Alaska with 20 month old??

I've never been on a cruise before, but I'm thinking of planning one for next summer. Is it crazy to think about bringing a toddler that young on an Alaskan cruise?

It would be me, my husband and the baby....I'm imagining we'd get a balcony cabin so we'd have a place to sip coffee while she naps. We probably wouldn't do the crazy excursions, but we'd have an Ergo carrier for hikes etc. I'm ok leaving her with the grandparents for a long weekend trip, but for a week or more, I'd rather bring her wherever we go and adjust our expectations. I have no cruising experience though, so aside from some online research here, I'm not really sure what my expectations are!

I haven't ruled out a Carribean cruise either, but I think if we do a warm weather vacation, we may just find a resort instead of a cruise.

Thanks :)

In my experience 20 months is one of the worst ages to cruise with. Alaska is a very relaxing itinerary though and you don't need to do excursions to have fun. The ports are all child friendly and there is plenty of places to run around and explore on the ship and on land.

The problem is they are too young for the youth program, not allowed in the pools or hot tubs in diapers and they don't like to sit still for long periods of time. This means have to rush through meals and forget the shows- they will have no patience for them.

If you decide to go on a cruise- I would choose a ship that provides babysitting like Royal Caribbean and Celebrity. There is a fee but at least you could have a couple quiet dinners.

We had a 20 month old in our group on an Alaska cruise last summer and it worked out great. I agree with Rebecca, the fact that his mom was able to leave him in the nursery every once in awhile (she used it for some show/casino time - he had dinners in the MDR with us without a problem) made it an even better vacation, so I'd also suggest a ship with a nursery.

The Alaskan ports are great for kids of all ages. In Juneau, we took the shuttle to the Mendenhall Glacier where there's a easy, stroller-friendly trail to the glacier and waterfall. In the other ports we rented a car, which made it easy to have his car seat, toys, snacks and go where we wanted and at our own pace. Lots of great toddler-friendly places to explore and we all had fun.

Alaska is the perfect place to be during nap times because there's almost always stunning scenery to see from your balcony (though when I cruised with my twins at that age, I always napped too!). At night he loved dancing before and after dinner. He made it through meals, one course ahead of us, so his mom sometimes didn't get dessert, but by the time he was done with his ice cream, she had finished her entrée and often could have dessert by giving him her iphone to play with.

Best,

Mia

Thanks for the info! I imagine we'd want a ship with something like the Royal Tots program so we could sneak away for a dinner or two.

We're getting ready to sail with our 17 month old grandson...We've sailed many times with RCI but this will be his first...so glad they have the nursery onboard Radiance..and luckily for our DD and DSIL I was able to upgrade the three of them to a FOV (family ocean view) that has a separated 2nd bedroom area..Will post more on our experience when we return in early June.

Thanks for the info! I imagine we'd want a ship with something like the Royal Tots program so we could sneak away for a dinner or two.

According to the website, both RCI Radiance and RCI Rhapsody have a nursery.

PS: You want to make sure your ship has the Royal Tots/Royal Babies Nursery - the Royal Tots Program is just a 45 minute play group. There was a woman who posted a few months ago who wanted a nursery, but rep confused the two and she ended up on a ship with no nursery on a 10 day cruise. She was not happy...

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Did an Alaskan cruise when my son was 22 months, he did great.

We did however have grandparents along which was nice to have extra hands, but our child was mostly with us.

We had interior rooms which was no big deal as he easily napped in his stroller so we were out and about during those times.

Things we did in each place(we used either an Ergo or stroller:

Ketchikan-

walked Creek Street, walked to some totem pole place

Juneau-

walked around town, Mt. Roberts Tram, walked to capitol (grandpa took child while we did tour), walked to some old Russian church, found a local playground-slide was a big hit of course, walked to the governor's "mansion"

Skagway-

ship excursion on the railroad. He loved the train, but wasn't a fan of the bus ride-however fell asleep half way through. We also walked around town

Hoonah-

walked around to museum and on beach and trails-he LOVED this.

Glacier crusing-

He stayed with grandparents while we hung out in the freezing front of the ship.

It was a great time, we hope to do it again someday, with or without extended family.

Disney also cruises Alaska and they also have a nursery. They tend to be pricier and their itineraries aren't as good as RCCL or Celebrity, but their service tends to be better.

I think Alaska is a much better cruise destination with kids than the Caribbean.

How many people would have preferred doing a back to back on the ship rather than one week on the ship and another on land? Just wondering.