Just sailed Carnival Liberty with a 7 month old

[Tasis08]

I just returned from cruising on the Liberty, we did the Eastern Caribbean, leaving Miami on July 20th. It was a big family vacation so I had a lot of help with my baby. We stopped at Half Moon Cay, St Thomas, Puerto Rico, and Grand Turk.

 

Overall we had a wonderful time - the only negative thing was that my sister's luggage was lost and it never arrived in her stateroom, at this time it's still nowhere to be found :( but that's a different topic.

 

General Info:

We took the red eye from LAX to MIA - best thing ever for my dd she slept the entire flight.

 

I didn't bring her car seat, but my cousin lives in Miami so she let me borrow hers since we rented a car to sight see on Friday.

 

We purchased FTTF - I'm sooo glad that we did.

 

We had a balcony room - I had requested the crib prior to our cruise, it wasn't in our room when we arrived but by the time we came back from lunch it was there. I ended up having the steward remove the crib it took up too much space, so she just ended sleeping with us in the bed.

 

I way over packed, but that's just my nature :) We bought all her baby food, formula, bottled water for her formula, and diapers in Miami so I didn't have to bring it from LA. I made sure to carry on all these items. I didn't want to risk it getting lost or delayed.

 

My dh and I went in knowing that we weren't going to be able to do all the things we wanted since we had our dd with us, but as I said we had a lot of family to help us so we were able to catch a few shows and play in the casino.

 

We did the late dining since we're from California we didn't want to eat too early, and most of our family are late eaters anyways. My dd fell asleep by the time we received our appetizers every night - except of course the night when my dh and I ate at the steakhouse, (my mom was babysitting her while we were at the steakhouse) my aunt let me hear about that for the rest of the trip - it was partially my fault my dd and I had a 3 hr nap before dinner :o the sun wore us out! I made sure to bring her stroller to dinner so we could put her in it once she fell asleep. I didn't bring it the first night so I had to eat with a baby in my arms.

 

I made sure to keep her hydrated, I noticed that she wouldn't drink her formula as much - we normally make it with room temperature water - I assumed it was because of the heat, so I put her water in the fridge and she went back to feeding normal. I also kept her juice in the fridge (we bought the small individual juices so that we wouldn't waste it).

 

We were able to disembark at every port and we were soo lucky that our dd is a good traveler.

Half Moon Cay - we rented the 2 story villa (there were 18 total in our group so we needed it). It comes equipped for 8 people so we paid for 3 additional people - we had more than enough drinks and food. My sister, her husband, my dd and I left early, I didn't want to stay in the sun with the baby too long and my sister didn't have a swimsuit yet (lost luggage, no women swimsuits on board to purchase :mad:) so we missed any lines to catch the tender back on the boat.

St Thomas - we booked an excursion with Godfrey tours. Once it was over most everyone stayed to do shopping but me and my dd were pooped so we went back to the ship with my grandma.

Puerto Rico - since we docked super early we just purchased a tour with the people who wait outside the port - it was an air conditioned bus tour for an hr and only $10/person. Then we walked around the city and went shopping.

Grand Turk - another beach day, we did the banana boat, (my dd stayed on land with my mom). It got pretty crowded cause the Victory was there too - luckily it docked after us so we had prime real estate on the beach, under the trees.

 

Anyways I just wanted to post to see if anyone has any questions on my experience with travelling with a baby or any questions on the ship and or any of the ports. ;)

[Tasis08]

I forgot to add that I purchased a travel Boppy before we left. This was a life saver on the plane while she slept. I only used it on the plane but it was well worth the money in my opinion.