Tips for Cruising with Kids!

lkprince
Mar 14, 2016
3 min read

For my first blog post I wanted to talk about cruising with the kiddo's...and by cruising I don't mean riding in a classic car with the window's down (which I am sure my husband would love equally as much as our 7 day Carnival Cruise).

First, some ESSENTIALS for any cruise...

1. A cheap over the door hanging shoe organizer. For what you might ask? Well, if you have never been on a cruise before those rooms are small and you shove a famly of 4 in one of them and forget it! The shoe organizer was a great place for everyone's shoes (of course), as well as wallets, and cruise ID badges when we were in the room. Having everything in 1 central location was fabulous.

2. Travel Cups (with a lid). You might want a drink in your room in the night and you do not want to have to go all the way to the dining room or a bar to get it! Each of us had a travel mug that we would fill each night before we went back to the room with ice and water. Each morning we would rinse and then use them throughout the day. This was really important to keep everyone hydrated, especially in warmer climates with young kids.

3. Hole puncher and a key chain lanyard. Well that's an odd one right?! Turns out the cruise ID cards fit perfectly on a key chain lanyard and are a great way to prevent loosing them, especially with the kids. Bad news, on our ship the only place giving out free lanyards was the casino and b/c they were not old enough to enter or play (obviously), they were not allowed to receive free lanyards. We are now the proud owners of a pink diamond studded $20 lanyard which my daughter LOVES, but a free one would have been much nicer!

4. Laundry detergent, dryer sheets & patience. I never thought that I would do laundry on vacation but again, when you have limited room you don't pack everything you own. The laundry detergent and dryer sheets were highway robbery on the ship, not to mention the hassle of inserting money into the machines (which were known to jam). So here is where the patience part comes in, each floor has a laundry room for guest use with several washers and dryers. Unfortunately for us, ALL of the machines on our floor were broken which meant we had to travel to the floor below for washers, and the floor above for dryers...and did I mention that people will move your stuff if your not there and they want your machine??

Next up, just some basic things we learned during our adventure at sea, and things we will definitely keep in mind for next time:

Carnival prefers each guest to have 2 bags each weighing 50lbs or less
Carnival confiscates things out of your bags when you get on board (if prohibited) and in our case it was a scuba diving knife and they didn't leave a note so on the morning of the scuba excursion we were searching for it, after clearing it up with security they just logged it in and any time we got on or off the boat they asked if we wanted it.
Carnival charges $100 per guest for gratuity to your "sign and sail" account upon arrival in addition to charging gratuity for each purchase BUT a little known fact is that you can have those charges reversed and tip at your discretion.
Our bubbles soda card which was supposed to make soda's free, didn't always work out that way b/c in San Juan I ordered a soda on the boat and was charged San Juan tax so my free soda cost 11 cents.

All in all, nothing too crazy but definitely some things that we will remember for our next cruise!

I hope you find these tips helpful and happy cruising! Below are some pic's that sum it up, enjoy!