1st time cruiser needing help with 3.5yr old

[cumickey]

Hi, we are planning on going on the Disney Magic 7day Eastern Cruise sometime in September 2002. We have never been on a cruise before and we are taking our very 'busy' son with us who will be 3.5yrs old by then.

So I would love to get any tips from any other people who have also travelled with a 3.5yr. He is extremely curious and continuosly on the go, so as well as time as a family we are really really looking forward to grown up time!!. I would love for this to go as smoothly and stress free as possible, with lots of very fond memories afterwards.

I would love to hear what you found best, ie early or late seating (getting him to sit for that will be stressfull!). How you planned your time, had or didn't!! etc......anything. What your favourite part/time was with your child, and what worked well and kept all happy most of the time lol!. Also favourite shows, activities together with them etc.

Appreciate it, and hope to get lots of reasurance that we are doing the right thing planning this trip!!. Thanks in advance.

Worry Wart in NC!!

 

[joellen2]

Hi there. My family (DH 36, DS 4-1/2, and me 33) will be on the Magic in 10 days. This is our first cruise with Disney; however, we cruised on the Carnival Triumph last summer when my son was 3-1/2. He loved it so much! He is an only child and at that time he was not in preschool. While on the ship, he didn't really make a lot of friends, and he mostly played on his own. We could not get him out of the children's club. He was so excited about it, we decided to book the Disney cruise. This cruise will be even better now that we know what to expect. He is also excited that he can stay on the ship while I go to all of those "boring, old shops." LOL! I think your child will love it. We our on the waitlist for early seating, but he can adapt to any routine. We plan to go to all of the shows as a family, and we are also looking forward to watching the movies in the theater. Other than that, we are going with the flow. We don't have any excursions planned, since I don't want to lose the money if we change our plans. My son is looking forward to helping me play bingo (looking for the numbers on my card.) He has time alone with mommy, and he gets to work on his numbers and patterns. I would suggest taking a couple of small games (like memory, old maid, etc.) to play in the room before bedtime. We found tht it helped calm him down. Another trip for traveling is to get Brain Quest cards. They are cards held together, but fan out like color swatches. They are age specific (colors, letters, numbers, what is missing, patterns, etc.) These were great on the plane trip. I know that Wal Mart, Sam's Club, and Zany Brainy carry them for about $9.00. Good luck. Your son will love it.

 

[pal2pluto]

Big question...is ds potty trained? If yes, he can go to the club...if not, then he'll go to flounders reef nursery and you'll need to schedule times and pay $6 per hour.

We went with our ds (2 1/2 at time) who sounds like a twin to yours. We scheduled flounders each evening around 7:30pm to 10pm. That meant that right before dessert was served, dh or myself left the table and took him to the nursery. Then we enjoyed a quiet dessert/coffee time with our tablemates. After that, we could go to the show or stroll or enjoy the lounge chairs on deck 4. Of course, if we wanted to get him out of the nursery early, it was no problem. Ds enjoyed the nursery the first 3 nights, but then didn't want to "go play with the kids", so we didn't force the issue and canceled a few times. Make sure to take advantage of some time to enjoy Palo's.

We took Ds to see Island Magic. Keep an eye on the Navigators....it is a play/musical just for this age group done on one of the At Sea days in the afternoon. Our son loved it! We also knew we wanted to take him to see Disney Dreams on Thursday.....and he was mesmerized! Sit close!

Also, keep an eye out for when the Character photo ops are and take your camera. We got lucky....right after Island Magic, I knew that some characters would be up on deck 9, so we hightailed it up there and were able to follow Pluto until he stopped, so we were first in line to meet him.........My son just beamed!

Biggest advice....be flexible. My son got on a fruit kick and ate just about nothing else for lunch and dinner. The fruit at Scoops at lunch is fabulous.....we all got hooked on fresh ripe mangos. And after a couple days, we just gave in at dinner and only asked for a big bowl of fruit for him, which he was very happy with. I guess there is nothing like fresh ripe fruit.....

 

[jkester]

Hi! We just got back from our 4 day cruise with our son who is 3.5. He loved this cruise and took advantage of the Oceaneer's club for 3 hours one night, 1 & 1/2 hours during the next day, and an hour another night. This is a big improvement over our 7 day cruise in December... he wouldn't stay in there. I found it was really helpful this time to just go ahead and stay in there for 30-45 minutes to let him participate in an activity that I really thought he would enjoy and then if he wanted to leave with me then he could and if he loved it he could stay. He decided to stay and play with the other kids and had a good time.

Dinner was a complete shock to us. We had early seating (thank heaven the wait list came through for us) and it worked out very well. He NEVER sits still for dinner here at home so of course we were dreading watching him go through an 1 1/2 meal. Talk about a surprise... he sat still and acted better than ever. They give them a different coloring sheet every night (along with crayons) and we were seated with another family who had 4 year old twins. A purchase of the Captain Hook/Peter Plan figurine set in the shops also helped stall time. The servers do a super job of entertaining the kids and the things to look at in the restaurants are also entertaining. I really enjoyed each meal and so did my son.

We went on our own excursions on both trips- mainly to beaches to build sand castles and jump in the waves. Bring a shovel and bucket with you for these things (although they sell them in the gift shop, the shops are not open while the boat is in port so it can be tricky trying to get them). He also enjoyed the open air taxi in St. John-so did I!

We went to most of the shows. I skipped "Who wants to be a Mouseketeer" because I knew he wouldn't follow it and took him to a movie in the Buena Vista Theatre (they were showing "Return to Neverland"). The pool is also a good choice if the shows aren't going to grab your son. My son loved "Hercules" and "Disney Dreams". I can't remember the other shows from December's 7 day cruise but we went to most of them.

All this is to say that 3.5 is a great time to cruise! I hope you have the time of your life!

 

[liza]

In March we took our two children (7 and 3.5) on the seven-night Magic. We were with family and friends that had other children, including a 4-year-old and another 3.5-year old, as well as some older children.

The best advice I can give you is to not expect a RELAXING vacation. We all had fun, but found our initial expectations were wrong. I had read about the kids' clubs being open from 9 to midnight, knew the children were used to preschool, potty trained and loved all things Disney, so I had visions of spending the cruise unwinding, sitting in peace enjoying the sea air and reading a good book while they stayed happily in the clubs all day.

Boy, was I wrong! The children did enjoy the clubs, in fact my 7-year-old woke up each morning asking how soon he could go, but the younger children, the 3.5 and 4-year-olds, just were not interested in spending hours in the clubs every day. They did spend some happy time there each day, for several hours at a stretch -- enough to allow us to go to Palo for brunch, tea and dinner, and take an adult St. Maarten excursion, and to do various things from time to time, but for the most part the younger ones wanted to be with us and that is FINE, it's just not the relaxing, peaceful vacation I had somehow (misled by thoughts of an all-day kids' club) expected. It was a much busier, what-time-do-we-have-to-be-where now, wait in line for the character photos, wait in line to check the kids into the clug, wait in line to check them out, dress for dinner, pack for the excursion, make sure you have the name badges, take the kids to the potty, do this, do that type vacation. Not to mention taking a 3-year-old out to eat at a restaurant for 3 meals a day for a week, which is fun but could never be called relaxing. It's not like you can really visit at length over dinner with adults when you are tending to young children during the meal.

Besides the proper attitude and expectation on the part of the parents, here are the other tips I'd give:

1. Room service breakfast is something the kids enjoy because they can watch those (endless cartoons) while they eat. And I loved sitting on the veranda and having breakfast.

2. Getting a few toys for the room is a good idea. I brought some little things for my young one for the plane ride down, and it was nice to have them in the cabin during the cruise.

3. I second the post on the characters. At age the kids love the characters and we got to "meet" a lot of them.

4. The movie theater is a good activity for the young children, if the movie is appropriate (and most are).

Have a wonderful trip!

 

[janets]

with our 3.5 yo ds. He is a daycare kid, having been in one since he was 4 months old. He is very articulate and is usually not very shy. He potty trained just before out trip, so he was good for the club. I thought he would enjoy the opportunity to explore and take advantage of the different activities. I was wrong.

He really didn't want to go to the club. He never went during the day. The only time he went was for about 1 hour one night, and the very last night of the cruise. I think they were having a visit from a character he wanted to see and were showing a movie later on. When we went back to get him, they were all laying on mats watching a movie. He didn't seem ready to go, so dh and I left him for a while and finished our packing and got to take a look at some of the "adult" areas of the ship.

Since both dh and I work full time, I didn't really expect to have a vacation without him (although a little time alone is not a bad thing). We spent our days in the Mickey pool and checking out the ship. He came off at Nassau with us and we enjoyed Castaway Cay very much. We had early seating and he actually fell asleep in the middle of dinner one night. By bedtime, he was out within a minute of hitting the pillow. He definitely enjoyed the movies running constantly in the room on the TV.

Would I have enjoyed it more if he were more willing to go to the club? Yes. Did I not enjoy it since he didn't want to go to the club? Not so. We had a wonderful vacation. It was not the relaxing one I've had before when cruising, but let's face it, I haven't had a relaxing vacation in 4 years now and don't expect them for a number of years, since I'm expecting #2 in July.

That being said, we are booked for the 7 day Eastern cruise on November 30. We are planning on taking both boys, since ds#1 will be 4.5 and ds#2 will be 4 months. I plan on making ressies in Flounders for the baby, so that if ds#1 doesn't want to go to the club, at least the three of us can spend some time together w/o the baby. At 4 months, he will not really be bothered by going to the nursery for a few hours. If ds#1 decides he's more interested in the club, dh and I will try for a Palo's night. If not, so be it. If I've learned anything from having a child these last 4 years, is that I have to "go with the flow".

Relax, you will have a wonderful time.

Janet

Disneyland 1991
Offsite 1992
CBR 1997
Swan/Contemporary Concierge 2001
Contemporary/DCL Wonder 2001
Contemporary 2001
Next Stop...The Magic 11/30/02

 

[BABYJOSIE98]

Thanks everyone for all the info. We also have a cruise booked for Feb 2003 and our DD will be 4 1/2 when we go. She is very outgoing and a people person and so I am thinking she will really like the clubs. The thing is you just never know??? It is a whole new world than what they are used too. We are trying to get some friends to join us that also have children the same age. I think that would work out even better than her having to go by herself?? I just won't expect to much and then if she wants to stay that will be great!!

 

[cumickey]

Thanks everyone, that is the kind of things I wanted to know.......No relaxing till he is at college eh!! LOL!, no money then oh well!!!.

Seriously, that is great, all of you have good points, if you think of more let me know. Liza you had me ROTFL, so true!!, and jkester you gave me hope for the evening meals!, pal2pluto you are right about being flexible, joellen2 I have seen those cards did not know they were for our ages so thanks.

I have a couple more questions....

1. What did you do for sleeping?, use the sofa and get the ships child rail?.

2. He loves milk, will I be able to have lots in the room for him?.

3. They say the ratio in 3-4 club is 1:16, that seems a lot, did it really work out like that and how many can the room hold?.

4. I have seen the navigators for this age, can anyone give a better discription for me. Are they as long as an hour?, seems too long for this age's attention span.

alright I will quit now!! ;-)

 

[liza]

Hi, CUMickey! I agree with other posters here. And JanetS -- you said:

"Would I have enjoyed it more if he were more willing to go to the club? Yes. Did I not enjoy it since he didn't want to go to the club? Not so. We had a wonderful vacation. It was not the relaxing one I've had before when cruising, but let's face it, I haven't had a relaxing vacation in 4 years now."

How true! In the last three years since our younger one was born, we have had VERY relaxing vacations -- to Paris and Hawaii because we left the children behind! For the last two spring break trips we went skiing in Utah, and they were fabulous -- but we left the baby behind! This year, since the "baby" was 3, we decided to take the whole family, and the Disney cruise was the best option we could think of for such a young child. In fact, I have even tentatively booked the Western Disney cruise for next year's spring break, because I STILL can't think of a better spring break vacation with a 4-year-old!

So even though I said the trip was not in any way "relaxing", that's not through any fault of Disney OR cruising, it's only because life with a young child is never relaxing. So go with that expectation and you'll have a wonderful time!

I was amused at Palo at dinner one night -- we were with three other couples, and we all had children in the clubs. From time to time a pager would buzz, and everyone would reach for his/her pager, both at our table and surrounding tables. Once you determined with relief it wasn't YOUR pager, you'd look around to see who got nailed. You'd see someone from a nearby table talk with their spouse, then one of them would push his/her chair back with resignation, and head out to get the child. It almost became like a game, to see who would be next. "Another one bites the dust!" We got lucky at our table, and no one got paged. So after dinner we all headed down to the club, and there were our children, peacefully sleeping on mats.

Oh -- in the stateroom the children slept in the "bunk bed" arrangement with the sofa and pull-down bed. Younger one on the bottom, and we DID get a rail from the room steward, but I got that only in case the seas were rough, which they were not. We didn't really need the extra rail.

Milk -- can get it through room service. Room service is prompt and great. Menu is very limited but I didn't care. If you want to keep a container of milk in your cooler, which we didn't, you should probably bring a plastic bottle or something.

Kids' Clubs -- are just fine. Counselors are friendly and attentive and I didn't worry at all about the ratio. I was satisfied with the kids' clubs.

Please bear in mind that there are times when you may want to pick up your child in the club, but if they are in the process of being moved you can't interrupt the process. Just wait. It's all done for security reasons and I was glad of that.

Good luck!

 

[tkd lisa]

Milk is also available on Deck 9 at the beverage station. It's all you want, 24 hours a day.

 

[cumickey]

Thanks again liza, and tkd lisa about deck 9.

I will bring a container with us to hold the milk, good idea. What size are the coolers/fridge in the staterooms (cat6)?, do they hold much?.

TIA