Cruising while pregnant or a baby under 1 year old??

[Aelsantokie]

Found out 3 weeks ago we are expecting our 6th child.

It was planned in a sense but I thought I could never get pregnant on my

own (first 5 kids were infertility babies).

Anyways, my family loves to cruise and now that we are moving to West Palm Beach in 2 1/2 weeks we are even close to cruise ports but with me being pregnant I'm wondering how this will work out.

 

Have you cruised while pregnant? Is this something I should avoid?

 

Also, I won't commit to a cruise until the baby is born and see how "good" she is (my daughter was a complete nightmare who won't sleep for the firs 4-5 months of her life) but the kids' spring break is in March so I didn't want to deprive them of their fun.

 

DH thinks our vacations are over for at least 2 years, we will just go to local beaches but the older kids are really bummed about this.

 

Just though I would get other peoples' experiences!

[Keith1010]

In terms of cruising while you are pregnant my recommendation would be to discuss this with your physician. On top of this know the rules of the cruise line. Some cruise lines will not let you sail on them if you are over 25 weeks pregnant and will also require a physicians note at less than 25 weeks.

 

Keith

[Scrapchick]

I didn't cruise when pregnant (or at least if I did I can't remember....) but we did travel with our DD when she was 6 months old. Most cruise lines won't take you after a certain point during pregnancy and you should factor in pregnancy complications that may arise that you aren't aware of now...

 

Also, many cruise lines have age restrictions on infants, so check that too. I believe 6 months is the minimum, and for some lines it is a year old, so definitely do your homework before booking anything.

[milton333]

I cruised while pregnant and had a great time. You must be less than 24 weeks to cruise. I don't know how you are with morning sickness and exhaustion during the first tri, but most women have more energy and no sickness in the second tri, so that's what we aimed for. As it turned out (my first child), I had no morning sickness, so could have cruised whenever. One night I did get a bit queasy, but we were dodging a hurricane, and DH was also a bit off.

 

The staff is very considerate and helpful if you're showing, at least in my experience. Obviously, there's plenty of food and a good variety of it, so great for constant grazing in my experience.

 

We had a great time hitting beaches at every port. Just floating in the ocean was so amazing.

 

I'd definitely do it again.

 

As far as cruising with an infant, most lines require them to be at least 6 months. If you do plan to cruise with a child under 2-3 years old, look for a line with a nursery or nannies. You're looking for Cunard, or for RCCL's Oasis, Allure, Freedom, Liberty, and Radiance and Splendour have or soon will have the Royal Babies and Tots nursery. I'm not entirely sure about Disney, you might look into them as well. Cunard has nannies.

 

The nurseries on RCCL do charge an hourly fee on top of the cruise fare you'll pay for the little one. The RCCL Oasis and Freedom class ships do have a pool for non-potty trained kids. Disney ships also have pools for non-PT'd kids. Otherwise, do not expect to be allowed to take an infant into the pool.

[B_Mc]

We had a great trip with our 10 month old, who wasn't a great sleeper! It was still a wonderful vacation from "everyday" (as I imagine it would be for you, too), plus your older kids will still have a blast even if you're a little bleary eyed from tending to the baby.

 

As for cruising pregnant - can't help you there but it isn't uncommon. We met expecting mothers on our recent trip and I've read several threads about it around here.

[aelittleb]

i cruised at 22 weeks and had a great time!! one of the best parts was cutting our bar bill in half ;) i did the same things ive done of cruises in the past except for the booze part. there was plenty of yummy food and i wasnt too limited in the excursions i could do, so it was a great time.

 

i cant comment on the infant thing yet, but we are cruising on the ncl epic in nov 2012 with a 3.5 yr old and a 13 month old.

 

congrats on your pregnancy and have fun, which ever you plan to do :D

[TRacanoUK]

I cruised while 10 weeks pregnant and it was a great trip. I wasn't getting any morning sickness and didn't experience any nausea with the exception of a catamaran trip we took. Our bar bill was a fraction of what it was pre-pregancy b/c DH didn't have a drinking buddy!

[maileenm]

I haven't cruised while I was pregnant, my vacations and pregnancies never really coincided.

However I have done a lot of vacationing with infants/young children and it basically boils down knowing what your tollerance is for certain things.

 

I will not cruise with children in diapers. Other moms have no problem with it, but I find it to be a real pain. Cruising you have to bring all diapers, wipes, etc for the child with you on the cruise because there is no place to buy them. I have found very few changing stations or room on cruises and to deal with changing diapers. Some cruises don't let kids with swim diapers in the pool either. Depending on the age of your child your kids club options are limited and you might need to pay extra for a babysitter if you want some alone time or just to eat one adult meal.

Additionally you will need to bring car seats and your excursions choices are limited.

 

Like I said some mom's are fine with that, for me it just doesn't make for a vacation. We are cruising this summer and I am leaving my 6 mo old daughter at home with my MIL but I am taking my two sons 8 and 4. I will need to bring a booster for the 4 yr old but that is infinitely smaller than a carseat. Still the amount of junk I am taking for a family of 4 is so much I can't imagine having to add all the other stuff for a baby. It will be nice to have family time with the boys, but they will also probably want to spend some time in Adventure Ocean so some alone couple time will also be nice.

 

As for vacations being over for the next 2 years...that is not the case. There are plenty of non-cruise vacations you can do with kids and infants. We have done them. My bigget thing against cruising with infants is the need to buy and bring EVERYTHING with you in a small room with no chance of getting more while your are at sea or really the ability to alter your plans while at sea.

[milton333]

I posted above, but wanted to chime in that I'd personally prefer to cruise while pregnant, I have such great memories of our "babymoon" trip before the baby came, and it was nice to be able to relax and have fun before you get too big and have the aches and pains of the ends of pregnancy. It's nice to pamper yourself before baby.

 

As far as needing to take everything baby related, well, breastfeeding frees up the need to carry a lot of feeding junk. If you follow baby-led solids, a post-6 month baby can have tastes of many of the same things you eat, and you can easily find scrambled eggs or oatmeal at breakfast, pasta for lunch and dinner, mashed veggies, soup, etc.

 

Any inhabited port location (not a private island, but anywhere else) will, of course, have stores where you can buy diapers and such if you need them and run out. I don't personally think it's such a huge deal to pack this stuff and have done it for travel with LO before.

 

Logistically, it's certainly possible to travel with an infant and enjoy yourself (a different experience, of course, but still a good memory). But I'd personally cruise while pregnant if that's possible, it was a very pleasant experience for me and a great opportunity for downtime before baby.

 

Oh, and as for the infertility issue, our last cruise was financed by the refund from our deposit on an IVF cycle. There's no reason to believe that you will have a difficult pregnancy simply by virtue of having had trouble conceiving. My pregnancy was fantastic, no morning sickness, really no aches or pains until the last three weeks, no stretch marks. I did, however, wait until after 12 weeks to be past the major risk of miscarriage, because I had suffered several in the past. But unless you have issues that would put you at "high risk" of complications, I wouldn't let the infertility scare you off of traveling while pregnant.

[aamiee]

My last cruise I was about 20 weeks pregnant I got a really bad morning sickness. I couldn't eat any thing at all :mad:

It's the first cruise that I actually lost weight LOL!:)