Baby on Board

[sbell111]

My wife and I have been pretty excited about our 2010 Northern European cruise. We had booked the cruise several months ago and have pretty much been counting down the weeks until we would go.

However, this past Thursday we got something else (better!) to look forward to. We're going to have a baby in early November!

She (he?) will be about seven months old when the cruise rolls around. Has anyone cruised with a baby?

 

[disneyfaninaz]

Congratulations! I have not traveled with a baby, but I know that DCL offers a lot of baby related services including baby food, diaper genies, etc.

First, I would call DCL and have an 'Infant to be named later" added to your reservation so that there will be room left in Flounders. If you wait, space may not be available.

 

[3mmm]

Congrats

We were in the same position with the med cruise in 07.

Call and add baby now!!!! It doesn't matter if you plan to use Flounders, there are only so many infants allowed on each cruise - doesn't matter if you have space in your cabin. We didn't know that and waited til the last minute to see if we got a suite (the baby put us at 8 - too many for a suite - we would have switched someone to the grandparents room to get the suite) Anyway - we gave up and added the baby but were told we were lucky there weren't that many babies on board . I had no idea!!

As for the cruise, he was 6 months old and was an absolute breeze. He did every excursion with us, ate every meal with us. He was far easier than my two preschoolers. It was an ideal time to travel. I even found a little t-shirt that said 'I won't remember any of this'

I posted some info after we got back. I will find the link and post it here tonight or tomorrow

I'll get back to you soon

3mmm

 

[3mmm]

Here's the link


http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1474234&page=27

I would do it again in a heartbeat. You have to know yourself and your child. For me, I was very comfortable with a baby and everything that entails - I may not have been with number one, but by five I certainly was.

I came across another thread while I was looking for this. Basically the same question you asked and it was very interesting. A bunch of people who did not have a baby(but saw others doing it with one) and some who decided not to go all talked about the strollers and the long excursions, etc and said they would never do it. The few people who had done it with a baby all said go for it. That said, I worked harder than most of the other cruisers and did not get to do everything that in an ideal world I would have liked to, but I knew that going into it - I was not disappointed in the least - I got exactly what I expected and I work hard at home too - I'd much rather be cruising in Europe

If you do go I would absolutely invest in a good stroller - don't listen to everyone on this board. An infant will be miserable in an umbrella stroller. Get one that an infant is well supported in, can go offroad and sits high so you can bring him right up to the table with you. I highly recommend the bugaboo - the regular one, not the bee. It is expensive, but so is your baltic cruise. I'm sure you can get one used on ebay these days

Let me know what you decide.

I'd be happy to answer any questions. We have cruised three times and with an infant everytime. This April is the first time I am not packing my suitcase with formula and diapers

3mmm
mom to DS10, DS9, DD7, DS4, DS2

 

[3mmm]

oops

I forgot to mention it is post #397

The link takes you to the correct page, but you have to scroll down quite a bit - there are lots of long posts in this thread - if you are doing the med cruise, many are worth reading - they're all about the excursions

 

[TiaMaria]

Congratulations!

Boy, are you going to have some awesomely cute pictures!

Start a Shutters Fund immediately, lol (in additon to baby's College Fund).

BTW - never cruised with an infant (just wanted to say congrats), but judging by the many I see on board, it looks like the staff goes out of their way to keep baby and parents happy.

Enjoy!

 

[lbgraves]

Here is a great thread with some pointers of traveling with a baby.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2040628&page=1

 

[sbell111]

Thanks for the replies. I have been hanging out in the Community Board lately and had almost forgotten how friendly people on the Disboards can be.

I called DCL yesterday and they were unhelpful. They told me that I could only add an infant to our reservation via our travel agent. I sent an email to Dreams Unlimited about it, but haven't yet heard back.

 

[nic_x]

I haven't cruised with an infant, but I did travel all over Europe by car/rail/airplane with one. Having a Baby Bjorn saved my bacon. I walked all over Prague with my five-month old son in the front pack for three days, and he was happy as a clam. My hands were free, and I could participate in tours, etc. Took him all over Poland and Germany that way, too.

As long as I made sure to stop frequently enough to feed him/change diapers, we were good. It was easier (for me) to have the Baby Bjorn than a stroller when walking in Europe, given the cobblestones (and, if you're in castles or cathedrals, etc.). As long as you're not alone, you can have the other person who's traveling with you carry a small diaper bag with anything you need for feeding/changing, and you can switch off who has the infant and who has the diaper bag. (FWIW, I also packed extra shirt in the diaper bag for both myself and my son, as I had a child who was the King of Reflux and upchucked a lot.)

By the time you get closer to booking excursions, you'll know your child's habits, so you can plan for excursions/tours that suit his or her schedule, and those that you think will allow for diaper-changing or feeding breaks. (Or where you can duck out of a tour and head back to the ship if the baby gets cranky.)

Congratulations and good luck!

 

[AndymanGA]

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2044916

 

[sbell111]

Thanks.

 

[sbell111]

The travel agent got back to me today. It was no problem to add the baby to the reservation, but it cost me $1000.

 

[smoof]

We traveled with two other families on our last cruise. One of the other families had a 5 month old baby, so your 7 month old should be fine. I know they had to pay for babysitting, where it is included in the kid's club for older kids. The head waiter was fabulous setting her seat up at the table at dinner. They didn't bring a car seat, so he padded a high chair with all sorts of linens, and she was propped like a princess.

 

[dr&momto2boys]

Congratulations!

We've cruised with an infant before and will again this fall. Our DD will be 7 months old too! They're easy at that age!

 

[TiaMaria]

Did you have a chance to follow this link on the DCL site?

http://www.babiestravellite.com/?AFFIL=DCL

 

[sbell111]

Did you have a chance to follow this link on the DCL site?

http://www.babiestravellite.com/?AFFIL=DCL

That site has tons of good info.

Thanks.

 

[3mmm]

I just ordered from babies travel lite today for our April cruise - they have just about everything, but I must warn you that if you use the link from the disney cruise website, it locks you into certain preset bundles. You have to disable the cookies to see the full website.

I will tell you that there is no advantage to linking from disney at this time as the company has put a hold on their convenience charge at this time

3mmm

 

[Kurby]

we didn't cruise with dd at 7 months but we did wdw for 10 days.

we also drove there and back

it was a lot of fun and we didn't push ourselves but did pretty much everything we wanted to do .

this year dd will be 3 years 7 months when we do wdw and dcl. we're totally looking forward to it.

every child is different but generally i'd say go for it and have a great time.

with all the options that are available for parents of young babies you shouldn't have any problems.