This post, 8 Of The Best Tips For Cruising With A Toddler Series – Day 1, was originally published in 2018 and has been completely updated in May 2023.
8 Of The Best Tips For Cruising With A Toddler Series
Welcome!!!
This is our first day of 7.
We will dive into 8 of the best tips for cruising with a toddler!
So, you want to take a cruise with your family…..and your family includes a toddler.
But you’re not sure that’s a fantastic idea, let alone a good one.
And you’d really rather not go on a ‘kids’ cruise.
Well, let me share something with you.
We just got back from a 10-day, yup you heard correctly 10-day(!) cruise with my 4-days-shy-of-his-3rd-birthday-year-old. It was his first, my second, and without any hoop-la, it went great and is totally worth it!!!
Oh, and just to let you know, this was not a cruise meant for kids or really families for that matter. It was for the more mature, older customer.
And so that’s why I’m going to share with you over the next 7 days, my tips and tricks for how we ‘survived’ our 10-day non-kid/family cruise and hopefully, it will encourage you too!
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Don’t want to wait the next 6 days for all these wonderful tips? Then grab my, for a limited time, free eBook – 8 Of The Best Tips For Cruising With A Toddler.
First Tip: #1-Be Flexible!
I know we hear it all the time as parents.
Even before you become parents but especially afterward you quickly realize and learn that to be flexible is to be less stressful, which in turn allows you to enjoy life as it comes rather than fighting for it to be how you’d like it to be.
With cruising, well, traveling in general, it’s great and even recommended to be prepared. Having things planned and knowing when things are scheduled will make any trip run more smoothly.
And of course being able to keep your toddler on a schedule, as much as possible, will help curb meltdowns and frustrations on everyone’s part but…. I have something else to share with you.
Being flexible is key!
Our trip to get to the cruise was not ideal:
Our first flight, to get to our cruise, was at 12:30 am. This meant we wanted to be there by 9:30/10 pm, which meant we would be leaving the house around 8:45 pm.
Being flexible as a parent is so important during travel.
Not horrible if you’re an adult, even one who goes to bed early, but for a toddler whose bedtime is 7:30/8 pm, this was not ideal.
O.k. sure, he could maybe catch a cat nap in the car on the way to the airport but getting checked in and going through security we’d probably have to get him up for. And maybe we’d be lucky and he’d fall back asleep while waiting for the flight and be able to get him on the plane, everyone settled and the plane take off without him waking up…..
Um, if you have a toddler that would work with this schedule you are so blessed 🙂
My little guy, on the way to the airport, stated that he was going to/and wanted to stay up until we got on the plane so that he wouldn’t miss anything.
And you know who stayed up until after we got airborne? Yup, my little trooper!!!!
Now, we tried to encourage him to sleep in the car. I even pushed him around the airport in his stroller for awhile hoping at some point that he’d just conk out but it never happened.
But because of the late night he took a good morning nap during our layover. He hasn’t taken a morning nap for over a year!).
And then later that day he didn’t get in an afternoon nap because that’s when we were boarding the ship and attending the muster drill.
Meals ended up being all over the place because of time changes.
Sleep times were all over the place because of time changes.
But through all this he was fantastic!
He wasn’t fazed (although I guess now that I think about it he didn’t know better) with the changes.
All he knew was that we were taking a trip and that it involved a big ship.
So, make sure you are willing to be as flexible as your little one(s) can be, and you’ll have a fantastic trip!
Don’t forget to join us tomorrow for Day 2!!! Another great tip in store for you.
