Car Seats on Bus Excursions?

[twopugs]

On the Carnival board another person was blasted for saying that they didn't always bring a car seat for a cruise.

We are considering getting the Eddie Bauer fold away car seat but while my son will meet the weight/heigh requirement he is not yet 1 so according to the package it is not for him. That is the only thing I really see on the market. He can no longer fit in an infant seat so we would need to bring a convertiable and they are all rather large and I am not quite sure how well it would transport.

Most of the excursions that I am looking at are either a bus or boat. For the bus, would/should a car seat be an issue? Would there even be belts?

(from doing one too many school field trips I know that some motorcoach lines have them and so do not...I would assume in other countries this holds true)

[crusinmama06]

You're exactly right, if the excursion uses a bus, then there are no carseats allowed (no seatbelts). And actually when we tried to bring a carseat on a Disney Cruise excursion bus, the driver asked me to stow it under the bus in storage.

 

So bus - no car seat.

 

Boat - no car seat ;) (just bring a stroller)

 

If you do a taxi, then no doubt you want a car seat. What we did was just sort of avoid using taxis until the girls were heavy/old enough to be able to use the travel car seats.

 

And I take anything I see on the main boards about kid advice with a grain of salt. Most of the vultures that jump in to keep the debate going don't even have kids. :rolleyes: I just always post the link to this board. :)

[Grannycb]

Any suggestions for a 44", 38 lb. almost 5 year old? We might take taxis, might take a bus, who knows? Should we take along a carseat? We'll be in the Caribbean and Bermuda.

[kitty9]

Don't bother. You'd be hard pressed to find taxi's with seat belts that work. Tour buses don't have them either.

[crusinmama06]

Any suggestions for a 44", 38 lb. almost 5 year old? We might take taxis, might take a bus, who knows? Should we take along a carseat? We'll be in the Caribbean and Bermuda.

 

Well that child is on the border between using something like the Eddie Bauer travel seat and using a backless booster seat. The rule for a backless turbo seat is 40" AND 40lbs. So it would be better to get the booster.

 

We use this one for our oldest. It travels well.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Graco-Backless-TurboBooster-Seat-Line/dp/B000E0KN94/ref=pd_sim_ba_title_3