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  1. #1
    Tondi G is offline Red Diamond level (10,000+ posts)
    Join Date
    Nov 1999
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    So. California, USA.
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    13,707

    Default Has anyone cruised with a two year old????

    we are planning a cruise in May and decided on Carnival cause they allow 2 year olds in their childrens club program. They said not potty trained is OK... just to bring them diapers! We won't leave him there ALL day long but I am sure DS will love playing with other kids and do some "kid" activities during the day! I am just curious if anyone has cruised with a toddler and if there is anything we should do/know. Anything you brought along that you couldn't have lived without? Our DS will be 2 months shy of 3 years of age when we go!

    Thanks in advance!
    ~Tondi and Mason 7/8/01

  2. #2
    MinnieMouse Guest

    Default RE: Has anyone cruised with a two year old????

    Tondi,

    My sister works for Carnival and we just came back from two short back to back cruises in the Caribbean (went in mid January). Beth turned 2.5yo while we were on the second cruise.

    I think the kid's program is one of the best things about Carnival. Beth ADORED going to "CAMP" and a month later she's still asking if she can go back!

    On the first evening of the cruise they have a meeting for Camp Carnival. You will get all the info there, fill out an info sheet and sign off on stuff. They give you a beeper that you will have for the rest of the cruise. At the meeting you will also get a Camp schedule for the entire cruise geared toward your son's age group. There are some GREAT activities. Beth especially liked the tshirt activity (they use fabric markers and get to keep the shirt) as well as some of the art activities.

    Camp is generally open in mornings until noonish then they break for a couple hours for lunch and reopen for a few hours, break for their dinner. They have a time where you can drop the kids off at the buffet w/ the Camp Carnival counselors and they can eat dinner with them. We had late dinner ...which worked for us and my sis picked it, not sure if I would have but it did work. We brought Bethany to the buffet and fed her then brought her down to Camp when they reopened (on our ship it was 7pm) and then we went to our late seating at 8pm. Each ship is on a slightly different schedule though. Dinner took 2 hours and we only took Beth to the dining room 2x. The first night of the first cruise...and she did okay and then one port day that had open seating. Beth was MUCH happier getting fries and ice cream for dinner and going to camp than she was spending dinner with us in the dining room.

    Just be aware that there isn't a lot of plain veggies on the cruise. Beth is a HUGE veggie eater...veggies, fries, chicken nuggets and fruit. I think she lived on fries and fruit for the entire 9 days we were on the ship. If we were in the dining room w/ her we MIGHT have been able to get some veggies. We did eat in the dining room for a lunch or two as well as breakfast a couple of days. Those meals are MUCH shorter and better suited to a 2yo's attention span.

    Beth was on the road to potty training before we left, but it all went out the window on the ship. She was never at camp for more than 2 hours so we just always made sure she was dry when we dropped her off. So they actually never had to change her diaper. But they do have a changing area.

    Camp is open until 10 or 11pm...can't remember which time it "closes" but then does babysitting until 3am that you pay for (it was $6.00/hr). We did this for ONE night...formal night. We did make the mistake of not putting Beth in her PJs and dropping her off that way before dinner. We came back after dinner with them, changed her and left again. SOOO not a good idea. It took her about 2-3 more days to not freak out when we went to camp. She was fine as soon as we left..but the drop off was murder.

    The counselors at camp were excellent and really worked with Beth through the times when she had trouble at the drop offs. The camp is available while in port, but we didn't need to take advantage of this (helps to have family on the ship :-) ).

    I can HIGHLY recommend cruisemates.com. They have a great set of info on cruising w/ kids AND message boards that specifically cover family cruising, carnival cruising as well as other misc questions and concerns.

    Give me a yell if you have any questions. I actually think I have the camp schedule at home if you want me to scan and send it to you.

    HTH

    Christine

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2003
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    Default RE: Has anyone cruised with a two year old????

    We'll also be cruising this May on Royal Caribbean with both kids (and my brother, his wife, and my parents) so I don't have much to tell you. But cruisecritic.com has amazing resources. There is a woman on that board who has cruised with her 3YO like 6x. She answered all my questions and emailed me a packing list, which also had things to pack for food, bibs, toss-away sippies, etc. :)

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