Niclia

Some of the P&O family friendly ships do but they mainly sail from the UK and within Europe.

 

 

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We didn't order the baby food jars so can't comment on that but we did order pureed food each night for the next night from the main menu. Our waiter was excellent at having this ready when we got to the MDR. The only problem we had is the first time they seasoned it so if you do this make sure you tell them no salt!

 

 

 

 

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I can't comment on Eclipse but on Infinity I'm fairly certain that we were only provided with a sheet over the mattress for the crib so I would take bedding for your baby. I took my own anyway as I thought the smell and feel of it might settle my LO better (it seemed to work ok!).

 

Celebrity have next to no facilities for babies and on Infinity there were only 2 changing tables on the whole ship - one in the kids club and one on the deck immediately below it so we just kept going back to our room.

 

The highchairs we had were the stackable wooden ones with a waist strap and were available in all venues. They didn't have a huge number of them and on a number of occasions they had to be fetched from another location.

 

Of course, my comments could be completely wrong for the Eclipse but I thought it might be helpful to know our experience on a Celebrity ship as I too found it difficult to find out information :) Regardless, cruising with a baby is amazing and the crew will love him/her!

On Ventura in May toddlers with nappies were allowed in the pool outside the kids club (I think its called the Splash Pool). We didn't use it but I remember it as I wasn't expecting there to be anywhere for a toddler to use! There was a bit about it in the welcome Horizon, it was in the Captain's welcome speech and the kid's club staff told us about it. So there is (at least on Ventura) somewhere for toddlers and babies in nappies to use!

 

 

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We only ate in the restaurants in the evening! There is a children's menu with standard kids meals like salmon, chicken breast and fish fingers (the choice doesn't change at all during the cruise) or you can ask for a smaller portion from the main menu. They'll bring the children's meal with your starters.

 

 

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We cruised on Ventura with a 17 month old and it was great! There is a baby room (doubles as night nursery) with toys which you can use during the day but its unsupervised so you have to stay with the child. There is also a largeish outdoor play area they can use. Toddlers can use the little pool outside the nursery to paddle in.

 

Cots are provided (plus lots of other items if you want).

 

We did a fly Med cruise and had to pay for a seat and luggage allowance but I know under 2s can be £100 on some cruises.

 

Happy to answer any other questions you have.

 

 

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Pealittle, on some of the P&O cruises from Southampton infants cost £99 if the cruise is out of school holidays. We got quotes from them for some of the Canaries cruises so if you really want to do a cruise it might be worth looking at them. We ended up on a Med fly-cruise and were told its the cost of the flight (infants do get their own seat and luggage allowance) that accounts for the difference in price.



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We cruised to Norway with a 7 month old last year on a Celebrity ship. We've just come off Ventura (baby now 17 months) and would definately recommend P&O with a young baby. They offered us so many baby items which weren't offered on Celebrity so would minimise what you need to pack.

 

We found cruising with a 7 month old was quite easy. We took our own sheets and sleeping bags (including a travel one so that baby could sleep in the pushchair in the evening). We also took a supply of Ella's Kitchen pouches as food could be salty. Take your own nappies, wipes and medicines/ creams. The shop on Ventura had 2 packs of nappies (Huggies) - 1 in size 2 and 1 in size 3 - so I think its pot luck if they have the right size and the wipes were a pack of 12. No baby medicines at all. I carry everything that I would hate to be without (Calpol!) in hand luggage. Bear in mind that the accommodation corridors all have numerous housekeeping trollies on them which most big pushchairs will struggle to get past.

 

We found Norway great. It was our second trip so we knew some of the ports already but I don't think we had a problem in any of them with the pushchair. We also took a baby carrier incase we wanted to go off the beaten track a bit. Baby changing facilities seemed difficult to find so you'll need to be creative with that!

 

 

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We got there at 3 and by 3.15 the queue was snaked right back. P&O have their own check in section but from memory there were 3 P&O flights to Genoa between 6 and 7 and 1 a bit later so a lot of people checking in at the same time!

 

 

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We too prefer Celebrity and find Eclipse to be a lot more elegant in a contemporary way. Ventura has a confusing layout in places and I found it quite disorientating whereas Eclipse has a much more straightforward layout and everything was easy to find from the central lifts. Theres less congestion on Celebrity ships (I'm thinking in particular that deck with the photo gallery, speciality restaurant and lounges on Ventura which was always rammed and noisy in the evening). I also find the food better on Celebrity as the food

on Ventura was very British and the type of meals I cook at home whereas Celebrity was to me restaurant quality rather than pub food. The buffet on Celebrity has a much better layout with stations grouped centrally rather than the poorly layed out buffet on Ventura.

 

Hope this helps!

 

 

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We travelled with a 7 month old and took a cold water steriliser. Boots and Mothercare sell sterilising bags (basically plastic bags with sterilising tablets) which hold up to 5 bottles each and last for 24 hours. Might be worth looking at. We managed to get a kettle in our stateroom so boiled water and then cooled to the right temperature but this will depend on which ship you are on (we were on Infinity from Harwich).

 

 

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We sailed on Infinity (not Solstice) with a 7 month old in July and they were doing the toddler time sessions and we were able to sign out a bag of baby toys to take to our stateroom. Sorry, can't help with formula or food requests but our waiter and maitre d' were very helpful getting pureed food for us in the MDR.

 

The crew were amazing with our little girl and we had an amazing time. Enjoy your cruise!

 

 

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On Infinity they just used a standard bed sheet so it was quite loose. We took our own sheets and some safety pins and put it over the sheet provided so that it was a bit more secure and padded.

 

 

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