happen to recall the pricing? similar to shore prices?

 

It was the highlight for my girls, they thought it was so cool having it on the ship right on the boardwalk. Here are pics I took on allure, assuming oasis is very similar...

[CamaCama]

Oops pics..

 

 

[Grandma Dazzles]

cRAP I FORGOT BUILD A BEAR lol she is gonna lost it. Grandma gave her $$ so i assume this is where it will go. Do you happen to recall the pricing? similar to shore prices?

 

Would not recommend. It is not Build A Bear - a cheap knock off - called Pets At Sea. More expensive and poor quality.

 

I took my three grandkids there and was very disappointed. Seams on bears came apart at join - took back and had a real "fight" to get them to fix - said kids must have been too rough, which was totally untrue. Kids were not that young - more like 5, 7 and 9 and had basically just been carrying them around.

[CamaCama]

Would not recommend. It is not Build A Bear - a cheap knock off - called Pets At Sea. More expensive and poor quality.

 

I took my three grandkids there and was very disappointed. Seams on bears came apart at join - took back and had a real "fight" to get them to fix - said kids must have been too rough, which was totally untrue. Kids were not that young - more like 5, 7 and 9 and had basically just been carrying them around.

 

It's more about the experience, almost a year later my girls are still talking about it and still play with their animals from there. It brings back memories when they take them out and gets us talking about the whole cruise again. BUT the seem came apart too on my little one's pink dog the day after we got it made and we brought it back and she got a new one no charge and no questions asked! They were so nice about it!

[CamaCama]

Here is a pic I took of the pricing last year on Allure, I didn't think they were too overpriced at all, maybe $2 more than build a bear on land?

 

..

[CamaCama]

Sorry was so small, hopefully you can see pricing here better..

 

[mylifecompleted]

It's more about the experience, almost a year later my girls are still talking about it and still play with their animals from there. It brings back memories when they take them out and gets us talking about the whole cruise again. BUT the seem came apart too on my little one's pink dog the day after we got it made and we brought it back and she got a new one no charge and no questions asked! They were so nice about it!

I am a seamstress so I am not worried if it comes a part after i can fix it. I agree it's about the memories. She has a gre at memory and I am sure her new friend will have her remembering vacation

[mylifecompleted]

Sorry was so small, hopefully you can see pricing here better..

 

[ATTACH]410236[/ATTACH]

You are the best thanks! Grandma have her 20 bucks so I think mom and dad could cover 2.50 if she decides she wants it. Thank you!!

[BNBR]

yep, we got everything except cats. we will not be seeing that. my least favorite musical and why they put that show of all shows on a ship, I am sure is a topic for a whole other thread LOL

 

You don't need reservations for cats anyways. Theater is always empty ;p

 

Tips with a 3 year old child? Honestly, not many. If they are in adventure ocean, let them enjoy it and you go have your fun. Another poster mentioned potty training, we are dealing with the same issue. Our youngest turns 3 in October when we will be on Harmony and he's not quite there yet. They can just call us and we'll head over and deal with it.

 

You'll find little things as you explore the ship. Our boys liked the bus/ship at the end of the boardwalk and loved the carousel. The pool areas are great although horrible if your child is in a swim diaper. Seems Harmony has a much, much bigger/better area for kids in swim diapers still. You'll avoid the pools, essentially, if your toddler is still in swim diapers and not in camp...

 

 

For anyone sailing with a 2 year old, I HIGHLY recommend sailing Carnival as they have full camp that starts at 2 and includes diaper changes. For that other poster worried about potty training, they'll change your child, too... Something to consider.

[Koyal]

aww yey! your daughter should be in the aquanots group with mine. she is so excited to make friends! are you planning on taking her there at all?

 

Yes, from what I have researched, seems like its a very good program. I think they will have lots of fun.

[mylifecompleted]

Yes, from what I have researched, seems like its a very good program. I think they will have lots of fun.

 

Yea I am nervous about leaving her since she doesn't go to daycare or school yet but I think she will be okay. I am sure they will find each other and be buddies :)

[Erica@cruisecritic]

Skimmed this so sorry if repeat advice anywhere. I've got a 3 yo and a 6 yo.

 

--Bring an umbrella stroller, even if your kid doesn't really use one anymore. There are some long walks (embarkation day, some ports), where your little one might get tired and you don't want to carry her.

 

--Second someone who said bring some kid cutlery and take-n-toss cups. Not all cruise lines have kids cups (or places you might eat in port).

 

--Definitely bring laundry detergent and stain stick! I do a lot of washing in the sink. You can also send out laundry on the cruise for a fee.

 

--Bring crayons, coloring books, no-mess markers like Color Wonder, toys, books, new movies or apps on your phone/tablet.

 

--Do a trial shower run at home. If your kid hates it (my son hated showers at 2.5), buy a small inflatable toddler pool to use as a bathtub if your cabin doesn't have one.

 

--Bring a nightlight.

 

--If your kids goes to sleep early and one of you will get stuck in the room with her, I've heard you can buy magnetic hooks and a shower curtain and rig up a room dividing curtain. Never tried it!

 

--Be prepared for Plan B if your kid won't go to the kids club. My son pulled that one at age 5. Sigh.

 

--Pack kid snacks. There is food 24/7 on ships, but not always great to-go snacks to bring into port or the right food for your kid at the right time. I forget RCI's current policies on bringing drinks, but shelf-stable milk boxes are also great. (I also take the little cartons of milk in the morning and keep them in a mini-fridge to avoid going out or calling room service for mid-afternoon snacks if we're in the cabin.

 

have fun!