Schlepping carseat around on excurions?

[ToddlerMom]

Sorry for ANOTHER carseat post.

 

As I wrote on the other thread, we'll be taking the carsesat with us when we're at the ports. I think we'll be using taxis to get around. What do you with the carseat when you're visiting a beach or whatever? (I realize this is an open ended question since we don't even know what excursions we're going to do yet.)

 

Will it fit in beach lockers? If you do an excursion on a boat, e.g. to Stingray City on Grand Cayman, can you leave it on the boat when you're swimming with the sting rays?

[Woodmnky]

JMO - I have left personal belonging on buses that were used for excursions before when the bus was going to be use exclusively for our tour (I always ask the tour guide). In my experience most of the tour guides know that if they let your belongings walk away their business is really going to suffer and I have seen more often than not that the driver stays with the bus or locks it. I haven't yet seen a locker big enough to store a carseat in. When we go to the beach we will be taking our travel system and will leave it parked on the beach near to where we are. I figure it is not as if we are going to be way in the water with a 1 yo.

[cb at sea]

There are seldom lockers on the public beaches.....you can just set it down on your towel. If you take a cab, you'll have to carry it around with you.

If you're doing an excursion, then you can leave it in the transportation, if you need it in the 1st place....excursions are usually buses or boats...no seatbelts.

[HALrunner]

What type of car seat is your child currently in? There are some alternatives that might be easier to schlep around while in port. When we cruised with our then 10 month old, we used the travel system car seat/stroller combo. Now that our kids are a little older, we are using a safe rider travel vest and a gogo kidz travel mate for the convertible car seat. You can google either of them or let me know if you have any questions.

[Mom2B&Z]

As others have mentioned, if you have a dedicated form of transportation just leave them in the vehicle. For the beach we bring a large duffel bag and put the car seat and booster inside, then put in a shady place. I too have never seen a locker big enough for one seat, nevermind the two we carry ;) The bag keeps the sand off of them, and the shade prevents the plastic from deteriorating.

[Marie51]

Be aware that some of the transportation will not even have seat belts. Buses usually do not and the open air safari taxis do not.

On the boats going to stingray city or the like, they are usually packed with people; I don't know where you would put a carseat not to mention having to cart it around with you.

[EugeneD]

Local "buses" are often just 3-4 benches, stacked on top of a pickup truck. No seatbelts. To get to the beach on may islands, those "buses" then have to go around hi-elevation, narrow roads with sharp turns.

 

However, we did it with our 6mo old. It was a regular infant carseat which we just held between us. There was a basic foldable frame on wheels, to which the carseat attached, we brought that for once we got to where we're going. I don't remember having the carseat on the beach as being an issue, we watched it like any of our other personal belongings.

[sandy toes]

In May with 6 ports only saw 1 taxi/van/bus with a seat beat and it was for the driver! He didn't use it. The car seat will do good to and from port in US and PR but I really don't think you will find many seat bealts in the islands. Then, what will you do with the car seat? I know that was your question but I don't think you will find it usable outside the US. (I travel with my family, large mix of little ones and we just don't use them. may sound like we are"bad" but when you have traveled alot and find no seat bealts , really why con't to lug them around.

[MichelleChell]

I agree you are lucky to find seatbelts in most taxis or busses. What we did was hold on to them ourselves and keep them really close.

[EugeneD]

I agree you are lucky to find seatbelts in most taxis or busses. What we did was hold on to them ourselves and keep them really close.

 

Ditto. We did the same.

[Mom2B&Z]

I hate to harp on this topic but in the various islands, if you look you CAN find vehicles with seatbelts. Yes most tourists are shleped into various ridiculously unsafe forms of transportation, but other options are available. The well-described tourist "buses" (really Ford F350 with benches installed in the bed) in St Thomas were parked beside taxis with 3 point seat belts and top tethers. Heck even Cuba had 3 point seat belts in their vehicles!

It is physiologically impossible for an adult to hold a child in a moving vehicle that is in even a low speed collision. So don't kid yourself into believing that holding your child tight, placing them between two adults etc makes it safer. It doesn't. Do your research, find the forms of transportation safest for your child and go with it.

[eskiemomo]

We had similar questions and this is what we did.

 

you do not need a carseat if traveling in a big tour bus type of bus, the Disney customer service guy told me in the States it's called something like egg carton effect. So for one of the excursions I made sure to book through the ship where we are going on a large air conditioned tour bus.

 

for the open air safari bus ride in St. Thomas we strapped our toddler into the Ergo carrier onto DH and sat in the middle. nobody else brought a carseat and there were many other little ones (just an observation).