Sailing with a four year old - just returned Oasis of the Seas

We just returned from the May 11th, Western Caribbean, sailing on the Oasis of the Seas. My husband and I sailed with our four year old daughter, and my sister. We had a boardwalk balcony room (9725) and my sister was directly across the hall in an ocean view balcony stateroom. We had a great cruise and would do it again in a heartbeat.

Overboard!! Anyone traveling with young children will quickly be put at ease once you are onboard. I was worried, almost to a point that you’d wonder why I was sailing, that my daughter would tumble into the sea. Just not going to happen. I thought we’d avoid Deck 16, but I was even comfortable up there. I wasn’t worried with her in my sister’s ocean view balcony, and it really never crossed my mind once onboard. You can set your mind at ease – indeed you would have to work at falling over and you’ll never leave your kid alone on the balcony- no worries here.

Adventure Ocean: I came fully prepared that my child may not like it, not sure why but I didn’t count on it when planning dinners and events. Well – she loved it. L.O.V.E.D it. She went up there many evenings and even picked it one sea day over swimming with her dad. Give it a try, it is fun for them and a nice break for you.

Food: She never went hungry. Breakfasts and lunches were easy, and they’ll accommodate a child at dinner anywhere. As a matter of fact, our server at Giovanni’s got a WOW card because she was so awesome with our daughter. Most nights they would help us speed her through dinner and we’d walk her up to Adventure Ocean before our main course arrived. We’d then have a leisurely main course, dessert and after dinner fun. The hardest thing was finding a non-sweet snack in the afternoon. Would have loved to find fruit or yogurt at 3:30pm for her, but it was tough. We ended up buying smoothies from Viatality Café – happy it was an option.

Labadee: We rented a beach cabana. This was a FANTASTIC idea. We loved that we could get away from the crowd and have a shaded, semi-quiet place to rest. The beach cabanas are set back a bit and out of the crowd.

Falmouth: Kind of a bust. We did the trolley tour and she was bored out of her mind. We walked around a bit and went back to the ship to play. As a side note, Margaretville would be awesome if the music wasn’t so gosh darn loud! Honestly I’m not 90, but it was terrible!

Cozumel: Did the Dolphin Encounter at Chankanaab Park and it was the biggest hit! She wasn’t scared, and we got to interact a lot with the dolphins. After the encounter we ate lunch, swam at the beach and the pool. Overall, it was a fun day.

Stateroom: Yep, the boardwalk balcony rooms can be noisy. We were three from the back and even with the door locked could hear noise from the Aqua Theatre and below. Did it ruin the vacation? No, but it certainly wasn’t quiet. One day when my daughter was tired and wanted to nap we used my sister’s ocean view room since there was a comedy dive show going on. I’m not implying it’s impossible to sleep with the noise, we certainly did, just mentioning that you could certainly hear it. I wouldn’t necessarily avoid these rooms, but know there will be some muffled noise.

Movement: We actually felt quite a bit – most days. BUT… none of us are sensitive to it so we were not bothered. I tried the wait and see approach with my daughter and she didn’t just fine. Didn’t hear of anyone complaining of seasickness, just an observation.

Will she get bored? Nope. I was worried, but between Adventure Ocean, H2O Zone, breaks to play with toys in her room, ports, family disco, character meets, carousel, Pet’s at Sea … on and on… we were never at a loss for something to do. Sometimes it was simply watching the DreamWorks channel in the stateroom, but it was easy to keep everyone happy.

Let me know if you have any questions and I’ll try to answer them!

Really grateful to read of your experience. I have just booked my 1st cruise and will be going with my 4 yr old daughter in June to eastern med. Very happy to read your positive experience esp. with the adventure club.... am looking forward to a couple of hours a day to myself!!! x

Here is a view from our beach cabana

and our stateroom.

Sounds like a good time all around, welcome home.

It was so great meeting you! We had a blast on the cruise as well and will be planning our second cruise soon.

Nice review. Thank you for sharing. :)

Great review. Thanks so much!

I have a question and hoping this Board can assist. My wife, self and 3 year old are planning on a cruise later this year. The 3rd person fee is really quite high on allure and oasis (especially for a 3 year old). Do you know if RCI runs specials during the year to help with this or do we just need to pay it and not dwell on it knowing we are going to have a good time?

I have a question and hoping this Board can assist. My wife, self and 3 year old are planning on a cruise later this year. The 3rd person fee is really quite high on allure and oasis (especially for a 3 year old). Do you know if RCI runs specials during the year to help with this or do we just need to pay it and not dwell on it knowing we are going to have a good time?

Royal's pricing does sometimes include price drops on the 3rd and 4th guests in a stateroom, but there's no way to predict if or when that might occur. Here's a link to the weekly sales flyer that shows sales on upcoming cruises:

http://www.creative.rccl.com/sales/royal/Multi_Dest/Special_Offers/rci_sales_event.pdf

Thank you so much!

Sounds like you had an awesome time - thank you for sharing it with us!//Maria :)

Were you happy with the location of your beach cabana? Do you know if it was assigned a number such as beach cabana #4?

Here is a view from our beach cabana

 

 

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Do you have any pictures of the inside of the cabana and the area around it? I booked a beach cabana on Nellie's Beach for our upcoming Allure cruise so that my in-laws and my dad had a place to get out of the sun.

I'm sorry - I don't remember the number of the cabana... but, there are only four of them all pretty much have the same view.

Here is a picture of the small wall in front of the four beach cabanas. The beach cabanas are to the left of the wall. The cabana you see straight out in front near the right is actually an OTW cabana.

A picture looking back towards the cabana.

I loved reading your review. My daughter was 4 when we first took her on a cruise with us. Now she expects to go on one every year! :eek:

We will be going on our first cruise, and our 4 year old daughter will be with us! Your review was nice since I have no idea what to expect. I also am afraid she won't want us to leave her in the kids' program, so we'll see... ;)

Kelly

I am glad to hear the positive review on the Adventure Ocean program. I'm hoping our kids love it also! We will probably do as we have done on Disney, put them in for a few hours when there are the activities they are most excited about and then have some family time and put them in again at dinner. It is nice to see them meet new friends and I'm sure there will be plenty.

Those cabanas look so inviting. Yours obviously was a real winner. Sounds like a wise investment to me.

I am glad to hear the positive review on the Adventure Ocean program. I'm hoping our kids love it also! We will probably do as we have done on Disney, put them in for a few hours when there are the activities they are most excited about and then have some family time and put them in again at dinner. It is nice to see them meet new friends and I'm sure there will be plenty.

 

Those cabanas look so inviting. Yours obviously was a real winner. Sounds like a wise investment to me.

Oh, they have a schedule of planned activities? That would be nice! I have searched high and low on the RC site and can't find actual details :)

Kelly

Oh, they have a schedule of planned activities? That would be nice! I have searched high and low on the RC site and can't find actual details :)

 

Kelly

Well, I sure hope they do. I've never been on a RC trip with the kids - only Disney. I'm sure the OP would know. Please say yes...please say yes... Haha!

Do you have the Compass from your cruise?

Sorry I don't have the Compass, but every day Adventure Ocean publishes a separate document with a list of activities specifically to Adventure Ocean. It will list things the kids will be working on or anything happening in the Adventure Ocean theatre such as talent contests. You'll have to check the "regular" compass for things around the ship like face painting or character meet and greets.

Thank you so much! That is very helpful to know :)

Kelly

Sounds like you've created a "cruiser". :D

How much did you pay for your daughter to eat at Giovanni?

Thanks for your review. Do you remember if Adventure Ocean was open in the evening on Day 1 (the day of boarding)? Thanks.