Toddler bedtime on a cruise

Hi everyone - we're taking our little guy on his first cruise in July - it leaves NYC on his third birthday! We've always been sticklers for bedtime. He usually is in bed by 7:30-7:45pm. Given this is a vacation and I don't want him to miss out (or us parents miss out!) on fun stuff in the evening, what do you parents of toddlers do about bedtimes? I'm totally willing to push it up some and I'm thinking he'll be so busy having fun during the day that he'll just crash whenever we put him to bed and sleep his normal 11-12 hours anyway. I see there are some kid parties that go to 10pm....do parents let kids stay up that late? How are they the next day? What time should we be prepared to have him down for the night? What have been your experiences? Thanks in advance!

We are currently cruising this week with our 20 month old...

1) Be flexible - They are not going to be in their usual environment. More than likely they will want to explore

2) We have early seating for dinner (6pm) and we've been getting done around 7:15-7:30ish

So we've been putting him to bed right after and he's been sleeping till his usual time (6ish)

My wife and I have traded off going to the shows, etc vs staying in the room.

Given that your little one will be 3 you may have some more options with the organized programs on the ship which may tire them out more.

Last night for example we got done with dinner early so we had to wait about 5-7 minutes while they did turn down....during that time our little one ran back and forth over a 5 foot area (not very loud) and then went down for the night.

Hi everyone - we're taking our little guy on his first cruise in July - it leaves NYC on his third birthday! We've always been sticklers for bedtime. He usually is in bed by 7:30-7:45pm. Given this is a vacation and I don't want him to miss out (or us parents miss out!) on fun stuff in the evening, what do you parents of toddlers do about bedtimes? I'm totally willing to push it up some and I'm thinking he'll be so busy having fun during the day that he'll just crash whenever we put him to bed and sleep his normal 11-12 hours anyway. I see there are some kid parties that go to 10pm....do parents let kids stay up that late? How are they the next day? What time should we be prepared to have him down for the night? What have been your experiences? Thanks in advance!

My son was older but always hot the bed at 8. We played by ear his first cruise and at camp the settled down and watched movies he just stopped and fell asleep. The counselor just moved him out of the way of the others and covered him. When we checked on him he was out so we went for another hour and then picked him up and headed to the cabin. Vacation days start later then our normal 5:30 so an extra couple of hours in bed helped. Have a great cruise.

Hi everyone - we're taking our little guy on his first cruise in July - it leaves NYC on his third birthday! We've always been sticklers for bedtime. He usually is in bed by 7:30-7:45pm. Given this is a vacation and I don't want him to miss out (or us parents miss out!) on fun stuff in the evening, what do you parents of toddlers do about bedtimes? I'm totally willing to push it up some and I'm thinking he'll be so busy having fun during the day that he'll just crash whenever we put him to bed and sleep his normal 11-12 hours anyway. I see there are some kid parties that go to 10pm....do parents let kids stay up that late? How are they the next day? What time should we be prepared to have him down for the night? What have been your experiences? Thanks in advance!

I totally agree, be flexible as he will be totally off schedule from being out of his environment. What cruise line are you doing? Only have experience cruising RCCL with kids.

So much will depend on your little guy. Is he used to traveling or sleeping in different places? To me that has always been the most relevant factor. Our youngest has been traveling since she was 4 months old and is very easy to put down pretty much anywhere. Our older two have a little bit more trouble so we plan on that. We've always tried to keep our children on a similar schedule to their normal one, but that is not always possible. But in general we try to be within a half hour to an hour of their normal bedtime with the understanding that it might take them longer than normal to settle down.

My kids have NEVER been 12 hour sleepers, I was always envious of those parents : )

I think my youngest would have been 2 1/2 on his first cruise, but that was the cruise that we took his nanny with us and they had their own cabin. Easy fix :D

the following year he would have been 3 1/2 when we sailed Eurodam. As far as I can recall, he and his older sister (she would have just turned 5) stayed up and watched all the shows and often did a stint in the kid's club. They really enjoyed the kid's club and wanted to go every night.

We always forced them to take naps even though they did not nap at home. Usually pretty successful in getting him to nap on a loungechair for an hour or so. my daughter would get bored, and then we'd end up taking her to the kid's club in the afternoon.

Now, my kids are 7 1/2 and 9. They stay up at least until 11 on a cruise. At home bedtime is 9:30. They still wake up early ....

You will know your child best and limitation. I'm not a clocker watcher on vacation, so I just go with what the child can handle. My oldest was pretty strict on her schedule, so we kept her close to her bed time (She sailed @ 18 months and 3 on her 1st two). My 5 year old (1st Cruise around 18 months and this past one he had just turned five) is terrible about going to sleep, so we just let him run til he dropped. My current 20 month old is pretty adaptable as well, so we allowed her to stay up some too.

I have allowed both my older ones to stay at Camp Carnival until the 10 PM several times on the last cruise, and they did night owls (Stayed from 10 to 12 for a fee) on the last night. We had a long drive the next day, so I figured being tired would allow them to nap better in the car.

As for the parents fun....The kids are why we prefer balconies. We have also been known to take turns on the child care and let the other do what they want (Spa or casino or whatever).

As others have said you know your kids best. I know that we had to stick pretty close to regular bedtimes with my youngest. No matter how late he stayed up he still woke up at his normal time. He is 12 now and its the same thing, up at 6 am even on weekends and vacation.

The thing with vacationing with a youngster is that you pretty much have to stay on their schedule and if that means missing some nighttime activities until the kids are older then that's what you sacrifice in order to travel. I missed many a fireworks show at Disney in the past!

Hopefully, you will have a balcony cabin...that's a great place "to be" when your tot is down for the night...read, ocean gaze....just chill out!

Yes...many couples will take turns going out an about. RCI also has in cabin babysitting most of the time, and that could give you some "couples" time in the evening. Put him down, let the babysitter in, and go have some fun!

And yes..you should "go with the flow"....if he's not getting cranky, I'd let him stay up a bit, if you're busy doing fun stuff! It's not hard to get back into a routine when you get home.

Some cruise lines have a childrens's night nursery where they can bed down en masse with a parent pager system as back up if needed. You just transfer slumbering tot to cabin in the perambulator before the facility shuts.

Regards John

In my experience I try to plan some later nights for my kiddos when we have a sea day the next day, so they can get some extra rest if needed. When we have a port day the next day I try to get them laid down closer to normal time. But I think once you get on the ship you'll be able to read your child and if they need some more rest.

Also even at 3 I would say to bring a small umbrella stroller. It is easy to push them around the ship and your kiddo may fall asleep and take a little stroller nap, while you can still sit outside and enjoy the ship :) also handy in ports, I know my now 4 year old would still fall asleep in her stroller when headed back to the ship after a day in port when she was 2-3 years old.

Most of all have fun and enjoy every minute! My kids love cruising!! Yours will too I'm sure!

Did a sailing with a 22 month old Diva. Too young for Camp Carnival so she was with family 24/7. The balcony was a godsend. A great place to spend some grown up time with SO during naps. As to the schedule. You get crank you go to bed and sleep till you wake up.

My daughter turned 3 the first full day of one of our cruises. She's cruised quite a bit, and loves it!

At home she also has an early, fairly consistent bedtime and she sleeps 12 hours but does not nap during the day.

I definitely agree with the advice to be prepared to go with the flow, and plan for a later bedtime at least.

However, I also found that by evening she was very overstimulated and almost begged for her bed, bunnie, and blankets. Some consistency in her routine, even on vacation, is comforting to her. Tag teaming so you get a chance to go out in the evening, is a good plan. We also tend to go to bed earlier when we travel with the kids, and just make better use of the morning activities than some. :)

I don't know if your little guy takes naps, but I know that even some non-napping kids will nap on the ship, and that helps with the late nights. It wasn't true for my daughter, although I did sometimes have her rest for an hour to recharge.

One additional tip - I don't know which cruise line you are sailing on, but on RCCL we would take her to dinner with us, but one of us would run her up to the kids' club once she had eaten and was tired of the dining room. It was a quick run up and back, and then we could enjoy a quiet leisurely end to our meal - dessert, coffee, etc. She would stay in the kids club for an hour or so and then we would pick her up to go to bed.

Have fun! I love cruising with my kids!

On a cruise I always make my kids take a nap before dinner, whether they were "tired" or not. As soon as the black-out curtains are shut, they can't help but fall asleep. This was great for two things - fresh and happy for dinner and they were able to stay up later than usual.

Best,

Mia

We treat cruises and vacation the same with our boys, so even though we haven't cruised with both yet---- Our oldest is an easy sleeper and will bed down anywhere, so we just let him crash wherever we are and he sleeps in his stroller or at kids camp. The little one is a bit more difficult, but we don't enforce a bedtime even at home and he's always just slept his usual hours. When we went on our last trip with them (about 2 months ago), we found that an adjusted schedule of 11p-8a instead of 9p-6a was pretty restful for both kids and got us adult time at night.

When we cruised with our oldest, the motion of the ship kept him asleep longer in the morning than he did at home. An afternoon full-family nap can do wonders too!

Our children sometimes will fall asleep in strollers so we often would just wheel them into the theater or show and put the canopy down so people wouldn't bother them.

I have a granddaughter turning 3 next month.

She is a night owl and has been from the start

Her mother is a 12 hour night shift nurse, has been for years, and I guess that set her sleep cycle.

We are able to do late dining with her.

She does at times sleep late

Daughter is going to home school her

We are just very flexible.

Hi everyone - we're taking our little guy on his first cruise in July - it leaves NYC on his third birthday! We've always been sticklers for bedtime. He usually is in bed by 7:30-7:45pm. Given this is a vacation and I don't want him to miss out (or us parents miss out!) on fun stuff in the evening, what do you parents of toddlers do about bedtimes? I'm totally willing to push it up some and I'm thinking he'll be so busy having fun during the day that he'll just crash whenever we put him to bed and sleep his normal 11-12 hours anyway. I see there are some kid parties that go to 10pm....do parents let kids stay up that late? How are they the next day? What time should we be prepared to have him down for the night? What have been your experiences? Thanks in advance!

It depends. At three. oh god, cruising at three was horrible, she just dropped her nap, by 5pm it was HELL. So yeah, kid in bed early. We had major sleep issues.

First cruise, dd was 14 months, on 1 nap a day, she took two naps, then went to bed later. We did wake her for fireworks. Second cruise, longer nap, quiet time before dinner, later bedtime. 3rd cruise. it was a bust. Bed early, me and her, and dh went wondering.

You know your kid. You know how he'll react when overtired. Mine sleeps like crap with overtired, which leads to less sleeping.My KID does NOT sleep later if up later. If up till midnight, she'll still wake 7am. She'll just be cranky. ( I mean that in the nicest way)

We do nap/quiet time before dinner, yes. At 3, she had quiet time twice a day, I think she only napped one day.

Otherwise, dd in bed, me on balcony.

Our son was really flexible about bedtime, so towards the end of his last cruise (age 3.5) we put him on the kids club schedule. Normally he naps from 1:30-3:30, but since they are closed from 5-7, we put him down later (at 4) and let him wake up later and spend more time at night at the kids club when they had activities he loved. We were in Europe, so I figured it would be okay because he's very flexible. Other children have sleep windows they need to be put down by, and if you miss it they will completely melt down and not be able to sleep. So you need to do what is best for your child.

We just cruised with an almost 4-year old and he was all over the place. One night he fell asleep at the dinner table around 8. The next night he was running around the cabin at 11.

He always slept nice and late in the morning though. Sometimes too late.