Cruising with a toddler or baby, the good, the bad, and the ugly! Our family's experiences.

 won't lie, cruising is one of my favorite ways to travel. I pay for everything upfront, don't have to worry about the logistics of planning out my meals, can sit back and relax and let the Captain and crew of the ship do the driving.

While many people may view a cruise as an adult-oriented trip, there are several perks to cruising with your young children including many kid-oriented activities, exposing them to new cultures, and can you say 24-hour pizza buffets?!?! That said, there are some times when cruising with children can be less than ideal. As experienced cruisers, I present to you a rundown of our cruising experiences with babies and toddlers, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

Good - Your Princess will be treated like a Princess

While Jennifer and I have cruised before and cruised with young children before, our last cruise on the Carnival Triumph was our first with an under-two-year-old. One of the most remarkable things about this trip was the reception that Robin received whenever she went.

Whether we were lounging on the Lido deck, walking the halls, or sitting down for a bite to eat, the crew would stop to talk to her and give her a bit of special treatment. To this day if you ask her what she thought about the cruise, she will reply with one word, "Cookies!" That's right, the staff and crew would go out of their way to hunt down cookies for here almost wherever we were. At one point even the executive chef got in on the fun!

I can't say if this was something that the crew made a point to do for all little children, or if the sight of an 18-month-old wearing a big bow, strolling a cabbage patch doll in a toy stroller was just too much for anyone to resist, but we couldn't go 10 minutes without someone stopping to make her feel special, and it's a memory I will hold on to whenever I think of Carnival Cruise Line.

 

Bad - Cruise Ships can be Noisy

I think this goes without saying, but I do have a particularly extreme situation that we experienced several years ago. When Leia and Billy were just 3 and 7, we decided to book a last minute cruise for their Summer vacation. It was just a 3-day ordeal to Cozumel and back, which we thought would be perfect.

Little did we know that this particular sailing was the "Rock the Boat" cruise, featuring the Molly Ringwalds, The Chee Weez, and Bag of Donuts.

Full disclosure, I'm a full-on Molly Ringwalds man-groupie. While a cruise headlined by three of the Gulf-South's premiere 80's cover bands sounds incredibly awesome, it is not so awesome when your room is booked directly below the stage, when you have a three-year-old, and when you don't have tickets to the show. I will say, the Molly's brought the bass. So much so that our entire cabin vibrated until 3am on our first night on-board. To this day I still don't know why the guests who were part of this event weren't booked below the stage, since they would have been at the show anyway.

Regardless, none of us slept that night. Our steward, who asked us to use anonymity so that he could protect his job, felt bad for us, particularly Leia since she was not able to sleep at all, and gave us some insider information on how to reach the ship's officer in charge of the hotel management. This was easier said than done, but by the afternoon of the second day on board I was able to secure a meeting. She was very apologetic and understood our concern. Unfortunately, the cruise was booked. She managed to pull some strings to let us stay in an unoccupied staff room for the night, which was at least quiet and let us rest up before going to Cozumel. This would have been the last evening in which the bands were playing so we got to return to our normal room on the last night. Upon entering the kids each had a stuffed toy, we had a box of chocolate strawberries, and we were greeted to a nice bottle of wine at dinner. All in all it ended well and Carnival made good for the inconvenience, but it has taught us to avoid the ballroom area of the ship when booking our staterooms if we can help it.

Good - Accommodating your Baby or Toddler's Needs

Keeping your toddler's routine while on vacation can often mean the difference between Rest & Relaxation or Stress & Wasted Vacation. While many adults can go with the flow while onboard a cruise, certain aspects of cruising are not always baby-friendly.

One point of concern my family faces while cruising is the dinner schedule. While Jennifer and I can live with the late dining option, the kids are usually ready to eat by 5pm. When the kids are involved, I've never had an issue with talking to the Maître D to rearrange our dining assignment. Usually, before I can utter the words "I'd like to see if I can get an earlier dining assignment because I have a toddler," he's already reassigning a table and getting us settled. I've always operated from the standpoint of treating the cruise staff with respect and never making demands. It's always worked well for me.

[caption id="attachment_252" align="aligncenter" width="556"] The dining staff was always finding creative ways to keep Robin happy![/caption]

Another aspect of cruising that is not always baby and young-child friendly is the mandatory safety meeting. The last time that we cruised with Billy and Leia we all had to stand outside in the heat as we were shuffled into our muster stations. During Robin's first cruise, a crew-member noticed me baby-wearing her and invited us to sit down in the dining room, where we got to get checked in and listen to the emergency evacuation drill without putting Robin into a stressful situation.

Ugly - People can be @$$holes!

While the majority of my cruising experiences have been very positive, one event sticks out in my mind as being the worst experience I've encountered on a cruise ship. On our last cruise, at approximately 3 AM of the second night of our voyage, a passenger comes stumbling down the hall, drunkenly screaming at her husband and beating on doors as she made her way to her room. A number of people started screaming back, at which point I exited the room and told them all to quiet down or I'd call security and that we had a baby in the room.

This... peach of a woman decides to scream back "Who the F&$K brings a baby on a cruise, you deserve what you get!"

She did quiet down, and I was able to calm Robin down and get her back to bed.

I took quiet reverence in the fact that for the remainder of the trip I noticed that she never left her room and constantly had room service deliver her meals. That's karma for you!

Good - The previous example is not the norm

If there's one thing I can say about my cruise experiences it's that if you treat the crew and your fellow passengers with respect, you'll receive it in return. Our kids all look back at their cruising experiences in a positive light. Whenever we're in New Orleans and the kids see the top of a Carnival Cruise ship, they squeal with excitement. A cruise is a great way to introduce your little one to new experiences, different cultures, and good times all around. While no form of travel is without its complications, I've always found cruising to be one of the best values for my money while producing some of my family's most cherished memories. I hope that this small critique helps you and your family make the decision that is right for you.

[caption id="attachment_254" align="alignnone" width="676"] A cruisin' baby is a happy baby![/caption]