Stop! Don’t Go On a Cruise With a Baby Until You Read This

January 12th, 2009

by Brooklyn Sterritt

We just came back from a Caribbean cruise on a Princess ship with our ten month old daughter. We had such a wonderful time that we are now planning our next cruise vacation.

Planning for your trip is essential. There are so many things to consder and travel with a baby means that you need to pack more than you would without a baby. Here are the things that we thing you absolutely have to have when going on a cruise with a young baby.

1. Number one on our list is a comfortable stroller. Comfort for your baby is important – but it also important that the stroller can be folded so that it can be taken on an airplane and so that it won’t take up too much room in your cruise ship cabin. Our stroller was in constant use from morning to night. We walked our daughter on the promenade deck every morning; we took our daughter to all of our meals in her stroller; we didn’t want to miss out on the night-life on the ship – so every evening after dinner we bathed our daughter, dressed her in pyjamas, and then placed her back into her stroller. We then walked the ship with her, went to some clubs on the ship with her and before long she would fall fast asleep.

2. You cannot be without diapers. You can calculate how many diapers you will need on the trip by keeping track for a week or so before your trip of how many diapers your child uses in a typical day. Then simply multiply that number by the number of days in your vavcation. You also might want to consider waiting to buy the diapers in the city that you board your ship. That way you won’t have to worry about checking them as luggage on your air flight (if your trip includes air travel). Our ship left from Ft Lauderdale Florida, and we had time between our flight arrival and the time to board the ship. We took a cab from the airport to a Kmart store and purchased the diapers and some other baby supplies before getting another taxi to the ship.

3. One thing to do on a cruise ship – especially when it is hot is to go to the kiddies pool with your child and cool off in the pool. In order for your child to go into the pool they have to wear swim diapers or they have to be toilet-trained.

4. Our baby is on formula so we brought on board with us enough formula for the cruise. We opted to bring powdered formula since it is less bulky than formula that is already mixed. Again, we didn’t bring it from home, we purchased the required formula in Florida when we bought our diapers. Keep in mind that any formula entering the ship must be sealed & in the original container.

5. Kettle – taking a kettle (with an auto shutoff) on the trip means that you can boil water and know that you have safe water to mix with the powdered formula.

6. Formula dispenser – having a powder formula dispenser means that you can fill the bottles with clean water and when baby is ready to eat, you can just pour the pre-measured formula into the water and shake the bottle.

7. When you check into your room on the ship let your room steward know that you will have some smelly diapers – he will come to your room more often to remove them. You can also help to control odours in your cabin by bringing with you scented bags for putting the dirty diapers (they can be purchased at a dollar store or Babies r Us). The bags were also useful on our air flight.

8. Soap for baby’s bath. Most cruise cabins don’t have a bathtub – ours did not. What we did was plug the drain on the shower and put enough water in the shower in order to give our baby her bath.

9. Make sure that you bring something to protect your baby from the heat and sun, especially if you plan on spending much time in the sun with your child during the cruise. Before we left home we purchased a lightweight sun cabana. We used the cabana on two beaches and on the pool deck near the kiddies pool. It kept us and our baby comfortable and protected from the sun. To rent a cabana on the private island that our ship stopped would have cost us about $90. The cabana that we brought with us cost less than $50 and we use it all the time.

10. Zip lock bags – these are great for everything – snack holders, put really dirty/soiled clothes away until you get home. Use for things that leak – (ex. medicine). Use the bags on the ship to pack bibs, spoons to go for dinner so when they are dirty you can throw in the bag & clean when you get back to your room.

There are more items to consider, but start your list with these essentials items.

About the Author:

BabyTravelPlanet is in Canada and they sell Lightweight sun canopies to customers in Canada and USA. Visit their site to get their no cost ebook checklist Packing for a Cruise Vacation With Your Baby that is loaded with ideas when planning a cruise vacation.

Tags: Babies, baby, Cruise, cruising, Family, holiday, Travel, vacation
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