Flounders idea for 12 to 36 month old's

[CVW]

It wasn't until after we got home that we thought of this. I wanted to tack it onto "all the best tips in one place..." but couldn't find it.

We tried to balance putting our 17 mo daughter into Flounder's with getting to spend time with her big brothers and us. For those of you with kids around this age, your child may be like ours.

She did not do well at all with the evening meals (we took her to six of them). Each evening we would have to walk her around, take her out, etc.

On the other hand, she LOVED the big production musical shows. (Morty, Hercules, Dreams, and Farewell). You might be surprised how well some 2 year-olds will do.

What most people do is to pick a couple of evenings to leave their toddler in Flounder's ALL EVENING. Don't do that.

If you're bringing a toddler on board, I would recommend putting them in Flounder's nearly EVERY night for just 1 hour each evening at 6 (for early seating). Then go retrieve her at 7. Bring her back to dinner (it will be winding down) and she can eat and enjoy the family for a few minutes before you leave. (You might need to give them some snacks beforehand. They won't feed the kids in there.)

With this plan, you would only use Flounder's for 7 hours, and yet have peaceful meals all week.

If we did it again, I'd get a "6 o'clock block" when we boarded the ship.

We loved having our little one on the trip. By far the most troublesome time was dinner. But one of our most endearing memories was her enjoyment of the evening entertainment. I'm glad she didn't miss it.

(She was bored by Who Wants to Be a Mouseketeer, but so was her Daddy. She was a pleasant excuse for me to leave.)

 

[aprilgail2]

My 2 year old loved the shows..she can't wait to see them again! She sat through them all though she did fall asleep during one of them (I think it was a comedian)...she also loved the meals so she had every one with us...I am hoping this cruise will be the same because I love having her with me for meals. If she decides she wants to go to the kids club during the day that is fine but I would really like her to have meals with us.

 

[moinab]

There is a minimum charge of 2 hours at a time for Flounder's. You could certainly use only one hour, but they will charge you for 2. At least, this is my understanding from the information sheet we received. Has anyone else been charged for only one hour?

 

[scurutchet]

I think this is a good suggestions, have others done something similar as well. I would like to hear how others have handled children under three.

I too was under the impression though, that there was a min. charge of two hours?

I admit dinner is what I am the most fearful of. My DD is 15 months, and all about not sitting still for dinner past 1/2 hour. We have late seating, and she is used to being in bed by this time. We are travling with my sister and her kids, so I am hoping that they will be somewhat of a distraction. But, I was thinking of seeing about getting a spot for her at nights. I would like to take her with us to dinner, feed her first and them drop her off and enjoy the rest of my meal without getting up one million times. I will admit though, it kinda makes me feel guilty, like I am ditching her. I really do think though that she would have more fun being with other children, she is very social.

Ah, mommy who is not quite sure what would be best for baby

 

[CVW]

That's interesting about the 2hr minimum. We used Flounder's for a one-hour block once, and they said it was fine. In fairness, I didn't parse the statement we got after the cruise because the Flounder's amount looked "about right", but you ought to check this beforehand.

Do NOT feel guilty about ditching the baby during dinner. I felt more guilty about getting up and walking around with her, and for interfering with our servers' rituals. Thankfully, we had a table for just our extended family, but it would have even been worse if we were sharing a table with a new family.

You'll have lots of time with your child. I probably spent more time with my daughter on this cruise than I had in her entire life. Since we've gotten home, she actually runs to me when I get home from work. She never did that before.

Hopefully, she and I are on cruise control now until she hits the teenage years. At that point, hopefully Disney will have a 6-year cruise I could send her on.