Cruising with very young children.

[agridealer]

Our family has been cruising together quite a bit for the last 10 or so years. Recently, my sister had her first child and we are expecting very soon. Because of this, we haven't been on a cruise in over a year and a half. That may not seem like much, but to us, it is nearly torture!

 

Which brings me to my point. Anyone have any experience cruising with very young children? We were thinking about next November, which would put us at around 1 year 6 months for nephew and 9-10 months for ours. Are we insane thinking that we can make this work? As experienced cruisers, we think we have a good handle on the pros/cons, just wondering about others experiences.

[SeaPA]

I don't see why you'd have any problem, especially since you are experienced cruisers. We took our son on his first cruise (3 nights DisWonder) when he was 4 months old & had no problems whatsoever. In fact, it went so well that we did a week on the Carribean Princess shortly after he turned 1 (this went fine, too, although it was a little tougher than the Disney cruise since there were far more folks without kids & we didn't want to have his occasional fussing interfere with their good time).

 

Shoot, at 9 months & 18 months I can't see any problem, especially if you are on Disney. There will be LOTS of kids in that age range.

[agridealer]

Awesome. Thanks for the encouragement. We realize there are things that will be different from the norm, like excursions, dinner, etc. But, as we have been to MANY of the ports before, have done MANY excursions, and have enjoyed cruise dinners, its not as if the babies will cramp our experience, if that makes sense. We realize we won't be doing everything, having late-seating for dinner, or staying out all night, but that we've all done before, so are ready to begin a different sort of cruise experience.

[ducklite]

Early seating can be hard to get on DCL, book early and request it immediately!

 

Also babies can't go in the pools, and DCL enforces this strictly.

 

They will bring you a Diaper Genie if you ask, and you should tip for the baby as well.

 

Anne