Back from NCL Gem with 7.5 month old twins

[thewolffs]

I'll do a review, but wanted to see if anyone had any questions. We had a blast, but I'm exhausted. Cruising with babies for 10 days is a completely different experience than before kids. They did great, though. We had my parents along with us, which was a great help. Sad to be back in the cold and having to make my own food. There were 3 sets of twin babies onboard. I was surprised. They were celebrities by the end of the cruise.

[cb at sea]

Oh, my! It's a good thing you had help with you! A family vacation is NOTHING like a "romantic getaway" with the spouse, is it?

[MOMtoTwins]

I dont have any specific questions right now but am cruising on the pearl in a few weeks with my 10 1/2 month old twins. anything you gleaned from the trip that you think would be good for me to know?

[ourhoneymoon06]

I would love to hear how bedtime/and sleeping went. We are considering taking out 6 month old ds on a cruise... not sure if we should wait until I'm done nursing and perhaps he is sleeping better.

[thewolffs]

Bedtime was great. They were exhausted and would crash easily. We even put them in the stroller and brought them to a few shows. They slept through the whole thing. One of the girls slept great. The other would wake up a couple times during the night and get up super early, but we could usually get her back to sleep. The time change screwed us up a little, but we are back on track now. We brought 2 travel lite cribs to save space. We were so happy we did. We could keep them open in the room all day, so they could play in them and nap in them. Their schedule was a little off, but I tried hard to keep them on it. They took lots of naps in the stroller. We brought our Graco Duoglider tandem. It was great. We would feed them in it too.

 

One thing we figured out while on the Gem is that there are changing tables in the handicap bathrooms. That made life easier too. We didn't always have to go back to the cabin to change them.

 

We also brought a blow-up pool for the balcony. http://www.aqualeisure.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=25_28&products_id=133

The shade was great to keep them out of the sun. We gave them baths in it too. We also brought a cabana for the beach, which we only used once. It was good to have though, since there was no shade.

 

It was a lot of work, but it was worth it. It's always a lot of work, whether you are at home or on vacation. I'd rather be somewhere warm than back here. The crew was amazing. They all knew them by name. We never brought them in the dining room. My parents would watch them while we went to dinner, but I did see the other twins in the dining room at times and they seemed fine. We had breakfast in the buffet everyday. They loved being outside and taking walks in their stroller. They were so well behaved. I couldn't believe it. They loved watching everything going on. I'll try to think of more tips.

[kenteecruisin]

We sailed with our then 8 month old daughter & did find it to be a lot of work as well but also very enjoyable.

 

We are planning on sailing with our daughter who is now 2 next month & are anxious to see if she will attend the camp for a few hours. We haven't decided what we are going to do about the sleeping arrangements. We have a minisuite & are thinking of bringing a bedrail??

 

In August we are going to be adventerous & travel with some family members & our daugher who will be 2.5+ and our 13 month old twins. Not sure how we are going to do the cabin or sleep arrangements yet. It's too much to think about right now.