Tips for cruising with a baby!

[k3chantal]

I agree with this. No way I would trust the onboard machines to handle cloth diapers, nor would I want to inflict that on other passengers. Also, I don't do laundry on vacation, period. If I were on a 3-day, I *might* consider staying on cloth and bringing a huge wet bag, but no longer than that. We switch to disposables for cruising.

Thank you for bringing up the 'negative side' to cloth diapers. I like to do laundry on vacation because I don't like to come home to piles of laundry and for a family of five we try to pack as light as possible. Thus, making doing some loads of laundry a necessity.

I would hate to think I was the next person using the washer after a load of cloth diapers......

 

[Meghatron]

I like to do laundry on vacation because I don't like to come home to piles of laundry and for a family of five we try to pack as light as possible. Thus, making doing some loads of laundry a necessity.

We send the laundry out when we cruise and make the cost part of our vacation budget. I just cannot bring myself to sort and fold, much less be tied to a cycle timer, when I am on vacation.

 

[lesabrowning]

We CD at home but will be using disposables for the cruise. I do not think anyone will look kindly on using communal washers and dryers to wash your cloth diapers. Not to mention you wont be able to do pre-rinse, extra rinse, etc let alone at different water temps.

Or are you doing a short cruise and just planned to haul all the dirty diaps off with you at the end?

I have cloth diapered many kids in every type of cloth diaper available. It can easily be done on a cruise without much difficulty or offending anyone. My best advice would be to use flats and covers. I just pad fold mine and use flushable liners. (flushable liners are safe for sewers or septics and can be thrown in garbage and biodegrade quickly as well. They literally contain the solid waste so the communal washers will not have chunks of poop for those who are concerned) Flats wash easily without fuss, don't need special attention and dry super quick. If you need extra absorption you can double up or add a hemp doubler. For anyone that still thinks this is gross. Just remember that loads of folks of all ages get sick on the ship and put their laundry full of pee, poop and puke in those washers every day. Diapers are the least we have to worry about. Sure, many people can't imagine doing laundry on a cruise. But some of us think a couple loads is no big deal. To each his own : )

 

[lorenni]

I have cloth diapered many kids in every type of cloth diaper available. It can easily be done on a cruise without much difficulty or offending anyone. My best advice would be to use flats and covers. I just pad fold mine and use flushable liners. (flushable liners are safe for sewers or septics and can be thrown in garbage and biodegrade quickly as well. They literally contain the solid waste so the communal washers will not have chunks of poop for those who are concerned) Flats wash easily without fuss, don't need special attention and dry super quick. If you need extra absorption you can double up or add a hemp doubler. For anyone that still thinks this is gross. Just remember that loads of folks of all ages get sick on the ship and put their laundry full of pee, poop and puke in those washers every day. Diapers are the least we have to worry about. Sure, many people can't imagine doing laundry on a cruise. But some of us think a couple loads is no big deal. To each his own : )

I can definitely see how this would work. We have a mix of bumgenius and Fuzzibuns pocket diaps so not worth buying a new stock for the cruise. How do you work around the need for extra rinses? We may have an extra layer of difficulty there as my tiny person get eczema if we don't get out all traces of detergent.

 

[lesabrowning]

I can definitely see how this would work. We have a mix of bumgenius and Fuzzibuns pocket diaps so not worth buying a new stock for the cruise. How do you work around the need for extra rinses? We may have an extra layer of difficulty there as my tiny person get eczema if we don't get out all traces of detergent.

I can't explain WHY flats are sort of bomb proof, but they really are. I guess because they are a natural fiber, usually a single layer of cotton. (although I love my Geffen Baby jersey/hemp flats) Because they are a single layer you fold to get many layers of thickness where you need it, but to wash it is just a thin layer of fabric. This is the original diapering our great grandmothers used. Way before modern washers and special detergents. I first used flats in a hotel when stranded unexpectedly. My all in ones with microfiber were taking three dry cycles and I gave up and bought some flats and covers. They worked great. At that time I was sure I needed an extra rinse so I did two washes, one with no detergent. I am not sure the double wash was needed though. Lots of people do the "flats challenge" where you literally hand wash them for a week in a camp washer (bucket) to raise awareness for cloth diapering and those in need.... the diapers come out fine and so do the little bums that wear them for the week. I am not sure I want to do it, but I bet I could take enough flats to last a week on a cruise and haul them all home in a giant wet bag, throw them in my washer with an extra large scoop of tide and they would be fine. Really.
(customs may have an issue with that...)

 

[AZMermaid]

We CD at home and use Flips with disposable inserts on vacation with great sucess (but Flips are in our rotation, so we didn't buy anything special other than the inserts). Now at 14 months, we mostly use BG. I decided to go disposable on the cruise because I don't know what sort of build-up and residue in in those washers. I don't want to ruin my diapers or have to strip them a million times at home. Add that to the fact that if someone is confrotational with me about it in the laundry room, it would likely ruin my day, I decided it wasn't worth it!

 

[xoDevinxo]

we are only cruising for three days so i don't think it would be that terrible to just bring my big wet bag and put em all in there my bf and i are also getting married on the cruise so it may be easier to get disposables for the trip as much as i don't want to hmmm....

 

[k3chantal]

I have cloth diapered many kids in every type of cloth diaper available. It can easily be done on a cruise without much difficulty or offending anyone. My best advice would be to use flats and covers. I just pad fold mine and use flushable liners. (flushable liners are safe for sewers or septics and can be thrown in garbage and biodegrade quickly as well. They literally contain the solid waste so the communal washers will not have chunks of poop for those who are concerned) Flats wash easily without fuss, don't need special attention and dry super quick. If you need extra absorption you can double up or add a hemp doubler. For anyone that still thinks this is gross. Just remember that loads of folks of all ages get sick on the ship and put their laundry full of pee, poop and puke in those washers every day. Diapers are the least we have to worry about. Sure, many people can't imagine doing laundry on a cruise. But some of us think a couple loads is no big deal. To each his own : )

This sounds reasonable to me.

 

[camara381]

We are planning our first cruise on Wonder in October. We will probably have our 2 yr old sleep on the sofa bed. Does anyone know if bed rails can be used on them? If so, does the ship have them, or do I need to order that from Babies Travel Lite?

We are also travelling on the wonder in Oct with our 2 year old. He will actually turn 2 the day before the cruise.

 

[lesabrowning]

You can use bed rails on the sofa bed and the ship should have them : )

 

[lesabrowning]

We CD at home and use Flips with disposable inserts on vacation with great sucess (but Flips are in our rotation, so we didn't buy anything special other than the inserts). Now at 14 months, we mostly use BG. I decided to go disposable on the cruise because I don't know what sort of build-up and residue in in those washers. I don't want to ruin my diapers or have to strip them a million times at home. Add that to the fact that if someone is confrotational with me about it in the laundry room, it would likely ruin my day, I decided it wasn't worth it!

Flips with disposable inserts are a great option. Flips are incredibly versatile, I use them with flats, with pre folds and with the actual flip inserts. Great product! If you go the disposable insert route, you can request a diaper genie in your cabin to keep them out of your regular trash.

 

[jsthomas618]

Another question (apologies if I haven't looked far enough back to see this already answered)... Will my baby monitor work on the verandah so I can know when DD wakes up at naptime? If there's too much interference for a baby monitor, any other suggestions (other than the obvious keep checking! Lol)

 

[Keggy]

Another question (apologies if I haven't looked far enough back to see this already answered)... Will my baby monitor work on the verandah so I can know when DD wakes up at naptime? If there's too much interference for a baby monitor, any other suggestions (other than the obvious keep checking! Lol)

Yes, it will work.

 

[renae3]

Just bumping up this thread to see if anyone has any more recent tips on cruising with a baby

 

[zarkarella]

I'd love to know if the allotted hours for prebooking is still at 18 for a 7 day cruise. And if you used them during dinner, how many hours did you need after the initial eating time for the toddler (if fed with the appetizers).

 

[AZMermaid]

It was as of last July. We had early seating and booked our kids 45 minutes in (I think dinner was at 5:15, so starting at 6) until 8. We usually had. 30/45 minutes to ourselves after dinner. We also had no issues extending when needed.