Cruising with Infants

We booked our cruise on MSC assuming they had a daycare program for infants - OOPS! He is 9 months old and we are wondering if anybody else has traveled with babies under 1yr and if there is any advice such as whether we should take a travel high chair, how much bottled water (for formula) can we bring with us and is it possible to hire crew to babysit in their off time? We are not new to cruising, but we have never traveled with an infant before. He is a very easy baby so we are not too worried about taking him to shows, or on excursions, but would love to hear and any all experiences, or advice from past new parents who have taken their babies on board

You may also want to try to post this on MSC, since that line doesn't seem to have a lot of postings on cruise critic.

I can't help with MSC, but for your future travel needs: all disney ships, newer and some refurbished Royal Caribbean and the Norwegian Escape all have nurseries you can pay to use.

Princess used to allow children under 3 in the kids clubs with parental supervision, but has redesigned their kids club programs and no longer mentions this on their website (so it may or may not still be allowed).

Cunard and Carnival both allow children in their kids clubs at the age of 2 (the other major lines are 3). Please note that cunard's kids clubs weren't great for my 2 year old (he needed some help transitioning, and they didn't want to work directly with the children, even though there were only 2 other kids in the club playing a video game when they said they were too busy to help him transition. After we complained, they were a bit better). Although Cunard's website does not mention this, they told us they allow children under 2 in the kids club with parental supervision.

My son was 14 months on his first cruise and had a ball. Luckily we had family along who watched him, because the only time we tried to leave him in the ship daycare he cried nonstop (I'm a stay-at-home mom, so daycare was scary new.) We were very grateful for our balcony, because he was still napping twice a day. Bring bath toys for the splash pool. You really only need an umbrella stroller, unless you are planning some serious excursions. We purchased a blow-up bathtub, but you could also just get him used to showers. Room service is amazing. I would order extra milk and fruit at breakfast so we always had a snack when he woke up from a nap. Definitely, bring children's medicines for your own peace of mind.

Mine were 13 months on their first and there was no babysitting available, but they're pretty easy to travel with at that age - especially is they'll sleep in the stroller so you can keep going. No need for high chair or bottled water - they have high chairs and the tap water is fine. Can't answer about crew sitting - the only line I know that allows that is RCCL and you have to hire two at a time. Bring more than enough diapers, wipes and formula - you can't be sure you can find them in port (and ships sometimes miss ports) and they won't have them on board. Bring scented little trash bags for diapers - they empty the trash 2x a day, but still.

Have a great time!

Best,

Mia

We just got back from a 17-day cruise with a 14 month old. The one thing I was surprised with was the age restriction for excursions. Most would not let us bring him so of course we didn't do that excursion. Weonly found a couple of excursion that would allow babies under 3 years. We didn't want to do beach days, that is way too much sun for our fair skin,and we understand not wanting a small child on a bus for 4 or 5 hourseither. Just be aware and check the age limits on the excursion before you book. We were just happy walking around the port areas.

There was babysitting available on the ship we were on but only used itonce. The Royal Tots area was fantastic and the crew was excellent with the kids in their care. The price was really good too, it was $8.00 perhour in the evening. We went to a specialty restaurant one night and was supposed to do the Mystery Dinner on the second cruise but that got cancelled so we cancelled the baby sitting too. RCI has babysitting in the room upto 3 children in the same room for $18.00 per hour which does include 2 crewmembers. Please remember that these crew members are not the same ones that are used in the children’s area they could be from anywhere on the ship inany department. It was explained to me that this is a way for a crew member to earn extra money.

Another thing that really surprised us was all the touching the crew didwith the baby. He is really good with people but after a while he just wanted to be left alone. It's one thing for them to look at the child and talk to him but to actually touch him was very surprising!

We were lucky that we booked a 2-bedroom royal family suite which allowed the baby to run around in our cabin. We ended up spending more time in the cabin then we have in any other cruise but then this is the first cruise with a baby. I have made note to self that in the future - we either book2 connecting rooms or a suite so there is always space for him to run and a separate space for him to sleep.

We had a very positive experience and we have a transatlantic booked for next year. The flight to Barcelona might be a problem but we will work through that!!! We flew to Ft. Lauderdale for our cruise this time and it's only 2 1/2 hours and he was ready to get off. I am hopeful that at just over 2 years old he would be able to sit longer. Lucky that the flights from US to Europe are usually in the evening and we can hope that he will sleep for most of the flight. One suggestion - we didn't take a car seat with us (he had his own seat) and had the FAA approved"Cares" kids fly safe seatbelt. We purchased this system and it worked GREAT. No heavy car seat to lug around. He thought he was in his car seat and actually fell asleep.

If you have any specific questions - ask away and I will try to answer from our experience from our last cruise.

The one thing I was surprised with was the age restriction for excursions. Most would not let us bring him so of course we didn't do that excursion.

Please note that another option is to see what excursions the cruise lines are offering, and duplicating those excursions with private vendors. This will be cheaper, and will allow you to have more control over the itinerary in case your child needs to return to the ship early or is really happy at one part of the excursion, and you'd like to stay longer. The downside is that transportation will most likely be in cars instead of large buses, and you will need to bring a car seat (and notify providers you need transportation with seatbelts in the back).

We did this in Jamaica since the dolphin touch program was banned by princess for children under 8 years, but children of all ages were allowed by the park to participate in this program if you booked with the amusement park directly. We found a private vendor on TripAdvisor to provide transportation to the park and purchased tickets with them directly. Overall, it cost less and gave us the ability to structure the day we wanted to (the two year old and I went back to the room for a nap, and the dad and grandparents went to Dunn's River Falls. The cruise critic location board can also be helpful for you to find independent tour providers.

I believe RCI is the only line that offers in-cabin sitting by volunteers from the crew. Of course, if no one volunteers there is no sitting. In any event, the minimum age is 12 months.