Should we book a cruise w/infant and toddler

sdoll

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jan 5, 2005
I am seriously debating booking a cruise. We are joining my sister and her family for 5 days at WDW in Jan. They have a timeshare (off property BOO HOO!!) and are only charging us $250 for our stay so we can't beat the price. And plan on only eating out for dinner. We were planning on going a few days earlier so that we can enjoy some time with our kids before we meet up with my sister. So I started looking at the cost of staying on property for a few days. I then thought let me look at a cruise. It really would not cost that much more to take a cruise once you factor in the cost of a hotel room, entertainment and food its about the same. I have been on a Disney cruise before way before I had kids or was married. At the time we travel we our sons would be 2.5 years and 7 months. Do you think it is worth it? I know our 7 months old would still be easy but would my 2 year old enjoy it? Are there plenty of activities for his age?
 
Just my opinion - our daughter is almost 16 and has been cruising for 14 years! I would wait til at least the older one could enjoy the kids club. Disney is worth the higher prices when the kids and you benefit from the clubs. :thumbsup2
 
We cruised when my DD was 22 months and my son was 4 months. We took a 4 day cruise. We enjoyed it but it was alot of work but it would have been alot of work at home too so why not go and have your meals cooked for you :thumbsup2 It was my first Disney cruise and I did feel like I missed out on so much though chasing my toddler around or caring for the baby. My todder did enjoy the cruise but the 'planned activites' were more for the older kids so we didn't do anything like that. My daughter loved just walking around the ship, meeting the characters and spashing around in the Mickey Ear (since she was not potty trained and could not go in the pools)

While I had a good time, and I don't regret going (we are DVC members and were in a situation where we HAD to take a vaction or lose out so we took the cruise) I would not take my kids on a cruise again till they are both old enough for the kids club. DH and I are cruising on the Magic in a couple of weeks but we are leaving the kids home with grandpa (they are 2 & 3 now...)
 
I think you can enjoy it (even though we hvaen't been on one yet ;)).

My son will be 6 months old when we sail.

The only thing I can think of is that your oldest will not be old enough for the clubs, so any mom and dad time will require you to book flounders. It is $6 per hour (which I think is a STEAL!). So it is an additional fee. But I do believe you can take him in the clubs and stay with him so he can enjoy some activities.

If you want to go, by all means go. We went to England and France with our 2 oldest when they were 3 and 1 1/2--so who am I to tell you that a cruise with the mouse shouldn't be done until they are older.:rotfl2:

Even though you can only pre-book Flounders for 10 hours per child--you can book more one you are there. I do think you will have plenty of time even with the 10 hour limit to do some fun activities for just the 2 of you.

I will be attached at the hip pretty much with our son--but I cannot think of a better place to be "stuck" with the baby. :thumbsup2
 


Just my opinion - our daughter is almost 16 and has been cruising for 14 years! I would wait til at least the older one could enjoy the kids club. Disney is worth the higher prices when the kids and you benefit from the clubs. :thumbsup2

But let's remember that Disney is the only boat that charges an "infant" cruise rate--the "same" cruise on another line tends to cost more for a family with infants since they charge them just like any other adult.

I think there is an under 3 rate as well, but can't remember. (IOW not sure when they change from "infant" to a "kid")
 
IMHO, I would not take my child out of the country until they have had all of their immunizations. You are on a ship with limited medical facilities and a rent a doc who may or may not be licensed in the US. You are visiting countries where the level of medical care, cleaniness and sanitation are not necessarily to the level of what we enjoy in the US.

I'm not sure what you would be able to do with your kids beyond entertaining them yourself. They could play in the Mickey pool but during our Feb cruise it was closed for several hours EVERY day as someone had an accident and the pool required cleaning. Depending on the time of day, the pool may not be reopened. There are no scheduled activities for a 2 yo beyond getting time in Flounders. Standing in line to greet a character would be challenging for most 2yo's.

I love cruises and have been on many. My kids are cruise veterans and love it also. But I have seen parents of little ones that look so stressed out that it doesn't seem worth it for the money. If you cruise with a large group of family, then it would make it easier as you would have others to help with the kids and get some time to yourselves, even if it was to eat dinner alone.
 
I would not cruise with an infant. I saw all these moms with little ones and strollers doing all the same things one would do at home. Feeding the baby, entertaining the baby, etc. I don't use the kids clubs but I still get to enjoy myself sitting on the edge of the pools just watching mine instead of having to entertain them or be in with them. There was a family with a baby in the theater and it was beyond annoying listening to it fuss through out the show.
 


I think a cruise is actually much more relaxing for parents of small children than a trip to the parks (or just about any other vacation, really), and I would not hesitate to do what you're considering. It's true that you still have to feed and diaper your child on a cruise, but you don't have to make anyone's bed, cook, vacuum, straighten the house, drive anywhere, etc. A cruise is about as pampering a vacation as you can get for a mother of babies and toddlers, IMO. There's plenty to entertain kids of all ages, even if it's just walking around the ship. You can have room service whenever you want it and not pay extra, and the staff on DCL all seem to make a big effort to entertain even the littlest ones. We cruised last year when my kids were 16 months and 3 years old, and my nephew was 7 months. Everyone had fun, and the babies did well in Flounders, which I found to be a wonderful facility with excellent staff.
 
We are cruising in 12 days with our two boys, ages 2 and 9mths. I will be happy to post our experience when we return!:goodvibes
We are really looking forward to it and plan to utilize Flounders when we need to and hope to have a wonderful trip. Being a SAHM is a lot of work...so doing the same on the ship sounds fine to me!:cutie:
 
I think a cruise is actually much more relaxing for parents of small children than a trip to the parks (or just about any other vacation, really), and I would not hesitate to do what you're considering. It's true that you still have to feed and diaper your child on a cruise, but you don't have to make anyone's bed, cook, vacuum, straighten the house, drive anywhere, etc. A cruise is about as pampering a vacation as you can get for a mother of babies and toddlers, IMO. There's plenty to entertain kids of all ages, even if it's just walking around the ship. You can have room service whenever you want it and not pay extra, and the staff on DCL all seem to make a big effort to entertain even the littlest ones. We cruised last year when my kids were 16 months and 3 years old, and my nephew was 7 months. Everyone had fun, and the babies did well in Flounders, which I found to be a wonderful facility with excellent staff.
Even though my DS would be to little for the organized activities I truly believe he would still love a cruise. He would love to just walk around the decks when he is not in the pool his favorite place. My husband and I have cruised 4 times and find them to be the most relaxing vacations we just have not ever cruised with our children. I know this sounds crazy I don't even care if we get off the ship in the Bahamas we have been there a few times and don't really need to see it again. We might just venture over to atlantis to look at the fish or something but that might be it. We just want to relax and enjoy the kids.
 
IMHO, I would not take my child out of the country until they have had all of their immunizations. You are on a ship with limited medical facilities and a rent a doc who may or may not be licensed in the US. You are visiting countries where the level of medical care, cleaniness and sanitation are not necessarily to the level of what we enjoy in the US.

I have traveled out of the country with my children since they were babies and never had a problem. I want to share with you an experience about using the medical facilities in Cozumel when my 8 year old split his ear open.
We got to the hospital (on a weekend) and after a short wait the very friendly nurse told us that she would really like the pediatrician to take care of it, could we please wait because he was in the middle of assiting on a rather difficult birth.
20 minutes later here comes a very friendly mexican doctor who checks my son's ear out and then says to him: we can do this two ways: we can give you some medicine that will put you to sleep and you'll feel goofy on your last day of vacation or you can hold very still for me, I will numb your ear and then you can go back to playing (wanna guess what option he chose?).
The whole time he talked to my son, asked him about his school in the states (he was in a Spanish Immersion program so the doctor got a kick of this gringo kid speaking almost flawless spanish). 1/2 later we were out of ther and paid $100.00:banana: for the whole thing, including topical antibiotic.

So as far as Cruise Ship doctors not being licensed in the States, I wouldn't really worry about it. On a Crystal Cruise one of my fellow cruisers had to go to the doctor and she was happy with the level of service.

That said, you are the parent and you know what's best. I think that a couple of hours in Flounders would be o.k. but it all depends on your level of comfort!
 
We took our son on a Disney Cruise at 2.5 this past year. While it was fun and I don't regret it, it would have been a lot better if was at least six months older OR younger.

As it was, he was too old for Flounders, it's is really meant for younger kids, he didn't like it at all. Since he wasn't potty trained, he couldn't go in the pool. We tried the splash pool, but he was always the only one in it and didn't understand why he couldn't play with all the other kids in the real pool on the other side of the wall.

We did have an awesome time at Castaway Cay, that was perfect for him. Because of rain, which never affected us in the slightest, we were lucky enough to get double dip at CC which made it even better.
 
LOL
We're taking an infant and a toddler in December. Am I insane??!! YES!!!

We also took our DD2 to WDW when she was 5mo and 1yo.
 
I would not cruise with an infant. I saw all these moms with little ones and strollers doing all the same things one would do at home. Feeding the baby, entertaining the baby, etc. I don't use the kids clubs but I still get to enjoy myself sitting on the edge of the pools just watching mine instead of having to entertain them or be in with them. There was a family with a baby in the theater and it was beyond annoying listening to it fuss through out the show.

I find statements like this to be completely bogus.

It all goes back to--should we just lock the kids in a closet until they are 4 before we take them out to enjoy theo world.



IM
HO, I would not take my child out of the country until they have had all of their immunizations. You are on a ship with limited medical facilities and a rent a doc who may or may not be licensed in the US. You are visiting countries where the level of medical care, cleaniness and sanitation are not necessarily to the level of what we enjoy in the US.

I'm not sure what you would be able to do with your kids beyond entertaining them yourself. They could play in the Mickey pool but during our Feb cruise it was closed for several hours EVERY day as someone had an accident and the pool required cleaning. Depending on the time of day, the pool may not be reopened. There are no scheduled activities for a 2 yo beyond getting time in Flounders. Standing in line to greet a character would be challenging for most 2yo's.

I love cruises and have been on many. My kids are cruise veterans and love it also. But I have seen parents of little ones that look so stressed out that it doesn't seem worth it for the money. If you cruise with a large group of family, then it would make it easier as you would have others to help with the kids and get some time to yourselves, even if it was to eat dinner alone.

Children are not "fully immunized" for several years. I took my 18 month old out of the country without problems.

The generalities you state are just that--generalities. One should take the temperment of their kids in mind.

I am sailing on 2 cruises with other family members. I woul dnever expect other families to facilitate "babysitting" for me. In fact my sister asked me if we would watch her daughter while they got a massage. While I don't mind for a little bit--I did have to ask why they wouldn't schedule it for while she was in flounders or just book additional flounders time once on ship. We are joining her on vacation--but I am not their to help her husband save $6/hr b/c he is too cheap to use services designed to facilitate mom and dad to have some alone time.
 
DS was 5 months old on our first cruise. We all had a great time. The $6/hour rate for Flounders was a great deal compared to our sitters at home. We had no worries about health/immunization concerns. With all due respect, there are places in the US that aren't as "sanitary" as the Bahamas...look at the number of cases of plaugue that crop up in the southwest? Now I would probably not take a child with no immunizations whatsoever, but by 7 months, he should have had a few shots already. DS had nary a sniffle even after being in Flounders for several hours at a time. And there's no concern regarding food/water issues since we brought his formula and jugs of bottled water with us. So that leaves the big issue of sanitation and cleaning and let me tell you, the precautions they take--sani wipes and gel at every restaurant and when boarding the ship and cleaning Flounders top to bottom for 2 hours every day--was a lot more than we do personally. :blush:

And yes, moneywise, were we forced to pay the exorbitent rates on NCL or RCCL instead of just the port taxes, he probably would have spent the vacation visiting my aunts in FL...and nana 'cause she would ride out on a donkey in order to spend a week with him :laughing:
 
What is the age they prefer for Flounders' children? Taking DGS next year and he'll be 16 months old.

Flounders takes kids that are not potty trained and/or not old enough for the clubs. Although, I don't know what happens when you have a non-toilet trained 5 year-old. :confused3 I guess there's more issues surrounding that...
 
Flounders was a little too babyish for our son who was 2.5. He did not want to stay there. But I've read lots of posts of people who's kids were that age and didn't mind at all. It depends on the individual child.

I am cruising in November with an 18 month old DS and DS who is now 4. I am hoping the 18 mo. old will be young enough to stay in flounders.

I agree with the person who said that this will be a more relaxing vacation than other type of vacations you can take with your children of the same age, for example going to the parks. We have no expectations that we are taking an "adults only" trip. We are taking a trip as a family. You just have to adjust your expectations to what you will be able to do.
 

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