Travelling with an infant and formula question?

[stars918]

Can I bring a cooler to store my son's opened cans of formula?

Anyone that has travelled with an infant and has some advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[HooKooDooKu]

There is a "refrigerator" in your cabin... well not really. It's something of a chiller, I guess it hold a temperature around 50 degrees. Not enough by itself for keeping formula refrigerated. But you can have your room steward supply you with ice twice daily. For our trip with We placed the brought a container that we could put ice in and placed that in the chiller. In our case, we used that setup for some medicine that had to be referigerated, but formula could be the same way.

Of course the easiest thing to do is just bring powdered formula if baby will take it. While the onboard water is sea water that has been purified with reverse-osmosis filters, we opted to bring along a hiking water filter for extra precaution and an unopenned can of powdered formula (unopenned because we didn't want to risk it poping open in the luggage).

Oh, and don't forget plenty of diapers and wipes. There is only a VERY limited and VERY expensive supply of these typical baby supplies available at the on-board merchants. In our case, we had a single suitcase that was nothing BUT diapers, wipes, baby food (Gerber plasitic containers), baby formula, swimmer diapers, bottles, toys, etc).

 

[tcmata]

When we cruised last October, DH requested a refrigerator through the Disney reservation people. They said that they could not guarantee one as first priority goes to those needing it for medical reasons. But, it was in our room when we arrived. It is one of those small refrigerators- but plenty big for what we needed. The only down side to this is the space it takes up. They put it next to the desk as it was too big to fit nicely under the desk. It wasn't a huge inconvenience spacewise though- and it was well worth it. HTH

 

[stars918]

Thank you for your quick replies. My son is on hypo-allergenic formula for his allergies, so I may give reservations a call and at least put the request in for the small fridge.

 

[CamColt]

When we needed to bring formula on the cruise we bought the pre made nursette bottles, like the ones you get in the hospital. There was no need to worry about keeping them cold as they store at room temp. I dont know if they make the special formulas in that form, but if so, I would recommend getting those. The convenience of not having to mix, measure, wash, keep cold, heat up,etc... was well worth the extra cost.
Good luck!

 

[JennsBabySky]

For those that use the larger bottles or cans of formula, please make sure to bring at least one smaller can or one extra bottle. You can not take any opened food off the ship once it docks back in the US. So, if you need formula for the trip home, please bring an extra sealed container for this leg of your trip. I forget the dollar amount, but I think the fines are in the five figures and include the threat of jail! Ouch! (Same rule applies for toddler friendly snack foods -- no open goldfish in the diaper bag, that was a problem for us).