Help me with carseat questions and travel!

[Jake&Amanda]

We will be flying from MI to FL to depart for our Jan 2010 cruise on the Freedom. Our daughter will be 20 months old at the time and we did NOT buy her a seat on the plane. We plan on just passing her between myself, my husband, and my parents.

When are arriving the night before our cruise, so will have to take a taxi from the airport to the hotel, and then from the hotel to the port the following day.

1. Do any shuttle services provide carseats?

2. If I bring a carseat for the taxi, what do I do with it on the plane ride?

3. If you brought a carseat, did you just store it in the closet in your room on the ship?

4. Was it a giant pain lugging that carseat onto the boat?

5. Do I have any other options?

Any tips?

 

Thanks!

[MNmomof4]

Some shuttle service will provide car seats for an extra fee if arrangements are made ahead of time. You can check in your car seat for free at the gate but we usually carry ours to the gate along with the stroller and we do a gate check in and the car seat is put on last and gets off first and less chance of getting damaged. We store it in the closet on the ship. You might need your car seat in the ports and you need to decide your excursions and see if you need your car seat. I am trying to decide my excursions to see what port I will need the car seats

[paryea]

I've read other posts where people said they arranged private transfers with a carseat for their departure/arrival port. It might actually be a more cost effective way if you are travelling with extended family. On a recent trip I took with my 1year old son I bought a used carseat on Craigslist (Cosco Scenara), checked it as baggage (free on most airlines), and then used it in a taxi to/from the airport. That trip wasn't a cruise, so storing the carseat in the room wasn't a problem.

 

For our upcoming cruise to Alaska we aren't taking a carseat. We will use public transport in Vancouver to get to/from the ship. Originally that meant a big Airporter bus, but recently they opened the skytrain line from the airport, so we'll use that. During the cruise we'll either walk around or, again, use public transport to get where we want to go. We also have the option of renting a car with a carseat if we decide we want to go somewhere a little farther from port. Not having a carseat can limit you, but I would much rather work around that than deal with the hassle of lugging it around.

 

I would recommend doing an internet search for the website of the airport you are flying into and then look at their ground transportation section and start calling around.

[barriekins]

Not sure what port in Fl you are flying into, but we are flying into FLL on Saturday and have arranged transportation to the port of Miami with SAS transportation. They are providing a carseat, free of charge. I contacted a couple of limos who would also provide a carseat free of charge, but SAS was the least expensive and gets great reviews on here.