Has anyone cruised with a 7 month old?

[pealittle]

Has anyone cruised with a 7 month old baby and got any tips for us? we have been to the fjords twice, once on the Arcadia and once on Oriana but now we have a new addition in the family we are thinking on a oceiana cruise at the end of august again to norway ( we really like the fjords) but different ports this time. Thanks in advance.

Edited May 26, 2014 by pealittle

[Morgans]

We travelled with our 10 month old grand daughter on Oceana and had a lovely time. My daughter booked a cot, steriliser, baby bath and I think baby food also, in advance and we also did freedom dining for flexibility which worked well. Oceana has a small paddling pool and a good playroom with plenty of toys (someone has to stay with baby) and the night nursery worked well. Each baby is allocated their own cot and you can drop them there for the evening. Luckily our little one settled and slept really well. We would pick her up about 11 (which doesn't sound late but it is when you are up at 6 every morning.) and used the pushchair to wheel her back to the cabin where she was popped into the cot for the rest of the night. It's a long walk from the night nursery hence the pushchair. The steward washed bottles/ cups in the dishwasher and returned them every tea time. All worked well. A cruise holiday is a good idea with a baby especially as you don't have to fly. Would recommend you take nappies with you - can't remember if they have them on board or not.

There are some nice walks in Norway so fingers crossed you get decent weather.

[Niclia]

We cruised to Norway with a 7 month old last year on a Celebrity ship. We've just come off Ventura (baby now 17 months) and would definately recommend P&O with a young baby. They offered us so many baby items which weren't offered on Celebrity so would minimise what you need to pack.

 

We found cruising with a 7 month old was quite easy. We took our own sheets and sleeping bags (including a travel one so that baby could sleep in the pushchair in the evening). We also took a supply of Ella's Kitchen pouches as food could be salty. Take your own nappies, wipes and medicines/ creams. The shop on Ventura had 2 packs of nappies (Huggies) - 1 in size 2 and 1 in size 3 - so I think its pot luck if they have the right size and the wipes were a pack of 12. No baby medicines at all. I carry everything that I would hate to be without (Calpol!) in hand luggage. Bear in mind that the accommodation corridors all have numerous housekeeping trollies on them which most big pushchairs will struggle to get past.

 

We found Norway great. It was our second trip so we knew some of the ports already but I don't think we had a problem in any of them with the pushchair. We also took a baby carrier incase we wanted to go off the beaten track a bit. Baby changing facilities seemed difficult to find so you'll need to be creative with that!

 

 

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[EccentricE]

We've just got back from the Ventura with our 9 month old and 5 year old. We have been cruising since our oldest was 14months. We think it's the most family friendly holiday.

 

I breastfeed and BLW so we didn't need any bottles, formula, food but they do provide it all. Steriliser, sma progress, and Heinz jars. The laundrette is a god send with a small baby. You can hire pushchairs from the kids club but we took our own. Night nursery is fantastic opens at 6pm and as long as they're settled you can leave them asleep till 2am. So you can enjoy your evening. They give you a pager. As we have an older one we all went to the mdr on 1st sitting then eldest went to club and we put baby in pushchair till he went to sleep then left him in the Nursery in the pushchair.

 

As stated previously limited supply of nappies etc in shop so we took everything but nothing is too much trouble for them plenty of highchairs and they can go to the playroom if you stay with them. They have baby toys Playmats etc.

Edited June 9, 2014 by EccentricE