Cruising with a 7 month old-

[DnA2010]

so...are we nuts to even consider cruising with a 7 month old? Would like to hear from anyone that has

 

[TheCoconut]

I just took my first cruise ever with my 7 month old and 2 year old. As soon as we booked I thought we were nuts, but it could not have gone better! If you have specific questions feel free to ask.

 

[DnA2010]

Would love to hear more details about your days, what you did, what worked, what didn't any tips?

 

[TheCoconut]

I think the biggest thing is you just have to be flexible. I'm usually someone that likes to have every second of a trip planned and that just doesn't work traveling with kids. We brought cheap umbrella strollers for both kids but I wore him in a baby carrier most of the time and that worked best. For his morning nap he would either nap in the carrier or on me while we were at the beach. We went back to the room for the kids afternoon naps and one adult would stay in the room while the other one would explore the ship. We did the early seating for dinner and for the most part both kids were really well behaved. On the occasion that they weren't it was nice that we didn't feel uncomfortable since there were so many other little ones around. We used the ships pack n play but I brought our own crib sheet. Where are you thinking about leaving from and going?

 

[ElenaRN]

We cruised when ODD was about 9 months. She was standing but not walking. We had a great trip.

I think if she had just started walking it would have been a little more difficult. She was content to be in the Ergo or stroller when we were walking around the ship.

I was still nursing but she was eating too. We brought some jars, but I had no trouble having the CM purree food for her.
Nemo's Reef was perfect. She had a blast in there.

We put her in the nursery 2x. Once for our Palo reservation and once so we could go to the spa.

We also used the provided PnP but brought our own sheets.

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

My friend had her baby with her on the disney magic and had a great time overall, but was disappointed she couldnt take baby in the pools. So her husband and her constantly took turns but could not be in at the same time. The baby/toddler nephews splash zone was very small and not really engaging. That was her only complaint. I would still cruise with a baby but just be aware no pool. I think the under 7 water area on the fantasy is much better though.

 

[Ladybugx87]

so...are we nuts to even consider cruising with a 7 month old? Would like to hear from anyone that has

We cruised with our 8 month old last year and it was great. Our waiters let us 'order' the next day's purée each dinner and made enough to bring back. I was also nursing which helped with flexibility.

Our baby loved the characters so we did lots of meet and greets.

Have a great time.

 

[TFC_UNTIL_I_DIE]

Have also taken baby to toddler to preschooler phases on cruise. Basically you pay a lot for Disney and you sort of think about what they will be able to do 'next time'. There will be lots you can't do but if you are going to take a little one on a cruise, DCL is the best one to go. The staff if amazing, and everyone on board is going to understand when you have the meltdown since its not really a place for crusty old people Also, the ship sort of starts to shut down at night - like an undeclared quite time where you have funnelvision on outside and lots of strollers moving about. Plus DCL is not about boozing so you won't have loud partiers on board to wake up your baby.

Just don't forget to take your little one on Disney later when they can remember! You don't want to say 'we already did that trip - here's the picture proof' : )

 

[jahber]

We took our third son on a Disney cruise (and a Carnival cruise, which was just as awesome, btw) when he was 6 months old. It was great. I'm not a pool person, so he just went wherever I went and napped in his stroller while I watched my two big kids swim or play in the water park (Carnival). When the kids were in the clubs, I read on deck while he hung out in the stroller or napped. He was only eating a tiny bit of food by that point, so I brought pouches of safe foods. Obviously a cruise is no place to try new foods, and pouches are easy to transport. I also brought lots and lots of diapers--if you're a souvenir person, the space left behind when the diapers are gone is perfect for that . And diapers are expensive on the ship (if they even have the size you need). You can find them in port, but that's not how I wanted to spend my time. So I brought extra--just in case.
We sail off-season only, which tends to mean more little kids. So we got the last diaper genie on board--and it was broken. Didn't matter to me, since we don't use one at home, but if it's important to you to have one, make sure you request one. (We didn't, but they had it in the room anyway along with the pack and play.)
Cruising with a baby was easy, in my experience. Taking the little guy now that he's a toddler would be harder! Have fun!

 

[Yooperroo]

Our baby was 6 months old when we cruised this past January. I thought she was just coming along for the ride. Boy was I wrong! I never dreamed an infant could get so much out of a vacation. It was obvious she had such a great time. She smiled at everyone she met, and she loved meeting the characters. By the end of the trip, many of th CMs, crew, and photographers knew her by name. It was truly magical!
The nursery staff is so wonderful. They do a great job of keeping you in the loop. They will text you to let you know if your baby is fussy, but that is just so you know. It does not mean you have to go get them! Most of the time, shortly after I'd get that text, they'd tell me she was now sound asleep.
As others said, baby wearing is really helpful. She slept in my wrap a lot. We also brought a small umbrella stroller for the ports.
Our servers treated her so well and brought her fresh avacado slices (her favorite!) and puréed food every evening. I also breastfeed, and felt very comfortable feeding her whenever she was hungry, no matter where we were.
On some nights we took her to that evening's show with us and sat on the aisle in case she got fussy and we needed to dart out, but that never happened. She was captivated by the dancing and music.
They offered to put a pack n play in our room but we didn't need it because she just slept with us. We found that she slept very soundly, probably due to the gentle rocking of the boat.
You will have such a wonderful time with your little one! Enjoy!

 

[DnA2010]

Thank you for all the replies we are def hoping for a trip of some sort next feb/March when baby will be 6/7 months- we have been tossing around a house/condo at DL or WDW areas, but also were talking about a cruise.. Having just crunched the numbers a bit for DCL, the prices are super high, especially adding the exchange rate (we are in Canada), so for now we are unfortunately priced out. We may consider a RCL cruise as we enjoyed our cruises on them. Thank you all for your helping me realize that it could be possible.

 

[red84angel]

We did a short Carnival cruise when our little one was 6 months and I wore her everywhere. We didn't even take a stroller. That one was kind of boring, as there wasn't really anything for her to do. We just got back from our first Disney Fantasy cruise and it was a MUCH better experience. She's 10 months now and walking, but I still carried her everywhere on my back. Kids have to be potty trained to go in the pools, which is regulations on all cruise ships, not just Disney. However, Disney provides splash pad areas for the littles. My baby girl and nephew LOVED Nemo's Reef. The staff was amazing anytime I needed anything. She's still mostly nursing so I would just go back to the room when she wanted mommy milk and that would usually end up being naptime. She loved exploring with us and hamming it up for the other cruisers and the staff. We never used the nursery, because she's way too attached to me but my parents did watch both of our kids 2x so we could do a couple adult only things.

 

[kittb]

We've done it with both our children at that age. On longer European trips each time. No trouble. The crew would do anything to help, it was a great time for baby lead weaning with someone else to clean up! I fed anywhere when my daughter wanted to. Neither of them liked the nursery I'm afraid but that was because we'd never left them with anyone before so fair enough.

It was lovely going back to the room for a nap, going out and coming back to find the room all straighened again.
We didn't like the spacial diaper genie thing. It smelt bad with nothing in it and took up too much room so we just bagged them up. I was breast feeding my second so no trouble and for the first we bough a ton of pre made formula an also a travel kettle to boil water for powdered (as per guidlelines at that time).

But really - it was great. They both loved which ever incarnation of the splash zone was available on the trip.

ps we weren't worried particularly about couple time. For us it was a family time ....

 

[dmbcrush5]

We'll also be cruising with a 7 month old next August, so thanks for the info everyone! We waited until our older son was able to go into the club before taking our first cruise (last April) and now we're hooked, so there's no way we're waiting until the new little guy is 3!!!

For those that said you can preorder puréed food for dinner, what about breakfast and lunch? What did you do for those meals? I'll still be nursing, so I'm hoping to get away with not having to bring any food on board for kiddo #2. Our oldest switched exclusively to table food at 7 mos, 3 weeks, so I'm hoping his brother follows suit a few weeks earlier than he did and we'll be good to go!