Ever Thought About a Cruise With A Baby – Read This Now
My husband and our 10 month old daughter and I just returned from a wonderful one week cruise in the Caribbean on the Crown Princess cruise ship. We wondered how difficult it would be to cruise with a young baby – it turned out that it was actually quite easy. Sure there are some things that we would do differently, but for the most part we did a lot of things very, very well. We are now planning our next cruise.
I thought it would be beneficial to other travellers planning a cruise with a young baby to read about our typical day on a cruise ship.
Our typical day started at 7:00 a.m. when our daughter woke up. We would take her out of the playpen that was provided to us by the cruise company and bring her into bed with us for a few minutes to play with her as we all woke up.
After the family play time we would wash our daughter up, change her into some dry clothes and then my husband would put our daughter into our stroller (we brought one with us – don’t leave home without one) and take her for a walk on one of the outside deck – either one of the top decks or the promenade deck. While they were gone – for 45 minutes or so – I would hop into the shower, get dressed, pack the diaper bag for the day and tidy up the cabin a bit. When they returned my husband would have his shower and get ready for the morning.
The three of us would than meet at the buffet area of the ship for breakfast. One of us would put our girl into a high chair (again provided by the cruise ship) and the other would go to the buffet to get breakfast.
After breakfast we headed back to our cabin to change into bathing suits and off we would go to the kiddies pool. On our ship young babies are allowed in the kiddies pool if they are wearing a swim diaper.
Our daughter needs and I think actually enjoys napping – so after swimming we would go back to the cabin and put her down for her nap. Before we left on our vacation my husband and I talked about how important it was for us to share the child-care duties during the trip. So when our daughter napped we would take turns staying with her. If it was my turn to stay with her while she napped – hubby would head of for some time on his own, and then the next time we would swap – he would stay with her and I would head off. It worked out great.
When our daughter woke up for her nap we would put her into the stroller and the three of us would walk around the ship together. Back to the buffet for lunch together – more exploring – maybe some more swimming – and eventually it was afternoon nap time.
For dinner we always went to the formal dining room. It was the highlight of the day. We would all get dressed up for dinner, and would head off for a pre-dinner cocktail at about 5:30 and then go for dinner at about 6:00 p.m. Every dinner was spectacular and the service from the dining room staff was excellent. All the staff loved talking to our daughter.
Right before dinner my husband and daughter would go to the buffet and gather up a few pieces of fruit to take with us to the dining room for our daughter to eat during dinner.
When we were seated at our table in the dining room (again there are plenty of high chairs available) my husband and I would look over the menu, place our dinner order (we loved the food on the ship) and our daughter would munch on her fruit, some pieces of bread and on some other snack food that I brought with us.
When our daughter was ready to eat I would feed her a jar of baby food and some baby cereal that was provided by the cruise company. After eating we sat and enjoyed each other’s company as our daughter enjoyed her bottle.
When we left the dining room we would head back to our room. It was time for her evening bath – since our room did not have a bathtub (it only had a shower) – we plugged the shower drain and ran some water into the shower making it plenty deep enough for our daughter’s bath.
We decided before our trip that we didn`t want to miss out the evening fun on the cruise ship. So, after bath time we put our daughter into her pyjamas and placed her into her stroller. We then headed off to see a show, or to see a comedian, or listen to some music, or just walk the ship. It was a great time of the day for all of us.
Our daughter would laugh and smile at all the people and the excitement that surrounded her – but it wasn`t long – maybe 30 or 40 minutes before she would fall asleep in her stroller. We adjusted the stroller seat so that she was reclining as she slept.
As our daughter slept we would continue doing things on the ship until my husband and I were ready to call it a day. We would back to our cabin, tuck our daughter into her playpen for the night, and then tuck ourselves into bed as well.
Going on a successful cruise vacation takes some advanced planning. For us cruising is a wonderful way to have a stress-free vacation, enjoy our daughter and enjoy being a family.