Just off liberty of the seas with an 8 month old

[kimmy_bos]

Any q's

[RCI_FADM_76]

Any q's

 

Sure - we'll be in the same position on Grandeur this coming December with a 7 month old in tow. How did you handle the food end of things? I anticipate bringing formula on board and figure we'll be starting solids by then. I dread any idea of hauling piles of baby food on board. Basically, I am interested in how the ship did/did not accommodate the child's dietary needs.

[kimmy_bos]

Congratulations on your recent arrival!

 

We only took 1 tub formula and 1 box breakfast cereal that could be made with hot water. I took sterilising tablets so we could keep her bottles the way we look after them at home. This worked very well and we actually preferred this to our microwave steriliser!

 

I managed to source all of Emilie's other food on board.

 

We had the baby cereal for breakfast and she had this with fruit puree, there was always strawberry available in the granola section. Some days there was mango too which she really liked. She was also fine with the odd piece of toast. If the Grandeur has the dreamworks experience I would highly recommend the character breakfast - you can book this before you go in your reservation. Emilie really enjoyed this and the wait staff were super attentive.

 

I always put some extra fruit puree in a pot and grabbed a banana and kiwi for snack throughout the day. I stored the puree in our mini bar fridge.

 

For lunch / dinner we went to the windjammer and used mash potato as our basis for all her meals, we then mashed various soft veggies and fish / meat into this. She also loved to try the pasta and pasta sauce. She coped super well with the lumps but she has always had home cooked food at home and not pouches so is used to lumps to soem extent but she is a pro now. The wait staff will bring you a high chair whilst you get liitle ones food.

 

Emilie also enjoyed a nibble on a cookie and pizza crust for a treat, she also loved the self serve ice cream for a real treat.

 

We did take a hand held puree grinder thig with us but it was hopeless and we just ended up mashing with a knife and fork. The grinder is currently on ebay!

 

We also took disposable bibs which we found to be soooo useful def worth the money and so light to pack. I also found my mini baby food pots extremely useful to make baby cereal, store snacks and they are perfect to squeeze into the mini bar fridge.

 

Please do ask if you need anything else

[RCI_FADM_76]

Congratulations on your recent arrival!

 

We only took 1 tub formula and 1 box breakfast cereal that could be made with hot water. I took sterilising tablets so we could keep her bottles the way we look after them at home. This worked very well and we actually preferred this to our microwave steriliser!

 

I managed to source all of Emilie's other food on board.

 

We had the baby cereal for breakfast and she had this with fruit puree, there was always strawberry available in the granola section. Some days there was mango too which she really liked. She was also fine with the odd piece of toast. If the Grandeur has the dreamworks experience I would highly recommend the character breakfast - you can book this before you go in your reservation. Emilie really enjoyed this and the wait staff were super attentive.

 

I always put some extra fruit puree in a pot and grabbed a banana and kiwi for snack throughout the day. I stored the puree in our mini bar fridge.

 

For lunch / dinner we went to the windjammer and used mash potato as our basis for all her meals, we then mashed various soft veggies and fish / meat into this. She also loved to try the pasta and pasta sauce. She coped super well with the lumps but she has always had home cooked food at home and not pouches so is used to lumps to soem extent but she is a pro now. The wait staff will bring you a high chair whilst you get liitle ones food.

 

Emilie also enjoyed a nibble on a cookie and pizza crust for a treat, she also loved the self serve ice cream for a real treat.

 

We did take a hand held puree grinder thig with us but it was hopeless and we just ended up mashing with a knife and fork. The grinder is currently on ebay!

 

We also took disposable bibs which we found to be soooo useful def worth the money and so light to pack. I also found my mini baby food pots extremely useful to make baby cereal, store snacks and they are perfect to squeeze into the mini bar fridge.

 

Please do ask if you need anything else

 

Thanks! Those are some great tips!

 

Did you attempt the MDR with the child? As well, did you ever put in any special food requests with the staff?

[kimmy_bos]

You are very welcome

 

As we travelled with my parents we booked onto the 9pm fixed dinner seating in the hope that we would be able to get emilie to sleep in the buggy.

 

On the first night we went to chops and emilie would not go down so we had to take her back to the cabin and take turns to go back and eat. My parents did manage to take her to the dining room once asleep at 9pm the night hubbie and I went to portofino so it can work! But as we had the option to eat dining room food in the cabin we chose this option.

 

It will be interesting to see what we decide to do on our next cruise - 11 nights out of Venice. Emilie will be 2 then so the cruise will be dramatically different again.

 

We never put in any food requests with the wait staff as had no need but I am sure they would try to help wherever they could

[Archaegeo]

It migh be helpful to some ( including me, grin) if ou had time to link the products you took ( ie linked from amazon or some other shopping site). We are doing a 7 day with out 8 mo(then) in Oct and have the owners suite so grandparents have a place to gather for babysitting room, a splurge but we didn't want to deal with cramped quarters this first time.

[bertrande]

Very helpful Kimmy! We are also booked on the 9pm dining time and I foresee we'll be eating a lot from room service, although we won't have the option of MDR food :(

 

How did you use your sterilizing tablets? That's one option I'm currently exploring but I have never used them before.

 

Will access my reservation and try to book the character breakfast and hope my LO likes it.

 

Could you bring your stroller to the MDR? Is it an umbrella stroller? How was disembarkation? We have a flight at 1030am to catch and the ship docks at 6am...I do hope we'll be able to make that.

 

Finally, what did you do if you didn't do any tours? We are only doing tours out of Toulon and Villefranche but are staying onboard at the other ports/just getting down and walking around the vicinity if there is something to see there.

[kimmy_bos]

 

How did you use your sterilizing tablets? That's one option I'm currently exploring but I have never used them before.

 

 

Could you bring your stroller to the MDR? Is it an umbrella stroller? How was disembarkation? We have a flight at 1030am to catch and the ship docks at 6am...I do hope we'll be able to make that.

 

Finally, what did you do if you didn't do any tours? We are only doing tours out of Toulon and Villefranche but are staying onboard at the other ports/just getting down and walking around the vicinity if there is something to see there.

 

The sterilising tablets are super easy to use

 

We had a travel steriliser http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tommee-Tippee-Closer-Nature-Steriliser/dp/B001U3XVMA/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1368447323&sr=8-2&keywords=travel+steriliser and this fit our Avent natural full size bottles perfectly. We then used milton sterilising tablets http://www.amazon.co.uk/Milton-Maximum-Protection-28-Tablets/dp/B004G92BU8/ref=sr_1_2?s=baby&ie=UTF8&qid=1368447380&sr=1-2&keywords=milton+sterilising+tablets you only need to use oe of these in 24 hours and you submerge all the bottle teat and lid and it is sterile and ready to go in 15 minutes. You do not need the travel steriliser thoughas long as you can fully submerge all the parts of the bottle anything will do - my friends used a champagne bucket!

 

We were allowed to take our buggy everywhere, they were very accomadating in the dining room - it is a fairly compact one though http://www.amazon.co.uk/QUINNY-Rocking-Black-Pushchair-72905780/dp/B005OMVA58/ref=sr_1_1?s=baby&ie=UTF8&qid=1368447584&sr=1-1&keywords=quinny+zapp+extra we do have a parasol for the buggy but this was detachable.

 

We had a 10.15 flight - we got off the ship at 6.20. we carried all our luggage off oursleves. there was no queue and so many taxis waiting was so straightforward. but i would definately advise the self carry off option with a very early departure to avoid queues. Barcelona airport was amazing v children friendly, they even had special security for people travelling with children. There is lots of lovely shops and places to eat there was even rumored to be a special baby room but we didnt manage to fnd this.

 

At cannes we went to the beach for an hour - was lovely and very easy to get to from where the tender boat docked. At La spezia we went for a walk around the lovely shops in the town again very easy to get to from where the coach dropped us after getting off the ship. In citavecchia we just went for a wander by the sea and had a drink again was nice. The rest of the time we just hung out in our room and on deck relaxing was heaven. Never a moment where we thought what shall we do now. Sometimes we took emilie to play in the toy room on deck 14 but most of the time she was happy just taking ship life in

[kimmy_bos]

It migh be helpful to some ( including me, grin) if ou had time to link the products you took ( ie linked from amazon or some other shopping site). We are doing a 7 day with out 8 mo(then) in Oct and have the owners suite so grandparents have a place to gather for babysitting room, a splurge but we didn't want to deal with cramped quarters this first time.

 

I completely understand - the extra space in the GS really made our cruise so much more special. Emilie was also allowed in the concierge lounge which was fab. I will start to add some links to the products in my replies but if thereis anything specific please do shout.

 

Disposable bibs

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Playshoes-Disposable-Dispenser-Catcher-Pocket/dp/B0038R6XZS/ref=sr_1_3?s=baby&ie=UTF8&qid=1368448219&sr=1-3&keywords=disposable+bibs

 

Food pots / milk pots

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Philips-AVENT-SCF612-10-Storage/dp/B0014KREVS/ref=sr_1_3?s=baby&ie=UTF8&qid=1368448370&sr=1-3&keywords=avent+food+pots

[bertrande]

We then used milton sterilising tablets http://www.amazon.co.uk/Milton-Maximum-Protection-28-Tablets/dp/B004G92BU8/ref=sr_1_2?s=baby&ie=UTF8&qid=1368447380&sr=1-2&keywords=milton+sterilising+tablets you only need to use oe of these in 24 hours and you submerge all the bottle teat and lid and it is sterile and ready to go in 15 minutes. You do not need the travel steriliser thoughas long as you can fully submerge all the parts of the bottle anything will do - my friends used a champagne bucket!

 

We had a 10.15 flight - we got off the ship at 6.20. we carried all our luggage off oursleves. there was no queue and so many taxis waiting was so straightforward. but i would definately advise the self carry off option with a very early departure to avoid queues.

 

Thanks, this is very reassuring indeed. I will opt for the self carry-off option with the earliest possible departure - do we book this at reception upon embarkation? Also, how do you get the teats submerged - mine would float to the surface :eek:

[kimmy_bos]

Thanks, this is very reassuring indeed . I will opt for the self carry-off option with the earliest possible departure - do we book this at reception upon embarkation? Also, how do you get the teats submerged - mine would float to the surface :eek:

 

Hi bertrande

 

There is no need to book self carry off - you just go when you are ready. There will be instruction on what time you can do this from in the info you recieve on the last day about debarkation. You don't need any luggage tags so you just in bin the ones provided.

 

We always popped the teats in first and they always seemed ok to submerge we never had a problem. If you had a problem you could try wedging them under the bottle or bottle neck? I know that this slometimes happened accidental when we were sterilising.