Allure of Seas vs Disney Magic Toddler concerns

I am looking to take my 2 year old on her first cruise in January 2016 and can't decide which line is better for kids her age. Any opinions or answers to concerns would be great!

We are hoping to get potty trained before sailing, but if not are there changing stations around either of these ships? I can't imagine having to go back to the room every time!

I am also worried about having enough activities to do during the day, I know there is a TON to do for old kids and adults, but worried if she cant do pools what else is there to do?

Has anyone found cabins where there is a privacy curtain or divider on the Allure of the Seas? And how do you give a bath to a toddler in a shower that barely fits one person!?

Thanks all!

First off - welcome to cruise critic

I can't talk specifically to these 2 ships but having recently travelled with our (at the time) 20 month old

Privacy Curtain - We bought a fabric shower curtain at target and a pack of magnetic hooks and it worked great.

Bath Time - We were with family that had a cabin with a bath - but the general rule of thumb that i've seen posted is that if you get a small inflatable tub/pool you can use that.

Changing stations - We were on celebrity - but my understanding is that most of the lines don't have changing stations - we did a couple of floor changes in the bathrooms

1) We brought diaper trash bags with us

2) We planned / timed as best we could what we were doing to do diaper changes before we left for things

Activities - Celebrity had "toddler" time in the kids club where the under 3 (their minimum for the kids club) could come and play with the blocks and toys with a parent

We did a lot of walking around / exploring the ship - and we got off in every port just to walk around and have a change of scenery

The biggest thing I can say is be flexible and realistic as to what your child can / will do and what their attention span is. For example at meals (regardless of the buffet or MDR) my wife and I sometimes traded off walking around with little one and eating as he wasn't going to sit through that long a meal without being very unhappy

I've only been on the Disney Dream, but I can tell you about having a non PT toddler on the ship.

1. There is a nursery available for under 3. It's for a fee, but I thought $9/hour was quite reasonable. We never used it though because we were having so much fun it was easy to keep DD with us.

2. The Magic has splash areas for the non PT crowd. The version on the Dream kept us plenty busy.

3. The older kids lives have open houses at least once a day for some bigger play time. There are also play times geared to little kids scheduled most days.

4. The characters become a big event in and of themselves.

5. Our room was very close to the pools, so we never bothered with finding changing stations.

We brought along some toys to keep in the room for the occasional bit of down time. Honestly though, the day's flew by.

Typical Schedule for DD

8:00 wake up (thank you time change!)

8:30/8:45 head to breakfast. We had juice in the room for her first thing.

9:30 splash pad

10:45 walk around and explore, find a snack

11:30/12:00 lunch

1:30-3:30 nap

4:00 characters and snack

5:45 dinner

7:30 more characters (we opted to skip the shows)

9:00/9:30 bed (time change effect)

Whatever you'd do at home, you can do on the ship! Bring one of the blow up tubs...great for splashing on the pool deck. Only takes a bit of water to make a baby happy! Empty into a floor drain or shower.

I haven't gone on the Allure with my toddler yet, but she will also be 20 months old when we go in November. She is not potty trained yet.

From the info that I have found online it sounds very similar to what the previous poster said about the Disney ship.

There is a nursery that is open until about midnight. It is for a fee, which is $6/hr until like 5pm I think and then it is $8/hr.

They also do a toy exchange where you can grab a bag of toys for your toddler and change them up throughout the cruise. In addition they also have an area that you can go into and let them run around. I believe they might also have play date type things where you can stay with them and do certain activities.

There is a baby splash area for non-potty trained kids. Kids without swim diapers that are potty trained also have a splash area that next to the baby area.

If you can afford a Junior Suite there will be a tub as well as a curtain I believe to separate the spaces. Some of the other rooms also have a curtain already. I am not sure if those are just the rooms that are made for more than 2 people or not. You can probably ask that over on the RCI boards.

The Allure also does the Dreamworks stuff. There will be characters from Shrek, Madagascar, How to Train Your Dragon, and Kung Fu Panda around frequently. They also will have 2 parades (First night and last night I believe) with all the characters.

To me it sounds pretty similar. We opted for the Allure because it was a lot cheaper. We are also taking my mother with us so we got 2 balcony rooms and we will have a sitter when we need it.

I have only done allure/oasis, but i can at least share that info-

Room divider- i believe allure did not (dont quote me my 2 year old sons done 5 royal cruises) but i always pack a curtain and hooks like a pp mentioned- takes up very little space but necessary with my kiddo!

2. There were a few changing stations- (none near dining room but one on pool deck, one in play area off top of my head) no where near as many as there should be... Very frustrating. I also carry bags for diapers but thats standard in my diaper bag

Oasis/allure are great for toddlers- they have a pool for non-potty trained kiddos if needed, a nursery for non potty trained kiddos if needed, a huge playroom (that u supervise them in) complete with toys, climbing things, slides. They do something at least once a day (art, music, storytime) that you accompany ur kiddo to. They also have dreamworks characters my kiddo loved. We have immensely enjoyed these ships with a little guy!

With whatever u choose- happy sailing!

I’ve sailed with my 2 year old on Norwegian. She was fully potty trained (only used pull-ups at night). She was too young to participate in the kids club the age requirement was 3 and up. However there were set times that I could have taken her to a play room, granted I remained there with her the entire time. In terms of the shower I simply had her stand in the shower and I washed her using the hand held shower head (you had the option of using it as a traditional shower head or using it as a hand held) the key was making sure it was already in my hand and at the precise temperature when I turned it on. Otherwise she would have been terrified of a sudden burst of water. Was so glad I decided not to bring the blow up tub which was suggested, as there was no room to store it and we didn’t need it.

Sailed the Magic in March with our 2 & 5 year olds. Almost no changing stations on board, which I found rather surprising. I think there might have been one by the theater, but my memory says none by the pool. There were diving curtains in our Oceanview room, but as others have said you can just bring some duct tape and a blanket to make your own. As for activities on board, plenty to do for toddlers. As some have said, there is the Nursery if you want some "alone" time, but our 2 year old LOVED the splash area. He literally ran around in circles splashing in the puddles for hours. The 5 year old loved the pools and water slide.

We sailed Allure when DD was 2 and Disney Fantasy at 4.

We loved Allure with her at 2. There was so much to do!

- nursery when we wanted to go to Chops (DD loved it)

- DD was potty trained and loved the kids pool area. Had she not potty trained before sailing there was a nice splash area for only non potty trained. The splash area on Disney is great, but it combines non potty trained and potty trained. Also, Royal Caribbean was very strict on no diapers in pools, but Disney didn't seem to enforce it very much (and kids pool was closed several hours every sea day for bio incidents).

- The toy lending and large playroom were great.

- DD loved The Boardwalk. There was a small playground, carousel and events with face painting & balloon animals.

- She also enjoyed exploring Central Park and the Promenade (especially watching the fountains under rising tide).

- she loved the shows and characters (she didn't necessarily know who they were, but she had fun with them).

I didn't notice changing area as DD was potty trained, but if you get a cabin in a central location it wouldn't be too bad to get back to the cabin if needed.

DD just stood in the shower & let us wash her. The bathroom floor got pretty wet, but no issues.

We sailed Allure when DD was 2 and Disney Fantasy at 4.

 

The splash area on Disney is great, but it combines non potty trained and potty trained. Also, Royal Caribbean was very strict on no diapers in pools, but Disney didn't seem to enforce it very much (and kids pool was closed several hours every sea day for bio incidents).

 

Interesting as when we were on Disney Magic 4 years ago , they were strict and watching for kids in diapers. We had our DD, who was 2.5 years and in diapers, just put her feet on the stairs of the pool and they kicked her out right away.

Royal is strict on diapers on their smaller ships, oasis and freedom class has baby in diaper swim areas : )