Cruise out of NY with a 1 year old?

I've only just started to think about planning a cruise vacation for myself, my husband and our 1 year old. I figured to keep things simple I'd look into the cruises that leave out of the NY area.

Can anyone recommend a cruise they loved?
Cruise line?
Ports of call?
Time of the year?

Thanks!

Re: Cruise out of NY with a 1 year old?

After just coming off of a cruise I am pretty obsessed with Disney Cruise Line. They also have FANTASTIC childcare options.

Starting in May, they're going to have sailings out of NY. They have 5 night cruises up the NE coast to Nova Scotia, 8 night Bahamian cruises that stop at Nassau, Castaway Cay, and Port Canveral (Disney World), and a few 2 night cruises to nowhere.

If you can cruise during the school year, the prices are much better than during the summer.

We just had the most amazing time on our cruise last week. Let me know if you have any questions about DCL!

Re: Cruise out of NY with a 1 year old?

It's funny, as soon as I posted these questions I checked out disneycruise.com. It looks fantastic, but the prices seem kind of high.

Is there any way to get better prices? Should I contact a travel agent or check out travel sights?

I know I would love the "disney" aspect but my son doesn't even know who Mickey is really. Maybe this caliber of trip is best put off for a few years when he can enjoy it more. That is, unless I can get it much cheaper. :)

Re: Cruise out of NY with a 1 year old?

What month were you looking at? The summer is significantly higher than September.

You get a lot included with DCL, but I can completely understand wanting to wait until DS "gets" more of it. I do know we saw a LOT of little ones splashing away in the toddler water play area and interacting with characters.

I would definitely recommend working with a TA. We have access to all of the discounts. I'm most familiar with Disney Cruise Line, but I know that other cruise lines, especially on the newer ships, do have a lot to offer families.

Carnival has MANY Bahamian cruises out of NY

Norwegian has Bahamas, Bermuda, and also Canada cruises out of NY

Re: Cruise out of NY with a 1 year old?

I would prefer to go in Sept or Oct b/c school is back in and I figured it would less crazy but it seems the last DCL from NY is in August.

I did a quick check on travelocity and saw a cheapy Carnival cruise but I'm not so sure.

I guess I have a lot of research to do and I will reach out to a TA. Thanks for the advice.

Re: Cruise out of NY with a 1 year old?

Nope we have them (like how I say "we" as if i own the cruise line?) through September!

I SO wish I could do one of the September sailings out of NY, but my day job won't let me travel in Sept (TA is my part time job) . Boo!

Which Carnival sailings are you looking at?

ETA: I would be careful with Travelocity. Any time you book through those sites, you can get hit with some pretty nasty cancellation policies, so just read the fine print. You also may not have your choice of stateroom and I have heard of people getting stuck with really lackluster locations.

The Sept sailings of Carnival Glory are pretty reasonable even w/o Travelocity and many cruise lines have a price guarantee anyway that booking through them or a TA is the best rate.

Message edited 3/14/2012 2:50:41 PM.

Re: Cruise out of NY with a 1 year old?

We cruised the Celebrity Summit in Sept. 2010 with our son for his 1st birthday and it was a blast!

We left out of Bayonne which IMO is a MUCH easier port to leave out of than NYC - especially with kids. Parking is easy & before you park you just pull right up to the entrance to unload & hand your stuff off to the baggage people. I then waited there with our son while dh parked a short distance away.

Kings Wharf, Bermuda was the only port of call which I found to be such an easy itinerary with such a young one. Being in 1 port for multiple days made it easier & less hectic than our multi-port cruises...I think it gave us a lot more flexibility. Once there we hit Hamilton to shop/eat, visited the aquarium/zoo, went to Elbow beach one day & since it was rainy we spent the final day at the port shopping & sightseeing at the fort. We really had a nice time.

Celebrity had the best service & crew of any ship I've ever been on. I can't say enough about how good they were. At 1 ds was too small for the kids club, but they had a room FULL of toys in the kids club area that was dedicated to the wee ones that we visited daily. We made some friends in there. They also had a toy loaning program & we signed out a treasure chest full of small toys that we got to keep in our room for the week. It helped lighten up the load a lot when we were packing & ds seemed to enjoy having new toys to play with!

The Summit itself was slightly dated, but they've since refurbished the entire thing so I'll bet it's beautiful. If you have any questions at all please don't hesitate to ask!

ETA: I forgot to mention, when cruising with a kiddo I HIGHLY recommend getting a balcony room. When at sea & our son naps one of us will go out to enjoy the ship while the other sits out on the balcony enjoying the view & a book. It takes away the feeling of being trapped!

Message edited 3/14/2012 3:02:20 PM.

Re: Cruise out of NY with a 1 year old?

I was just talking to someone about how much they love multiple days in one port.

And I agree about the balcony. I have some clients who say they're afraid of them with little kids but the doors do LOCK and there's no way a kid could get over it anyway. I know on the Dream the lock was 6 feet off the ground and the door was hard for ME to open, let alone a toddler.The balcony will let you relax while DS is napping.

ETA: I've heard VERY good feedback from Celebrity as well.

Message edited 3/14/2012 3:20:02 PM.

Re: Cruise out of NY with a 1 year old?

Thanks again for all the advice. I'll check out Celebrity for sure, but I think Disney is calling my name.

Now it's just a matter of trying to scrape together some extra $ and convincing my DH.

Thanks again!