cruise with kids.. top tips

[minximom]

Hi there for those who have cruised with children do you have any tops tips to share? It's our first cruise and we have a 6 and 5 yr old and any advice from other parents would be so welcome

If this has been dealt with in another thread.. Apologies.

 

[Happy100]

For me my tip/advice is not to worry about your kids going to bed late. My son who was then 4, 5, 6 and 7 on our cruises would go to bed a lot later then home. I of course worried he would get crabby and difficult but he never did.

If you have late dinner definitely use dine and play.
Get to the pools before 10 to avoid the chair rush.


As always have a wonderful time!

 

[Conorama]

Opposite message here. We kept our 4.5 year old on his usual schedule and we were glad we did - because we did get crabby and difficult otherwise! I'm sure we've all discovered that all kids are different, though, by now....

What we learned on our cruise - or rather, what worked for us:

• Order from room service the day before to have breakfast foods in the room for first thing in the mornings- usually our son snacked on fruit, cereal, or yogurt while we got organized, and then we went to breakfast. It also meant we had snacks in the room all the time.
• Definitely do the tip above on the last evening instead of going to breakfast at the MDR (if you're like us) -far less chaotic. We just got up, ate, got dressed, assembled our stuff and left the room - no rushing and the boy didn't have to get up too early and be cranky.
• If you are counting on doing laundry - do it early-ish in the week if you can (and early in the morning) - much less busy.
• If you don't want your kid to have fries every night, talk to your servers on the first night - they come with everything. (Don't get me wrong - I'm fine with them more than usual on vacation, but I wasn't expecting them every night.)
• Your servers will have your kids' drinks ready when you get there, so again, ask about this on the first night.
• As noted elsewhere, but worth mentioning- pack a lot of sunscreen (if you're going to hot places, of course)- we went through a lot with all the swimming/getting wet/sweating.
• We often ate lunch in the MDRs- it was a break from the crowds, noise, etc., in the middle of the day, and it helped us all to have a bit of a break.
• Get the Mickey Bars from room service!

Otherwise, we did just try to go with the flow. Our guy didn't want to visit with characters (yippee for us! No line-ups!) but he liked watching them from afar. He loved the Detective Agency game - almost too much - we did *6* mysteries and he would have done more. He liked the lab/club, but didn't want to do any organized activities. The mini-golf was a huge hit.

Enjoy!

 

[PoohJen]

When my twins were 7 years old, they spent more time at the pools than in the clubs. That was fine with us, but not as relaxing a trip as I expected! The pools were VERY crowded and very noisy and the boys kept running back and forth between the Mickey pool and the Goofy pool - these are divided by eating venues, etc, so we had to keep moving with them from one pool to the other! I don't think my husband or I ever even saw the adult pool that week.

We had a GREAT time, and are going on our 7th cruise next month - the boys are now 16 and they still love DCL!

Point is, your trip may not be as relaxing as you expect, and you won't be able to fit everything in that you want to do, but if you roll with it, you will have fun!

 

[JimGA]

-Don't let them our of your sight in the pools.
-Pack Light, they wont need as much clothes as you think
-Bring one pair of universla shoes, casual and comfy for the day but drssy enough for dinner, velcro sandels.
-Mis ship detective agency

 

[minximom]

Thank you all! Great advice. It's a 4 day cruise only so I really want to plan what I can (without going overboard... Excuse the pun lol) and just be aware of what is available to help us manage the kids so we don't waste precious time. I am liking the sound of ordering a light room service breakfast for the children the day to snack on whilst we get ready in the mornings. In fact in all of your posts I am seeing something that I know will be relevant and helpful to our family...so again thank you.

 

[drb116]

We always bring activities for the kids for dinner time. We usually pick up a small sticker book or coloring pages and have a new one each night for the kids. They don't always use it,but having something new each night helps get through dinners, which can get long.

 

[MommaBearof4]

Hi there for those who have cruised with children do you have any tops tips to share? It's our first cruise and we have a 6 and 5 yr old and any advice from other parents would be so welcome

If this has been dealt with in another thread.. Apologies.

Great question and great answers. I'm posting here to make it easier to track for when we take our critters.

 

[GretaAnn12]

We always bring activities for the kids for dinner time. We usually pick up a small sticker book or coloring pages and have a new one each night for the kids. They don't always use it,but having something new each night helps get through dinners, which can get long.

Would I be able to bring my DS's iPad to keep him entertained at dinner? How long do the dinners last typically?

 

[cruisecrasher]

Would I be able to bring my DS's iPad to keep him entertained at dinner? How long do the dinners last typically?

Hour plus. You could, just make sure data/etc are turned off unless you want to pay for cellular at sea. We had few problems with our three and a half year old DD or or when she was four except after she was done eating we'd run her over to the club so she could play rather than waiting for us to finish eating.
We let both kids stay up on both their cruises, but reinstated nap/rest times. Some evenings when one or both were crashing too hard we'd skip the show and watch it from our stateroom instead (they have a recording of the main stage shows that they air at the same time as the live version.) because of this we're so glad we did early dining. We also had at least one day per cruise that we skipped the MDRs and did the room service/counter service thing instead.

 

[GretaAnn12]

Hour plus. You could, just make sure data/etc are turned off unless you want to pay for cellular at sea. We had few problems with our three and a half year old DD or or when she was four except after she was done eating we'd run her over to the club so she could play rather than waiting for us to finish eating.
We let both kids stay up on both their cruises, but reinstated nap/rest times. Some evenings when one or both were crashing too hard we'd skip the show and watch it from our stateroom instead (they have a recording of the main stage shows that they air at the same time as the live version.) because of this we're so glad we did early dining. We also had at least one day per cruise that we skipped the MDRs and did the room service/counter service thing instead.

Thanks - I'll definitely bring his iPad then. That's a great idea about taking him over to the club after he eats. I also think we will do room service/counter service once per day.

 

[amyh13]

On our last cruise our DD was three so we fit in a nap everyday (okay maybe I napped too!) and it make it much easier for her to make it past 10.

Have some sort room service delivered every morning. Lots of fun!

Our last cruise we had early dining. During the late afternoon, we would all head back to the room for downtime. We ordered snacks from room service and we would have "happy hour" on the verandah while everyone casually got ready for dinner.

And I prefer the MDR for all meals if possible. I feel like everyone eats in stages if we use the buffet.

 

[Delrea]

On our last cruise our DD was three so we fit in a nap everyday (okay maybe I napped too!) and it make it much easier for her to make it past 10.

Have some sort room service delivered every morning. Lots of fun!

Our last cruise we had early dining. During the late afternoon, we would all head back to the room for downtime. We ordered snacks from room service and we would have "happy hour" on the verandah while everyone casually got ready for dinner.

And I prefer the MDR for all meals if possible. I feel like everyone eats in stages if we use the buffet.

If you do mdrs for all meals, do you tip at bfast and lunch each time? I think we prepaid our tips last time but only ate at mdrs for dinner and disbarkment bfast.

 

[Delrea]

On our last cruise our DD was three so we fit in a nap everyday (okay maybe I napped too!) and it make it much easier for her to make it past 10.

Have some sort room service delivered every morning. Lots of fun!

Our last cruise we had early dining. During the late afternoon, we would all head back to the room for downtime. We ordered snacks from room service and we would have "happy hour" on the verandah while everyone casually got ready for dinner.

And I prefer the MDR for all meals if possible. I feel like everyone eats in stages if we use the buffet.

If you do mdrs for all meals, do you tip at bfast and lunch each time? I think we prepaid our tips last time but only ate at mdrs for dinner and disbarkment bfast.

 

[LWQuestie]

If you do mdrs for all meals, do you tip at bfast and lunch each time? I think we prepaid our tips last time but only ate at mdrs for dinner and disbarkment bfast.

Tipping at breakfast and lunch is not compulsory or expected. Of course, you can if you choose.

 

[amyh13]

We did not tip at breakfast or lunch.

 

[V a n e s s a]

For me my tip/advice is not to worry about your kids going to bed late. My son who was then 4, 5, 6 and 7 on our cruises would go to bed a lot later then home. I of course worried he would get crabby and difficult but he never did.

If you have late dinner definitely use dine and play.
Get to the pools before 10 to avoid the chair rush.


As always have a wonderful time!

What is dine and play? Is it a program on the ship?

 

[1princess1prince]

Dine and Play is when staff from Lab/Club pick up kids around 9:15 at second dinner seating - nice break.

People always write hear to pack light and I agree, we had too many clothes ..But I'm not sure I've ever seen mentioned - bring more underwear . My kids almost ran out - maybe they changed back and forth more than most kids but I think I brought 11 or 12 each, for a 7 day, and went home with 0 clean .

 

[mordecai]

Conorama, Thanks for the list! I added everything you mentioned to my cruise notes. That's all good stuff!

 

[V a n e s s a]

Dine and Play is when staff from Lab/Club pick up kids around 9:15 at second dinner seating - nice break.
.

Thanks; I like the idea!