Taking Baby on Star to Alaska - tips??

[gdisney]

Hey folks -

 

I've been reading some good threads with advice on taking babies on cruises. Beyond the more obvious ones like 'don't bring a jogging stroller' and 'pack lots of diapers and wipes' and so on, I'm wondering if anyone has any tips specifically in regards to experiences on the Star Princess and/or going to Alaska on a Princess cruise with a baby. Some specifics for us:

• We've been on several cruises before, including this same itinerary, which is an 11-day round trip from San Francisco
  
• This will be our first cruise with a child; our son will be 8 months at time of sailing
  
• Our son is generally not fussy at all - we take him to restaurants and ball games and to our places of work and so forth all the time without incident
  
• We have booked a balcony room on Deck 11 (Baja)
  
• Our travel agent got a crib reserved for our stateroom already
  
• My wife's parents are also on on this cruise, so they will (gladly) help with babysitting
  

[cb at sea]

Looks like you've got your bases covered! You know what you can and can't do with your child...obviously, he travels well! Go! Enjoy!

[rebeccalouiseagain]

Your child will get plenty of attention onboard. The crew love babies and there aren't that many on Alaskan cruises. I did your itinerary on Princess last July and it was a great cruise. It is a bit rough sailing out of San Fran but you probably know that already. After the first night- it was smooth sailing.

 

As for the ship advice- bring plastic bags to wrap up diapers in- the room starts to get ripe. Thankfully you are in a balcony cabin and can get some fresh air in there. If your child is drinking from bottles- bring a bottle brush and dish soap. Powder formula is great because you can just mix it up as needed.

 

Go with the flow. An eight month old may be teething and fussy. Have some children's ibuprofen handy for this. Bring plenty of bibs because they are usually drooling like crazy at this age.

 

In the ports an umbrella stroller works fine and will be a big help on the ship. Babies nap and you won't have to always be in the cabin with sleeping baby. A nice quiet spot to relax if baby is sleeping is the hot tub up on Deck 16 aft. No one finds it right away and it is a great place for viewing Alaska.

Edited June 11, 2014 by rebeccalouiseagain

[Essiesmom]

Don't stress about forgetting something. Alaska is not a third world country. They even have a WalMart in Juneau. Although you won't want to spend sightseeing time shopping for necessities, it is nice to think you won't have to make do if you forgot something. EM

[gdisney]

That's true, although the first three days are sea days, once we hit Alaskan ports we can pick up anything we really need. He's teething now; actually his bottom teeth came in a little over a month ago and his top ones are starting to crown now. But we've got both the pain meds and baby teething gel. He does do powder formula; we use the bottle liners so we never have to actually wash the bottles, just the nipples.

 

Anyone have experiences on board they'd care to share? I've heard you can order pureed stuff when in the MDR. He's eating 2nd step foods at home already. Thoughts?

 

I've also read where folks recommend a small inflatable tub to give him a bath in - might look into that.

[rebeccalouiseagain]

Once your child has teeth, they are capable of eating some solid foods. Ask your pediatrician for advice on what solids to introduce. There are mesh feeders that you can buy that contain the food and your child can suck on these.

It's messy but might be interesting and distracting to the child. Pacifiers are good at this age to help with teething. They get holes in them though and should be replaces and washed between uses- otherwise they get stale milk and drool trapped inside. Try out some frozen bagels at home. They get messy but that's sort of par for the course.

[gdisney]

Yes, we're already there. His bottom two are in and the top ones are starting to come through. He eats stage two foods right now, along with formula.

[sherryf]

Take every kind of baby medicine that you could possibly need. Not only the teething gel and pain meds, but anything you might normally use for colds or anything else like diaper rash cream, etc. You will NOT be able to find these things in the ship shops, and you don't want a miserable, fussy baby for 3 days if he picks up a bug.