Crawling Cruiser

[liljay6915]

We leave on a family vacation the beginning of January. DS will be just shy of his first birthday. He is crawling every and has been for 5 months now. I doubt he will be walking by then. Has anyone taken a crawler on a cruise? I'm not a big fan of letting him crawl around on public floors considering EVERY little bit of anything he finds goes right in the mouth. I am worried about the dirty floor factor. I dont know if he will be walking by then but even if he is i'm sure his main form of transportation will still be on all fours. Any advice or how did your LO's do?

[twinmommy08]

We cruised while the twins were crawling. It was one of those things that it was an afterthought until we got on board. I was worried about them crawling on the public places too- however, I soon got over it once the kids expressed their desire to move! :D

 

We frequented the toddler area and empty rooms- like the dance floors or quite common areas during the day to let them burn off steam. I just made sure to keep an eye on them and make sure they keep their fingers out of their mouths! Of course, had plenty of wet wipes to clean off their legs and hands once they were done.

[Livemad]

OMG, I didn't even think of this!

 

My daughter is only 5 months now, can't sit up alone yet. But, she will be 13 months when we cruise! I think she'll be walking by then but now that I think of it she might crawl lots too!

 

I can't pack my Dyson! lol

[redxpanda]

Our first cruise with DD was at 15 months. I thought for sure she'd be walking, but alas, like her other big milestones she was a bit behind the pack. She actually decided to start a few days after we got back!

 

Anyhow, she had been a couch cruiser for a long time before the cruise, so anywhere we could, we let her 'walk' along chairs, etc. We took the umbrella stroller and used that when necessary. In the end, we carried her a lot more than we originally wanted and when we had the time to go slow, we would hold her hand and she walked with help. I didn't care though, I was just happy to start doing real travel again!

 

The kids clubs are a good way to burn some steam, if they have times you can go in when there aren't planned activities. I think the highlight of our cruise is when we booked the nursery (on DCL, it's a group babysitting room of sorts), she was so delighted to see toys, she didn't know we were gone!

 

This coming cruise, we are planning to utilize some of the adult clubs during the day when there isn't programming to let her run around, now that she can walk/run but still too young for the kids clubs. Stairs are a fun activity for toddlers as well, we will utilize them to wear her out and get some exercise.

[kitty9]

When my Goddaughter was in her crawler phase, we put a nice cotton blanket down on the floors in the public rooms where she was allowed to move around on and play with her toys. We found that one of the dance floors in a venue that wasn't being used was a great place to go. The hard floor was a bit cleaner and it was relatively quiet during the day when there were no scheduled activities. We also used the blanket on the balcony which worked nicely, and the sound of the sea put her to sleep in the afternoons. Of course, we only did this if the sun wasn't on the balcony.

[Kerry's Girls]

One of my girls' was a crawler on a couple of our cruises. I took her to the disco when it wasn't in use and she loved to "chase" the lights on the floor. The nice thing about a ship with little ones is that there are no sharp corners on the furniture and it's all bolted down, so I let my twins play in the lounges and it was nice for the crawler to be able to pull herself up using the tables. There was always someplace where she could safely play out of the way of other passengers. I wasn't worried about the germs - ships are probably cleaner than any other public place - and I think the biggest danger is from touching where others have put their dirty hands (railings, doorknobs, etc).

 

The sweetest thing was on one of the cruises, one of the bar waiters in the lounge made it his mission to get her walking before the end of the cruise (it didn't work). He tried every trick in the book - it was darling.

 

Best,

Mia

[liljay6915]

thanks for the advise. I will be seeking out the lounges during the day...and bringing lots of sanitizing wipes!