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Author: Luisa Frey Gaynor Baby-Friendly Lines
The major family-friendly cruise lines are Carnival, Disney, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, Princess, Costa, Holland America and Celebrity (only a seasonal program).
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Disney Cruise Line is the only one with a fleet-wide nursery for infants and toddlers from ages of six weeks to three years. The nursery imposes an hourly fee, and you should book it as soon as you board. Cunard's QE2 also has a nursery, as will the new Queen Mary when she enters the market. The QE2's nursery accepts kids age one year and older; the professional nannies there do change diapers.
While the youth programs on most lines (except for HAL, where kids must be five years old) will accept children who are at least three years old and potty-trained, Carnival, NCL and Princess accept children starting at age two. Carnival, however, is the only one whose youth counselors will change diapers. On NCL and Princess, you must stay on board while your little one is in the youth program, so the counselors can page you if you are needed to change a diaper. Some lines will let children under the minimum age use the toys and games in the youth rooms any time, as long as a parent is present; check with the youth counselors once aboard ship. Alternatively, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity have private babysitting, so you can reserve a babysitter to stay in the cabin with your little one who may be too young for the youth programs.
Most lines offer a reduced third/fourth berth rate for children between the ages of two and 17. Check at the time you book. Some--such as Carnival, NCL, Costa (in the Caribbean only) and the QE2--allow children under two years to sail free, paying only port taxes and fees. Disney has a greatly reduced rate for those under three: $99 for three and four-night cruises and $119 for seven-night cruises.
Before You Book
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| Click for pic | Here's what you should know when booking your stateroom. Most standard cabins don't have bathtubs except in the top categories, such as suites. Disney Cruise Line is the one exception, with all cabins offering a split bathroom with a tub/shower combination. If your little one doesn't take well to showers, keep this in mind when booking your cabin. However, since the showers on most ships have a hand-held nozzle, one parent can hold the infant in the shower while the other washes the baby off. We found this worked well when our daughter was young and did not like to shower yet.
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| Click for pic | If you need a crib, reserve one at the time of your booking. Cribs vary, depending on the cruise line, from the standard pack 'n play portable cribs to small ones with vertical bars. On our recent Disney cruise, we found that the only convenient spot to put the pack 'n play crib was right next to my daughter. Since our teething baby wakes up often at night, this was not a great option, and most nights the baby ended up in the king-sized bed with us.
One thing we liked on the Disney Magic was the curtain that separated the king-sized bed from the pullout couch where my daughter slept. This enabled us to keep some lights on in the cabin while she slept on the other side. A number of lines now offer this option in standard cabins. If your toddler sleeps in a bed but needs a bed bar, bring your own folding bed bar, which can collapse to fit in a suitcase. It is almost impossible to find a bed bar, even on the most family-friendly ships. My daughter tended to fall out of bed -- and sleep through it! -- when we were at sea, so we packed our own bed bar for a while.
A mini-refrigerator is a big plus when you need to store baby food or formula. Lines that have them in their newer ships include Disney, Princess and Royal Caribbean.
Verandas are handy when your infant or toddler takes a long nap. Instead of spending three hours of a beautiful sunny day in the cabin, you can relax on the veranda while your child sleeps inside. (In warm climates, keep the veranda door closed so the air conditioning stays inside. Depending on your child's age, you might want to bring a baby monitor because you won't be able to hear the child if you are on the other side of the glass door.) All private balconies have door locks to keep little ones from straying outside unattended.
Once On Board
All the main dining rooms of family-friendly cruise lines have highchairs (your waiter will probably have it set up for you before you arrive each night), but they are harder to find at the buffet and fast food restaurants. Some lines do have a supply of highchairs at the buffets, but you might find it easier to bring your stroller there, and feed the baby in that in case you can't get a highchair.
More and more cruise ships have splash pools for infants and toddlers. However, for sanitation reasons, many of them won't allow non-potty-trained children in them even if they are wearing swim diapers. While Disney allows children with swim diapers in the splash pool and larger pool, Costa allows non-potty-trained children with swim diapers only in the splash pools. Carnival, Princess, NCL and Royal Caribbean do not allow swim-diapered infants in any pools, including splash pools. One parent on the CruiseMates.com family message board said she brought along a small inflatable kiddy pool for her infant on their last cruise.
Tipping for infants and children is varied. Some lines, like Carnival, suggest tips for children age two and over, while on NCL the age is three years and over. For children three to 12 years, NCL suggests $5 per child per day, vs. the standard $10 for teens and adults. Other lines, such as Royal Caribbean, suggest tipping the same for kids as for adults. Costa states that tips are not required for infants and children. However, I find that kids in the dining room can be even messier and need more special requests than adults. Thus I suggest some kind of tip, perhaps on a pro-rated basis.
If there is no child's or infant's life vest in your cabin, see your steward right away and ask for one.
As for shore excursions, keep it simple. In warm weather destinations with an infant or toddler, we generally research nearby beaches that have bathroom facilities and that can be reached by taxi. We go there in the morning and return to the ship in the early afternoon for Ethan's nap. My husband and I then take turns staying with the sleeping baby in the cabin, while the other goes to the pool or back ashore with our older daughter. Generally the shore excursions booked through the cruise line are too long for children under four years old. Since excursions tend to be expensive, it hardly seems worth booking them for babies or toddlers. I suggest purchasing the guidebook "Cruise Vacations With Kids" by Candyce Stapen (Prima Publishing; you can order it on Amazon.com) for suggestions on what to do independently with your children ashore in various parts of the world.
Packing For an Infant
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| Click for pic | When you pack for a cruise with an infant, be prepared to lug a lot of "equipment." You may be calling in places that don't have the formula or baby food your child is used to, so you'll have to carry it all. Second word of advice: Get organized ahead of time, and don't leave all the packing logistics until the night before you leave.
You'll have to calculate how much formula, baby food, diapers and wipes you'll need for the duration of the cruise. Most lines do not sell any of these products on board, and those that do sell diapers, like Disney, have extremely high prices. While we usually give my son Ethan ready-to-feed formula, we put him on powder for the cruise, and bought bottled water in port or from the ship's bar. As for baby food, Gerber now makes its fruit in plastic unbreakable containers. But you'll have to decide whether you want to carry the glass vegetable jars by hand if you are flying, or risk possible breakage by packing them. We took the safe route and packed the jars in one of our carry-on bags.
We packed all non-breakable bulky products (diapers, wipes, cans of powdered formula) in a large box and checked it at the airport. The box is a good idea, because you will use up these products during the cruise, and you can throw away the box and have one less piece of luggage for the trip home. One CruiseMates.com reader on the family site sent these products via express mail to the ship's homeport. However, this is a very costly way to go.
You will also have to decide whether to buy a plane ticket for your little one under two years old and bring his/her car seat, or if you will hold the child on your lap. As you probably know, children under two years fly for free as long as they sit on an adult's lap. However, this is not the safest way to go if there is turbulence.
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| Click for pic | If you do bring the car seat, you'll have to carry it through the airport unless you have a combination stroller/car seat. You can purchase this handy product at One Step Ahead (www.onestepahead.com). If you do have a car seat, don't expect any tour buses or even all cabs to have seat belts to secure it once you are at your destination. Carnival just started offering strollers to rent aboard the Carnival Pride, thus eliminating one more thing to bring on your cruise. The cost is $6 per day or $25 per week.
Even though little ones tend to make a lot of dirty laundry, you should not have to bring tons of clothes and bibs if the ship has laundering facilities. Check the deck plan prior to your cruise to see if there are public laundry facilities. If so, you might want to bring a bit of your own laundry detergent just in case. Other things to remember to pack: baby bottles and extra nipples, baby spoon and bib, swim diapers, any pediatric over-the-counter medicines, pacifiers, insulated bag for keeping bottles cool, and books and toys to amuse your child during the flight and at dinnertime on the ship.
The most important thing of all is to change your expectations prior to the cruise. My husband and I did this on our first cruise with baby Ethan. At the start, we told each other which things we would like to do solo during the cruise. That way, each of us took turns giving the other some periodic free time while one stayed with the kids. You won't have endless hours of leisure time to sun on deck or work out, but you will have some free time to enjoy your infant without the daily pressures you face at home. You will also have a chance to explore different ports to some extent without having to repack each time. And when you consider all that one needs to pack when cruising with a baby, that is a big consideration!
Cheap Caribbean Cruises at: http://www.cheapcaribbeancruises.net
Cheap Carninival Cruises at: http://www.cheapcarnivalcruises.net
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