Family vacation full of first timers

[Christinky]

Hi!

First time family cruisers! We are sailing Discovery Princess Mexican Riviera in February. We have 3 balcony rooms between my husband, baby, and me; my parents; and brother. A few thoughts so far and any advice would be appreciated:

- We are still going back and forth about getting the drink packages. The Princess Premier package appeals to us because of the four wifi devices and photos. I was thinking of getting this for one of the rooms and we could share the wifi and drinks among the others. Is this a possibility? Can you share your wi-fi? How lenient are they on this?

- What are things we can do with a 8 month old on board?

- What is their policy on bringing non-alcoholic drinks, like water and soda? I see one wine bottle per adult, but nothing about non-alcoholic drinks. What is the best way to bring them on board? Put them in your suitcase or stick a label on the case?

- What can we use the On Board Credits for? Given that we have $200 each, seems like a lot. Can you apply for the drink packages to it? If so, should i wait to board to book it.

 

Thanks in advance! Looking forward to this vacation. (Be easy on me if these questions have been asked before, tried to search, but couldn't find any recent posts that answered my questions.)

[cr8tiv1]

6 minutes ago, Christinky said:

Hi!

First time family cruisers! We are sailing Discovery Princess Mexican Riviera in February. We have 3 balcony rooms between my husband, baby, and me; my parents; and brother. A few thoughts so far and any advice would be appreciated:

- We are still going back and forth about getting the drink packages. The Princess Premier package appeals to us because of the four wifi devices and photos. I was thinking of getting this for one of the rooms and we could share the wifi and drinks among the others. Is this a possibility? Can you share your wi-fi? How lenient are they on this?

- What are things we can do with a 8 month old on board?

- What is their policy on bringing non-alcoholic drinks, like water and soda? I see one wine bottle per adult, but nothing about non-alcoholic drinks. What is the best way to bring them on board? Put them in your suitcase or stick a label on the case?

- What can we use the On Board Credits for? Given that we have $200 each, seems like a lot. Can you apply for the drink packages to it? If so, should i wait to board to book it.

 

Thanks in advance! Looking forward to this vacation. (Be easy on me if these questions have been asked before, tried to search, but couldn't find any recent posts that answered my questions.)

 

1.  You can share the wifi with all, but can not share the drinks.  The drink package will be loaded on to the two in the same cabin (you need to buy for both passengers in the same cabin).

 

2.  You may drop by the playroom with your infant but must stay.  Not sure what the visiting hours would be.  Your infant may not go into any of the public pools.  

 

3.  You may bring on one bottle of wine for each adult.  Additional bottles will be charged a corkage fee.  You may bring on one 12 pack of soda and/or one 12 pack of water...in cans.  No bottles.  They need to accompany you through security.

 

4.  You may purchase a beverage package on board the first day with your OBC.  It is NOT the same as the Plus or Premiere.  It is only for drinks.

 

I am sure fellow posters will add or clarify some of my points.  

 

Bring enough diapers (they are not sold on the ship).  You can request a pack and play to be used as a crib.

 

Is brother traveling solo (additional single supplement will apply).  Is he old enough to travel in the cabin by himself?

 

 

 

[CruisingWalter]

4 hours ago, Christinky said:

- We are still going back and forth about getting the drink packages. The Princess Premier package appeals to us because of the four wifi devices and photos. I was thinking of getting this for one of the rooms and we could share the wifi and drinks among the others. Is this a possibility? Can you share your wi-fi? How lenient are they on this?

- What are things we can do with a 8 month old on board?

- What is their policy on bringing non-alcoholic drinks, like water and soda? I see one wine bottle per adult, but nothing about non-alcoholic drinks. What is the best way to bring them on board? Put them in your suitcase or stick a label on the case?

- What can we use the On Board Credits for? Given that we have $200 each, seems like a lot. Can you apply for the drink packages to it? If so, should i wait to board to book it.

 

Thanks in advance! Looking forward to this vacation. (Be easy on me if these questions have been asked before, tried to search, but couldn't find any recent posts that answered my questions.)

 

As someone else mentioned, you cannot 'share' the drinks package. If they see you purchase a drink and hand it to another member of your party, that party can have a drinks package automatically added to their stateroom. The drinks package is only for the use of the people who purchased it. All cruise lines are rather strict on that. The only cruise line that does it differently is Virgin Voyages who uses a Bar Tab system that does allow the cabin to purchase drinks for anyone. 

 

For the WiFi, one person can be logged in under each account on a single device. If you have a multi-device package, everyone would have to login under the same information. There is no 'leniency' on the WiFi. If you pay for 1 person on the WiFi at a time, that's all that can access it, you have to log out for someone else to be able to use it.

With an 8 month old, not much. While Princess is technically family friendly, without the water slides and all the other activities that attract large families (see Royal Caribbean, Carnival, NCL) Princess has fewer options for the kids, especially under 3 years old. You will not be able to take the child into any of the pools because they don't have a child wading pool on the ships. Most of the bigger family friendly lines have a small wading pools, Princess does not. The kids programs and the babysitting program starts at 3 years old according to the FAQs. The kids programs are supposed to be really good according to friends who have had their kids in the programs. On Royal Caribbean recently I noticed two RCCL employees walking babies in strollers as part of a babysitting program. But Princess doesn't have anything like that to my knowledge.

 https://www.princess.com/learn/faq/onboard/cruising-with-family/

 

With the beverages, as far as I can see there is no limit to the beverages that can be brought on board as long as they are cans, however you're generally required to bring them via carry on or carry them on. All checked luggage is scanned and if you pack the beverages, they'll open up your luggage and toss the beverages. 

 

$200 OBC is actually not all that much. 🙂 You can use it for everything on board same as you would cash. Some cruise line do allow you to pre-use OBC before you come onboard but I believe Princess you have to wait. To purchase the Princess Plus or Princess Premiere package you have to do that pre-cruise. Onboard you can purchase things individually like the WiFi and Drinks Packages. 

 

Definitely have your travel agent check to see if there are any restrictions on bringing an 8 month old into a specialty restaurant before you make any reservations. For instance on Disney Cruise Line most, if not all, of the specialty restaurants are adults only on the original four ships. In the Princess family FAQs they don't mention any of the specialty restaurants for dining with family.

 

Princess is a fabulous cruise line, but definitely skewed more towards adults and young children, not so much babies. You WILL have crew members doting on the child throughout the ship though. 

 

Welcome to the wonderful world of cruising. Princess was our first three cruises and we've now sailed 8 different cruise lines over almost 20 years. We'll be on the Sky Princess in February. Every cruise line is awesome and every cruise line has its faults, none of them are perfect. Princess is one of the better overall experiences in terms of ships, food, entertainment and food. 

 

If you have not already, align yourself with a good travel agent. A good one is worth their weight in gold when it comes to planning, booking and assisting you after the booking through to the end of the cruise. We've never booked without one and they cost you absolutely nothing. Especially when booking cruises with families, it's good to have their insights. Princess is an awesome cruise line, but with your 8 month old, it might have been more enjoyable for you to book on a cruise line that is better suited for and have more options for children that young. Since this is your first cruise, you may not have known what all of your options were with Princess. Again, a wonderful cruise line and you'll have a great time onboard. 

 

Prior to going on your cruise, search YouTube for a Discovery Princess Ship Tour. There are dozens of them and you might have to start a few before you find one you like. But they give you a good sense of where everything is on the ship and what it really looks like vs. the deck plans. We usually watch them as part of our research before booking and then we'll watch it again right before we go on the cruise. 

 

I hope you and your family have an amazing time on the ship! 

 

 

[Itchy&Scratchy]

1 hour ago, WheresWalter said:

$200 OBC is actually not all that much.

that depends on the person and their spending habits. 

We just had $90 of OBC total for the 3 of us, and we got some drinks, gelato, I had a fancy coffee every day, and we still had $1.25 left at the end of the 10 day cruise. We didn't have the Plus or Premier packages.

 

Since drinks and gratuities are already included in these packages, $200 pp is a small fortune.

 

Last time we had $100 pp, and we still had $50 left at the end (with nothing prepaid).... I didn't know that we could apply it to grats, so I spent it on a perfume set.

 

@Christinky bring all of the baby meds with you. This age is sort of bad for cruising because the infants become crawlers and are super active and fast. With a child constantly wanting to crawl around on the floor on the ship -  it's just icky, imho. I don't even allow my kid to go barefoot in the cabin for the fear of him picking something up.

 

Bring ALL the diapers. And then some.

 

Some people bring a small inflatable pool for bathing the baby and to use on deck or balcony for splashing in.

 

Check out this subforum for more info on cruising with the baby:  https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/28-family-cruises/

are you bringing a car seat to use in ports? Or are you leaving the baby with the grandparents on the ship? Or are you doing bus excursions only?

 

P.S. We left DS at home with my parents at 9 months and 2.5 yo when we cruised. It was better for all of us. Starting at 3 and being day potty trained he began  cruising with us and hasn't stopped yet. 

Edited January 13, 2023 by Itchy&Scratchy

[jeromep]

Some of the other poster comments here I'll repeat, because they are so important.

 

We cruised a number of years back with a 22 month old.  Big difference between an infant and a toddler, but ours was still in diapers, and was getting food picky, and only drank milk from sippy cups, so we had to be prepared to handle cleaning those items.  More on how we handled sippy cups later.

 

Traveling with very young children, you must bring everything with you that you need or anticipate needing.  Diapers, at least twice what you normally use in the normal time frame of the cruise.  So, if your cruise is 7 days, think of how many diapers you go through in a week, then double it.  In fact, triple it.  We brought along two huge sleeves of diapers on our cruise, it was 10 days, and brought back most of them, but we were glad we had all that we had.  Same for wipes, and carry the same overage, just in case.  You'll find that you probably use more wipes than diapers because you end up using the wipes for cleaning up other things than babies.  Baby OTC meds, you must bring everything you think you may need, so pain killer/fever reducer, stuff for upset stomachs, etc.  Anything you have used before with your child for sicknesses.  I'd recommend carrying a small, electronic, thermometer, with you, also.  And think beyond what you have experienced so far with your child and bring other items which may be useful.  They don't carry children's medicines in the stores on board.  Also, when cruising right now, pack with you any OTC adult medications you think you may need on the cruise.  Better to have it with you than having to go out looking for it or visiting the medical center at great expense.

 

You'll need a small "umbrella" stroller.  And I highly recommend some kind of portable crib.  We had a substantial umbrella stroller, I think it was from Echo, so heavier and longer than your typical umbrella stroller, but still something you could get strapped to your back and carry on and off ship or on and off airplanes.  We had our own crib for our daughter.  It is from a company called Guava Family.  It is specifically a travel crib/play pen.  The cruise line can provide a crib, but we liked having our own.  Same thing, it packs down and you can put it on your back.  It is also much smaller than a roll-away crib, so more room in your cabin to move around.

 

Food is the one thing you don't have to worry much about.  Contact the cruise line before the cruise, or work through your travel agent, and they will ensure that they have baby food available to you from the MDR.  In fact we were asked about our need for baby food by staff in the MDR, but our daughter was well past baby food at that time.  The MDR is super flexible and was able to put up off-menu items for use for our daughter.  She would reliably eat chicken and potatoes and some fruit, and they would get her a chicken strip (hand breaded, very nice), some fries and some diced fruit most evenings for dinner.  We dined in the Crown Grill one evening and they were able to do something very similar for her and we fed her off menu.  But if your child is eating baby food, let Princess know well in advance and they will provision for it.

 

Do carry fruit snacks or other packaged foods that your daughter enjoys with you.  We carried fruit snacks and some granola bars on board as "emergency" food and on a couple of shore excursions our daughter enjoyed those things while we were waiting or in between meals.

 

Our daughter consumed a massive amount of milk, still does.  We brought along a bunch of sippy cups.  To keep them clean I found Bounty paper towels that are impregnated with Dawn dishwashing soap.  I found a 6 pack of these on Amazon, paid more than I should have, as they have not been made in years, and brought a roll of them along on the trip.  We had a suite, and that suite had a wet bar and I was able to use the sink at the wet bar to clean her sippy cups with the soapy Dawn impregnated paper towels.  You got them wet, and you had more soap than you could imagine.  We had no issue keeping the sippy cups clean and prevented them from getting funky.  We would order a pitcher of milk most mornings from room service and we would keep it in the fridge in the room and use it as we needed.  If you can even find the Dawn Bounty paper towels online, they are super expensive but you only use a sheet to clean up a bunch of cups, so very efficient.

 

Suites (and mini-suites) have a full tub, so we didn't have to bring with us an inflatable tub to bathe our child in.  But that is good advice and I see it often on the boards.  The showers in regular cabins on board Princess ships are ridiculously small.  Most other cruise lines have significantly improved their bathroom configurations over the years to make the showers marginally larger, but also to put in glass shower enclosures and not rely on shower curtains.  Princess still lags behind here.

 

I've opted for Princess Premier on the next cruise, mostly because for the expanded number of concurrent Wi-Fi devices.  I also drink a lot of coffee on vacation, whether a cruise or when we are out camping, and the specialty coffees and brewed coffee are pretty good.  If you drink two specialty coffees and 3 or 4 cups of brewed coffee (often decaf) each day, it adds up fast.  Into fountain pop?  Adds up fast.  Canned pop?  Adds up fast.  I also wouldn't mind having a beer or two without looking at the price and cringing.  We also have some OBC on our next cruise, but we are certain to use that up booking some expensive shore excursions.  The new Premier with the added options, like the exercise classes are attractive to my wife.  It's expensive, but makes the cruise more all inclusive than if you opt out of Plus or Premier.  If you opt for Plus or Premier, there is little reason to bring on board bottled or canned beverages.  You cannot share Princess Plus or Premier.  If you get it for yourself, your spouse will also have to have it.  Sharing drinks, if the crew catches wind of it would get your package canceled with no refund. 

 

Your child will be tied to you and your family members all day long.  There is not much for a 9 month old to do on board.  Others have pointed out most of the restrictions, no pool time, no baby sitting service on board, kids clubs are for over 3 and toilet trained.  My in-laws came with us on our cruise and they were a super beneficial.  They spent some time taking care and watching over my daughter while my wife and I could do other things.  They would meander around the ship with her, take her to the buffet, etc.

 

I've cruised as a DINK couple many years ago and more recently with children.  When you cruising as just a couple, there are no limitations on what you can do or be involved in.  The moment you cruise with young children, it changes the cruise experience, a lot.  It is still a great way to travel, and because you come home to the same home many nights in a row, you can relax a little more, spread out a little more, but you'll find that there are a number of things you can't do on this vacation because you have a little one.  If your parents are willing to play doting grandparent a bit and take care of your baby, for a few hours every now and then, you'll find that you and your husband will be able to do some DINK things, like couples spa treatments, or a dinner out at a specialty restaurant, go to a show.

[nini]

All of the previous comments are excellent. I want to add that there is also a Walmart at the Puerto Vallarta port in easy walking distance if there are a few items you forgot or need to add to your diaper supply.

[Thrak]

Do NOT put wipes down the toilet. The plumbing on the ship can't handle wipes and you will end up blocking the pipes - resulting in non-functioning toilets for a whole row of cabins. (This isn't just a problem with babies - often adult passengers flush various wipes and it causes major problems.)

 

Soda and water carry on is restricted to a 12 pack per person and needs to be in cans. You need to carry it on with you. If it's in your checked bags Princess will almost certainly snag the bags and hold them and you will be required to report to the "naughty room" to open your bags so they can see that it isn't Beer or some other prohibited item.

 

If you purchase a package such as Princess Plus or Princess Premier the daily gratuities will be included. If you don't have such a package the daily gratuities will eat up your $200 OBC rapidly. The gratuities will be applied to your account daily and any OBC you have will be used for that purpose.

 

Your child won't be allowed in the pools even with "swim diapers". Trying to circumvent this restriction can result in the entire pool being closed and drained for cleaning.

 

Make sure you pack any medications you "might" end up needing. For instance cough drops, Nyquil, etc. They will either not be available to purchase on the ship or, if they are, they will be crazy expensive. Before the "pandemic pause" we saw Robitussin and such for sale in tiny bottles for crazy prices. On our cruises since the restart we didn't see those things available for purchase. Make sure to bring any Ibuprofen or other over the counter items you "might" need with you. (Of course one can buy this sort of thing at a port stop but it's a drag to need it while at sea and not have it available.)

[nini]

Thank you to Thrak about the reminder regarding the toilets. When we boarded the Grand last September, our cabin steward was very emphatic about what could and could not be placed in the toilet and why. I think this in person "infomercial" may become part of the introductory process now for stewards. He was a sweetie and lovely steward!

[Itchy&Scratchy]

1 hour ago, jeromep said:

Our daughter consumed a massive amount of milk, still does.  We brought along a bunch of sippy cups.

just to chime in on that: instead of bringing sippies with us, we simply went to the coffee shop onboard and got a bunch of cups with lids like this:

 

granted, not every 8 month old is able to drink from those, nor should an 8 month old drink regular cow's milk.

But just in case someone finds this info useful.

 

P.S. My kid was still breastfeeding at 8 months, hence no sippy cup at that age. He used regular bottles (not sippy cups) well after 12 months.

Edited January 13, 2023 by Itchy&Scratchy

[cr8tiv1]

This probably doesn't apply to this voyage, but isn't there something about not allowing a child less than one to cruise more than 2 sea days?  Or does that only apply to transPacific and transAtlantic voyages?

 

If OP isn't doing any beverage packages, OBC will be eaten up by Crew Appreciation 

[Itchy&Scratchy]

18 hours ago, Christinky said:

What can we use the On Board Credits for? Given that we have $200 each,

how does a first timer get that much?

[Shelly97060]

Lots of good info in already posted replies.  I would mention that you can pre-order a 12 pack of water for $7.80. You will find the option in your Cruise Personalizer under onboard services/ beverage packages. 

 

be sure to check out the Princess FAQ on sailing with kids 

https://www.princess.com/learn/faq/onboard/cruising-with-family/

[Thrak]

Be sure to have passports for everybody including the baby. This can be extremely important. Imagine a problem where the little one became seriously ill. They would need to have a passport in order to fly back to the US.

[capriccio]

2 hours ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

how does a first timer get that much?

From their Travel Agent?

[milolii]

2 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

This probably doesn't apply to this voyage, but isn't there something about not allowing a child less than one to cruise more than 2 sea days?  Or does that only apply to transPacific and transAtlantic voyages?

Ok I looked it up. It’s no child under 6 months 

Under  12 mo no Trans oceanic or remote itineraries with more than 2 sea days.

https://www.princesscruises.de/en/holiday-princess/important-information/age-restrictions

[CruisingWalter]

9 hours ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

how does a first timer get that much?

 

Has nothing to do with being first time on the ship, it's part of the cabin package. Princess is offering a lot of OBC right now for various sailings.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

3 hours ago, WheresWalter said:

 

Has nothing to do with being first time on the ship, it's part of the cabin package. Princess is offering a lot of OBC right now for various sailings.

Nice. 🙂

 

we never got more than $100 a piece when we got super lucky. Even when Princess was trying to bring people in after the shutdown. We got $125 OBC total on our last cruise... Some people have all the luck. 🙂

 

In any case, $200 pp will not get eaten up by the grats in its entirety. There will be some left, even if they don't have a package.

[Christinky]

Thanks for all the responses! A little overwhelming, but lots of helpful information. 5 adults to 1 baby, I think we can manage! 🤞Going to try to answer everyone's comments and questions, and you all can answer/comment on my follow ups.

 

In our group going, three of us received the cruise from a casino, balcony suites at that! The $200 OBC/person is not from a travel agent, but from the deposit. I have called a few times to ask what the OBC covers and all the customer service people said I could not use OBC towards gratuity and wi-fi, as many of your posters have mentioned.

 

As far as the room arrangements go, booking wise, room1: my parents, room2: brother and me, room3: husband and baby. We decided to get Princess Premier for room2 since my brother and I drink the most and he is a fitness junkie, but when it comes to actual sleeping arrangements, my brother will be sleeping on his own (or whoever he decides to bring to his room 😂). My brother couldn't find a friend to join, despite us telling them they only had to pay for taxes, fees, and gratuity, and since babies still need to pay taxes and fees, she counts as our 6th person, so no single occupancy charges.

 

Food wise: She drinks pumped breast milk and is just starting solids, just little pieces of what we eat, so shouldn't be too big of an issue. Sounds like I need to call to make MDR arrangements, like a high chair and time slots.

We requested a refrigerator in each of the rooms to keep my milk. Does it have a small compartment that freezes? Debating whether to bring a small supply of frozen milk, just in case I am unable to produce. Do the rooms have microwaves? If not, is this something we can request?

 

Things we are definitely bringing for baby: a crap ton of diapers and wipes, inflatable tub, child friendly sanitizer sprays for fabrics and surfaces, Doona car seat and stroller combo (which doesn't need a base, best baby purchase ever! Look it up!), meds

 

We all have passports. We don't have plans for excursions, but we do plan to get off the ship and explore either via foot or Uber (again, our stroller has a carseat feature without needing a base). Which reminds me, I need to see what there is to do at our ports! Hoping they, some or all, have a nearby beach or something to waddle.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

6 hours ago, Christinky said:

three of us received the cruise from a casino

like a Princess casino or some other casino? I recently asked about Princess casino rates, and it turned out you have to use one extensively and then book through the casino department to get a comped or very low rate cruise. You don't actually have to answer this, I am just wondering out loud.

 

6 hours ago, Christinky said:

The $200 OBC/person is not from a travel agent, but from the deposit.

not sure what that is, but - yay!

 

6 hours ago, Christinky said:

I have called a few times to ask what the OBC covers and all the customer service people said I could not use OBC towards gratuity and wi-fi,

they may have meant that you cannot use OBC to PREpurchase stuff before the cruise. Once you are on the cruise, OBC goes towards all your onboard purchases, including gratuities. There are plenty of threads about it, if you want and have time to read them. 🙂

 

6 hours ago, Christinky said:

Do the rooms have microwaves? If not, is this something we can request?

no and no. Thaw at room temperature, I guess. Or put the bottle into a glass of hot/warm tap water.

 

6 hours ago, Christinky said:

We requested a refrigerator in each of the rooms to keep my milk. Does it have a small compartment that freezes?

you don't need to freeze it if you are going to use it within 5 days (in a real fridge)... At least that what it was 11 years ago. 

I don't know if they'll provide a fridge for EVERY cabin. Even for one. I would prepare to use the milk the same or the following day just in case.

6 hours ago, Christinky said:

Sounds like I need to call to make MDR arrangements, like a high chair and time slots.

time slots can be booked online/app.

 

6 hours ago, Christinky said:

We don't have plans for excursions

ever since DS started cruising with us at 3, we just go to the beach...

 

6 hours ago, Christinky said:

carseat feature without needing a base

in other countries, the cars may not have the locking seat belts like they do in the us or isofix/latch. Does Doona have lockoffs? they would be a life saver in this situation. I could look it up but I am feeling lazy this morning. And undercaffeinated. 🙂

 

Here are two fantastic boards if you have any questions about car seats or traveling with kids, in addition to the one I gave you above:

https://community.babycenter.com/groups/a10635/traveling_with_children

https://community.babycenter.com/groups/a7645/car_seat_questions

 

Enjoy your cruise!!!!

Edited January 17, 2023 by Itchy&Scratchy

[Sail away MK]

Since you and your brother are getting the premier package, take advantage of the photos.  As long as at least ONE of you is in the picture, the picture is included.  Get the whole group , just you and hubby, whatever.  Make sure you get the flash drive on the second to last day. 

 

No need to pre-order water, you can order it on the app 4 bottles at a time.

 

If you have any OBC left near the end of the cruise, use it in the casino.  Remember to cashout any unplayed funds or winnings. It does not happen automatically.

 

Slap a luggage tag on your diaper box and it will arrive right in your room

 

Enjoy your cruise.

[kitkat343]

We sailed with a 2 year old on Princess, and the kids club staff was amazing with helping him participating in all the group activities, and arts and crafts.  We had to stay to supervise him.  The food on  Princess (at least precovid) was the strongest of all the lines we sailed, and we found Princess to be the strongest line overall for an intergenerational cruise (at least precovid).

 

I would strongly recommend private tours for just your family in all the ports.  You might be fine if you are just going to beaches, but the ability to control your itinerary makes the difference in traveling with young kids if you are touring cities.  You need to be able to stop and feed them as soon as they start to get cranky, and you want to stay longer if there is something they really like.  

 

At the first breakfast, go to the buffet and get yogurt, bananas and other food your child likes for the cabin so you never have a hungry kid whining and nothing to feed them.  Boxed cereals have been eliminated by many lines, but if they have it you can bring sealed food off the ship with you for snacks in port.  You can at least bring some cereal back to your room so you always have a snack on hand.

 

I'd recommend sailing during the school year for as long as you can, because if there are fewer children on board you will get more help from the kids club staff and from the ship staff in general.  At 8 months, I don't know how much the kids club can do with your child, but on our (precovid) sailing there were 11 kids on the whole ship, and never less than 3 counselors on duty at any time in the kids club so the kids got a lot of attention, especially my 2 year old son.

 

If you are considering different lines for the future please note that at the age of 2 children can use drop off care for free on Cunard and Carnival, and there are fee based nurseries on most new or refurbished RC ships and all Disney ships.  

 

Postcovid, my kids loved the RC kids clubs.  Precovid, they loved the princess kids clubs.  Postcovid, my kids were really disappointed in NCL's kids club and said it relied a lot on Nintendo switch instead of doing activities with the kids like RC and Princess.  NCL is also screwing up a lot of itineraries right now, which makes things hard to plan for parents (they dropped the Dominican Republic from my cruise and cut the morning in Antigua for  environmental reasons after final payment, and that knocked out what my 4 year old wanted to do most on this cruise - visit the monkey rain forest in DR, and the toirteses in Antigua because tours there only ran in the morning).  They just told people on an upcoming Panama Canal trip they were eliminating Nicaragua and Costa Rica for safety reasons, and replacing them with Acapulco and Jamaica (It's possible you'd need to eliminate Nicaragua for safety reasons, but Costa Rica seems strange.)  That cruise changed its overnight stop in Panama to a 4 pm -11 pm, which knocks out all the excursions.  For both cruises they made the changes after final payment and wouldn't let people cancel.    

 

The following RC ships have baby splash pads that children can safely use in diapers:   Adventure, Allure, Anthem, Freedom, Harmony, Independence, Liberty, Oasis, Ovation, Odyssey, Quantum, Spectrum, Symphony and Wonder. 

 

Disney also has baby splash pads, but is both very expensive and please be careful with their itineraries - they might not be as strong as the other lines/ sometimes spends less time in port than other lines (my family are itinerary cruisers so we haven't had a chance to sail Disney because their competitors usually have stronger itineraries).  But for many families, Disney is magical and they absolutely love sailing with Disney.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Itchy&Scratchy]

18 hours ago, kitkat343 said:

The following RC ships have baby splash pads that children can safely use in diapers:   Adventure, Allure, Anthem, Freedom, Harmony, Independence, Liberty, Oasis, Ovation, Odyssey, Quantum, Spectrum, Symphony and Wonder. 

 

Disney also has baby splash pads, but is both very expensive and please be careful with their itineraries -

pssst, she is already sailing on Princess in February. 🙂

[Fa-Li]

great advice on here already.  I just wanted to add my 2 cents on the dishwashing options - I used to use those towels with the dawn when they were made, and could be gotten inexpensively.  Since then, I just cut up a few sponges into thirds and immerse in dishsoapy water for a few minutes.  I then allow them to dry out completely and store them in a ziplock for travel.  When I want to wash our water bottles or whatever (works great for snorkel masks too), I just get one wet and I have a soapy sponge.  

[spersephone]

I am so frustrated that on our recent cruise it became clear to me that our package really was just for us adults, and not our kids. So they didn’t have internet access or drinks (unless we ordered them), and we ran into issues at the photo desk as they took some photos themselves and I had to beg for these to show up.
 

If you’re booking as a family of four in one room, it would be good if they provided an add-on to cover all guests. It wasn’t clear to me that this was how it worked, being our first cruise for a few years, since the medallion was officially rolled out, with new packages.
 

For our next one, I’m thinking we should get the Plus package for us, then I have to spend another $1000 so they can have their drinks and wifi, and buy photos individually. I was originally planning on doing the Premium package, but if the children (teenagers) aren’t included, it seems to make less sense. Not sure, but need to work it out. 
 

EDIT: Our recent cruise was only a short 6 day one, and I got the Premier package thinking it covered soft drinks for our children as well. Of course I knew they wouldn’t get alcoholic drinks. But in our last cruises, I would purchase the add-on soft drink and unlimited photo package and this option (photos) has gone. I would then put around $1000 (AUD) in our onboard credit to cover my husband buying beers and us buying stuff like souvenirs, gifts, perfume at the onboard shops. On our last cruise, there was very little to buy and somehow a lot of my onboard credit was still swallowed up due to some mistakes made by staff charging for things included in our package. Still waiting for that to be fixed up. 

Edited January 19, 2023 by spersephone

[Christinky]

So I’m trying to make reservations on the Medallion app for specialty dining. Is there a way to book a table and wait to pay for it, since I have so much On Board Credit? Or do I have to wait to make reservations while I’m on the ship to use my credits? Seems like all the reservations are getting full quick. 
 

It is impossible to get through customer service! I call in the morning and put my number to get a call back and it’s either really late into the day that I get a call or none at all! Anyone else?? Is there a secret number to call? 😂