First timer crusin with an infant...need tips, questions answered etc etc

[anacc2nv]

My son will be 9 months old when we attempt to take our first family cruise with Royal Carribean, Freedom of the Seas, Western Carib.

 

By nature, I am a very organized person and like to be as well prepared for vacations as possible..esp. my infants first trip.

 

Firstly, if anyone has any tips or suggestions for any item or organizational method (feeding, sleeping, excursions, etc) to help with the week, I would greatly appreciate it. I have done a lot of reading on previous posts, but the more help the better.

 

Now, I have a few specific questions:

1. Can infants go in the pool? If not, did you bring an inflatable pool?

2. What excursions did you find were family friendly and easy to access with an infant/stroller...? Labadee Haiti, Georgetown Grand Caymen, Foulmouth Jamaica, Cozumel Mexico.

3. Does the dining room puree food for you if you ask?

4. When you went on an island, what did you take with you? Besides the baby bag with essentials, what did you use to carry the babies food, water, etc?

5. What items did you bring to the beach to protect baby from sun? Or did you just rent a cabana?

 

 

Thanks for all your help!

[cb at sea]

No diapers in the pools, whether you're a baby or an incontinent adult! Many folks will bring a small, inflatable pool. Good for bathing baby, too!

 

Labadee is a beach day...no need to pay for excursions, unless you really want to! Plenty of shady areas,so you don't really need to pay for a cabana, and it's gorgeous on Labadee! . You can come and go at will, so if it's too hot, you can easily take baby back to the AC!

The dining room will puree foods.

[lolakat]

I cruised with my DD a couple of year ago when she was 6 months and again when she was 7 months. I think it is a relatively "easy" vacation choice with a baby. I'll try to address your questions.

 

1. Children/Infants whow are not potty trained are not allowed in the main pool or even in the regular children's/wading pools. A few of the larger RCL ships and the Disney ships have a baby splash area with seperate filtration. I'm not sure if FOS is one of those ships. We brought an inflatable pool and used it mostly on our balcony. DD was really not that interested in it but I was glad we had it just in case. If your cabin doesn't have a tub you can use this for bathing as well.

 

2. We stuck close to the ship when DD was that little b/c I didn't feel comfortable driving without a car seat and most of the island transportation didn't offer a car seat. We did take her too the beach in Bermuda b/c we could walk there and got off to walk around town near the docks. At that age baby is pretty much just along for the ride so I think any type of low impact tour or beach excurison would be fine. The real issue becomes the transportation and how comfortable do you feel in the available transportation without a car seat.

 

3. I've heard that they well but we just brough our own baby food as DD was just starting on solids at 6 mo and she had some allergies.

 

4. We brought the usual baby stuff plus sun screen, bug spray and extra bottles of water. We kept our excursions from the ship relatively short so there really wasn't need to lug around a lot of gear. We returned to the ship for her meals.

 

5. DD always wore a big floppy had and a lot of 70 SPF sunscreee. We didn't stay at the beach long when she was that young. More recently we rented a "clamshell" on NCL's beach. That is a couple of lounge chairs with a sort of canopy that can fold up over it.

 

Overall the vacations were good but obviously very different than previous trips. It is nice to have someone else taking care of everyday things like meals and cleaning plus the surroundings are beautiful. List other questions as you think of them and have a great trip.

[sherry7]

......Now, I have a few specific questions:

1. Can infants go in the pool? If not, did you bring an inflatable pool?

2. What excursions did you find were family friendly and easy to access with an infant/stroller...? Labadee Haiti, Georgetown Grand Caymen, Foulmouth Jamaica, Cozumel Mexico.

3. Does the dining room puree food for you if you ask?

4. When you went on an island, what did you take with you? Besides the baby bag with essentials, what did you use to carry the babies food, water, etc?

5. What items did you bring to the beach to protect baby from sun? Or did you just rent a cabana?

 

 

Thanks for all your help!

 

We're cruising with our 8 month old next month, so I'm interested in the responses you'll receive. We've cruised a few times, but this is the first time with a baby.

 

At Labadee, I would just do a beach day. There is plenty of shaded areas, so no need for a cabana. If you have a small beach bucket and shovel, your baby might enjoy playing in the sand. I seem to remember that Labadee had paved pathways which are stroller friendly, but we haven't been there for a few years, so my memory might be foggy.

 

The dining room will puree foods. I spoke to a rep at RCCL yesterday, and she said that I need to contact the special needs department at special_needs@rccl.com. We plan on also taking along a supply of baby food, since I really don't want to try to get pureed food at the Windjammer. We are also planning on bringing a couple of cases of bottled water to make formula with, since I don't want to chance upsetting her stomach with "strange" water.

[jerin]

Freedom of the Seas is one of the Royal Caribbean ships that does have a baby splash zone. Little ones are allowed in that section and no other sections of the pool area, but the big kids aren't permitted in the baby section so they don't get run over there, either.

 

As long as you contact the special needs department so they can be prepared to accommodate your requests, they can puree anything you ask for off of the menu in the MDR. Still not sure how that works for other venues such as the Windjammer, but the SN desk should be able to fill you in.

 

I would go ahead and bring everything for baby into the ports -- water, food, etc. ... most ports are relatively safe, but babies have such a lower threshold of being able to fight things off, your best bet is to use food and water you bring from the ship.

 

We have a suite and may rent a cabana, or we might just go back to the ship for naptime. Still undetermined. Normally, we'd enjoy the uncrowded ship, but with people misinformed about cholera not wanting to take any chances (my parents have treated cholera epidemics before and have no qualms about us going), if the ship is going to have more people on it, we might stay at the beach. We have heard that on the Freedom class, the cabanas have been going quickly, and that non-suite, non Diamond Plus passengers aren't likely to snag them (this doesn't seem to be as true for smaller ships) ... I hear that shade isn't an issue anyway, but it would be comfier for naptime, I'm sure.

[anacc2nv]

Thx for all the great tips. A few questions that just came up:

 

1. Has anyone attempted these excursions with their infant: dunns river falls in jamaica and mayan ruins in cozumel.

 

2. What is the best method for packing diapers, baby food, and other baby essentials? I'm think to pack a box and check in at airport.

[mrsalexb]

I returned from Liberty of the Seas Sunday. We took our little 9 month old to the mayan ruins in BELIZE. We found a tour outside of the boat. I did not check to see if I could book with Royal Caribbean. Anyway it was great. I will add that there was no car seat and the baby sat on my lap. Made me a little nervous. I am not looking for people to tell me I am a bad mom. I made my decision with full knowledge of the situation and please respect my decision as a mom. Just want you to know that there will be no carseats. Make sure you bring your water, formula, diapers ect.. The drive was at least an hour out of the city with hardly any civilization around.

We have a good umbrella stroller and it did well at the ruins. There were a couple of times that we had to pick up the stroller to move it over areas that were too hard to manuever over. The grass is lovely soft turf but do not put your little one down on the ground because there were many red ants in different locations.

BTW if you book the same tour outside of the ship be aware that the "city tour" and the "rainforest tour" that is promised is nothing more than the van driving through these areas. The city tour consisted of "7-up is no longer here because it went bankrupt. We have coke and fanta. Orange fanta, grape fanta, strawberry fanta". "If you look to the left you will see the poor houses, if you look to the right you will see the rich houses". The rainforest tour consisted of "if you look to either side you will see the rainforest. As you can see the rainforest is so thick you can barely see anything". LOL!!!! I now have great material for the impending holiday parties!

 

 

If I could give you a tip it is to take the later seating. We originally had the first seating but due to some mismanagement within our group we ended up with 2nd seating. It turned out to be the best thing that could have happened. Our little one fell asleep in the stroller (not a stroller sleeper) at 8pm (usual bedtime) and we were able to enjoy dinner without having to fuss with our son.

 

You will be able to use the splash pool but if the weather is anything like the weather we had (warm but not hot) then you will not use it. The water is absolutely freezing. I mean freezing. The H20 zone was hardly used all week.

[mrsalexb]

Sherry-

 

I noticed your reply and I am almost definite that you will not be able to bring bottled water on the ship. If you want bottled water you will have to purchase it. However, I used to be a certified water specialist (involved intensive studying and a very hard test to become certified) and what I can tell you is that the water is the same as bottled water...it is NOT your typical tap water. Your baby will not have an issue at all with the water that comes out of the tap. Hope that helps:o

[clairesmom]

We cruised with my second daughter at 6 months. It was interesting. Not horrible, but not great. She was picky, and would only sleep well in a pack n play or crib, so we were room bound a lot. I would most definitely NOT do an infant at Dunns River!! I barely made it without falling sans kids!

 

Check a box with diapers, and bring baby food. at nine months, you should be able to do a lot of table food as well, like fruit plates, bread, etc. And I hope you have a balcony! It was a lifesaver during naps and after bedtime!

[sherry7]

Sherry-

 

I noticed your reply and I am almost definite that you will not be able to bring bottled water on the ship. If you want bottled water you will have to purchase it. However, I used to be a certified water specialist (involved intensive studying and a very hard test to become certified) and what I can tell you is that the water is the same as bottled water...it is NOT your typical tap water. Your baby will not have an issue at all with the water that comes out of the tap. Hope that helps:o

 

Thank you for the reply. :) Has there been a change in RCCL policy about bringing bottled water aboard? We cruised on the Radiance in January, and I brought aboard 2 cases of water...I just stuck a RCCL luggage tag on each one at the dock.

 

I do appreciate what you saying about the ship's water being the same as bottled. However, on several occasions I have witnessed it coming out of the tap with a brownish color. I don't hesitate to drink tap water at home, but I think twice about doing so on a cruise.

[sherry7]

Thx for all the great tips. A few questions that just came up:

 

1. Has anyone attempted these excursions with their infant: dunns river falls in jamaica and mayan ruins in cozumel.

 

2. What is the best method for packing diapers, baby food, and other baby essentials? I'm think to pack a box and check in at airport.

 

Dunns River Falls with a baby? Oh my gosh...definitely not! :eek: We were there a few years ago, and my husband and I couldn't make it all of the way up. My very fit and active teenage son was the only one of our group that made it all of the way. The rocks are slippery and hard to climb over. It's difficult (and somewhat dangerous) for an adult. There are steps that go up along the side the entire way, so you could carry the baby up that way while the rest of your party climbs the falls.

 

We are cruising with our 8 month old next month, but we're driving to port this time. I plan on putting her baby food, powdered formula, and a 2 or 3 day supply of diapers in a rolling carry-on size suitcase, which I will hand carry onto the ship. Luggage is known to get lost even on the ship, and of course airlines are notorious for it. The rest of her diapers will get split up between 2 or 3 suitcases. That way if one suitcase goes missing, all is not lost. I actually cross-pack our clothes that way too when we fly. Each person has 2 complete outfits that are packed in another person's suitcase.

[Chicky2181]

HI Sherry,

 

What a great tip about cross packing!!!! I usually bring one set of clothes in my carry on, but your idea is even better.

-Lisa