cruising w/ kids
slwprincess
member
We just booked a cruise with my family for October. Sort of a spur of the moment decision. Now I'm wondering how this is going to go w/ 2 kids in tow?! It's a Carnival Cruise- only 4 nights. How bad can it be, right? We got a room w/ a balcony thinking that at least we can sit out there and have a drink while the kids nap/sleep. Gavin can do the kids camp but Sophie will have to stay w/ us all the time. At least we will have lots of help- my parents, grandparents, brothers/SILs, aunts/uncles, cousins. Anyway, I'm wondering what kinds of excursions we should do or just stick to the beaches? We will be stopping in Freeport and Nassau. Thinking we will probably just hang out at Atlantis in Nassau- take the kids to the aquarium or the water park there. Unless you guys have some other suggestions. Any other cruising tips? I've actually only cruised once- right after DH and I got married. I wasn't thinking about kids or anything at that point. What do I need to bring along- I suppose they have a pack n play/crib? And I know we can rent a stroller (altho we will also bring 1 along for Sophie for the airport).
Re: cruising w/ kids
We went on a New England cruise with DD when she was just under 2. She had a blast! We were on Royal Caribbean that time, but we usually go with Carnival. We skipped the crib b/c the rooms are so small and we didn't want another thing in our way to step around all the time. We just put DD in bed with us and it was fine. We usually scheduled late dinner seating, but with DD we had to change to early dinner. That was a little annoying b/c our daytime activities had to be cut a little shorter sometimes, but it was fine overall. The wait staff always tried to accomodate DD's preferences, bringing her huge fruit plates and whatnot, which was really nice. We have been talking about doing another cruise with her to someone beach-y and we would definitely do the beach break excursions with the cruise and stick to simple things like that. In New England, that wasn't an option, but we went on excursions that were short bus trips to a site to explore or we just went into the ports to explore on our own. We never did the kid's camp type thing b/c our DD is very shy and I didn't feel comfortable dropping her off with strangers. Plus, I felt like it was a family trip and she should be included in what we did. I know some kids LIKE those things, though. DD was content to run around the ship, splash in the pool, listen to the live music that was playing in some of the smoke-free areas, etc. It was really fun and she was definitely entertained the whole time even without a camp setting. She just had so much fun being on the ship and exploring all the different areas and activities.
Sorry this is so rambling
but I think you'll have plenty of fun and don't need to worry about cruising with kids at all, expecially if you'll have other people with you to trade off with at times.
I'll start off saying I don't want to be the debbie downer on this and our alaskan cruise the other week was a bit different then your cruise. Our cruise was 7 nights, very cold/rainy, and we had to deal with time change. Your cruise might be great. Our cruise in the carribean when Bailey was 4 months was great but it was only 1 kid.
So our alaskan disney world was hard. There was fun parts like Bailey dancing to in the middle of the dance floor every time he saw a band playing. This is my shy kid and he was all over the dance floor. Dh and I had a good time on our day alone as well. The main problems for us were Bryce HATED the pack-n-play they provided and Bailey HATED the dining rooms.
We ended having Bryce in bed with us and for us was not fun. Neither of them have ever slept with us so Bryce kept waking up and tossing-n-turning. Which would wake Bailey up and then Bailey grumpy b/c he dind't get his 12 hours of sleep. Plus I think Bailey was getting some motion sickness. His ear tubes fall out the week before we left which I don't think helped him at all.
After the 2nd night we didn't get to get in the dining rooms at all. Bailey was terrified of going into the dining rooms which is surprising b/c we go out to eat quite a bit. The dining rooms were really loud and waiters running everywhere. Bailey can be sensitive to that (leads but to all his ear infection issues) but he was terrified of it ont he cruise.
I know this all sounds horrible and we really did have some great times on the cruise but it was really really hard with 2 young kids. If it was just one that would have been better but with 2 so little we constantly had to be on. My parents and sister and her family were on the cruise too. My family is great about helping out but dh and I both felt guilty asking to much of them b/c it was their vacation too. We didn't want them to miss dinner or shows b/c our kids couldn't go or we had to go back to the room for bedtime. Your cruise might be totally different but I wanted to warn you about things we ran into. Some of these things we never thought about.
Booo- sorry it wasn't so great! We are planning to have a bed for Gavin in the room for sure and hopefully Sophie will be ok in the pnp. We paid for a possible upgrade and hoping we will get that so we would have a little extra room. She sleeps in a PNP at the grandparents house so she is used to it. Do you think it would be better for her if we brought our own or no difference? My aunt/uncles are driving down so we can send some gear w/ them even tho we will fly. As for dinner, I think that's my biggest concern- I don't want to have to rush thru every meal b/c my children are behaving like monsters! We will be taking Gavin's gameboy with us and if he gets out of control, I will not feel guilty letting him play it at the table if it means I can enjoy my meal in peace! Now Sophie is another story... if she doesn't behave at dinner, I have no choice but to leave.
I think you will be fine with as much family as you have going. Plus, they do offer limited paid babysitting hours on Carnival. I have never cruised with them but some of my extended family has and they love it.
As far as meals go, I don't know what dining will be like on Carnival but maybe you can have 1 night where you and DH go to dinner w/o kids and let your parents or whoever have them and just know that every other night is a gamble.
I can't remember exactly how old you said Sophie would be when y'all go but we cruised w/ Tess at 20 months and she slept great in the lower bunk. If you are def. going to need a pnp for Sophie I would just make sure they have one reserved for you.
I think you guys will be fine!