First time cruising with infants - looking for tips

[pboisso]

Hello everyone,

 

My wife and I have been cruising a lot in the past on almost all popular cruise line. But our life has changed in the last year ;-). We now have 2 infants (4 months and 22 months old). We will board the Freedom of the Seas on Jan 20, 2008 for Western Caribbean (Cozumel, Ocho Rios, Grand Cayman).

 

We are looking for advices/suggestions on

 

1) Shore excursions

2) General cruising tips with infants that would make our life happier.

 

Regarding shore excursions, based on our past experience, we were thinking of the following, any comments?

 

Cozumel: Paradise Island

Grand Cayman: 7-mile beach (is there anything else do to anyway!)

Ochos Rios: Shaw Park Beach? (We've been only once in Ochos Rios and have not made any beaches)

 

Note that we are willing to go on own should that bring us to places better suitable for childrens.

 

Thanks a lot in advance for all your tips!

 

Patrice & Josée

[myraid]

In Ocho Rios, I would highly recommend the Bamboo Beach Club. It is really great, especially for kids. The beach area is quite shallow and my 2 1/2 year old loved splashing in it this year, as he did almost exactly 1 year ago! Great food, great entertainment. The staff there is wonderful. If there isn't an excursion offered through RCCL, you can google the resort and e-mail them directly.

 

In Cozumel, we went to Chankanaab park. It was just a 10 minute cab ride from where we docked (Punta Lagosta) and a great beach day. The beach here is rocky though- bring your beach shoes.

 

We haven't done any excursions in GC, but I hear that 7 mile beach is great.

 

In terms of general cruising tips, make sure you bring lots of diapers. Even if you end up taking extra home with you, it is better than running out. Same goes for wipes. Trust me, you will use them. We brought our own pack and play for our son and he slept in it both times (although I think he is done with it now!). We always had a new toy for him at dinner (even just a dollar store toy was enough for him). We took him up to the nightclub to run around at night (before he went to bed, which was of course also before it opened).

 

Let me know if you have any other questions. We have cruised with our son twice and had a great time both times! You will also get lots of great advice from others on this board. It is a great place for tips!

 

Most importantly, have fun!

[mark3232]

Just bring lots of snacks, new small toys and pack loads of diapers.

Don't forget the stroller!!

That simple.

[pboisso]

Thanks for the advices, much appreciated. I will take a look at the place you suggested in Ocho Rios, it looks promissing.

 

As for dining seating, how was that working? Were you bringing the childs to the dining room? And early or late seating? We are traveling with 2 other couples and are wondering if we should book all at the same time. We were thinking having 2 peoples for early seating and 4 peoples for the late seating, having kids always eating early seating at the buffet with one of the 4 people going to the late seating. This way, we will at least spend a small moment my wife an I together ;-).

 

Thanks again, we will bring lots of diapers!

[twins2go]

We just got back from a Christmas cruise on RC with our 2-year-old twins. We used the babysitting service and had a great experience with it. The cruise was an extended family thing and we had the late seating for dinner, this allowed my husband and I to do the whole bedtime routine for the girls and leave them with the sitter for some welcome adult time at the end of the day. If you want to bring the kids to dinner, I think there is no question you want the early seating. Late seating on our cruise was 8:30... which is pretty late even for me! My sister's 6-year-old actually fell asleep at the table the first night.

 

Besides what others have said, here's some stuff we brought that came in handy:

Assortment of different size bungee cords. 2 year olds can easily open the cabin door and escape! We bungee'd it and the bathroom door shut, so no fear of them playing in the toilet or running off into the hallway.

 

White noise machine. I bought a small one from Brookstone for our first trip with the girls and have never traveled without it since. It blocks out all the strange noises and lulls them right to sleep. It is so nifty that I ended up buying another one for my room at home!

 

Travel size boosters that strap onto a chair and have trays... basically a mini high chair. By 5:00 they were pretty wiped out and we really appreciated being able to feed them dinner in our cabin, instead of hauling them back out in public. One of us ran up to the Windjammer around 4:30 to get some toddler chow. Hot dogs, french fries, also they have applesauce, just ask one of the staff. We brought small cans/cups of their favorite veggies and fruits.

 

Baby bathtub. I never even used one when they were infants, but I got the biggest one I could find specifically to take on the cruise and it was a godsend. Just the thing to help wind them down and relax them at the end of the day. Others here use tiny inflatable baby pools, I wasn't able to find one.

 

Travel DVD player with the toddler's favorite DVDs. Our girls like a little Baby Einstein after their bath.

 

Lots and lots of small plastic grocery bags to pack lunch for the day, carry wet bathing suits, dispose of dirty diapers, whatever.

 

Good luck and have fun! :D

[ceilidh1]

I am also looking for a first time cruise with a (then) 14month old. We are currently booked for Alaska on Tahitian Princess, but it seems that the general consensus on the Alaska forum is that this is a bad idea. Alaska is really the only option for us, as we are specifically doing this cruise with a friend who has cancer - this has been a long time dream of hers, and we figured it would be a great treat as a last vacation for her. There is no way my husband and I would go anywhere without our baby, so anyone out there who has done Alaska with an infant and lived to tell the tale?

[larronry]

I was on a cruise with my 26 month old and was outvoted and had late seating dinner on a ship with out a full buffet option. I was petrified and thought it would be a complete disaster. In some part it was, but it had more to do with a waiter who was useless then my son. Had we had early dinner he would have napped through it every day but 2 of our 7 day cruise. One of those days being the first day when I could never get him down for a nap.

 

I really need to finish my cruise story and get it post it (I had a major home network problem to take care of) but there were 2 other young children in our area at dinner one was 5 mos and the other 16 months. The 5 month old had a little portable changing station/crib (available at Target by Eddie Bauer because I used it myself) and they would put her in that and she would fall asleep. The 16 month old would go to sleep in his stroller, after playing with my little one in the hallway by the elevators.

 

Collect Cheerios off the breakfast buffet to use later. Also banana as well.

 

If you bring your toddler to the dinning room then insist that his food be brought first and immediately or arrange to have food, like fruit waiting for you. This was a problem area I had. After 30-45 minutes of sitting nicely with no food my son had totally had it and getting a fruit and cheese platter well they got it right on the last night. You are choosing cruiselines that are more child friendly and I think our waiter was also anti child. No passengers were so don't let this scare you. If there were 100 waiters I got the 1 that should never have had a child at 1 of his tables and he had 2 tables with kids (that showed up).

 

Make sure you bring the things they are used to sleeping with.

[wanderingfool]

We sailed to Alaska when our son was 6 months old and just got off the NCL Dawn (my son is now 9 months old) We did a non-cruise family vacation when he was 4 months old (we travel a lot as you can tell.) 4 months is a great age to travel IMO. Baby still can't escape you but is starting to appreciate the world around him/her. :) 22 months will be busy for you, but you still don't have to cook or clean so you will hopefully get some relaxation!

 

If you are doing beach trips, I highly recommend purchasing a UV protecting tent - they are very easy to set up, weigh about 5 lbs. and provide great shade and wind protection. You can find lots of eBay, I have one made by ABO (Australian Beach... thought it was company but I guess that doesn't make sense!) :D Also, I would suggest purchasing a body suit for your little ones (especially the littlest one) made of UV protection clothing - one more thing in the line of defense against sunburn. You can still apply sunscreen, and then put on the suit too.

 

Expect to pay about $50 for a tent and $20-40 per suit. Expensive, perhaps, but if your kids don't get a sun burn it pays for itself as they won't be miserable (to say nothing of reducing skin cancer risk!)

 

[pboisso]

Thanks for the UV Tent idea, what a great idea. We will bring ours.

 

I'm currently making out a list of all things we need, I will post it here when complete.

 

Have a great week-end.