Back from NCL jewel w/ 14 month old

[NJfoodie]

Our first big trip w/ DS at an age where he can get around on his own, and I feel like we need a vacation from our vacation! It was exhausting keeping up with him but in the long run, we all had a good time. We departed out of NYC and stopped in port canaveral, Great stirrup cay, and nassau.

 

Pros and cons of this ship and itinerary:

Pros:

Renting a car at port canaveral was easy, inexpensive, and ensured we had a car seat for DS. It's also a good port to restock baby supplies and anything you may have forgotten.

We arranged a tour of Nassau through island marketing and again were able to reserve a car seat for DS. it was nice to have a tour in a van w/ A/C, there were only 2 other passengers, and it was a fairly child-friendly tour.

NCL's under 2 zoo was a good spot to let DS play for a little while w/ other little ones and be able to put him down and let him run around the room since it was relatively childproofed.

The staff was wonderful between doting on DS wherever he was, and making it really easy to arrange for meals to suit his dietary needs (milk allergy).

A balcony room was the way to go - it was a tight fit w/ a PnP so the extra space outside was a godsend

We brought an inflatable pool - he didn't use it as a pool so much but it was his bathtub onboard and worked great.

We tried out both strollers - lightweight umbrella (maclaren volo) was the way to go onboard, but we had a graco metrolite (smaller full-size) which worked really well for full days off the ship and at embarkation/disembarkation.

To accomodate DS's schedule, we tended to eat early - breakfast before 8am, lunch at 11:30, dinner at 5:30 so we never had difficulty finding seats whether in either MDR or at the buffet even with our full group of 6 adults and a baby.

Highchairs were easy to find.

There's a diaper changing station in the kids club that we were able to use whenever we were in the buffet/pool area.

There's nothing quite like seeing DS's face lightup w/ excitement as he explored different parts of the ship or having a staff member or another child smile and coo at him.

 

cons:

Not that we didn't already anticipate this but it was very different not being able to really enjoy any of the evening offerings if they were after DS's bedtime.

He wasn't a particularly good sleeper and we did our best to settle him back down quickly during nightwakings. Getting him to sleep was sometimes challenging as well and i realized some of that is because he is accustomed to us turning out the light and leaving the room as part of the bedtime routine. Despite mediocre sleep, he was still up and ready for the next day's adventures at 6am while mom and dad were still exhausted from being up w/ him overnight.

NCL unfortunately doesn't offer any babysitting services for the under 2 crowd.

Not much shade available at the Great Stirrup Cay beach. We fixed that by bringing our own umbrella

Kids pool was not monitored and we frequently saw diapered children in it. It was tempting to let mine play in the pool since we'd get away with it, but at the same time, I was skeeved enough to think better of it.

 

We sailed out of NYC which is an easy car ride for us and given how much we overpacked, i'm so glad we did not have to fly. We could have done w/o the booster seat we brought for in-cabin meals since we ended up able to eat in different venues at whatever time was convenient for DS. The beach umbrella was totally worth bringing along.

[CruiserInMD]

Thank you for posting this. We'll be traveling with our 19 month old in December but luckily Royal Caribbean offers in-room babysitting so we will be able to go out and about on the ship at night while someone stays with him. Always good to read others' experiences.

[Julienatul]

Its definitely a different cruise. Me and my DH trade off in the evening. He goes back to the cabin with the baby one night while I go off and enjoy evening shows and activities and I do the next. I always make sure to pack plenty of magazines and ipod movies for my quiet cabin time. That is probably the toughest age to cruise but it definitely gets easier after age 2!!

[cb at sea]

Booking a balcony may help...parents can go out there, until baby is asleep...

[NJfoodie]

Booking a balcony may help...parents can go out there, until baby is asleep...

 

We did have a balcony and yes it did help to have someplace else to hang out while the baby was napping/asleep for the evening. We brought a baby monitor to be able to hear him while out on the balcony which worked very well. We also had friends traveling with us whose rooms were directly across the hall so we'd occasionally visit them in their room while maintaining line of sight to our door and having a baby monitor with us.

[pjn]

Did you check one of the strollers in with your luggage? I am curious about how you brought your baby supplies on board. Thank you.

[NJfoodie]

Did you check one of the strollers in with your luggage? I am curious about how you brought your baby supplies on board. Thank you.

 

We have a Graco Metrolite - which is what we had DS in when we arrived at the port. Our second stroller is the Maclaren Volo which is very lightweight and has a shoulder strap - DH just carried that one when we boarded. both strollers folded up fit in our closet. As for the supplies, keep in mind we drove to port and way overpacked. Here's how we ended up packing:

 

DS's clothes were in my suitcase. Both suitcases had in the outside front pocket a sleeve of diapers (~40 diaper). We also checked a duffel bag that contained the inflatable pool, beach toys, bath toys, and a couple of his books. We checked the dining booster seat and the beach umbrella.

 

For our carryon's, this is where DS's bigger stroller was handy since most things could be attached to the stroller or stored in the basket underneath. We each had a totebag or backpack w/ our electronics, valuables, paperwork, etc. We had DS's diaperbag with a change of clothes, diapers, sunblock, and all meds a baby could potentially need; and a canvas tote with snacks, jars of babyfood, and the tub of formula. We only brought food for port days since we knew it could only be carried off ship in original packaging and sealed so we had single servings sized packets of graham crackers, freezedried fruit bits, and jars of babyfood. The rest of the time, DS ate in the regular diningrooms whatever we ordered for him. In retrospect, I packed the Packnplay sheet and his little blanket in my suitcase - I should have put those in the diaperbag since our luggage was just starting to be distributed when DS was ready for bed the first night.

[randyamy]

Highchairs were easy to find.

 

That was not our experience on our recent sailing on the Jewel. Only a few times did we easily find a high chair. Other times we waited 3-15 minutes for a staff member to bring one. The dining venues were also crowded even during earlier dining times. Perhaps our sailing was just extra full.

[Julienatul]

That was not our experience on our recent sailing on the Jewel. Only a few times did we easily find a high chair. Other times we waited 3-15 minutes for a staff member to bring one. The dining venues were also crowded even during earlier dining times. Perhaps our sailing was just extra full.

 

we always bring the portable booster seat just because of that. I hate standing there waiting with a baby so we just bring ours along. It folds well and we just hang it on the stroller handles, that way we never have to worry. We are lucky that we live in Fl and can drive to the ports so no worry about how much luggage we have.

[NJfoodie]

we always bring the portable booster seat just because of that. I hate standing there waiting with a baby so we just bring ours along. It folds well and we just hang it on the stroller handles, that way we never have to worry. We are lucky that we live in Fl and can drive to the ports so no worry about how much luggage we have.

 

That's why we brought ours too - we have this one and we bring it with us all the time when we're visiting friends and family. it's inexpensve, cleans easily, lightweight, and folds up. http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2861764

 

I was told in restaurants that they would have no problem providing a high chair and the staff was always able to get us one, but occasionally it would take a couple minutes for them to get one to our table. I had expected it might be harder to get one in the buffet area, or that a table in general might be hard to come by, so I figured I wanted to have our seat with us on the trip to guarantee we could always have a seat for DS. I also expected we would have more meals in the room. Some CCers have posted in the past that they were able to request a highchair be kept in their room, but the booster would take up a lot less space and would be familiar to DS.

 

It is quite possible that our sailing was a quieter one or a less popular intinerary/travel week for families with small children. there were a few families we regularly encountered, either in the under 2 zoo, or also dining at early times but I didn't see a huge number of kids otherwise onboard.

[CruiserInMD]

NJFoodie- What's the "under 2 zoo" and is it ship-specific?