I may do a more thorough comparison in a later post, but right now, I'd like to talk about our first cruise with our little girls who were 13 months and almost 4 at the time of our cruise. Disney, as always, is great at catering towards families. The staterooms are larger than the industry standard with an area that has a pull out couch and a dividing curtain for those earlier bedtimes and naps. They even provided us with a Diaper Genie right in the room which we were very happy to have.
Disney is fabulous at including amazing experiences for the whole family aboard the ship including a whole deck of activities just for children in the Oceaner's Lab and Oceaner's Club that is included in the cost of your cruise. You can even check in toddlers and babies at the It's a Small World nursery for a nominal hourly fee. What is nice, is that the kids areas even have at least one time period a day in which one section is in open house mode. Activities scheduled during that time are for the whole family. This meant I finally got to check out the kid's club myself- I had never looked into it on the cruises we did prior to having kids.
I think how successful cruising with small children is depends a whole lot on the personality of the child. Our older daughter, Ella, tried the kids club twice and was done and wanted to stay with us the rest of the time. She gets very clingy around people she doesn't know. We actually had an easier time managing the baby! Our challenge was that Ella kept wanting to return to the stateroom to watch television much to our frustration- we didn't come all that way just to stare at screens. However, I will say that she loved the free ice cream and the Mickey pool. Unfortunately since diaper aged children are (understandably) only allowed in the little splash zone area, Derek and I could not both go into the pool with her at the same time. We did get to enjoy the kids club during family time since we were allowed to stay with her. Ella also seemed to enjoy the shows. It was fun watching her respond to the magic show. She doesn't like sitting in the seats that fold up though- she's not heavy enough to keep them down and spent most of the shows squirming on one of our laps.
Originally, I thought we'd check the baby into the nursery during the shows- we were in the earlier dinner group so the girls wouldn't have to wait so late to eat. We tried it once. They will put your child down in a crib if you request it. Unfortunately, when we picked her up, she had only just fallen asleep, and it was after 9 pm, and we got the impression that they didn't even try to put her down earlier. They also called us at least twice while we were watching the show, once to clarify something about the information we had left with them and again when she was crying because she fell out of a chair. This was frustrating enough that for the rest of our trip, I just wore her in the baby carrier during the nighttime entertainment. It worked- she's a pretty chill little one, although she still didn't fall asleep until we returned to the room. We didn't end up with any adult time on this trip which was a bit of a bummer. We also didn't get to do much on Pirate Night or at the ports. I'm glad this wasn't our first cruise!
One thing that disappointed me on this particular trip was that we were sat at a table for 4 by ourselves. I had really hoped to be sat with another family- I know it can be a crap shoot as to whether or not you click with strangers, but I think Ella would have enjoyed the trip a lot more if she had a buddy to hang out with. It also meant Ella was bouncing out of her seat constantly during dinner. Since we weren't sat with anyone, we didn't really make new friends on the ship this time like we have in the past. Oh well, maybe next time.
Now, least you think I'm complaining too much, we did still have fun on this trip. The Halloween on the High Seas was great. Ella got a huge kick out of trick or treating on the ship. The Jack-Jack Diaper Dash where they race babies is just hilarious! We entered the baby, and she won her first heat. Then for the final race, she kept trying to go parallel to the finish-line instead of crossing it until her sister pulled her across! I discovered on our last day that Ella wanted to do karaoke. We were too late to sign up though. Next time for sure- I was so excited that she wanted to go up.
We also splurged on the Enchanted Princess Tea. It is quite the splurge, and I will only do it once for her and then again for Shira when she's old enough, but it was just darling! I wasn't sure how into it Ella would be, but I really wanted to do it myself. Turns out she loved it! She let me style her hair the way I used to when I worked at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, and she wore her Belle dance dress from her dance recital last summer. The girls each got a cupcake featuring their favorite princess of those who were represented. Ella chose Cinderella. She was fully engaged with the princesses when they came to visit- more than I've ever seen her in the Disney parks. The girls also each got a Cinderella doll, an autograph book and pen, and a jewelry box with a charm bracelet and necklace. I dressed up too- tiara and all. It was probably my favorite part of the trip!
Another thing we did that was really fun was participate in a fish extender gift exchange- you can sign up with a group online that you exchange gifts with through a pocket hanger that you put outside your door. It's called a fish extender because the little wall decoration that you hang it on is literally shaped like a fish. Ella loved checking for surprises every time we returned to our room! Although I noticed that not everyone paid attention to the fact that our younger child was a baby- she often got the same gifts as her sister that were clearly too old for her. However, we did get a cute bib and some wipes and some baby snacks.
We will absolutely take the girls again despite the challenges. They won't always be so little, and now that we've done it, I'll have my expectations a little more in check. I think it will be more fun once the baby (who is now 18 months) is old enough to go to the kid's club with her sister so that they will at least have each other. I think if we do cruise again before she is 3, I will plan out our nursery usage a bit better! Also, I think a cruise that goes to Castaway Cay, Disney's island in the Caribbean, would also have more successful port experiences for us. I'll let you know how the next one goes! I think we'll be better prepared next time.
