One of our most important Disney Cruise Line tips for toddlers begins before you even board the ship. When you are able to do your online check-in for your cruise, you can register your kids for both the Oceaneer Club and the Oceaneer Lab, designed for kids ages 3-12.

You'll need to provide any of your children's dietary needs, confirm that they are potty trained and approve who is able to pick-up your children. Additionally, you'll create a password that anyone who picks up your children will need to provide.

You're able to register your children once you're on board the ship, however the line to do that is long. As soon as you get on the ship you'll want to explore. By registering ahead of time, your vacation begins as soon as you walk on the ship.

If you have toddlers who aren’t age three or aren’t quite potty trained yet, you may want to consider booking some time slots for them at “it’s a small world” nursery. You’ll pay an hourly rate of $9 for the first child, and $8 per hour for each additional child. You’ll be able to play knowing your tiny tots are being cared for by professionals.

Disney Cruise Line offers some of the best entertainment and the most unique dining experiences at sea. Their rotational dining allows you to dine at a different themed restaurant each night and your servers follow you throughout your cruise.

There are two different dining times that coincide with a show time each night. There is typically a 6:00 pm dinner, which would put you at the 8:00 pm show. On the flip side, there is a 6:30 pm show time followed by an 8:15 pm dinner. There are advantages to both. Understanding what those are is at the top of our list of Disney Cruise Line tips for toddlers.

Obviously, if you have toddlers, they may be used to eating dinner early. However, they may be restless during a later performance. Even though it was much later than regular dinner time, some families prefer the later dining for two main reasons.

1. Toddlers tend to be alert and excited during the earlier shows.
2. If you choose the second dining, your servers can rush dinner service for your preschooler. Then, part way through your meal, one parent (or older sibling) is welcome to drop young kids off at the Oceaneers Club or Lab and return to enjoy the rest of a leisurely meal. counselors from the Oceaneers Club come to the restaurant to collect any kids who'd like to go play in the Club or Lab.

This second dining experience can make for a lovely way to enjoy the rest of dinner.

Another thought to consider is adjusting to time zones. If you live on the West Coast and are sailing from Florida, your 8:15pm dinner may feel more like a 6:15pm eating time any way. No matter which dining time you are leaning towards, you should be aware that the first dining assignment tends to be the most popular for families and will fill up before sailing. You can request a dining time when booking your reservations, so if you have a preference, make sure to let us know. You can always request a change once you're on the ship, but it's much harder to make changes once you're onboard.

If you opt for the second dining time like we suggest, it’s also smart to grab a "snack" from the pool deck shortly before your show. Keeping toddlers fed is imperative to any successful vacation. It’s times like these when kids especially enjoy grabbing pizza and soft serve ice cream around 4 or 5:00 pm. Then by 8:15 they will be energized for dinner and play time!

When it comes to a Disney Cruise, the more the merrier. This isn't just one of our Disney Cruise Line tips for toddlers. It's for EVERYONE. Consider inviting grandparents, an aunt, uncle, toddler cousins and family friends.

If you have a nervous toddler, having siblings, cousins or friends in the kids areas will make going easier and much more fun. It is always such a treat for them to have so many friends in there with them. Having extra adults around at meal times is also incredibly helpful.

Something not all cruisers know about are the popular, unofficial Fish Extender Groups. These are small groups of normally 10 participants who participate in gift exchanges. These groups are typically pre-arranged on private Facebook Groups. You can find them by going online and searching for your ship and sailing dates.

Once you find a Fish Extender Group to join, you'll get the stateroom numbers of everyone in your group. Then, when you're on the cruise you'll deliver a gift to each of them and get nine (or more) gifts in return. Your group will dictate the value of the gift, many of which are handmade. We saw so many Fish Extender displays outside stateroom doors and they were always fun to see.

The Oceaneers Club and the Oceaneers Lab both allow potty trained children ages 3-12. The Club is geared towards the younger kids and the Lab caters more to the older kids. During regular club hours only children those ages are allowed in the secure areas.

However, during open house hours, anyone is able to enter. With such fun play areas like the Toy Story Room, Disney Junior Room and Super Hero Academy, (depending on your ship) your toddlers will want to be there.

Oftentimes the camps will even hold special "Toddler Time" structured play for any kids who'd like to participate. Kids love playing with larger than life puzzles, making Doc McStuffins magic stethoscopes and playing with the giant parachutes.

Disney Cruise Line has an official app that is one of the easiest ways to make your day-to-day plans onboard. Download the app before you get on the ship. Then, once you're onboard, you simply set your phone to airplane mode and use the ship's Wi-Fi. It's free to use as long as you are using the app.

You can use the app in a number of ways, but there are a few things you can do specifically with toddlers. Some of our favorites include:

• View Toddler Time activities on the app
• Favorite your top picks to enable alerts before the event happens
• See open house hours for the Oceaneers Club

Another thing that really helps with toddlers is using the Disney Cruise Line app to view the dinner menus for each night. The kids menu for each night almost always includes a burger and mac-n-cheese options.

You can easily have your kids tell you what they'd like before you head into the restaurant. It makes it really easy to let kids color and enjoy the atmosphere of the restaurant already knowing what they want to eat for dinner.

This is one of our Disney Cruise Line tips for preschoolers that applies to daily life as well. Just like at home, nap time is important. It's even more important with how many nighttime activities are available on a Disney Cruise.

You don't want your toddlers to be in meltdown mode during the Pirates in the Caribbean Party fireworks, or missing out on the Broadway caliber shows. The ship always has something going on and your kids will likely be overstimulated. Many young kids do so much better when you make sure to look at the schedule, prioritize activities and schedule some down time.

Many families also find that they really like having an inside stateroom so kids could nap, or at least rest during the afternoon.

Although seemingly simple, this is one of the most important Disney Cruise Line tips for toddlers. If you're taking kids to the Oceaneers Club, you'll need either your Key to the World card or DisneyBand+ to pick them up. In addition to having your Key to the World Card as ID, you'll need that password you created when you registered and they'll verify your photo that was taken when you boarded the ship.

One of the highlights for toddlers is dressing up on the cruise. They love playing dress-up and make believe at home, and it is even better on a Disney Cruise. Especially if your cruise falls during Halloween on the High Seas cruise where Halloween costumes are encouraged for our special trick-or-treat celebration. But nearly every Disney Cruise has a pirate theme night. Dressing up is half the fun!

Consider bringing princess dresses for semi formal nights and the Character meet and greets. It’s so adorable to hear your littles addressed as "princess" by nearly every Cast Member—your heart will melt!

Character t-shirts are also a great way to get special attention from your favorite Disney characters on board. Your toddlers will feel like they're on top of the world when they see the Characters they are sporting on their shirts.

If your kids are anything like ours, they'll be talking about their Disney Cruise for years to come. There are a number of ways to preserve your memories, so do what's easiest for you. We love having photo memories printed instead of stored in the cloud. We also like holding onto some of the crafts that the kids make in the Oceaneers Club to play with again at home.

Kids love playing with their super hero masks and Doc McStuffins magical stethoscopes that they make on the Disney Cruise Line. Also, make sure to ask them what their favorite parts of the cruise were and write them down for future reminiscing.

Of course the only way to really get over getting off a Disney Cruise is knowing that there will be another one.

You can book your next Disney Cruise while you are onboard and still get our dedicated customer service with our team at Get Away Today. When you book onboard you can often save 10% and get an onboard credit for your next sailing—just make sure they know Get Away Today is your travel agent so we can keep things smooth sailing!

Disney will send us your booking information so we can help with the rest. And, as a bonus, you'll also get our exclusive onboard credit added to the mix. It's one of the only ways to get a discount on your Disney Cruise and it's so easy to do. But, if you missed that boat (pun intended), our Cruise experts here in the office will help you find the lowest price and you'll still get our exclusive onboard credit. Either way, we'd love to help you with your Disney Cruise.

If you're looking for Disney Cruise Line tips for toddlers, we hope these helped. Our best and most crucial tip for any cruise of course is to book with Get Away Today from the get-go. Our cruise experts will walk you through every aspect of your vacation planning. Call them at 877-510-2929 for personalized help planning your Disney Cruise Line vacation.