Infant on Cruise

[LMaxwell]

My son is two and a half and has gone on five cruises. All great family experiences. I’m not going to read 3 pages of kid hating and parent shaming but I am sure that’s what it is.

[cruiselvr04]

I guess I consider the splash area on Freedom ships a pool. It had a small slide and its own area.

 

Hope the rest of you never swim in hotel or community pools. Most allow swim diapers. Yes pools can habor lots of germs but chlorine takes care of most of it. Just saying...

[Sunkissed Mommy]

Well there you go. Typical RC, I suppose. Just because they don't stop you from doing something doesn't mean you are allowed to do it. I am sure they had a sign up regarding leaving the ship when we dropped DS off. I can't find the policies regarding the kid's stuff now of course.

 

I suppose there are two indicators on Anthem that might be a sign you need to stay onboard.

- They give you a ship's phone which probably doesn't work too far away

- Maximum time for tots is two hours. So you wouldn't get far.

 

 

 

I specifically asked if it was okay to leave the ship for the time he was in there and they said it was perfectly okay. This was in 2014, so maybe policy has changed since then.

 

I’m a rule follower. So this was not something I purposefully broke the rules on.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[pink845]

I have three boys. All in university now. Did not cruise with them until the youngest was 5 years old. The ships today cater to children 5 and up. They make friends and have a great old time. How do you know how your 7-8 month old child will react to seasickness. At that age, ear infections happen so quickly. So many people, so many viruses, colds, there little immune systems are still adapting. Yes, I know, you would love a cruise but I would wait at least a couple of years before taking the child with you. Go the Disney instead where it is infant friendly if you want to vacation with the child. Or better yet, wait a few more months and have your parents watch the child and you and your husband can have a great time (this is what we did one year when we needed a break from our 1 year old !!!!!). I would never allow my child to be taken care of by strangers on a ship (yes, they are all vetted) but really in this age of creeps, why even take the risk. Once you have left the ship, you will never see these caregivers (in the nursery again). This is your child. The way I see it, until one of my boys could tell me what he was doing in the play centre, what the name of this counsellor was, he did not cruise. Today, he is better for it and cruises all the time.

[zeezz]

Goodness. So much FUD in this thread!

[xxHadleyxx]

Our son turned 10 monhts old on his first cruise. We also had an almost 3 year old with us at that time. This was on Disney waaaay back when, before they had any programming for the under 3 set (apparently they did not anticipate a need/desire for this!). Even without a nursery to leave the kids in it was a FBAULOUS vacation and we decided cruising is the thing to do with young kids to have a stress free vacation.

It was so nice to be able to head out without a ton of gear--because the room was always near by if you needed anything (and snacks were available all over the hsip, etc), always have things to do whenever the kids' shceudles allowed, come back to a clean room twice a day, etc, etc, etc

 

So, no, I do not think you are at all crazy.

 

I don't think you are nuts just unrealistic . Leaving a 7 month on the ship while you enjoy the port is pretty scary ..

 

Assuming the ship allows it, I really do not think it is particularly scary or risky at all. As others have said it is not all that different than leaving a child at daycare---in fact in many ways it iis LESS risky---the ship has doctors and a well equiped medical facility right there onboard in the unlikely event that the child has a medical emergency--one way in which it is safer.

 

As far as the ship leaving while parents are ashore? There are many ways to mitigate that risk, including only walking from the ship (so you are nearby and able to return even if traffic backs up), taking a ship sponosred excusrion and/or arriving back 2 hours before all aboard time, etc.

 

Honestly, from a purely logical stnadpoint, it is probably safer in most cases for the child to remain on board in the children's programming than to accompany parents on shore where there are risks of car accidents, drowning, etc. Risks are very low regardless, but . . .

 

Cruising with an infant is selfish and irresponsible because you aren't considering your cabin neighbors who have to tolerate your baby's crying all through the night. Or the baby's crying all through dining at any venue. Or the baby causing disruption during onboard entertainment/shows. I have NEVER seen a parent with an infant in diapers adhere to the pool rules of NOT putting the baby in the pool water. JMHO.

 

My guess is that you only notice issues and are oblivious to the many well behaved babies/parents around you. Plenty of parents follow the rules (who wants their little one to swim in pea soup anyway? Yuck, I didn't!) and plenty of babies are pretty mild/quiet by nature and handle travel well. (and when they do not, plenty of parents have the good manners to head out to the leasst populated space of open deck they can find to calm a child, etc). Are there some runde parents who ignore a crying child in the dining room? Yep. There are also rude people who yell at staff, save rows of seats in the theatre, smoke in non smoking areas, sit on stairs, shove into elevators, cut in lines, and on and on and on---having a child or not doesn't really change the rudeness level of someone

[sjb317]

I have three boys. All in university now. Did not cruise with them until the youngest was 5 years old. The ships today cater to children 5 and up. They make friends and have a great old time. How do you know how your 7-8 month old child will react to seasickness. At that age, ear infections happen so quickly. So many people, so many viruses, colds, there little immune systems are still adapting. Yes, I know, you would love a cruise but I would wait at least a couple of years before taking the child with you. Go the Disney instead where it is infant friendly if you want to vacation with the child. Or better yet, wait a few more months and have your parents watch the child and you and your husband can have a great time (this is what we did one year when we needed a break from our 1 year old !!!!!). I would never allow my child to be taken care of by strangers on a ship (yes, they are all vetted) but really in this age of creeps, why even take the risk. Once you have left the ship, you will never see these caregivers (in the nursery again). This is your child. The way I see it, until one of my boys could tell me what he was doing in the play centre, what the name of this counsellor was, he did not cruise. Today, he is better for it and cruises all the time.

 

I have three sons, all college graduates with families of their own. I wish we could have cruised with them when they were infants/toddlers as I think this would have been a great vacation. :D Vacations for us mostly involved camping which was always a lot of work, especially for me! We did spend a few days at Disney World but that was a miserable experience with a one year old. Cruising would have been a dream vacation for me!

 

Flash forward many years😀. We’ve been fortunate to have been able to cruise several times with grandchildren at various toddler ages and each time was easy. Our youngest grandson was 14 months old on our Christmas cruise and he was the star of the ship! At the age of two, he has been on two cruises and is Diamond 😂. We all had a great time.

 

OP, go for it!😃

 

Sherri😀

[mjkacmom]

I have three boys. All in university now. Did not cruise with them until the youngest was 5 years old. The ships today cater to children 5 and up. They make friends and have a great old time. How do you know how your 7-8 month old child will react to seasickness. At that age, ear infections happen so quickly. So many people, so many viruses, colds, there little immune systems are still adapting. Yes, I know, you would love a cruise but I would wait at least a couple of years before taking the child with you. Go the Disney instead where it is infant friendly if you want to vacation with the child. Or better yet, wait a few more months and have your parents watch the child and you and your husband can have a great time (this is what we did one year when we needed a break from our 1 year old !!!!!). I would never allow my child to be taken care of by strangers on a ship (yes, they are all vetted) but really in this age of creeps, why even take the risk. Once you have left the ship, you will never see these caregivers (in the nursery again). This is your child. The way I see it, until one of my boys could tell me what he was doing in the play centre, what the name of this counsellor was, he did not cruise. Today, he is better for it and cruises all the time.

I have three daughters (and two sons), Two are off at college, the youngest ate 14, so no littles. My oldest was left at daycare at a ski lodge at 6 months. Dd19 was left at Beaches child ate at age 2. My 14 year old twins were left at childcare at 18 months at an AI resort in the US. The only reason I wouldn’t bring infant and toddlers on a cruise would be lack of childcare, but if childcare was available, I’d go for it. Heck, I had five kids in under 6 1/2 years, I think I would’ve handed them off to a random stranger who rang my dooorbell.

[gerif]

imo leave the baby at home with a responsible grand parent .Much safer than on a cruise

That's all well and good IF you happen to have a "responsible grandparent" available to do this. Many do not. It's either take the baby or don't cruise. When the grandchildren were babies (youngest now 18), I was working full time at a high stress job often requiring travel for weeks at a time. Other grandparents lived about 10 hours away. Are you suggesting I give up my own vacation time so the kids could cruise without a baby? Sorry, wasn't going to happen.

[Philomath]

Welp this thread has been discouraging. Took a break from cruising for a couple years to start our family and we are so looking forward to Oasis in April with our son who will be 10 months old. Both sets of grandparents plus an aunt and a 16-yo niece will also be on the cruise to take turns playing and babysitting. The presence of a nursery, programs to provide crib/diapers/baby food, and the Universal-themed kids programming made us think that this was a family-friendly ship - there's a reason we didn't do Celebrity! Sad to hear some of our fellow passengers will consider us selfish and irresponsible for going on a family trip :(

[gingersvp]

Welp this thread has been discouraging. Took a break from cruising for a couple years to start our family and we are so looking forward to Oasis in April with our son who will be 10 months old. Both sets of grandparents plus an aunt and a 16-yo niece will also be on the cruise to take turns playing and babysitting. The presence of a nursery, programs to provide crib/diapers/baby food, and the Universal-themed kids programming made us think that this was a family-friendly ship - there's a reason we didn't do Celebrity! Sad to hear some of our fellow passengers will consider us selfish and irresponsible for going on a family trip :(

 

Please don't take the rabble rousers seriously. My experience with a toddler on a cruise was fabulous. The staff LOVE small children and really go above and beyond. There are ships out there with age restrictions for those cranky people who somehow feel that babies aren't also people.

 

The cruise lines market to and cater to families - they actively want your business and that's why they provide so many programs.

[LMaxwell]

Welp this thread has been discouraging. Took a break from cruising for a couple years to start our family and we are so looking forward to Oasis in April with our son who will be 10 months old. Both sets of grandparents plus an aunt and a 16-yo niece will also be on the cruise to take turns playing and babysitting. The presence of a nursery, programs to provide crib/diapers/baby food, and the Universal-themed kids programming made us think that this was a family-friendly ship - there's a reason we didn't do Celebrity! Sad to hear some of our fellow passengers will consider us selfish and irresponsible for going on a family trip :(

 

Your son will be the star of the ship. People's comments here are overblown. Remember, it's their problem, not yours. Have a great family trip. That is the age we first took our son and it was a blast. I would not trade it at all.

[BNBR]

Count me in with the "it's not much of a vacation" crowd. It's a lot of work with an infant. I ended up paying for grand parents to come along knowing they would be available to watch our kids when we went out in the evening. Some people really love watching their kids constantly, and if so, I'd book a ship like Harmony. They have a large splash pad for swim diapered children, a family play room, even a kids movie theater and excellent nursery.

 

I would never get off the ship with my kids still on it, of any age, but we are all different.

 

Our experience was that infants are pretty well loved on the ship. I'm sorry if others had a different experience, but the staff just seemed to flock to us when we brought our infant a couple years ago. I definitely wouldn't worry about getting nasty looks or anything of the sort... it will probably be the opposite, you'll get more attention than you may want!

[tinkerme1]

Hi Everyone! We have a 2 month old boy and are thinking a cruise in summer 2018 might be a good option for us. From the looks of it Royal Caribbean seems to get good grades regarding sailingwith kids. I am still a bit nervous as he we still only be 7-8 months old. We would likely take advantage of the onboard babysitting options. We figured we could have a few nights out and maybe even leave him onboard at one port while my wife and I could enjoy a relaxing beach day. We have cruised on NCL 3 times and Princess once. We are dying to set sail again and have always wanted to try RC. Am I nuts? Would love your feedback, especially if you have sailed with kids around this age group. Thanks in advance!

 

I'm from Chevy Chase, MD originally! I read your post and have a couple of suggestions. First, ask your pediatrician if your child is okay to go on a cruise. Does the child have any difficulties at all with allergies, etc. Usually, kids that are infants need a different kind of medical doctor than is provided on a ship! Years ago, a family was put off a ship because the doctor was concerned that he couldn't help an infant. It was in the Cruise Line's discretion to do this since they were concerned for the child's safety.

 

I'm not trying to scare you, just suggesting that you weigh all of your options. Your kids are precious cargo and so it is good to come prepared with knowledge.:)

[Sunkissed Mommy]

Welp this thread has been discouraging. Took a break from cruising for a couple years to start our family and we are so looking forward to Oasis in April with our son who will be 10 months old. Both sets of grandparents plus an aunt and a 16-yo niece will also be on the cruise to take turns playing and babysitting. The presence of a nursery, programs to provide crib/diapers/baby food, and the Universal-themed kids programming made us think that this was a family-friendly ship - there's a reason we didn't do Celebrity! Sad to hear some of our fellow passengers will consider us selfish and irresponsible for going on a family trip :(

 

 

Ignore those people! They dont matter to you. This is a FAMILY cruise line!

I've encountered nothing but friendly happy people who are overjoyed to see my kids onboard. Every time we've taken the kids along people smile, wave, chat with my kids. NO ONE has every said anything rude to my face. So, if they are thinking it, they can keep on thinking it and make themselves miserable inside!

[xxHadleyxx]

Welp this thread has been discouraging. Took a break from cruising for a couple years to start our family and we are so looking forward to Oasis in April with our son who will be 10 months old. Both sets of grandparents plus an aunt and a 16-yo niece will also be on the cruise to take turns playing and babysitting. The presence of a nursery, programs to provide crib/diapers/baby food, and the Universal-themed kids programming made us think that this was a family-friendly ship - there's a reason we didn't do Celebrity! Sad to hear some of our fellow passengers will consider us selfish and irresponsible for going on a family trip :(

 

Don't be discouraged. There are a handful of rude people who don't like babies/toddlers/kids/teens/20 somethings/seniors/etc on any cruise. The vast majority of fellow cruisers will either be cuaght up in their own things and not notice your kids at all, or look fondly at the little ones. if someone is opposed to having kids onboard the ship they sail; they should not be booking on RCI, and certianly not on an Oasis class ship.

Edited November 28, 2017 by xxHadleyxx

[Lordnlkon]

We didn't take our kids with us on a cruise until they were 6 and even at that age, it's not really a vacation. That being said, it's your family, your money and your vacation. Don't listen to anyone else and do what you think is best. As a lot of people said, there are facilities on board to help out.

[squale2]

Interesting that the OP was looking for feedback and when someone provides there own input that may seem negative to some and insightful to others you should disregard them because everything is unicorns and rainbows

[tinkerme1]

Interesting that the OP was looking for feedback and when someone provides there own input that may seem negative to some and insightful to others you should disregard them because everything is unicorns and rainbows

 

You are so right. I love kids and see them on ships all the time. The safety for infants is my concern.