Help West Coast Cruise with a 1 1/2 year old

[giovanni11]

looking for some Help. Have been on the Disney Cruise before but never with my son. I am looking for any information on what there is to do for little kids on board? Are there enough activities to keep them occupies especially on sea days? Is it true that they can only use one of Mickeys ears to swim in? Any suggestions or info anyone has would be greatly appreciated.

thanks
mara

 

[AUDREY BELCHER]

how old is your child. Disney program starts at 3yr old and up

 

[giovanni11]

1 1/2

 

[giovanni11]

I know that they have a childrens program i just want to know what there is for small kids to do?

 

[HooKooDooKu]

Children that are not potty trained are restricted to the Mickey Ear with fountains.

Only children ages 3 and up (and are potty trained) are allowed in the children's club.

For those younger than age 3, there is Flounder's Nursary with a charge of $6/hour with 2 hour minimum. The nursary is GENERALLY open 9:00am-2:00pm and 6pm-12pm, but depends. They usually include hours that will allow adults to go on MOST excursions w/o children. While they will give children snacks, they are not set up to feed children (so if trying to do dinner w/o the little ones, you have to feed them before hand your self).

 

[giovanni11]

thank you, I am trying to get the inside scoop from anyone that has travelled with a small child on the cruise. My son would probably not be too happy in the Nursery.

 

[HooKooDooKu]

Other than the nursary (toys, movie showing on TV, and cribs) and the Mickey Ear, there is NOT anything specific for children under the age of 3. No programs or special activities.

However, don't let that discourage you, we just finished the 14 day Repo with a 2yo and had a wonderful time. The worst part about having a 2yo with us was that evening meals were sometimes difficult. The average meal last an 1.5 hours (you know, appitizers, then salad, then main course and dessert). Well that was typically a little too long for the 2yo. We had a number of ways of coping...
1. Shorten the meal time. I would plan on skipping appitizer and DS and I would get in line for character apperances while DW would go on to dinner and order for me.
2. Feed DS ahead of time from Pluto's Dog House and put him in the nursary.
3. Bring a portable DVD player to the table for DS to watch during dinner (we'd have to keep the sound off, but the images were enough to keep him occupied).
4. Thank goodness our 14 day cruise didn't have many children on board. The nursary load was light enought that if we hit the point where DS wasn't going to make it through dinner (i.e. his meal came when our appitizers came, and so he's all done before our main course arrives), I could just run him up to the nursary without a reservation.

Depending upon your childs nap routine, you might want to consider a room with a verandah. That way you can rest out on your verandah, read a book or something during nap time.

I'd also suggest bringing along some toys. I personally enjoyed some rest time by sitting in the cabin watching TV while DS played.

 

[HooKooDooKu]

thank you, I am trying to get the inside scoop from anyone that has travelled with a small child on the cruise. My son would probably not be too happy in the Nursery.

We were fortunate that we didn't have ANY problems with DS in the nursary. By the end of the cruise, the staff wasn't even bothering to give us a beeper. I still don't understand how they managed to get him to fall asleep in a crib when we could never get him to sleep in one at home (he's been in twin size bed sitting on the floor since he was 15 months old).

BTW, even thought DS was great in the nursary, we didn't use it very much. During the entire 14 day cruise, I only used about 20-25 hours of nursary time.

 

[giovanni11]

thanks. I am hoping that he will stay in the Nursery at least one night so that we can enjoy dinner but I am also hoping he may be sleeping by dinner and we will just leave him in his stroller. We ended up with late dining so we will just have to wait and see. Did you find your child was getting bored with nothing for him to do?

 

[JennsBabySky]

We just finished the Mexican Riveria with our 16 month old. He had a BLAST. Some of the things we did were:
1. Swimming in the Mickey ear. I was worried he wouldn't like it, but he loved it! He loved sitting in front of the jets. By the way, the water in the ear is warm! It was perfect and a ton of fun.

2. Lots of snacks -- fruit, french fries, ice cream. Yummy!

3. Lots of supervised visits to the 3-4 year old play area. They can't stay by themselves, but they are happy to give you and your child guest passes. My son loved the tiny slide (not the big one) and the cars. Plus he loves following around little kids. This was great when the room started to feel cramped!

4. Excursions to pools in off site hotels while in port (we did the Paradise beach and El Cid hotel in Mazatlan).

5. Deck parties and family dancing in the evenings. My son loves to dance and he had a blast dancing with the other kids. We just took long naps.

6. CHARACTERS! He loved goofy, mickey, minnie and all the rest.

My son loves to eat so he did just fine during dinner. We ate a little faster than some of the other couples, but we're used to that by now. We would get him fruit or soup to eat while we were eating the appetizers and then he would get his entree. We would bring a sippy for his milk or juice (so he could feed himself) and a bib because we tried to encourage him to pick up some of his own food (so that we can eat a little faster and decrease the dining time). The only problem we had during dinner was that our son decided that our cruise was the perfect time to start using utensils by himself. Yikes! He was even messier than usual because he wanted the noodles or french fry speared on the fork and he would guide the fork to his mouth by himself. I'm glad he wants to do this, but I wish he did it another week!

Have fun,
Jennifer

 

[giovanni11]

were the two hotels you went to to use the pool, pary of excursions?

 

[suesings]

Hi,
We just got back from the Mexico cruise with a 21 month old and 5 year old. We signed up for Flounder's Reef on line and used our 10 hours (alloted time for the week). We put her in for 2 hours on the first sea day (Sunday) and we made sure we didn't make the transition into the nursery a long one. They pretty much grab them and say "Ava's in the Nursery" or something like that. Before they can get worked up they are having fun. There is a one way window where you can check on them which was really nice. Everytime I would go by and check she was playing or singing (Ee-I-E-I-E-I-O) with the CMs. We always acted happy when we were putting her in there so she thought she was "lucky" to go Sometimes parents can add to separation problems.
I would definitely put your toddler in Flounders and go to Palo's one night for dinner. It is so nice to get away with just your husband just for a couple hours. We had a great time with the kids. We brought a small stroller and also let her walk quite a bit. She loved the Mickey Ear of the pool. She thought it was great and didn't even know she couldn't go in the Mickey Pool portion.

We went on the Paradise Beach Excursion in Puerta Vallarta and then just took the Tender boat to Cabo and strolled around. We took our 21 month old to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch and stopped at Margaritaville for a quick Margarita. (nice day in Cabo).

Have fun! We did meet a family who wouldn't put their daughter in Flounder's and so they never got any time alone - they definitely did not have as good a time as we did.

 

[JennsBabySky]

were the two hotels you went to to use the pool, pary of excursions?

We did the DCL sanctioned hotel excursion in Puerto Vallarto (Paradise Beach Excursion). On our own, we went to the El Cid hotel in Mazatlan.

 

[FirstTimeCruiser]

3. Lots of supervised visits to the 3-4 year old play area. They can't stay by themselves, but they are happy to give you and your child guest passes. My son loved the tiny slide (not the big one) and the cars. Plus he loves following around little kids. This was great when the room started to feel cramped!

JennsBabySky,
Did you have to sign up for this or make reservations? Or can you just drop in? Where is this play area located?
Thanks!!
Suzy

 

[JennsBabySky]

JennsBabySky,
Did you have to sign up for this or make reservations? Or can you just drop in? Where is this play area located?
Thanks!!
Suzy

No, you don't have to sign up. You can drop by anytime that the Oceaneer Club is open. The 3-4 year olds are usually in the Oceaneer Club which is on Deck 5, midship. I had a navigator (published literature for the cruise with the itinerary for the 3-4 year old). There may be small amounts of time that the 3-4 year olds are not in the room (eating dinner, etc). I never tried going during these times, but I suspect that could be the only time you would be turned away.