Cruising with an 8 month old!

We are trying to decide if it is worth paying the higher fares on Disney for an overall better experience with our 8 month old. Any suggestions or helpful info???????

The 8 Month old will not care who you sail with, or if you sail at all! They will be happy wherever they are!

Pick the line that suits YOU! The child will adapt. Children should not be "put first" on vacation planning!!! Especially, when they have no idea what's going on!!!

Find a cruise line with a nursery (if you want some "alone" time)....and if you don't want a nursery, then pick what YOU want....

No cruiseline caters to babies...not even Disney......you will need to bring any and all baby specific stuff...diapers, food, wipes, meds, etc...the ship sells nothing for babies.

If you are willing to use a nursery, then your options are either Disney or a new or recently retrofitted Royal Caribbean ship with a Royal Tots nursery. Personally, since the base price of Disney cruises is so expensive, I would only sail on Disney with an 8 month old if I was planning on using the nursery. Since Disney only has 4 ships, their options are more limited than other cruise lines. I'd carefully check the port times, and itineraries since in my very cursory research, I have not personally been thrilled with the Disney itineraries (it seems like they are not quite as port intensive as I would like and sometimes spend less time in port than other ships; however, Disney has never been a finalist for me in terms of cruise selections and others may have a more accurate assessment of their offerings).

Disney hasn't worked out for our family yet, but you might luck out and find the right cruise that fits your needs, and everyone I've ever spoken to has loved the food and service on Disney cruises.

You might want to also post this question in the Disney forum - many of their cruisers are families, and they may have a better idea of what options are available for 8 month olds.

Also, I'd like to note that we sometimes received special help with traveling with a toddler on cruises that weren't overwhelmed with children (Princess on the Panama Canal and NCL on the Baltics). The early disembarkation and embarkation that we were sometimes granted was enormously helpful, and I would imagine we would not get this kind of assistance on Disney, since almost all the cruisers must have children in tow. However, having never sailed Disney I don't know exactly how much assistance they offer families in terms of priority embarkation/disembarkation.

Go with an RCI ship that has a nursery...better price point for the three of you.

Our experience is you should consider your child when selecting your line and ship. The more they offer for your little one the more enjoyable it will be for you. Celebrity was great but not as baby/toddler friendly as we would have liked while Royal (Independence of the Seas) was fantastic in what they offered for little ones. The nursery and kids club is just the start but other considerations should be: does the ship offer a water area for those in swim diapers (some do but most do not), does the dining room offer kids menus, do the on board shops offer baby/toddler supplies (our experience is most do have limited supplies of everyday items). These are just a few of the questions I had in mind when we planned our cruises. There are no doubt many others but these were most important to us. Having done a ton of research and given the age of your child my reco would be you take a serious look at Royal (Oasis and Freedom class) or Disney. Norwegian is something I would consider when your little one is toilet trained. Good luck with your search and hope the cruise is everything you're looking for and more.

Took our son on RCI when he was 6 mo. this past May. That nursery was awesome. They also have a toy lending program. Went so well we're going on another in Dec.

My son was 7 months old on his first Celebrity cruise and 9-10 months on his first Disney Cruise. (Travel is part of my career so it makes it easier for us to do that...) He is 17 months now, so we have recent experience. Celebrity would be preferred if you want to give the baby actual baby food. They have you fill out a food request form and will get you up to 24 jars of baby food. (In reality there were like 40 jars of baby food. You had to fill that form out in advance. I was filling it out before my kid had eaten any food if I remember correctly. I asked a friend what I should expect there.) They had organic choices as well. They would also let you specifically pick your cereal and formula. They allowed up to 2 cans of formula and we used a special sensitive stomach organic variety that they ordered for us. I brought enough food to get through our first port of call just in case they didn't have the food for us... Celebrity was great. You can accompany your child to the kid's club during certain hours I believe. We only did this once... They also let you check out toys. They had awesome choices. We checked out a standing table, I forget what they are called. Where they pull themselves up and stand and play at it... That food order was all just a normal service they offered for playing full price (3rd person price) for the infant... My son is actively crawling and he would just crawl in the public areas. (we brought lots of hand sanitizer.)

Disney would puree any food you wanted. But didn't do anything else specific for you. you could tell your head waiter in the dining room what you wanted the next day and they would get it for you... They had lots of dance parties and other fun things, but he didn't necessarily need to be entertained by it...

Honestly, for the price, and where the kids are at. I would cruise the line you like most for this first cruise, and then make the next ones about the little one. Once your child is over 1 for example, I think they will notice they aren't allowed to be in a pool until they are potty trained, so then you should pick a line more geared towards them...

Feel free to ask any specific questions about those lines. We cruised them in January and March of last year...