Need advice: Unsure about cruising with infant

[JenM328]

My husband and I have not been on a cruise since we have had children. We are considering a 5-day cruise on the Carnival Fascination with our 3-year old and our 5-month old. I assumed there would be a small fridge in the stateroom (similar to the ones found in hotels) but now I'm learning otherwise.

 

I'm wondering how parents manage feeding infants without a fridge in the stateroom. I'm breast feeding which means a lot of pumping and storing of milk. We also may be storing baby food.

 

My husband thinks we should just take a cooler and there will be plenty of ice to be found. That sounds less than ideal to me.

 

Any thoughts out there? Thank you!

[crusinmama06]

OK I may be totally dense here (wouldn't be the first time), but when I was breastfeeding my babies on the ship I didn't need to pump because they took it straight from the tap, so to speak....lol.

 

We did have a fridge in our cabin on Sensation (the same class as Fascination) but we were in a Cat 12. The fridge is not cold. It's is more like an cool box...that's it. So I can tell you that even when we put cartons of milk in the fridge in the morning, by late afternoon it was already yucky. :p

 

If you really wanted to pump, then you cold bring a cooler. And keep it filled with ice. I guess. ;)

 

As far as the food...the baby is 5 months now. You'll have to wait until she is older than 6 months to cruise. If she is on table foods, what would you need to refridgerate? If you plan to bring cups of baby food, they are shelf stable...no fridge needed.

 

But we always found so many soft fruits and cooked veggies to mash that we took home most of the baby food that we brought with us.

[wrp96]

What age will your infant be at sailing? Carnival has a minimum age of 6 months.

[rebeccalouise]

I can relate because I had to pump for the first three months of my second child's life. He had a palette issue and wasn't able to properly latch on- so I had to solely pump milk and then feed it to him in a bottle. I finally gave up after three months and just did formula.

 

Anywhoo... what I did on our cruise was to keep the breast milk on ice. I had the room attendant make sure our icebucket was filled around the clock. Fortuneately my son didn't mind cold breast milk. This worked fine.

 

The reason I gave up on nursing was we were in port and I was in the cabin pumping when a window washer appeared in the bow window of our suite. I am sure he was as embarrassed as I was! I was like- "that's it. I'm done!"

[Julienatul]

We sailed when DD was 7 months. We didnt have a fridge in the room so we brought a colapsible soft side cooler and tipped the room steward $20 to keep it filled with ice during the week. He must have come a few times a day because everytime we came to the room it was full and never melted. It kept the bottles cold. We brought a mini bottle warmer to warm them for nighttime. We brought infant cereal already portioned out in ziplock bags and brought a disposable bowl and spoons to use and toss as well as the disposable bibs. We brought the gerber baby food in plastic containers and would toss what we didnt use. I didnt want to chance her having a reaction to any spices or anything they used in the ships food so she just ate what we brought. We packed this all in large diaper box with one pack of diapers and wipes, and put a label on it. They delivered it right to our room with the luggage. We of course brought enough in the diaper bag for the day until the luggage was delivered to our room. If you plan well enough, it will be a great cruise. It was by far one of the easiest with her since she wasnt mobile yet. It was so good we sailed at 12mo, 19mo, 24mo and 28mo and 36 mo!!

Have fun.

 

We just had our second baby and will be sailing with a 3yr old and 6mo old this summer.

 

Julie

[TupeloHoney]

We traveled with our 3.5 month old last year. And while he primarily drank straight from the tap, I did pump once a day so he had a bottle to have at dinner. We just kept it in a bag in the ice bucket. We did have a fridge, but they don't keep them cold enough for breast milk. Our room steward was a mom herself and was really great about always making sure there was ice in there. We had no problems. If you need to store more than a bag or two, I'd get a little cooler and just ask the room steward to keep it filled with ice.

[clairesmom]

We just got back from a cruise with my 2 year old and 7 month old (she was 6 months when we sailed). There wasn't a fridge, but like the previous posters said, I just told my room attendant and he kept our cooler stocked with ice arond the clock. I just breast fed directly most of the time, and did bring a few pumped bottles on port days. I pumped in the morning and they are good for hours without being refrigerated like that. As far as baby food, I make my own at home but bought Gerber Organic food in the plastic containers for the ship. Easy and shelf stable, plus they are plastic so no breaking.

 

We went on Carnival and the min age is 6 months, and they do babysitting from 10pm-3am for a fee. We did take advantage of this once and they wre wonderful with both of my kids.

[gagirl2006]

We just got back from a cruise with my 2 year old and 7 month old (she was 6 months when we sailed). There wasn't a fridge, but like the previous posters said, I just told my room attendant and he kept our cooler stocked with ice arond the clock. I just breast fed directly most of the time, and did bring a few pumped bottles on port days. I pumped in the morning and they are good for hours without being refrigerated like that. As far as baby food, I make my own at home but bought Gerber Organic food in the plastic containers for the ship. Easy and shelf stable, plus they are plastic so no breaking.

 

We went on Carnival and the min age is 6 months, and they do babysitting from 10pm-3am for a fee. We did take advantage of this once and they wre wonderful with both of my kids.

I'm glad that you mentioned the group babysitting and that you liked it! Was there a reason that you only used it once? Was your youngest able to sleep or was it too loud?

[CanadianMommyof2]

We traveled with our 3.5 month old last year. And while he primarily drank straight from the tap, I did pump once a day so he had a bottle to have at dinner. We just kept it in a bag in the ice bucket. We did have a fridge, but they don't keep them cold enough for breast milk. Our room steward was a mom herself and was really great about always making sure there was ice in there. We had no problems. If you need to store more than a bag or two, I'd get a little cooler and just ask the room steward to keep it filled with ice.

 

Which cruise line did you use when your baby was 3.5 months old? We have a group cruise booked for Dec but my brother's baby will only be 3 months old and Carnival said it was a no go till baby is 6 months....very disappointed!

[beachchick]

Which cruise line did you use when your baby was 3.5 months old? We have a group cruise booked for Dec but my brother's baby will only be 3 months old and Carnival said it was a no go till baby is 6 months....very disappointed!

 

Most of the cruise lines that didn't already have a 6 months/12 months rule have instituted it over the past year or two because of some incidents with infants' health and other issues. I believe that Disney and MSC are two lines that allow babies as young as 12 weeks, but I'm not positive. I'm pretty sure that there was a recent CC article on the main page that included a list of age minimums for the various cruise lines.

 

beachchick

[clairesmom]

I'm glad that you mentioned the group babysitting and that you liked it! Was there a reason that you only used it once? Was your youngest able to sleep or was it too loud?

 

We only unsed it once because my older daughter (2 1/2) couldn't make it until 10 and didn't want to be dropped off after dinner for some reason. So she would usually pass out and it just seemed like too much work for us.But we did have Grandparents who babysat a couple nights so it wasn't a huge deal. My 6 month old did great and if it was only her we probably would have done it more often though. They LOVED having a baby, and they held her and walked her to sleep and she slept great (she is a really good sleeper though!). I really was happy with the Camp Carnival staff!!