is 6 months to young to go on cruise?

[chipsdog]

We are booked on the RHAPSODY OF THE SEAS next May.  I am thinking of paying for my son and his wife and their baby who will be 6 months at the time to come with us.  However, would you take a 6 month baby on a cruise?  There will be 4 adults in total to help

 

what do you think?

 

[Biker19]

Just now, chipsdog said:

However, would you take a 6 month baby on a cruise?  

No.

[marci22]

I told my friend this when he was planning his cruise. He had no idea his baby would not be old enough at time of sailing. 

 

Royal Caribbean requires infants be at least 6 months old as of the first day of the cruise to be able to go on a Royal Caribbean cruise. 

For transatlantic, transpacific, Hawaii, select South American and other selected cruises, your infant must be at least 12 months old as of the first day of the cruise.

In addition, any cruise that has 3 or more days consecutive at sea will require infants to be 12 months old on the first day of the cruise.

Any children younger than the infant policy will be denied boarding.

[marci22]

Also my answer is no. Too many germs onboard.

[Clarea]

4 minutes ago, chipsdog said:

We are booked on the RHAPSODY OF THE SEAS next May.  I am thinking of paying for my son and his wife and their baby who will be 6 months at the time to come with us.  However, would you take a 6 month baby on a cruise?  There will be 4 adults in total to help

 

what do you think?

 

 

If the cruise has 3 or more consecutive days at sea, then 6 months is too young and RC won't allow it.

[chipsdog]

thank you everyone, that has made my mind up and saved me loads of money !

 

[Iamcruzin]

1 hour ago, chipsdog said:

We are booked on the RHAPSODY OF THE SEAS next May.  I am thinking of paying for my son and his wife and their baby who will be 6 months at the time to come with us.  However, would you take a 6 month baby on a cruise?  There will be 4 adults in total to help

 

what do you think?

 

 I never liked the idea of taking a child that young into tight public places especially if at sea for a few days. If you do decide to go make sure you have travel insurance. It's usually free for children under 18 provided the parents take a policy.

[matj2000]

We never brought our kids to they were almost 3 yr.

 

It was still a bit of work.

 

But at least this way they can walk & eat on their own.  For the most part.

 

 

[Cruiser24]

4 hours ago, chipsdog said:

We are booked on the RHAPSODY OF THE SEAS next May.  I am thinking of paying for my son and his wife and their baby who will be 6 months at the time to come with us.  However, would you take a 6 month baby on a cruise?  There will be 4 adults in total to help

 

what do you think?

 

Obviously people disagree with me but I say YES!   Our grandson was 10 months old on his first cruise (and took his first steps on the Grandeur).   In October he will be going on his third cruise along with his sister who will be 6 months + 12 days.  Yes, there are germs, but no more than at daycare.  We've had a wonderful time sharing what we love with our children and grandchildren and can't wait to sail with them again.  One note of advice...make sure you go on a Kids Sail Free cruise.  I learned the hard way paying full fare for a 10 month old.

[1025cruise]

While you already have your answer, here are my thoughts.

1. The baby must be 6 months at sailing date. 5 months 29 days is too young.

2. Swim diapers are not allowed in the pools. Not all ships have accommodations for the swim diaper crowd.

3. Not all ships have nursery facilities for under 2s. If this is important to you, make sure you research.

4. You are going to need a sherpa. Bring anything and everything you think you might need for the baby. Don't rely on being able to get it on board.

 

With all that said, no reason not to bring the baby if you wish. But, it might be more work than you want on a cruise.

[OSUZorba]

Our DD's first cruise was at 7 months and it was great. We were on Liberty so we had the nursery, no grand parents, though. 18 months was a little rough because she was teething pretty bad, but 7 months was easy and fun. We also took her to Disney World at 6 mo, so we had some practice traveling with her.

 

Had no problems with sickness, etc.

 

Bring your own pack n play sheets, they don't have proper sized sheets for them.

Edited September 1, 2019 by OSUZorba

[lazydayz]

Unless the entire family is going, I see no reason to bring a child that young.  We took one granddaughter at 10 months and it worked well. But her parents, grandparents, great grandmother, an aunt and uncle were also on board and everyone helped out. 

 

I would wait a year or two.  That would likely make the cruise more enjoyable for everyone.  

[mayleeman]

No more germs on a 2200 passenger ship than in daycare...  hee hee hee!

[CruiseBride926]

My personal opinion is I wouldn’t take a baby who hasn’t at least had their 12 month vaccines on board just because you’re in such close quarters and if there’s anything to spread it will spread quick. Just for future cruises I’d say the sweet spot for us was between 1-2. They’re mobile but not super quick and they’re pretty happy wherever you take them. Mine were also ok with napping in a stroller at that age so while we still tried to keep some routine it didn’t need to be super strict. Taking my oldest at 2 and a half was an entirely different experience and I’m tired just thinking about it haha

[1992cruiser]

We’ve taken both our kids on cruises once they reached 6 months. The memories I have of them on the cruise are so much clearer in my head than the everyday stuff. 

We loved it and had no problems with either of the kids. We also used the nursery which helped out a lot.  I think you’re getting comments from people that have never taken real young kids on a cruise before vs people that have. 

6-9 months is easier than taking a 2 year old. 

[CruiseBride926]

15 minutes ago, 1992cruiser said:

We’ve taken both our kids on cruises once they reached 6 months. The memories I have of them on the cruise are so much clearer in my head than the everyday stuff. 

We loved it and had no problems with either of the kids. We also used the nursery which helped out a lot.  I think you’re getting comments from people that have never taken real young kids on a cruise before vs people that have. 

6-9 months is easier than taking a 2 year old. 

My answer is strictly based on potential germs. If that’s not something you’re concerned about then I definitely agree with this post. The younger/less mobile the baby the easier your life will be. 

[marci22]

Well, there are maybe 30 kids at daycare and there are 3k+ people on a ship. And medical facilities may be adequate, but I wouldn't want to risk it with a baby. 

[csnarpy]

Took my first child at 14months (7 day Mariner) and then my second at 9months (Freedom), it was a chore to pack BUT we had great time!

 

fortunately, playgroups and the nursery were available but it wouldn't have mattered either way. it was a great time.

[jsf]

If you think the baby will remember being on this cruise you are wrong,this means you are doing this only for yourself.

[Another_Critic]

9 hours ago, chipsdog said:

We are booked on the RHAPSODY OF THE SEAS next May.  I am thinking of paying for my son and his wife and their baby who will be 6 months at the time to come with us.  However, would you take a 6 month baby on a cruise?  There will be 4 adults in total to help

 

what do you think?

 

 

I think you should pay for your son and his wife ... and you stay home and keep the 6 month old.  🙂

 

When my daughter was 6 months old, my wife and I took a cruise and left my daughter with my parents.  Same thing when she was 2.5 years old.  She was 8 years old before her first cruise.

[sparks1093]

11 minutes ago, jsf said:

If you think the baby will remember being on this cruise you are wrong,this means you are doing this only for yourself.

Heck, I took my kids when they were teenagers and they barely remember the cruises. Our kids were in day care and developed noro virus from being there and all kinds of other things, to boot. I would say that if you are going to take a child that young it raises risks enough to have a passport for the child and the parents since infants can go south very quickly health-wise. We're taking our 4 year old step grand-daughter with us next year on our cruise to Bermuda, I'm not sure I'd want to take any of the grand-kids if they were younger than that, unless mom and dad were along.

[Ashland]

8 hours ago, chipsdog said:

thank you everyone, that has made my mind up and saved me loads of money !

 

You're going to listen to a bunch of strangers on this board or were you looking for a reason to not take your DS, DDIL and grandchild on the cruise with you ??

Discuss this with your family and make the decision based on their opinions.

Many families cruise with babies especially when they are going to cruise on a ship with a nursery (which you are unfortunately not) or have plenty of help from grandparents which they will.

We have cruised often as an extended family with little ones....it really isn't that hard.

[atush]

9 hours ago, chipsdog said:

We are booked on the RHAPSODY OF THE SEAS next May.  I am thinking of paying for my son and his wife and their baby who will be 6 months at the time to come with us.  However, would you take a 6 month baby on a cruise?  There will be 4 adults in total to help

 

what do you think?

 

As a mother of 3 incl twins, and a former NIH biologist i'd say a beach based break in a condo would be more suitable for a child that age.

 

One, you need to fix lots of food/bottles etc.  Not easy in a cabin.  Better with a kitchen of some kind.  Second, they are not fully immunized so the baby may not be able to take on all the germs they will be exposed to.  Lastly, as a scientific mother, i might not want to be that far from proper medical care if something went wrong.  but maybe we mothers are different creatures.

 

Make sure the cruise you pick has a nursery and has available slots for a baby of that age.  Some do some dont and those that do have a set number of babies they can accept.

[lovescats5]

We took my granddaughter on her first cruise at 6 months and never even thought of it as anything but an adventure.  We carried food, diapers, and whatever else we thought we might need.  She might not remember her first 4 cruises (all before the age of 5) but we have pictures and she has enjoyed looking at them.  I think if you want to take your family everything will work out.  And she never got sick from the cruise and we never had a problem with the staff helping warm food or anything for us.

[cruisinfanatic]

12 minutes ago, lovescats5 said:

We took my granddaughter on her first cruise at 6 months and never even thought of it as anything but an adventure.  We carried food, diapers, and whatever else we thought we might need.  She might not remember her first 4 cruises (all before the age of 5) but we have pictures and she has enjoyed looking at them.  I think if you want to take your family everything will work out.  And she never got sick from the cruise and we never had a problem with the staff helping warm food or anything for us.

But what if she did? I wouldn't be risking the health of my baby just so I could go on a cruise