Pack-n-Play Crib in OceanView Room

[I Luv Disney Cruise]

This is our first time cruising with our 1 1/2 year old daughter. We have requested a pack-n-play crib. We have a Deluxe Oceanview Room.

Has anyone out there been in this size room and had a pack-n-play crib set up in there? I'm assuming the only place to put it is in front of the window. How did it work out as far as space and being able to get around in the room? If you don't use the sofa table can you request them to take it out to give more room? Do they take it down each morning? The reason for that question is because she still takes a mid-day nap.

-Laura

 

[Stimpy]

We just had a category 6 in April for 7 days and used the pack & play for our DD. It was definately crunched in the room. We were constantly trying to squeeze by it to get to the verandah or open the beverage cooler. In our stateroom it was placed alongside the desk/counter....blocking all the drawers. It's up to you whether you want the cabin steward to take it down each day. Since our DD still takes naps we left it open all day.

It was an inconvenice but well worth the trouble! DD (and DS) had a great time.

BTW, the CM left the infant life jacket in the pack & play when we got to the room. It looks kind of cute but make sure you leave plenty of time before the drill to get the thing on! It took both me and DH forever to get in on our little squirmler.

 

[rickdeni]

My son and daughter-in-law plus 2 children, 3.5 and 18 months, had a category 8, oceanview room 7000. The pack-n-play went in front of the window. It was tight but it worked.

 

[Favorite Auntie]

BTW, the CM left the infant life jacket in the pack & play when we got to the room. It looks kind of cute but make sure you leave plenty of time before the drill to get the thing on! It took both me and DH forever to get in on our little squirmler.

Unless they have changed things, the babes don't have to WEAR the life jacket to the drill, you just have to carry it with you. Otherwise there would be a TON of screaming kids there... Also, I am a germ a phobe, but I would bring my own pack n play. They fold up nice and easy for car or plane travel, and i doubt that DCL sanitizes them. They don't appear to sanitize the strollers that they loan out. Just my two cents....

 

[I Luv Disney Cruise]

Thanks everyone for your information and advice.

I have a pack-n-play but I don't see the need to bring it, if DCL has them. It just takes up more room in the car and is more to carry on and off the cruise.

DCL (out of the 5 cruises I've been on) and the Disney Resorts I've been to are very clean from my experience. I will be bringing Lysol wipes anyway, but we can't protect our little ones from everything, plus how can they build their immune systems if they are never exposed to anything?

Thank you for the information on the life vests, I was worried about that. I know my little girl won't want anything to do with the vest, I can see that coming already.

 

[mommasita]

there. I just wanted to add my 2 cents...Although I have cruised in many different situations, none have had the pack n play..I just wanted to mention a possibility. We have asked the stateroom attendent to remove the table that is between the couch and the mirror/dresser...This REALLY gives more room, and may give you the amount of room you need. We used this room for toys, and other things...Really does open up some much needed space...

HTH

Enjoy your cruise.

 

[Stimpy]

Unless they have changed things, the babes don't have to WEAR the life jacket to the drill, you just have to carry it with you. Otherwise there would be a TON of screaming kids there... Also, I am a germ a phobe, but I would bring my own pack n play. They fold up nice and easy for car or plane travel, and i doubt that DCL sanitizes them. They don't appear to sanitize the strollers that they loan out. Just my two cents....

We were just on the 4/23 Western and DD had to have hers on. DH had a hard time carrying her in it so he took off his vest and no one said anything to him. He did put his back on as soon as we got to the station. Also, we waited to leave the stateroom until the alarm sounded. (Alot of people get there before it sounds) We did take it off as soon as the drill was over.

Also, the DCL pack & play we had really wasn't bad at all, it looked pretty new and clean. We've had some gross ones at WDW. We do travel with ours sometimes but with all the other stuff we had to bring, it was one less thing to worry about. (We had 4 suitcases, 1 garmet bag, 4-5 carry-ons, the stroller and 2 young kids. Normally we don't have so much but since we had to dress for dinners and formal nights it was alot more.) We did bring extra p&p fitted sheets with us, just in case.

 

[Favorite Auntie]

Hmmmm, they have never made us put them on the kids....last November it was my 3 yr old niece, we carried it and no one said anything, I was trying to get it on her and the DCL member at our station told me not to bother....as long as we had it. And 3 or 4 other times we did the same thing and no one said a thing. There were even people there with babies still in their car seats or strollers that didn't have them on and no one said a thing.

I don't know, I am all about exposing them to certain germs...but in their sleeping space, and on vacation? My sister got one that was filthy, even had dried food on it. No thanks.

 

[JennsBabySky]

It is a little tight with the pack and play, but still acceptable (at least for us). We opted to keep that table in our room. It comes in really handy for room service! Our room steward offered to take down the pack and play during the day, but we requested that he leave it up for naps. It was very clean (and as a microbiologist, I'm also a germophobe -- but my dh would have killed me if we brought ours with us). We brought our own blankets, because if he uses one it is a very lightweight one. On our last two cruises (most recently September 2004), they requested that you not put your INFANT life preserver on (but make sure the room has one or get it from the room steward); however, we did have to put our 3 year old in the CHILD life preserver. Double check, but they made a really big deal about not using the infant one.

 

[mommasita]

We always had to put the life jackets ON....No question, and did not want to...Wanted to know the right way, God Forbid, we had to know..

 

[I Luv Disney Cruise]

Thanks again for all the replies. I will defiantely bring Lysol wipes and my own P&P sheets. Thanks for all the input. It has been helpful in what to expect.

 

[Stimpy]

SORRY I don't know how to make this smaller! The infant one is a little confusing to put on. We were kind of joking about how if there was a real emergency one of us better hold on tight b/c there was no way we'd be able to get it on her fast.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I have to say I'd probably bring my own pack and play as well.

I don't mind some stuck food on the side so much, it's the probable overabundance of ecoli germs from dirty, leaking diapers and such that would concern me (and not sure the lysol wipes would kill them all; spraying would be better but then your child is exposed to all those chemicals).

It would be interesting to know if the DCL disinfects them and if so, how. I doubt they have an autoclave on board, LOL.

 

[I Luv Disney Cruise]

I have been to several of the Disney Resorts and used their pack-n-plays with no problems. They have provided clean P&P sheets and the cribs themselves were always very clean. At Vero Beach Resort I know that they clean the cribs because it had a Lysol smell on it when we opened it.

For those that have come across with dirty pack-n-plays, did you show it to the host/hostess and have them give you a new one? If not, why not?

I will be bring my own P&P sheets just in case.

Our peditrician told me that the Lysol disinfectant wipes work just as well as the spray and in some cases better (that way you can actually scrub the area you want cleaned).

I appreciate all the advice but I am not worried about the germs, between seeing the cribs we have used at Disney and having my own sheets and Lysol everything will work out fine. I can't go on in life worrying over every little germ.

Again, I do appreciate all the advice but my original questions were in regards to the size of the staterooms and the crib being up and where to place it and not weither I should use DCL's pack-n-play or not. Since DCL provides the pack-n-play there is no sense in bringing your own, especially when you are limited on how many pieces of luggage you can physically carry on the ship or have checked in.

Please no more comments about DCL's germy pack-n-plays.

 

[Favorite Auntie]

For those that have come across with dirty pack-n-plays, did you show it to the host/hostess and have them give you a new one? If not, why not?

Yes, she did but it took 24 hours to get a clean one...

Please no more comments about DCL's germy pack-n-plays.

I was simply sharing our experience regarding pack and plays....if someone had a similar experince re something I asked on a discussion board, I would hope that they too would share...

And the room is going to be cramped with it set up. Cruise ship rooms are small. The rooms on DCL may be larger than the industry average, but they are still small....

 

[PearlandPaige]

Laura,

If you have the 3rd edition of the Passporter, they actually have a picture of a stateroom with a Pack 'n' Play set up in it. I don't have my book with me to tell you which page, and I don't know if the photo is in previous editions, but it gives you a good idea of how it will fit in the room. I don't know what size room it was in. It looked like it was set up between the couch and table, so I imagine that would make it a little challenging to get around, but as you no doubt know, just about everything about an infant or toddler makes it challenging to get around!

I can't remember from your OP when you're going, but if it's before me (10/15), I'd love to hear what your experience was like, since I will be traveling with an 18 month old in October.

Warm regards!

 

[I Luv Disney Cruise]

Sorry I didn't mean to sound harsh.

My family and I are the type of people that don't live their lives in fear of germs. We are very healthy and don't feel that is necessary to do. We try to take care of ourselves and prepare for possiblity of germs but we don't go overboard. I was starting to get that overboard feeling in this thread.

Disney is very, very clean and anytime (which it happens) they aren't I don't make a big deal out of it.. I take note and move on.

I'm sorry for those of you who have had bad experiences, but that doesn't mean it is the Disney normal standards.

I've been on 5 other Disney cruises and I love DCL and have found no issues in things being dirty or germy. I am aware of how big the staterooms are, I was just trying to get a feel for how other families had dealt with the crib, etc.

Thanks again for the advice and I really didn't mean to sound harsh.

 

[I Luv Disney Cruise]

PearlandPaige:
Thanks for your response. I have the 2nd edition of the Passporter, I will take a look. I had forgotten about the guide.

We are going on the 4 day June 5,2005 cruise coming up in a few days. I will write back to this post when I get back to let you know how it went for us.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Laura, I'm sorry the germ was upsetting to you. Some threads here do go off topic a bit.

The thing I was thinking, though, in reading your reply is, because of the title of the thread, many people with babies and toddlers will be reading it and perhaps they do want to hear what people have to say about packnplays and germs because they've either never been on a cruise, to a hotel at WDW, stayed overnight somewhere or even had a baby before, etc... It's food for thought anyway to those who want to know, and maybe the subject should be discussed for those who are interested, perhaps on another thread. Anyway, sorry it was off the original topic and pretty gross to think about. I will say that I'm sure people - myself included - meant no harm and only thought the information might be helpful.

I also don't live in fear of most germs but I do have a healthy respect for the ones that can make you really sick such as the one I mentioned (which can cause severe nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and dehydration in a baby). As a hospital nurse I deal with these germs all the time as well as work closely with our infection control department. You actually in a roundabout way brought up a really interesting topic and I'd really hate to just shut it off if others care to talk about it. I've actually emailed our infection control team to ask their opinion on this and will see what turns up. My kids are past the age of packnplays so I won't be starting a new related thread, but if anyone else is go ahead and when I hear back from them I'll post there.

 

[Favorite Auntie]

Laura,

If you have the 3rd edition of the Passporter, they actually have a picture of a stateroom with a Pack 'n' Play set up in it. I don't have my book with me to tell you which page, and I don't know if the photo is in previous editions, but it gives you a good idea of how it will fit in the room. I don't know what size room it was in. It looked like it was set up between the couch and table, so I imagine that would make it a little challenging to get around, but as you no doubt know, just about everything about an infant or toddler makes it challenging to get around!

Laura,
I just ordered my new passporter deluxe. If you don't have one, I would be happy to copy the page that Pearland Paige are speaking about and mailing or faxing it to you...just send my your address or fax number and I will do it as soon as I get mine....