alane10

LO is almost 20 months old and will go on his 9th cruise in Feb. He was 6 months and 3 days for his first. I don't regret a single cruise with him, and couldn't imagine having left him at home. It's been so fun to watch him respond to different things on each cruise.

We order off the adult menus because we like LO to try a wide variety of foods.

Make sure to pack plenty of diapers, wipes, thermometer, and any potential meds, and you should be ok.

The staff absolutely adore having young ones on board and bend over backwards for them!

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I find the GS on Anthem & Quantum a bit awkward with how the room is split. It's good if you plan to use the pull out couch, but the space felt weird for 2 people.

Assuming that Harmony is similar to Oasis(?), it felt more like the standard GS on other classes with the bigger, more open room and more opulent bathroom.

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I'm On A Boat...featuring T-Pain

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Decent iced tea

High tea service

Made to order breakfast sandwiches or wraps in dining room

Accurate lunch menus in suites for ordering room service

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I was 22 to celebrate my birthday (a long time ago). I dragged DH on his first when he was 39. DS was 6 months and 2 days...

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Great tips, Alane! I have to admit I smiled a little at the above one because I'm the mom our children bring along to watch the Littles. For me and for my husband, coming along to watch the grandgirls is the very definition of quality time for us!

Well, you are very much appreciated :)

We were actually calling DH and I's alone time as "adulting" while on the cruise...we drank wine in Vintages at our leisure :)

Pretty sure I couldn't spend an entire cruise without my LO though!

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We traveled with DS at 6, 7, 8, 11, 13, 16 months, and it has been interesting how different it has been each time.

We don't need to pack his food anymore, which has been great. We ordered off the adult menu to have him try new things, which is lots of fun. We do bring our own milk, since we are trying to keep him on organic milk when possible. I'm sure most would find this completely unnecessary.

We pack multiple bathing suits so he wouldn't have to put on wet ones (when there is a baby pool anyway). I also find it easiest just to leave on my own bathing suit after pool time and giving him a bath in the tub with me (instead of trying to kneel over the big tubs).

We like to find places on the ship to let them "loose" during the day. DS loves being able to run around on a dance floor during the day. Some ships will have open play areas, which are great for this.

We bring my mom along to watch after DS in the room once he is asleep, so DH and I can spend some quality time :)

Almost all of the crew is happy to see a LO, and will try their best to accommodate whatever is needed.

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Thanks for the quick reply!

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We just reached 340 points on our last cruise, so are looking at the options for the D+ bonus gift.

There are some gifts that specify it is per relationship or cabin. We have only received 1 bottle of champagne per cabin for the first D+ Gift. Is that normal? Should DH and I select different gifts, so we each receive a gift?

For our Emerald Welcome gift, I request water and he gets a beer. However, I am not sure why I think. D+ gift would be different, so figured I would ask :)

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Your 16 month old was given his/her own serving of everything? Or ate off your plates?

 

 

 

Did s/he eat THE OLIVE?!?!?!? The crab cones?

 

 

 

Inquiring minds want to know! ;) :)

He was given his own serving and liked almost everything. My husband wasn't listening that the bottom of the crab cone had the wasabi. Hubby took a bite off the top of his and then gave out son the remainder which had the wasabi dollop. We couldn't get our son to eat his own crab cone after that.

He did eat the olive and was ok with it. My son LOVED the lobster thing and ended up eating half of mine. I didn't give him the fire & ice because I was worried about the sriracha being too much...and I really liked it and wanted to eat it myself ;)

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We took our 16 month old to Wonderland and he ate everything we did, but there was no charge. I was very upfront with our waiter that we didn't want the kid's menu and that he would be eating whatever we ate.

Not sure if the no charge was because he was so young though...

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We did here that the new scrubber has a issue. So in dry dock they are cutting a big section of deck 7-10 just behind the solarium back. And replacing it. New outdoor screen, speakers, carpets. Furniture in the public areas.

 

 

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The scrubber doesn't surprise me. In May, we were in an aft RFS and we had diesel fumes coming through our vents.

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Has anyone heard what changes are planned?

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For those with children, did they have to wait until they were 18 to start getting blocks for cruise points they earned?

My son had inherited our D+ status, but he is quickly approaching 140 points on his own.

Just curious if it is something I need I make sure he gets or not. I have not found a good list of benefits for younger cruisers.

Our 11 month old inherited our D+ status but will be Diamond on his own after our May cruise.

You can just call the main number to reserve a pack and play. I ended up canceling and bringing our own since we drove to port. If you are in a suite, I would ask the concierge to confirm when the send you an email the week before the cruise.

Our 11 month old has been on 4 cruises, and they have been a lot of fun. We don't use the nursery, but Anthem has a play area for parents and children. It was great.

Our son loved the baby splash pool, which should be even better in the summer.

The crew tends to love babies...so end up being super accommodating.

I would pay significantly more to fly into BWI over Dulles. BWI is so much closer and you have to be worried about timing when you fly into Dulles to ensure you don't get stuck in DC traffic.

Also, BWI is just nicer in general...Dulles is like an escalator maze to be able to escape...

We are DP, but usually stay in Suites. When we cruise Grandeur, typically, our cards are not setup for Diamond Lounge access.

1 day!!

Accordingly to sea-scanner.com, it looks like Grandeur is in Norfolk, VA. Anyone know what's going on? I am hoping they just missed Coco Cay, so stop there instead.

We board tomorrow so I'm really hoping there's no issues!

I cruised at 23 weeks and had a wonderful time. I am anxiously waiting until next month when little one is 6 months old, so we can cruise again :)

As long as she is not high risk and OB is not concerned, I would do it.

I thought maybe we were shafted...lesson learned I supposed.

There was someone from Wonderland taking reservations at the entrance of the restaurant that told us that when we booked. I did not asked. She specifically told us that we would not be able to use our D+ BOGO as we made the reservation. Had it been at the end of dinner when we found out, we probably would have fought it...but I wanted to try it enough to pay full price.

And we were only using the BOGO, so should not have been any confusion with two different offers. Oh well =/

Thanks for the information!!!

We were on the inaugural sailing of Quantum, and dined at Wonderland on the first night. We were told that the buy one get one free coupon for Diamond Plus could not be applied for Wonderland.

Since then, I have looked for some sort of documentation stating this, but have not found anything.

Can anyone who has dined there more recently confirm if you were able to use your BOGO on the first night or not? I am starting to make dinner reservations for our Anthem cruise, and will choose a different specialty restaurant, if my coupon cannot be used at Wonderland.

Thanks!

I booked multiple cruises before and while I was pregnant. It took longer than expected to get pregnant, so I kept pushing out the cruise date until we had a positive result and due date.

Once I found out I was actually pregnant, the first cruise was booked for 6 months and 2 weeks after he was born in case he was late (and he was 11 days late).

I had one booked for 1 year and 1 week after my due date that had 3 days at sea. Since LO has to be 1 year old for cruises with at least 3 days at sea (for RCI), I had to change that to a different cruise, and was no big deal.

And like others have said, use Baby Lastname when booking. We also just used whatever the date was when I called as the birth date, and I called in to change both once he was born.