HAL with toddler... (2-3 year old)

[Despegue]

Hello all,

 

after a very challenging 3 years, due to personal reasons, Covid and me being quarantined and locked in hotel rooms Worldwide for the last 27 months, We ( at least I am) are in a HUGE need to cruise again.

 

However, our family situation has changed, and we now are the proud parents of a 29 month old son, who is  very active and loves to swim, dance, sing, play etc etc...

We prefer the sophisticated atmosphere of HAL (Veterans of this forum might remember me), and were regulars on HAL, but I wonder if HAL would be a good fit for our son...?

He is now potty trained, so he can swim in the pools.

Does the MDR/ Lido Marketplace provide Highchairs/ booster seats?

 

from which age is the Kids Club open nowadays? 
 

I am also looking into Carnival, as that would definitely a child friendly cruise, but am afraid of the boisterous atmosphere. The food does look actually much better nowadays on Carnival than on HAL, after examining the latest menus and feeling extremely disappointed with the HAL MDR menus in 2022... (almost no choices!, abysmal choices really)

 

Any advice would be really appreciated...

 

thanks!

 

 

 

[DaveOKC]

While I have never brought a child that young on a cruise, I do not think that HAL would be a good fit for your son.  There are much better suited lines IMO (have you looked at Disney?)

[boulders]

My son started cruising HAL when he was 7. HAL is fine for little kids. Club HAL is great. They start at 3 years old. I've cruised with kids on Disney, Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Princess as well. My daughter preferred HAL out of all the lines. My boys preferred Royal Caribbean. Only the 2 year old liked Carnival. The kids club on Carnival was great. Everything else was subpar. My kids didn't particularly like Disney. One of them got food poisoning and ended up in medical with an IV. 

 

Those experiences were all around 10-15 years ago though. You can check on recent experiences on the Family Cruising subforum. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/28-family-cruises/

 

 

[Despegue]

2 hours ago, DaveOKC said:

While I have never brought a child that young on a cruise, I do not think that HAL would be a good fit for your son.  There are much better suited lines IMO (have you looked at Disney?)

Also looking at Disney indeed, but their prices?!?! Complete madness!

[Mary229]

If you plan to use Club HAL be sure to check the current status of programs on your sailing.  On my transatlantic there was a family with 3 small children and the oldest was about 7.  They were very nice children and won the hearts of many even me, a person who is not a “child person”. The kids loved all the attention  and were the stars of the show wherever they went. 

[Hlitner]

If I were the OP I would expand my options beyond HAL and Carnival :).  Neither cruise line would be my choice if traveling with a toddler.  

 

Hank

[fatcat04]

We enjoy HALs style so when it came time for our dd's first cruise, we chose HAL. We cruised on HAL with our dd (almost 5 now) when she was 16 months and then 27 months. We enjoyed our cruises and she had a blast. Cruising with a little one is different but a pretty easy way to vacation in our opinion, the laundry service alone is very nice with kids. 

 

She was too young for the kid's club so I can not comment on a preschooler on HAL  plus Club HAL but my son was 7 (almost 21 now) when he first went to the kid's club and he enjoyed it very much, much more than Carnival and Costa. I am hoping dd will enjoy it on this upcoming cruise next month but even if not, she can be with us and we will have fun. 

 

Yes, they have sanitized high chairs in both the lido and MDR plus all the specialty restaurants as well.

 

They also have a special kid's menu but you can also get 1/2 size entrees as well or even just do appetizers for little ones.

 

If you have set dining time, your high chair plus your child's drink preference will already be at the table when you arrive. Our wait staff was always quick to get our daughter's food out (and not too hot) so dh and I could enjoy our food at a more leisurely pace.. and dd's nightly ice cream was also a standing order. The staff really made over her and went totally out of their way to do any little thing to make her happy. 

 

Our son ate with us in the MDR for the first night of his first HAL cruise and then declared that he would prefer we all go to the Lido right before Club HAL opened (he ate dinner, we nibbled and had a pre dinner glass of wine) and then he was off for a night of fun while we enjoyed a leisurely dinner. 

 

Not much kid entertainment on the TV's (we watched Frozen a couple times) but we travel with loaded tablets so if dd gets a need for Bluey or Snoopy or Tigger and Pooh Bear, we got it covered. 

[Despegue]

4 hours ago, Hlitner said:

If I were the OP I would expand my options beyond HAL and Carnival :).  Neither cruise line would be my choice if traveling with a toddler.  

 

Hank

Hello Hank,

 

any suggestions ? We refuse to sail on NCL due to the Class Concept, (same for Celebrity, although we are Elite plus).

RCCL is nice, but they are charging extra for even a burger at Johnny Rockets (10 bucks!) and the food is marginal...I do get discounts with them though, as I used to do audits on their ships for the Royal Caribbean group. ( Safety/evacuation related and Bridge Resource Management as some know)

[Alberta Quilter]

I once saw a family having a tablet and headphones for their child at the dining table in the MDR.  I have to say the child was kept occupied and, as a result, well behaved during dinner.

[AncientWanderer]

We just returned from a Carnival cruise (in an adults only section), but did see many, many children onboard.  For me, it would have been too much too much.  The kids were having fun, but sure looked like bedlam.

We sailed on HAL all the way from San Diego to Auckland, New Zealand one time, and there was a family onboard with three young children.  All the crew made a fuss over them, as did the passengers.  They all seemed to really enjoy themselves -- kids and parents.

 

One thing to maybe do...

We considered taking DGD with us on a HAL cruise and were referred over to Ship Services.  They have a checklist of available special items to request that might make your trip easier.  It was a well-thought-out list. 

 

Wishing you Happy Family Cruising, whatever your decision!

[Hlitner]

24 minutes ago, Despegue said:

Hello Hank,

 

any suggestions ? We refuse to sail on NCL due to the Class Concept, (same for Celebrity, although we are Elite plus).

RCCL is nice, but they are charging extra for even a burger at Johnny Rockets (10 bucks!) and the food is marginal...I do get discounts with them though, as I used to do audits on their ships for the Royal Caribbean group. ( Safety/evacuation related and Bridge Resource Management as some know)

Eliminating cruise lines because of the "class concept" will soon have you eliminating all the mass market lines.  One can certainly argue the issue, but the industry trend is to give more to those who pay more.  A real unique concept?   As to very young children my first choices would be Disney and RCI.  I will also admit that we do not cruise either line these days (we have no toddlers).   RCI (I am old enough to still call them RCCL) does certainly believe in nickel and diming but they do offer a decent product for families of all ages.  We no longer cruise on RCI (our DD was Diamond before age 14) because its mega ship family oriented nickel and diming scene is just not our style.   But if were to take the Grandchildren on a cruise we would give a lot of consideration to RCI and Disney.  I should mention that even RCI has somewhat of a class concept in that there are quite a few amenities that go to those in the higher end suites.  One could also make the case that having various levels of alternative restaurants also plays to what you call "class concept."

 

Hank

[fatcat04]

Oh and I forgot to mention I have a baby/toddler centric review of dd's first HAL cruise in my signature. 

[LMaxwell]

Age 3 is the youngest for the kids club; pretty standard across most lines.  Some lines will have splashpads that toddlers can use.  We did one Disney cruise - no thanks. It's not a cruise. It's a floating Disney Resort/Show.  If you're a Disney fan to the core, I can understand. As a cruise - very underwhelming to me.  Not as good as Royal Caribbean but only 3X the price. 

Anyways - for the youngest kids I generally think any ship will be fine as the kids club will accommodate.  Not sure what you mean about being against ships with "Class" systems but if you are in Europe also check out MSC.  They had a nice kids club, some of the new ships have toddler friendly water parks; the ships are gorgeous and a very international crowd.  I wouldn't discourage you from HAL if it is your style and what you like though. 

[NCTribeFan]

MSC has plenty of sailings in the US, too.  I have a DGD turning 2 in a couple of weeks and was thinking of taking the family on a cruise.  At this time, MSC's kids program seem to be very limited in hours.  I don't know if that's the usual case or whether that's Covid-limited because of lack of staff.

 

Not sure what the person above meant about being on Carnival in an "adults only section."  The only "no kids" areas are the Serenity Decks and those simply turn into adult party zones.  Nothing "serene" about them.  I've sailed Carnival >30 times (and have a B2B2B coming up in two months, and another B2B in January - only because my cruise friends still love Carnival - I'm leaning much more toward HAL these days).  But I know their kids' clubs get high marks.  But I avoid all cruises in the summer when school is out.

 

I know DD would love to cruise again.  We sailed on the next-to-last cruise to Havana on MSC Armonia a couple of years ago (just before she got pregnant).  Her question to me was what to do in the evening when the toddler needs to go to bed?  Is she supposed to just sit in the cabin in the dark?  That doesn't sound like much of a vacation.  Don't know if any evening babysitting is available these days.

[AncientWanderer]

7 minutes ago, NCTribeFan said:

MSC has plenty of sailings in the US, too.  I have a DGD turning 2 in a couple of weeks and was thinking of taking the family on a cruise.  At this time, MSC's kids program seem to be very limited in hours.  I don't know if that's the usual case or whether that's Covid-limited because of lack of staff.

 

Not sure what the person above meant about being on Carnival in an "adults only section."  The only "no kids" areas are the Serenity Decks and those simply turn into adult party zones.  Nothing "serene" about them.  I've sailed Carnival >30 times (and have a B2B2B coming up in two months, and another B2B in January - only because my cruise friends still love Carnival - I'm leaning much more toward HAL these days).  But I know their kids' clubs get high marks.  But I avoid all cruises in the summer when school is out.

 

I know DD would love to cruise again.  We sailed on the next-to-last cruise to Havana on MSC Armonia a couple of years ago (just before she got pregnant).  Her question to me was what to do in the evening when the toddler needs to go to bed?  Is she supposed to just sit in the cabin in the dark?  That doesn't sound like much of a vacation.  Don't know if any evening babysitting is available these days.

 

Havana area on the Carnival Panorama.  No young kids there.  It has a nice saltwater pool.  It was quiet around there.

[ClippyJoe]

Despegue,

On a recent transatlantic cruise , there were several children. One was under 3 and became the darling of the ship, with everyone knowing the toddlers name and helping the parents with trays for food, seats at the pool, and dining room. Basically a ship full of grandparents !

 

[PACD_JG]

On 8/3/2022 at 7:29 AM, Despegue said:

We prefer the sophisticated atmosphere of HAL (Veterans of this forum might remember me), and were regulars on HAL, but I wonder if HAL would be a good fit for our son...?

You know your child won't remember this when they get older, right?  My point is, if you like HAL, cruise HAL.  Why pick a specific ship or line for somebody who could honestly care less as long as his/her parents are there with them?

 

[Mary229]

4 minutes ago, PACD_JG said:

You know your child won't remember this when they get older, right?  My point is, if you like HAL, cruise HAL.  Why pick a specific ship or line for somebody who could honestly care less as long as his/her parents are there with them?

 

I agree plus most 3 year olds aren’t really looking for too much play time with their peers.  They are quite happy being around adults.  In a few years the child will want to go out and find friends and by then the parents will know if HAL is right for family cruises 

[tunafish]

On 8/3/2022 at 7:29 AM, Despegue said:

Hello all,

 

after a very challenging 3 years, due to personal reasons, Covid and me being quarantined and locked in hotel rooms Worldwide for the last 27 months, We ( at least I am) are in a HUGE need to cruise again.

 

However, our family situation has changed, and we now are the proud parents of a 29 month old son, who is  very active and loves to swim, dance, sing, play etc etc...

We prefer the sophisticated atmosphere of HAL (Veterans of this forum might remember me), and were regulars on HAL, but I wonder if HAL would be a good fit for our son...?

He is now potty trained, so he can swim in the pools.

Does the MDR/ Lido Marketplace provide Highchairs/ booster seats?

 

from which age is the Kids Club open nowadays? 
 

I am also looking into Carnival, as that would definitely a child friendly cruise, but am afraid of the boisterous atmosphere. The food does look actually much better nowadays on Carnival than on HAL, after examining the latest menus and feeling extremely disappointed with the HAL MDR menus in 2022... (almost no choices!, abysmal choices really)

 

Any advice would be really appreciated...

 

thanks!

 

 

 

started at 6 month with our kids - no problem. I think club starts at 3yo, being potty trained is a must for pools (no swim diapers allowed) I think holland is great with kids as you do not have many on board and things are nice and quiet for the most part. For older kids you have to consider that HAL does not have many things for kids (slides, playgrounds and other junk)