I fell in love with cruising before my first child was born, so when we started having kids, taking them with us was a natural fit.
My two kids are now 13 and 9 years old, and I've taken them on enough Royal Caribbean cruises that my oldest has well over 400 points on her own in the Crown and Anchor Society loyalty program. We've cruised around the Caribbean, Bahamas, Alaska, and we're headed to Europe next summer for the first time with them.
Traveling with kids changes the dynamics, and I've learned a lot of lessons along the way.
In all those years, here are the biggest travel mistakes I've made with my kids, from when they were babies and toddlers to teenagers.
I should have cruised more after they were old enough to cruise
Babies need to be at least six months old to be able to sail on most Royal Caribbean cruises, and I wish I took advantage of the first six months of eligibility more.
When babies are in their first year, they're in their "goldfish stage" of life where they are there mostly to observe. They can't crawl, can't talk, and they're mostly along for the ride.
The advantage of this age is you can do more with them onboard without much impact to your own plans.
Kids change everything about your life, and that becomes very apparent as they get older and you start to incorporate their personalities into your plans. But in that first year, I feel like you can take them along more since they are still super dependent on you.
While babies seem to come with more supplies than an army regiment, I think we stayed home too much early on.
Not packing enough baby supplies
On one early cruise we took with my oldest daughter, we learned you go through many more supplies on a ship than at home.
We actually ran out of baby formula and ended up making a run to a supermarket in Cozumel, Mexico to get more. Because the baby formula brands are different there, it left us a bit uneasy with what to purchase.
Part of why we ran low on formula was because the nursery on the ship seemed to feed her more often, and also because we tried to time feedings with when we were at a restaurant onboard.
On top of that, babies just go through a lot of clothing on a cruise and it was eye opening how much more we really needed.
As a result, we packed double the baby supplies what we thought we would need. It seemed overkill, but the peace of mind of having enough was worth it.
Not slowing down my cruise pace earlier to cruise at their pace
As my kids got older and could walk, "talk", and swim, I learned we had to adjust our cruise expectations.
Because I had started cruising before I had kids, I developed my own rhythm to my onboard plans. But on one cruise, we got to the second day and things were not going well. It seemed like we were butting heads with my daughter about everything.
In frustration, I called my mom to vent and she taught me an important lesson of sometimes you have to take it down a notch and move at her schedule, even if it means not doing what I want to do.
So we skipped our plans the next day and let my daughter splash around in the aqua park, take a full nap, and have plenty of food breaks.
While not the most super adventurous cruise I ever took, we all had a better day overall. I learned my wife and I could enjoy having a cocktail while my daughter played and our evenings were better if a nap happened instead of trying to "power through it".
There's nothing wrong with making grandiose plans, but you also need to keep things simple.
Not calling the nursery during the day for more breaks
Royal Caribbean's onboard nursery is the best money I've ever spent on a cruise, but I wish I took advantage of it more earlier on.
The nursery is small and has limited slots for kids. So when you register them, there aren't a lot of reservations you can make in advance. On the surface, that sounds like you have only a few times to get your kids in there.
The truth is you can always call and ask if they have openings. I found in the daytime especially, they had a lot of no-shows or open slots.
My favorite strategy was when it was time to feed our kids and put them down for a nap to call the nursery first and ask if they had an opening. During the day, I think it almost always worked (most passengers preferred to bring their kids to the nursery for dinner) and we'd tell them to call us after the nap is over.
In many cases, even after the nap, our daughters loved hanging out in there and we'd have some extra time.
By taking advantage of this strategy, we got more time for my wife and I to go to the pool, hit the casino, or enjoy one of the activities onboard.
Not pushing for more days away from school in early grades
When I was kid, being taken out of school for a day or two (or even a week) was no big deal. Now, it's a major faux pas to have more than a few unexcused absences.
Part of that is because of how much group learning kids do compared to when I was in school, but I really wish I pushed more for days away when the kids were in elementary school.
As my kids have gotten older, the work load at school has increased to the point that I can see why pulling them is a mistake. But in Kindergarten through second grade, it would have had less of a detrimental impact on their learning and grades.
Fighting my kids on what they eat or don't eat on a cruise
Every parent probably struggles with getting their kids to finish their meals, but I wish I had an epiphany about kid eating earlier.
I remember being in the Main Dining Room with one of my kids and struggling to get her to eat whatever she ordered. It then occurred to me, why do I care?
At home, the food costs money and if we make something else, it requires more effort to cook, clean, and serve. But on a ship, there's a buffet and other quick service food choices around. So I'm not hard pressed to ensure they eat the one dish they ordered. If they want Sorrento's pizza, c'est la vie.
After all, they're on vacation too, and if they eat quesadillas from El Loco Fresh, pizza, and whatever else they deem good, that's fine. I'll let us both enjoy the culinary détente, and resume hostilities back at home.
Two cabins is a must
As my kids got older, the need for an extra bathroom and sleeping separation became more and more apparent.
Sharing a cabin with your kids when they are toddlers makes sense since there's a lot of back and forth, but as they get older, I've found for sanity sake, it's a relief having two cabins.
Booking two cabins might sound expensive, but I've found booking two smaller connecting cabins is around the same price as a single larger cabin. This is especially true when comparing it against a suite.
I can't recommend enough to book two connecting cabins when you're cruising with kids so you can a full bathroom for them. The shower alone is worth it, given how my girls use the shower as karaoke room, makeup studio, and sauna.
I would caution against booking adjoining rooms, because having the common door in-between that comes with a connecting room is well worth it.
