Hand Foot Mouth Disease! Not a good cruise for young kids!

We did not bring our child on a cruise until she learned, "cruise manners."  That meant she had to be able to sit at a dinner table for 90 minutes or longer, had to say please, thank you, and order her own meals after getting some help from us deciding what she wanted, and she had to engage in polite conversation in both tone and volume.  We practiced at home and in restaurants for over a year, always reminding her how we truly wanted to take her on a cruise as soon as she learned cruise manners. 

We left DD with granny for several trips and then we took granny with us for DD's first cruise at 4 years old.  Our usual preference for main dining seating is at a large table so that we can meet new friends. But that cruise we sat at a table for 4 to make sure we didn't bother others.  All went well at meals and grandma took DD to the cabin for afternoon naps as needed. 

We had several people stop to talk to DD and compliment us on how well behaved she was.  She is 21 now, still enjoys cruising, and she still practices good cruise manners. 

To teach her conversation skills, at the age of 3 we started a dinner time ritual we keep to this day.  Every person at our table had to share some story about their day, good or bad, something they did or saw, anything meaningful to them.  When she got old enough to invite school friends to dinner, she would warm them to be prepared.  When she was still of elementary age, we would often have cruise dinners with families and invite them to share in our ritual if they liked.  Without exception the children and adults enjoyed the experience. A few times, people with children years older than our own thanked us because our DD had helped their child to learn new conversational skills.