Eastern Caribbean with a 1 year old - very long review

[tikcho]

We just came back from an Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Caribbean Princess wih our one year old and I wrote a long review with a lot of baby-related info (both on the cruise and in the ports).

 

I posted it in the Reviews section but I thought I'd post here as well. Feel free to ask any questions - I'd be happy to answer. Be warned - this review is long as I tried to cover everything.

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My husband and I (both in out early 30s) have wanted to go cruising for a long time but somehow never did. So when we started planning a family vacation with our son who just turned one (and my in-laws) our first thought was a cruise. After much research, we chose Eastern Caribbean (vs Western) because the ports are very safe and there seemed to be more stuff to do with a toddler - it was definitely a good choice. We debated between RCI and Princess but ended up finding a good rate on Princess so we went with them - another good choice. We chose the 2nd week of March because that's when my in-laws could get vacation time and it turned out that the cruise was oversold that week so we got a call from Princess a few days before we left offering us $800 shipboard credit if we agreed to rebook for another week after May, but we were all set to go so we declined. Just a little warning that I'm going to try to include a lot of kid-related stuff in this review because I know there are a lot of parents out there looking for feedback, so if you don't have kids, just skip over these bits. All in all, I have to say, the Caribbean Princess is a great option for people of all ages and I highly recommend it.

 

We flew to Ft. Lauderdale the day of the cruise - took an 8 am flight from Washington Dullas on JetBlue and arrived a little before 11. We were at the port and in line at 11:30 (taxi to cruise port takes 10-15 min and is about $15). They had already started boarding some people and the line was moving quickly - we went through security and check-in quickly and were in the boarding area around 12:10 pm. We were given #9 card for boarding and they were currently boarding #5. Our son was getting very cranky because we had to wake him up from a nap to go through security so I approached one of the Princess staff at the boarding area and asked whether they had any special lines for people with little kids and she was very nice and told me to just go ahead and board with group 5. No one at the entrance stopped us so we walked through the picture taking, got our key cards and were in our cabin by 12:30. My in-laws (who were driving down from DC) were in line at 12:30 and got onboard at 1:30. Great job, Princess, very smooth embarkation!

Our cabin was 514 on the Emerald Deck (8th floor). When I booked it, I chose to have an obstructed view because I wanted to have a window but did not want to pay the $100 extra for full view. Well, we were in for a treat because our cabin was right in between two of the boats, so we had a perfect full view of the ocean - awesome! The cabin itself was pretty small but was nicely laid out. We had a queen bed under the window and there was a nice vanity area with a desk and a mirror and a mini-fridge. For those traveling with an infant - if you place a crib in the room, there will be pretty much no space to walk at all. So we found a perfect space for the crib in the closet area across the bathroom. It's like a pretty big walk-in closet without a door, so we put our clothes on hangers in half of it and placed the Pack-n-Play in the other half. There is plenty of space for clothes so we wouldn't use the entire closet area anyways. This worked out perfectly because my son had his own private space and enabled the adults in the room to read or watch TV without disturbing him. My son is usually asleep by 8 pm so all 4 of us took turns staying in the room with him while the others had fun in the evenings. We would turns off the lights in the hallway and keep the night lights on the room so his area was dark while whoever was staying with him was reading. The bathroom was small as well, with just a shower and no tub, but there was plenty of storage space and we never felt very crowded. I have to saw thought that my in-laws and my sister in law were staying in an inside room on the same floor and with three people in the room, it was a little crowded, especially once the bunk bed is down. Since my son is used to getting a bath before bed every night and he is not used to being in the shower, we gave him baths in the sink - we would just have him sit in the sink and pour cups of water over him. While not the most comfortable arrangement, he thought it was a lot of fun and loved looking at himself in the bathroom mirror. Overall, the cabin was well maintained and very well laid out.

Our attendant, Sara from Mexico was OK, but not great. She came over to introduce herself around 4 pm on the first day and got me upset when she came knocking on our door at 9 pm that first night with some chocolates and almost woke up our son. The next day I explained to her that he goes to bed early and wake up early in the morning and asked her top adjust her cleaning hours based on that, which she did for the rest of the cruise. She maintained our cabin clean but other than that we had no interaction with her. The attendant working a few cabins from us would always greet our son with a smile, she would play and joke with him when she saw us in the hallway and was generally very friendly, which cannot be said about Sara. Also, we had to call and ask for beach towels a couple of times (you are given two towels at the beginning of the cruise and every day you are supposed to leave them in your room or the pool and get new ones), but other than that we had no problems.

After we left our carry-ons in the cabin, we went to the buffet area for some lunch and then back to the room for our son's afternoon nap. Most of the times, especially in port, he would sleep in his stroller, but we tried to have him nap in bed whenever possible. We had our muster drill at 4 pm in the Explorers Lounge and that was pretty quick and comfortable. My son was just crawling on the floor around the lounge and "meeting" the other passengers. We didn't leave the port until 5:30 because apparently the ship was waiting for a large group of people whose flights were delayed because of bad weather (if you book your flight through Princess, they guarantee you'll make it on the ship). Well, they were very delayed so we were told they would meet us in St. Martin two days later. After the muster drill, we walked around the ship a bit to explore some of the lounges and then had an early dinner at the buffet. After dinner we were all really tired (had to wake up at 4 am that morning) so we unpacked, put our son to bed and went to sleep ourselves. My in-laws went to see the comedian in the Princess Theater that night and said he was hilarious. Around 9:30 pm I jumped from the bed as the captain came on the loudspeaker (there is one above the bed in each cabin) and announced that there was a very sick passenger onboard that had to be taken back to a hospital right away so we were turning back to Ft. Lauderdale. I guess we went back to drop the person off and then started our journey again, I guess the captain cranked up the engines because we arrived in St. Martin on time.

I have to warn you that during the first two sea days the ship was pretty rocky. For those who think they may get seasick - I definitely recommend the patch or the SeaBand. I got the SeaBand and had it on from the minute we left the port - while I did feel a little queasy the first night, I never actually got sick or throw up which cannot be said for some of the other passengers. We met several people later in the week that got sick the first two days. The waves weren't big at all, and the weather was OK, but you could tell the ship was rocking a lot - it's a very strange feeling and it took me a while to get used to. My husband and my son were fine - my son's doctor said kids do not get seasick until they are about 3-4 years old. After we entered the Caribbean Sea right before our first stop in St. Martin, the ride was much calmer and while you still felt some motion it was much better. If you think you may get sick - get a cabin in the middle of the ship and that is where the motion is felt least. My in-laws' cabin was at the very front of the ship (E103) and they felt a lot more motion during the night. Also, Club Fusion, where they have a lot of the dancing competitions, is in the very back of the ship, and on several nights we could feel a lot of movement (very hard to dance).

Every morning my son would wake up around 6:30 and we'll bring him into our bed an all of us will look at the ocean from the window - he just loved sitting on the ledge and looking outside. Then, we would have breakfast in the buffet and on the sea days, we would go explore the ship a bit or go to the pool. We would have lunch in the buffet and then he would take his nap followed by more pool time, which he loved.

Buffet - there are technically two buffet areas, which are sort of connected and serve very similar food. We ate all of our breakfasts and a few dinners in the buffet because it was easiest with a child. Breakfast and lunch are also served in the formal dining rooms but they always take longer and our son had no patience to sit in a chair for an hour. The buffet area itself is very pretty and has huge windows so we would get a table by the window and our son would be very entertained to stand up to the window and watch the ocean. The staff in the buffet was great, always bringing a high chair quickly, playing with my son, taking away dirty plates quickly, and generally being superb. We had breakfast around 8 am and never had trouble finding a table for 4. However, if you go later, it gets pretty crowded. It was very very crowded for lunch, sometimes we had to circle around for 10 minutes looking for a table, and the few times we had dinner there it was not crowded at all since most people preferred to have dinner in the dining rooms. While most things on the cruise were great, the food in the buffet is the one thing that needs improvement. Breakfast was always the same and not that good either - scrambled eggs were tasteless, bacon was soggy, coffee was weak and tasteless, French toast was soggy, the cheeses were called "artisan" but were really just Swiss and Provolone cheeses cut up in pieces, watermelon was tasteless and the fruit salad was messy, they did have a nice variety of cereals though, if you eat cereal. Lunch was supposed to be a different theme every day but most of the stuff seemed to me the same as the day before - many things had fancy names but did not taste very well, I expected more. The desserts were great, lots of options all the time. There was usually something for my son to eat from the buffet - yogurt, soup, pasta, fries, although we did bring baby food with us on some days just in case. You can request jars of baby food pre-cruise but we never bothered. I ended up eating a lot of pizza for lunch from the little pizza place by the Neptune Pool - that pizza was awesome (and I rarely eat pizza at home) and was always warm and fresh and just melted in your mouth, yum! Highly recommend it! There is also a little grill right across from the pizza place which has hamburgers and hot dogs and fries - they are pretty average but an easy lunch option. The buffet is open from 6 am to 11 pm so there is always something available - I'm not a big eater myself but we saw people getting plates full of stuff in the middle of the night. There is an ice cream parlor between the two pools, ice cream costs $1.50 and they only have three flavors (vanilla, strawberry and chocolate) - we tried it a couple of times but it wasn't anything great.

Dining rooms - we had anytime dining, which I highly recommend if you have a little kid although the early traditional dining is also an option (starts at 6 pm). What we found out with the anytime though is that you still need to make reservations in advance because every night there were lines of people waiting to sit with no reservation. We did not want to wait so we called in the morning and made reservations for 6 pm and never had a problem, we were usually seated right away. The dining rooms on Princess, while nicely decorated in classic décor, were a bit of a disappointment because the windows were blocked with heavy curtains and the rooms were always a little too dark for my taste - they could have taken advantage of the lovely views of the ocean. All three dining rooms (Island for traditional dining and Coral and Palm for anytime) looked identical so it really doesn't matter which one you choose. We found the service with anytime to be OK, but not superb. The waiters did their job but never went beyond what was required, never tried to get to know us, never recommended anything on the menu - basically they took our orders and served the food. Many people probably prefer that to the singing and dancing on other lines, I would have preferred a bit more personality. The food in the dining room was very good and I wish we could have eaten there every night, but the service usually took 1.5 hours or more so with ah toddler it gets very difficult to keep them entertained - he would sit still for about 30 min and then we would have to take turns walking around with him or playing games with him to keep him from crying. So by the end of dinner, everyone was exhausted so we usually skipped dessert and coffee. Lobster night was particularly good - they had a great seafood appetizer, lobster tail, shrimp, and a lot of other delicacies. The other nights were great as well with something for everyone, we had a hard time deciding what to get. They usually had a couple of soup options so we would order that for my son and some of the entrees were also appropriate for toddlers - pasta, meatballs, vegetarian meals. People usually dressed nice for dinner and we didn't really see anyone in shorts or jeans even in the non-formal nights.

Now is probably a good time to mention something about the other people on the cruise - as I mentioned earlier the week we booked happened to be spring break so there were a lot of college and high school kids but I did not feel like they were too rowdy or crazy. There was a very nice mix of people - lots of families with teenagers, lots of couples in their 40s and 50s, a good number of families with young kids (there tow other 1 year olds, the rest of the kids were 3-6) and some retired people. One of the staff members in the casino told us that couple of weeks ago everyone was in their 70s and 80s but because of the school break our crowd was younger, which was great.

Pools - there are several pools on the ship so with few exceptions we never felt like they were too crowded. All the pools have regular water (not ocean water), which is great because I've heard ocean water can get too cold. We mostly hung out by the Neptune pool - if you have kids, this is the warmest pool on the ship. This is also where all the games were held during the day (sexy legs, ice carving, cocktail mixing, etc) Yes, if you do not reserve a seat on the pool deck early, you will have to sit on the upper deck. We never really need chairs because we had no time to leisurely lounge on them, so we would usually find one chair to drop of our stuff and spend the rest of the time in the water. Kids in diapers are not allowed in the pools but there is a 5-6 foot ledge around the Neptune pool that has about an inch of water so we would spend hours sitting there while our son was playing with his toys or cruising around the pool area and splashing. All the people in the pool were great with him, there was always someone who wanted to play with him or "talk" to him or there would be some kind of a game going on so he loved hanging out there. The Neptune Pool is the loudest one as well - there is a great band that plays there every afternoon and the rest of the time there is music so if you want piece and quiet, go to the Terrace Pool or one of the others all the way in the back of the ship. Those are smaller but they were almost always empty and quiet. The Calypso Poll is the one where they have the huge TV screen and MUTS. We did go to that one a couple of times but the water in the pool was a little colder plus we were never able to see an entire movie so we didn't hang out there a lot. Throughout the day they have either movies or concerts playing (mostly older movies like Grease, James Bond, Elton John and U2) but at night they will have three showings of a first run movie (they had Nanny Diaries, Bee Movie, High School Musical 2 and a few others whose names I do not remember) and the area was set up nicely with blankets and popcorn. It would definitely be a great place to hang out at night, very romantic, although we preferred some of the other entertainment options - there was a lot to choose from. Both pools have 2 hot tubs next to them and while those were pretty crowded during the days, at night they were empty so we did spend some time in one of them one night just relaxing and watching the stars.

Daily entertainment - on the three sea days there was a lot going on during the day - trivia games, classes, pool games, golf competitions, scavenger hunts, bingo, etc. Because of the baby, we mostly walked around the ship or stayed by the pool but it seemed like there was something for every age. We did go to the cooking demonstration in the Princess Theater on the last sea day and it was very interesting and funny. The main chef of the ship shows you how to cook different dishes and then they take you on a tour of the galley of the ship. We did not go on the tour because by the end of the demonstration our son got pretty cranky but we heard it was very interesting.

Night entertainment - Princess really does a great job in that area as every night there were so many great options that it was hard to choose from. Every night, one of us would stay with the baby while the rest would go out, which worked our great. However, if you are going on your own, it may be tough to balance. We saw a few people with sleeping babies in strollers during the performances, but I wanted to keep my son on his regular schedule. Princess Theater is great but yes, it is too small for everyone on the ship. Yes, may people reserve a seat early and we could not do that because by the time we put the baby to sleep it was already 8 pm. Two things you can do is go to the later performance (usually the 10:30 seating was not as crowded) or just sit on the stairs during the earlier performance (we did that a couple of times and it was fine). The first night my in-laws saw one of the comedians, who they thought was great. We saw Sarge, another comedian, who was also very good although I didn't think he was as great as some other here have said. We also saw the Beatlemaniacs who were awesome. We went to the Piano Man but walked out because it was too Broadway for me - I'm not so much into that type of performance. My in-laws also saw the hypnotist and said he was great - one girl sitting in their row actually got hypnotized in her seat and could not wake up at the end of the performance so he had to do a special thing to wake her up. The last night we saw the comedian (forgot his name, he was on the Jay Leno show) who was hilarious and made great contact with the audience. We also hung out a lot in Club Fusion - this is where the Princess Pop Star and a lot of the other game shows take place. We went to 70s night and 50s night and those were a lot of fun - they have dancing competitions, teach you to dance the style of that era, have a great band playing, we had a great time. Too bad those nights were not very well attended, maybe because the club is a bit out of the way, all the way in the back of the ship. On 50s night my husband got chosen to participate in an Elvis impersonation contest and won a bottle of champagne, yay! We also participated in one of the trivia games, Princess Jeopardy, but did not win anything, some of the questions were pretty tough. The karaoke/Princess Pop Star nights were a lot of fun as well - some people can definitely sing (while some others were very drunk, but it was still fun watching them). The last night we saw the Marriage Game - what a fun game, everyone was laughing really hard. The lounge was packed that night. We spent some time watching the Piano Man in the lounge by the elevators - he was there every night and people would crowd around the area blocking the hallways because the bar itself is very small. I did like his signing but I thought he made too much effort to be funny, which was a little annoying. But I agree he should be moved to a large venue as people seemed to love him, especially the older crowd. The Explorers Lounge and the Wheelhouse Bar are sort of in the middle of the ship and they did seem pretty full most evenings - they usually had some bands playing or some comedian, but we did not attend anything there so I cannot say much. The Skywalkers lounge was pretty empty the couple of times we went there, not sure if it's ever full. Most people would come in, look around and leave. It's very nice space so they should do something more fun to get people there. We also went a couple of times during the day as it's a great place to let a toddler crawl around and enjoy the view.

Miscellaneous: We went to the casino a couple of times - took part in the Black Jack tournament (we lost) and then just played some $5 blackjack and won $100. Overall, the casino is a good size and has a choice of table games and slot machines. It was never crowded the times we went and while smoky, it wasn't so bad. The extra charge restaurants - we never went, but my sister-in-law went to Sabatini's and said it was amazing, but way too much food. Spa and gym - my in laws went to the gym every morning, it is very spacious and has a good selection of equipment. Never went to the spa so I can't say much about it. Drinks - don't bother ordering any of the cocktails unless you really want to spend your money. I usually drink very little but the drinks on Princess were so weak that during the Captain's Welcome party I had 4 cocktails and didn't feel a thing. They cost $7-$9 each so definitely not worth it. Get a bucket of beers if you really want a drink. TV- since one of us had to stay in the room with the baby every night, we made good use of the TV, but unfortunately there were only a handful of channels available. CNN, ESPN and a movie channel was all there was plus the channels that always promote some of the cruise events. Very poor selection, bring a book if you'll be spending time in the room. Art auction- we are not into art that much, but we did walk thorough the pictures that were available for auction and some of them were really good and from well knows artists. There were three auctions in our 7 days so wait till the end to get the better prices if you are into that. Photographs - photos on the cruise were very expensive, $25 each, so we did not buy any. There are many picture taking opportunities and many times the photographers sort of hassle you into posing for a photo so in the end we just said no because we didn't want to spend so much money on a photo we could take ourselves. If Princess sells those for $10 they would sell a lot more - at the end of the cruise they end of throwing tons of them away. Classes - there are several education sessions each day including port days. My in-laws went to a couple of the fitness sessions (detoxing and weight loss) but felt that those were just a way to get you to schedule a personal session with the guy who was conducting them. There were also some computer classes, napkin folding, etc but we did not go. Captains' Welcome - the second night of the cruise there is the Captain's Welcome part where all the officers and the captain mingle with the guests before dinner. There are free cocktails, music and you met some of the officers so this is a definite must attend before dinner. Pool party - on Wednesday night there is a huge party by the pool, with lots of games, competitions, dances, etc. We went for a bit and had a good time although we didn't stay long. We played some free black jack and didn't win but if you do you get a coupon for the casino and a free drink so you may try your luck. Deck 7 - there is a promenade wrapped around the entire deck, which is a wonderful place to jog or stroll and enjoy the view. It is also a perfect place for a baby's nap while you walk around in the fresh air. It was never crowded and it's a great place to spot some of the islands that you pass.

Service - overall, the service was really good and while not all employees went above and beyond their call of duty, many of them were super friendly, especially to the baby. We didn't really feel like they were pushing us for sales like some other mentioned. Drinks around the pool and in the bar were not pushed on us and in the anytime dining room we did not feel pressed to order wine with dinner. Photographers were sometimes a bit in your face but when we politely told them we were not interested they moved on.

Ports: St. Martin - we took the water taxi from the cruise port to Phillipsburg ($6 for all day) - a 10 min relaxing ride. Strollers are allowed on the taxi and the guys helped us get on and off. I was surprised at how small the "boardwalk" area in Phillipsburg is; we walked to the end of it in less than 15 minutes. We were planning on taking a Segway tour (you can rent them at one of the hotels) but they cost $65 per person for an hour and you only go up and down the boardwalk a few times so we decided it wasn't worth it. There are a bunch of duty free shops but we weren't interested in shopping so we sat down in a little coffee shop on the beach for a bit. We then went to the taxi area to get a taxi to Orient Beach and managed to negotiate a price of $6 per person one-way (it was 5 of us) - make sure to bargain with the drivers, especially if the taxi need a couple of more people to fill up (they are all vans, not cars). I had done a lot of research before the cruise and many people highly recommended Orient Beach as one of the prettiest beaches in the world. Well, if you are reading this, save your money and just go to the beach off the boardwalk in Phillipsburg. Orient is bigger but not prettier, it is very crowded and there's really nothing special about it to justify the $12 per person cab ride and $15 for 2 chairs and an umbrella. Next time we'll definitely stay on the beach by the boardwalk - the water was pretty, blue and warm and there were plenty of restaurants around. We were dropped off close to the nude section of Orient beach so we saw about a dozed naked people and some topless women, although being European that did not bother me much, but just a warning for those that care. We took a taxi back to the ship around 4 pm and were onboard the ship before 5.

St. Thomas - I really liked St. Thomas and would like to come back again in the future, there a lot to do here even if you do not go to the beach. Based on recommendations on the boards, we booked with Godfrey's Tours and can definitely recommend him. For $25 per person he took us to the shopping area for 2 hours, then on a 2 hour tour of the island and then to a beach of your choice and back to the ship by 5 0 definitely worth the money. We really liked the shopping area although there are a lot of pushy people who try to sell you everything. We walked around a bit - there are some lovely small side streets with galleries and restaurants and then sat down in a coffee shop to people watch. Godfrey picked us up at 12 pm and took us on a lovely tour of the island stopping on some of the best picture-taking spots as well as the Mountain Top area, where they truly make the best daiquiri - try it! We took some amazing photos of the bays down below and did not feel rushed at all. The tour is also perfect for people with toddlers because it's in an open bus so there's a nice breeze going and our son loved looking outside. He also took a long nap in the bus during the tour. Everyone in our group wanted to go to Sapphire Beach so Godfrey dropped us off there around 1:40 and picked us up at 4 pm. We briefly stopped at Coki Beach on the way and while a pretty beach with lovely fish; it was very small and did not seem like a good place for a toddler. Sapphire is great - lots of natural shade, clear water and smooth sand as well as a bunch of beach bars where you can get food and drinks. It is not a very large beach but is very pretty. Be careful because the water becomes deep very quickly, especially if you're holding a baby. There are also different water sports available if you are into those. On the way back to the ship, Godfrey took us through some of the residential areas and gave us a good history of the island. Again, we were back onboard before 5 pm.

Princess Cays - this is a very relaxing island with lots of activities to do. The only thing that I did not like were the tenders. We only waited about 15 minutes to get on a tender but once onboard, they were very stuffy (they are pretty enclosed), there's no easy space to park the stroller (you have to take baby out and fold up the stroller) and they rock A LOT! If you get seasick you should be careful. The day we were there the water was super calm and still the tender rocked a lot, can't imagine what it feels if the sea is choppy - good thing the rise was only about 10-15 min. The beach itself is very pretty although there is a lot of coral and rocks in the water so be careful. We went on the north side of the beach where most of the music, bars, volleyball court, etc are and we had no problem getting a chair close to the water. Lunch is served between 11 and 1 pm and it's mostly BBQ and salads but not bad. In the afternoon while our son took a nap, my hubby and I rented a kayak and went along the beach, which was a great experience. The water was super clear. We lined up for the tenders around 2:30 pm and only waited for about 15 min and were back on the ship a little after 3 pm. There were also some little stores on the beach with local crafts but we were never hassled to buy anything so overall it was a pretty relaxing day.

Disembarking - disembarkation was easy and quick, very well organized. We were in the last group to be called since our flight was not until 1 pm. We were asked to gather in the dining room at 9:30, which gave us enough time to do some last minute packing, have breakfast and just hang out. Once in the dining room we waited for about 10 minutes and were then called to the check-out line. We went through that and then customs quickly and then a porter met us and took us to our bags. For a couple of bucks tip he carried all of our bags to the taxi line and got us a taxi. We were at the airport at 10:30 - another great job, Princess! Baby-related info: Take a lightweight umbrella stroller to make your life easy. We have a fairly lightweight (but not umbrella) stroller at home and while I contemplated getting a cheapie umbrella stroller just for the cruise we decided to get a Maclaren Volo that we can use in the city as well. Best decision we ever made. It folds very small so didn't take up room in the cabin and maneuvers super easy even with one hand on the ship, on the islands and even on sand. Even if you don't want a Maclaren, buy a $20 umbrella stroller that you can carry - sometimes the elevators on the ship take forever to arrive so we carried the baby up and down stairs, on and off tenders, etc - you do not want to be struggling with a big bulky stroller. There are two kid's pools on the ship (children in diapers are technically not allowed but no one was there to check). One is on deck 16 near the gym and the other is in the enclosed toddler play area on the aft of deck 16. However, both of these pools had really cold water throughout the cruise and were completely empty. One mother told me that she's put in a written complaint about this but nothing was done to warm up the water. Technically, diapered kids are not allowed in the big pools either, but my son went in a couple of times in the Neptune Pool and no one said anything. There is no supervised activity for kids under 3 but there is a little area over the buffet on deck 16 where toddlers can play with an adult. We only went there once because we didn't even find that area until the last day and it was completely empty. There are however a bunch of toddler bikes, a plastic play house, balls and some other toys if you just want the baby to run around a bit. There is a kids club for kids 3+ and even though we did not have first-hand experience we heard some good things about the activities from other parents, especially those for the young teens (they have a whole area on deck 16 devoted to teens with their own disco, games, etc). Late night group baby-sitting is available for kids 3+, in different age groups. None of the bathrooms on the ship had changing areas so we ended up just changing my son on a chair by the pool or in our room. This is definitely something for Princess to consider for the future. Overall, all the staff and the other guests were super friendly to our son and he ended up having a great time. Don't hesitate to ask for anything you need, the staff was very accommodating. I wish Princess had in-room baby-sitting at night because if you don't have relatives onboard to help you will miss most of the nightly entertainment.

[GaTechCruiser]

Wow What a great review!!! Thanks for all the information.

[tikcho]

You're welcome, glad I can help. I know I spent months researching the cruise and the ports before we went (especially since it was our first cruise) so I want to help others in the same situation.