Cruising With A Baby? – Don’t Leave Home Without These Items!

Going on a family cruise with a young baby can be a wonderful trip. We know because we just came back from a Caribbean cruise with our 10 month old daughter.

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. Diapers. Make sure that you pack enough disposable diapers. The way that I figured out how many to take was to the week before our trip I kept track of how many diapers our girl went through each day to get an idea of how many diapers are needed per day. Based on that calculate how many are required during the vacation. We didn’t purchase the diapers at home. We had time between our flight arrival in Ft Lauderdale and the time to board the ship so we took a cab to a Target store and purchased them and some other supplies before getting another taxi to the ship. That way we didn’t have to carry them onto our airplane.

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. We took a formula dispenser with us. This allowed us greater flexibility for giving our daughter her bottle. Having the dispenser meant that we filled several bottles at a time with clean water and when baby is ready to have a bottle (anywhere on the ship), we just had to pour the premeasured formula into the bottle and give the bottle a shake.

7. Not having a spot to put your dirty diapers will cause some problems with odor in your cabin 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. And we took with us scented bags for putting the dirty diapers. They really helped control the odors in our room, and they were also useful on our air flight. They can be purchased at a dollar store or Babies r Us.

8. Bring baby soap for your child’s bath. Our cabin did not have a bathtub and most cruise cabins won’t have one. What you can do is plug the drain on the shower and put enough water in the shower in order to give your baby their bath.

9. Sun Cabana – if your cruise is taking you to a warm climate like the Caribbean purchase a very lightweight sun cabana before your trip. You can use it when you visit the beach during the cruise. Keeps baby comfortable and protected from the sun. If you rent a cabana on the beach it will cost about $80 to $100.

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.