We are traveling with a 2 year old in July.... who has had some "terrible two" moments lately. How did it go with your little ones? What were their favorite activities. Did you use Flounders, and how did the dinners go. Thanks so much!
Well, I am proud to say that except for our night at Palo, when we gave the kids dinner on Deck 9 before our reservations, we ate every night in the dining rooms, which I didn't think we would actually accomplish! Advice: bring lots of stuff to keep the kiddies entertained. The server hands out crayons and a coloring sheet, but as you know, that only goes so far in terms of entertainment value, and the quickest meal we had was at least an hour and 15 minutes (and we did skip dessert at least once), and most went about 90 minutes. We brought a portable DVD player for our younger ones and used that two or three nights, which was great, and various other toys to amuse them. Having them nibble on bread worked out well (my carb-loving kids!). The servers did bring out the kids' food with the adult appetizers, which meant that they didn't have to wait very long to start eating, but that also meant that they were done with dinner around the time the adult entrees arrived, so there was still a lot of time to kill. We had some "terrible two" moments as well, and each of our twins had to be removed from the table for a time-out at least once on the trip, but all in all, it went better than I had expected.
We used Flounder's a few times. My daughter is in a separation anxiety stage, so she cried a lot at drop off times, but calmed down eventually. They had more toys for toddlers than I had anticipated (Little People house, one of those Playskool talking grills, car sets, a small slide, etc.) so there were age-appropriate toys, and they keep the staff/kids ratio low, so it never felt crowded.
What my twins enjoyed the most doing was being up on Deck 9 or 10, running around, feeling the wind, and watching the ocean. Sounds simple, I know, but that was by far the best entertainment value. In fact, being near any window was entertainment for them. They never got into the splash area in the Mickey pool, so we didn't use that much for them. Also, DD2 loved the characters, and there are many of them on board, so that was great entertainment (DS2 couldn't have cared less about them - go figure!).
Best advice, though: there are SO MANY kids on the boat, that anything, and I mean anything, that your child does will not be an anomaly. The dining rooms are noisy, there are kids running around everywhere, so no matter what, your child will just blend right in - no worries about standing out with a misbehaving child! Good luck, and I hope this all helps!