Sailing with an 8 month old

[act1980]

This April we are taking a 7 night cruise around the Caribbean on the Disney Fantasy.

Has anyone else done this with a baby? I’m a little apprehensive as she won’t be able to have any shots so I’m thinking the best way to protect her is with a good insect repellent? I’m not even sure if you can get anything nasty from the Caribbean. I’ve never had any shots before travelling so it didn’t really cross my mind

 

[TFC_UNTIL_I_DIE]

Hi - I cruised with a 10 month old a while back. The issues in the Caribbean that you need to think about (and also apply to toddlers)

Sunburns - their skins burns so fast - you can't afford to make a mistake - we had a sun-repellant onsie

Transportation - if you want to leave the ship, keep in mind that carseats are pretty rare in the Caribbean. Taxies are often pick-ups or vans with basic bench seating. This can be an issue for transporting little ones. And they don't/won't often allow you to bring a stroller if it is too big.

Tendering - if you need to tender, its a whole different experience with a baby!

But overall there is nothing to prevent you from having a great cruise with your baby. There are always babies onboard.

Don't forget to enter the baby-crawl derby - everyone loves watching that - great fun and all that

 

[coloradocutie]

You can make sure that your little one has all of their recommended vaccines, plus the flu shot. The other thing you can consider is giving the MMR (Measles Mumps Rubella) vaccine early to give her some coverage. It will give her some protection given there will be so many other people on the boat. It will not "count" in regards to her school shot record and your doctor will have to give it again at 12 months- but for the purposes of travel it is done frequently to protect infants. We did that for our little one on a cruise when there was the Measles outbreak a few years ago to give her some extra protection.

Enjoy your cruise!

 

[xQuizx]

Hi I cruised with our 9 and half month old after Thanksgiving last year on a 7 night western Caribbean. We also have a 5 and 3 year old.

We let our doctor know our travel plans ahead of time so our baby could get the necessary shots and were given the okay to travel.

We brought with us a baby carrier and had a full body sun swimsuit for him. The swimsuit has the UV protection so all we had to do was put sunscreen on his feet that were exposed. We put a hat on him as well.

When you leave the ship there are some insect repellent stations you can use. We just put the repellent on the carrier.

This is what we did at each port.

Mexico - We walked around the shopping area with all the kids.
Cayman Islands - We left baby in the nursery while we took the older kids (5 and 3) to the beach via a taxi. We were only off the boat for 3.5 hours.
Jamaica - We walked around the shopping area with all the kids.
Castaway Cay - We all went to the beach including baby for the whole day, we went back on to the boat around 3PM.

If you book excursions through Disney, the excursion will show the age range for the participants.

If you are looking for information for food in the nursery, I have a post where I asked this question a couple of months ago and updated with information I learned.

Here is the link to that post:
https://www.disboards.com/threads/smallworld-nursery-provide-babyfood-for-lunch.3648808/

All in all I think it was easier cruising with the baby then it was with our two other kids. No one got sick nor received any bug bites.

 

[TFC_UNTIL_I_DIE]

you can't leave a kid in the daycare while you leave the ship correct? Seems like that could be a huge risk to Disney in case you didn't come back?

 

[xQuizx]

you can't leave a kid in the daycare while you leave the ship correct? Seems like that could be a huge risk to Disney in case you didn't come back?

Yes you can leave a child in the nursery or the kids club while you leave the boat.

I let the nursery know we were getting off the boat in the Cayman Islands.

I made sure we had enough time to get back to the boat. Last tender was 5:30PM and we took a 2:00PM tender back to the boat.