How do we travel with a car seat?

Our DD will be 15 months old when we take her on her first cruise in December. She is our first child and none of our friends have children (or if they have children, haven't traveled with them), so we don't really have anyone to ask. How do we travel with DD and her car seat? We've already decided to fork over the extra cash so that she can have her own seat on the flight from NY to FLL because we know that is safest for her and will most likely be the most comfortable option for all of us. However, we're at a loss as to what to do beyond that. We assume that we'll need the car seat for the taxi from the airport to the hotel/from the hotel to the port, etc. But what about in port? We plan on going to Chankanaab in Cozumel and clearly don't need it when we stop in Labadee. We'll most likely look into a private tour operator in Costa Maya, so hopefully we can work out the car seat issue directly with them. But in Cozumel, should we plan on bringing the car seat with us to use in the cab from the port to the park and back? And what do we do with it while we're at the park? Is there some kind of carrying case we could buy? Hopefully we'll be able to check it or rent a locker to stow it in for the day.

Sorry for all of the questions! We've cruised several times before, but never with a toddler, so this will be a completely new experience for us!!:eek:

We're going to be cruising with our son who will be 14 months old in December, and we just plan on calling the cab companies and asking them to send one with a carseat. I don't want to lug around a seat for a couple of cab rides.

We've always taken the car seat into port with us if grabbing a cab. A couple of times we have had to wave a cab on and wait for the next one that would have a seat belt. They do sell bags specifically for them, but I bought a bag at the Dollar Tree that has worked fine. I have also brought my stroller (good quallity umbrella) and used it to carry car seat (before I got the bag).

I hate lugging the car-seat around. So much so that I for a moment considered bringing a booster for my 3 1/2 yo DS:mad:. But how could I live with myself if something happened. I have been in wrecks 5 times and only once was it my fault (waiting in line for a WVU football game I let the clutch pop and did $250 dammage to car in line in front of me). Once in cab in Mexico. Once in ambulance in Korea. Rearended in Germany by a cab. Hit and run about 1mile from my home 23 years ago (broke my back - luckily was witnessed by bystander who knew the other driver). I honestly believe that is enough for one lifetime. :p:rolleyes::p

We've always taken the car seat into port with us if grabbing a cab. A couple of times we have had to wave a cab on and wait for the next one that would have a seat belt. They do sell bags specifically for them' date=' but I bought a bag at the Dollar Tree that has worked fine. I have also brought my stroller (good quallity umbrella) and used it to carry car seat (before I got the bag).

 

I hate lugging the car-seat around. So much so that I for a moment considered bringing a booster for my 3 1/2 yo DS:mad:. But how could I live with myself if something happened. I have been in wrecks 5 times and only once was it my fault (waiting in line for a WVU football game I let the clutch pop and did $250 dammage to car in line in front of me). Once in cab in Mexico. Once in ambulance in Korea. Rearended in Germany by a cab. Hit and run about 1mile from my home 23 years ago (broke my back - luckily was witnessed by bystander who knew the other driver). I honestly believe that is enough for one lifetime. :p:rolleyes::p[/quote']

 

This is exactly why we'll be bringing DD's car seat with us! We also can't trust her safety to anyone else and rely on them to have car seats that are safe and have been properly cared for. We couldn't live with ourselves if something happened to her simply because we didn't feel like lugging her seat around with us. I guess we will just have to figure out a way to make it work. We're not the first and we certainly won't be the last. I know we won't need the car seat in Labadee and are hoping to work something out with a private tour company in Costa Maya. The only place this would be a real concern is in Cozumel. I've already submitted an e-mail to the place we plan on going to see whether they have a place we could stow her seat for the day to avoid lugging it around with us. Hopefully we'll be able to make things work smoothly with a bit of pre-planning.:)

At babies-r-us, we found a car seat bag that had a handle (a long strap for over the shoulder and a smaller handle for rolling it) and a firm, flat bottom with wheels to make it easy to roll. This made it easier for us

to transport the seat in and out of the airplane, through the airport, etc.

Mainly because the shoulder strap freed up hands for the 5 or 6 carryons that one needs for toddlers.

This was one of the best investments of $30 or $40 or so that we have ever made. I was really MAD when I forgot it in some closet somewhere on our trip. (Seat itself was buckled into the rental car and DH insists on not leaving ANYTHING loose in the car when we are at a hotel...).

Do not count on any locker you find at a port of call outing being big enough for a car seat.

hb5

I bought the bag from babies-r-us too. It helped alot. What also helped is buying a light weight car seat. The first time we went to Cozumel we brought the heavy seat. It was a long walk down the pier. The light weight one worked way better.

highbridge5 and jam82 - Thanks so much for the info. We'll definitely look into purchasing a car seat carrying bag like you've described when we get closer to the cruise. I have e-mailed the place we plan on visiting in Cozumel and they said that they don't have lockers to rent, but that we could check the car seat with customer service. So hopefully between that and the carrying bag, it shouldn't be too much of a pain in that port. Hopefully we'll be able to book some type of a private or semi-private tour in Costa Maya so that we can leave the car seat in the car/van if we get out to look around.

We drove to the port and parked at a nearby hotel, but we still had to bring the carseat with us for the shuttle to/from the port. We just stowed the carseat in the closet once on board. We did a Mexican Riviera cruise and did not bring the car seat into port. We took a couple of cabs and none of them even had seat belts, so the carseat would have been useless. We also used the public bus once. I kind of doubt your carseat will be very useful in Cozumel. We just had our dd sit on our laps for the ride, but if your uncomfortable with that, you can either stick to the bus or stay near the port and walk around.

Your tour in Chankanaab -- is it through the cruiseline or are you hopping in a taxi and doing it yourself? That makes a difference.

Some of the cruiseline tours to Chank are so large that they require a bus -- which means no car seats allowed (bus transfers = no car seats).

If you are going on your own, then yes, you'll need to take your own car seat. We use this one (really portable/folds flat) -- but as you can see -- it's unavailable...

http://www.amazon.com/Eddie-Bauer-Portable-Seat-Collection/dp/B000K53TFI

Costa Maya will be the same thing - it really depends on your tour.

I know, its really tough to determine if the tour will take a bus or even a small van. What I usually do is to jump over to the ports of call board and start asking questions from the people who have done the excursion through the cruise line (if you are booking through the cruise line) and see what kind of transportation picked them up (bus, mini van, shuttle, etc)

SusieV - do the cab companies have car seats? I never even considered that option. You mean in the US? Explain please. :D

Our first cruise with our kiddos isn't until next month but we've done a lot of trips with our kids and have found a good solution for dragging around the carseat. We don't go anywhere without carseats and would never depend on using one from a cab or other rental - just don't know what it's been through.

We use the gogo Kidz Universal Carseat Travelmate. It attaches to your car seat and basically turns it into a stroller. It has wheels and an expanding handle. It is so easy to pull through an airport - we fly out of DIA and always have huge walks to our gate. The disadvantage is having to connect and disconnect the wheels everytime you need to use the seat in a car or airplane. It's not tough, it just takes a few minutes and the kiddo can't be sitting in the seat when you're doing it. It's a small inconvenience for the ability to easily wheel around the carseat! NO more lugging that seat over my back or trying to prop it on top of the stroller!!

I've attached a link, but you may be able to find it cheaper elsewhere or buy it locally at a Babies R Us or other store.

Best of luck! I'm hoping to enjoy cruising with our kids and hope you do as well!

http://www.theportablebaby.com/gogokidz.html

I'm no help on what to do with it in port, having never done it myself, but I have flown with carseats before. I really like something called the PacBack- it straps the carseat to your back and you wear it like a backpack. Much easier than lugging it around (I even did it while 6 months pregnant and flying with DD alone!).

http://www.amazon.com/Cheeky-Monkey-Designs-9277-Back/dp/B000GIBYQ0

I'm so thrilled to have found this thread! I was wondering the same thing. We are taking our daughter on her first cruise (okay, so it's really for us, but she won't know the difference :D). She will be 21 months when we sail and we have a BIG car seat that I was worried about having to lug around. We're driving to the port so it's not a problem flying with it, but what do you do with the HUGE thing while onboard (in an inside cabin) and dragging it off the ship while we're in port.

The car seat is a Recaro Signo. It's just SO BIG. :( I wouldn't want to trust a car rental company that their car seats are in good repair and have never been in an accident...etc. It's worth the hassle of bringing our own. It's just heavy!

 

SusieV - do the cab companies have car seats? I never even considered that option. You mean in the US? Explain please. :D

Yes, I mean in the US. I figure we'll either walk in the islands or perhaps stay onboard and enjoy the ship since we've been to the ports anyway before, so we don't plan on bringing a carseat with us. We've got the Britax Boulevard CS and that would be a pain to lug around. We figured we'd only need a carseat to get to the airport in Toronto and then from the airport in Florida to the hotel, and then to the port. We'll just call the cab company and request one with a carseat. We do it here in Ontario all the time.

While that travel seat you posted looks convenient, it's made by Dorel and I honestly wouldn't buy Kleenex from those guys, let alone a child safety product. They've had more recalls under a million different brand names than any other baby company, and some of the recalls come years down the road. They recently recalled ten year old carseats for defective straps. Who's still using a carseat ten years after manufacture when they generally expire at 5 years? That means for all that time, people were using unsafe carseats.

We've always taken the car seat into port with us if grabbing a cab. A couple of times we have had to wave a cab on and wait for the next one that would have a seat belt. They do sell bags specifically for them' date=' but I bought a bag at the Dollar Tree that has worked fine. I have also brought my stroller (good quallity umbrella) and used it to carry car seat (before I got the bag).

 

I hate lugging the car-seat around. So much so that I for a moment considered bringing a booster for my 3 1/2 yo DS:mad:. But how could I live with myself if something happened. I have been in wrecks 5 times and only once was it my fault (waiting in line for a WVU football game I let the clutch pop and did $250 dammage to car in line in front of me). Once in cab in Mexico. Once in ambulance in Korea. Rearended in Germany by a cab. Hit and run about 1mile from my home 23 years ago (broke my back - luckily was witnessed by bystander who knew the other driver). I honestly believe that is enough for one lifetime. :p:rolleyes::p[/quote']

 

 

Your son should be in a carseat until he learns how to drive himself!:D:p

We made a lot of trips when DD4 was younger. Under 2 we almost always brought her on as a lap child but were fortunate enough to be on flights that had empty seats so they allowed us to bring the carseat on, we just had to ask at the gate before boarding (everyone at the front check in told us just to check the seat).

My last flight we didn't bring carseats, but only because we were going to spend time with my family and my best friend happened to have two that I could borrow. I'm glad I didn't bring them because it was just me traveling with the two kids (DD4 and DS8months at the time).

We leave in two weeks to see family in California and will have to bring both carseats with us. What we have done in the past to get through the airports with a carseat was to put it on the stroller. I don't know when we realized it, but every carseat we have bought seems to fit nicely into an umbrella stroller. I wouldn't leave the child in the carseat because I wouldn't want it to tip over, but we usually throw our carryons into the carseat and push it through that way.

Now, we do also always gate check our carseat, that way we know it gets on the plane and gets off when we do (same with our stroller). My flight last year with the two kids, the agent tried to gate check the stroller all the way to our final destination and I'm glad that I caught that because we had a three hour layover (I wanted to make sure we had time to eat and get some energy out since I was flying alone with the two kids...worked wonders because they both slept on both legs of the flight!).

Now, I don't think we'll be taking carseats on our cruise in January but that's because I really don't want to do anything where we have to take a cab or bus unless we have to. DH may take DD5 to do something that requires a bus or cab, but it's possible that I'll stay on the ship with DS2, will give each of us some special time with each kid.

While that travel seat you posted looks convenient, it's made by Dorel and I honestly wouldn't buy Kleenex from those guys, let alone a child safety product.

Yeah but I love that seat. Sorry but I do. It's been so convenient for us over the past couple of years. And I don't have to call a cab company and hope they have a seat for us which may have been recalled.

My youngest is at the top of the height/weight for that seat though, so I'll be packing it away. No more travel seat for us either.

Your son should be in a carseat until he learns how to drive himself!:D:p

Yea, I know what ya mean.:o My last wreck was well over 10years ago,:rolleyes: but I still say I have had my share. My husband did get pushed into a snow pile by tractor-trailer last month.:rolleyes:

I figured out yesterday that the bag I had found to put carseat in to carry isn't big enough. Anyone know of a bag that is lightweight, big enough for a full sized car seat, and has a handle (or preferably a shoulder strap)?