First time cruise - what's best for family with small children

[cruize]

My mum has very kindly offered to take us on a cruise ! Never been before so no idea what the cabins are like, from a quick look online they look like bunk beds as standard unless you splash out ? Which I don't really expect my mum to do !
We will have a 3 year old, a 15 month old and an 11 year old plus me and dh and a 15 year old !! That doesn't work for one room does it ? Do they do interconnecting cabins ? When I go online it's not giving me a choice to add another cabin, just looks like I have to make a new booking, is this correct? So that means the two older kids could be anywhere ?

Also can you not take babies/toddlers in the pools on ANY cruise line ? Seems pretty sad for the little ones.

Bunk beds are not standard in any cruise. I’d book a Disney cruise - as well as being for young families the rooms are all family rooms. I assume but don’t know they can provide a cot for the 15 month old. Will your mum be in another room?

on all cruises children must be toilet trained to use the pools but many (inc Disney) have splash areas for the younger ones

The Disney cruises look fantastic, but it isn't just us she is taking, it's a whole family thing so don't think we can pick the actual cruise.
P&O state that their family cruises allow kids of all ages to use the pools ? Are they certain ships for the family cruises do you know ?

I've done Disney and Celebrity. Disney probably better for smaller kids but the food was a lot better on Celebrity (and still plenty of kids activities).

Our Disney cabin had a double bed plus single beds with a bunk bed above you could pull down or leave folded up. I think that's pretty standard on cruise ships.

We recently went on a P&O cruise, the only way we managed to get interconnecting rooms was to get a travel agent to help (it cost slightly less than what the website quoted for our party).

Rooms for 4 people had double bed, and a single sofa bed and above it a bunk that came down from the ceiling (which the cabin steward would need to do each evening).

When looking at future cruises it seemed to me that a travel agent would be invaluable, as the cruise companies do seem to want to make it as confusing as possible to book online!

We did a full family cruise in 2019, brilliant fun.
We used a travel agent, it worked out cheaper as the travel agent had a drinks package included and they were able to sort out the rooms.

Princess are brilliant with families. They have interconnected rooms and will open up the balconies. It is best to use an agent to locate them and that is usually a slightly cheaper method of booking anyway.
Only one pool is reserved for adults.
The children's clubs (including teen) are excellent.

In relation to the pool some ships have small paddling pools for little ones who aren't toilet trained. They are not allowed in the main pools on any ship as this is maritime law. For p&o the ships that have infant pools are as follows:

• Azura – Children’s pools (Aft) and the Coral Pool
• Britannia -The Reef Adventure Zone and the Lido Pool
• Oceana -Children’s Pirate paddling pool
• Ventura -Children’s pool (Aft) and the Beach comber Pool

Also on most p&o ships they have free night nursery for the little ones but I don't think they have anything during the day.

If choosing for that age group I'd go royal Carribbean or Disney but my friend recently went p&o with her little one and was very happy with it.

I'm afraid I can't help with the rooms as I haven't been on p&o since I was a child myself but been cruising for years and taken my little one at both 8 months and 17 months old recently so can help answer baby questions

@Bells3032 that's fantastic information thank you