Cruising with little ones tips, tricks, and advice welcome

[Lorilais_mommie]

I've opened this thread in hopes of finding some advice about our upcoming cruise.

We went on a cruise two years ago when my little one was 9mo. And altho we had a wonderful time there were so many things I wished I had known.

Since I'm now traveling with a toddler, I would love any tips others have stumbled upon to make our vacation more enjoyable

Example:
Dinning main or 2nd? We keep changing our mind on this.
Kids club?
Stroller?
Picky eaters? Ect ect ect...

We will be on the Disney's magic, sideways inside room. (We wanted the better layout since there is 4 of us)
I have 2 girls.... one will be 8 and My youngest will be 3yr. and 1 month at the time of travel.

Thank you

 

[barnes family]

I've opened this thread in hopes of finding some advice about our upcoming cruise. We went on a cruise two years ago when my little one was 9mo. And altho we had a wonderful time there were so many things I wished I had known. Since I'm now traveling with a toddler, I would love any tips others have stumbled upon to make our vacation more enjoyable Example: Dinning main or 2nd? We keep changing our mind on this. Kids club? Stroller? Picky eaters? Ect ect ect... We will be on the Disney's magic, sideways inside room. (We wanted the better layout since there is 4 of us) I have 2 girls.... one will be 8 and My youngest will be 3 and 1 month at the time of travel. Thank you

Hi
We are also travelling with infant age 20 months and decided to go with late seating and put her into the nursery to sleep or play so we can eat in peace. X

 

[eemaxx]

At first glance, I though this thread was called "Cursing with little ones", and thought to myself, "oh good, someone else who occasionally let's a curse word slip" Ha! Of course I never mean to, but every once in a while something might slip out....!!

Anyway, I have taken my kids cruising several times since they were just over a year old. Each time I have found that a reclining umbrella stroller was the one of the best things to have. If we were at the pool and the little one was looking sleepy, I would get him an ice cream cone (he loved the plain cones, no ice cream!) and let him nibble until his eyes started to close. No one had to go back to the room for nap time and we could all enjoy time by the pool. As for dining, we tried 2nd seating once and it was just too late. Our little one slept through dinner almost every night. We didn't make it to any of the shows on that trip either. Neither one of my children was ever much into the kids' clubs, although we dropped the older one off for about an hour one night after dinner (when we had an early seating). Overall, when traveling with kids, you just have to expect to go with the flow and not try to stick to your regular schedule. I remember once when the one year old woke up at 4:00 a.m. and would NOT go back to sleep. My husband put him in the stroller and took a walk all around the ship. They both got to watch the sunrise and took beautiful pictures! Yes, they were tired, but no one else was up on the pool deck and my husband said it turned out to be a peaceful and memorable morning (however early!)

 

[Weedy]

Have you already booked your cruise? If you have already booked you should be ok. I've read on these boards that Disney recently changed the age of infant cruisers. The child needs to be 12 weeks old to cruise.

 

[xlxo]

My advice....

• check and double-check the Navigator and mobile app to plan your day. Don't miss out on events and character appearances
• One of the highlights is the character appearances, don't show up late as they do cut the line off
• Got a picture with Mickey already? There's a costume change for the additional appearances. Love the Golden Mickey's!
• have fun with the professional photographers, just be prepared to pay for the unlimited packages
• I like second seating as you aren't rushed, the evening show happens at the same time as the first dinner and there's about 45 minutes of free time afterwards before your dinner starts. The 2nd seating is great for slow eaters. 2nd seating also means a later 8:15 breakfast assignment for the last day
• have a camera with you if the professional photographer is not there
• love the 1gb $89 wifi for speed. Make sure you have disabled updates on your device(s). Ideally get all the updates, PRIOR to your trip. Consider a port SIM card which can give you additional data allowance.

 

[Lorilais_mommie]

At first glance, I though this thread was called "Cursing with little ones", and thought to myself, "oh good, someone else who occasionally let's a curse word slip" Ha! Of course I never mean to, but every once in a while something might slip out....!! Anyway, I have taken my kids cruising several times since they were just over a year old. Each time I have found that a reclining umbrella stroller was the one of the best things to have. If we were at the pool and the little one was looking sleepy, I would get him an ice cream cone (he loved the plain cones, no ice cream!) and let him nibble until his eyes started to close. No one had to go back to the room for nap time and we could all enjoy time by the pool. As for dining, we tried 2nd seating once and it was just too late. Our little one slept through dinner almost every night. We didn't make it to any of the shows on that trip either. Neither one of my children was ever much into the kids' clubs, although we dropped the older one off for about an hour one night after dinner (when we had an early seating). Overall, when traveling with kids, you just have to expect to go with the flow and not try to stick to your regular schedule. I remember once when the one year old woke up at 4:00 a.m. and would NOT go back to sleep. My husband put him in the stroller and took a walk all around the ship. They both got to watch the sunrise and took beautiful pictures! Yes, they were tired, but no one else was up on the pool deck and my husband said it turned out to be a peaceful and memorable morning (however early!)

I think we have all be there!

We have a smaller stroller we are debating taking. Its a city mini by baby jogger
It's bigger than and umbrella (which hurts DH back) but smaller than a full stroller
Problem is:
On the wonder my stroller wheels were an inch to wide to get the stroller through the state room door. So I would have to fold it down each time to get it in the room.
We had a non-sideways inside stateroom.. Not sure if having and sideways room will make a difference.

FYI:
We just got back from disneyland my little trooper (2 1/2 now) walked all 5 days (9 hours a day in the parks). She just hated being in the stroller.
We did make her take 1 or 2 hour nap.. Normally by headed to the animation building in CA and letting her fall alseep in my arms.
And also took lots of breaks normally to eat.. ;-)

 

[tonyolily]

We also will be cruising with our 2.5 year old soon. Right now we have 2nd dining but we are hoping to change it to 1st when we arrive. I don't think our little one would do too well eating so late at night. We are also planning on bringing her smaller stroller and her toddler safety leash just in case. We do have a couple of hours reserved for the nursery, but may change it when we get on board depending on how everything is going. I agree with the previous poster that said to just go with the flow. Your family will have a great time!

 

[TwinMomTori]

I've opened this thread in hopes of finding some advice about our upcoming cruise. We went on a cruise two years ago when my little one was 9mo. And altho we had a wonderful time there were so many things I wished I had known. Since I'm now traveling with a toddler, I would love any tips others have stumbled upon to make our vacation more enjoyable Example: Dinning main or 2nd? We keep changing our mind on this. Kids club? Stroller? Picky eaters? Ect ect ect... We will be on the Disney's magic, sideways inside room. (We wanted the better layout since there is 4 of us) I have 2 girls.... one will be 8 and My youngest will be 3yr. and 1 month at the time of travel. Thank you

We haven't gone yet, but this is our thought process with our 5.5 year old and our 2.5 year old twins.

Dining: Main seating. We think our kids will behave better at the shows after main dining. As for dinner alone, my husband and I would rather have time by the pool alone than dinner alone.
Kids Club: your 3 year old will have to be potty trained to go in the older club. I would start with leaving them for an hour or so to see if they like it before leaving for a long time.
Stroller: I heard you can borrow for a security deposit a stroller from guest services, but I'd rather bring one or rent one from Babies Lite, which you can find through Disneys website.
Picky Eaters: when we are on vacation, I'm not as strict. They can't have dessert for every meal, but if they want chicken nuggets or Mac n cheese every meal I'm okay with it. Find something they like and let them eat it.

So what works for you and your kids and if that means bending your usual rules do it for a fun vacation.

 

[Princess Stitch]

We did main seating last Oct with our then 15 month old. After dinner she had her bath and we put her into her pjs to go watch the show in the theater. She was comfy and went straight to bed after.

I would suggest grabbing main dining if you can. If it doesn't work you can easily switch to second seating, but you would have a hard time moving from second to main.

We also got a cheap umbrella stroller for about $10 and found it useful for getting off at ports and times we needed her contained. We also didnt worry about it getting damaged since it was so cheap.

 

[Lorilais_mommie]

We did main seating last Oct with our then 15 month old. After dinner she had her bath and we put her into her pjs to go watch the show in the theater. She was comfy and went straight to bed after. I would suggest grabbing main dining if you can. If it doesn't work you can easily switch to second seating, but you would have a hard time moving from second to main. We also got a cheap umbrella stroller for about $10 and found it useful for getting off at ports and times we needed her contained. We also didnt worry about it getting damaged since it was so cheap.

We have main dinning right now.. However my kids are nigh owls. I was worried this maybe to early, but I dont want hungry kids at the show.

Also I know my DH or I could walk our kids to the kids club if they don't want to sit any longer..
We had to do that a few times on our wonder cruise.. My waiter put a rush in their food. They ate..
And by the time I came back rom dropping them off, my food was on the table.. It worked perfectly for the "boring" Table services as my kids called it..


Keep them coming...

Can anyone tell me at Animators do all the tables get to talk to crush? Or only the ones next to the wall?
Is crush only on the 1st Animators night?

Thank you..