Update on Cruising With a 13 month old

[kicker]

I'm going to share these quotes from a review I'll have on here shortly:

 

 

"Cruising With An Infant: I asked a lot of questions on CruiseCritc about cruising with infants, and many posters said we were crazy for trying it. WRONG! Our granddaughter had a great time (she’s 13 months). She’s a smart little cookie who looked forward to her fruit bowl and bread at dinner each night (not to mention great kid’s dinners and trying everything we had), and she learned what elevators do. Some spare time was spent following her into an open elevator, following her off as she explored a new deck, following her back on when they opened again.... We brought our own Pack’N’Play for her to sleep in (we drove, making that easier), but RCCL does provide them. She slept all night every night, and enjoyed seeing the ocean and beaches for the first time in her young life. No regrets at all about bringing her. What helped was having five adults, grandparents, parents, aunt, who could take turns, sometimes missing an excursion or show to stay with her (a very small price to pay for the great memories we now have)."

 

 

"The five adults among us were totally pleased with all our Dining Room dinners. Our 1 Year Old granddaughter was treated like an absolute princess everywhere onboard, but especially in the DR. After our first night a bowl of diced fruit was waiting for her every night as we came to dinner, and they truly fawned over her (and all of us for that matter), at each dinner."

 

I'll be happy to try and answer any questions related to cruising with an infant. The ship was RCCL's Enchantment OTS; they had a morning program where parents/infants could meet others and play with numerous FisherPrice items.

[3generationsofgirls]

Great to hear. I will be sailing with my 13 month old in a few weeks. I was really nervous when we booked but comments like yours convince me that we will be alright.

 

Thanks,

Becky

[CruiserInMD]

Thanks for posting this! We'll be cruising with our will-be-19-months old in December, same ship, 12 night Southern Caribbean.

 

Can you tell me more about this: The ship was RCCL's Enchantment OTS; they had a morning program where parents/infants could meet others and play with numerous FisherPrice items.

[kicker]

This is from RCCL:

 

"Onboard, our Adventure Ocean Youth Program offers adventure (and education) for kids ages 3-17 with different activities and programs for different age groups. For our youngest guests and their parents, we offer Fisher-Price Playgroups with interactive sessions for 6 to 36-month-olds developed by early childhood experts at Fisher-Price. "

 

 

 

I'm only the grandpa - I think my DDIL did this, but she and my son haven't come home yet (in NC looking at grad schools). I took my DGD down to it once (it was in the Bolero's Lounge): decent amount of play equipment; a parent/guardian has to be with the child; different times for different age groups (I think 6 mos to 18 mos was 8AM to 8:45AM; 18 to 24 or 30 was the next 45 minutes). Our DGD had a great time just moving around the ship, using the sprinkler pool, using the Kid's Water Park area on Labadee, and, as I mentioned discovering what elevators are!

[chalupa]

I commented on RCCL's Royal Babies program briefly in a previous post. Here's the link below:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1107762

My posting is #9.

 

Any other questions, let me know :)

[mrs.mobster]

Im glad you had a great time! We LOVED taking our 11.5 month old (at the time) DD on our last crusie. She had a great time too and we cannot wait to bring her with us again this Jan, a week-ish before her 2nd bday! :)

[mymollysue]

We are also taking our DD (who will be 13 months during sailing) on her first cruise. Luckily my parents are coming with and will be of great help!

 

Any suggestions on washing bottles? I am hoping by that point she will be off the bottle but there is no guarantee.

[kicker]

We are also taking our DD (who will be 13 months during sailing) on her first cruise. Luckily my parents are coming with and will be of great help!

 

Any suggestions on washing bottles? I am hoping by that point she will be off the bottle but there is no guarantee.

 

Our DGD (Loralie) has been off bottles for several months, so we didn;t have to deal with that. She's been walking since 9 months, and started eating some table foods a month or so ago, so on the cruise she was eating almost everything. At 13 months she's had Prime Rib, Lobster - tough life!

 

There were younger infants onboard. Hopefully somoene esle will see your question and have some actual experience with it.

 

I should mention: as grandparents we weren't really in favor of ending the bottle so soon, but our DDIL went by "The Book" which says an infant is ready before one year for regular milk and such.

[foxesden1]

thats great! :D

[kicker]

On Enchantment a High Chair was in place every night in the DR. In the Windjammer we asked any waiter and it was brought to our table within one minute.

 

Most of the high chairs do not have belts - they are either missing buckles or absent. Our DGD is not much of a squirmer, but if your infant likes to move around a lot you might want to consider bringing an extra high chair strap.

[Julienatul]

I agree! The memories are priceless. The first time my daughter experienced a beach was on a cruise. The first time she ate ice cream, saw a live production show etc. So many firsts and seeing her eyes light up every time she experienced something new was wonderful. She is 4 now and begs to go on cruises. In fact, we are taking her for her 5th birthday on one. Sure it isnt the same as when we cruised pre-kids but the memories and fun family times are what it is all about

[kicker]

I agree! The memories are priceless. The first time my daughter experienced a beach was on a cruise. The first time she ate ice cream, saw a live production show etc. So many firsts and seeing her eyes light up every time she experienced something new was wonderful. She is 4 now and begs to go on cruises. In fact, we are taking her for her 5th birthday on one. Sure it isnt the same as when we cruised pre-kids but the memories and fun family times are what it is all about

 

Love the pic of your kids - 2 cuties! My new computer background is me jumping off a waterfall in Samana, but my new screensaver is a series of pics of our DGD on the cruise.

 

Our DGD has very seldom been around kids her own age. It was also funny to see her interact with other toddlers. As you said, so many firsts for her, and so many wonderful memories for us!

[mrs.mobster]

We asked our room attendant to bring us a small ammount of dish soap (and we brought a bottle brush for cleaning DD's sippies). He also gave another couple on board that we were seated at dinner with, half of a water bottle full of laundry detergent, and they shared it with us so we were able to wash any of her items that got dirty.