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Parents with small children


cathi007
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Hi, we will be cruising in January with our two grandchildren ages 14 months and 3. We are not sure about the rules with car seats on the islands. We will be taking taxis to the beach. Does anyone have experience traveling with little ones? What are the "rules" about taxis and car seats? Thanks for the help

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We had a 21 month old in the islands in 2015. Never took the car seat. usually wore her in the ergo to secure her to us. Or we held onto her pretty securely. We did beaches close to the piers. This was in San Juan, St. Maarten, St. Lucia, Barbados, and Antigua.

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keep in mind that a lot of cars on the islands don't have seatbelts. so you can't fasten them anyway.

 

That's what I am wondering, are we going to be carrying them around and can't even use them

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It’s your vacation. Do as you please!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

The Yankees are the best ever <3. Yes, I am just looking for what other people have done in this situation. We will probably have to drag them on the ship, as we have to take a large limo/small bus to the terminal. But my daughter wasn't sure if we could rent them for the limo ride or bring hers from home. If we can't use them on the islands then there is no point in bringing them on the ship. Just wanted to hear others' experiences

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some of the cabs/transport i am nervous in as an adult. a lot of them are open air safari type vehicles, and not always that well maintained.

 

id probably bring a stroller and try to walk to nearby beaches for the most safety. or maybe have each adult take turns with staying on board with the little ones each port day while the others venture off ship.

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some of the cabs/transport i am nervous in as an adult. a lot of them are open air safari type vehicles, and not always that well maintained.

 

id probably bring a stroller and try to walk to nearby beaches for the most safety. or maybe have each adult take turns with staying on board with the little ones each port day while the others venture off ship.

We will definitely be bringing a stroller for both children. I'm hoping someone has had good luck getting cabs with seatbelts. Staying on the ship is not an option, as we are die hard beach people trying to get out of the northeast for a 14 night cruise in January, lol. Hopefully some moms will chime in and let us know what they did. If worse comes to worse we will bring the car seats and call for a cab with a seatbelt (hopefully that won't be a problem on most islands). We do have connecting mini suites, so I am not overly concerned about room. I am just curious as to what most families do :)

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You usually can't use car seats on buses (airport buses, city buses, shuttle buses, etc), even in the US. Considering that, you might want to look out for local buses or excursions where you can get a bus transfer to the beach you'd like to go to, so you don't have to worry about lugging the car seat.

 

You might get more specific advice on the boards for the particular islands you're going to, or on the Family Cruising board.

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Yes, you are correct, as the safety of the children is what's important. I am more concerned if I can use car seats in cabs, and on shuttle buses, and the basic logistics of having them on board. I am just trying to see what others who are traveling with young children do. I didn't start cruising with my children until they were teens

 

Hi there! We did our first cruise with our baby this past April and she was 11 months. I had this same internal debate about the carseat. We brought ours. We used it in every cab and just waited for another cab that had seat belts if the first one didn't have any. It wasn't hard to carry around as we just brought our car seat bag we bought off amazon. It was easy and well worth it. We stored it in the room with us when on the ship. Enjoy your trip!

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Hi, we will be cruising in January with our two grandchildren ages 14 months and 3. We are not sure about the rules with car seats on the islands. We will be taking taxis to the beach. Does anyone have experience traveling with little ones? What are the "rules" about taxis and car seats? Thanks for the help

 

Your biggest issue with car seats is that most methods of transport in the island do not have seat belts which makes the seats impossible to hold. Remember that you are often in safari wagons. I have never heard of any requirements regarding the use of seats.

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We traveled with our children starting at the age of 2 (all of the trips on my signature line from the Panama Canal through Norway were taken with young children). We did always bring a car seat as most kids sleep better in it on the plane, and arranged for private transportation ahead of time on private tours for just our family. I learned that I needed to tell the operators ahead of time that I am bringing the car seat since we were short a seat in our car in Costa Rica, as they assumed the 2 year old would sit on someone's lap and there weren't enough seats for everyone (we traveled with 2 grandparents, plus 2 parents and one child) and one adult wound up crouched in the back. The prearranged transportation on private tours has always had seat belts, although you should check with the operators via email prior to booking.

 

You'd have a harder time with this than us, since we generally rented transportation for the whole day and went on city tours instead of going to the beach and it would be quite difficult to drag two full size car seats to the beach (our tours that included time at the beach such as Aruba started with a full tour of the island and a stop at an animal rescue garden so we rented a cab for a half day) . When you rent a car for the whole port stop, you can just leave the seat in the car and things are much easier. However, this would be an extremely expensive way of just going to a beach. If you post here or on the family forum exactly where you are going, people can tell you if there are child-friendly excursions you might want to combine with a beach and in that case it might be reasonable to rent transportation for a day or half day (bearing in mind this will cost a lot less in the Caribbean than in Europe).

 

It is quite rare, but some tour operators in the Caribbean asked us if they needed to provide car seats (and then you are facing issues of whether the car seat will actually fit your child, and what the safety standards are for it) so it might be worth asking if private transportation arranged ahead of time could provide car seats, but do expect the answer is probably no. For future travel, please note that in Europe, nearly all the tour operators and private transportation companies offer car seats.

 

In the longer term, there is a portable booster seat called a bubble bum, which is very portable and lightweight and blows up and great for travel, but is for children age 4 and older and a minimum of 40 pounds.

 

Other parents use ship tours, which generally travel in large buses that don't require seat belts. I personally am not a fan of large ship tours for children, since you cannot control the itinerary and if your kid starts to melt down you are stuck in a large group with limited options. However, a ship tour that just provides transportation to the beach should be fine. We've found a lot of private tours on tripadvisor and been very happy with our options.

 

In some places such as Bermuda, there might be public buses that are extremely safe and quite nice to use depending on where you are visiting.

 

And yes, it has been endlessly debated in the family forums that some families choose just not to use car seats and put their kids in cabs. I'm not sure what the regulations are but it seems to be allowed by the drivers.

Edited by kitkat343
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We did Eastern itinerary twice while our kids were in car seats. We didn't do ship excursions because there is no control over the travel method, rather, we would get off at port and head to the taxi stand or car rental for DIY adventures. We were able to request that we wanted a cab with seatbelts. Those open air safari trucks are typically retrofit onto a Ford F350 or similar with a crew cab, so we were able to ask to use the 2nd row of the vehicle vs. the benches in the truck box. It just took a bit longer to find cabs with seatbelts, but it can be done. Installing the 14month in a Rear facing CRS will be difficult though due to space constraints. You'll have to be very choosy about cabs. If you rent a car you'll need to ensure it is big enough to fit a rear facing child seat... so the economy vehicles probably won't work since you'll have a front passenger. Luckily we were forward facing when we traveled. Good luck, and with kids that young sometimes enjoying the ship in port with less travel stress is just as fun.

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what ports are you visiting?

St. Thomas, Tortola, St. Lucia, Barbados, St. Kitts, St. Maarten, (Dominica and PR, we are not taking the children off the ship, or if we do it will just be walking around shopping)

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We traveled with our children starting at the age of 2 (all of the trips on my signature line from the Panama Canal through Norway were taken with young children). We did always bring a car seat as most kids sleep better in it on the plane, and arranged for private transportation ahead of time on private tours for just our family. I learned that I needed to tell the operators ahead of time that I am bringing the car seat since we were short a seat in our car in Costa Rica, as they assumed the 2 year old would sit on someone's lap and there weren't enough seats for everyone (we traveled with 2 grandparents, plus 2 parents and one child) and one adult wound up crouched in the back. The prearranged transportation on private tours has always had seat belts, although you should check with the operators via email prior to booking.

 

You'd have a harder time with this than us, since we generally rented transportation for the whole day and went on city tours instead of going to the beach and it would be quite difficult to drag two full size car seats to the beach (our tours that included time at the beach such as Aruba started with a full tour of the island and a stop at an animal rescue garden so we rented a cab for a half day) . When you rent a car for the whole port stop, you can just leave the seat in the car and things are much easier. However, this would be an extremely expensive way of just going to a beach. If you post here or on the family forum exactly where you are going, people can tell you if there are child-friendly excursions you might want to combine with a beach and in that case it might be reasonable to rent transportation for a day or half day (bearing in mind this will cost a lot less in the Caribbean than in Europe).

 

It is quite rare, but some tour operators in the Caribbean asked us if they needed to provide car seats (and then you are facing issues of whether the car seat will actually fit your child, and what the safety standards are for it) so it might be worth asking if private transportation arranged ahead of time could provide car seats, but do expect the answer is probably no. For future travel, please note that in Europe, nearly all the tour operators and private transportation companies offer car seats.

 

In the longer term, there is a portable booster seat called a bubble bum, which is very portable and lightweight and blows up and great for travel, but is for children age 4 and older and a minimum of 40 pounds.

 

Other parents use ship tours, which generally travel in large buses that don't require seat belts. I personally am not a fan of large ship tours for children, since you cannot control the itinerary and if your kid starts to melt down you are stuck in a large group with limited options. However, a ship tour that just provides transportation to the beach should be fine. We've found a lot of private tours on tripadvisor and been very happy with our options.

 

In some places such as Bermuda, there might be public buses that are extremely safe and quite nice to use depending on where you are visiting.

 

And yes, it has been endlessly debated in the family forums that some families choose just not to use car seats and put their kids in cabs. I'm not sure what the regulations are but it seems to be allowed by the drivers.

Thank you for you well thought out answer, it gives us a lot to think about :)

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It’s your vacation. Do as you please!

 

because the laws of physics are also on vacation!!! yay!

 

 

 

To OP: are the parents of the children NOT coming on the cruise?

 

I'd bring Cosco Scenera NEXT for the 14 mo and depending on the 3 yo's height and weight, I'd bring an Evenflo Maestro (harnessed) or at least a no back booster, like Harmony Youth booster. Now, if the 3 yo is shorter than 45-46" (most of them are), he/she won't have a good seat belt fit in the Youth booster. My DS didn't have a good seat belt fit at 43"/43# even though he has a long torso, but it's better than nothing at all, especially if you use the seat belt guide on the booster.

 

IN case the vehicles don't have latch or locking seatbelts, I'd bring a locking clip for each of the harnessed seats.

 

Also check out Travel with Children board on www.babycenter.com and many threads in this subforum, which discuss using car seats during cruise travel.

Edited by Itchy&Scratchy
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because the laws of physics are also on vacation!!! yay!

 

 

 

To OP: are the parents of the children NOT coming on the cruise?

 

I'd bring Cosco Scenera NEXT for the 14 mo and depending on the 3 yo's height and weight, I'd bring an Evenflo Maestro (harnessed) or at least a no back booster, like Harmony Youth booster. Now, if the 3 yo is shorter than 45-46" (most of them are), he/she won't have a good seat belt fit in the Youth booster. My DS didn't have a good seat belt fit at 43"/43# even though he has a long torso, but it's better than nothing at all, especially if you use the seat belt guide on the booster.

 

IN case the vehicles don't have latch or locking seatbelts, I'd bring a locking clip for each of the harnessed seats.

 

Also check out Travel with Children board on www.babycenter.com and many threads in this subforum, which discuss using car seats during cruise travel.

 

Yes, both the parents are also going on this cruise. We have adjoining mini-suites with my daughter, her hubby and the two children. I am just doing research for my daughter, as we are in this together :). The 3 year old is tiny, 36 inches tall. I am thinking we should bring the car seats, as we have to get a limo to the pier from CT. I don't really feel safe not using the car seats, so we can just use cabs with seat belts, if we have to wait, so be it. I think my daughter will agree, safety in number one, and I know how the roads on the islands are. I might need a vacation after this vacation, but I am so looking forward to this cruise. I will check out that car seat for the 14 month old. She is still in an infant seat (8months now), she is tiny like her brother. Thanks for your help :)

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I have twins who have travelled extensively, thus we have tried several options.

 

First...NEVER rent a car seat through a limo or car rental company. I made this mistake early on. I spoke to the company, made sure they had the kids' stats, and told them the type of seats needed. When we got into the limo, one seat didn't rear face at all (kids were under 2) and the other had a strap issue that wouldn't tighten. The driver had no clue as to the fine points of seat installation. Needless to say...we were totally stressed out on our 45 minute drive from MCO to Disney. We were so stressed that the next year, we drove so we would have our quality seats!

 

Second...don't assume that you can make a Caribbean/Mexican taxi seat work. On a more recent trip with 5 year olds, I bought 2 Ride Safer Travel Vests. I seriously thought I was making a good purchase and safety decision, at almost $400 for 2. Turns out, all 4 of our vans/taxis only had lap belts...no shoulders! One didn't even have a lap belt! We held our kids between us tightly and prayed for a safe trip (short distance).

 

My recommendation is to try to book bus tours, as busses don't require seatbelts to be safe because of their compartmentalized designs. Otherwise either stay close to the port of take a calculated risk. For domestic trips, Costco Scenara Next is a great cheap seat.

 

At 5, my plan in September is to take Graco Takealongs. They are folding boosters. While we wouldn't choose a booster at this age and size for day to day use, I feel they are far safer than nothing and easily transported.

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Yes, both the parents are also going on this cruise. We have adjoining mini-suites with my daughter, her hubby and the two children. I am just doing research for my daughter, as we are in this together :). The 3 year old is tiny, 36 inches tall. I am thinking we should bring the car seats, as we have to get a limo to the pier from CT. I don't really feel safe not using the car seats, so we can just use cabs with seat belts, if we have to wait, so be it. I think my daughter will agree, safety in number one, and I know how the roads on the islands are. I might need a vacation after this vacation, but I am so looking forward to this cruise. I will check out that car seat for the 14 month old. She is still in an infant seat (8months now), she is tiny like her brother. Thanks for your help :)

We hired a 10 passenger van to the airport when our twins were 4 (10 miles) and had to bring our backless boosters for them. However, when we took a limo to the airport when our oldest were 2 and 4, we didn’t bring car seats (both trips were to WDW, and we just used their transportation).

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