Taking a Cruise With a Baby? You Must Read This
Our daughter is 9 months old, and we just came back from a fabulous week-long cruise on the Crown Princess ship. We will be going again and when we do we will do some things different, but for the most part we did a lot of things very well. Our pre-planning for the trip really helped to make the trip very successful.
If you or someone you know is planning a cruise vacation with a young baby you might be interested in reading what our days were like on the cruise ship.
First of all it was great that Princess Cruise Line provided us with a very nice playpen for our daughter to sleep in. Our daughter is a good sleeper – so every day she would sleep until about 7 o’clock. We would take her out of her playpen, change her diaper, and bring her into bed with us for some family play and snuggle time.
We changed her into some dry clothes and then my hubby would get out the stroller that we brought with us on the trip and take our daughter to the wrap-around promenade deck of the ship for a half-hour or so stroll. During that time I would clean up the cabin a bit and then get myself ready for the day – have a shower and organize the diaper bag for the day. When they returned my husband would have his shower and get ready for the morning.
Our family would then head off for breakfast. We did not go to the dining room for breakfast – instead we thought it was easier to eat at the buffet area. The Princess ship had high chairs throughout the dining areas – so it was always easy to get one. My husband would get a high chair and get our daughter set up in it while I went to the buffet to get some food for the three of us to start on. The buffet line was never very busy so it just took a minute or so to get the food.
When we finished our breakfast we went back to our cabin and changed into our swim gear. Our daughter wears swim diapers under her bathing suit. Off to the kid’s pool where on the Crown Princess children are allowed 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.
Once our daughter woke up from her nap we would get out the stroller, put her in it and our family would head off exploring the ship. Eventually, we would stop in the buffet for lunch – after lunch maybe more swimming – or more exploring – and then it would be afternoon nappie 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.
On our way to dinner we would do a quick detour to the buffet area and pick up some melon pieces to take to the dining room for our daughter to snack on 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.
At some point during dinner our daughter would be ready for her dinner. Before we left to go on the cruise (about a month before) I had pre-ordered baby food from Princess. At dinner when she was ready to eat I fed her a jar of baby food and some cereal mixed with water. When we were all finished eating our little family would sit and relax and enjoy being together as our daughter had 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.
Being out and about during the evening is one of the great fun things to do on a cruise ship – and we didn`t want to miss out. So, every evening after our daughter`s bath time we put her in her sleepers and settled her into her stroller and off we would go to a show, to see a comedian, listen to some music, or just walk the ship. It was fantastic.
Our daughter would enjoy watching all that was going on around her. After 30 minutes or so she would fall asleep in her stroller. We adjusted the stroller seat so that she was reclining as she slept.
With our daughter now fast asleep in her stroller my husband and I would continue doing things until we 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.