Disney or RCL with young kids

[atoz786]

There are some great points made for both lines here. I just wanted to add a couple of thoughts. My kids changed enormously from 20 months to 3 years old. I know it’s hard to plan now for who she will be at the time of sailing, but I would guess your daughter could very possibly be much more into characters, as well as the deck parties, lobby dance parties with characters, themed splash area and the overall kid friendly atmosphere at that time. If you were going now at this age, I’d say choose for the parents, but at 3 I’d probably lean DCL personally.

She might be delighted by the little things, like stopping by Bibbiddi Boppity Boutique each day for some pixie dust (glitter)waved into her hair with a magic wand by a fairy godmother, a fun free activity. Or even a princess makeover there one day.
I wouldn’t be positive that you won’t leave her at the kids clubs by then, it’s possible that you could change your mind. And at that age you might not choose to leave her for very long but most of their activities are 15-30 minutes long, so you might choose one activity a day that sounds engaging for her and try it out. You wouldn’t be the first parents to linger in the hallway watching through the opening to make sure your kiddo is happy. At the very least, if you don’t drop her off at all there’s still a ton of Open House times where you can go into the kids club spaces as a family and enjoy the space together with your daughter.

On a 7 night Fantasy sailing you’ll be able to do a character breakfast one morning which typically has several Disney Jr characters and there’s a good chance she might be interested in them by then. You’ll also have likely have a fair bit of family friendly day time activities on a 7 night as well as engaging evening activities for all ages. Your 3 year old would probably get a kick out of Taylor Mason for example, a family comedian that we’ve seen before on DCL 7 nights. Even if she doesn’t understand everything, he uses funny voices and puppets and usually has every kid in the audience rolling with laughter, even 3 year olds.

Thanks after my wife read your post she pretty much vetoed any other cruise line for now

I think for now we will stick to Disney so everyone can enjoy and have a good time.

 

[fredandkell]

As a parent of 14 and 11-yos, I say go with RCL. You are in the end of a window of time where you can travel with the kids to places where you want to go without regard to their opinion. particularly since you’re not using the kids clubs, that’s half the point of the Disney premium. I feel like from about age 4 until age 10, you adjust travel preferences “for the kids.” Then, when they are teens and tweens, suddenly they develop very strong opinions on their own about where and what they are doing on vacay, so you’re still traveling “for the kids.” So if RCL is what you and your wife want at this point, I say go for it.

 

[atoz786]

As a parent of 14 and 11-yos, I say go with RCL. You are in the end of a window of time where you can travel with the kids to places where you want to go without regard to their opinion. particularly since you’re not using the kids clubs, that’s half the point of the Disney premium. I feel like from about age 4 until age 10, you adjust travel preferences “for the kids.” Then, when they are teens and tweens, suddenly they develop very strong opinions on their own about where and what they are doing on vacay, so you’re still traveling “for the kids.” So if RCL is what you and your wife want at this point, I say go for it.

Very valid points. I guess we will wait to see once DCL releases their Dec 2022/Jan 2023 schedule and see how much difference the pricing is.

 

[LJGrantUK]

We've gone through a similar dilemma over the last few days, trying to book a cruise for summer 2022. My eldest will be almost 9, youngest just turning 4. We've loved Disney Cruises before and mainly used the kids clubs only for open houses. For us, and I know all kids/families are different, the meals on Disney have seemed formal enough to keep adults happy (and well fed) whilst fun enough to keep kids entertained. I just don't think the restaurants on RCL would appeal to my kids so mealtimes become a chore (and I know that's a massive generalisation given there's like 20+ eateries). However the big ticket items on RCL - flow rider and bumper cars and escape rooms etc - do have quite a wow factor. We've stuck with Disney but I think it's a matter of time before we get on Allure or similar.

But a couple of questions if I can highjack this: does RCL have anything similar to the Open House in the kids club? We've loved playing in there all together on Disney. And are Disney still doing Open Houses on the staycations this year? Not that I'm going on one, I just don't want to discover that they drop the Open Houses and they never return!