Car seats Fro Little Ones

[ashley0826]

Ok I am full of questions. I know that you guys can get pretty harsh so go easy on me with this question. Do I need to bring a car seat on the ship? I'm not sure even in this country what the laws are on tour buses and such. I am a very cautious mom so don't take it the wrong way. I wouldn't even let him ride in the family limo without a car seat at my grandfather's funeral for fear of an accident.

[cb at sea]

If you use ship's transfers and buses on shore, there will be no place to attach a car seat...no seat belts. If you don't want to lug the carseat, that's the way I'd go....stick to buses and shuttles.

[acceber32]

We have decided not to take our car seat with us for our 17 month old. But we have decided we won't be riding in any taxis or taking any tours that require transportation. We will stay near the port and our transportation from airport to cruise port is a rental car (and we are renting the car seat, my husband decided he would rather pay the $26 than to lug the car seat around and find a place to store it).

 

Honestly, it needs to be what you feel comfortable doing. There is no way to hook up a carseat on a shuttle bus or transportation bus so it's not required in the US or ports of call. If you are going to be riding in a shuttle, just make sure it's safe. A lot of the ports have those open air buses and I wouldn't feel comfortable having my LO on one of those, JMHO.

[crusinmama06]

I will be nice. :D:D:D:D

 

Its not so much that you will have to worry about "country laws" in the Caribbean because basically there aren't any per se.

 

Like you said, you are a very cautious mom so if you wouldn't do it at home, then you just don't do it in another country. :)

 

Do you need a car seat? If you don't plan on taking taxis, van-type shuttles, rental cars or limos then you won't need a car seat. If you plan on taking any of that type of transportation while you are traveling, then yes, you will need a car seat.

 

There are ways to travel without taking any of those type of transportations. You can take the cruise line transfers from airport to port -- they use a full sized bus. On a full sized bus you can't use a car seat because there are no seat belts.

 

When you travel to certain ports, you can simply walk around the port area.

 

In other ports there are things like water taxis. No car seat needed on a water taxi. :D

 

Its take a little bit of research for each port but it is possible to leave the car seats at home and still be safe.

[Mom2B&Z]

Always. This is a decision DH and I have made, others make other decisions that are right for them.

Our boys are 5 and 3yrs, DS1 will have a booster and DS2 will have his car seat. Unless we can use their child restraint systems (CRS), the boys will not be travelling in a vehicle. I have arranged for a van transfer from our hotel to the port, which has three point seat belts and a top tether strap for DS2's seat. In port, we will use either taxis with 3 point seat belts and top tethers, water taxis or our feet to get ourselves around.

We don't change our standards for our children's safety just because we are on vacation or in another country. I don't mean that to sound judgemental, but some people I know believe the current standards are "too much", ergo I would expect them to be more comfortable without their child restraints. I'm not. In fact I'm on the very conservative end of the spectrum, with DS1 harnessed until he outgrew the tallest CRS I could buy, and DS2 headed for the same fate. Our boys also rearfaced well beyond 1 yr.

Yes it is inconvenient to lug a CRS around, store it in your already small room on the ship and figure out how to use it in port. However, I could not live with myself if my kids were injured and I knew I could have prevented it. Part of this is also that I'm trained as a CRS technician, and work as an occupational therapist. I've treated people post-MVA where their children died in the accident. I don't want that for my family, so yes we make special arrangements and it is expensive, but that's what happens when we choose to travel with young children.

So if I were you, I would bring a seat and use it. I don't rely on rental seats, as you don't know the collision history, if recalls were issued/completed or sometimes even the quirks of installation. That's just my opinion.

[Twelvevman]

I am not bringing the carseat for my 1 year old on this trip. I have studied my options and have arranged a hotel that has a carseat available in their airport shuttle. I have arranged a shuttle to the port that will provide a carseat at no extra charge. We also set our plans in the islands to not need transportation. We are doing activities that are walkable or use a water taxi. If we were not able to to make these arrangements then I would have brought the carseat.

[Julitta]

I'm going to be bringing my DD's carseat on our cruise. She's 3. I realize sometimes I will be able to use it and sometimes not. What worries me is trying to pre-plan, I don't know what kinds of vehicles we will be using, and what to do with the seat when we are doing stuff like hiking or shopping. It's the #1 thing I'm stressed about this cruise. :(

 

I have never been to the South Caribbean before but I have driven in Mexico and if it's ANYTHING like that, I wouldn't consider my DD not being in a carseat.

[ashley0826]

unfortunately royal carribean has ben pretty vauge when it comes to transportation. I know 3 of them we are goo

d on as they are buses or tender boats but the last in the cayman islands was vauge. We are going on the boat where you can see yhe fish by going down below the boat. I don't think I'm going to take it though as she said most of the time its a bus guess we'll play it by ear.

[crusinmama06]

unfortunately royal carribean has ben pretty vauge when it comes to transportation. I know 3 of them we are goo

d on as they are buses or tender boats but the last in the cayman islands was vauge. We are going on the boat where you can see yhe fish by going down below the boat. I don't think I'm going to take it though as she said most of the time its a bus guess we'll play it by ear.

 

Sadly, the people on the phone at RCI have NO IDEA what kind of transportation is used at the ports (heck, some on the phones have never stepped foot on a ship). The only way to figure it out is by asking around at the port of call board here at CC and see if you can find people who have done the tour recently with RCI.

 

On our RCI excursion in Grand Caymen (the butterfly express tour), they picked us up in passenger vans (held up to 10 people). We used our car seats on that one.

[alj1208]

Can anyone answer what the law is in Florida for child restraints? Our son, 4.5 years old, 42 pounds, 43.5 inches meets the size requirements in our state for a booster seat. But, our state also has a requirement that the child be 5 years old AND meet the size requirements. So, at home, he is still in a carseat, but due to his size, I would feel comfortable with a booster if it meets Florida's law. Our ship sales from Miami, and we don't plan to use vehicle transportation at other ports.