Taking a baby 🍼 on DCL

[Philharmagicfamily]

In contrast to all of the nursery horror stories, my kids LOVED the nursery. My then-two-year-old would frequently request to "go to my club", and his then-8-month little sister would happily go along. The 8-month-old had, at that point, cried when we left her with any caregiver other than us or her nanny, so that's saying something! We ended up using the nursery almost daily during naptime, which allowed us to not have to sit in our stateroom while they slept (the best was on Castaway Cay day - they happily rested in "their club" while we were at Serenity Bay!). Our kids loved the dinners (even the baby), but we did frequently take them to the nursery after dinner, where the nursery staff would happily put them in pjs and put them to sleep.

One piece of advice - splurge on a comfy baby carrier. We have loved our Lilliebaby for our three kids - it's taken them everywhere from Paris to Disney World to hikes in our neighborhood national park. It was comfy enough for me to wear it all day with an almost-one-year-old, and ours has held up to some pretty heavy use!

Good luck - while our kids can't remember that much about our travels with them, we sure do!

 

[Bunny84]

This makes me so happy to hear. Thank you for sharing!

 

[Keyser]

Wow - takes me back. Our first family cruise was when my younger daughter was 11 months, and now we're thinking about our next one as she's about to turn 13...

To second a few things others have said, and add some others.

• The nursery is good, but it's not totally reliable, since your baby might not put up with it. It worked for us (we ate at Palo!) at least once, but I also remember getting called in to pick her up at least once. At the time, you had to make reservations, and we tried to make them during the nighttime shows, but I also remember there was one time we tried for a reservation and couldn't get it.
• At home, we were used a very strict sleep schedule approach (which worked really well for us overall), and we tried to maintain this on the cruise, but it was really tough. I know that's not how most people do things, but be forewarned that regular schedules get thrown off.
• Not just that, but pretty much every other aspect of a "schedule" got thrown off a bit - eating, diapers, etc.
• For those reasons and more, I'd be hesitant to make big commitments on excursions/port adventures - things can change easily and you need to be ready to adapt.
• We found a stroller (the small fold-up kind) really useful. Our daughter would sometimes sleep in it, and it made it much easier to go around with her. That daughter was never the easiest to keep still/hold for long periods of time, but the stroller worked well. The small size was better for keeping in the room, and getting around the small ship.
• The pack-and-play they provided was good, but we were glad she'd had some experience sleeping in one beforehand. She still didn't sleep as well as usual, though
• We actually had second dinner seating, which turned out much better for us. We thought we'd prefer early (but couldn't get it), but the later dinner was more relaxed and when our daughter took 3x longer to eat than usual, it wasn't an issue where we felt rushed to leave. We had an awesome server, too, who was super-helpful.
• This might be obvious, but don't plan things expecting that your baby is going to "get" anything special from the cruise. If you're going, do it for yourselves/your family (which is fine!). The baby is not going to get anything out of it that he/she couldn't get just as well at home...

And, as someone else said, every kid really is different - what works for one of us might or might not work for you!

 

[Bunny84]

This seems like really practical advice - thank you so much for sharing!

 

[lolomarie]

You probably saw this in my earlier response, but I do just want to reiterate that I (and others on this board have described the same experience) that small world nursery will ONLY keep your baby if the baby is happy being there. If a child starts crying (or for older toddlers, if the child asks for mommy or daddy) the staff will try for 15 mins or so to distract them or calm them down, but if that does not work you will be called on your wave phone and/or messaged in the app to come pick up your child. They were always very apologetic, but it is their policy.

Do you know why this is their policy? The nursery is a paid service, I couldn’t imagine getting a phone call at work from the daycare every time my child cried. Are they understaffed? Does their staff not have appropriate training? I don’t mean this as a criticism, just genuinely curious. I would understand this policy more if it were a free service. When we leave our children with caregivers and are paying them (or even when we are not as in the case with family) if the child is unhappy it’s up to the adult with them to solve the problem. Thanks for your input.

 

[Wdwdreamer101]

We went when my son was 9 months. It was my favorite trip we've ever taken. The Disney magic is so real at this age, and they are small and portable and snuggly. Baby wearing really helped with traveling! Disney will take good care of you and your little one!

 

[MomOTwins]

Do you know why this is their policy? The nursery is a paid service, I couldn’t imagine getting a phone call at work from the daycare every time my child cried. Are they understaffed? Does their staff not have appropriate training? I don’t mean this as a criticism, just genuinely curious. I would understand this policy more if it were a free service. When we leave our children with caregivers and are paying them (or even when we are not as in the case with family) if the child is unhappy it’s up to the adult with them to solve the problem. Thanks for your input.

It is $9 an hour—at today’s child care rates for kids under 3. that is basically free. That is not a real revenue earner for Disney. The rates were twice that or more for the babysitting they used to have at disney resort hotels—which were for older kids so even cheaper for disney than infant care and had minimum hours requirements.

 

[WarEagle!]

For port excursions, I would not book anything over half a day or something where you wouldn’t feel comfortable grabbing your own taxi to head back to the ship. I waited until my son was 2 for our first Disney Cruise, and we went to the Mexican Riviera. We did a shrimp lunch at a local’s home, and although we had a great time, it was extremely hot, and the end of the excursion was during his nap time. Luckily the excursion guide was willing to call us a taxi when we asked to leave early because my son was reaching meltdown phase. I understand babies are different from toddlers, but my son was far easier as a toddler than he was as a baby. You will know your baby and what you feel comfortable doing, but as others have said, be prepared to adjust your expectations after your baby’s arrival.

 

[WarEagle!]

Each baby is different, so as others have said, don't book anything non-refundable until you know yours.

One of my favorite phrases ever came from these boards in a thread on this same subject--If you're going to be in baby jail, might as well be in baby jail on a Disney Cruise Ship!

I don't know how much you would have had to pay me to get either of my kids on a flight to Europe at 10 months! They are wanting to move around then and sitting in a plane seat for that long would have been a nightmare (read above about what happens once a kid gets mobile--they want to move around all the time). Also the time difference--not sure I'd be willing to risk a comfortable sleep schedule for travel. Then you'll have no idea until the last minute whether or not your baby will be in a good place to go on any excursion.

We did go to WDW with our kids at all ages starting at 4.5 months. That first trip was, in hindsight, by far the easiest. He wasn't mobile yet, he napped in the stroller, we stuck to his night schedule which meant we were up early enough for rope drop, we had the most leisurely trip we'd ever had. That could translate to a cruise at 6 months out of Port Canaveral. Once he could walk, it got exponentially more difficult.

I love the baby jail quote. I’m going to borrow that.

 

[jktmom]

We traveled on Celebrity when our son was 9 months and 18 months old and on Disney when he was 23 months old. We worked hard to be prepared with everything we would need in advance and as seasoned cruisers felt generally comfortable being on the ship with baby. The very best thing we brought was a very compact and quality travel stroller, the City Tour. It is small enough to take on the plane in the overhead compartments, very quality, good wheels and reclines pretty far for naps with good shade. We did bring a baby carrier but only used it on tenders when we needed to collapse the stroller.

My advice is just to go for it and know your trip will be a little different but will still be great! We want our kids to be used to traveling from day one and we have never regretted having them on a trip with us!

Good luck!