Cruising with a 6 month old

My husband and I are planning our first vacation with our new baby. We chose an aft balcony cabin on the carnival pride out of Baltimore to Florida and the Bahamas in may. Our daughter will be 6 months old when we set sail. We chose to cruise because we can have fun doing as much or as little as our little one will tolerate. That's the beauty of cruising! Plus we can drive to the port and avoid the hassle of flying.

Any tips or tricks for cruising with younger babies would be much appreciated. We've cruised before but this obviously will be our first cruise with our little girl. Thankfully, my parents will be travelling with us so plenty of adults to help entertain the little one.

looking forward to our first vacation in over a year!

We're going with our 6 month old in a few weeks, I'll let you know when we return!

This board has ben SOOOO helpful in giving advice to get organized, so we're planning on smooth sailing!

We're going with our 6 month old in a few weeks, I'll let you know when we return!

 

This board has ben SOOOO helpful in giving advice to get organized, so we're planning on smooth sailing!

looking forward to hearing how it went

happy sailing!

We're going with our 6 month old in a few weeks, I'll let you know when we return!

 

This board has ben SOOOO helpful in giving advice to get organized, so we're planning on smooth sailing!

We leave w/our 6 month old on Friday! We've always taken our kids but they were older, this is our first time with a baby.

Well I can say this. I went on a cruise with my 14 month old (Wow! That was 5 some years ago!)

If you have ever been on a cruise before then you have to rein in somewhat of what to expect. You, of course, won't be able to do quite as much as normal but you can still have a nice relaxing vacation.

Unfortunately at the age of your baby most of the daycares on board won't be too much of a help so much of your time might be spent walking around the ship with your little one in the stroller. Still though, we did that and we still had a good time.

Nice thing about cruising with a baby. Pack a large suitcase with her things, AND diapers, plenty of those! As you go on through the cruise you'll use those up which will leave you plenty of room for souvenirs later!

I miss that!

Are you bringing a pack and play? They do fit in the room, barely. We did that with our son and it worked for us. We also brought a small blow up float with a bottom that normally would be used for pools that we used as a minature tub instead since there was only a shower in the stateroom.

Just remember, normally the pools will not allow babies or children that are not potty trained so you can also blow it up, put it on your balcony and your little one can play in the water outside. :)

You can request a crib from Carnival, from what Ive read, they use Pack-n-Play sheets, if you want to bring your own.

Also, CampCarnival will have "free play" time when parents and babies (under2) can come in and (for free) play with the toys, crawl, etc... or (for a fee) can stay a few hours.

They also have babysitting in the evenings (late) for the under 2s.

(If interested)'

you might check out the orintation in CC the first day and see if you might want to use the facitlites ...

We are sailing with 'the Traveling GingerBaby on the Go" in 25 days (he will be just turned 8 mos) --Im sure we are going to go enjoy FreePlay... not sure about the others, but keeping an open mind...':)

I will be sailing with my 6 month old in June! Looking forward to hearing all about your adventures as I prep for mine! :)

I will be sailing with my 7 month old in June! Looking forward to hearing all about your adventures as I prep for mine! :)

I will be sailing with my 6 month old in June! Looking forward to hearing all about your adventures as I prep for mine! :)

I will be sailing with my 7 month old in June! Looking forward to hearing all about your adventures as I prep for mine! :)

Get your stories straight...

:p

:p

We leave w/our 6 month old on Friday! We've always taken our kids but they were older, this is our first time with a baby.

Take Grandma and Grandpa Built in Babysitters!:p We have two were cruising with 4 Years and 7 Months This september 22nd. on Disney.;)

LOL had to do my math.. He will be 7 months.

LOL had to do my math.. He will be 7 months.

:p

:)

Yall are gonna have a GreatTime!!

We sail in 21 days...I keep showing GingerBaby pictures of the ship... and asking "Whos going on a Cruise Ship"....Kinley!!

He just laughs and laughs.

(we are teaching him babysigns... so Cruise and Ship are new signs we are doing)

We just got home from a cruise with our 6 month old and had a great time!

The only differences were our day ended pretty much at 7pm after dinner when we put her to bed.

My only suggestion is try to keep to your normal routine as best you can including naps - a well rested baby is a happy baby!

We just got home from a cruise with our 6 month old and had a great time!

 

The only differences were our day ended pretty much at 7pm after dinner when we put her to bed.

 

My only suggestion is try to keep to your normal routine as best you can including naps - a well rested baby is a happy baby!

Please give us the Ins and Outs.. what ship were you on? Where did you go?> What did you do... What did you bring that you didnot need? What did you need that you did not bring>? Anything else ..tell us of your adventure! :)

consider this when thinking about your neighbors! I have 3 kids so nothing against kids, but be considerate of your neighbors. We did not take our kids to hotels/cruises until they were older because I didn't want to disturb people with a crying baby at all hours. This cruise we returned from yesterday had a baby and a 3 yo next door. The baby cried often during the night and day and they did not go up to a public space with her when she was crying. The boy must have been allowed to get on the bed and jump off repeatedly. So just be mindful that the walls are not very thick when you travel wtih kids and esp babies who cry.

consider this when thinking about your neighbors! I have 3 kids so nothing against kids, but be considerate of your neighbors. We did not take our kids to hotels/cruises until they were older because I didn't want to disturb people with a crying baby at all hours. This cruise we returned from yesterday had a baby and a 3 yo next door. The baby cried often during the night and day and they did not go up to a public space with her when she was crying. The boy must have been allowed to get on the bed and jump off repeatedly. So just be mindful that the walls are not very thick when you travel wtih kids and esp babies who cry.

oh, I hate that!

GingerBaby is not a very fussy baby, by nature...hes very easy.

But I hate it when there is a crying baby (in a resturant for instance) and the parents seem to be ignoring it... :rolleyes:

Please give us the Ins and Outs.. what ship were you on? Where did you go?> What did you do... What did you bring that you didnot need? What did you need that you did not bring>? Anything else ..tell us of your adventure! :)

We did a 7 day Eastern Caribbean on Holland America's Nieuw Amsterdam - it was great, like my daughter had gained an extra hundred new grandparents :)

In general we would get off at each port in the morning and walk around for a few hours - no excursions - and back on the ship for lunch and nap time. Nothing terribly exciting.

A good thing to bring would be an inflatable pool as babies are generally not allowed in the pool - you can also fill it up and use it on your balcony if you have one. Also, if you are using powdered formula to feed you baby, I would suggest buying a case of water in advance - much cheaper than on the ship (if you don't plan on using water from the ship). Don't count on the ship having any sort of baby supplies.

Also, leave the big stroller at home and bring a small umbrella type stroller.

Now that I think about it, the biggest trouble was not the baby but was lugging all the bags to and from the airport!

We are taking our baby on a cruise with Carnival Feb 25th 2012. She will be 7 months turning 8 months. We are just going to hit the beaches and walk around, may not get off the boat in Belize because we heard it's a long tender and not much to do unless you do a pre planned day trip.

We went for a suite just for the extra room for the crib and they will have a highchair at our table for dinner. Will let you know how it turns out, little bit nervous about it but excited as well.

Can anyone update this with their 6 month old experiences? Our little one will be 6 months the day we leave!

Get your stories straight...

:p

:p

Does 1 month difference in the child's age make any difference? Picky, picky.

DON

Does 1 month difference in the child's age make any difference? Picky, picky.

 

DON

Yep

&

Yep

;)

Ours was a little older on our first cruise with him but we'll be sailing this may with friends who have a 7 month old. We did travel quite a bit with DS when he was just a few months old though.

Things to keep in mind - it's usually fine to use the ship-provided crib/PnP. If you want to bring your own sheet and anything your baby is accustomed to having to sleep, that's fine. Depending on where you are with milk/food with your baby, you can bring packaged purees onboard/off-ship as long as they are manufacturer sealed. DS was weaned when we sailed with him but still taking formula due to a milk allergy so we brought the powdered formula and bottles, and used the ship's water. My friend is BFing so she won't be too worried about packing food, but will be bringing a nursing cover as well as her pump. Keep in mind refigerators in the cabins are often not really going to keep milk/formula cold, just cooled. Carnival allows you to bring onboard a softsided cooler and your room steward can keep that filled w/ ice for you if you ask him.

Mine wasn't sleeping through the night yet on the first trip and I was worried about disturbing the neighbors. We just were prepared for when he would wake to quiet him as quickly as possible - he was waking hungry so we had his bottle all ready to go as soon as he woke and between that and the rocking soothed him back to sleep quickly. If he didn't go back to sleep after a bottle, I was ready to take him up to the pool deck to walk around and rock him. It wasn't how we handled sleeping at home but in the interest of not having neighbors want to kill us, we did what we could. DS was pretty good about going back to his usual routine when we came home.

Diapers - pack more than you think you'll need. Some parents say they took a box and just stuck a luggage tag on it. Others have suggested stuffing the outer pockets of your suitcase with them. I set up a spot in my room as a changing station where our pad, diapers, wipes, etc were all ready to go. Another idea to make port days easy for packing is to take large ziplock bags for each day and prepack it with what you'll need - extra outfits, diapers, ets. In the morning, just grab a bag and go, and then you have the bag later for wet stuff, etc. Arm and hammer diaper disposal bags are wonderful for keeping smells contained.

Strollers - hallways are narrow and diningrooms/buffet is crowded. The smaller the stroller the better. If your little one is amenable to it, a carrier/sling may make moving around onboard with the baby easier.

We did an Alasakn cruise with our 6 month old. There was only 5 people under 18 on the entire ship so she got LOTS of attention.. They would parade her around the dining room while we ate. One thing I learned before going was that I could pre request food for her. Princess had 3 big boxes of cereal as well as a months worth of gerber baby food waiting in our cabin for us. We just bought diapers, formula and water for the bottles in Anchorage before we boarded. We brought a pack n play because I never trust hotel cribs. We stored her carseat and stroller up on the 3rd bunk and had the pack n play below.

She was young enough that we did take her to the shows at night and she slept through them.

Can anyone update this with their 6 month old experiences? Our little one will be 6 months the day we leave!

I posted a review back in Feb on the Carnival board. You can do a search for it, but long story short, cruising with a 6 month old was quite simple.

We're in the process of planning another for his 1st birthday. Not on Carnival as we found it wasn't exactly our style of a cruiseline. However one thing that we loved about it was the children's programs.

Take Grandma and Grandpa Built in Babysitters!:p We have two were cruising with 4 Years and 7 Months This september 22nd. on Disney.;)

On the fantasy? We'll be in the fantasy 9/22, me, DH, DS 3.5 and dd 7 months. We're bring grandma and grandpa!

OP: we cruised w/ DS at 11.5 months. You'll get lots of advice for an umbrella stroller, I have to disagree. We had a full sized jogger and it made our cruise. Sure we had to wait for an elevator on occasion and sometimes we'd carry the stroller up and down the steps but it was worth it. Having a fully reclining stroller with a large shade (that we could enclose using a towel) allowed DS to nap for several hours on deck while we relaxed in the sun. For our next trip I'm taking a go-pod, it's like an exersaucer that folds into a bag (picture camping chair), hoping to use on the beach and less crowded deck areas. Good luck, I think cruising is a great kids vacation.