Family Stateroom Questions

My wife and I and our three young children (5, 3, 1) will be cruising on Liberty of the Seas later this year and will be staying in a Family Oceanview stateroom. Although we have sailed Royal Caribbean many, many times before, this will actually our First Royal Caribbean cruise with kids, and therefore our first time staying in a family stateroom (we have sailed Disney once with our two youngest, but have preferred to largely sail just my wife and I am friends up to this point). We told our girls about three months ago and they have not stopped talking about it (they still talk about the disney cruise, even though they were three and one at the time).

I'm wondering what advice and suggestions that everyone has. I'm a little worried about a one year old, who just barely turned one earlier this month, and getting her to sleep. I've read up on the magnetic hooks and doing the shower curtain or sheet divider for the room, which I do think will help out youngest sleep. Anything else that you would recommend? Any other hacks or suggestions with kids?

Also, how many cruise points will we get for this? Is there any additional cruise points for paying for a family stateroom, with five people? I would guess not, but thought I should at least ask.

Thanks in advance for all of your feedback and help!

If the description of the stateroom does not have the word "suite", then each guest (including the children) will get one point per night.

If the description of the stateroom does not have the word "suite", then each guest (including the children) will get one point per night.

Thanks Bob. That is what I figured, but with the family staterooms being a little new to me, I thought I would check.

Traveled recently with my sweet grandbaby and a blow up pool worked wonders for bath time (I have no knowledge of suites- they may have a bath tub). We got ours from Amazon and it was about 8.50. It doubled as a splash pool on deck! I also made "busy bags" from mostly dollar tree "junk" to occupy baby during the long sit down dinner at night. I had one for each evening so it would be several "new" things to hold her attention. It worked wonderfully.

Like you, we always cruise just Mom & Dad but in April we took our three kids, 6, 5, and 2. It was a challenge!

Best advice I can offer is just go with the flow and don't have TOO many expectations. We brought the blow up pool but never used it and it took up space we didn't have. I would bring a few things that they can play with in the pool/splash area - we had a few plastic boats and a few cars as well as a few little squeeze squirters. Also, I cannot recommend enough the use of tablets. Our oldest have kindle fires for kids and our youngest has a leap pad. They used it every night after at the table after they were done with their dinner. I kept it in a bag until they finished their meals. We had family time the first 20 mins or so while they ate entrees and then after that, my husband and I were able to enjoy each other without fighting.

Also, I would bring a small container or Tide. We found we had a few spills and accidents that needed to be cleaned right away and I was glad I could wash and hang their shirts so they weren't ruined.

As for sleeping and privacy, we were all on top of each other and no one had trouble falling asleep. Everyone is so tired that they all just crashed. In the AM, if they woke up and we werent ready to get up, they relaxed with their tablets for a few minutes.

Happy to answer any questions you may have because I had a ton for my first time!

I'm following this thread as we are taking our 6 year old twins on their first cruise in October! We have been watching lots of YouTube videos about the Allure and they are learning EVERYTHING about it--it's hilarious!!! They know all about the boardwalk and kid pool (H2O zone) and mini golf and my son is very excited to try the"car game" they show in the arcade!!!!

Our children (two girls) were cruising with us from young ages; in our cases 1 and 4. If you're accustomed to operating as a family in everyday life and do everything together then there's really not that much different when you're on a ship save the private living space is probably much more compact. Our kids have cruised with us many times (starting from the eldest child when she was 2) and not once have we had a problem nor thought we had to do anything differently to normal.

In terms of sleeping the youngest was in a cruise-line provided portable cot (we've mostly sailed Princess and back then only Princess) and it did take up a fair amount of the available floor space in the cabin. Beyond putting her down in the cot we did nothing special. Back in those days we sailed in modest accomodations that you might describe as very intimate; it's only recently that we've adopted a suite-only rule. It's was 100% fine back then in the smallest of cabins.

You do see people post expressing quite different viewpoints to ours. I suspect you'll find the experience will be defined by how you go into it and in what way your family is wired.

Kids have a blast on cruise ships; even on the ones that aren't themed for the young and young at heart. Meal times are very special since you'll have people helping make it easier than normal. Let the kids float between the adult and kids menus; if you do this they'll be ordering pheasant (as we've seen happen) without batting an eyelid by the time their six.

We have cruised many times when our kids were young (Big Red Boat & Norway) and now with them and the grandkids. It's a joy to watch them experience it all. Yes, it can be a challenge at times, but never once would I change it.

Might I suggest you make a photo book of the trip (I used Shutterfly). It's fun to flip through the pages and re-live the trips. I just wish I had done that sooner. I usually buy extras for the parents who now share the moments with the kids since they are older.

In October we are taking the granddaughters (5 & 3) for their first cruise and I plan to make another book for that trip so they can enjoy the memories over and over.

There will be an additional curtained off sleeping area in this type of cabin. We've had extended family in this category a couple of times on the Radiance...We actually put the bottom bunk bed mattress up against the wall so the pack-n-play would fit...you'll figure out how to rearrange things once in your cabin.

The Royal Babies & Tots Nursery will be great for your 1 year old... Sign her up as soon as you get onboard and get the bag of toys they lend you for the cruise duration...and Adventure Ocean (Aquanauts) no need to sign up for your 3 & 5 year old.

We cruise often with toddler grandchildren...it's easier than you might think...Enjoy !!

We stayed in the family promenade stateroom on Liberty a couple of years ago. It was nice and big. Had two big windows with window seats overlooking the promenade. :D

We like the family oceanview rooms for our family of five. All three kids went on their first cruises when they were one (14 months, 15 months and 13 months). We just had them take some showers with one of us at home before the trip and then showering on the ship was no big deal. We used to hire the babysitters 3 or 4 times each cruise or use the royal tots program. We love cruising with our kids. It's a great family vacation. I hope you also have a wonderful time.

We've cruised with babies a ton and in several family oceanview staterooms. Have you checked to see if cabins 8200 or 8500 are open for your sailing - those cabins are unusually shaped, but have more room than other family oceanviews. I believe both of them have real doors that close between the bunk area and the seating area. If one is available, I would jump on it immediately.

These cabins do have showers, not tubs. I think the family promenade cabins have a tub. But I could have those mixed up as we are past the need for the tub these days. If it's just a shower, we found covering the drain with a washcloth would allow the shower floor to flood just enough to serve as a very shallow tub for bathing.

We've had babies on formula and always brought our own nursery water onboard just to keep things tasting the same. We've had great luck with traditional early dinner - if your young kids have favorite fruits, they will be happy to have a fruit appetizer (berries, grapes, etc) waiting for them each night at dinner so they can have something to do right away.

We brought our own sippy cups as the dining room only has open glass cups for water and drinks. We'd wash them in the bathroom sink at night. Cafe Promenade has milk by the small carton (school lunch sized) that we would give our kids who were used to milk right before bed.

Liberty's H2O zone will have an area just for kids in swim diapers which is awesome and eliminates a lot of stress as to what to do with non potty trained kids on sea days.

While I can look back now (kids are 14, 12 and 8; oldest has been on 10 cruises with her first at 11 months) and see that it was a lot more physically taxing to cruise with babies than to cruise with my kids now - that's just the nature of the beast. It's more physical work to take care of little kids than it is to take care of older kids (now it's more mentally challenging lol). It's not much more difficult than everyday life.

We found the rocking of the ship put all of our kids to sleep practically instantly, hopefully it will be the same for your kids!

In addition to the above....what has worked for us...bringing the take-n-toss sippy cups, disposable toddler size spoons/forks (all the ship has are large ones) as these can be washed in your cabin sink or if left somewhere no big deal as we bring a supply of both and the stick down in place placemats. Also a portable fold flat stepping stool (those in cabin sinks are tall) and a toddler potty ring....the potty ring we would stick in a backpack and take it with us into town ... made it much easier for the little's to go potty in a public unfamiliar restroom.

I sailed on Independence in a family ocean view stateroom. It was very large. There was a tiny curtained-off "bedroom" just big enough for bunk beds & an extra closet. There was the regular bed on one side of the main part and a sitting area on the other with a sofa bed, chair & table. The TV was in the middle above the refrigerator. There were 2 windows and lots of room in the middle of the stateroom for kids to play. The bathroom had a shower, no tub. I'll send pictures if I can figure out how to do that.