Younger Infants (especially on NCL)

[anniedolli]

Some unusual questions I have not found on the boards yet....

1) My son is 7 months, but very large for his age - he is the size of an average 15-18 month old. He can’t walk yet, and is way to heavy for me to carry even with a carrier.  I plan on bringing his regular Uppababy Vista for embarkation and to walk the ports, but I am also going to bring a smaller umbrella stroller for the ship (my husband is 6’7” so the smaller stroller is not useful for him in ports.)
Has anyone checked their stroller at the dock with your luggage? Or would I need to carry it on? 

2) Has anyone brought a small baby food maker like a baby brezza? Is it allowed? (Tried asking the cruise line but they didn’t really understand what I was asking.) Is it necessary or will we be able to get soft steamed veggies so we can mash them up?

3) My son LOVES his walker. He can spend hours in it. Has anyone brought their walker with them? (We have a 2bd suite so there is enough room for him.) Again, would you check it or carry onboard?

[chengkp75]

Just know that unlike airport baggage, where the carts have two decks to put baggage on, the carts for the ships are 5 feet high, and they just throw and stack bags on top of one another, so if you want to check a stroller or walker, know that it could easily end up at the bottom of a baggage cart with a couple of hundred pounds of luggage on top.

 

Since it's been 30+ years since our kids were infants, I had to look up what a baby brezza was.  I'm assuming you are talking about the "baby food maker"?  It has a heating element to steam the food, so it will not be allowed.  Essentially nothing with a heating element is allowed in passenger cabins, with the exception of hair care appliances.  Yes, you can request and get steamed vegetables for mashing, and you may even get the galley staff to mash them for you.

[cb at sea]

Your 7 month old should be good with mushy real food ....and there is plenty of that on the ship.  You could bring a baby grinder for meats, if he's eating that....  (mine son was eating meat at 6 mos.....turned out to be 6'2"!)  You can get all sorts of stuff that is fork mashable, and will suit him fine, I'm sure.  Bananas, oatmeal, potatoes, veggies, rice or noodles....

 

We had a small hand-held grinder that could get normal food into "baby form" with little effort.

[soozles]

My son took his first cruise at 8 months old. We honestly left the vista at home, and just used a nice umbrella stroller and it worked fine. I personally wouldn’t give a stroller to check because they just throw the bags one on top of the other. Although you can now get strollers that fold up small enough to fit in a backpack. 
 

don’t think they would allow the food maker, but also don’t think it’s necessary. They will get you whatever you want and will purée it for you, or mash or whatever. I had no issues getting my son steamed veggies when asked. Also would get him things like mashed potatoes, guacamole, croissants. Really whatever you want. 
 

I would leave the walker at home. It’s amazing how much extra stuff you need when you’re cruising with a baby, I wouldn’t schlep extra stuff onboard. My son was so easily entertained by all the attention he was getting and all the people watching that he would just crash when we got to the room. If you searc my posts, I wrote a review of my experience cruising with a baby. 
 

we had such a nice time that we are booked on another cruise, this time with 2 babies. My kids will be 21.5 months and 11 months at the time of cruising 

 

 

 

 

[anniedolli]

Great advice thank you all so much!!

[Kerry's Girls]

Funny what you said - I never noticed kids during my many pre-kids cruises either.  But we used to eat at late seating, so were on a completely different time schedule than the families, so never noticed all the little ones we were sharing the ship with. 

 

Another vote for the dining room for sure!  The buffet is a nightmare of up/down, etc. - not relaxing.  Early seating always has plenty of other kids and the staff is wonderful about making it work.  You can request steamed veggies each night to mash up, there's often a soup with soft meat/veggies to take out and mash; pasta; potato, etc - plenty to enjoy.  

[RikkuCat]

You didn't ask about carriers, but my second is enormous - did you know that they make toddler carriers? They're both larger and designed to distribute a larger child's weight better for the parent. We have a Lillebaby toddler carrier (and I love it - OMG I love it), but Tula also makes a toddler carrier that's really highly rated. My younger son is 16 months now and over 30lbs, but we started using it when he was maybe 11 months or so. I don't remember how much he weighed or how tall he was at the time, but he was wearing 2T clothing. The difference between the Lillebaby and the Ergo 360 (which I loved) was night and day as far as supporting a larger child goes. I can wear my son in front-carry, it's so supportive (maybe for an hour or two) and I can keep going all day with him on my back. If you enjoy babywearing or think it would be helpful, it's an option to consider!

We've actually never brought a stroller on a cruise, but I would be comfortable checking one. We check strollers on airplanes and we've never had an issue, though it does happen. If it did, it wouldn't be the end of the world to us - but if not having it would significantly impact your trip, I would hand carry it. I agree with the PPs and would leave everything else at home. You can get food steamed or pureed (the crew LOVE babies and preparing food for them. We actually had a hard time getting them NOT to puree everything for our older son on one cruise, as we did BLW and he never ate purees). Definitely don't bring the walker - he might love it, but he can do without it for a week and it's one less (really bulky) thing to carry.

[Koali]

I would use the stroller at checkin. Our embarkation took over an hour and our room wasn’t ready. My daughter also doesn’t like to be in a carrier that long unless she is napping. 
 

you don’t need to bring a food maker. There will be plenty of soft steamed veggies or other appropriate food that can be served. You can also work with the dining room manager and they can have additional steamed veggies prepared and mashed/puréed for you. 
 

the ship that I was on had a kids play room for under 3yo. It had a push walker toy that my daughter used occasionally. Personally I would not bring that large of a toy. It would be very awkward to carry on and could be damaged if checked in. 

[sparkygirlfamily]

We have sailed with NCL at least yearly since my daughter was 16 months old.  Ask the dinning staff at either the buffet or the main dinning rooms for what you need.  Many staff have left their own young children at home to work on the ship, they are more than willing to assist in ensuring your child has food they can eat. We have always left the dinning room with milk and snacks/apple sauce, etc to take back to our room.  We were in a suite once and I had to leave dinner because my child was too fussy, the butler showed up with the rest of my meal so that I could eat while my husband and older step kids continued the meal at the restaurant.  The room stewards have sometimes stocked our fridge with kid appropriate items after emptying the mini bar.