CaribeDiver Posted September 12, 2007 #1 Share Posted September 12, 2007 Taking a cruise on Voyager OTS in Feb. 08' and we'll be taking our, at that time, one year old son on his first vacation. I am looking for any advice people might have regarding everything from sleeping arrangements to baby siting to dinner (main dining room) to shows to excersions. Please help. Thanks, CaribeDiver Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrancescaH Posted September 12, 2007 #2 Share Posted September 12, 2007 Welcome to cruising with kids! We've cruised when our son was 11 months and 25 months with our next scheduled a few weeks after he turns 3. My first recommendation is be flexible! If you haven't already, make sure RCCL is providing a pack n play for your cabin. They don't have the sheets for them though so pack your own if you have one! For dining, our son did fine in the dining room during main dining up intil desserts were coming up so each time our waiter would pack up a tray of desserts and we'd go so no one else had to listen to a tired baby. They have highchairs and for CJ at 1 we just asked for veggies and we cut them up for him and fed him soup bites at that age. Our first cruise with him he was a month too young for babysitting but it was wonderful the 2nd time around so take advantage! Just head to the desk that first day and book for while you're on excursions or you just want a date night. It's $8/hr for one child in your stateroom and they try to keep the same babysitter with you through the week unless it's their work time so if you schedule both evening and day times you'll probably have 2 babysitters. You need to have cash to pay the sitters after each session. They have an aquababies session each morning where they provide the Fisher-Price toys so take advantage. And we of course always pack a small bag of favorite toys usually tossing in one new one. Oh, and the muster drill is a challenge but they look so adorable in the vests! lol I'll try to answer more if you ask! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrancescaH Posted September 12, 2007 #3 Share Posted September 12, 2007 Oh, and you need to bring all the diapers, wipes, infant tylenol etc as of course that's not in the ship's store. One of those infalatable baby tubs would be a good idea too if you're not in a suite. The one nice thing is the diaper space becomes useful for all the stuff you pick up while on a vacation. And keep in mind the kids can't go in the pools if they are still in diapers, even swim diapers. The one exception is they have a splash zone for babies on the Freedom and Liberty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crusinmama06 Posted September 12, 2007 #4 Share Posted September 12, 2007 Yep we've been there too. Our kids started cruising at 7 months old. Babysitting on RCCL is $8 in cabin. And it is not done by the Adventure Ocean staff, it is done by crew members who want to earn extra cash (most are moms that have kids at home) And it's not guranteed, you put a "request" in...so you have to be flexible. And you have to give them as much in advanced notice as possible in order to get a sitter. We always do main seating (6:15) because anything later and we would be attending dinner with a sleeping baby. Which isn't bad. But you don't know if the baby will stay asleep through dinner or will sit there screaming and being generally unhappy. Shows - you can bring the baby into the show in a stroller. Excursions - When they were that young, we stuck to the baby friendly tours (air conditioned buses), or excursions to the beach. My kids just loved to dig in the sand, we didn't need any fancy adventure tours. As they get older (2 and up) then we started the dolphin encounters and trips to see fish. Sleeping Arrangements - for that age it's easy, a pack n play, provided by the cruiseline. Food - since there is so much food on a ship, there is always a variety of foods for the child to have. And milk is always available. You can even call room service for milk. It's available in the WIndjammer. And in the dining rooms. Free of charge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sas80 Posted September 12, 2007 #5 Share Posted September 12, 2007 Taking a cruise on Voyager OTS in Feb. 08' and we'll be taking our, at that time, one year old son on his first vacation. I am looking for any advice people might have regarding everything from sleeping arrangements to baby siting to dinner (main dining room) to shows to excersions. Please help. Thanks, CaribeDiver The cruise we just took, we had the ship puree baby food for us. We called RCCL customer service and they put a request in to special services a few weeks prior to sailing that we would need pureed food. They faxed the request to the ship and gave us instructions on how to follow thru once we got on board. We arranged with the dining people to have one pureed protein and one pureed fruit or veggie delivered to our room at 7 am, 11:30 am and 5:30 pm. (baby did not come with us to dinner, we arranged for babysitting) Breakfast was one egg yolk and pureed fruit, coupled with plain yogurt and cheerios, both from the windjammer. Lunch and dinner were usually pureed chicken, or red meat, and some green vegetable. It was easy to see what was for dinner that night, or the night before, by what we recieved. We got yellow squash one time and, lo and behold, we had yellow squash for dinner that night! Pureed prime rib is good, BTW! Everything worked out great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julienatul Posted September 12, 2007 #6 Share Posted September 12, 2007 We cruised with our DD at 7, 12, and 19 months. She has done fabulous each time. Lets see, when she was a year, we packed a small lunch type cooler and asked the room steward to keep it filled with ice for us, then we would bring milk from the breakfast/lunch buffet's to keep in our cabin at all times. You probably wont want to wait for room service if your 1 yr old wants milk now ;) . We brought a blow-up bathtub (target/babies r us $10). It fits right in the bottom of the shower and is perfect for bathtime. We brought along a few gerber graduate ready made meals for ports and some of her favorite crackers/fruit puffs for the cabin and while waiting at dinner. We brought lots of toys, shape sorters, rattles, sorting cups, board books, pail and shovel, floaty type toys, dvd player with einstein/curious buddy movies..really anything can be a toy at this age, we even rinsed out yogurt containers and gave her those to play with. We always ate in the dining room. At 12 months they paired us with another couple with a 14 month old so it worked out great. She would eat all the soft foods, oatmeal, eggs, yogurt, mashed potatoes, rice dishes, bananas, cheese, chicken nuggets, cut up hotdog, pizza etc. She also was very interested in what we were eating so she would try stuff off of our plates. We did the aqua babies program everyday. Its sort of a relaxed playgroup with a few songs and lots of toys to play with. Its every morning for 45 min. We went to a few shows and just sat in the back with her in the stroller. She really likes the magic show and actually watched it. Other times she would go to sleep in the stroller. We left once because she got fussy. Excursions, we always just walked around and shopped and took her to the beach The best piece of advice is just to keep to her schedule, nap times, meal times, bedtime and be flexible. Do the same bedtime routine as at home. Have fun, Julie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaribeDiver Posted September 13, 2007 Author #7 Share Posted September 13, 2007 These are some really good tips. i appreciate the comments. Please keep them coming. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandy toes Posted September 13, 2007 #8 Share Posted September 13, 2007 These are some really good tips. i appreciate the comments. Please keep them coming. Thanks. Everything from everyone before was great. I went with my DD/SIL when my DGD was only 10 mo old. We sailed Celebrity. Had a wonderful time. They had pureed fruits and veggies each evening waiting for her so she never had fussy time. We had cheerios ATC ready to munch. The ship offers yogurt and has milk. We had a crib from the ship. Brought an umbrella stroller that had a sun top and wheels that spun around (helps on ilands with rough walk ways). I know alot of people say to bring the big stroller but we did not want to...our umbrella reclined and had a basket to "stuff" and a place for a sippy cup. We were happy with that (also used the same one for 2 other cruises since then). Remember the diapers and any meds. Sleep toys and nuks if your little one still uses one...bottles or sippy cups and the tiny fold and spoons (WalMart has the toss away sets so if you do loose them it is no big deal). No swim diapers in the pool. I know some ships are working on getting a toddler area somewhat like Disney has with the sprinkling water/drain system but I don;t know when and what ships will have those. You can "swim" in the ocean, children love the saand and water. Some excusrsions have age limits ans some without them, really are not meant for little ones. I am sure you will find some that will work for your family. Everyone will have their own words of wisdom for you (just like I am giving). Read it all, take what you need and know that we all mean well...you will have fun. The memories you make will last long after the sun tan fades! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sas80 Posted September 13, 2007 #9 Share Posted September 13, 2007 Brought an umbrella stroller that had a sun top Where do you get a sun top for an umbrella stroller? This is exactly why we opt for the big stroller - because the umbrella stroller has no shade.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julienatul Posted September 13, 2007 #10 Share Posted September 13, 2007 Rayshade canopy extender you can get at babies r us for $10. Fits on any stroller via velcro and shades very well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandy toes Posted September 16, 2007 #11 Share Posted September 16, 2007 Where do you get a sun top for an umbrella stroller? This is exactly why we opt for the big stroller - because the umbrella stroller has no shade.... Our stroller came with one...kolcraft but we also added an extra one to increase the shade area. I bet it is the same one mentioned by Julienatul. We were told about it by a friend that cruised a few mo before we took our Sweetie, We shopped Toys R Us on line. Make sure your wheels turn all around. The walkways on island are not always the best and that really is a help. A friend just returned 2 weeks ago, they bought a larger umbrella at Sears with a nice large sun/shade top, basket under and juice cup/bottle holder near the handle, with the swivel wheels for about $20. They did a BTB 14 days with a 2 1/2 yr old and wanted the stroller for their peace of mind. She is a runner and has disappeared in several stores here at home. So they wanted to keep her safe. It even has a nice 5 point safety buckle/belt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaribeDiver Posted September 27, 2007 Author #12 Share Posted September 27, 2007 bump Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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