Tips and Tricks for Cruising with a 1 year old

When our baby was 13 months old we went on a family cruise to Alaska. Some people thought we were crazy but it ended up being a great family vacation with a baby and we would for sure do it again. 

Here's why we thought it was a great idea:

1. You only have to schlep all of your stuff one time. Once you get it all on the boat it's done. Even though you are going to multiple cities your stuff stays in one spot. And babies come with a lot of stuff no matter how minimalist you try to pack 

2. Food is included- we didn't need to worry about making meals. 

3. Especially for an alaskan cruise the boat takes you to a lot of the really cool places-like glaciers- again less overall moving for you. 

4. With the exceptions of 1 or 2 port days we could keep our baby on his nap schedule. Well slept baby= happy baby and therefore happy parents!

Before the Cruise: Things to know 

1.Your baby has to be at least 6 months old to cruise- or at least thats what we were told- we for sure saw some babies that we questioned at the 6 month mark. I'm not sure the exact reason for this- I would guess maybe the infection risk because you are exposed to so many people. 

2. Depending on where you are cruising to determine if your baby needs a passport or not and plan ahead of time. We started the application process for our baby's passport in January and didn't receive it until May. The earlier you can apply the better. 

3. Adjust your expectations accordingly when it comes to excursions. If you are a person who loves all the excursions with a cruise- then maybe cruising with a baby isn't for you. We honestly aren't big "excursion" people. We just like to get off at the port cities and walk around so this worked well for us because we could get off when we wanted and get back on the boat when we wanted.

4. A lot of people recommend buying a balcony room that way while your baby is napping you can sit on the balcony and enjoy the view. We opted for an interior room because it's cheaper- but a lot of people recommend it. 

5. Once you book your cruise you can call the cruise line and arrange to have a pack and play in your room and I would also arrange for a high chair to be at your assigned dinner table.  We also double checked that there was a fridge in our room during this phone call. 

6. There is no bathtub in the stateroom-only showers. You may want to practice having your baby shower with you to get them used to it. 

7. Just so you know- most cruise lines including ours (Royal Caribbean) will not let you swim in the pools with a swim diaper- you have to be fully potty trained. For this reason we didn't even bother bring any of his swim stuff. Some do have splash pads that babies in swim diapers are allowed to play in but we knew in advance that our boat did not. 

What about milk?!

Ahh yes the age old question for someone with an infant/ young toddler. At 13 months I was still nursing my baby morning and night and he was getting bottles of mixed whole milk and breast milk during the day. We went back and forth on this because technically we had the breast milk in our freezer but we just decided to do the whole cruise with whole milk. At the end of the day we decided it would be too hard to figure out how to keep the milk frozen long enough for it not to spoil before the end of the cruise. If your baby is less than a year old then I would say either you need to be confident with breastfeeding exclusively the whole trip or maybe bring formula. There is a fridge in the room so if you are an exclusive pumper you could pump fresh and maybe only bring 2-3 days initially worth of milk. Honestly we just decided that since he was over one that dealing with bringing frozen milk was too much of a headache and that we were on vacation and just decided that whole milk would be the easiest possible way to go about it. The boat has whole on board (we checked ahead of time) and we just asked for milk everyday at the buffet and they were happy to give it to us. 

What to bring- 

1. Silicone Pocket Bibs

We brought 2-3 of these and would just bring them to meals with us. After the meal we would just bring them back to the room and rinse them off. We love them and they are great for managing messes at meal times.

2. Two of everything you need to sleep with 

This is my ongoing rule for anywhere- home, grandparents house, cruise etc. If your child requires something to sleep make sure you have two of it because crazy things happen. Our baby requires a sleep sack and "Lambie". We were so glad that we brought two with us because he ended up getting sick one night and throwing up on his sleep sack and lambie. If we didn't have replacements it would've been real ugly. 

Snuggling with the famous "lambie". 

3. Umbrella stroller 

This ended up being super clutch for us. Now- I am not really a stroller girl but my child is getting heavier and heavier and is kind of phasing out of the the "child carrier" phase. We do have a big "hike a kid" hiker backpack but we decided not to bring it on this trip because it is so bulky. We got an umbrella stroller from our local "free" site on facebook and it was very handy for walking around towns. We didn't use it a ton on the boat but we used it alot in port cities. Plus we loved how easy it was to fold and how slim it was when folded. We were able to store it in the closet in our state room when not in use. The only downside to it is that because it's so small there is no storage-so we just brought a backpack if we needed more things. 

4. Travel bottle drying rack 

We also got this from our local "free/buy nothing" site but you can get them pretty inexpensively on Amazon as well. We also bought a little travel size dawn dish soap and it was perfect for washing bottles on the cruise

5. Children's medicine

We've started traveling with children's Tylenol, Ibuprofen and Benadryl and so far it has come in handy. Our baby ended up having a fever on the boat so we gave him some ibuprofen. Keep in mind when you are on the boat you're on the boat you can't just run down the street to a walgreens or something if your kid gets sick so plan ahead just incase. 

6. Extra clothes/diapers

Babies are messy- plan on a few extra outfits for "just in case" situations. Also extra diapers (sorry if this is TMI) the first few days our baby ended up pooping way more than he usually does and we got a little nervous there for a second that we didn't bring enough diapers. Thankfully we did. 

7. Snacks for port 

We brought a few pouches, puffs and crackers on the boat with us and pulled them out while we were in ports. This was great if we were at resturants and the food wasn't coming fast enough or if we were walking around town and he was hangry. 

What to do with them when you are on the boat and not eating 

By far the most favorite activity was running up and down on the deck. We really liked deck 5 or the midship deck on our boat because there wasn't a ton of people out there and we could let him run wild up and down and he wasn't disturbing people. We also saw SO MANY WHALES from this deck while letting him run around.  We took him up to the upper decks a few times but found it a was a lot more windy up there and there were more people that we had to watch out for. 

We were hesitant to let him loose inside the boat because he would just block traffic or run into so many people. I brought a few toys with us that he played with in the room but he was in an age of exploration at the time of the cruise so he just loved to explore if we allowed him. 

Hope this is helpful- happy cruising