Going on cruise with 8.5-month-old?

[Anonymous]

Anyone do anything like this? It's a 7-day cruise. We agreed to go when DD was 2 months old and I didn't know all the things I'd worry about (will she get overwhelmed? will she get sick? will she have a place to crawl around?). Thanks.

[Anonymous]

I took a non-walking 17-month-old on an Alaskan cruise. I regretted it. We were all fine of course but it was very stressful. My husband's family is going on another cruise this weekend, now I have a 3 yo and a 6-month-old. We're not going.

If you have specific questions and want to post them I will try to answer them if I can.

Also search the DCUM archives because I think I posted in response to someone else's query some time ago.

[Anonymous]

I also posted a response to this same question a few months ago. We went on a 5-night Carnival cruise with my family back in January with our then 17-month old. I agree with the PP-- I will NEVER do that again with a child under the age of 4 or 5. Although I think every cruise line is different, for ex. a Disney cruise might be oK for a toddler if activities and child care are tailored to that age group. An 8.5 month old might be ok since they are more content without much stimulation. But my poor son was just bored, not much to do, too young for the camp, kids w/ diapers not allowed in the pools... And naptime/bedtime is hard with a child needing to sleep and you're stuck w/ them in those tiny rooms. If you do it, get connecting rooms w/ someone you're traveling with or a balcony, just so you can be somewhere else while the baby sleeps.

[Anonymous]

Thanks. Can you tell me what, specifically, was stressful? We're going with my in-laws, and I'm afraid she'll be overstimulated both by new sites every day (there are 3 stopping points and 3-4 days on the boat itself), unfamiliar bed, and etc. I'm also worried that she'll be going through stranger anxiety then, which will be hard to deal with when we're around a bunch of people. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

OP here -- I mentioned in-laws b/c I'm also afraid she'll be overstimulated by unfamiliar people.

[Anonymous]

OP again! I read old threads on cruises and saw that some didn't like it because of not being able to do much. That's not really a concern I have -- I sleep with the baby all the time and don't really care too much about doing the activities (shows, etc.) on the ship. So I don't mind missing out on the fun! I mostly am worried that it will be too much for DD.

[Anonymous]

15:33 here- I don't think an 8.5 month old has stranger anxiety yet, do they? My son is about to turn 2 and I can't remember back that far. :> Anyway it sounds like a lot of the things that were stressful for me will not be stressful for you, since your baby is younger. A cruise with a toddler was/would be much harder. For example, one thing that was stressful was not being able to eat when we wanted to. We tried to eat in the dining room every night, and though our waiter was super helpful and always brought out DS's food quickly, it was still later than usual and if he was whining b/c he was hungry, nothing we could do about it. Even in the buffet, there's still lines and crowds of people to get through. An 8.5 month old is still eating BM/formula and baby food so that's a non-issue for you.

If you don't care that you can't do much and will prob. not have much fun, then sure-- go for it. Seven night is a long time though and you will prob. be so ready to get off that boat (we were ready after 3 nights). But if you feel like your baby is getting overwhelmed by people, sites, etc, you can always take her back to your room for some downtime. And remember, just b/c the boat stops, you don't have to get off.

To answer one of your original questions, my son also did get sick but I think that was from being on the airplane. So being stuck on that boat with a sick child was extra bad. Like, i said, NEVER AGAIN for me!

[Anonymous]

15:09 here. Sources of stress...

My daughter did have separation anxiety. It started at 5 months (and now I have a six-month-old who has started, also - fun!) and intensified in unfamiliar situations so she did not want to be with my husband, my SIL, my MIL, or my FIL, all of whom she loves. She wanted ME, ME, and only ME. The entire time.

My child was a superstar sleeper. 6 hours starting at 6 weeks, 12 hours starting at 3 1/2 months. She did not sleep on the cruise.

Close quarters. Does your child go to bed at 7:30? On the cruise, now you do, too. And if your child is up screaming in the middle of the night, your next door neighbors are very very close to you and you have to worry that their sleep is being disturbed.

Meal times. Our dining rooms didn't open until at least 6, sometimes later, depending on the night. That means you don't get food until at least 6:30, sometimes later. Regardless of whether your child eats real food or baby food, his or her bedtime is still being delayed by your dinner. So you have a cranky mealtime companion. You can always deal with this by getting room service, but on our cruise the room service menu was the same every day EXCEPT when the restaurants were open. So either you eat early so as not to disturb the child, and eat the same thing every night, or you eat late, and worry that the guy coming in with your food wakes your kid up. Also, my kid refused to eat on the cruise. She was 17 months, so mostly real food at that point, and she was not a picky eater, but she refused everything except milk and Earth's Best cereal bars that I had brought with me. She drank over 40 oz of milk a day.

We did all the excursions with her. She was actually great on those. We took a float plane to see bears in the wild, we took a helicopter to go dog sledding, boat tours, scenic train rides, etc. All great. It was on the cruise itself that was the problem.

There is no room in a ship room to crawl. So you have to find empty hallways to crawl in. There is pretty much nothing else to do with a baby.

Also find out what your bathroom is like. We were lucky and had a tub but if you won't, practice showering with the baby now.

Also know that there won't be a ped on board. There will be a doctor but who knows how much experience s/he will have with babies and what meds will be there. Bring everything you could ever need - Tylenol, Motrin, oral rehydration stuff, feverall suppositories in case they can't keep meds down, saline drops, etc. I even got a prescription from my ped for an antibiotic at the right dose and brought it with me in the event that the doctor on board diagnosed something and didn't have the right meds for her.

It's a long, long time to be stuck in a small space with a baby. If you go, good luck. But like the PP, I did it once and I will never do it again.

[Anonymous]

15:33 again... 15:09, you reminded me of some other things that I had forgotten were so bad. My son also did not eat a thing on the cruise except for milk and watermelon. (diapers were nasty, to say the least) But then again, he often doesn't eat well when we travel, and he was sick too so that may be why. Also I had forgotten about the bathrooms. Our room did not have a tub so every night we endured a screaming, writhing toddler as my husband held him in the shower while I attempted to scrub him down. And yes, my son was sick so we did go to the infirmary or whatever once. Very little help. Luckily I had brought the baby Tylenol (always do when we travel).

For fun, the only thing we could do w/ my son was have him walk up and down the hallways with his push toy (he was not quite walking alone yet). At one point he grabbed some old lady's walker and started pushing it around. That was funny... one of the few bright spots of the trip.

OP- I don't mean to scare you, but it really was one of the most unpleasant times my husband and I have endured since having children. Yes, it was that bad. If you do it, I recommend a shorter cruise. Seven nights is a long time...

[Anonymous]

Gee, we took a cruise on Celebrity with a 2 year-old and we all had a blast. We ate in the dining room every night, even on on the formal nights. There were a lot of parents with babies and they seemed to be having a great time too. Maybe I'm completely oblivious!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gee, we took a cruise on Celebrity with a 2 year-old and we all had a blast. We ate in the dining room every night, even on on the formal nights. There were a lot of parents with babies and they seemed to be having a great time too. Maybe I'm completely oblivious!

15:09 again...This brings up a good point. OP, maybe you could post what cruise line you are planning to go on. Different lines may be more or less family friendly. There were very few kids on our cruise [Regent]. My husband leaves tomorrow with his family on Royal Caribbean. While our kids aren't going, I can ask him what he thinks of the line for kids when he gets back.