Baby Food questions for onboard and in ports

[Goodybabs]

This is my first time cruising and I have some questions regarding how everyone else did things when travelling with their babies. Both my sister and I will be travelling with our 10 month old babies. They still will be on formula and table food. We will be on the Carnival Liberty ship. Our ports will be Half Moon Cay, St. Thomas, San Juan, and Grand Turk.

 

So when mixing formula what did you use for water? Bottled water? Can you bring bottled water on the ship in your luggage? If not how much does bottled water cost on the ship?

 

I use powdered formula and how should I handle this when we go to the ports? I don't think I'm allowed to bring food into the ports that isn't packaged so how did other people feed their children when in the ports? Should I bring some jarred baby food even though she hasn't eaten this in about a month I'm sure she will still eat it now.

 

Any advice would be great. Thanks.

[cb at sea]

The ship's water is fine....it's as clean (or cleaner) than bottled....but for ashore, it would be easy to bring a bottle of water and powdered formula.

Yes...you can bring some bottled water with you if you want.

Formula is allowed to be brought ashore....it's fruits, veggies, plants, and raw meats that can carry pests that aren't indigenous to those countries.

 

On the ship, they will mash/puree table food if needed. If there are other "solid" foods you can bring for going ashore(applesauce in those little cups, etc...) you may bring them.

[Woodmnky]

Depending upon the kind of formula that you use, you may be able to find single packages that mix with 4 or 8 oz of water (I recall that I had these in Similac). We have take prepackaged food & drinks off in every Caribbean port that we have visited with no problems. The concern is generally with fruits, veggies, and fresh foods. I would take some baby food as well as maybe some cereal boxes from the buffet. If you are going to be gone the majority of the day and want something more substantial you can look at the Gerber entrees that don't require refridgeration. I have fed these to DS cold before when the power went out one night, he didn't seem to mind.

 

I'm not sure if Carnival will let you bring bottled water onboard or not, if you don't get an answer here I would check the Carnival boards. If you can easily do this I would so that you have water ready to go when you leave the ship.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

[SadieN]

Carnival allows water, soda and wine onboard within limits. No problem brining on a case of water. All drinks must be carried on.

[cruzinlisa]

The ships water is probably fine, but whenever I am anywhere other than at home, I use bottled water just to be safe. Babies can have a sensitive digestive system and I would rather pay a few dollars for water than chance upsetting my dd's tummy and making for a miserable trip. Even if the water itself is fine, the change in it might be enough to upset a baby's tummy.

I know that they make premeasured packets for emfamil that you add to water. otherwise, you ought to be able to bring powdered formula in port. Its not quite the same as a ham sandwich and an apple, as far as upsetting another nations echo system. You could also see if you can get one of the sample sized cans of formula mix like you get at the dr office or from the formula companies. Those are awesome.

 

As far as regular food, are you talking about for on the ship or in ports? On the ship I would imagine that you should be able to find plenty for your baby to eat. My dd is 9 months and i puree her food at home and when we are out I can typically find her something to eat- bread, apple sauce, mashed potatoes, etc. In port is a little trickier, but also consider will you really need it. How dependent is your little one on the table food. Formula is still the primary source of nutrition. With my kiddo atleast, the table food is more of a source entertainment/distraction so in a pinch we could do a little more of a bottle and go with real food later at another meal.

[PattyW]

If your baby's not eating jarred food now, I wouldn't bring any jarred food along on the trip.

When we travel with kids who nap, we generally aren't even in port that long. We'd eat breakfast early - head off the ship and be back on for lunch and naps. We're from the midwest - so that Caribbean sun is blazing hot - when we traveled with our daughter at 11 months, I don't think we would have kept her out all day even if she would have napped in the stroller; which she wouldn't. So anyway, we didn't need much food in port. If anything, a box of cheerios or fruit loops or saltines or something else in a package off the buffet should do the trick.

 

As far as formula is concerned, I know everyone says the ship's water is fine and I'm sure it is, but I brought aboard two gallons of nursery water and used that with powdered formula to make bottles. We didn't even consider buying the single serve packages to take off the ship. The thought never crossed my mind. I just used the same three section container that I used at home, filling it from my large can of powdered formula that I had on board.

[Julienatul]

We always used the ships water and brought a big can (sams size) of formula. I watched a program showing how the ships water has its own sanitizination onboard and is actually the same as filtered bottled water so we always used that since it was one less thing to carry. My kids did fine with it. They have the warm water spout (used for hot tea) or colder for drinking water.