Is a full week cruise too long for first time cruisers with a child?

[lscrivan18]

Thank you for your comment about your DD being able to wear pull ups to the kids club! My DS turn 4 a month before our cruise. He is a few months past 3 now and no sign of potty training in our future yet. I hope we're ready for the cruise but it's good to plan for all possibilities.

Pullups are not allowed in the kids club. Children must be fully potty independent, meaning they will not assist for the bathroom. They make exceptions about pullups for medically needed reasons.

 

[DisneyPiPhi]

Hi everyone! I am looking into going on the Treasure November or December 2025. However, I’ve heard from a few places that a shorter cruise is better if you’ve never been on a cruise in your life. We will be traveling with our 4 1/2 year-old daughter. The Treasure just seems right up our alley with the theming and the Moana stage show. What are everyone’s thoughts?

Our kiddo was 5 on her first cruise, which was 7 nights on the Disney Wonder. We are SO glad that we chose a longer cruise! It gave us plenty of time to settle into our vacation, relax, and get a daily routine going. I highly recommend it!!

 

[Disturbia]

Pullups are not allowed in the kids club. Children must be fully potty independent, meaning they will not assist for the bathroom. They make exceptions about pullups for medically needed reasons.

Our cruise was this spring break (end of March this year). Pull ups are allowed for that age group as long as the CM doesn’t have to help with anything. She can go sit on the potty wash hands and put her clothes back on (make sure they’re easy to take on and off). They will ask once as a reminder to go potty but not force.

Now she does have sensory issues and speech delays so not sure if that was why she was allowed. Management did have to approve (long wait for that) to allow her MB to be tied to the back of her high top Billy shoe.

We waited until our DD had already gone poop and then had her pee before dropping her at the center. We only left her there for 2 hours and they are closely monitored and kept in a small group-kids up to age 4 (probably due to the sexual assault case).

Also, I found some really good underwear that can absorb one accident. Our Dd is 4.5 now and will be 5 on our next cruise so we are trying really hard to get her trained. I’m not sure these would work on boys (we had to use extra padding on top of overnight diapers for our son)

 

[Disturbia]

I would add that our DD only went twice and then didn’t want to go, so do be prepared for that as well; she did build a forkie and wouldn’t let that out of her sight for the rest of the cruise.

 

[Carohs]

Don't ask me, I was going to make our first cruise 13N TA with a 5-year-old. You can always prepare contingencies if you feel sick etc. On our last 4N, there were definitely little kids crying they had to leave. If you have the option and are even considering it, go for the 7N and don't second guess.

 

[lscrivan18]

Our cruise was this spring break (end of March this year). Pull ups are allowed for that age group as long as the CM doesn’t have to help with anything. She can go sit on the potty wash hands and put her clothes back on (make sure they’re easy to take on and off). They will ask once as a reminder to go potty but not force.

Now she does have sensory issues and speech delays so not sure if that was why she was allowed. Management did have to approve (long wait for that) to allow her MB to be tied to the back of her high top Billy shoe.

We waited until our DD had already gone poop and then had her pee before dropping her at the center. We only left her there for 2 hours and they are closely monitored and kept in a small group-kids up to age 4 (probably due to the sexual assault case).

Also, I found some really good underwear that can absorb one accident. Our Dd is 4.5 now and will be 5 on our next cruise so we are trying really hard to get her trained. I’m not sure these would work on boys (we had to use extra padding on top of overnight diapers for our son)

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Yes, that seems to be why they allowed her with pull-ups. If they spot pull-ups on a child (Kid's Club not Nursery), they will call you to come get them.

 

[sponica]

OP: The long and short of all these answers is that it really depends on your kiddo. And I know it's hard to predict how a 4.5 year old will react when she's probably about 3 now.

But overall, how does she travel? If you've taken long vacations before, how is she? Is she done by day 4 like my youngest is or is she easygoing?

 

[Pigwie]

Like most people have said it may depend on your child but I can let you know how our first cruise went with kids aged 1 and 3 years old:

We took our first cruise in January this year (2024) and we decided to do a 7 night Eastern Caribbean. I know it's not what most people recommend but we were traveling from Canada and didn't want to waste all that time travelling just to do a couple of nights.

To summarize our trip, we LOVED it! It was great and we didn't really have too many problems. Our one year old had some grumpy moments but she has those at home too, might as well be a beautiful spot for them! Our 3 year old did amazing, I don't think he had a single problem other than being pretty sleepy most nights (although not too sleepy to stop seeing characters after dinner every night!). We chose a Disney cruise specifically because most people there have kids or are expecting kids to be around so if someone fusses I didn't get too worried about bothering other people (because we've all been there!).

When we were at the end of the cruise both my husband and I said that we didn't think it was long enough, lol! It was the first vacation that at the end I didn't want to go home, I could have stayed for so much longer! So while we were onboard we booked a placeholder and are planning on doing another 7 night in Nov. 2025!