sailing with twin 18 month olds 16, 15, 11year olds and my wife

[PapaJoe71]

Sailing on the CC Miracle 2/18/2013

This will be my first cruise since I was 12 and my wife and kids first cruise ever. My first question is, will we have room for two cribs in a balcony room? Any suggestions on things to bring for the baby’s i.e. stroller, car seats and the kitchen sink? Do and don’ts with babies on the ship. We are sailing from NYC to port Carnival, Nassau and free port. Any advice on what to do at these ports kids ages will be a 16 boy, a15 girl, a11 girl, and twin 18 month olds boys at time of cruise. :eek:

There will be a rater large group of us some family some friends so keeping any eye ion the little ones won’t be a problem. Can I get better rates on excursions if we book them ourselves as a group? Or are we better of going with Carnival’s?:cool:

 

[Almost Packed]

I am assuming you have at least two cabins booked.

 

i would most certainly suggest bringing strollers. I am an airline employee and did lots of traveling with my kiddos and found some great ideas along the way.

 

are you flying or driving in? if you are driving in to port, then luggage restrictions are not a problem. I would suggest bringing your own pack n play for your little ones. they are smaller than cribs, and you can easily fold them up out of the way during the day time and slide them under your bed or stow away in the corner. they may like being in something they are familiar with.

 

certainly bring a stroller! you can rent them on the ship, but i'd personally prefer to have my own.

car seat is not needed (some may say differently depending on your port excursions)

 

I'd also suggest a blow up/inflatable splash pool for the little ones to play in, if you have a balcony. Unless your little ones are potty trained, they will not be allowed in any pool. bring things to occupy them. simple things-crayons, bubbles, splash toys, etc. special snacks your little one likes too.

 

as far as your bigger kids, some people bring walkie talkies or rent them on board to help everyone stay in contact. others just bring a pen and sticky notes.

 

i would certainly bring an over the door shoe organizer to hang up for everyone's stuff. it will help the kids stay organized too and give them a place to put chargers, ipods, their lanyards & s&s cards etc. while in the cabin. this is the one thing i would not cruise without believe it or not. it makes it easy to keep our cabin tidy and we know where everything is.

 

i also have a pop up clothes hamper that we travel with. all dirty clothes go in and if i feel like doing laundry i do, if not, then when we pack up, all dirty clothes go back in one suitcase.

 

your kids will enjoy camp-they will meet plenty of kids their own ages and you will probably hardly see them lol.

[Room Service!]

Two cribs in a balcony room? I really don't know where they would go. Rooms are pretty tight.

Good luck and I hope everyone enjoys the cruise. :)

Nice that you will have help will the young ones. Would be nice to take some time for you and your wife, alone. Nice dinner maybe.

[crewsweeper]

car seat is not needed (some may say differently depending on your port excursions)

 

I'd also suggest a blow up/inflatable splash pool for the little ones to play in, if you have a balcony. Unless your little ones are potty trained, they will not be allowed in any pool. bring things to occupy them. simple things-crayons, bubbles, splash toys, etc. special snacks your little one likes too.

 

as far as your bigger kids, some people bring walkie talkies or rent them on board to help everyone stay in contact. others just bring a pen and sticky notes.

 

i would certainly bring an over the door shoe organizer to hang up for everyone's stuff. it will help the kids stay organized too and give them a place to put chargers, ipods, their lanyards & s&s cards etc. while in the cabin. this is the one thing i would not cruise without believe it or not. it makes it easy to keep our cabin tidy and we know where everything is.

 

 

Agree on the carseats. Most taxis and vans in Caribbean ports aren't equiped to handle these. Some don't even have seat belts:eek:

 

Door shoe organizer can work too. I suggest adults use the showers in the gym/spa, versus the cabin. But you really need the larger two bathroom suites, or extended aft cabins. Going to be crowded in there.

 

I disagree on the inflatable pool for the balcony. You can't keep this out on the balcony at night. You can't just "dump" the water over the side, either. There isn't enough room for a pool and the chairs and table on a regular balcony anyway. If twins aren't potty trained, highly unlikely they could swim. No pool period for them. If that means Mom and/or Dad can't enjoy the pool either, welcome to parenthood!

[gelo7]

Are you saying that there are 7 of you in one cabin?

When our youngest was a toddler, we simply did the beach. We didn't try anything more involved until she was much older. She was around 8 yrs old when we started things like zip-lining, cave tubing and river rafting. We always book our excursions directly with the provider.

[Room Service!]

Agree on the carseats. Most taxis and vans in Caribbean ports aren't equiped to handle these. Some don't even have seat belts:eek:

 

Door shoe organizer can work too. I suggest adults use the showers in the gym/spa, versus the cabin. But you really need the larger two bathroom suites, or extended aft cabins. Going to be crowded in there.

 

I disagree on the inflatable pool for the balcony. You can't keep this out on the balcony at night. You can't just "dump" the water over the side, either. There isn't enough room for a pool and the chairs and table on a regular balcony anyway. If twins aren't potty trained, highly unlikely they could swim. No pool period for them. If that means Mom and/or Dad can't enjoy the pool either, welcome to parenthood!

 

I agree about the pool on the balcony, ... however I've seen people use these on the deck near the pool.

[TheTravelista]

2 cribs in a balcony cabin?...I'm not even sure you'll be able to fit 1.

[PapaJoe71]

Yes 2 cabins I interior and 1 balcony as of now.

Yes we are driving in from western ma.

[Almost Packed]

there are drains on the balcony to pour the water into. and we are talking about a couple of inches for the little ones to splash in.

 

cups to pour water in and watch things float and splash...just what toddlers love. easy to do and keep them occupied while you and wife enjoy the view.

[JinxyB]

No, not enough room for two cribs in a balcony unless u can get them to remove the couch. Get a beer bucket to fill up kiddie pool, no problems dumping it out on balcony, definitely bring a collapsible stroller!

[asburyfamily]

We have twinn daughters and have sailed many times. When bringing or renting a stroller remember halls are tight donot get a side to side stroller. Get one with children riding tandom or you will be dodging items and people the whole cruise.

[oneplustwotx]

Hi there. We sailed on the Carnival Ecstasy when my twin boys were 17 months old. We had 7 people in 2 interior rooms and we were able to fit 2 cribs in one room (the beds were set up apart, against the length of each wall, and the cribs were tucked back into the corner of the room). I'm not sure that a balcony would allow the same config since you have to think about the balcony door and walkway. We brought 2 separate umbrella strollers and that worked out well. We had no problems with storage space. Have fun!

[taragl]

Invest in two Kidco Peapods. They are travel cribs that fold down like a popup laundry bag into a small circle each. Much lighter to carry than pack and plays and a much smaller footprint than a crib. We use one exclusively while traveling.

 

You can do the one-ring inflatable pool on the balcony or on deck. Just look for a drain to pour the used water into. Crew will sometimes offer a pitcher for you to fill the pool to get a couple of inches to splash in.

 

The twins will be too young for the kids club; however, if your older kids babysit at home, you may be able to negotiate some babysitting in the cabin with them. Our 13-year-old will often watch our toddler for a couple of hours after dinner so we can have some show/casino time, and in return he's allowed to stay out until 1:00am with his Circle C friends.

 

I would skip the car seats. They'll be incredibly bulky and useless in some taxis and buses. You'll have enough hands that someone can take each toddler on the ride. You can also opt to rent cars and some rental agencies will have carseats to borrow. We did this in Puerto Vallarta.

 

As for excursions, price out how much it would be to do it on your own vs. Carnival. For example, I priced out the Magic Kingdom, tickets plus car service and it was nearly the same as Carnival's price. If you rent a car, you can save, but you give up the peace of mind that the ship will not leave with one of its own excursion groups.

 

We have a 2 1/2 year old, a 13-year-old and the same itinerary in May. We're going to the Magic Kingdom in Port Canaveral. There are thrill rides for older kids and smaller adventures for the little ones. In Nassau, we are going to Atlantis where dad and DS13 are doing water slides while the toddler and I do the aquarium and shopping (plus a little pool splashing). And in Freeport we have left the day open. After two activity-intensive days back-to-back, we're going to see what our interest level is that day. We may stay on the ship or wander to a local beach. No pressure to do anything.

 

I think you'll have a great time. With a large group available to swap off watching the little ones, you guys will get a break and everyone will have time to relax. Enjoy!

[serene56]

I suggest the older kids use the inside cabin.

and put the twins on the sofa.

 

The cabin is 185 sq feet and the pack and play crib will take up much needed floor space (especially of you are looking at taking a boat load of baby stuff)

 

the back comes off the sofa and its made to a bed- use the backs for cushing the floor incase some one rolls.

 

at 18 months old they are too young for camp. But know that from noon til 2 you can go there and play with the toys. (youhave to stay with the kids)

 

its much needed energy relief for the wee ones.

 

we also let our 18 month old run free after dinner on the outside promade deck- she wasnt going anywhere- will not fit through the rails. and hardly anyone our there

[cruzegurl104]

You are one brave man!! :D

I actually miss the days of cruising with my mom and dad.:o

I hope you have a wonderful cruise & you will be able to make some great memories with your family!!:)

[Rhealsmom]

We travelled with my 17 month old niece a couple of years ago and it went very well.

 

A lot of the comments that have been made so far - are absolutely correct.

 

For the balcony cabins... they tuck the crib at the foot of the bed... which means, you have to crawl across the bed in order to access the balcony. This was OK by us... it left more floor space available for her to dance and play. We took the umbrella stroller everywhere. Some of the ports have cobblestone sidewalks - that may make it a bit more difficult to use off of the ship... but it was a wonderful godsend while on the ship.

 

Yes... we are one of those families that did bring a blow up pool and it was an absolute godsend. We actually had 2 balcony cabins and had the partition opened between the 2 - so the pool stayed at the end of one of the balcony's and the chairs, etc... stayed around the middle and the other end. She was in the pool every day. The rules may have changed - but we had asked our cabin attendant if we needed to change the water every day and he said no... so we just changed it every other day.

 

The other thing that we would recommend for anyone sailing with toddlers is the backpack harnasses. I know... I am going to hear it for even suggesting this... but it allowed her some freedom but also gave us the opportunity to make sure she stayed safe. At that age, they can get away so quickly... the harnass (only used it when up on the public decks, in the lounge or on some excursions).

 

Of course - beach days went very well... and she loved the "Butterfly Farm" in St. Thomas - so anything like that will go over well with all ages.

 

Have Fun

[Bonds73]

Traveling with young children can be challenging but it is all what you make of it. We did a B2B (14 days) with our son who was 6-months old at the time. Everyone told us we were crazy and we had the most wonderful trip with him, he was perfect and we enjoyed everything about it so it's all about what your expectations are.

 

Most definitely bring a stroller, we just left ours outside the room in the hall because it wouldn't fit through the door and it worked perfectly, just push it to the side so it is out of the way.

 

We also brought a little inflatable tub and our son loved it. He was much younger so that might not work for your kids but if you plan to take them to the beach in port then you probably won't need it.

 

Be sure to take advantage of the open hours for Camp Carnival. Because your twins are under 2 they cannot participate in the program however you can go with them on sea days before 8-10am or at least that is what it was last year when we went. Our son loved it and it gave him a chance to play with lots of new toys.

 

Hope you have a great trip :)