Disney cruise with 4 yr old and 1 yr old

[Anonymous]

We are going on a 5 night Disney cruise over spring break and would love any hints/tips folks can offer. We are flying out of Miami and stopping in cozumel and castaway island. We don't plan on taking car seats but could possibly take the infant sear if advised (our 14 month old still fits into it but barely). We will have the Disney shuttle pick us up at the airport. We do plan on taking the stroller. This will be our first trip with the two kids. I've booked some time in the nursery for the baby (two nights

[Anonymous]

No need to bring car seats if you are using Disney transportation.

Are you doing the Fish Extender thing?

Head to the first beach on Castaway Cay (it's less crowded).

[Anonymous]

I like to eat in the main dining room for breakfast and avoid the buffet. It isn't formal. You don't have to sit with other people or dress up. The bring your coffee and juice and you order and the bring it or sometimes there is a buffet. Point is that the buffet with little kids can be a nightmare of going back and forth for drinks and utensils, etc. Not so in the dining room.

[Anonymous]

If you plan to meet characters, go straight to the concierge desk as soon as you board because there are reserved times for the character meet and greets and those do fill up. Also, usually one night is a pirate themed night. Plan accordingly. Some people go bananas. We got eye patches and tattoos and called it a day. Also, if your kids are nervous about fireworks, the fireworks on board are loud. Use earplugs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you plan to meet characters, go straight to the concierge desk as soon as you board because there are reserved times for the character meet and greets and those do fill up. Also, usually one night is a pirate themed night. Plan accordingly. Some people go bananas. We got eye patches and tattoos and called it a day. Also, if your kids are nervous about fireworks, the fireworks on board are loud. Use earplugs.

OP here - thanks for this tip. I booked a character meet and greet online already. I did see the pirate themed night so booked a few hours in the nursery for the one year old that night.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I like to eat in the main dining room for breakfast and avoid the buffet. It isn't formal. You don't have to sit with other people or dress up. The bring your coffee and juice and you order and the bring it or sometimes there is a buffet. Point is that the buffet with little kids can be a nightmare of going back and forth for drinks and utensils, etc. Not so in the dining room.

OP here - thanks for this advice. How does lunch work?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No need to bring car seats if you are using Disney transportation.

Are you doing the Fish Extender thing?

Head to the first beach on Castaway Cay (it's less crowded).

OP here - what is the fish extender thing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No need to bring car seats if you are using Disney transportation.

Are you doing the Fish Extender thing?

Head to the first beach on Castaway Cay (it's less crowded).

OP here - what is the fish extender thing?

Fish extender is where you join a group that trades presents for a bunch of other cabins -- I'd skip it.
You have several options for lunch: one dining room will be open, but that takes a while. There's a huge buffet with everything you could possibly want. The easiest option is to eat at one of the poolside places: there's pizza, burgers, a healthier place with wrapes/fruit, and some ships have other options (one has a very nice shwarma restaurant).

As for other advice...your 4-year-old will likely like the kids club, but there's also open house time there where you can bring the baby too. There are cute baby events in the mornings (dance party, a little play area) that the 4-year-old can attend too. Have fun!

[Anonymous]

We just got back from our 4th Disney cruise. Not going to lie, our least relaxing was our first, when DS was too young to go to the kids club. You may want to consider booking some nursery time during the day so you can DH can have some time to yourself. The adult-only areas are nice.

We've done the fish extender a couple times - it's a gift exchange. I agree with skipping it for your first cruise.

Do you have a balcony room? That's nice for hanging out while your kid/kids is/are napping.

You can bring on one bottle of wine or a 6-pack of beer per adult. Also nice while hanging out on the balcony.

If your ship has the midship detective agency, your 4 year old may enjoy it. It's fun running around the ship gathering clues.

We were supposed to go to Mr. Sanchos in Cozumel on our last cruise (August) - seems like a good deal for a beach club if you don't have another excursion in mind. We didn't end up stopping at Cozumel due to a hurricane. We had booked it directly through Mr. Sanchos.

Castaway Cay is a great beach... we too like the "snorkeling beach" (which you arrive at first) better than the "family beach". We like ordering room service for breakfast on Castaway Cay day to get off the ship as quickly as possible. The lunch food at Cookies is pretty good and there are some fun souvenirs available only on the island. If you or DH is a runner, they have a fun 5k first thing when you get off the boat. You can sign up for it at guest services. You can drop off your 4 year old at the kids club on the island but I don't think you'll have anything to do with the 1 year old so I think that would mean you and your DH couldn't both do it.

We always just do the buffet for breakfast and lunch and the main dining room for dinner. If you get sick of the huge sit down meals every night, the places by the pool are good options for quicker, more casual dinners. Animators Palate has a fun show as part of dinner so you may want to make a point to hit that. You'll have the dinner rotation assigned on your key to the world card that you get at checkin.

I think that's it for now... I'll post more if I can think of anything else.

[Anonymous]

We skipped the fish extender and do not wish we did it
We did decorate our door and I was glad we did it
The one year-old won't be able to go in the pool if not potty trained but there is a splash pad
We did the early show and later dinner seating and the late dinner seating was too late for my kids to eat but I'm not sorry we did it that way because we all enjoyed the shows
I liked this blog post but some of it is out of date. For example I don't think you can bring extension cords now.
http://harvardhomemaker.com/a-moms-guide-15-things-to-pack-for-a-disney-cruise/

[Anonymous]

Novice cruise question - What are sleeping arrangements with kids this age in parents? Are you in the same room? It sounds fun, but I can't get my head around how this works. Also if comfortable sharing, what's the price point for these cruises? My 4 year old is obsessed with cruise ships, so he'd lose his mind with this type of trip.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Novice cruise question - What are sleeping arrangements with kids this age in parents? Are you in the same room? It sounds fun, but I can't get my head around how this works. Also if comfortable sharing, what's the price point for these cruises? My 4 year old is obsessed with cruise ships, so he'd lose his mind with this type of trip.

The disney cruise rooms are big and there is a curtain separating the kids bed area from the adult bed area. It worked nice for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Novice cruise question - What are sleeping arrangements with kids this age in parents? Are you in the same room? It sounds fun, but I can't get my head around how this works. Also if comfortable sharing, what's the price point for these cruises? My 4 year old is obsessed with cruise ships, so he'd lose his mind with this type of trip.

We are going during spring break which is more expensive than other weeks. All in I think we are at $7k with airfare. I'll be celebrating a birthday while on the ship so this was a nice way to get some family and alone time while having the kids out of school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We skipped the fish extender and do not wish we did it
We did decorate our door and I was glad we did it
The one year-old won't be able to go in the pool if not potty trained but there is a splash pad
We did the early show and later dinner seating and the late dinner seating was too late for my kids to eat but I'm not sorry we did it that way because we all enjoyed the shows
I liked this blog post but some of it is out of date. For example I don't think you can bring extension cords now.
http://harvardhomemaker.com/a-moms-guide-15-things-to-pack-for-a-disney-cruise/

OP here - thanks for the weblink. What time are the show's?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We just got back from our 4th Disney cruise. Not going to lie, our least relaxing was our first, when DS was too young to go to the kids club. You may want to consider booking some nursery time during the day so you can DH can have some time to yourself. The adult-only areas are nice.

We've done the fish extender a couple times - it's a gift exchange. I agree with skipping it for your first cruise.

Do you have a balcony room? That's nice for hanging out while your kid/kids is/are napping.

You can bring on one bottle of wine or a 6-pack of beer per adult. Also nice while hanging out on the balcony.

If your ship has the midship detective agency, your 4 year old may enjoy it. It's fun running around the ship gathering clues.

We were supposed to go to Mr. Sanchos in Cozumel on our last cruise (August) - seems like a good deal for a beach club if you don't have another excursion in mind. We didn't end up stopping at Cozumel due to a hurricane. We had booked it directly through Mr. Sanchos.

Castaway Cay is a great beach... we too like the "snorkeling beach" (which you arrive at first) better than the "family beach". We like ordering room service for breakfast on Castaway Cay day to get off the ship as quickly as possible. The lunch food at Cookies is pretty good and there are some fun souvenirs available only on the island. If you or DH is a runner, they have a fun 5k first thing when you get off the boat. You can sign up for it at guest services. You can drop off your 4 year old at the kids club on the island but I don't think you'll have anything to do with the 1 year old so I think that would mean you and your DH couldn't both do it.

We always just do the buffet for breakfast and lunch and the main dining room for dinner. If you get sick of the huge sit down meals every night, the places by the pool are good options for quicker, more casual dinners. Animators Palate has a fun show as part of dinner so you may want to make a point to hit that. You'll have the dinner rotation assigned on your key to the world card that you get at checkin.

I think that's it for now... I'll post more if I can think of anything else.

OP here - I booked a beach outing in cozumel and the glass bottom boat in castaway day. I booked a few hours during the two days at sea for the baby to go to the nursery so we could get a few hours of alone time during the day. Do you know if there are fireworks etc. Every night? Trying to determine how much night hours of nursery care we might need.