Cruise vacation with baby
Cruise vacation with baby? It sounds too good to be real, doesn’t it? Imagine spending your days relaxing by the pool and swimming in the ocean. The sun is shining and you’re enjoying the view while sipping a cool glass of lemonade. The best part? Everything you need is waiting inside your cabin, including your own butler who will prepare all your meals and keep your room clean. When night falls you can indulge yourself in a five-star dinner and live entertainment at the theater. If that sounds like a dream come true, then take a cruise vacation with baby!
You may have seen those billboards along the highway or at the mall, with smiling grandparents with a wide-eyed baby in their arms. They beckon family members with grandkids to come and experience a vacation together. The use of traveling to celebrate family events is not just limited to birthdays and weddings ─ it can happen for other milestones as well─ for example, Thanksgiving. Holiday cruises are ideal for traveling with a baby because they are long enough in length to do multiple excursions, but short enough that you don’t have time to get too hyperactive or stressed over packing or sight-seeing.
I was looking for a cruise vacation with baby and found this one. It’s called [name of the cruise]. The price of the cruise is $995 per person, for a total of $1,990 for me and my baby. It has all the amenities I need—a pool, a gym, and a spa. The ship itself is very nice. There are restaurants on board, as well as places to eat at least twice a day if you don’t want to go out. The cabins have balconies that have been described as “huge” by other passengers. There are also activities for kids in case my baby gets bored during the trip (though hopefully she won’t).
I think it would be great for a family like mine because there are lots of things to do on board and plenty of room in the cabin so we don’t get squished together like sardines!
Cruising is a great way to see the world with your family. You’ll be able to see many places in one trip, stay in a nice cabin, and relax on the ocean while the kids are entertained.
If you’re planning a cruise vacation with your baby, there are a few things you’ll need to know before you set sail.
First of all, make sure to bring enough diapers and formula. Some cruise lines will let you bring these items onboard free of charge, but others may charge for them. You’ll want to ask about this when booking your cruise so that there aren’t any surprises when it comes time for checkout.
Also remember that babies can get cold easily because they don’t have much body fat compared to adults or older children. Pack plenty of sweaters and jackets for both yourself and your child so that neither of you gets too cold out on deck or at night during dinner time when temperatures drop quickly after sunset each evening around 5:00 PM local time which means it’s dark outside
1. Babies don’t sail free.
With the exception of a few lines that have standard “kids sail free” deals and occasional promotions, you have to pay the going third-person rate for a baby sharing a cabin with mom and dad. That can be a hefty sum for a trip the baby is not going to remember.
2. You can’t pack light.
With the stroller, the car seat, the bag of baby food and snacks, the bottles, sippy cups, multiple outfits per day and toys, you might need a Sherpa to get through the airport with all your baby’s gear. You’ll have to think creatively about how you’re going to physically carry all the bags; it’s not like Junior can help. Babies don’t travel light.
Related: 12 Most Essential Travel Baby Supplies You Need on a Cruise
3. It’s not a vacation for mom and dad.
Some of the best parts of cruising are not cooking, cleaning or doing laundry for a week. Cruise with a baby, and you might be washing bottles and sippy cups at least once a day, spending a morning in port washing clothes, and bringing your own food to the lido buffet for breakfast and lunch. With all that extra vacation work, at least you don’t have to wash all the linens babies soil or hose down the high chair after every meal.
4. Cruise ships aren’t baby-proof.
My active kid wanted to explore everything. Unfortunately, open railings on the pool deck, decorative pebbles in the planters and high-traffic stairways don’t make for the safest play places for babies lacking self-preservation instincts. Unless your ship has a designated area for infants, you might be hard pressed to find a good place for baby to play. The cabin is your best bet; otherwise, look for unused public rooms or low-trafficked lobby areas.
Related: Cruising with a Baby: What to Expect on a Cruise
5. Cribs make cabins even smaller.
Think your cabin is snug? Try sticking a full-size Pack ‘n Play in the middle of it. Oh, and you have to squeeze the stroller in whatever free corner is left. (Tip: Leave the full-size jogging stroller at home.) It makes co-sleeping look really appealing.
6. No nightlife for you.
Most babies and toddlers go to sleep early, and if your child won’t sleep in a stroller or a carrier on the go, someone has to remain in the cabin with the sleeping angel at all times. Without extended family to take shifts, mom and dad typically end up switching up who gets to go out at night and who ends up asleep by 9 p.m. after sitting in a darkened room for hours. Some ships have a dividing curtain (or you can rig one with strong magnetic hooks and an opaque shower curtain) so you can keep some lights on without disturbing baby. Even better, some ships have a nursery where you can put baby down — if he or she will go to sleep in a communal space and transfer easily back to the crib at midnight.
Related: 12 Most Essential Travel Baby Supplies You Need on a Cruise
7. The cruise schedule doesn’t always match baby’s schedule.
If your baby isn’t a stroller napper (mine isn’t), embark/debark days and shore excursions can be difficult to manage. For example, embarkation day can be a nightmare if you have to delay naptime for check-in, but cabins aren’t accessible immediately after boarding. And if you’re lucky enough to breeze into your room, there’s no guarantee the Pack ‘n Play will be set up until evening turndown. Touring in port can also be a logistical challenge if you have to keep returning to the ship for a rest. And, oh yeah, expect baby’s sleeping and eating patterns and schedules to get messed up during the trip.
8. Babies can’t use the pool.
This one applies even if you have the world’s most accommodating child who will sleep anywhere and on anything. With the exception of certain ships with splash zones for the diaper set (like some Royal Caribbean and Disney ships), kids can’t use the pools unless they’re toilet trained. That makes sea days in the Caribbean or Mexico less fun — unless you plan on schlepping and filling an inflatable tub/pool.
Related: Cruising with a Baby: What to Expect on a Cruise
9. Most cruise cabins don’t have bathtubs.
Book Disney or a suite for bathtub access. Otherwise baby better like sponge baths or showers. Mine discovered during his first sponge bath in the shower that he could remove the drain cover and reach inside the dark recesses of the drain. That was the end of the sponge bath, and I’m not sure he ever got entirely clean for the rest of the cruise. Again, consider the inflatable tub/pool. Then again, as long as you wash baby’s hands and face, she can probably get away with a week of no bathing.
