Sailing with a 3-year-old questions

[BRC6C]

Greetings all! We just got off an Carnival Cruise and are excited that our next cruise will be with X to Alaska. We will be on the 7 day northbound on the Summit on the 6/17 sailing. We includes our 3-year-old son and that's where I have a couple questions. He loved the kids club on Carnival, can anyone fill us in on hints about the opportunities for him on the Summit? Also, we're booked into the late seating for dinner. That combined with the fact that we live on the east coast means dinner will feel like it's at 11:30 pm. I know that at least at the beginning there's no way he will last that long to eat. What other options are there for feeding him earlier? Will the kids club be open when we eat so that he could go there if we know he won't be able to sit through our dinner? Anything else I should be asking?

Thanks in advance!

[Fang]

We have sailed four times with our two daughters. The first one was when the youngest just turned four.

 

We had early dinner on the first two cruises. It became clear that our kids would rather eat with their new friends every night than with my wife and I.

Because of this we switched to late for the future cruises and have not had a problem.

 

On our November cruise on the Constillation, every night the kids program offered dinner. There is a catch, the only night it is free is the formal nights. I think it was $5 per child, and then they took them right to the Fun Factory.

 

Our girls did eat with us the two formal nights and had no problem staying up that late.

 

If there is not a night with the kids dinner, I would just feed you child from either room service, casual dinner spot, pasta station, pizza station or hamburger grill and then take him to the Fun Factory.

[mahdnc]

Some of what you are asking about (feeding options) was touched on in this thread: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=6124546#post6124546

 

We sailed aboard Horizon exactly a year ago and the kids club did not have any dinner option except on the formal nights. Maybe something has changed since then.

 

Celebrity has an excellent children's program. We have sailed with our 2 kids on Celebrity 5 times now--a couple of times when they were in the 3 yr old range. Just keep in mind that your child must be 3 yrs old and pottie trained to be enrolled in the program. I think Carnival's requirements are slightly less stringent.

[hotvwchick]

We travelled on the Zenith with our 21 month old. We took the late night seating as we wanted mommy/daddy time and got a sitter(got a bit expensive for 2 weeks). The Maitre'D came to our table every evening after dessert and assembled a toddler friendly menu(which he reviewed with me) for the next evening to be delivered to our room 1 hour before we went to dinner. It would have a meat that was easy to chew or it was chopped up, 2 servings of vegetables(chopped up too), and a starch(potatoes, pasta, ect), 2 glasses of milk and a big bowl of fresh berries. By the time the sitter arrived, she had finished dinner and had a glass of milk left to drink at her leisure. REMEMBER TO TALK TO THE MAITRE'D AT THE BEGINNING OF THE CRUISE OR YOU WILL BE STUCK WITH THE TYPICAL KID'S MENU. I just didn't want my daughter eating Macaroni and cheese, hot dogs, burgers and the like for 2 weeks. No nutritional value.

I found that Celebrity has a good kids program but I liked Carnival's better. There was only 5 kids on our sailing with our daughter Miss Anastasia the youngest. Even in non-kid seasons, you will find a lot more kids on Carnival. 99% of the passengers onboard the Zenith loved Anastasia but there was a few old grumps on board.....but you'll find that anywhere.

I noticed on the Zenith, there was a couple of spots that my daughter could slip through the railings and potentially go overboard(around the life boats). Once on board, I would look at the ship from a child's point of view and look for any potential problem areas. She also wiped out in a few wet spots on the outside decks.

My last chunk of advice....try not to schedule too much sightseeing while on shore. We found that an hour was enough for Ana....then it was off to the beach. After all, it was her vacation too!

Celebrity has kid friendly buffets with lots of choices and ice cream too!

Celebrity makes it a special vacation for kids too. Its just more classy and refined. Instead of a cookie in her crib, she got a fine chocolate. Have fun!

[BRC6C]

Thanks so much for all the answers! He is fully potty trained so we're good there, whew!

 

I thought of one more question... how does signing in and out of the kids club work? Does the same person have to sign him in and out? Can more than one sign him in so that either can sign him out?

[Iamboatman]

There is a sign-in sheet where you can designate someone else to pick up. It is not a problem.