Anyone go on a cruise w/ your baby???

satreece

We are tentatively planning a birthday surprise cruise for my dh and my dd (who will be 13 in october).  DS will be a few days shy of a year... I would like for us to continue having fun family trips even though we have a baby and he is usually pretty good when we travel (sleep in strange places is a little hit or miss, though).

Anyone else cruise w/ a LO this little?  Any tips/tricks?

(Also, I am motivated to do this trip this year because by next year we will have another baby - due in march...)

ZTACRYSTAL

We are a "cruising family" and cruise at least once every 1.5 to 2 years. We are taking one with DD this December. She will be 14 months. I'd also love to hear any advice

DiscusCoach

Yup! Last month! Check on the ages they need to be to use the "kid zone". My favorite item I brought was a sheet with a pattern on it. We used it for a picnic blanket but the main thing we used it for was a play mat. I recommend something with a pattern so that you know which side is the clean side and should be facing up. We always put the patterned side up. We would hang out in the coffee lounge and put the blanket down. We didn't feel so trapped in our room.

 

TeamRey

We are going on one in 2 weeks!!  I've been doing research on cruise critic about cruising with babies and some things I've read are:

Many cruise lines don't allow babies in the swimming pools unless they are potty trained so many parents said they brought an inflatable blow up pool to put on the pool deck...they also said it is nice to put out on their balcony so we got one of those.

For taking baths, many parents recommended getting the inflatable duck bath tub to put in the bathtubs there, or you can have them shower with you, but with those small showers it may be kind of hard.

We are bringing the combi flare stroller instead of our big stroller.  We figured it would be better for getting down those tight hallways by the cabins.

Also FYI cruise lines charge full price for babies!  Norwegian I believe is the only one that doesn't.

Here is some valuable information when choosing the cruiseline.

https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=628

TeamRey

A few more things I thought of...

 Since you don't really have much of a place to do dishes....just really the small bathroom sink, we decided to bring the bottles that have the disposable liners in them and are bringing about 10 nipples that way we won't have to wash bottles...just the nipples and well rinse and wipe the outside of the bottles.  Just seems easier.

Also we are bringing the take and toss sippy cups in case they get lost it isn't a huge loss.

satreece

Thank you for the input! Those are all really helpful suggestions!  I'm glad to hear positive responses. 

DS likes to shower w/ us and we are used to washing bottles when we stay in hotels, so that's no big deal.  The info about swimming is interesting, but it makes sense.  We've always had salt water in the pools when we cruise, so I'm not sure I'd take him in there even if we could (as he likes to stick his whole face in the water). 

A little stroller would be a must I think.  And yeah, it's crazy they charge full price (it's $119 for the 3rd and 4th person in a cabin on Carnival).  Oh well.  

Still totally worth it for such an awesome vacation!