Cruise with 2 under 2?

[FTEngineerM]

We’re rebooking our cancelled wedding woohooo; that includes honey moon, by then we’ll have 2 DC under 2.

Has anyone taken a cruise with 2 young babies?

I’ve been on one years ago and liked waking up somewhere new everyday, done lots of Back Packer style holidays since but I envisage that being less relaxing than only unpacking once!

We’re thinking of going from Southampton so there’s just a drive and then straight on, P&O said we can essentially take what we like there’s no limit which also sounds good for Pram and things.

Is this a stupid idea?
What haven’t I thought of?
What have people hated about a cruise with 2 small DC?

Thanks for any opinions in advance.

I love cruising and have taken my DC on 11 cruises.
One thing to think about is what you will do on sea days as your DC will be too young to use the pool and also check how the cabins work with two little ones.
I think doing day trips will be fine, you could either mooch about the port of check out family attractions such as local zoos etc.

Thank you @SwimBaby you’re a pro clearly

I hadn’t even thought about minimum age for pools, I asked which pools ‘children’ were allowed in but not the age, oops I will go and check now.

I’m having a bit of a mare about taking DC on outings; p&o answered vaguely which hasn’t helped. Due to covid they only allow certain trips ashore so they can vouch for the conditions we’ll be under, but that would involve me taking two massive car seats on board and keeping them in the cabin?! Or is there a better way?

@FTEngineerM

Thank you *@SwimBaby* you’re a pro clearly

I hadn’t even thought about minimum age for pools, I asked which pools ‘children’ were allowed in but not the age, oops I will go and check now.

I’m having a bit of a mare about taking DC on outings; p&o answered vaguely which hasn’t helped. Due to covid they only allow certain trips ashore so they can vouch for the conditions we’ll be under, but that would involve me taking two massive car seats on board and keeping them in the cabin?! Or is there a better way?

Unless you have a cabin with at least a balcony, I cannot see how adults, 2 babies, prams, car seats, luggage etc will all fit. With a balcony, at least these items can sit outside. That said, inside cabins usually have the beds that come out of the ceiling so those wouldn’t work with babies anyway.

What ports of call are you thinking? Are car seats really necessary. What size pram? A double side by side could be tricky onboard.

@AC12theletterofthelaw love your name 😃.

I know, that was my thoughts and the person who responded to my email evaded that part of my question. They did say that some sea view rooms are bigger than balcony rooms, but baths are in balcony rooms. So I’d be spraying my babies down in the shower 😬.

They were vague with the car seat discussion, didn’t say whether they provided but what do you do if you don’t have one? Just hold them? I can see that in a tuktuk in Sri Lanka but not a trip organised by P&O. We’re thinking either canaries or Mediterranean not sure of length though.

Pram is on a single footprint so that’ll be fine albeit heavy but that’s more of a problem for me when I use the car 😂.

I envisaged this being less effort than a flight & hotel but I’m starting to think otherwise.

I don't think I'd be able to relax fully with the worry of them going overboard. (Sorry, not helping).

I can recommend a Mark Warner holiday though.

When was you thinking of sailing?

Normally there is a rule about toilet trained kids only allowed in the pool - cruise lines usually won’t allow swim nappies in the pool, so make sure you clarify this.

I’d also be thinking about what you would do if you were quarantined in your cabin for a lengthy period of time - the issues people had at the start of the pandemic has made me decide cruises are off the table for me for a long time to come!

My friend struggled with her nearly 3 yr old on a cruise to the fjords. He is allergic to egg which they struggled to cater for. Also massively struggled with a small cabin and sleeping in the one room.

You'll need to book a "family friendly" cruise, because otherwise, 2 toddlers are very likely to be quite irritating for other passengers. Not really a holiday o honeymoon I'd have contemplated with 2 very young DC - Centerparcs or the equivalent might be more relaxing ... (and I detest Centreparcs, but heigh ho)

All the cruises I’ve been on have had lots of non irritating toodles onboard.

Never heard of Mark Warner, will take a look thanks @LizzieMacQueen

@SwimBaby we’ve been looking in the March - June 2022 window.

@Mumof1andacat that’s exactly why we have been flapping over cabin size, that confirms it’s always worth the extra space thanks.

@MeltsAway someone will find 2 toddlers irritating wherever we go 😂

I did lots of Mark Warner’s when my DC were aged 1 to 5 and would recommend them too.

You don't need a bath, you can put a small inflatable paddling pool in the shower for little ones.

Where will everyone sleep? Will you be stuck in your room in silent darkness every evening?

I think the cruise would be more relaxing without the current restrictions of having to go on a ship organised tour. Then you could mooch around the port of go on the local beach etc. The car seats do sound a problem, I’ve been on excursions with toddles but I don’t notice what they say on.

I have 2 under 2 - a 22 month old and 9 month old.

The 22 month old would 100% fall overboard while I'm busy stopping the 9 month old from crawling along after him.
I wouldn't do it. Nap, meal times, everyone sleeping in a small cabin, it wouldn't be a holiday for me at all.

Could you price up two interconnection cabins then you’ll have lots of space? We used to do this and sometimes it wasn’t much more than one cabin with a balcony. We used to lock one door, open up the connecting door and it was like having a suite.

I think the question for me would be what will you do after dinner every night? If you're talking a year away I'm assuming you have young twins or are currently pregnant with no2? Will they sleep in their pram so you can go to the bar or have a walk around the deck or will you be in your cabin all quiet by 7pm?

Our double wouldn't have had space for the paraphanalia of two babies but presumably they do a family room as you'll need cot beds too.

If you don't want to do their trips can you get off and just walk for the day and find your own fun? Might turn into a beach holiday rather than a cultural excursion but still.

Agree toddlers will always annoy someone. As long as you deal with it not leave them throwing chicken nuggets at the people sat next to them and screaming, that's all you can do. If they don't want kids on, they need to exclude below a certain age.

My favourite cruise was a Disney cruise around the Med, it was great for adults and DC and the cabins are quite a bit bigger than on other cruise lines.

I have always wanted to go on a cruise, but for the life of me, I cannot think why you would take two such young children on one! There are many more suitable types of holiday out there.

Hi op, we have done a fair few cruises in the last 5 years and it’s always been fine with dc.

We’ve only ever cruised with P and O so can’t speak for other cruise companies but they were fab.

I am not so sure if things will feel too restrictive with current Covid guidelines, so we are taking a couple of years off cruising in the hope things will go back to normal.

Happy to answer any specific questions

Would you not be terrified one of them would fall overboard?! I've never been on a cruise so not sure if you can get anywhere near the edge or not but if you can I would be far too anxious to go with small children.

It’s not something I’ve ever worried about. It would be incredibly difficult for them to fall overboard (unless a parent did something really silly like sat them on the railings and accidentally let go.)

@User478 what a genius idea, and zero packing space. Thank you. That was DPs main concern, sleeping, we’re a bit PFB so to be fair one of us goes to bed same time as DC at the minute anyway we wouldn’t lose a lot in terms of evening fun like that. It’s all of us sleeping in the same room he has concerns about.

Maybe @SwimBaby s idea of interconnected rooms would solve that problem, that does sound extortionate though, I will have a look this evening .

@SleepingStandingUp yes, pregnant at the moment so I have no idea what it’s like having 2 DC let alone on holiday. They’ll be 6m and 21m I’m envisaging one parent takes one baby. Not whilst the pandemic is like it is unfortunately, at least that’s with P&O I imagine it’s the same with all to ensure guests aren’t coming back infected and then having to lockdown the ship. That’s not ideal I’ll be honest, I like roaming around but I’m hoping what ever we book will be a nice compromise of multi destination holiday with only one unpacking.

@eatsleepread we usually go on back packer type holidays, taking $20 sleeper trains across Vietnam type of thing but that seems far too risky given the current climate and with two tiny babies in tow so a cruise seemed like a good shout to get us what we’d like in a holiday but family friendly.

Thanks @Happytohelp1 we’ve mainly been looking at P&O, I will probably come back to you once I’ve looked at some of these suggestions 😀

We've been on loads of cruises but I think with two that age it might be tricky. My youngest was 8 when we went on a first one. There are kids clubs and nurseries but IIRC there's cost attached to those.

Hope you find something, OP, and that you manage to get a bit of a rest too! x