cruises

[yingers74]

Has anyone ever taken their toddler on a cruise? Any recommendations or reservations to share?

Tah for any advice, am thinking of taking a cruise that goes from Southampton hence avoid the flight!

Not taken a toddler but as a family we LOVE cruises. Ds age 17 hugely into geography, history and languages. Dd aged 12 loves kids club activities and general ship-board activities. Dh and I love everything. Dd and I can have fun dressing up for dinner, while dh and ds can get away with shorts and t-shirts. Sailing from UK is so much easier than flying. Last summer we did NCL to Baltic capitals. Next one to Mexico, Belize, can't remember where else but start and finish in Houston. NCL is good because of 'freestyle dining' ie choice of restaurants and when you eat.

thanks for that, can I ask what does NCL stand for?

norwegian cruise line. dh and i have also been on royal caribbean which we loved but felt it was perhaps a bit too OTT for a family cruise.

we went on a NCL cruise to alaska last summer (out of seattle) (note that we've no kids - yet!) . would definitely reccommend the NCL cruise line because of their 'freestyle' dining, ie eat when and where you like. normally the dining is much more rigid which might be difficult with kids? my only worry about taking a toddler on a cruise is the number of stairs and trip hazards there are for them to fall on. and of course, there's the issue of keeping them away from the barriers on deck!
bear in mind as well the sort of journey the cruise will take. if it's one from southampton to the med you'll have to go round the bay of biscay, which can be very choppy - beware if you're prone to travel sickness!
sorry, that all sounds very negative - don't mean it to be, just the things i would consider! and i loved the cruise i went on - always lots to do - or not depending on how you prefer to spend your time!

I was wondering about this as well. We've never been on a cruise & I'm waiting until my youngest is old enough. She's only 7 months now, so I figured we'd have to wait a couple of years. But, how old does she need to be? Most cruise lines say over 1 year old is OK, but that seems young to me. I'm considering Ocean Village because it's very informal, so I thought it would be perfect for young kids. I also considered Carnival. Has anyone been on either of these cruise lines?

We took ours ages 3 and 5 in 2002 with P&O and highly recommend them - I would happily take a toddler. They have an evening club where you leave your children, they entertain them, then put them all to sleep in rows in sleeping bags! You don't have to pick them up until 2:00am (although you do have to be sober enough to push the pushchairs to get them back to the cabin.)

I put some photos up at
photos

katie50, the photos were fantastic, it really made it easy to visualise, looked like you had a great time, love the photo of little one asleep on the cabin floor!

wow Katie what excellent photos. Looks like a fab holiday to me!! Did you all sleep in one cabin then? Did you get much sleep?!

You can take them at any age, but it depends on the cruise line what facilities are available.

We went on a Disney Cruise when my youngest was 6 months old. It was great for little kids. The only problem was that at 6 months my daughter didn't like being left with anyone other than me, so I would be getting paged 15 minutes after leaving her in the nursery to come and get her because she was screaming! Depends on your individual child. My oldest one was 3 and loved every minute of it.

We went on a Royal Caribbean cruise just a couple of months ago which was fantastic. However I wouldn't recommend it for under 3's. The kid's club was only for children over 3 and potty trained (my youngest is neither) and they didn't want children in swim nappies in the pools. But for older kids it was awesome. My 5 year old loved it and so did her cousins (who go up to age 12).

So for taking a baby, it depends on how much you want to leave the baby in the nursery (depending in their facilities) or whether you would want to keep them with you throughout the day and evening.

LOVE the piccies Katie. As for sharing a cabin, Kate, can you believe we shared ours with ds 16 and dd 11! Cosy!!! And we had to go without 'cuddles' for a whole week! But it was still worth it - and we've all opted to cruise again this year sharing a cabin!

Apologies Kate it was Vic 17 who queried the sleeping arrangements

Thanks for the advice, P and O is certainly an option although I am rather partial to sea sickness!!!