Nap time on embarkation day

[sddeva]

Hi,

 

My husband and I are taking our son on the 4 day Carnival Elation cruise in June. He'll be 20 months then. I just realized this morning...what the heck are we going to do about naptime on embarkation day? The ship sails at 4. He usually naps at noon, and if he's up much past that he gets really grumpy. Even if we get on the ship as soon as possible, I'm wondering how we can get in a nap between waiting for our room, muster drills, etc.

 

Does anyone have any tips for handling this?

 

Thank you!

[GORDONCHICK]

My thought is to have him in an umbrella stroller. I don't know about your DS, but mine would just conk out in the stroller when he was tired (which would be great in the embarkation lines!). Once you get aboard ship, the stroller might not be a great thing and your cabin may not be ready, but I bet someone at the purser's desk could help you figure out if you could get into your cabin early.

[sddeva]

Thanks! I doubt my son will sleep in an umbrella stroller, but we were planning to get one anyway, so it's worth a try. Checking at the pursor's desk is a good idea...we'll do that.

[hooked-on-travel]

A problem with the "stroller during check-in" angle is that they make you take the baby out of the stroller and send it through the luggage x-rays. Then you have to take baby out again for pictures that first time they put your card into the computer to go "boing". We have twice taken our DD through the process with a stroller and discovered just how much in-and-out there is. (The second time we should have been smarter, but we weren't. We just kept putting her in again.) I don't know about your DS, but my DD doesn't sleep through that many in-and-outs. I get one if I'm lucky.

 

We've always had to travel great distance to go on a cruise (13 hour drive over three days the first time, two flights leaving the house at 4 a.m. the second time), so she's always messed up with sleep by the time we get there. Controlling naps the first day has been a lost cause anyway. There can be some quiet time the first day after they let you in your rooms at 1:00 and before muster, but you have to be well poised to take advantage of it. And you have to tell your cabin attendant what you're doing so you don't get those first day interuptions.

 

I know that a nap that first day was a concern I had the first time we cruised with DD. Fortunately, mine is a rather pleasant child. She's a pleasant sick, mostly pleasant when injured, and when she's tired and skipped a nap, most people can't tell. We just planned ideas before we left and rolled with the punches as we went along. That's really the best thing you can do when traveling with a little one. Good luck!

[sddeva]

Thanks. I'm not sure what to expect since my son is a terrible sleeper anyway. We'll just have to go with the flow and make the best of whatever happens. We live 20 minutes from the port so he'll be fresh at the start, we'll just see what happens!

[ncmomof2]

I guess if you live that close to the port, you could get his nap in first at home and then go to the port and board -- especially if you could push the nap just a little early. I know I like to get on the ship as early as possible, but if it was a choice between on early with a cranky toddler or on later with a happy toddler...:confused:

 

Something to think about anyway...

[hooked-on-travel]

ncmom has a good point. If you're that close, there aren't any points for getting there at noon. You may have a much better embarkation day getting there at 3. If we lived that close, that's what we'd do. (Lucky you)