Hi everyone!
First of all, a BIG thank you to all for the information that I gathered on this board since we started planning our cruise in November. Our vacation (Wonder 2/24-28) was perfect and I give the DISer's a lot of credit for that!
One of these days I might get around to posting a full-blown trip report, but until that happens, I just wanted to throw out some things I learned specific to travelling with our toddler.
My son is 19 months old. He walks, runs, feeds himself (with his fingers...still working on that spoon!), is generally good-natured, but shy at first with strangers. He is a REALLY picky eater. We decided ahead of time to not do Flounder's as he is in big time seperation-anxiety stage (something that suddenly appeared a few months ago). I mention all this so if you are planning a trip with a toddler, you can kinda know where we were coming from. I'll break this up in categories according to what my concerns were heading into the trip and how it worked out:
Sleeping:
-Graco pack-n-plays are the "cribs" that are provided on the ship. My son has never slept really well in them...usually wakes up during the night a few times, which he never does in his crib. I decided to try something new on this trip. I went to the fabric store and bought a couple of yards of fake fur material...kinda like something you would make a bunny costume out of. I cut it down so I could fold it in half and create a nice little cushion over the pad. Then I wrapped the sheet which was provided (regular flat bed sheet) around it. It was nice and comfy and DS slept through the night each night, no problem! Also, I brought a blanket from home to cover him up as Disney does not provide those.
-I've read that some peole have trouble with the pack-n-play taking up too much room. We were in a category 10 room, which is one of the smaller rooms and it did not bother us at all. We just pushed it against the couch and had plenty of room to walk around it.
-The pack-n-play was not in our room when we checked in, but our stateroom host, Gerardo (who was AMAZING) brought it right away when we asked for it. He also brought us a diaper genie right away.
Eating:
-This was one of my biggest areas of stress. My son is a really picky eater. I didn't want to haul a lot of food on board, but I did bring a few zip-lock baggies full of yogurt covered raisins and goldfish crackers. Here are a few notes if you have a picky eater:
-They don't have cheerios on board. The first morning at breakfast, I about went into panic mode when I asked for some and the server (this was in Triton's) told me they didn't have them anymore. She came back 5 minutes later and said they do have Krunchioos, (KO's) so we ordered those. They are very similar to cheerios and my son did fine with them. Be aware though, the last morning at breakfast in AP, they did not have them at all. I checked Beach Blanket Buffet, and they had them there. So, if your child is addicted to cheerios, you may want to bring some, just to be sure.
- Milk was really easy to get. At breakfast at Tritons each a.m., I asked for some "to go" and the servers brought me a couple of cartons, no problem. Of course, the 24 hour beverage station has a milk machine (whole milk) which is a life saver.
-There is plenty of fruit available...at breakfast, lunch and at Scoops in the afternoon.
-You will probably want to bring some dish soap and bottle brush for washing out sippy cups or bottles at night. I bought a little squirt bottle at Wal-mart to put the soap in.
-Castaway Cay was the only place I had a hard time finding something for DS to eat. They don't have the kid's buffet area like they do at Beach Blanket Buffet. (Unless I missed it...anyone?) Unless your toddler can handle hamburgers, hot dogs, ribs, corn on the cob, cole slaw or potato salad, bring something with you (room service PB&J perhaps). My DS got to eat fruit (which they had plenty of) and a few bites of cookies!
Dinnner time:
-We were assigned to second seating for the cruise. When we tried to change upon boarding, there was a sign saying that the cruise was full so changes from late to early or vice versa could not be accomadated. We went to our assigned restaurant the first night, but DS was SO sleepy (bedtime is 9:00 normally) and he got really fussy. It just wasn't fun at all. We tried something unconventional and it worked out great! We got dressed for the early seating on the second night and showed up at our assigned restaurant. The amazing dining room manager said to come back in 10 minutes and he would see if he could seat us. He did, and we had a wonderful dinner (Parrot Cay). Our server was fantastic, and we tipped him with cash, since he wasn't our regular server. The next night we decided to order room service and carried it onto deck 10 where we had a wonderful private dinner under a full moon! It was definitely the most romantic meal of our trip, even with our toddler, who had a ball! The last night we showed up early at our assigned restaurant (AP), and after about a 15 minute wait, were seated. This worked great for us! The downside to it is that you do have to get all "gussied up" early without knowing for sure that you will be seated. We decided to take the risk and it worked out perfectly for us. The only other downside was not getting to know our tablemates and assigned servers until the last morning at breakfast. We would really have enjoyed the family we were asssinged to.
Will it be any fun?:
Of course that was our biggest concern, by far. I am thrilled to say that it was the best vacation we've ever had and that we can't wait to go again. Our son had an amazing time...walking around the boat, chasing our ping-pong balls when we played and picking up our shuffleboard discs when we were playing on deck 4. We took advantage of the open house times at Oceaneer's Lab, which has an adorable playground that he really loved.
I guess the biggest key to having fun with our toddler is that we went with realistic expectations. We knew that we wouldn't be able to do everything...no "nightlife" for us, no Palo's...cabin time every afternoon for DS's 21/2 hour nap. However, we just focused on the positive. We were in our cabin by 9:45 each night and took turns hunting for food. We made a game of it to see who could come back with the best late-night snack. We watched a little t.v., and read and were asleep before midnight, something we never do at home. As a result, we came back from this trip more rested then ever! In the afternoon, while DS was napping, my husband would nap too...which was heaven for him! That's when I got to do my thing...workout, lay in the sun, etc. We discovered that by not trying to do everything and just relaxing and enjoying the amazing service (having people clean up for you is such a luxury for a mommy) we had the most restful vacation ever.
Well, I know this was incredibly long, but if you have questions, feel free to ask!
Lisa
First of all, a BIG thank you to all for the information that I gathered on this board since we started planning our cruise in November. Our vacation (Wonder 2/24-28) was perfect and I give the DISer's a lot of credit for that!
One of these days I might get around to posting a full-blown trip report, but until that happens, I just wanted to throw out some things I learned specific to travelling with our toddler.
My son is 19 months old. He walks, runs, feeds himself (with his fingers...still working on that spoon!), is generally good-natured, but shy at first with strangers. He is a REALLY picky eater. We decided ahead of time to not do Flounder's as he is in big time seperation-anxiety stage (something that suddenly appeared a few months ago). I mention all this so if you are planning a trip with a toddler, you can kinda know where we were coming from. I'll break this up in categories according to what my concerns were heading into the trip and how it worked out:
Sleeping:
-Graco pack-n-plays are the "cribs" that are provided on the ship. My son has never slept really well in them...usually wakes up during the night a few times, which he never does in his crib. I decided to try something new on this trip. I went to the fabric store and bought a couple of yards of fake fur material...kinda like something you would make a bunny costume out of. I cut it down so I could fold it in half and create a nice little cushion over the pad. Then I wrapped the sheet which was provided (regular flat bed sheet) around it. It was nice and comfy and DS slept through the night each night, no problem! Also, I brought a blanket from home to cover him up as Disney does not provide those.
-I've read that some peole have trouble with the pack-n-play taking up too much room. We were in a category 10 room, which is one of the smaller rooms and it did not bother us at all. We just pushed it against the couch and had plenty of room to walk around it.
-The pack-n-play was not in our room when we checked in, but our stateroom host, Gerardo (who was AMAZING) brought it right away when we asked for it. He also brought us a diaper genie right away.
Eating:
-This was one of my biggest areas of stress. My son is a really picky eater. I didn't want to haul a lot of food on board, but I did bring a few zip-lock baggies full of yogurt covered raisins and goldfish crackers. Here are a few notes if you have a picky eater:
-They don't have cheerios on board. The first morning at breakfast, I about went into panic mode when I asked for some and the server (this was in Triton's) told me they didn't have them anymore. She came back 5 minutes later and said they do have Krunchioos, (KO's) so we ordered those. They are very similar to cheerios and my son did fine with them. Be aware though, the last morning at breakfast in AP, they did not have them at all. I checked Beach Blanket Buffet, and they had them there. So, if your child is addicted to cheerios, you may want to bring some, just to be sure.
- Milk was really easy to get. At breakfast at Tritons each a.m., I asked for some "to go" and the servers brought me a couple of cartons, no problem. Of course, the 24 hour beverage station has a milk machine (whole milk) which is a life saver.
-There is plenty of fruit available...at breakfast, lunch and at Scoops in the afternoon.
-You will probably want to bring some dish soap and bottle brush for washing out sippy cups or bottles at night. I bought a little squirt bottle at Wal-mart to put the soap in.
-Castaway Cay was the only place I had a hard time finding something for DS to eat. They don't have the kid's buffet area like they do at Beach Blanket Buffet. (Unless I missed it...anyone?) Unless your toddler can handle hamburgers, hot dogs, ribs, corn on the cob, cole slaw or potato salad, bring something with you (room service PB&J perhaps). My DS got to eat fruit (which they had plenty of) and a few bites of cookies!
Dinnner time:
-We were assigned to second seating for the cruise. When we tried to change upon boarding, there was a sign saying that the cruise was full so changes from late to early or vice versa could not be accomadated. We went to our assigned restaurant the first night, but DS was SO sleepy (bedtime is 9:00 normally) and he got really fussy. It just wasn't fun at all. We tried something unconventional and it worked out great! We got dressed for the early seating on the second night and showed up at our assigned restaurant. The amazing dining room manager said to come back in 10 minutes and he would see if he could seat us. He did, and we had a wonderful dinner (Parrot Cay). Our server was fantastic, and we tipped him with cash, since he wasn't our regular server. The next night we decided to order room service and carried it onto deck 10 where we had a wonderful private dinner under a full moon! It was definitely the most romantic meal of our trip, even with our toddler, who had a ball! The last night we showed up early at our assigned restaurant (AP), and after about a 15 minute wait, were seated. This worked great for us! The downside to it is that you do have to get all "gussied up" early without knowing for sure that you will be seated. We decided to take the risk and it worked out perfectly for us. The only other downside was not getting to know our tablemates and assigned servers until the last morning at breakfast. We would really have enjoyed the family we were asssinged to.
Will it be any fun?:
Of course that was our biggest concern, by far. I am thrilled to say that it was the best vacation we've ever had and that we can't wait to go again. Our son had an amazing time...walking around the boat, chasing our ping-pong balls when we played and picking up our shuffleboard discs when we were playing on deck 4. We took advantage of the open house times at Oceaneer's Lab, which has an adorable playground that he really loved.
I guess the biggest key to having fun with our toddler is that we went with realistic expectations. We knew that we wouldn't be able to do everything...no "nightlife" for us, no Palo's...cabin time every afternoon for DS's 21/2 hour nap. However, we just focused on the positive. We were in our cabin by 9:45 each night and took turns hunting for food. We made a game of it to see who could come back with the best late-night snack. We watched a little t.v., and read and were asleep before midnight, something we never do at home. As a result, we came back from this trip more rested then ever! In the afternoon, while DS was napping, my husband would nap too...which was heaven for him! That's when I got to do my thing...workout, lay in the sun, etc. We discovered that by not trying to do everything and just relaxing and enjoying the amazing service (having people clean up for you is such a luxury for a mommy) we had the most restful vacation ever.
Well, I know this was incredibly long, but if you have questions, feel free to ask!
Lisa
