Cruising With a 2 Year Old

[SRUAlmn]

We cruised when my younger one was 18 months (she’s 2 years 9 months now). We brought our umbrella stroller and used it around the ship. It was helpful for keeping her close. But the ships are pretty safe (high walls) so it was also fun to take her to the upper deck and just let her run around.

My kids were both still napping and have early bedtimes. We don’t mess with their sleep schedules too much because it’s just not worth the meltdowns. My son was 4 at the time and he stayed up to see Frozen with my husband and he was wiped. We skipped the other shows. Some nights my husband or I would leave the room by ourselves. One night I shopped, one night he watched the super bowl from one of the hot tubs.

My biggest suggestion is to book the nursery on the morning of your sea day. We used it between breakfast and lunch and we sent DS to the kids club. We had an amazing time at the adult pool and then cove cafe.

Thank you!! We don’t like to mess with his schedule too much for the same reason. It feels like if you have one off day it takes like 3 days to get back on track! Thanks for the suggestion about when to try the nursery. I’m a SAHM so he’s never been to day care and has never been left with anyone but familiar family members so I’m not sure how it would go but we could try!

We just got off the Wonder with our 2 1/2 year old and newly-turned-five year old. High chairs were readily available in all restaurants, including Cabanas (although my 2 1/2 old refuses to sit in them!). The only time we heard the announcements IN the room were right before and during the muster drill. We also used a sound machine and it worked great for the much-needed naps.

As far as activities, I found that most of the little kid activities were in the nursery and kids club areas. And my little one is not good with strangers, so we never dropped her off, just did the open house so she could play for a bit the first day. That was kind of a bummer because it felt like she missed out on the super fun stuff. However, we still did several character meet and greets. There are a few movies early in the day at the theater if your little one is into movies. The little splash pad area looked adorable (we didn't use it only due to cold weather). It was cool to see the movies on the big screen at the pool - and you can eat breakfast and lunch out there, too.

An umbrella stroller would be awesome, we saw plenty of huge strollers on board. I was surprised people lugged the big ones on, and they can be a pain to maneuver when decks are crowded. An umbrella stroller would be lightweight and perfect.

Don't worry about the food throwing. He'll probably be done with that phase in eight months anyway, but the ship is full of kids who do that kind of thing. Just when you think you have the biggest trouble-making toddler, another one comes along and trumps yours. LOL

Thank you so much for all of this! Makes me feel better and mine isn’t great with strangers either so it’s good to hear your experience since your little one is the same! And HA about thinking your kid is the trouble maker and then getting trumped! I hate to say I hope that’s the case. Ha! You mentioned it being too cool for the splash area. Can I ask what month you cruised? Ours is in Jan so I’m wondering how it’ll be, but we live in S.C. and 2 years ago we had 6” of snow and last Jan it was like 70 degrees most days so I know that month can vary so much!

We sailed the Fantasy when my twins were 2 There is already a lot of great advice on this thread, but I just wanted to help reassure you that cruising is SO much easier than you think.
It's just so great to have literally everything you need just a few steps away!

For the twins, we saw a ton of characters- and trust me, you will see them ALL over the ship, even when you don't expect to; we played in the Oceaneers Club every time they had an open house; we walked around and looked at the moving pictures (they seriously could have done this all day); we played mini golf; we splashed a lot at Nemos; we watched movies and ate ice cream at the pool; we did all the Toddler Time activities in the Navigator.
Another random thing they loved was just hanging out in the Atrium before dinner when the bands start to play. All the little kids would run around and dance, and they had a blast doing that. They also "played" shuffleboard. And every night after dinner we would put them in PJs and go to the show. Some nights they fell asleep, some nights they watched the whole show.

And don't stress about dinner, as many have said, the servers are great but if you need to bail, just go eat by the pool or order room service.
Also for the record, we used a stroller and a noise machine too.

Thank you, thank you!! My little guy loves music and dancing so dancing in the atrium would be right up his alley! We’re excited for lots of characters, too! Anyone unique to DCL other than the Fab 5 that we should acquaint him to beforehand?

I'm going to be cruising with a toddler this July and just wanted to say thanks to everyone who posted on this thread! She'll be 15 months old when we sail and I can't wait! We are going to be bringing our big stroller because we're doing a day in the parks afterwards but I'm thinking we probably won't use it much.
Does anyone have any tips as far as food goes? She's a pretty flexible eater and so far not super picky, but who knows if that will change . I'm thinking we'll bring some pouches and things to offer for snacks etc if needed. Do they have toddler friendly silverware in the dining rooms or should I bring spoons for her?

Good questions to add! I’ll be watching for answers too! When we went to WDW with mine at that age we took pouches, Puffs, applesauce, our own spoons, etc so I was planning to do the same on this cruise (although not as many since he’s eating more grown up food now than he was then.)

 

[jack87891]

Ditto to all the comments about how fun it is. We have taken our granddaughter on dcl for both her first and 2nd birthdays. Sge asks us all the time to watch the videos again and says “poppie, I want to go on a cruise”

Character greetings are great. The Nemo reef are is fun as well. So are the dance parties and don’t miss the one at noon on castaway cay

All in all some of our favorite vacations yet. Can’t wait for the next one

 

[lklgoodman]

You can watch the Disney stage shows on the TV in your cabin. They are shown a couple of times, same night as on the stage. They are previously recorded and most likely aren't the same cast as what's on your cruise. But at least you can still see the shows if your lil one is asleep.

 

[scrapbookingpro]

Anyone unique to DCL other than the Fab 5 that we should acquaint him to beforehand?

Well, not unique to cruise line, but they really do have SO many characters. We saw Tinker Bell, Belle, Tiana, Ariel, Cinderella, Peter Pan, Stitch, Chip and Dale, Captain Jack, and so many others. They come to the kids club, you see them by the pools, in the hallways, at Castaway Cay and just about everywhere. Once we wondered into the atrium in the middle of the afternoon and Mickey and Goofy were there playing games with a bunch of kids

 

[MomOTwins]

We took our normal (not umbrella) stroller everywhere on the cruise with our two year old. It was a handy place to stick the diaper bag and anything else we were lugging around and fit under the bed when folded. They always showed us where to park the stroller at restaurants.

Restaurants are very kid friendly, but we loaded a tablet with his favorite disney movies in case he was tired and cranky.

Make use of the nursery. It is inexpensive and they do a great job there. Also look for “open house” times at the kids club because then under 3s can go in the kids club and take part in character activities if accompanied by a parent.

Please remember if your child is still in swim diapers they can go in the splash zone but not the pools.

 

[SRUAlmn]

I was looking through Navigators from January this year and it looked like there was only one “Toddler Time” listed during the 3 day Bahamian? Does that sound right? What exactly is it? What do they do? It looked like it’s held in the Outlook? What is that? I saw it was way up on Deck 14?

 

[scrapbookingpro]

Yep, that sounds right- there were only a few on our 7 day cruise. Basically they just have a space where they bring out toddler appropriate toys for the kids to play with, like soft blocks, balls, puzzles, etc and the kids can just hang out in there and play. They also had cookies when we were there. It wasn't the best activity ever, but it was nice to have the option. On our 7 day they also did one outside on the sports deck.

 

[SRUAlmn]

Yep, that sounds right- there were only a few on our 7 day cruise. Basically they just have a space where they bring out toddler appropriate toys for the kids to play with, like soft blocks, balls, puzzles, etc and the kids can just hang out in there and play. They also had cookies when we were there. It wasn't the best activity ever, but it was nice to have the option. On our 7 day they also did one outside on the sports deck.

Thank you! Sounds nice! Sometimes simple and age appropriate is all you need