Cruising with a baby

[devolve]

Hi has anyone cruised with a baby, can you offer any advice or tips. Baby will be 7 months old. Thanks

[Thejuggler]

Taking children that can't yet move far is easy (!) and a cruise is no different to taking a 7 month old to a holiday in a hotel.  

 

You need to take the usual baby items, a compact  'tent cot' may be worthwhile.  Formula can be made up if required, stired in the room fridge, warmed in hot water,  baby food can be heated, if using bottles sterilising tablets or fluid.

 

How port visits work depends on the cruise.
 

 

 

[tacticalbanjo]

I've cruised on P&O with a 17 month old, Princess with a 15 month old and Cunard with a 9mo and 11mo. Cruising with a baby is great especially if you pick a Southampton to Southampton itinerary because that means you can take as much stuff as will fit into your car. P&O supply a travel cot but I choose to bring my own which can be folded without taking the mattress out to provide more room outside nap times.

 

I can't speak about formula because we didn't use it and I don't know about baby food because we BLW. We let the head waiter know on the first night that little one had dietary requirements (no salt, no whole nuts, no honey) and we were given menus the night before so her food could be specially cooked to order. For our first cruises we chose to give chicken breast or well cooked steak and steamed veggies most nights. We preferred to visit the buffet for breakfast lunch. When baby was little we stuck to fruit, cereal/toast for breakfast and salad items, veggies and meats and fish for lunch to keep salt to a minimum. Now we choose more widely.

 

I've only been on Britannia but there were plenty of changing tables around the ship. 

 

You'll have to stay with your baby in the kids club while they are under 2 but they have loads of baby toys and books. At night they run a free night nursery service where they have lots of travel cots put up, you bring your child and settle them (best be near settled when you bring them so they don't wake the other kids) then you get given a pager for if they wake and can't be resettled easily. It's well worth giving a go even if you don't think your little one will sleep as you might be surprised. We managed a good few nights out albeit some interrupted by the dreaded pager but it was nice to spend time one on one with each other. On my last cruise my toddler slept through another kid howling and the staff told us she was one of the best sleepers they'd ever had - cue much confusion because she never sleeps like that at home. It must be the magic salt air!

 

All in all, my husband and I love cruising with our baby. Everything is so easy once you are on board and the staff generally love having babies about. We've got another 3 cruises booked because it just works for us so well.