14 month old to formal night dinner?

[deltwalrus]

This is our first cruise (RCCL Liberty of Seas 4/26) and we are taking our almost 14 month old with us. The dilemma is whether or not to go to the formal night dinners. He's typically pretty good in restaurants and we are scheduled for the main seating, not the late one. I've seen lots of pictures from the formal nights---is it appropriate to take the little ones??

Thanks!

[um5xno1]

Other than potty-trained only pools, RCCL does not restrict where you can and cannot bring your child.

[Baxter]

Appropriate or not, we took our little one. We bring things to keep her entertained (though the waiters have always been great to keep her favorite foods coming). On the rare occasion that she got a little fussy, we would take her out of the restaurant until she settled, and then brought her back.

[AJI2596]

I would and am bringing our son. I never even thought twice about it:D His little suit is all ready:D

[gerif]

There were two darling little boys at the next table on our Explorer cruise - I'd say about 2 and 3 years of age. While I did not understand why the parents had them at late seating (the little one would fall asleep in mom's lap nearly every night), they were very well behaved. On formal night, they came in dressed in little tuxedos - so cute. Alas, that's the one night the older one decided to act up soon after they sat down, so dad removed him immediately and didn't return for dinner - again, the little one was asleep in mom's lap before she could finish eating.

[Kerry's Girls]

I took my 13 month old twins to both formal nights. As pp's have mentioned, I was always ready to leave if necessary, but especially at the main seating, you'll find lots of other kids. Have a great time.

 

I'm trying to attach a picture of my girls at their first formal night...haven't attached pix before, so we'll see.

 

Best,

Mia

[sharktums]

Formal dining is the best!

 

As long as you don't leave the baby screaming (as you shouldn't do any night) it's more than fine!

[crusinmama06]

Yep, we bring the kids to formal night. They are more than welcome to come to the dining room on Liberty...especially main seating. You will see many kids/babies there.

[Florida_cruisers]

Here is a picture of my son at 14 months at formal night, if he got fussy, we will take out our secret weapon.... DVD player!! it worked great.

[provenienbam]

Like with any restaurant: bring the child but if it's creating merry-hell and disturbing other patrons do the polite thing and remove yourself with the child.

 

My daughter loves the formal evenings: the chance to dress up and be coddled by the neverending stream of temporary grandparents :-)

[ElsieToo]

My [child] loves the formal evenings: the chance to dress up and be coddled by the neverending stream of temporary grandparents :-)

 

So true! Our 9 mo DS loved all the attention as well. The head waiter even made it a point to come over and complement him on his duds (a grey, corduroy Winnie the Pooh outfit we got as a baby shower gift. ;) ), and we got many kind remarks from our tablemates. Besides, we weren't about to miss the opportunity to take formal portaits as a family! We take him for portraits regularly, but the ones from the cruise are the only formal ones we have as a family. Looking forward to it again this time. :D

[CruizinMom2c]

We took our son to the formal night and he was 9 months old...he had a blast and got a lot of comments on his suit ...here is a picture

 

 

 

 

 

 

(i love the other pics...so cute :) )

[carly123]

Hi Everyone, we are cruising with our 8 & 6 year old daughters and our 14 month old son at the end of May. I totally plan to take them with us for dinner. I expect them to act appropriately otherwise dh or i will be leaving the table with a child in tow. But, at home we don't always get to have nice dinners together, so we're definitely taking advantage. We'll bring some quiet table activities and maybe allow a nintendo ds at the table towards the end of dinner. On our last couple cruises we saw lots of families with young children enjoing themselves....so we figure we will too = )

 

One question though - I have never had trouble finding formal attire for my girls, but where do I find a cute suit or tux for our little guy? The attached pictures are so cute I just have to ask = )

 

I found some cute outfits at Target after Easter, but they're khakis with shirts/sweater vests appropriate for less formal evenings.

 

Thanks in advance!

[CruizinMom2c]

We got ours from jcpenny....and it was very resonable priced...its a 12 month but they have older sizes too.....and it was under 20 bucks....we got another suit from jcpenny for easter too and I will bring that one on the trip next week

[CruizinMom2c]

here is the suit from easter that we are bringing next week

 

 

 

 

 

they have a lot of colors to choose from at jcpenny

[crusinmama06]

CruizinMom2c and Florida_cruisers - OMG your little guys are just soooo darn cute!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I love their little outfits!!!! :D :D :D

[provenienbam]

Re: tux etc for little boys: We found a lot at consignment stores.

 

 

Alternatively wait outside a church during a baptism or whatnot and mug the kids :-)

[serene56]

 

 

 

Ms Jada's first cruise= she was 18 months old. We took our own disposable toddler utensils, plates and sippy cups. Her favorites were the cold soups.

[dan and becky]

We will be on Liberty the same week with our 14 month old grandson. We plan on being in the dining room on formal evening also. Maybe we will see you there....

[serene56]

We will be on Liberty the same week with our 14 month old grandson. We plan on being in the dining room on formal evening also. Maybe we will see you there....

 

 

 

Remember to take him to the kids camps at noon til 2pm where he can use the toys and playhouse to expend energy.

[ezjack1825]

So glad to hear others taking their little ones to dinner. So far my son has been an angel (unless you don't feed him fast enough) and we plan to have him in a little tux along with dad on formal night. We will have four generations together on our November cruise.

 

I also appriciate those posting that they would leave if their child acted up. My DW or I definately would leave too if our son was acting up - we just see it as being respectful and considerate. I'm not too worried about my son acting up too much as we do take him to functions and out to dinner on a regular basis and he's pretty good.

 

My mother tells me I was a pretty good kid but only after she reiterated the Bill Cosby line on me - "I brought you into this world and I can take you out. I can make another one just like you." Although they argue she'd try to better on the next one... :p

[rebeccalouise]

Sorry to get off topic but it still burns me. The McCann's who left their kids in their condo unattended- opted not to use the resort's babysitting. Why? Because they didn't trust their kids with strangers.

 

Isn't it funny that this couple was so worried about strangers but at the same time saw nothing wrong with leaving their kids alone and helpless in a condo?

 

What do you think as a parent? Better to take kids to dinner at 8PM so that you can be on top of them or perhaps leave them in the cabin with a good sitter and let you kids relax? Just something that puzzles me.

[VPIcruiser]

We took our DS to both formal dinners when he was 14 months. We got both of his fancy outfits from ebay.

 

I must admit that I am more worried about dinner this time since he will be just shy of 3 years and my DD will be 15 months. Like others have said, if they misbehave, we will take them for a walk outside of the dinning room. That is what we did two years ago with DS and after the first few nights, he made it through dinner without a problem. A couple of times we left one of his little cars behind and the assistant waiter seemed made it fun for DS to see it again. The crew showered him with extra attention.

 

I saw on another thread that someone suggested taking the colorwonders stuff. That is such a great idea. I am going to do the same along with other little (quiet) toys. We will also have both sets of grandparents with us.

[LESTRELA]

Hi Everyone, we are cruising with our 8 & 6 year old daughters and our 14 month old son at the end of May. I totally plan to take them with us for dinner. I expect them to act appropriately otherwise dh or i will be leaving the table with a child in tow. But, at home we don't always get to have nice dinners together, so we're definitely taking advantage. We'll bring some quiet table activities and maybe allow a nintendo ds at the table towards the end of dinner. On our last couple cruises we saw lots of families with young children enjoing themselves....so we figure we will too = )

 

One question though - I have never had trouble finding formal attire for my girls, but where do I find a cute suit or tux for our little guy? The attached pictures are so cute I just have to ask = )

 

I found some cute outfits at Target after Easter, but they're khakis with shirts/sweater vests appropriate for less formal evenings.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Hi

I will be on LOS on Aug 30th and i bought my now 81/2 month son 2 suits for our cruise, i did buy it a little bigger but i always can take it in, i bought it at burlington coat factory,http://www.babydepot.com and i paid 14.00 each and they are so cute!!!! hope this helps

[jerin]

Agreeing with the others. If he usually does well in restaurants, chances are he'll be fine. If not, the waiters usually seem good about packing up a to-go for you (we had someone with a special needs adult who did this once when the special needs person was having a bad evening and needed to leave).

 

We always got our boys' suits (including a size 18 mo tux once) at Penney's.