don't gang up on me/ ? about 3 yr old on Enchantment

[skyw]

First of all, I am a lurker on these boards and I know what can happen if you mention anything to do with kids. BUt I really want to know if a 3 year can have fun with his mom and grandma on a 4 day cruise on the enchantment? I am really interested in the thoughts of those you have actually taken a 3-4 year old before.

 

Thanks

[brn2crz]

My DS went on his first when he was 3.He was potty trained,and that really helped since he could also do AO.

He had a blast...Although his 2 little cousins were with him also,and his Grandma and Grandpa that watched him,while we did 1 grown up excursion..

He has sailed 3 more times and loves them.He remembers things about each one,and always talks about the different places he has been to.

Some little ones don't take well to the salt water pools....,but most have some sort of play area for smaller kids...

 

As long as they are fairly adjustable to different situations,and do well around alot of people...I say go for it...

Do be prepared to watch them on the top deck.My little niece at 2..had her whole body through the railing.. :eek:

[skyw]

Thanks for the info. I wondered if he would even remember being on the cruise. But I think Grandma would!!!!

[teddie]

First of all, I am a lurker on these boards and I know what can happen if you mention anything to do with kids. BUt I really want to know if a 3 year can have fun with his mom and grandma on a 4 day cruise on the enchantment? I am really interested in the thoughts of those you have actually taken a 3-4 year old before.

 

Thanks

 

Newsflash: Most toddlers and pre-schoolers will have fun no matter where they are, as long as they are properly fed, well cared-for, and in the loving company of their family.

 

With all due respect, the question is..Will YOU have fun?

 

If you ensure that your child sticks as closely as possible to his home schedule for meals and sleep without pushing his

tolerance for overstimulation, your child, yourselves, and your fellow passengers should have a wonderful cruise.

 

Please understand that this is not a flame to you, just my own advice for you to consider.

[shirleygr]

I have to agree with teddie. I took my daughters on their first cruises at 4 and 2 yo (Carnival, so they could both go to the kids' club) and they both had a great time. We just made sure we planned around their schedules for naps and meals. They had a wonderful time and were treated like little princesses. They want to go every year now for their birthdays. :D WE had a really good time too. DH and I had a chance for some adult time and we still had plenty of quality family time too. Best of both worlds for everyone. As long as you remember a cruise with children will be different from a cruise with adults, everyone will have a wonderful time.

[larkwind]

I agree with all the above--just remember to let your kiddos have plenty of 'downtime', ie, quiet time w/mom or dad. Our little guy was just three (potty trained) and had a blast in Celebrity's Fun Factory. We usually got up leisurely, had breakfast delivered to the stateroom and then took him up to the FF for a hour or two. We sat by the pool, walked around, etc. Then picked him up for lunch and some quiet time in the room/balcony--brought a few small toys and had a blank Little Golden Book (Walmart $5) to paste postcards of ports and pictures of staff into. It was back to the FF for a couple of hours in the afternoon. Dinner (early seating!) and he got to go to the FF as soon as it was open while we finished dinner. We usually had to drag him out of FF around 8pm and then went to bed. Cruises are rest times for us so we don't stay out late anyway.

 

One thing we did experience--at first he didn't want to go anywhere but back to the stateroom. So all our excitement to explore the ship was making him nervous. We showed him a couple places on the ship and then went back to the room to play with the life preservers before muster. After muster, he was ready to explore more and by the second day he was pushing the right buttons in the elevator for our floor and the Fun Factory!

 

He was so tired the last night that, while waiting for the food to come, he fell asleep under his chair in the diningroom--that brought lots of waiters and staff to look. The staff was so attentive to him--even people we had never encountered said hi to him by name! I think a lot of the guys were missing their own little kids back home (this was just before Christmas, too).

 

He only had one short meltdown near the end (in the cabin). He still knows the names of FF staff and the letter X is his favorite letter! We are taking our older kids (22, 19, 17--yes, little guy's our bonus) this Jan and he's the expert cruiser, telling them all they'll need to know.

 

Have a super time!

[shirleygr]

. . .He only had one short meltdown near the end (in the cabin). He still knows the names of FF staff and the letter X is his favorite letter! We are taking our older kids (22, 19, 17--yes, little guy's our bonus) this Jan and he's the expert cruiser, telling them all they'll need to know.

Have a super time!

My girls had the same thing happen the last night, although not in the dining room! :D They passed out in the cabin while we were getting ready for dinner. By the end of the cruise, they were exhausted even though we did give them downtime everyday. We decided after doing the 7 day Dawn this past May that we are going to stick with shorter cruises-4 or 5 days--until they get older.

Bless you--a toddler with your three older ones. I have 4 kids, too--17, 13, 5 and 3. It is so interesting, don't you find? Happy holidays to you and yours. And have a great time cruising with all the family!

[swmichigan cruiser]

We've had our grandson on 3 cruises so far all 7 day cruises. His first was at age 3 other ones at 4 and 5. And they have all been great experiences for us and him. We cruise a lot so having him with us makes for a different cruise experience and that makes it fun. We always go into the cruise knowing he might be with us the whole time and not in any of the childrens clubs if he was to young or didn't want to stay there. One thing for us it did change our dining plans but we knew that going in so no big deal and as we didn't think it would be fair to him or the others near us in the dining room if he wasn't happy sitting through a long meal. First cruise we left him in the childrens club for one night when we ate in the dining room other than that he ate with us so we just used the ships other dining options. Second cruise he was to young for that ships childrens club so we never ate in the dining room and we knew the rules before hand so no problem. Last cruise he ate in the dinning room with us every night and did pretty good. As someone has mentioned your 3 yearold will get alot of attention from the staff as they very seldom get to see there own children. By the way were taking our 4 year old grandaughter on a 5 day cruise in February and were looking forward to that and combining the cruise with a few days at Disney World.

[marion10]

We've had our grandson on 3 cruises so far all 7 day cruises. His first was at age 3 other ones at 4 and 5. And they have all been great experiences for us and him. We cruise a lot so having him with us makes for a different cruise experience and that makes it fun. We always go into the cruise knowing he might be with us the whole time and not in any of the childrens clubs if he was to young or didn't want to stay there. One thing for us it did change our dining plans but we knew that going in so no big deal and as we didn't think it would be fair to him or the others near us in the dining room if he wasn't happy sitting through a long meal. First cruise we left him in the childrens club for one night when we ate in the dining room other than that he ate with us so we just used the ships other dining options. Second cruise he was to young for that ships childrens club so we never ate in the dining room and we knew the rules before hand so no problem. Last cruise he ate in the dinning room with us every night and did pretty good. As someone has mentioned your 3 yearold will get alot of attention from the staff as they very seldom get to see there own children. By the way were taking our 4 year old grandaughter on a 5 day cruise in February and were looking forward to that and combining the cruise with a few days at Disney World.

22, 19, 17--yes, little guy's our bonus)

 

This is the spacing in my husband's family and his mom always referred to him as the bonus too!

[skyw]

Thanks for the replies!!! This is a trip for Grandma, me and my son to enjoy the experience together. Under these terms would you recommend Disney to enjoy together or RCL? I have had great experiences with RCL but I think Disney might be more what we are looking for with a 3 year old. Your thoughts?

[ruttie]

just a note.. my kids also had a mini breakdown on teh last night of the cruise they were just so tired that they did not wantto eat, behave, talk basically do anything we took note of that and the last 2 cruises we have gone on we always planned a big lunch tome meal and then just dinner at the buffet and bed for teh boys early.. gave us plenty of time to pack etc....

on another side note we cruise lots and would not hesitate to cruise with our boys but.. hubbie and i found that we much prefer to leave cruising a couples thing and not bring our kids with us.. while the kids seem to have a blast mommmie and daddie are very tired form running to and from kids clubs, activites etc... so just be prepared for a lot of time spent at the kids club with checking them in, out, picking up for scheduled closers etc.. we had no idea how often it seemd we were having to make that long walk to pick them up.. however i do understand that in the past year they have made some changes and the kids clubs on carnival and rccl have started staying open more hours like on teh disney ship....

have a fun!

[swmichigan cruiser]

Can't say about Disney because we have never cruised with them. Our first cruise with our grandson was on Norwegian, the second on Holland America and the last one was on RCCl. Depends what you are looking for I guess we figured all the cruise lines would be good for kids. For us it was the itinerary as much as anything and not so much the kids club's on board the ship. Whatever you choose it would be hard to go wrong. For us we planned on having him with us most of the time anyhow so we weren't concerned about the kids club hours.

[2theship]

If you have realistic expectations and are willing to go with the flow, you'll be fine. Definitely book early dinner and you'll see plenty of other kids there.

 

One warning - you may need to plan lots more cruises with your little one! Our daughters took their first cruise when they were 3 & 4. They are now 15 & 16 and have cruised almost every year since then - they love it! When they were little, I can remember nights in the dining room where they fell asleep in my lap. Now, they are mature young ladies who order a wide variety of foods from the menu and are a pleasure to dine with in a formal setting.

 

It will be a great experience - enjoy it.

[2theship]

I realized that I have something to add to my earlier post. Our very first cruise was long ago on the "Big Red Boat" - it was Premier Cruise line and featured the Disney characters before Disney operated a its own line. There were lots of activities for kids but I thought that they were far too crowded. There were hundreds of kids in the program and mine (at 3 & 4) were a little overwhelmed. The next year we were on a Celebrity ship (at the time considered to be an "adult" ship). There were about 30 kids their age in the program and they were much happier. Since then, we've avoided the "family" ships. Since they only get to cruise in the summer, any ship we've chosen has had an active kids' program but it wasn't overwhelming. Some of the family ships do offer 24 hour child care but that was never an interest of ours - and I get the impression it's not yours either.

[skyw]

I realized that I have something to add to my earlier post. Our very first cruise was long ago on the "Big Red Boat" - it was Premier Cruise line and featured the Disney characters before Disney operated a its own line. There were lots of activities for kids but I thought that they were far too crowded. There were hundreds of kids in the program and mine (at 3 & 4) were a little overwhelmed. The next year we were on a Celebrity ship (at the time considered to be an "adult" ship). There were about 30 kids their age in the program and they were much happier. Since then, we've avoided the "family" ships. Since they only get to cruise in the summer, any ship we've chosen has had an active kids' program but it wasn't overwhelming. Some of the family ships do offer 24 hour child care but that was never an interest of ours - and I get the impression it's not yours either.

 

yes you are right. I can take a cruise without him If I wanted. But I don't and I think it would be a great thing for my mom and I to enjoy.

 

thanks everyone again for the information!!! And not flamen' me too bad.