Celebrity cruise with a toddler

[Ejane]

We're travelling on Celebrity Apex with our son who will be 1 in October. I know they have Camp at Sea activities for older children but I haven't seen anything for younger children. He won't be allowed into the swimming pool with us so I'm wondering is there a room with some toys or anything that I could go to play with him in? 

Thanks 

[Arizona Wildcat]

24 minutes ago, Ejane said:

We're travelling on Celebrity Apex with our son who will be 1 in October. I know they have Camp at Sea activities for older children but I haven't seen anything for younger children. He won't be allowed into the swimming pool with us so I'm wondering is there a room with some toys or anything that I could go to play with him in? 

Thanks 

Not really.  He will be your responsibility.  They do have sitters you can hire.  That is about it.

[jelayne]

Sitters are crew that volunteer for the extra hours.  It is 2 crew members but there is no guarantee that there will be sitters available when you want them.

[Essiesmom]

Take a few things along that he likes to play with.  When you explore the ship you will find locations/lounges that are lightly used during the day and you can stay there and play with him.  Sometimes there is ambient music playing and he can dance around to it.  EM

[Tapi]

My kids started cruising at 13 and 15 months old respectively. Unless you sail on Royal Caribbean or Disney (who have facilities and babysitting services for kids as young as 6 months of age for an extra fee, as well as pools and splash areas for kids still in diapers), you’re largely on your own with a 1 year old.

 

We used to bring a small bag filled with our kids favorite toys. During the day, we’d find an empty, unused lounge, take the toys out, and let our kids move around freely and play. Some cruise lines, offer “free play time” at the club for children too young for the kids program, but parents need to remain present the entire time. Some also offer late night babysitting after a certain hour in a group setting for an extra fee, but it’s not guaranteed and it usually starts pretty late (like after 10pm, which was totally useless when we were exhausted and ready to go to bed by then anyway). 
 

Like you mentioned, there’s no going to the pool if kids are still in diapers. Following the advice of someone here on cruise critic, we brought a small, inflatable pool and placed it in our balcony. It was a bad decision. Not only was it a logistical nightmare, our son hated it and didn’t care for it one bit. Needles to say, we only did that one time. 😂.

 

If I’d known then what I know now, I would’ve started my kids cruising on either Royal or Disney simply because there are so many more offerings and accommodations for the littlest ones. Once they were old enough for the regular kids club, then we would’ve sailed other cruise lines. We started our kids on Holland America and Carnival, and although we have some very fond memories from those early cruises and our kids are now bona fide seasoned cruisers, there were times during those early cruises when we wanted to pull our hair out. 😂

 

 

Edited April 7, 2023 by Tapi

[janca]

My oldest started cruising at 7 months old. There is play time in the Kids Club most days - just ask for the schedule. You stay and play with them, so it’s not the traditional kids club until they turn 3 (and she already had 60 days at sea by then 🤣). They also have bags of toys that you can check out and bring to your room.

 

There are usually crew members on board who sign up for babysitting in your stateroom, if you are interested in that option. On a few of the cruises, we took our Au Pair with us, so we didn’t use the babysitting option as much, but had good experiences when we did.

 

If our stateroom did not have a bathtub, we used a small inflatable pool in the shower for bath time back then.

 

Our kids are 9 and 7 now and love Celebrity and the kids club. We’ve tried a couple of other lines, but Celebrity continues to be their favorite.

 

 

[CruiseCrew123]

@Ejane

 

well good luck - I hope your little one hasn’t discovered walking by then . My youngest started walking just before a land holiday in Lanzarote and my poor husband doesn’t most of his holiday walking round the hotel with him 🙈. I can’t imagine going that on a ship .Make sure you take a fold up stroller 

Edited April 7, 2023 by CruiseCrew123

[Ejane]

Thank you all for your replies. Yes, I don't think I'd leave him with a babysitter, I'd prefer to stay with him and play somewhere, that's a great suggestion about asking for toys for the room, or I might bring a small bag of toys with me for him to play with. It's such a shame they don't have a paddling pool for younger children or a small playroom that I could go to and play with him.  

[GenerationX]

 

19 minutes ago, Ejane said:

Thank you all for your replies. Yes, I don't think I'd leave him with a babysitter, I'd prefer to stay with him and play somewhere, that's a great suggestion about asking for toys for the room, or I might bring a small bag of toys with me for him to play with. It's such a shame they don't have a paddling pool for younger children or a small playroom that I could go to and play with him.  

FYI I think you may have been given some incorrect information in a couple of the posts above.  
 

I’m just off of the Solstice and they did actually have a play room for smaller kids/toddlers with lots of toys where parents could take them to play, it was just during limited hours.  Solstice is an older ship with a smaller kids club so I think they operated toddler time in the 3-5 year old camp area during hours when the 3-5 camp wasn’t in session.

 

I’d be shocked if Apex doesn’t have the same if not a bigger/better toddler play area/times, because the newer ships are really designed to cater to a younger demographic (who are more likely to be traveling with small kids) and have much bigger and better Camp at Sea facilities generally.  

 

Here’s a pic of the toddler time hours sign.  It wasn’t a ton of time (about 3 hours each day) but I think the hours can vary based on the sailing and ship.

 

If you haven’t already, you might also want to check out this Celebrity blog post on cruising Celebrity with a toddler. It’s a couple of years old but most of the info still looks pretty accurate to what I’ve experienced onboard recently.  It also mentions that there are toddler time play hours in camp every day and that there are toys and books available to check out.

 

Have a great family cruise!

 

https://www.celebritycruises.com/blog/cruise-with-a-toddler

 

[Ejane]

Thank you so much GenerationX for that info! Hopefully Apex will have something similar, I really don't want to have to lug a big bag of toys onto the airplane with me and he gets bored so easily so something like that would be perfect for him! 😀

[keysey222]

23 minutes ago, Ejane said:

Thank you so much GenerationX for that info! Hopefully Apex will have something similar, I really don't want to have to lug a big bag of toys onto the airplane with me and he gets bored so easily so something like that would be perfect for him! 😀

They will let you check out whatever toys you like. You can keep switching them up! 

 

[chemmo]

I don’t know if you have friends with a baby of similar age but we met  two couples who always cruise together with their respective youngsters. This started when their first babies were below one, they now have five little ones between them 18 months to five years….They spend time as individual families, time as two couples with children and have times where one couple has the little ones and the other has a break… During their cruises they manage time off and time on parental role…

 

Works really well for them cruising together. Just an idea if you have family/friends in a similar situation…

 

 

Edited April 7, 2023 by chemmo

[GenerationX]

2 hours ago, Ejane said:

Thank you so much GenerationX for that info! Hopefully Apex will have something similar, I really don't want to have to lug a big bag of toys onto the airplane with me and he gets bored so easily so something like that would be perfect for him! 😀

Happy to help!  My kiddo is 10 now but we traveled quite a bit with her when she was small and I remember those days of trying to efficiently pack 45 million toys!

 

I’m actually going to be sailing on the Beyond next week (same ship class as Apex so amenities should be the same if not very similar) and will try to stop by the kids club and ask about toddler time and toys available for check out and will report back here.  
 

From my own experience, you may also want to plan to bring extra tipping cash if giving additional cash gratuities at the end of the cruise is something that you typically do. When I sail with my daughter so many crew members bend over backwards to go above and beyond for her and often share with me about their own kids back home.  
 

We had an excellent server in the coffee shop on one cruise who over the course of the week told us all about her adorable 4 year old back in the Philippines living with her grandparents while she worked on the ship.  She said it’s really hard when she comes home between contracts because sometimes her daughter doesn’t recognize  her right away and doesn’t want to call her Mama because she’s not there much. 😭. I was at the ATM on night 6 getting more cash to put in that hard working mama’s envelope!

[davekathy]

3 hours ago, Ejane said:

Thank you so much GenerationX for that info! Hopefully Apex will have something similar, I really don't want to have to lug a big bag of toys onto the airplane with me and he gets bored so easily so something like that would be perfect for him! 😀

The Apex has Camp At Sea on deck 3. I came across it one sea day exploring the ship. We don't have kids so I can't comment on the set up. 

[bEwAbG]

Cruise critic has some pro photos of Edge, which is a sister ship.  Kids club should look similar.

 

https://www.cruisecritic.com/photos/ships/celebrity-edge-1130/kids-club-420563/kids-club--v18656693/

 

[bEwAbG]

Here is someone's video walkthrough on Apex (they say).

 

 

[Ejane]

11 hours ago, keysey222 said:

They will let you check out whatever toys you like. You can keep switching them up! 

 

That's great to know, thanks very much for that! 

[Ejane]

8 hours ago, GenerationX said:

Happy to help!  My kiddo is 10 now but we traveled quite a bit with her when she was small and I remember those days of trying to efficiently pack 45 million toys!

 

I’m actually going to be sailing on the Beyond next week (same ship class as Apex so amenities should be the same if not very similar) and will try to stop by the kids club and ask about toddler time and toys available for check out and will report back here.  
 

From my own experience, you may also want to plan to bring extra tipping cash if giving additional cash gratuities at the end of the cruise is something that you typically do. When I sail with my daughter so many crew members bend over backwards to go above and beyond for her and often share with me about their own kids back home.  
 

We had an excellent server in the coffee shop on one cruise who over the course of the week told us all about her adorable 4 year old back in the Philippines living with her grandparents while she worked on the ship.  She said it’s really hard when she comes home between contracts because sometimes her daughter doesn’t recognize  her right away and doesn’t want to call her Mama because she’s not there much. 😭. I was at the ATM on night 6 getting more cash to put in that hard working mama’s envelope!

Thanks so much for that, I'll definitely do that, enjoy your cruise next week.

[Ejane]

Thanks for the links and videos, I'll check those out too! 👍