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.

We're big cruise fans. Personally I think not as good an idea at that age as your kids will be too young to use the kids club although some will offer the baby night service. I think 3+ is better as some don't allow swim nappies etc. Otherwise for kids in general mine have loved cruising.

@LizzieMacQueen

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.

This really is almost impossible! The balcony doors are extremely heavy and take effort from an adult. Most have a bolt at the top of the balcony doors which only an adult can reach and to be honest the railings are extremely high around the whole ship!

@AlexaStop

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.

They wouldn't unless they they are 5 feet tall and can build something to climb to get them over.

@osbertthesyrianhamster

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.

There has never been any cost for that and I've cruised with P&O, Celebrity Cruises, Royal Caribbean and NCL. Kids club is in cost of fare.

@SwimBaby

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.

Agreed. Unfortunately the most expensive too

@osbertthesyrianhamster

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.

I have cruised extensively and never paid for kids club beyond additional activities they put on such as an after hours movie night type thing. All other kids club activities each day are inclusive.

Done some more researching thanks to you lovely people 😀, so thank you.

Interconnecting rooms are pretty much out of our budget unfortunately so I suppose with all your advice on sleeping in one room I probably need to have the second baby first and see if that is even possible before I book anything😀.

I’m not worried about them falling off the edge; I mean it obviously would be a slight inconvenience if they did but they’re purposefully designed to minimise that risk, plus one will be 6m so unless I throw them overboard we only have one to worry about.

I'd worry about being stuck in a small room while they slept for long periods of time. I guess a balcony would at least give you somewhere to sit of an evening. I've done hotels with one baby and found early nights a real pain. We always did self catering when ours were small, caravans or villas, that way they could sleep and we could be up in the living room space.

Huge leap from backpacking holidays to cruises! I can see the logic of a room that moves rather than having to pack up your stuff though.

It sounds like a nightmare to me tbh. The problem is you’ll be stuck in one room, the baby or the toddler are likely to wake each other up and the 21m old will be into everything while being too young for the kids clubs. I could imagine it being much more fun at primary age where kids would get something out of the entertainment.

It depends what you want to get out of the holiday but it’s unlikely to be relaxing.

We did a P&O cruise when DC2 was 2.6. She wasn't toilet trained so wasn't allowed in the pool but there was a splash zone she liked. We didn't go on any excursions, just got out and walked with a buggy at every destination. Got the subway in Barcelona IIRC. She was old enough to go in the kids club which was useful on sea days but I'm not sure what the minimum age is. They generally had kids tea and then went to the kids club while we ate because we had a 7:30 sitting (not our first choice). We had a good time but it was also hard work and not that relaxing. With DC3 we will wait until he can use the pool.

I agree it won’t be relaxing like sipping on a pina colada in the Maldives with just me and future DH but.. that isn’t practical now, I’d rather be doing stuff with DC as a family so whether we’re in the U.K, on a boat or at a hotel it won’t be relaxing because we have two small DC.

Yeah, holidays with tiny kids aren't that relaxing but I think posters are saying that because cruises are so expensive. If you can afford to go every year then great, if it's a holiday of a lifetime then maybe that's something to think about.

Ah - thank you @UnbeatenMum I wasn’t getting that🤦🏽‍♀️. It’s not going to be a one in a lifetime type thing, although because of the pandemic it will be the first in 3 years so to have everyone crying locked in one room would obviously be hell 😂.

The most relaxing holidays I did when my DC were very young were Mark Warner holidays. I’ll never forget the first one when my DH looked at each other and were both in shock as our DC were in the clubs and we were on the beach with no DC to look after.
We did nothing the first day and then got stuck into the sailing, tennis, waterskiing (who knew I’d be really good at that?) etc, etc.
We used to do a Haven type holiday once a year and did all the kids stuff such as ball pits and water slides, family days out etc. Plus a Center Parcs which was a mixture of activities with and without the DC and then the Mark Warner holiday. It felt a good balance and got the DC very used to going on holidays.

I also had two under two at one point and the thought of a cruise with them brings me out in a cold sweat tbh.

There’s so many other family friendly options when it comes to travel I just don’t know why you’d subject yourself to a tiny shared room, less choice in terms of activities you could do (not even using the pool!) etc that would come with a cruise.

FTEngineerM I think while there is an element of ‘same shit different location’ with those ages you can get something more relaxing at that age. Due to the pandemic we’ve not taken both of ours away together yet but we had a lovely villa holiday when our eldest was 2. She napped really well after lunch so we always had a few hours chilling by the pool which felt like an actual holiday. You can’t really do the same if you’re in one room (whether on a cruise or in a hotel).

Chances are with a 21m and 6m old they’ll be napping at different times which is something else to consider as one of you could get stuck in the cabin for ages.

Sounds like my idea of hell. I'd much rather rent a villa somewhere. You can get there, settle in, relax. So many options if you want to be near a village or a town, near the beach or have a pool (or both) hire a car or not.

It's WAY more relaxing than being stuck in one tiny cabin with 2 very small DC.

I like France so I'd go there, but my extended family live Portugal & have hired villas all over for various numbers of them and love it!

I went to Greece to look after a friends DS while she ran one of her first yoga retreats. It would have been lovely if he was either younger or older, but he was 14 months and their buggy couldn't cope with the rough terrain, it just about killed me that fortnight. Carrying him to & from the beach on the goat track!! So just do a bit of research.

Obviously some lovely places in the U.K. too. Just depends if you're looking for a some pretty much guaranteed sunshine.

I know it does 'sound' as exciting as a cruise, but do you care about how it sounds or what is more enjoyable?

Disney cruises with little ones are amazing- this summer they are running short taster cruises from the uk for a few nights, not stopping at any countries. Vast majority of guests have little children so that’s not a problem.
I’m a worrier and would probably book an inside or porthole room but that really isn’t necessary as the railings are high. tilt inwards and have clear plexiglass on the inside so kids can’t climb them. The cleaners tidy the kids beds away during the day so you have more room space and then turn down in the evening while you are at dinner (leaving pillow chocs and towel animals). Loads of free things to do onboard, breakfast with characters, and great free childcare if you want it. And amazing food of course!

I’ve just found this thread and just wanted to say that we’ve taken our eldest 2 on cruises before when the youngest was under 1 and they’re fantastic.
We’ve been twice with P&O and have just booked the carribean for next February with them, we now have 3 DC and they’ll be 8, 4 & 2.
We’ve booked the 2 bedroom suite which sleeps upto 6- I’m not sure where people are getting the idea of a “tiny room” from.
My one piece of advise if you haven’t cruised before is to never, ever book an indoor cabin. You will be in complete darkness and I can only imagine it would be hell.
Our first cruise we booked a balcony cabin but the second and the one next year we’ve had suites which are lovely and roomy and you get extras too.

There isn’t many places I’d take two under two tbh!

Ok so I've been on numerous cruises with children. We did Norwegian fjords with P&O fro. Southampton when my youngest was 2.5 years old. Because he was under three he could only use the soft play/kids area if we went in with him. They didn't do supervised kids club for kids under three, except at night. So we did use the night nursery on a few occasions where I settled my son to sleep in the cot in the night nursery and then they gave me a pager. My older son was in kids club so meant 2 or 3 times DH and I could have an adults only evening. He was a good toddler as he would still be fast asleep when we collected him and we transported him in his sleeping bag back to cabin. No problems. We were 2 adults and 2 kids in a room. Yes there is not a lot of space but once your dressed in the morning and out the room all the kids beds are folded away again until bed time. We had a balcony room. Have done cruises since as they've grown older and can't wait until we can go again !