Just back from Carnival Valor with 9 month old

These boards were such a great help in gathering info/tips on cruising with an infant! We are experienced cruisers, but this was our first time cruising with our son. I do plan on writing some things which I found helpful, but if anyone has any questions I would be glad to answer them!

Welcome back! Can't wait to hear all about it! :D

I will be cruising with my son in January and he will be 9 months old, Any advice you can give would be extremely appreciated. We are experienced cruisers but have never cruised with an infant that young. My daughter was 15 months when she first cruised. It was pretty easy but 9 months is a bit different lol. I would love to read your trip report if you plan to write one.

Since we flew in the day of the cruise, we got our cab driver to take us to a grocery store to pick up baby food, wipes, etc. I should have bought more formula-more on that later. I brought our car seat and only used it for the cab ride to and from the port, as we only traveled by foot while in the different ports. Used our umbrella stroller constantly! I have a Maclaren stroller that reclines some so my son was able to nap in his stroller while out and about.

Things I brought that we didn't use much:

- Inflatable duck tub: my son hated being bathed in it (we just showered him) and it was too hot and my son caught a virus while on the cruise, so we didn't let him splash around. I will bring it again on our upcoming cruise.

- Pop up infant cabana. Only used briefly in Half Moon Cay and he was trying to get out of it constantly.

- Toys-only played with a few

- Too many clothes, too much swim gear

Things I was glad I brought:

- Bottle brush and small container of dish soap

- tons of diapers (my son got diarrhea)

- all meds, nasal aspirator

- crib mirror

- PNP sheet (they use a regular sheet folded up)

- sleep sack

- glad we booked a balcony as we spent A LOT of time in the room while our son napped

- lots of puffs

Things I wish I would have brought:

- More formula and bottled water

- Bottled juice

- Possibly our PNP- the crib had a plastic flimsy mattress and we could tell our son was not that comfortable.

We cruised Carnival and discovered they would puree food for us. Every night at dinner they would come see what foods we wanted for the next day and would deliver it to our cabin in the morning and to our table at dinner. My son picked up the "cruise crud" or some type of virus the second day and had bad diarrhea and was somewhat fussy. He did not want to eat much so I focused on getting more fluids in him. I had brought powdered Pedialyte with me but he wouldn't drink it. I had brought one small bottle of gerber apple juice (my son does not drink juice or water yet)...we bought more formula, nursery water, and pedialyte liquid in port, but I wish I had picked up some juice in St Thomas or San Juan. I don't know if the ships' water got him sick (we used this for his bottles at first), but I was very paranoid about giving him anything from the ship after he got sick. I mixed the juice with the pedialyte and he would drink that. His diarrhea resolved and he then had a cold...we all got sick the last day of the cruise, and I am still battling a cold/sinus infection? now-Ugh!

The staff really doted on our son, as there were not that many babies on board. We developed relationships with our wait staff and they were very kind to us-my son adored our head waitress! Carnival offers babysitting for a fee ($6.75 + gratuity/hr) for limited hours during port days for children under 2. We did take advantage of this a few days so we could have some much needed time alone. Camp Carnival was great with our son and we felt very safe leaving him in their care. We did Anytime Dining and made it to dinner every night between 6-7PM. He did great and we only left early once whhen he got very fussy. The staff gave us our desserts "to-go." We did try to keep our son on his schedule, but it was off by an hour or so-he was a real trooper! I would have chosen to cruise without such a young child, but this just is not an option for us. It was a different type of cruise, as we obviously did not attend night events, shows, etc. We had a great time and got a lot of rest! I would highly recommend getting a balcony cabin, as you will spend a lot of time in your room. We had our room steward remove the table from our room so we could utilize the small space we did have with the crib in the room.

I'm going on the Valor in a couple of weeks with my 1 year old. Thanks for your input!

How did you pack the diapers? Did you buy them before you got on the ship in Miami or did you pack them in your suitcase before you left home? Our hotel is close to a CVS (from what I've read) and I'm debating buying a box there or just packing them in our suitcases. My only concern with waiting to buy is that the store won't have his size.

I packed one sleeve in my suitcase and my fiance packed a sleeve in his case. We had about 90 diapers and had plenty leftover, even with my son's diarrhea. I wanted to pack my own diapers becasue I didn't want to chance the store we stopped at not having his preferred diaper. We bought 2 packs of wipes and baby food when we got to Miami. You will love the Valor-if you have anytime dining, ask for Zuzana!

Thanks! I'm going to attempt packing the diapers tonight. My son and I are already set to go (instead of putting the summer clothes away, I just packed them). My husband on the other hand...:)

We did decide on anytime dining! We figured it would be the safest route in case our little guy wanted to nap later or something. Nothing worse than a cranky baby when you're trying to have a nice dinner, lol.

We have an inside cabin, but I later decided to look into a balcony to surprise my husband. The price was too much and it looks like they are all sold out now. Oh, well. We'll definitely make the best of it and have a good time regardless. The good news is my son can sleep through pretty much anything (we have a 2 year old puppy. Need I say anymore? lol). If we want to sit out on the deck, I'm pretty sure he'll sleep just fine.

You will have a great time-please let us know how things went when you get back! Anytime Dining worked great for us and will be what we choose from now on! We never had a wait for a table and asked to be seated in Zuzana's section each night in the Lincoln dining room.