Cruising with baby? Possible-advise and tips please?

[catharina]

Hi all, sorry if this subject is getting tired, I did not find a thread like this yet, but then again, I am not such a message board buff to be able to find everyhting fast...

 

I have a baby boy who is now 4 months old. We would love to go on a cruise this winter, say december, january, so by then he will be 9-10 months old.

Apart from the flight journey, which also worries me (from amsterdam), I am wondering if we can take him along or if it will be a nightmare for all of us...

 

Which ship-company is the best for travelling with babies? Do they have babysitting options? How were your experiences, negative or positive... Did you still have a holiday feeling or would you have had a better one if you would have left your infant at home (with the grandparents f.e.)

If you have any tips, please share them with me. Maybe we are better off going alone, or waiting untill he is older, but I rather know that in advance than find out by experience... (by the way, he is until now a very easy baby that sleeps from 8 pm till 8 am and almost never cries exept when hungry)

 

Thanks and sorry if I made mistakes, English is not my first language

 

Catharina, The Netherlands

[crusinmama06]

I am just going to throw this out there because of what happened to us, BUT, I wouldn't travel with a young baby over the winter (cold and flu) months ever again.

 

On our 4th cruise, we decided to do a Disney cruise in February to celebrate our oldest daughter's 5th birthday. Our youngest daughter was 9 months old at the time. She caught some kind of virus on the ship and had a seizure, spent two days in the ship's hospital and had to be medically evacuated.

 

The ship's doctor's office was FULL of kids who all had the same type of cold. Even my older daughter came down with it. But because most children were older, their immune systems were able to fight it off just like any other common cold. Since my infant daughter was so young, she didn't have enough of an immune system to fight it off.

 

So, if you want to take your baby on a cruise, wait till the warmer months and when the cold/flu season is over. I KNOW there are people here who have taken their babies on winter cruises and had no problems. But you wouldn't believe the number of sick kids on board that ship. Everyone was coughing and sneezing. And my daughter never even stepped foot in the nursery on board, so she wasn't exposed that way.

 

So take it from me, I would hate to see another parent go through what we did. We are cruising the first week of May in order to avoid what happened before.

[sas80]

We had our wedding on the Vision of the Seas out of Los Angeles in October 2005.

We had some friends bring their 6 month old along for the trip. She sayed healthy as a lark the whole time.

 

My only suggestion is that you bring plenty of hand held toys to occupy baby. Our friends appeared not to bring any hand toys and their baby was often fussy and bored. I would hand her a napkin to play with and she had a ball.

 

Happy Sailing!

[crusinmama06]

We had our wedding on the Vision of the Seas out of Los Angeles in October 2005.

Happy Sailing!

 

We've been on cruises in Fall and had no problems. It was the Winter cruise that everyone seemed sick and our infant daughter got it. Our oldest had never been sick on any of the Summer/Fall cruises...just Winter.

 

I would never say don't bring an infant on a cruise ship (cause I do it), I just think you might want to rethink your choice of months.

[viking30]

My daughter has been on 3 cruises starting at 14 months old - all in November, and no health problems - she is in daycare so she had probably as much chance catching something there as on the ship -

 

We are going again this Nov, she is now 5 and it will be our son's first - he will be 14 months.

[cruisinMImom]

My family sailed on the Carnival Glory for my sister's wedding in June '04. My daughter was 14 months old at the time. We had a great time. She was very well behaved, as is her demeanor. The staff was very friendly and attentive to her/us. Especially our head waiter. He had twin baby girls at home that he missed so much, so he would hold our daughter and dance with her in the dining room during dinner. It was so cute. My heart went out to him.

 

We made sure to bring an umbrella type (lightweight - fold up) stroller that reclined when she needed to nap. It came in handy when we were strolling the ship, and in port as well.

 

Carnival does have babysitting services (I believe from 10pm to 2am or 3am) but children under 2 years old cannot participate in the daily Camp Carnival program. There is a time frame when they will let you bring the little one in during a couple hours in the afternoon to play with the camp carnival facility toys/equipment, but you have to be with him at all times.

 

Overall, we had a nice time. Because most of my extended family was with us, we had many willing "babysitters". So my husband and I did get some time to ourselves. But, having been on three previous cruises before we had any children, we sure did notice the difference. We could not just go out to the lido deck on sea days and just sun bathe all day. The amount of alcohol we consumed was limited (didn't want to be hungover and have to wake up early with the baby the next morning). And the excursions we picked when we took our daughter were more family-friendly, instead of party-influenced.

 

My opinion is that going on a cruise without the kids is a fantastic time, as it is peaceful and restfull, leisurely. But we had such a great time with our family cruise that we are choosing to do it again this August with my husband's family. This time I'll be taking 2 daughters (now 3 years and the other is 19 months old). The memories are priceless. We got a great deal on our cruise and flight was inexpensive as well (that definitely makes a difference for us).

 

Hope this helps. Maybe you could go alone for your 1st cruise, and when you come back and are ADDICTED you can take the little one along, feeling less stressed and now a pro!? You'll have a great time, either way!:)

[daynab]

Travel whenever you want to. As a pediatric nurse I can tell you, there are as many summer viruses as winter ones. Some may even be worse and spread through pools quickly like Coxsackie Virus. Make sure to practice good handwashing and keep some purell with you (every hospital room where I work now has dispensers). You can't avoid infection unless you want to be a recluse. Have fun and happy cruising.

 

Dayna

[shellie100]

;)

I am just going to throw this out there because of what happened to us, BUT, I wouldn't travel with a young baby over the winter (cold and flu) months ever again.

 

 

Michele, I wouldn't have thought about it, but now that you mention it, we've gotten a winter bug every January since Tommy was born. Even before he was in daycare. And all three of us get it, too. Tommy actually recovers the quickest.

 

I wouldn't worry about November or early December, but that January thing gets us every year. An I was NEVER sick before I had Tommy, LOL!

 

Catharina, as far as the age, I think its a great one. Traveling before a baby gets too mobile works out very well. I started traveling with my son Tommy when he was 3 months old. He's totally used to traveling and already is asking about the next cruise (its 4 months away, but he, at 3, has no concept of how far away that it:p ). It's harder in the 18-30 month range (in my opinion), though still do-able. But if he is an easy baby, and you can get him alittle used to traveling first, I think it will be a great cruise. Personally, I would have a very hard time leaving my little one for such a long time, I wouldn't have fun. Besides, I don't have anyone that I could leave kids with anyone. When my hubby and I need some time to reconnect, we go for a night, not a week or more.

 

I enjoyed the longer (10-11 day) cruises with my son. It really gave us time to get into routines and to enjoy it. I also enjoyed the port days more than the sea days, so I recommend a port-intensive cruise. Babies just love the beach and sometimes just walking around in the stroller in a new city enjoying the scenery. Oh, another benefit to the longer cruises is that there are fewer children, and my son would really get pampered by every crew person that we saw, and also many of the passengers. All three of the cruiselines that I have been on (Princess, Celebrity, and Royal Caribbean) offer in-room babysitting. I've never used it, though I probably should have. I WILL be using it on the next cruise ;) All three of those cruise-lines were very child-friendly.

 

On Celebrity, they gave us a treasure chest full of little toys, to use for the duration of the cruise. My 2-1/2 year old wasn't too into them, but a smaller child probably would have been.

 

Good luck picking a cruise. The planning can be so much fun!!!

 

Shellie

[catharina]

Hi everyone

Thank you for your input everyone, very useful! I didn't think about getting sick; I just assumed december would be a warm month still in the caribbean; it is something to think about, altough I do think (lik ethe nurse) that you can get a bug any time any where; just a matter of bad luck en sometimes bad hygiene.

 

Shellie, which of your 3 cruiselines was best for you and the kids in your opinion?

 

The thing is, we planned for the periode between december and march, because it is winter here and winter is always cold and wet, so a nice sunny treat...

We always talked about going away together before Brent was born and told each other we would keep doing that. Now we do this for a weekend, but a longer period I would miss him too much I think...

Just have to keep in mind that it will be very different from a childless holiday!

 

You know, if it wasn't for the flying, I would probably hesitate less. It is just that a 9 or 11 hour flight with a 10 month old scares me off a bit.. Especially the return trip when the whole plane wants to sleep!!!!

 

Well, more tips and advises are always welcome, but thank you so far!

Carina

[dfa1]

Catharina,

 

You have been offered some great advice on this thread. I will simply add my personal experience.

 

You are right that the Carribean is lovely in December/January, and when we took my 14 month old daughter, she did wonderfully! The weather was perfect, and we had a great time.

 

We also chose to upgrade to a balcony for our upcoming cruise in November, as we will actually have all 3 of our children with us, and will no doubt have to be in the cabin more often than normal. Still, I wouldn't miss going, and I wouldn't go without them!

 

Hope you have a fantastic trip!

[cruisingbug]

Just want to add something that no one mentioned

Most the US based cruise lines don't allow babies who are in diapers into the kids pools. So if you're thinking of sea days playing in the pool, check what the line's policies are. NCL is very strict about it from what I've gleaned on their boards. This includes "swim diapers" like Little Swimmers and Pampers Splashers.

[browniegirl]

Hi, we are taking our 5 kids on the NCL Jewel next Jan28th along with my parents and grandparents. Our youngest will be 10 months old then. We are all very excited about it! I would just remember to take some cold meds and tylenol with you just in case, that is what I plan on doing, as you never know. With 5 kids, there always seems like somebody has a cold, so there is really no getting away from it. We picked Norwegian Cruise line as the baby didn't pay a far, just port charges and taxes and we are booked into two oceanviews (for the 7 of us) but are considering a balcony as it seems parents prefer them.... we were on the NCL Sun 2 years ago with the 4 kids and they had an awesome time in the kids club. This time, we'll have the baby with us all the time but 10 months is a great age, probably not walking yet. We are taking a baby pool with us, a small one, so that she can have her own pool, seems to be a popular option. They are providing a crib (playpen I believe) and a highchair, so that is great. I will bring my own formula, powder, with bottled water and just feed her mashed table food at meals. We will take a small stroller that reclines as many wonderful posters have given us that great advice!!! All in all, I think the caribbean in winter with a baby should be great fun!!!! Have a great trip!!!

 

Browniegirl

[bambilin]

Hi All,

We took my son on his first cruise in November 2005 aboard RCCL's Mariner of the Seas and his second was on the NCL's Spirit in May of 2006.

Dillon was 11 months on the Mariner and 16 months on the Spirit.

Dillon walked at 10 months so we didnt' have the luxury of sailing before he was mobile!!!

We had a great time on both trips. The Mariner had a once daily program called Aquababies that we were able to take Dillon too. He loved it.

The Spirit had certain times during the day that you could bring kids 2 and under into the kids club to play and they also had age appropriate toys in a sheltered area on deck available at all times.

We had no problem warming bottles (used hot water for tea most times and on the Spirit in the AM there was warm milk at the buffet)

My next statement will probably be disputed BUT, I can tell you from experience that there WERE babies in swim diapers in the kiddie pools on both the Mariner and the Spirit. In fact, some people didn't even put bathing suits over the swim diapers and NOBODY asked or checked or anything. I sure wouldn't try it in the adult pool, but...

 

Here is my tip on what to bring. If you have one, and the baby is able to sit in one, bring a folding booster seat. We brought ours and never had to wait for a highchair!!! Oh and those hanging shoe holders ARE great for holding bottles, brushes, lotions, shoes, socks, etc!!

 

Have a great time!!

 

Linda