Travel with car seat or not.

We are cruising with our 20 month old next month. First time ever we are not driving to Miami. We are in a toss up. Either take the lightweight car seat or buy a CARES harness for the price of a seat. Would love to hear some opinions from someone who flys with small children. And has anyone ever used one of the companies that rents the CARES harnesses.

If you go back to the threads page and look in the upper right for the search box, and type in 'car seats' you will get a ton of threads about this. the question is not just flying, but transportation in ports. EM

Here’s the most recent thread. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2658992

We are cruising with our 20 month old next month. First time ever we are not driving to Miami. We are in a toss up. Either take the lightweight car seat or buy a CARES harness for the price of a seat. Would love to hear some opinions from someone who flys with small children. And has anyone ever used one of the companies that rents the CARES harnesses.

Casey,

Just curious are you talking about for flying, or for driving around at the ports. I am having the same dilemma, we are traveling with a 14 month old and a 3 year old. We don't want to (but if it's the only way we will) lug the car seats at all of the ports. With that being said, we are taking them on the cruise, as we have to drive to the pier. We do have connected mini suites, so we will have room to store them. I will be following your post,

Cathy

Only for flying. We are covered once we are on the ground in Florida( in laws are driving). We are passing on excursions this cruise seeing as we were on the same 2 years ago.

I assume you are cruising NCL

Casey,

Just curious are you talking about for flying, or for driving around at the ports. I am having the same dilemma, we are traveling with a 14 month old and a 3 year old. We don't want to (but if it's the only way we will) lug the car seats at all of the ports. With that being said, we are taking them on the cruise, as we have to drive to the pier. We do have connected mini suites, so we will have room to store them. I will be following your post,

Cathy

I have now 2 year old twins. The first time I tried to use the Cares harness was about 20 months. I honestly don't like it. It's super simple to travel with, so that's good. But it also doesn't have a strap between their legs. With no strap there, as well as the leather(ish?) seats on the plane, the kids kept slipping down and I would have to hoist them up. Realistically though, I was one parent flying with two kids. If you are two parents flying with one kid, or at least a 1:1 ratio, your full attention can be on him and he would likely be a little less squirmy. But traveling with car seats is SUCH a pain in the but, especially if you don't need it at your destination. If you own a lightweight car seat, I would pick that. If you need to buy something, I'd get the Cares harness. They sell them at buy buy baby, which takes the 20% off bed bath and beyond coupons, so that helps with the price. Oh, also think about naptime. If you are flying at a time the kids should be sleeping, I recommend the carseat. My twins just can't get comfortable enough to sleep in the harness.

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Decided to bite the bullet and got a CARES harness. Got one on ebay used once for less than a new. Now to get the little man used to a front carrier. He loves the backpack carrier I use when hike.

I have now 2 year old twins. The first time I tried to use the Cares harness was about 20 months. I honestly don't like it. It's super simple to travel with, so that's good. But it also doesn't have a strap between their legs. With no strap there, as well as the leather(ish?) seats on the plane, the kids kept slipping down and I would have to hoist them up. Realistically though, I was one parent flying with two kids. If you are two parents flying with one kid, or at least a 1:1 ratio, your full attention can be on him and he would likely be a little less squirmy. But traveling with car seats is SUCH a pain in the but, especially if you don't need it at your destination. If you own a lightweight car seat, I would pick that. If you need to buy something, I'd get the Cares harness. They sell them at buy buy baby, which takes the 20% off bed bath and beyond coupons, so that helps with the price. Oh, also think about naptime. If you are flying at a time the kids should be sleeping, I recommend the carseat. My twins just can't get comfortable enough to sleep in the harness.

 

 

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We are not flying so that is not a problem for us, and we are taking our carseats for the limo ride to the cruise terminal, we can store them on the ship. My problem is we are going on a 14 night cruise and we are total beach people. We don't want to lug the car seats around at every port, especially since it seems some cabs won't have the proper seat belts to install them. So can we just use the Care Harness in leu of the car seats? :)

I'm not sure if I'm understanding your question, but the CARES harness is only for use on airplanes, not in cars.

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CARES harness is only for flying, not cars. Although people often post cabs don’t have seat belts, I’ve always been able to find a cab, all over the world, that had working seat belts.

Some personal experience...CARES is a great system but we found it didn't work great for toddlers of that age on our flights.

We are not flying so that is not a problem for us, and we are taking our carseats for the limo ride to the cruise terminal, we can store them on the ship. My problem is we are going on a 14 night cruise and we are total beach people. We don't want to lug the car seats around at every port, especially since it seems some cabs won't have the proper seat belts to install them. So can we just use the Care Harness in leu of the car seats? :)

https://saferide4kids.com/product/ridesafer-travel-vest/

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No. It wouldn't install properly in a car. It's only for air travel. If your kid is over three, there is a vest called the ride safer vest that is certified to replace a car seat.

https://saferide4kids.com/product/ridesafer-travel-vest/

 

 

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Thanks, I will check that out for the 3 year old. For the 14 month old I will have to lug the car seat around....Oh well

Only YOU can decide on this issue.

Many will be mad at my saying this ... but-but-but ... most of us are still around and never had a car seat growing up.

Only YOU can decide on this issue.

Many will be mad at my saying this ... but-but-but ... most of us are still around and never had a car seat growing up.

Why would anyone be mad? I just think you don’t understand statistics or logic. You may have lived, but thousands of unrestrained children died. People can make their own choices if they want to place their children in restraints or not. They may want to take a few minutes to read the following:

http://www.iihs.org/iihs/topics/t/child-safety/fatalityfacts/child-safety

And

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/29/health/car-accidents-child-deaths-seat-belts.html

Only YOU can decide on this issue.

 

Many will be mad at my saying this ... but-but-but ... most of us are still around and never had a car seat growing up.

The ones who didn’t fare so well aren’t around to tell us about it :)

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