Stroller for excursions?

[Chrislovesdisney]

Our youngest will be 18 mos. for our Eastern Caribbean cruise this July. She's a peanut if it matters, and we also have a 4 year old. Specifically, we are doing the island drive and beach break in Tortola, Magen's bay in st. Thomas, and no planned excursions for castaway cay (just beach). Hoping to do a little bit of browsing/shopping in the ports as well. I do have an awesome lightweight waterproof baby carrier for her. Should I also bring the umbrella stroller onto these excursions?

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Our youngest will be 18 mos. for our Eastern Caribbean cruise this July. She's a peanut if it matters, and we also have a 4 year old. Specifically, we are doing the island drive and beach break in Tortola, Magen's bay in st. Thomas, and no planned excursions for castaway cay (just beach). Hoping to do a little bit of browsing/shopping in the ports as well. I do have an awesome lightweight waterproof baby carrier for her. Should I also bring the umbrella stroller onto these excursions?

While you're certainly welcome to bring a stroller along, I'll just point out, that many places don't have very smooth, flat sidewalks or roadways for pushing it easily.

 

[5Texans]

If she's small enough and you like your carrier, I'd skip the stroller. We had our Maclaren w/ us when we cruised w/ our 15 m/o, 3 y/o and 5 y/o DD last fall for pre and post WDW. We never used it on the cruise. Strollers aren't good for the beach, and as Shmoo pointed out- there aren't smooth sidewalks once you get off the dock. Then, you have to consider what you'll do with the stroller while you're in the water.

The one caveat to this for me would be if my child would still sleep in the stroller, esp for naps. Then you could keep moving while the little one slept. Only one of my 3 would have done this at 18 mo.

 

[hpsalb]

While you COULD get by without the stroller, we found that we do use ours especially once we had two. We take a lightweight stroller that won't take up too much cabin space and did use it quite a bit more than I thought during our last cruise (YDS was 23 months).

Even if you don't use it much on the ship, when we flew with ours at that age it came in very handy for getting around the airport.

 

[hardis5]

Our youngest when 18 mos we took a foldable umbrella stroller (put under the bed easily when not in use) that came in handy for all our excursions. As PP indicated the sidewalks, piers and where used is not always smooth but by days end when all are sun pooped, if it could have taken both our weights I'd have climbed in with him (as he was normally asleep by then) to be pushed along. We just needed to remember to remove his overstuffed diaper bag (carrying all our stuff within outside of $ and documents) from the handles before unbuckling him or it would tip as soon as he jumped out.

 

[Chrislovesdisney]

Thanks everyone. We will definitely have the stroller on the cruise - it's just more a question of whether we should bring it on the excursions. Is it helpful in cc? Is it a long walk from the dock to where the sand starts?

 

[cscream13]

I've found strollers very helpful on CC.... but I learned on my first trip to use the ones on the island since they do get sandy and I hate bringing the sand back into my room later. DCL has two "stations" near the two major tram stops with strollers, wagons and beach-wheelchairs for passenger use. Its first come, first served, but we've never had a problem getting one, even when we have gotten a late start. The strollers are nice BabyJogger Citi Minis that have good traction on the sand (way better than an umbrella stroller that would just get stuck as soon as you pushed it off the walkway). We use them to transport the kids, but also as a place to nap for the baby.

As for your other excursions, I can't speak to Tortola, but I doubt you will use it at Magen's Bay. Its a short walk from ship to bus and then another short walk from bus to beach. I think you would mostly be lugging it with little use. We went to Magen's Bay with a baby carrier and thought that worked well. Only down side was not having stroller for naptime, but if your little one doesn't nap in the stroller, then its no loss.

Have fun on your trip!