Toddler Car seats

[emily1]

1st cruise with a 4 1/2 yr old & twin 2 1/2 yr olds & not sure what to do about car seats. I saw the Eddie Bauer portables but they're over $200, more then I want to spend for 1 wk.

[cb at sea]

Unless you're renting a car, I wouldn't worry with them! Shuttles and buses aren't set up for seats, anyway.

[NYreadytogo]

Yeah, we've never ended up using the car seat during our cruises with our baby son (at 9 months, 13 months, and 18 months). All trips away from the ship involved either normal buses, boats, or open air buses (in the caribbean), none of which would have allowed for a car seat. We held him at all times, and even used a sling when he was younger. This may not be possible with 3 children, though (unless there are at least 3 adults). Still, I don't think the car seat would be all that useful unless you are planning to go on an independent tour involving a car, which we have avoided with the baby.

[Julienatul]

You could always get the cheaper booster seats for your kids if they are 30#. They have cheap ones at Walmart for around $20 for the backless kind and $30 for ones with a back. They are a bit bulky but may be okay for a short vacation. We havent used ours all that much as most taxis buses dont have seatbelts

[crusinmama06]

CB, if they are flying and getting a taxi to the port, then a car seat is still needed.

 

Emily - I updated my car seat info. I am still waiting to hear back from the company who makes Joey Safe seats...they were the only option I could find, besides bringing your own....

http://cruisingwithchildren.blogspot.com/2008_05_01_archive.html

[PattyW]

I would just bring your carseats from home. If your 4.5 year old is still in a harnessed seat, it's probably FAA approved (should be a label on the seat), and you can use it on the plane. If he's in a booster that doesn't fold down for easy packing, I would just pick up a $20 backless booster for the trip - remember boosters can't be used on planes.

 

Carseats are basically shaped like an L and, for storage, we just puzzle them together to make a rectangle and store them in the back of the closet on the cabin. We have never had any storage issues with our carseats.

 

One tip though - unless you are boarding when you are confident the cabins will be open, do not carry the carseats aboard. Buy a nice bag for them and give them to the porters at the pier. Speaking from past experience, they get very heavy, very fast when you are trying to explore the ship after lunch.

[c-cruise]

We just ran into this same issue. On previous cruises we had lugged around our mammoth Britax car seat, but vowed not to travel with that thing again. We looked into renting car seats at the rental car places, but read to many horror stories about the condition of those seats. We opted to just buy a cheap Cosco Scenara seat to use for traveling. It only goes to 40lbs, but much smaller and lighter than our every day seat. Plus it comes with a carrying cover for travel which is nice since we will be checking the seat on the plane. We have always carried our car seats onto the ship in the past. HAL at least has a bag check area where you can drop off your gear until the cabins are available.