Cruising with Baby - Need Advice

Hello!

We have Oasis booked for our 10 year wedding anniversary and are debating taking our DD who will be 7.5 months old at the time with. Grandma & Grandpa are likely coming with so we think we will have some time to ourselves when they babysit, but realize it won't be a normal vacation.

How doable is a cruise with a 7-8 month old baby?

How do you clean / sanitize bottles?

Any other tips?

We'd love to keep the cruise and have a wonderful cabin location booked that I had been looking forward to for a few years... but are not sure how much of a vacation it will be if we take the baby, nor are we sure how we feel about leaving her for a week if we go without her.

Sorry if this has been asked/answered before, I tried searching but could not figure out how to limit this to the Royal Boards and figured each cruise line would have vastly different policies/experiences. Thanks for any information and advice!

How doable is a cruise with a 7-8 month old baby?

How do you clean / sanitize bottles?

Forgive me, but at 7/8 months, you really don't have to sanitize bottles any longer. Baby will be eating solid foods by then, putting toys and soothers in her mouth constantly, and generally exploring her big ol' world! The days of sterilizing bottles should be long over for you by then. :)

I am a parent and don't intend to sound superior or give you un-asked for advice, however, I thought this would be important enough to mention. It's a lot less work once you stop sterilizing. :D

Forgive me, but at 7/8 months, you really don't have to sanitize bottles any longer. Baby will be eating solid foods by then, putting toys and soothers in her mouth constantly, and generally exploring her big ol' world! The days of sterilizing bottles should be long over for you by then. :)

 

I am a parent and don't intend to sound superior or give you un-asked for advice, however, I thought this would be important enough to mention. It's a lot less work once you stop sterilizing. :D

LOL, thanks! She's my first and only 6 weeks old... I'm not past "Month 2" yet in the what to expect book. ;)

Congratulations on the birth of your daughter! 6 weeks, that's a tough period. Wish I could lend you some sleep...

Try posting your question on this board too: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=49 There's a lot of knowledgeable cruisers with children over there who may be better suited to give you advice compared to the RCL board.

You are correct in that vacationing with children is a very, very, very different experience than vacationing with your spouse alone. However, that's not to say you shouldn't vacation with your daughter. It's just that you'll still be 'working'. Your daughter will have all the same needs as she does at home (naps, fed, entertained, etc.) so you won't be able to truly relax and let everything go.

Forgive me, but at 7/8 months, you really don't have to sanitize bottles any longer. Baby will be eating solid foods by then, putting toys and soothers in her mouth constantly, and generally exploring her big ol' world! The days of sterilizing bottles should be long over for you by then. :)

 

I am a parent and don't intend to sound superior or give you un-asked for advice, however, I thought this would be important enough to mention. It's a lot less work once you stop sterilizing. :D

I don't agree with that at all. Many babies still have one or even two feeds of milk per day from a bottle at that age and beyond and bottles/teats can grow bugs. We took our daughter on a cruise at the age of seven months and there were several other couples on our cruise with babies of similar ages and they were all feeding with bottles too.

Some people took small sterilizer units but I found that using good old fashioned boiling water was far easier. However, that means you need a kettle to boil the water in and I'm not sure that RCI provide kettles in cabins on cruises departing US ports.

As for the day to say stuff, it's just like being at home. You can't fully relax as you would like to on holiday. Most of the staff will do as much as they can to help at all times and the chef made two fresh meals for our little one every day which were delivered to our cabin if we wanted that.

Other passengers can be very fickle though. Many came up to us regularly to say hello and ask how she was but a few looked at you as though you were carrying a bomb around.

The only BIG inconvenience we found was when re-boarding at ports and going through security. They would always insist that she was taken out of the pushchair and that the pushchair was collapsed and put through the x-ray. That can take time especially if little one is asleep.

We took our daughter on a cruise when she was about 9 months old. It went really well. She was also on bottles. We didn't sterilize at that point b/c public health around here (Canada advises it isn't necessary). You may be at that point too. If so, here's what I did, I brought powdered formula and mixed it with water in my cabin (I brought a case of water which was allowed on Carnival), I would warm the water first by letting the bottled water float around in the sink filled with hot water. On Carnival the tap water was very hot so this worker well. When the bottled water warmed up I mixed it in the baby bottle with the powder formula. For cleaning I brought a bit of dish soap and a bottle brush and scrubbed them in the sink. It worked just fine. Even better though, if you can start giving your child cooler bottles leading up to the cruise (temperature is a preference, but not necessary), then you may not even need to heat the bottles. Around that age though your child will be on some solids so you'll need a plan for solids - bibs, spoons, food (not sure if cruise line supplies or not).

Now for diapers, bring enough and extra just in case. Make sure you have some sort of odour reducing bags to put the diaper in. The cabin stewards will clear the diapers out fairly quickly but sometimes they sit for a bit and those bags really work to contain odour.

I don't believe your baby can go in the pool. On Carnival they cannot. But they could crawl around in the splash pad so I brought a swimming diaper and suit for this purpose.

Bring a stroller that your child can nap in. This was key for us. Our baby napped around the ship, sometimes even at dinner in the dining room. Cabin doors are often very narrow though so if you have a compact stroller it will be better.

Bring baby meds - Tylenol, etc.

Lots of sunscreen and sunhats.

Make sure you have your baby's passport or whatever id is required.

Plan ahead for port excursions so you know if you need a car seat or not. If you can still fit your daughter into the bucket infant car seat, particularly one that attaches to the stroller, this is much easier. When you get on board you can just tuck away the carseat and only use it as needed.

Bring baby toys/books/snacks (like baby mum mums or puffs if your child can manage them then) to keep baby happy on the plane and during down times.

If you're worried about your baby not sleeping in an unfamiliar crib consider bringing your crib sheet and blankie from home.

Don't worry about other passengers I would say most gushed over our baby, some ignored her but few if any gave us any sort of negative glance.

I hope that helps. Also check out the family cruising board.

Bottles can be washed without sterilizing them. I left my oldest son at 7 months for 2 weeks to go visit my husband in France who was deployed with the Navy. Did I miss him? Yes, but my parents watched him and he and I were both fine. My boys at 7.5 months were both still drinking formula 4 times a day, but I certainly wasn't sterilizing anything. They also were eating mostly table food, especially things like mashed potatoes, scrambled eggs and yogurt as well as cheerios, pasta. They're 27 and 29 now. I, personally feel, having watched people with babies onboard can't imagine it's much of a vacation for the parents.

Hello!

 

.but are not sure how much of a vacation it will be if we take the baby, .!

Well that would be our thought. We LOVE to travel, but after our daughter was born we took two years off. Seemed like vacations really wouldn't be much of a vacation with an infant. Not a lot of fun for anyone involved;.....

And of course if there would be any health issues the care wouldn't be exactly world class.

Check out my review in the "Family cruisers" section. I have a few tips after my cruise this month with my 12.5 mo!

We took our 9 month girl on fos in August, along with our two older daughters. We tried to coax grandma along to make things easier for us but didn't work.

We did fos as it did have a nursery as Oasis does too. We took advantage of this most evenings actually so that we could enjoy the concierge lounge. Well worth the expense.

Lots of other posts that cover cruising with babies, but just wanted to say we did it recently, and to try to take advantage of the nursery.. it's definitely not as relaxing as going without the kids but we had a great time.

On the off chance you have a suite, take advantage of the mdr room service ... it was so nice to enjoy a nice meal without stressing over bothering others in the main dining room.

Congrats on your new baby.

I encourage you to go to the family board also. These questions are often discussed and you will get more helpful tips than (rolling eyes) leave your baby at home. I have two beautiful girls 1 and 6 and both took their first cruises at 5 mos. My oldest has cruised 10 times and my youngest twice. We are no strangers to cruising with a baby. As others have said it is a different kind of vacation. You aren't going to be able to just do what you want. You don't know how your baby will react to travel and you have to adjust your schedule somewhat to theirs. However, if you are fine with that. You will make some great memories. We travel with grandparents too and they are priceless.

The Oasis is an awesome ship. The best I've sailed. They do have nursery facilities (if you are comfortable with staff watching your baby) and special pools that the non potty trained group can enjoy. They also allowed you to check out toys too.

I didn't sterilize but I did bring a bottle brush and a small size dishwash detergent so that I could wash out bottles in the cabin. DD was still drinking milk several times a day then. Neither of my girls were eating table food at 7.5 mos. We had just really begun baby foods and other things I blended.

Definitely bring medicines even if your infant is not sick. Many a time we have had to deal with a temperature and were glad we brought those things with us. Bring extra pacifiers, tons of diapers, car seat etc.

The key to travelling well with infants is to plan. Personally, I think babies are far easier to travel with. My 20 mos is much more of a challenge. Toddlers are in to absolutely everything. I wouldn't trade it though! Enjoy your trip. Oasis is AWESOME!

My kids are currently 3, 4, 8, 9 and we've cruised with kids of all ages. I know others are suggesting it's not much of a vacay with a baby but in my experience you may have more of a vacay now than in a year or two. I find infants so portable and they can often go with the flow (especially if you have an "easy" baby). With our 9mos old on a cruise we enjoyed dinners in the MDR with baby in a highchair or sleeping in a stroller, we enjoyed hanging out in the sun with our baby nicely tucked in the shade. Your baby may not even be on the move yet which will make it even easier. We enjoyed relaxing in our cabin reading books while baby slept. We enjoyed walking around in ports or hanging on the beach. Lots to do with a baby, just like others have said plan, plan, plan and make choices that work for everyone. Having the grandparents along will help even more and using the nursery is a good idea if you're comfortable.

By your next trip you may likely have a toddler which IMO is harder than an infant!

I didn't read most the replies.. but, take the baby and have a good time. if Grandma & Grandpa are coming along I'm sure you will have plenty of free time. Leaving the baby home will certainly cause you more stress then having him with you. as for others giving you the evil eye it's their problem not yours.

Hiya,

Congratulations on your baby!

I think you have a lot of good advice given in regards to planning ahead and taking plenty of distraction toys and a stroller that can be slept in comfortably.

I would still be steralising bottles at that age. I'm not sure what the equivalent brand would be in the US, but here I would suggest taking a cold water steraliser with milton tablets or liquid. Also take washing up liquid and a bottle brush to clean the bottles and teats thoroughly in the sink.

I think most cafes would be able to provide you with boiling water for heating food and milk up, if your child needs that.

Also, Oasis has the royal nursery, which costs $8 an hour, but would allow you to take some additional time to yourselves if you needed.

Good luck and enjoy your cruise and anniversary! :) xx

Search for users:

ObsessedSC and Bionicman97

Both have reviews about sailing this class with babies...not only are they very informative, but they are entertaining too! If you search "all threads started by" you may get nothing (it appears CC has disabled some it's search functions) but if you search " all posts by" you should get an extensive list, but you just have to search for the threads started by the above folks and you will find their reviews.

Good luck!

Just to add fuel to the fire here, I don't think one can adequately sterilize onboard a ship. Passengers are not allowed to bring a kettle or pot or hotplate, and do not have access to a microwave. There is no way to properly sterilize, there just isn't. Effectively wash the bottles, yes, but sterilize/sanitize, no.

.

I took my 9 month old son with my wife on a cruise and it's a challenge. From a male's point of view, I would recommend keeping the baby at home if you can. You can always call home and check in as much as you want. Anniversaries are very important milestone and the few days on a cruise with your significant other will be good for the both of you.

Congratulations first of all! Secondly, my DW and I are in the same boat as you. We'll be cruising in April with our 7 month old DS. We did the same research you are doing and I've come to just a few conclusions...

For us, family is paramount and leaving our DS at home was never a consideration. No grandparents to join us either, just a family vacation of the 3 of us. We know it will be different and are excited to experience it.

Besides the fore mentioned "eye rolling" as others have posted, we are planning on doing about 1/2 as much as we normally would on a cruise. We booked a balcony suite knowing we'd be in our room more than usual and plan on using it and the suite amenities to their fullest potential. Should make for a relaxing and enjoyable time. All that said, a balcony is advised, at the minimum, so you'll have a place to retreat to during the baby's naps.

Finally, search family boards as others have said. They all say the same thing....bring LOTS of diapers, more than you think you need. That goes for everything baby wise. We all bring too many clothes ourselves, but bring extra everything for baby and you'll make your lives easier.

Hope this helps. Take all advice with a grain of salt, with this advice all coming from a new parent as well. Haven't done it yet, but did the research as you're doing now and thought I'd share the highlights. Good luck and happy cruising!!

My kids are currently 3, 4, 8, 9 and we've cruised with kids of all ages. I know others are suggesting it's not much of a vacay with a baby but in my experience you may have more of a vacay now than in a year or two. I find infants so portable and they can often go with the flow (especially if you have an "easy" baby). With our 9mos old on a cruise we enjoyed dinners in the MDR with baby in a highchair or sleeping in a stroller, we enjoyed hanging out in the sun with our baby nicely tucked in the shade. Your baby may not even be on the move yet which will make it even easier. We enjoyed relaxing in our cabin reading books while baby slept. We enjoyed walking around in ports or hanging on the beach. Lots to do with a baby, just like others have said plan, plan, plan and make choices that work for everyone. Having the grandparents along will help even more and using the nursery is a good idea if you're comfortable.

 

By your next trip you may likely have a toddler which IMO is harder than an infant!

I agree with this. 7-8 months old is much easier to take on vacation compared to a toddler 12-36 months. Take the baby & enjoy. It may be tough to do this again till she's 3 years old.

Regarding the sterilization of bottles, I believe you have to CLEAN the bottles at 7-8 months but not STERILIZE (boil) them at that point. My girls didn't take many bottles, but I can tell you I never sterilized my breasts prior to nursing :eek:

I appreciate all the replies - and there's definitely been more positive response than eye rolling suggesting I leave her at home. :)

Thanks to everyone and for mentioning the few posters and family boards I should check out.

(I've attached a picture of DD for anyone interested.)

-Melissa

I've taken infants on cruises too. I agree with the others that it's easier when they are 7 months old than when they are right around 2!

For bottles - we used the playtex disposables with the liners and they are sterile every time. I guess we didn't fully sterilize the nipples, but we washed them in hot water with dish detergent. We brought powdered formula and brought a couple of gallons of nursery water onboard; my kids always took room temperature bottles, so there was no issue with warming the bottles.

You may have to bring baby food with you. We sailed with an baby on Princess and they provided baby food, but I don't think RCCL does. You could ask the special needs department what to do.

I would bring a small stroller because there's not a ton of room in the cabin for the big stroller. I'm sure there is a more expansive selection these days, but with a 7 month old you'll want a pretty fancy small/umbrella stroller with a nice sized sunshade, completely flat recline, etc.

You also will want to check the lifevests - there is an infant version; make sure that your steward gets one for your cabin if it's not there upon arrival (not something you want to think about, but it should be done)

We've always had pack n plays in cruise cabins, which are fine, but very different from port a cribs because they are so low to the ground. If you have a picky baby (which I'm sure you have no idea right now), you may want to "practice" having her sleep in a pack n play over the next 6 months. My oldest was miserable on her first vacation sleeping in a pack n play. I made sure my other kids slept in pack n plays at home sometimes for naps so it wasn't a completely foreign concept to them when we needed to take them somewhere overnight or on vacation.

Also, unless you have a junior suite or above, you only have a shower stall, not a tub. Some people bring blow up bath tubs to sit in the shower for bathing, but we just put a washcloth over the drain which allowed the water to pool at about an inch high and bathed our kids that way when we didn't have a cabin with a tub.

Cruising with babies is a nice vacation - you get the benefit of different ports and the baby gets the security/routine of the same home for a week. We spent a lot of nights on our balcony because while we extended bedtime a bit, we still were all in the cabin at a reasonable hour. We were often off the ship early and back on in time for lunch/nap, but that was fine with me. Actually, this upcoming cruise will be the first time I haven't had a napper in the last 11 years, so it will be very strange to me to not divide up the family so at least one parent was back on the ship for naptime.

It will be a lot of fun. I wouldn't think twice about going and taking the baby with.

I appreciate all the replies - and there's definitely been more positive response than eye rolling suggesting I leave her at home. :)

 

Thanks to everyone and for mentioning the few posters and family boards I should check out.

 

(I've attached a picture of DD for anyone interested.)

 

-Melissa

Congratulations Melissa, she is a beauty!!:):) My children are only 16 months apart and we started traveling with them when my youngest was only 1 year old and cruised for the first time when they were 2 and 3 y/o. We cruise at least twice every year and they love it. Now at 14 and 15 they are D+ on their own rights and have travel with us to Alaska twice, six times to Europe and many Caribbean cruises. Your post made me remember traveling with a sterilizer and respiratory therapies machines, now we have to deal with curfews. ;) Hope this is the first of many cruises as a family!!:):)

I appreciate all the replies - and there's definitely been more positive response than eye rolling suggesting I leave her at home. :)

 

Thanks to everyone and for mentioning the few posters and family boards I should check out.

 

(I've attached a picture of DD for anyone interested.)

 

-Melissa

She is beautiful.

Hi,

We first cruised with our son on Explorer of the Seas when he was about 7 months old. We had my wife's family cruising with us as well, which afforded us some grown up time!

In terms of sterilizing, check out Milton Sterilizing Tablets - you can find them on Amazon - you just drop one in a container of water, and put your bottles etc. into that. No kettle required.

You'll have a great time. Our son loved the Fisher Price playroom. We went on Oasis with him last year (1.5 yrs old at that time) and he had a great time in the infant/toddler pool. It was just the three of us on that cruise, and we used the nursery a couple of times for some 'grown-up' evenings. That worked out really well too!

Good luck!

Jason

We have done tons of cruises with our DD starting when she was 11months. The advise of the others is spot on but I wanted to add about the toys. The nursery has a toy lending program. You can go on the first day (on most ships during the open houses) and get a bag of toys to bring back to the cabin. There is NO charge for this and most ships have different assortments so you can trade them in as the cruise goes on. Some of the toys are for bigger than 7 months but we found they worked for a good distraction. My wife just cleaned each of the toys off with a wipe when we got them as our DD would put EVERYTHING in her mouth at that age. :)

Also plan on NOT having the cruise provided pack in play the first day in the afternoon. We never were able to get it until that first night and we wound up setting up a make shift bed on a couch or the main bed for a nap on the first day. I just pass it along as we didn't know for our first and was something I wish I knew beforehand.