RCCL and a 12 Month old in Dining Room-Stroller, High Chair, ect?

[CruisingCatherine]

While I have cruised a lot, this will be the first time with an infant. I have some questions for those of you who have done this.

 

1. Do you take the stroller to dinner or do you carry the baby? If you take the stroller, where did you park it? I am not sure if it would be appropriate to park my big stroller at the Dining Room entrance.

 

2. I have been informed that the highchair is the type that pulls right up to the table. My son is just starting to feed himself and is proving to be VERY independent. Currently, any plate used ends up on the floor. I am not sure how I will feed him. I don't want to put his food on a white tablecloth but I also don't want his plate to be on the floor. Any tips?

 

3. Where did you get disposable bibs? I can't seem to find them anywhere.

 

Thanks a bunch!!

[FigmentsKiss]

Can't answer much since my cruise is after yours, so I will be watching this thread very closely.

Last year we cruised DCL with DD and while it wasn't always easy we were able to bring her stroller into the dining room, but she was 6 months old and just learning to sit up and so the high chair was problematic.

 

I have been trying to figure out the whole eating situation as well. DD can sometimes do ok with a plate, but public dining room with lots of noise and I can't totally promise what will happen (she is currently 16 months and we will be cruising at 17 1/2 months). In restaurants I always use a plastic table topper for her food(for example: http://www.tabletopper.com ), but never with a table cloth. DH and I figure we will take the plastic toppers to try, and hopefully that will work and she isn't going to yank at the entire tablecloth (my current huge fear, maybe I need to start using a table cloth in the house for the next 6 weeks...).

 

Disposable bibs can be found at target, walmart, TRU or BRU. Great to have! To give you an example of what you are looking for:

http://www.pampers.com/en_US/proddetail/id/900821

http://www.munchkin.com/products/detail.php?pID=131 this one has a locator by zip code

[boulders]

I wouldn't bring a big stroller at all on a ship. The hallways are just too narrow - no way it will get by the housekeeping carts and it will take up valuable real estate in your stateroom. If you feel that you need one, bring a fold up umbrella stroller. There is no stroller parking outside the dining room. Again, if you bring one to the dining room, it will need to fold up into almost nothing. There is no free real estate in the dining rooms.

 

With a 12 month old, I would forgo the stroller on the way to the dining room, unless you think he will fall asleep at dinner. Definitely use the disposable placemats. Inflexible bibs with a food catcher are good at this age. The issue is not so much about getting pureed foods on their clothes as it is having macaroni or cheerios fall on the floor. Don't worry about using a plate for quite a while, unless you are prepared to hold onto it throughout dinner. The tablecloth is too heavy for a little one to grab hold of. However, any nearby cutlery, glasses, dishes, butter pats etc will not.

 

Target and Babies R Us have both the disposable bibs and the disposable placemats.

[brenderlou]

When our daughter was that small we did bring a stroller in the dining room but not the big, clunky one. More like an umbrella stroller but the back would recline in case she fell asleep.

We would bring it with us "just in case" so it was folded when we went to dinner instead of navigating it around the tables and our waiter would put it away for us.

Disposable bibs should be available at your local grocery store (major chain) or Target, Walmart, etc. I have seen them there and they are great. Make sure you get the ones that have a pocket on the front to catch any food that misses the mouth.

As far as the plate issue...don't worry about it. The disposable placemats won't work on a table cloth. I would suggest maybe bringing a regular plastic place mat from home that has a cloth backing to adhere a little more to the tablecloth. There are also plastic plates that have a suction cup at the bottom but not sure if that would work on a table cloth or just regular hard surface. I got mine at Toys R Us

[Kerry's Girls]

I've done 6 cruises with a large double stroller (tandem) with absolutely no problem. You will be far from the only one with a stroller (and you'll want to have a place to bring your sippy cups/bottles/clip on toys for the high chair, etc.). I have often pulled it up to the table, or park it outside - again, yours won't be the only one. People cruise in wheelchairs all the time, so as long as your stroller is no wider than a wheelchair, you'll be fine getting around the ship.

 

I also brought the plastic table toppers for my girls one our first cruise and they worked fine. The waiters learned to not put any table setting in front of my twins places - I brought sippy cups and let the girls eat from the table from their high chairs. (and the disposable bibs, which I found at Target).

 

The dining room is actually great for little ones - with all that's going on and a few small toys from home, my girls have always been amused enough to get through dinner and only very occassionally have had to be removed for starting to whine.

 

Best,

Mia

[GOLDENBONNY]

While I have cruised a lot, this will be the first time with an infant. I have some questions for those of you who have done this.

 

1. Do you take the stroller to dinner or do you carry the baby? If you take the stroller, where did you park it? I am not sure if it would be appropriate to park my big stroller at the Dining Room entrance.

 

2. I have been informed that the highchair is the type that pulls right up to the table. My son is just starting to feed himself and is proving to be VERY independent. Currently, any plate used ends up on the floor. I am not sure how I will feed him. I don't want to put his food on a white tablecloth but I also don't want his plate to be on the floor. Any tips?

 

3. Where did you get disposable bibs? I can't seem to find them anywhere.

 

Thanks a bunch!!

 

1.Yes,we took stroller to dining room,but fold it and levae it near doors

2.I would recomend t ofeed your baby before you go to dinner and just give him some bread in dinnig room.Get ready ,yo umy wil lohave to eat in buffet ,our baby used to restaurants and public,but she was detting very upset in dinnig room,so after 2 nights we moved to buffet :o

[mom2mc]

 

1. Do you take the stroller to dinner or do you carry the baby? If you take the stroller, where did you park it? I am not sure if it would be appropriate to park my big stroller at the Dining Room entrance.

 

2. I have been informed that the highchair is the type that pulls right up to the table. My son is just starting to feed himself and is proving to be VERY independent. Currently, any plate used ends up on the floor. I am not sure how I will feed him. I don't want to put his food on a white tablecloth but I also don't want his plate to be on the floor. Any tips?

 

3. Where did you get disposable bibs? I can't seem to find them anywhere.

 

Thanks a bunch!!

 

1- I took my full size Chicco stroller on our last cruise (12-08) with my daughter (turned 1 on the cruise). I am SOOO glad I took it. I did find it hard to stash it away at night, we sort of had to climbed over it. The full stroller with tray is nice, for snack time and it is nice to have when walking around the boat or in port. We used it durring the muster drill, took her to the dinning room in it, but left it just inside the door while we ate, and it really wasn't in the way. We are going on another cruise Oct. 11 and will take a stroller for that one and she will be 22 months.

 

2- I put her in a high chair and used a plastic throw away table cover from Target. I used our plastic bibs from home, and wiped them down after we ate. Just easier to have them up at the table making them feel "Big".

 

3- I was at Target yesterday and they have had a box in the baby section with the baby spoons/forks area.

In the travel section, they have a small bag of 6 for a travel bag.

[cruisingjon]

We are going on another cruise Oct. 11 and will take a stroller for that one and she will be 22 months.

 

We are also leaving on our cruise on October 11th. The Freedom of the Seas. Which ship will you be on?

 

THIS IS CRUISING CATHERINE LOGGED IN ON MY HUSBANDS COMPUTER.

[cruisingjon]

There are so many new things available now that we didn't have when my older two were babies. I had no idea that these table toppers even existed. I have been sanitizing tables.:eek: I will DEFINITELY be getting these for the cruise!!

 

Luckily we have a party of 7, so I doubt we will be placed at a table with anyone else. This will help to keep things out of baby's reach.

 

We have actually booked adjoining Promenade rooms for the cruise. The stroller storage will not be an issue. We are also going to Disney for days before the cruise. I LOVE my stroller and would not even think of leaving it to bring an umbrella stroller. My son loves the snack tray and the fact he can nap when he needs. I love the storage.

 

Any tips on keeping the baby happy during dinner? I have considered picking up new toys that he has never seen before for dinner.

[bigpuma]

While I have cruised a lot, this will be the first time with an infant. I have some questions for those of you who have done this.

 

1. Do you take the stroller to dinner or do you carry the baby? If you take the stroller, where did you park it? I am not sure if it would be appropriate to park my big stroller at the Dining Room entrance.

 

We took the stroller with our 18 month old son. It was no problem there was space for it and his cousin's stroller near the table. We didn't even have to fold it. Your waiter should be able to help you put it somewhere.

 

2. I have been informed that the highchair is the type that pulls right up to the table. My son is just starting to feed himself and is proving to be VERY independent. Currently, any plate used ends up on the floor. I am not sure how I will feed him. I don't want to put his food on a white tablecloth but I also don't want his plate to be on the floor. Any tips?

 

I would use the table toppers that mom2mc linked to.

[Kerry's Girls]

 

Any tips on keeping the baby happy during dinner? I have considered picking up new toys that he has never seen before for dinner.

 

I brought new little amusements - one or two each night - that clipped to the high chair so I didn't spend dinner chasing after toys. Usually Babies R Us or Target has a nice selection of inexpensive toys that go on links.

 

Best,

Mia

[CruisingCatherine]

I brought new little amusements - one or two each night - that clipped to the high chair so I didn't spend dinner chasing after toys. Usually Babies R Us or Target has a nice selection of inexpensive toys that go on links.

 

I have a couple of these. A few more would be a good idea.

[crusinmama06]

I have a picture of my daughter sitting in one of those high chairs. We did just pull it up to the table. And I removed everything out of her reach, the glasses, the silverware, the salt/pepper/etc and I brought some things to keep her busy.

 

[zia100]

I just got back from a cruise with my 7mth old. After the first night, I realized that he wanted to be part of the table etc. So our waiter brought out the high chair. i didn't think to bring table toppers so I wiped down the tray & chair every night - until i saw our waitress do it before we got to the table - she was awesome.

 

We brought our Chicco umbrella stoller in with us more many reasons - baby might need to sleep. Diaper bag (wipes, bottles, food etc) & toys.

 

I biggest advice would be LANYARDS! I have them tied to the toys (specific toys that can be attached to carseats & strollers) and the other end tied to the back of the high chair. I didn't have to pick up one toy off the floor - or worry about things getting dirty.

 

Suction cup bowls were the best thing to use for the hard surfaced tray table and i used wipes to clean up the bibs & spoons (i brought 3 bibs & 2 spoons that I cleaned and reused for the 7 day cruise). The bibs were vinyl and easy to wipe clean.

 

DS had a fantastic time being part of the dinner. He was read the menu with me and after dinner, would bite on (he is teething) a standard spoon while the adults all had desert :)

[Julienatul]

We took the stroller. We cruised RCCL when DD was 7 mo and had late seating and we pulled it right up to the table and she slept in it. After that starting about 1 yr on sher ate in the highchair at the table. We just placed her dry food (cherrios etc) on the linen table cloth and held the dish bowl and fed her ourselves if it was baby food or anything spillable. We just cruised a few weeks ago with DS 8mo (early seating) and he slept in his stroller most nights right behind our table (we lucked out since our table was the last one in the back so there was a nice space to put the stroller behind the chairs). he ate right in his stroller if he was awake but most nights we just fed him baby food in the cabin before dinner.