cruising with an infant?

[gweeptrish]

Has anyone here ever taken a very young (3 - 6 months) infant on a cruise? How did that work out?

It seems to me that being just a few steps away from all the things to do, plus having room service, plus having Flounders for short bits of baby-free time, would make for a pretty nice vacation.

Are there any negatives to cruising with an infant that aren't present anyway if you just stay home?

Thanks!
GweepTrish

 

[debm]

It's great! I think it is easier than when they are toddlers. We had never been on a cruise before but took all 4 of our kids Dec. 2002. Our youngest was just the minimum 12 weeks. For me though it wasn't any more difficult than being at home. I was exclusively breastfeeding and I just put him in the middle of the bed to sleep (thus not having to waste room space for a crib). the only thing extra I had to pack was diapers and wipes. I didn't even bring a stroller that trip because I just carried him in a baby sling. That way I could feed him or he could sleep wherever we were. I didn't miss a show or dinner. Most of the time he was in the sling he would be nursing but no one ever knew. And I had my hands free to eat dinner or attend to the older kids. We had such a great time on that cruise we went back 6 months later. We just sailed again in May and he was 21 months. I did bring the stroller then and it definitely was more difficult because he wanted to "run" around. And he wasn't old enough for the Club although we did do Flounders a few times. I just don't think it is as appealing to kids that age because the room is so small. Anyhow.....now he has been on 3 cruises and he is not even 2!!! We're hooked!!!

 

[CM_Mom]

Debm, If your little one isn't old enough (and completely potty trained) for the club on your next cruise, you can still take him to the Club to play and participate in some of the activities if you stay there with him to be responsible for him. Might be a nice treat for some of the activities.

GweepTrish, I think Debm covered the infant question pretty well. I'm not very current on that one since my "baby" is the CM that I'm the mom of.

 

[fcrouch]

We had our daughter on a Royal Caribbean cruise (at 8 weeks old). We used formula - and infamil sells premixed formula in little glass jars - just pop the lid and put on a nipple. (just like they used in the hospital). That worked great for us. (Obviously this was more expensive than powder form but ever so convenient - plus grandmother didn't have to worry that we weren't steilizing bottles, etc., etc.) (Nipples were cheap enough so we bought a couple of dozen and so mostly had a new nipple each time). Our car seat was FAA approved so used that on the plane (bought our child her own seat) and gate checked the stroller base that it pops into. We liked having the stroller on board, but it was difficult to pass in the hallways of the ship! We shipped formula and diapers ahead to the hotel where we stayed the night before the cruise left. (In fact I ordered the formula from infamil direct and they shipped it to the hotel). Now, this wasn't the lease expensive way to go about cruising with an infant, but it worked for us and was quite easy.

Our daughter was sleeping from about 11 to 6 AM (a little rice cereal in that last bottle at night) so that was OK (especially as this was an Alaskan cruise and the sunrises were so beautiful we were up early anyway). We only went on one organized excursion - otherwise, in ports we would rent a car so we could travel about at our own pace and not have the baby bother other travellers if she cried .

When she was two we did another family reunion cruise (the above was for my mom's 80th birthday) - and though she was not old enough for the kids programs on Royal Caribbean she did get to swim in the pools (with a swim diaper) - I'm not sure what the rules were at the time, but we had no problems. we did hire a babysitter the first day on board (Royal Caribbean supplies sitters from their crew on a first come first serve basis). We hired her for two hours every night - we took our daughter down to dinner - she had a bite to eat then we took her back to the cabin to meet the sitter. We took her to the musical shows (before late seating dinner - and all was fine)

We are doing DCL this summer - she is 4 - and we suspect that she'll spend all her time (a) in the Oceaneer Club and (b) the pool. I doubt she spends much time dining with us.