Best ship for non-English speaking 3-year old

We are planning to go on a Caribbean cruise at the end of January. We have previously been on Disney Magic (Transatlantic) and Celebrity (Alaska) with our son - and also on RCCL VOTS Northern Europe but that was before we had kids.

What we love about cruising are two things; the food and being on the sea. We aren't in it for the shows, the alcohol, the casinos or in this case even the ports (since we've visited the Caribbean before).

But with a 3-year old obviously we can't just sit and relax on the balcony all day, but with him not speaking English we think the kids clubs might be too scary for him. We are also bringing his baby brother who will be 8 months when we travel, so not much entertainment needed for that one...

We are considering Disney Magic, simply because we've been on it before and we like that there is so much open hours on the clubs so we can join him there.

But we are worried there will be a massive amount of children onboard, which will most likely be a bit intimidating for our son when he can't understand or join them. How many young kids are there usually on a Disney cruise in off season? On the transatlantic there weren't too many but I'm guessing a 5-day in Bahamas might be very different?

Other ships we are considering are the Regal Princess, Norwegian Epic and RCCL Independence of the Seas. Do you know if their pools are heated? Any family activities suitable for young children?

Any helpful advice would be highly appreciated, I just can't seem to make up my mind!

A couple of thoughts: contact the ship and get their few. It may very well be that they can assign someone from a different department to help translate.

Think about this though. Put ten kids and everyone speaks a different language and put them in a room with toys. I can guarantee you that they will find a way to communicate with each other. Kids don't think like adults. They aren't born with hate or racism or any other bad thing. Those are learned from the adults around them. Kids see each other as equals. Even kids with disabilities are discriminated against. They flat out ask what happened to their arm etc. They pick up a toy and either share or don't.

There were a lot of non-English speaking children on our Baltic cruise on NCL, and they all seemed happy in the kids club.

The biggest issue with Disney is that their kids clubs have a very large age gap - kids ages 3-12 can be in the Oceaneer club. This means that the kids clubs are very unstructured, with lots of free play. Some families have reported on these forums that their kids loved this; others have reported that their children refuse to attend the Disney kids clubs. I would honestly say that if your child prefers structure, that you might want to consider a different line.

At the end of January, you are more likely to find less kids as most are in school in US. You will still have some, probably the most on Disney. We have sailed on Freedom, sister ship to Independence, and would highly recommend this class of ship. It is a great ship for little ones, especially if they decide to not use the kids club or nursery. However, I agree with PP - kids find a way to communicate and get along despite any language barrier, far better than we adults do.

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On Princess you can go in the kids club with both your kids and play. I think as the others have said, the language barrier won't be a big deal when it comes to playing with other kids. Since the staff often comes from other countries, and non-Americans often speak multiple languages, it's possible that someone will speak his language, but even if not, I'm sure on any of the ships they're used to keeping kids happy from all over.

Best,

Mia

What language does he speak?

While totally agree that often kids don't care and they will still play 'together' without speaking the same language one thing to consider is your child's personality. Will he be worried/anxious about not understanding the teachers? Talk with him first, explain for him to follow the other kids. If the teacher says to line up, he may not understand but if he follows the crowd of kids lining up he will be fine.

I would also consider making a small pocket size picture flip book (small one). Have a photo for bathroom, food, and some other key words for him to be able to get his needs across if the teachers don't understand him. Then he can go in knowing he can tell his teachers when he needs something and he won't have to stress about not having the right words. Of course, you can also teach him some key English words.

A while back there was a woman who was concerned about her child because they spoke a language that was not well known. As it turned out (thank you OP for coming back and telling us) it was a non issue. Everything went great.

Have you ever been in, say, a store and two toddlers are parked next to each other. Say one speaks English and the other Spanish. They jabber between the two of them and are happy as clams.

I'm confused. You are apparently very flown in English. Heck, your grammar is better that most people who speak just English. So why doesn't your child know English?

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Think about this though. Put ten kids and everyone speaks a different language and put them in a room with toys. I can guarantee you that they will find a way to communicate with each other. Kids don't think like adults. They aren't born with hate or racism or any other bad thing. Those are learned from the adults around them. Kids see each other as equals. Even kids with disabilities are discriminated against. They flat out ask what happened to their arm etc. They pick up a toy and either share or don't.

Very true! Thanks to all for your helpful replies, I feel a lot more confident going now, whichever cruise we end up doing. But children really interact in multiple ways, not just by spoken language, so I'm sure he'll be OK.

I'm confused. You are apparently very flown in English. Heck, your grammar is better that most people who speak just English. So why doesn't your child know English?

/QUOTE]

 

We're Swedish! Most Swedes know English very well by the time they're adults, and I happen to like writing, reading and grammar, so I'm better than most. But we don't learn it until we start middle school, and my 3-year old knows only a few English words. It's hard to teach them at such an early age when they really only hear Swedish around them.

What language does he speak?

While totally agree that often kids don't care and they will still play 'together' without speaking the same language one thing to consider is your child's personality. Will he be worried/anxious about not understanding the teachers? Talk with him first, explain for him to follow the other kids. If the teacher says to line up, he may not understand but if he follows the crowd of kids lining up he will be fine.

 

I would also consider making a small pocket size picture flip book (small one). Have a photo for bathroom, food, and some other key words for him to be able to get his needs across if the teachers don't understand him. Then he can go in knowing he can tell his teachers when he needs something and he won't have to stress about not having the right words. Of course, you can also teach him some key English words.

Thanks for these great tips! We speak Swedish, btw. I will indeed talk to him and explain that he should do what the other kids do, and great idea about rhe picture flip book :). Thanks!

Thanks for these great tips! We speak Swedish, btw. I will indeed talk to him and explain that he should do what the other kids do, and great idea about rhe picture flip book :). Thanks!

Just a little heads up we took our grandson on Allure of the Seas, he was just 3 and toilet trained, but still needed a little help with cleaning himself etc. But because of this he was not allowed to go to the kids club, it wasn't a problem for us as we were a large extended family on holiday, but just so you know.

Enjoy whatever you decide and I'm very envious of anyone who is multilingual.

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We did the Carnival Pride out of Baltimore last March and it was Quebec Spring Break so there were many kids whose primary language was French. My kids who take French is school (Ontario) knew a little and that with some sign language was sufficient.

Swedish on the other hand may be harder.

It's amazing how kids learn to communicate, even if they DON'T speak the same language! I think your son will have fun...really, the only thing to do is give it a go...and see what happens!

You might try a line like Holland America. We have found fewer kids in general on HA, so the kid/counselor ratio is better than the more kid oriented cruise lines. With more adults around to keep them engaged, it might be easier in the kids club if there is a language barrier.

Their ships also go all over (they don't just stay in the Caribbean like RCCL or CCL) so it seems like they tend to have more people working in the club that speak more than one language (although lucking out with a Swedish speaker seems like a bit of a stretch, but you never know!)

When my GD was 4 we took her to a resort. She found a group of other girls around her age and played with them most days. They spoke no English. When I asked her what they were saying she just shrugged her shoulders and went back to play. Kids are amazing and adjust much better than we adults.