Cruise with 10 month old

are we being stupid for booking a cruise with a 5 year old and a 10 month old, we want to book the breakaway next year, any advice with travelling with a baby under 1. we want to book a balcony room.

thanks

Of course you're not being "stupid"....this will be a family vacation, just like any other! You're simply vacationing on a ship! You'll do family things and will have a fine time. The 5 year old is old enough to make use of the kid's club, but the 10 mo. old will be with you....so you'll do all things with the baby on the ship that you would any other time. Most kids are fascinated with the shows, so don't be afraid to take them. A balcony will give you someplace "to be" while the kids nap or are down early for the night.

Bring a stroller so baby can nap out on deck while you're out and about. Bring ALL baby items...the ship doesn't sell much, if any, baby things.....so diapers for the entire cruise, all the lotions and potions, any comfort items and any baby medications that you may need. Hopefully, your baby will be eating tablefoods (mashable!) and if you're breastfeeding, so much the better....it's sooooo much easier than lugging formula.

The ship will provide a crib or P&P.

Most cabins only have showers, so bring a blow-up tub for bathing!

Cb at sea did a great job covering everything. It has been a while but in 2007 we cruised with an 11 month old & 5 year old. It was just like taking a family vacation on land. Having the stroller(small umbrella) was very important. Especially in the restaurants b/c the 11 month old would sleep while we ate....

We of course loved the freestyle concept because with the kids you always need to be flexible.

Let us know if you have more specific questions.

Have a great trip!

We never did it, we waited until our DD was ten before taking her but that doesn't mean you are stupid.

Cruised with my 9mo old grandson last January. The best advice is get some grandparents to join you or dinner in your cabin might be a regular event. We tried to time meals around his sleep schedule, sometimes it worked, sometimes not. We enjoyed a quite dinner in the Bistro with him sleeping in is pram. The second try not so lucky and his grandmother was happy to take him back to the suite and her dinner was sent up.

A little shared evening baby sitting will go a long way toward everyone enjoying the cruise. If we could not have driven to the port there is no way we would have been able to bring everything we needed

We booked next year's Breakaway with my son, daughter in law, and going to be 3 year old grandson. I figure Bermuda is a good cruise to do with a baby or toddler.

I won't mind eating dinner at different times and then letting them have the night life. My daughter and I usually go to the show and then right to bed.

I think you'll be fine.

Wow! She covered it all! Stroller a must, but i did have the swim diapers for the kiddie pool and on RCCL the crew was right there to tell you they werent allowed. Not sure if policy changed, but sad for the little ones. I am a single mom, not to burden grandma from her casino time i did take advantage of getting one of the crew to babysit in the room, the ship offers for a nominal fee. Youll be fine, and there is so much flexability on crusies now days. Michelle

Like RCCL no swim diapers. Kids most be potty trained to use any public pool. Simple answer pack a small inflatable pool.

No in room baby sitting on NCL :(

Sent from my iPhone - Jim

My son was three months old when he took his first cruise. No, you are not stupid. Go and have a wonderful time!

Agree. Bring a blow up pool. Swimmers might be fine in chlorinated pools but NCL's are fresh water. I wouldn't expose my little one, if I had one. I think you will have a blast.

My son was three months old when he took his first cruise. No, you are not stupid. Go and have a wonderful time!

Today they can not cruise until they are 6 months old.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk - Jim

I actually think cruises are one of the BEST vacations you can take with infants/children, and I require at least one vacxation a year, so I should know. We took my oldest son on his first cruise at 9 months on the NCL Spirit, and I echo the suggestions above: blow up pool for splashing around and for bathing (though if you can bump up to a mini-suite, the tub is invaluable with little ones!), an umbrella style stroller (anything larger is a hassle in many situations), and try to plan adult meals around naps- our son was very good at sleeping in the stroller, which was great. We do generally travel with grandparents, which is also a huge help, but we have done it without and it's still great! I do also agree that a balcony is VERY helpful so that you may enjoy some dessert and/or wine together after little one is asleep! Our little guy also loved the "mommy and me" playtime that they offered in the kids club- something to do for him during the day (he also accompanied us to the martini tasting- oops!)

Lastly, we will be traveling on a 9-day with our now THREE children (ages 5, 3 and 6 months!) in January, so if you are crazy, then we are INSANE :D

Today they can not cruise until they are 6 months old.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk - Jim

Guess we got lucky and obviously the policy has changed because the mainstream lines usually require an infant to be 6 months of age. Disney and MSC allow infants who are three months old at time of sailing.

thanks for all the replies, they have been very helpfull. We have cruised before but not with a baby. We no longer feel crazy. We asked grandparents to come but they refused to cruise on any other line but Princess, they think NCL would not come close to what they are used to. I hope they are wrong. since this will be our first NCL cruise.

We cruised with our daughter when she wa 19 months old......all I can say is make sure you pack a lot of patience......

 

Lastly, we will be traveling on a 9-day with our now THREE children (ages 5, 3 and 6 months!) in January, so if you are crazy, then we are INSANE :D

We have a group cruising together on a 12 day in jan. 2014. One couple had to cancel recently as they found out they're expecting in may. They were told by NCL that babies under 1 year are not allowed on cruises longer than 7 days. I knew about the over 6 months requirement but not the 12 months+ on longer cruises. I' m not sure if this is a recent change or not, hope this doesn't affect your cruise.

We have a group cruising together on a 12 day in jan. 2014. One couple had to cancel recently as they found out they're expecting in may. They were told by NCL that babies under 1 year are not allowed on cruises longer than 7 days. I knew about the over 6 months requirement but not the 12 months+ on longer cruises. I' m not sure if this is a recent change or not, hope this doesn't affect your cruise.

12 month rule only applies to cruises with 3 or more sea days in a row.

All facts stated below apply at the time of embarkation.

Infants sailing onboard a Norwegian vessel must be at least six months of age at time of sailing. However, for voyages that have 3 or more consecutive days at sea, the infant must be at least 12 months old at time of sailing.

A minor is defined as an individual under 18 years of age at the time of embarkation.

A young adult is defined as an individual between the ages of 18 and 20.

Company policy dictates that a passenger under 21 years of age must be accompanied in the same or connecting stateroom by a passenger 21 years of age or older at the time of embarkation.

For passengers under the age of 18 traveling with an accompanying adult, who is not the minor's parent or legal guardian, a PARENT/GUARDIAN CONSENT RELEASE FORM (PDF) that authorizes the minor's travel and further authorizes medical treatment in case of an emergency must be delivered to a Norwegian representative at the pier during check-in. Failure to produce this letter at embarkation may result in boarding being denied, with no refund of cruise fare provided.

Note: Two people under the age of 21 may travel together in the same stateroom if they are a married couple and provide proof of marriage to a Norwegian representative at the pier before embarkation.

12 month rule only applies to cruises with 3 or more sea days in a row.

 

All facts stated below apply at the time of embarkation.

Infants sailing onboard a Norwegian vessel must be at least six months of age at time of sailing. However, for voyages that have 3 or more consecutive days at sea, the infant must be at least 12 months old at time of sailing.

A minor is defined as an individual under 18 years of age at the time of embarkation.

A young adult is defined as an individual between the ages of 18 and 20.

Company policy dictates that a passenger under 21 years of age must be accompanied in the same or connecting stateroom by a passenger 21 years of age or older at the time of embarkation.

For passengers under the age of 18 traveling with an accompanying adult, who is not the minor's parent or legal guardian, a PARENT/GUARDIAN CONSENT RELEASE FORM (PDF) that authorizes the minor's travel and further authorizes medical treatment in case of an emergency must be delivered to a Norwegian representative at the pier during check-in. Failure to produce this letter at embarkation may result in boarding being denied, with no refund of cruise fare provided.

Note: Two people under the age of 21 may travel together in the same stateroom if they are a married couple and provide proof of marriage to a Norwegian representative at the pier before embarkation.

The above is correct: 6 months for sailing, 12 months for 3 consecutive sea days. I actually had a minor freak attack with this one, because we are actually at sea for 71 hours prior to our first port, but it turns out, they literally mean three full, consecutive "at sea" days. In response to this freak-out, the PCC told me that their system actually prevents a booking that is in violation of their age requirements (ex: when you gave baby's birth date for such a cruise, their system would reject the booking)- perhaps this is a new development?

My Daughter cruised with my Granddaughter when she was 8 months old and the cruise worked out well. However, she did one when she was three and it didn't go well.

Just wait till the 9 month old is older

You will have a great time! We took our then 8 month old daughter with us this past spring and had a good time (although it was different than cruising was before!).

Some thoughts, we brought a city mini by baby jogger and this was a perfect stroller. Was easy to get around the ship with and it has a very large canopy with protected her from the sun. We also used this black cardigan of mine and draped it over the stroller and she slept through dinners. The other nice thing about the mini was that it reclined all the way back. Anyway, it worked out well. I was torn between an umbrella stroller and this and I am glad we went with the mini.

The other thing to keep in mind is that the ship can get cold. I packed a bunch of cute summer clothes for the baby and also added in socks, stretchy pants and some cardigans and jackets - she would have been cold in shorts and a t-shirt on the ship.

We brought a baby bjorn and that was nice to have to walk her around the ship.

Finally, definitely buy a blow up little pool for her (they are made to fit in bath tubs). Munchkin brand sells them at Target in the shape of a duck and a seal but there are also a ton for sale on the internet. We brought this down on the pool deck along with a beach bucket and used the shower to fill the inflatable pool. Then when she was done "swimming" we just dumped the water in the ship drains around the edge of the pool. She was a big hit in her duck pool with the other passengers and frankly I think they were happy we weren't putting her in the regular pools. Also an easy way to give her a bath on the balcony and then just rinse her off in the shower.

Anyway, we had a great time. The only thing we didn't travel with was grandparents or baby sitters and I think if we were to do it again I would definitely bring some help as there are no baby sitting options on NCL.

The crew will love the little one too!

Have a great cruise!

Coffeecat

My Daughter cruised with my Granddaughter when she was 8 months old and the cruise worked out well. However, she did one when she was three and it didn't go well.

Just curious, what was not so good with the 3 year old?

Just curious, what was not so good with the 3 year old?

It must be situational, because my oldest LOVED the cruise we went on when he was 3 (he still remembers/talks about it at 5!). We did not utilize the Kid's Club on that trip, and still had an amazing time. 3 yr olds are typically potty-trained, so you can take full advantage of kiddie pools, etc. For our cruise in January, my middle son will be 3, and we do plan to bring them to the Kid's Club (he and my older son will be in the same age group, and they both love school/camp, so we think they will enjoy "cruise camp" together for a couple of hours on sea days). If your children are typically good travelers (luckily for us, ours are!), I think it is way more likely than not that you will have a great trip!

Hi there.

I cruised on a 7 day Disney Magic cruise back when I had three (now have four) kids and the youngest was 11 months old.

We did have my parents with us in an adjoining cabin, and they had my eldest daughter stay with them.

Thankfully the Disney cabins were large enough to comfortably accommodate a pack 'n' play in the sitting area that even had a privacy curtain so he was able to nap and sleep comfortably at night in his own "space."

We did have to work around his schedule for the cruise and that generally meant that someone was responsible for being with him at nap time either in the cabin or on deck (which he did twice lying on a grandparent if you can believe it).

The types of excursions hubby and I had done on our previous cruises were completely out with our gaggle of kids. We did a trolley tour in Key West and walked around/shopped in Cozumel. We didn't even try to tender out to Grand Caymen.

Our evenings were definitely not of the same flavour as they had been on previous cruises. We used the babysitting on two nights so we could go to the big shows but he hated it and cried really hard the second night when we arrived. Otherwise he was with us or grandparents so we had to be reasonable with how late we were out doing stuff.

Without another set of hands to help out, you will be really restricted with evenings shows/activities unless your little one can sleep anywhere.

While we had a good cruise, it wasn't my favourite one and to be honest, my parents and hubby and I all feel in hindsight that we should have cancelled this trip when I found out I was expecting (we had booked this cruise when there were only two kids in the picture).

Hubby, myself and our daughters (6 & 8) will be on the Epic this coming December but I will be leaving our sons (3 & 1) at home with my folks this time around.

So no - you're not crazy! I believe that we are all responsible for how much we enjoy our vacation and cruising with a baby is possible just keep in mind it will be nothing like the previous cruises you've done. I know there are lots of families who have cruised with infants and loved it so don't feel like you shouldn't go. Just remember that the experience will not be like the last cruise you did for sure.

Enjoy!

Just curious, what was not so good with the 3 year old?

My Granddaughter is a very active girl and didn't do well in the kids program. Age three is in my opinion an extension of terrible two. She just made it hard for us to enjoy a meal without acting out.