New to Cruising with Child and Cruising with Norwegian

[lgill92]

I've been on many cruises with Carnival but this will be my first cruise with my 14 month old son and my first cruise with Norwegian.

 

We will be sailing on the Getaway and need whole milk for my son. Will this be easy to get throughout the day and if so where do I get it? I know on Carnival there was almost always a buffet open and I remember seeing the cartons of milk. I'm assuming it's the same for Norwegian but just wanted to check.

 

Has anyone brought a carseat for excursions and if so do you have any tips?

 

Any other tips or suggestions for traveling with a 1 year old will be appreciated!

[Mom2B&Z]

NCL has 2% milk at the buffet milk dispensers, when we travelled with our boys as toddlers I often had to resort to 2% instead of 3.25% and didn't worry about it for a week.

We brought car seats for all excursions, I used to be certified as a Canadian car seat tech so this was important to us. Some will disagree, but I never want to see the inside of a trauma room at a hospital on vacation. If you bring a seat, make sure you confirm you can get a vehicle with seatbelts, and that you know how to install it without UAS/LATCH bars as many of the islands only have seatbelts. Knowing how to use a locking clip, or having a seat with a built in locking clip is helpful. Our travel seat was a Britax marathon, but there are many other great seats that travel well. I always stored our seats on the bottom of the clothes closet, others keep them in the shower or bathtub. Lots of options.

As for general suggestions for travelling with a toddler, know what works for your child and do it! People will give you all sorts of advice, but you know what your child can handle and what they can't. I found I had to keep our boys close to their home schedule, or all heck broke loose. Others find they can go with the flow. Our boys loved museums and history, sometimes more than the beach. Do what works for you :)

 

 

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[PyrHeaven]

In my experience, cartons of whole milk are offered at the buffet on NCL in the mornings only. You could grab as many cartons you think you need at the AM buffet and stick them in your stateroom fridge. Otherwise, the milk dispensers available all day are 2% I believe.

 

As far as the carseat, I have no tip. Kind of a pain to drag around, but I did it! I check it at the airport, and check it with the porters at the pier. Now my son is 5 and only needs a booster, so it's much easier to transport.

[gymbomb]

For milk you have a few options. If you will want to take it off the ship, look for the Horizon shelf stable milk in single serve cartons and take some onto the ship with you. If you only need it on the ship, ask around and they will probably have whole milk or grab some extra if you see it at the buffet in the morning. But unless your son has special dietary requirements or is so picky he will not drink anything else at all, giving skim or reduced fat milk or even no milk at all for a week is just fine (according to my pediatrician 30+ years ago and my son's pediatrician last year as soon as he turned 1).

 

Check out the family cruise forum for toddler specific questions. Reading the threads there was very helpful when I was preparing to take my 10 month old on Epic. But my quick advice would be take disposable bibs and whatever kind of cups or bottles your son uses at home, along with a small amount of dish soap to wash them in your cabin.

 

We chose excursions that didn't require a car seat (walking or transport by bus/boat), but we did grab a Scenera Next car seat from Walmart just for travel. It cost $45, weighs less than 8 pounds, and is so easy to carry around airports, install in airplanes and almost any car, and will rear face to 40 pounds/inches. We got our money's worth out of it the first trip we took it on vs. lugging around our usual 25 pound seat!

 

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Edited March 9, 2016 by gymbomb

[Savaann]

My only advice for cruising with a small child is to bring some dish soap to wash sippy cups etc in your room. Like other posters said, take the milk from the buffet in the morning and keep it in your fridge.