Car Seats in Port?

[Hopebw]

We will be traveling with two children in Dec. of this year. One will be almost 2 and the other 17 months. How do we work this in port? Do we take a carseat or do we strap them in if we take a cab or hold them on lap if we are in a bus or trolley? I'm letting my hubby do the excursions and I'm keeping the baby (not sure what my brother and sil will do) so I am planning on just doing the beach thing in one port and staying onboard in the other (or utilizing the babysitting service). Any advice on this is appreciated.:)

[I&MsMom]

Hi! This is one of those red button topics...

 

You will find opposing views on the subject. The first says, bring carseats for your children, as it is never acceptable to take any chances. The other view is that it is not necessary to lug the carseats, particularly as many/some (depending on the poster) taxis, buses, vans in the Caribbean and Mexico don't have seatbelts to secure the carseat.

 

If you do a search, you'll find threads here dealing with this subject at length. Read the arguements for each view and decide for yourself.

 

If you are flying to the port, you also might want to consider the issue of: do you put them in a carseat on the plane? (It really is the safest way to fly, but again, you must decide for yourself whether this is something you are going to do. If neither of them is 2, you may not need to buy seats for them. If you want to put them in a carseat, you will need to buy a seat.) There has been discussion on this subject here as well, and again I suggest doing a search so that you can see the full spectrum of discussion, pro and con.

 

Good luck!

[Arubalisa]

You do not say what your ports are, but in Aruba there are taxis available with car seats http://www.taxiaruba.com/

[wendyvp]

Hopebw - My two cents: we didn't bring car seats on the last two cruises we have traveled with our boys. Our first cruise with kids in Nov 2003 (several w/o kids beforehand) was with our one year old, second cruise in May 2005 with 2.5 DS and 1 year old DS, and our third cruise is in two weeks on RCCL Explorer with the two boys again. We went to Ocho Rios, Grand Cayman and Cozumel on the first two cruises. Let me say we always use car seats at home and on the planes, but most of the taxis we took in ports were really buses where they try to fit as many people in them as possible to a destination (no seatbelts to use). I didn't see seat belts in the smaller taxis either. And already travelling with two umbrella strollers, handling car seats would have been pretty impossible too. The boys either sat next to us in the taxi/bus or on our laps. I had bought one of those portable car seat things (folds flat, fits into a backpack) for our first cruise, but never used it. Now I know they sell one of those car seat/stroller combos that might have worked for cabs with seat belts, but again we took mostly the private bus taxis. Hope that helps. Enjoy your cruise with your little ones. It is quite different from traveling alone, but still a great time for everyone!

 

Wendy