Children under 3

[Iowastate21]

We are beginning to plan our first Disney Cruise! Our son is 5 and our daughter is 2. She will be 2 at the time we cruise. Should we wait until she is 3??? It looks like most shore excursion are for ages 3 and up. Can anyone that has traveled with 3 and under provide some insight? Do it or wait until she is 3?. Thank you so much!!!

 

[KT2038]

We are beginning to plan our first Disney Cruise! Our son is 5 and our daughter is 2. She will be 2 at the time we cruise. Should we wait until she is 3??? It looks like most shore excursion are for ages 3 and up. Can anyone that has traveled with 3 and under provide some insight? Do it or wait until she is 3?. Thank you so much!!!

Hi! I am a youth activities Counselor. I don't know too much about shore excursions, however if the ones you want to do are 3 and up, then someone has to stay onboard with her or you will have to pay for the nursery. The Oceaneers club and lab are strictly for ages 3 and up, so I do advocate for those that have older siblings to wait till they're 3. Would she be upset if her brother was hanging out with us and she couldn't?

 

[Maggie'sMom]

I would suggest waiting until your daughter is 3, mainly because she can't go to the Oceaneers Club/Lab during secure programing until she's 3. At 2, she would have to go to the nursery unless the Club or Lab is having an Open House time and then you could accompany her to the Open House.

 

[Weedy]

FYI: Children who are not potty trained can't use the pools.

 

[amanda ek]

We've been on cruises when our daughter was 1, 2, and 2.75 and we had a great trip each time. Cruises are just an easy and enjoyable vacation...don't have to worry about transportation and meals, can take naps and relax in the room, dance parties and activities everyday, splash area for diapered kids & shallow mickey pool for potty trained. If you are worried about shore excursions, maybe consider a 3 or 4 night Bahamas. Stay on the boat for nassua. No excursion needed at castaway.

 

[Iowastate21]

Thank you all so much! Luckily she is potty trained so the pools on board will still be an option for us. Has anyone taken an under 2 on a cruise?

 

[ayz75]

We took our daughter last year when she turned 2, and we had a lot of fun! We did not consider taking any excursion (Actually that's not true, we did book a beach one, which I canceled later on because I heard there was construction at the beach) for the three ports we went to, we either walked around the port area, or we went to a local beach on our own (this was in Grand Cayman.. I wouldn't do it for every port though). Other than Grand Cayman, we pretty much would only spend an hour or two visiting the port town, and we'd head back to the ship to enjoy the Aqua Duck (if my daughter was napping) OR Nemo's Reef (she had the slide to herself for a long time!) If doing excursion is very important to you, then you probably want to wait till she is older, but we really didn't care that much about excursions..not that I don't like them, but we've been traveling with my daughter everywhere since she was 5 months old so I know excursion would just be tiring for us, so it was a non-issue really.

So overall, I'd say it was great and I don't regret bringing her at 2. I probably would not bother if she was younger, but 2 years old was great. She was scared of all the characters but loved seeing them from far, so it was also pretty interesting to see her reactions. She also loved all the live bands and music and would dance in the lobby like all the other kids.

We're bringing her back this October (she'll be 3.5 by then) plus her little sister who will only be 6 months, but I'm sure it will be just fine!

 

[Quellman]

Thank you all so much! Luckily she is potty trained so the pools on board will still be an option for us. Has anyone taken an under 2 on a cruise?

14 months. We made use of the open house time in the nursery, we were on the Fantasy so we took advantage of nemo's reef as well. Did other kid friendly activities and hung out. A different kind of vacation for sure.

 

[Iowastate21]

Thank you all so much! I am thinking it would still be great to walk around the towns and explore the beaches. If you have done any of the excursions with kids under 3 or under please let me know what you did and liked. Thank you so much!!!

 

[michellekcm]

We cruised when our daughter was 2 1/2, then again when our son was 10 months, and when he was 2 1/2. All three times we had a great time. There are plenty of excursions you can do with a child under 3, depending on which cruise you do. A lot of these are the sight-seeing type ones where you are mainly on a bus seeing things. They can be a little bit boring for the kids, but can also be a good way for you to see things and your child nap in the bus as you drive along . Most of these type of excursions are free for children under 3, except if they involve a boat, where there is generally a cost.

My children both love cruising (my now 3yo son is constantly asking "can we go on the Mickey Ship now?"), and there is so much to do with them. Even when they are under 3. It just involves more of your time. E.g. there is Wake Up With Disney Junior, Open House in the Oceaneers Club (often with characters in the morning), the shows - both my kids at 2 1/2 LOVED the shows, getting photos taken - my son loved posing for photos , playing in the splash zone if they're not potty trained, or in the pool if they are, both my kids loved spending time in some of the adult areas during the day when they were young - they were often totally empty so my kids would pretend they were on stage and 'perform', character meet and greets, dance parties / dancing to the bands in the lounge, etc. I'm sure there's tons more that aren't coming to me right now.

I think the nursery is very reasonably priced, and we did book it in advance to go to Palo, and also if we had had a long excursion day planned where we weren't sure whether our son would get his full nap or any nap at all, we booked the nursery for about an hour after dinner started. So took him to dinner, let him have his, then put him in the nursery so he wouldn't get grumpy waiting for us to finish eating.

Hope that helps.

 

[Iowastate21]

We cruised when our daughter was 2 1/2, then again when our son was 10 months, and when he was 2 1/2. All three times we had a great time. There are plenty of excursions you can do with a child under 3, depending on which cruise you do. A lot of these are the sight-seeing type ones where you are mainly on a bus seeing things. They can be a little bit boring for the kids, but can also be a good way for you to see things and your child nap in the bus as you drive along . Most of these type of excursions are free for children under 3, except if they involve a boat, where there is generally a cost.

My children both love cruising (my now 3yo son is constantly asking "can we go on the Mickey Ship now?"), and there is so much to do with them. Even when they are under 3. It just involves more of your time. E.g. there is Wake Up With Disney Junior, Open House in the Oceaneers Club (often with characters in the morning), the shows - both my kids at 2 1/2 LOVED the shows, getting photos taken - my son loved posing for photos , playing in the splash zone if they're not potty trained, or in the pool if they are, both my kids loved spending time in some of the adult areas during the day when they were young - they were often totally empty so my kids would pretend they were on stage and 'perform', character meet and greets, dance parties / dancing to the bands in the lounge, etc. I'm sure there's tons more that aren't coming to me right now.

I think the nursery is very reasonably priced, and we did book it in advance to go to Palo, and also if we had had a long excursion day planned where we weren't sure whether our son would get his full nap or any nap at all, we booked the nursery for about an hour after dinner started. So took him to dinner, let him have his, then put him in the nursery so he wouldn't get grumpy waiting for us to finish eating.

Hope that helps.

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond! I was a little worried she was too young but I think she is the perfect age!!! I am getting super excited!!!

 

[Iowastate21]

We took our daughter last year when she turned 2, and we had a lot of fun! We did not consider taking any excursion (Actually that's not true, we did book a beach one, which I canceled later on because I heard there was construction at the beach) for the three ports we went to, we either walked around the port area, or we went to a local beach on our own (this was in Grand Cayman.. I wouldn't do it for every port though). Other than Grand Cayman, we pretty much would only spend an hour or two visiting the port town, and we'd head back to the ship to enjoy the Aqua Duck (if my daughter was napping) OR Nemo's Reef (she had the slide to herself for a long time!) If doing excursion is very important to you, then you probably want to wait till she is older, but we really didn't care that much about excursions..not that I don't like them, but we've been traveling with my daughter everywhere since she was 5 months old so I know excursion would just be tiring for us, so it was a non-issue really.

So overall, I'd say it was great and I don't regret bringing her at 2. I probably would not bother if she was younger, but 2 years old was great. She was scared of all the characters but loved seeing them from far, so it was also pretty interesting to see her reactions. She also loved all the live bands and music and would dance in the lobby like all the other kids.

We're bringing her back this October (she'll be 3.5 by then) plus her little sister who will only be 6 months, but I'm sure it will be just fine!

Thank you so much! I really appreciate it!!!

 

[deanimal]

We've cruise both when my younger son was 20 months, just under three and almost five. All three trips were great in different ways. I would say that travelling with an under three is still a great vacation, but it was a lot better with both kids over three. If you're planning a once in a lifetime trip, then I'd wait until your child was three in order to get full advantage of everything there is to offer. But if you think you'll probably be back again, then you can't do much better than a Disney cruise at any age.

 

[DHSbutcher]

While any age is a great age for a disney cruise, do you see yourself planning more cruises in the future? Or is this a once in a lifetime thing? If you plan on more, do it now, and later, and so on. If this is a once in a lifetime thing, I'd wait at least a year or even two or three for everyone to really maximize the vacation experience.

 

[Mandlz]

We took our daughter when she was 18 months, again for her 2nd birthday, and we're going again in a few months just before her 3rd birthday. While I wish she was old enough to use the kids club, she LOVES spending time in the nursery there, to the point where we went to pick her up last time and she looked at us and said "No" and went back to playing We used the nursery when we docked and wanted to go into the port without her, and there were plenty of things for her to do on the ship without being in the kids club. She had a blast both times!! We've told her we're going back on Mickey's boat again soon (one day), and she can hardly wait - she asks almost daily if it's "one day" yet! While there can be advantages to waiting, especially if it's a once in a lifetime thing, I say take them whenever you have a chance - they'll love it, and you'll have the memories to cherish forever.

 

[SpaceSquirrel]

Thank you all so much! Luckily she is potty trained so the pools on board will still be an option for us. Has anyone taken an under 2 on a cruise?

We did, our DD was 2 and about 3 months. It wasn't a Disney cruise but honestly we didn't have a great time. We wanted to relax and just enjoy ourselves and w/ a little one that is only an option at nap time. I think now that DD is almost 5 we'll have a much better time because she is able to understand situations and be more patient (not much more but some) and sit and color, leappad, etc some while we relax.

 

[mylittlebuttercup]

We took our son at 2 years, 2 months old last summer and had a great time. We did a three-day cruise, but I do wish it had been longer because just as we settled in, we were leaving. (I have done a three-day as an adult and didn't feel that way, but with a kid with us, it seemed different.)

His favorites: Nemo's Reef splash area, splash area and ocean at Castaway Cay, seeing characters, playing in the kids' club during open house hours

Challenges: Even though he is normally good at restaurants, the pace is slower at dinner on the boats so he did get antsy toward the end of dinner sometimes. One night we had to take him back to the room early, but they were nice enough to have someone bring my dinner to the room for me! Also, they don't have those door bars to seal the door like a hotel, and that made me nervous. We put the heavy trunk/coffee table in front of the door instead.

Other thoughts: They have lots of toddler and preschool activities like Wake Up with Disney Junior and the Pirate and Princess party. Midship Detective Agency is fun for that age.

Let me know if you have any specific questions.

 

[Mandlz]

Challenges: Even though he is normally good at restaurants, the pace is slower at dinner on the boats so he did get antsy toward the end of dinner sometimes. One night we had to take him back to the room early, but they were nice enough to have someone bring my dinner to the room for me!

We actually put our daughter in the nursery for dinner on our first cruise, and they fed her there while we were able to enjoy dining while she was able to play and run. Ended up being one of the best decisions, and everyone was happy in the end

 

[mylittlebuttercup]

I would suggest waiting until your daughter is 3, mainly because she can't go to the Oceaneers Club/Lab during secure programing until she's 3. At 2, she would have to go to the nursery unless the Club or Lab is having an Open House time and then you could accompany her to the Open House.

If you want some time to yourself, this is definitely a good point, but if you were planning on spending all your time together as a family, it doesn't matter that much because there are a decent amount of open house hours.

We actually put our daughter in the nursery for dinner on our first cruise, and they fed her there while we were able to enjoy dining while she was able to play and run. Ended up being one of the best decisions, and everyone was happy in the end

I thought about it, but I wasn't comfortable with the idea. It makes me nervous enough leaving him anywhere when we are at home, let alone on a cruise. We might try the kids' club next time because he will be a bit older.

 

[mylittlebuttercup]

Thank you all so much! I am thinking it would still be great to walk around the towns and explore the beaches. If you have done any of the excursions with kids under 3 or under please let me know what you did and liked. Thank you so much!!!

We didn't end up getting off the ship in Nassau because there were things we wanted to do on board. However, on our previous cruise, we visited the aquarium area at Atlantis on an excursion, and I know my son would have loved something like that based on what he likes at home.