Babies on Board?

[cgdmom]

Today I got the surprise of my life!!! My mother in law is taking her whole family on the 7 day western next July!!!!! This will be our 4th time on the Magic --however it will be our first time on board with a 2 year old dd. There will be 4 families traveling together ---2 of us with 2 yr olds. My question is----how do you cruise with a 2 yr old? Did they like flounders? Was it hard to get a reservation for flounders? Did you keep there nap and bed time schedule---or did you strech their schedule a bit? Did you do any excursions? Basically--how did you manage? I don't mean to sound clueless but we cruised when our dd was 5 and again when she was 7 and 8. I know things will be different but I just wondered what others did when cruising with young ones.

Also What is new in planning for a cruise? We sailed last summer --- just wondered if there any changes ex. romantic escape at sea package, palos, excursions, etc. thanks so much!!!Jill

 

[jodifla]

We cruised when DS was almost 3. He was in Flounder's almost every evening for a couple of hours so DH and I could have some time to ourselves. He liked it there....It's not a huge space but it was comfortable for him. We booked as soon as we got on the boat, but now it appears you can do it online. The staff was great!

Our DS really likes his DVDs, so we brought our portable player along. He would play with his toys in our room and watch Sesame Street while we sat on our verandah with bloody marys and in room breakfast. In the evening, we could be on the balcony when he was asleep, so that was nice too. I guess what I'm saying is, a balcony really rocks when you have little ones.

DS also like exploring the ship and the Mickey pool (non potty trained children have an ear to themselves). In fact, his favorite place was the bar next to Triton's. The bartenders made him Shirley Temples while DH drank his martinis. DS also liked to dance to all the bands on the ship.

Because of the hurricane, we ended up in Cozumel. We spent the day at Senor Ponchos beach club, and DS swam in the pool for hours. We broke out of our schedule some, which worked pretty well. Except for that last night, where we were all up until midnight, and too tired to make breakfast the final morning!

It was a great trip! So great, DH let me book another one onboard.

 

[Buddy Bear]

Sarah was six months old at the time and she had a blast. Wherever we went she came with us except for one time when we booked Palo's brunch.

Our Eastern Caribbean went to St. Thomas and Puerto Rico; the excursions were low key so Sarah could come along. St. Thomas was a tour of the island and then a trip to Coral World. Puerto Rico was a day trip to a resort hotel with a pool and access to the beach.

Sarah really made the trip; her enthusiasm was infectious and made everyone smile. I can't imagine what the cruise would have been like without her

We tried to stay on a nap schedule but it didn't always work out since we were having so much fun.

 

[aprilgail2]

I cruised with my 2 1/2 year old and she was bored to tears in flounders...they had mostly toys for kids one and under. The only thing really for the "older" kids was to sit in front of the TV and watch movies and she just was not into doing that. She went once and spent the rest of the time with us. She stayed on no schedule, when she fell asleep we just put her in the stroller and continued on with what we were doing, movies, walking the deck, eating etc...
The pool situation is tough....the non potty trained ones are put into one ear of the pool that has like a fountain in the middle...most are trying to climb out to get into the real pool and its tough to keep them in the ear.....we just kept her away from the pools totally so that was an easy problem to solve. She was awake for all the shows and she loved them. She would go out on secret deck 7 and run around out there. We got off the ship in all the ports and went to the beach which she loved. We had a good time but we went not expecting to have time to ourselves anyway so it worked out ok.

 

[PearlandPaige]

I know this is a little OT, but Buddybear, does Sarah ever STOP smiling? She is such a ham for photos! I hope my little one is as happy on his first Disney cruise. I would post a picture of him (quite cute, too, IMHO), but I haven't quite figured out how yet.

 

[castlegazer]

I have a question too for Buddy Bear - and it may not be soo off topic, but I may be hijacking here. How did you handle the island tour with Sarah with regard to a car seat? I would like to bring my kids around St. Thomas to all our favorite spots but can't figure out if I need to haul their car seats or not - or rent ones in St. Maarten with a rental car.

Thanks for the help.

 

[TexasGirl]

Our baby will have just turned 5 months old when we cruise in about a month. We plan to use Flounders and keep him with us a lot of the time as well. We also booked a balcony due to bringing him.

We are going in 2 days early so we can do Disney World too but we are leaning towards just da da and our 5 yr old going to DW and me staying at the hotel with the baby. Would anyone mess with bringing a 5 month old to DW in July? I'm thinking no. We are booking our hotel tomorrow and are leaning towards staying onsite at Disney Caribbean Beach or Coronado Springs..so there should be plenty to see and do at the hotel for baby and me to be occupied.

Would love to hear about anyone else's baby experiences.

 

[FirstTimeCruiser]

I have a question too for Buddy Bear - and it may not be soo off topic, but I may be hijacking here. How did you handle the island tour with Sarah with regard to a car seat? I would like to bring my kids around St. Thomas to all our favorite spots but can't figure out if I need to haul their car seats or not - or rent ones in St. Maarten with a rental car.

Thanks for the help.

castlegazer, I'm glad you asked this! I've got the same questions...

Suzy

 

[DisneyLovingMama]

Wr're doing both WDW and DCL w/ a 7 mo old. Maybe we're crazy, but hope it'll be okay. I'm only planning to spend a few hours each morning at the parks, then spend the bulk of the afternoon at our villa. We took DD when she was the same as DS and she did fine. After the 5 days at WDW, we're doing a 4-day cruise. I already have DS booked in Flounders every night except Pirate Night, so DH and I can have some peace and quiet. DD is looking forward to the club, so again, I have high hopes for the 2nd part of the trip.

 

[Buddy Bear]

I know this is a little OT, but Buddybear, does Sarah ever STOP smiling? She is such a ham for photos! I hope my little one is as happy on his first Disney cruise. I would post a picture of him (quite cute, too, IMHO), but I haven't quite figured out how yet.

Sarah enjoys the outdoors and is usually a very happy baby. Thank you for the kind words.

Castlegazer:

In many cases there is transportation just outside the ship. On St. Thomas there were many open-air trucks that would bring you to your destination. We would roll the stoller/car seat off the ship and over to the truck. In our case we were going to Coral World, but the driver as an added bonus took us to the top of the island to a scenic overlook which is where one of the previous photos posted was taken.

He stopped at a few other places along the way before going to Coral World, one where a guy let you sit on his donkey so you could have your picture taken for a voluntary donation It appeared that the truck driver was in cahoots with the vendors at the locations he stopped, which was fine by us.

When we got to Coral World I got the stroller from the back of the truck and we used it to get around Coral World. I have to admit Daddy does a lot of the car seat carrying although in reality there wasn't that much.

Open-air truck

Inside shot of truck

Catherine on donkey, driver pointing in the background

Snack bar at Coral world.

Underwater aquarium

Shark pool (small 3 & 4 footers).

Touch pool - starfish and other aquatic life.

 

[castlegazer]

Thank you Buddy Bear. We are planning on Coral World and Coki Beach on our own in St. Thomas too. We didn't like Megan's beach last time - we especially didn't like the ride there as our taxi broke down multiple times.

I would just tell people to judge wisely when choosing your mode of transportation with wee ones. It was scary for us and we didn't have the kids with us. But I am a firm believer in taking taxis and doing it yourself on the islands.