Need recommendation for cruise with 13 month old

[Jen516]

My husband and I would like to take a cruise with our son over Xmas, when he will be 13 months old. We would like a ship that offers babysitting in-cabin, as well as other fun activities for him to do or for us to do as a family. (As a side note: we wanted to take a trip just us without our son, but are having a tough time getting the grandparents to babysit! This is why we are looking for something fun for our family and fun for just the two of us -- hence needing a babysitter)

 

DH and I have been on many cruises before our son was born (Carnival, RCCL, Princess, etc). We liked RCCL and Princess the best, but that was pre-kids so not sure how we would feel now.

 

Any tips on cruise lines or ships we should look into?

 

Thanks!

 

Jen

[helenb]

Cunard has nurseries that you can leave your child at. Disney has babysitting in cabin and you can use their Flounder's Reef facilities.

 

RCL has special parent/child programs where you and your child can enjoy activities together. I think they also have in-cabin babysitting.

 

HTH!

[wendyvp]

I do not believe Disney has in-cabin babysitting, unless they recently changed that. They do have the nursery though. We took our two young sons (one was 14 months, the other 2.5 years old) on RCI this spring and they had a great time. We went on the Voyager which has a lot of room and some play programs (with parents) for the little ones. We used their in-cabin babysitting so we could go to dinner and the shows and it worked great for us. The kids had fun with the babysitter and we then got some adult time. It is certainly different from traveling when we didn't have kids (different expectations, accomodations for naps, different excursions, less sitting around the pool) but we really did enjoy it. We went to the caribbean and hit a beach each day - which they loved or saw dolphins or turtles, etc. And they had a blast watching all the people on the ship and the crew was great with them. Let me know if you have any questions.

 

wendy

[sueinphilly]

RCL has an aquatots program for the under 3 year olds. It's 45 minutes for kids and parents to do together. I have read mixed reviews. And they have in cabin babysitting for a fee. That's it for kids under 3 on RCL. They are not allowed in any of the pools, no swim diapers. Why chose to go over Xmas when it's more expensive with tons of kids? You will be spending practically all your time with your son and trying to entertain him when there is little geared for him to do on a ship with tons of older children.

[sueinphilly]

http://www.princess.com/about/policy.jsp?policyId=na400

http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/dcl/en_US/help/overview?name=KidsAndTeensFAQLandingPage

 

http://www.carnival.com/CMS/FAQs/Camp_Carnival_Babysitting.aspx

 

http://www.ncl.com/more/fp_mi_w2n.htm#10

[bangzoom6877]

We're most likely going on NCL next summer to the Caribbean out of NY (Norwegian Spirit), with our son who will be 18 months old at the time. They only charge taxes and fees for children under 2, whereas most other lines (except Disney, Costa and MSC Italian Cruises) charge full 3rd person fare. It's also freestyle which means you can go to dinner as early as 5:30PM if you need to feed the little one early. You can make a reservation for the dining room too, for the same time every night if you want to, although when we went last year we were a group of 20 so that might be why we were able to do that. You can eat in the dining room anytime during the hours, no set arrival time, which is good if the baby is taking a nap and let's say you wanna go to lunch a half hour after it starts, you still can! They have in-cabin babysitting, I believe. For a fee of course. I'm different though, I don't trust anyone but family with my baby and would not take advantage of the babysitting they offer. But I tend to be paranoid about those things!

 

Bonnie

[arnie300]

We had no problem convincing Grandmom to come on the cruise with us to help watch my son. It worked out great we did a lot of stuff together and also had plenty of opportunties to do stuff with just the 2 of us. My son was 12 months at the time and had a ball. We went on the Carnival Glory a beautiful ship out of Port Canaveral. Great port to sail out of. I am probably a alittle paranoid, but I couldn't leave my son with stangers and him not being able to tell me what was going own. Just the world we live in today. Well enough about that. The Glory has a play area that you can take the little one to. And the pool on the sun deck is partially covered so there is plenty of shade. And the grill is just steps away with grilled chicken, hambugers, NY strips, pizza and fries. The crib provided by the cruise lines was more fine so no problems sleeping. As I am sure you know dinner with a 1yr old can be an adventure sometimes. Our waiter Marlon was great with Jason. If he would get a little fussy Marlon would carry him around while we finished our dinner. And after the 1st night as soon as we sat down Marlon would have Jason Hotdog and fries ready and set in front of him. He just made dinner time really enjoyable. We also ate in the pay resturant one night food was great but not much better than the dining room. Only because dining room food was excellent. If you have any question just e-mail me at arnie300@bellsouth.com. also take look at our pics on webshots just paste this link http://community.webshots.com/album/162448047DzckRK

 

Arnie

[bangzoom6877]

Arnie, I agree with you on the babysitting thing. I am so paranoid about leaving my son with someone I don't know in today's world. We always cruise with a large group, and I know on the last 2 cruises my parents stayed with my nieces for a little while to give my sister a bit of a break. In my case, my mother watches my son when I go to work, so I would not ask her to watch him on vacation also! But it's so nice having the family together and doing things together on vacation. They're all on a cruise right now on the Carnival Legend and I am so sorry we didn't go. Next year we will go though!

 

Bonnie

[sueinphilly]

Everything went well, we got off with the first group (white) and were in the car by 8:45am.

 

We don't use the spa, play bingo, swim.

 

The theatre is very nice, good site lines and great acoustics.

 

The couple of times I went into the Solarium, I didn't see any kids. Can't say they were never in there, but I didn't see them. And we didn't have the greatest pool weather on our sea days either. No rain, just not bake in the sun hot (which is fine with me).

 

I know food is a personal thing, but I gotta say that if you can't find something to eat that pleases you, you must be very picky. I didn't meet a dessert or meal that I didn't like (and the scale confirms that).

 

Here's one thing that I observed that I thought was strange. There is virtually ALWAYs piped in music playing at the pool, windjammer, centrum and every bar/lounge when there is no live band playing. The Solarium was the only exception, it was quiet there. I mean, when I am having coffee at 8 am, I don't want to hear music playing. The library is right off the Centrum and it was very boistrous there with one thing or another most of the time. Is piped in music really necessary? yes, I know you're going to say that I should get a balcony and sit there, but if you want to people watch you can only sit on the balcony for so long.

 

If you have any particular questions, feel free to ask .