Babies on cruise

[BrownEyesTampa]

Does anyone know the requirements for babies on a cruise?

 

What is charge? What guidelines are there ?

 

We have a six month old baby and don't know if we should take her or leave her with baby sitter

[RoofingPrincess]

Different cruiselines have different requirements. Many charge the baby the same rate as any other third or fourth passenger in the same cabin. Many cruiselines do not have diapers, formula, baby food on board, so you'd need to bring all your own. Many do not have babysitting onboard for a child that young.

You may wish to try this question on the family board rather than the blog and website board, you'll get more exposure to folks with experience:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=49

[cb at sea]

Most lines require a child to be 6 months old...but few provide any services for kids under 3....

If you have someone to leave baby with, you will have a more relaxing, adult-style holiday. Caring for an infant on a ship will truly limit the things you can do, and how long you'll be able to do anything....

The child won't know the difference, and you'll have a time to remember!

[deanna1178]

depends on the cruise line as to how old the baby must be.

 

We are taking ds on NCL this summer shortly after his 1st birthday and they charged us port fee and taxes for him, which ended up being around $300 which is silly to me because like he is even eat that much and he can't participate in any of the onboard kids stuff or even use the pool but it is what it is :-P

 

good luck with your decisions!!! everyone suggested we leave baby at home also and that wasn't even an option for us.

[kitty9]

deanna, the port charges you paid for your child has absolutely nothing to do with what he eats, or doesn't eat on board. Those charges are paid to each port you visit, and aren't kept by the cruise line. Since your child is taking up a berth space, and is listed on the passenger manifest, he has to pay these port fees/taxes. When a ship goes into a port, it has to pay a fee for every passenger on board. Like I said, the cruise line doesn't keep this money and it has nothing to do with what your child does or doesn't do on the ship.

[crusinmama06]

Generally for all mainstream cruise lines (RCCL, Carnival, Princess, HAL, NCL) the minimum age to cruise for non-exotic and non trans-atlantic cruises is 6 months.

 

For exotic itineraries and trans-atlantics - the minimum is 12 months.

 

For Disney Cruise line - the minimum age to cruise is 12 weeks.

 

MSC doesn't have a minimum.

 

Prices - NCL, Disney, MSC and Costa have discounted prices for infants.

 

Generally the others charge the same 3rd/4th berth as an adult would pay.