Cruising with 1 year olds....

[Melrosgirl]

Pros and cons to cruising with a 1 year old? I've never cruised with a child under 4 before, so this would be new to me. Too young? Obviously would still be in diapers, so I would have to deal with that in the room. I know the pools would be off limits for him (fine by me). Can't use the kids areas, but only pay port charges.

Anything I"m missing here? DH thinks it may not be the wisest thing to do on a seven night cruise, but I'm not sure.

thanks!

 

[MarcyIn Florida]

We just cruised with our 19 month old.

Pros:
-- she LOVED the shows, loved running around the ship
-- loved the Mickey ear pool
-- lots of fun one on one time as a family
-- she loved to people watch on the ship and the islands

Cons:
-- we had 2nd seating dinner and it was very, very difficult
-- even 1st seating was hard
-- she did not like Flounders -- too babyish for her, I think

In the end, we had a great time, but we are very tired! I think we'll all enjoy it more when she is 3 and can do the clubs; her 4 y/o sister loved it.

Marcy

 

[confal1]

We are going with our son who will be 14 months, his sister 5, myself and hubby on Nov. 6 for a 7 day. We are hoping for the best as our son is extremely active. We are hoping for Flounder's but am not sure that he will do it since he is not in daycare now so is not used to being without one of us. Anyways the pool has 2 Mickey ears that toddlers can go in. They are about 1 foot deep. They do have Diaper Genie's, portable cribs, and highchairs available. I think that you will still be fine. I plan on taking advantage of his nap times. One of us will stay in the cabin but the other can go up and use the pool or whatever. Good Luck with your decision and have fun if you go.

 

[MarcyIn Florida]

Only the starboard Mickey ear is for babies/toddlers in swim diapers.

 

[SuzPasq]

We cruised with our then 11 month old 6 years ago, and with an 8 month old last year. This year they will be 7yo and 20 months. I think the fact that we're doing it again should tell you something!

I think as with most things when you have kids, you just have to adapt your expectations. We did a lot of tag team parenting so that our little one could stick to his nap pretty closely. During nap times, the one with the baby caught up on reading, and the other took advantage of all there is to do on the ship. During awake times we'd go to the pool, take walks on deck, and let him roam (crawl) around. This year I think it will be even easier since he is walking.

I definitely agree that dinner seating can be challenging, especially if you have late seating. One suggestion would be to push the afternoon nap back a bit, and another would be to feed the baby in the stateroom before hand. We always ordered the fruit tray (fruit, cheese, crackers) so both our boys didn't get to the restaurant starving.

As far as excursions, we prefer to do things on our own so if the kids are tired or cranky or whatever, we can just leave on a whim. We generally either take a taxi or rent a car in each port.

HTH!

 

[KarenP99]

FYI, you CAN go into the kids club, you just have to stay. They had a really cute little play area, we spent a lot of time there with our 15mo old.

IMO, cruising with a 1 year old is much easier than a wdw land trip!

Karen