Cruising to Canada with 18 month old! Help!

[Cam&Clay]

It's official! DH and I are taking DS1 and DS2 on a 5 day cruise to St. John and Halifax in June. We are going with friends of ours with kids and have reserved balcony rooms on the spa level.

I've cruised before, but never with a baby. DS1 has done cruises with his dad and loves the kid programs.

Have any of you cruised with a child this young? Any ideas? Advice?

Thanks!

[Tondi G]

What cruise line?

How does your 18 month old do with showers? If you need a tub for bathing consider getting one of those little duck bathtubs to stick in the shower stall and fill.

I found www.cruisecritic.com when I was researching cruises and found SO much information. here is a link to the family cruising board

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=49

A few things that stuck in my mind were

bring highlighter pens in a couple different colors. when you get the daily activities schedule have one color for you, one for your older DS who will be in camp. Highlight the things you don't want to miss!

Bring along one of those hang over the door shoe rack/pocket things. It helps to have places to put your sunscreen, toiletries, small toys etc.... space is limited so this help keep things off the counters.

Your little one will not be able to swim in the pool... no swim diapers in cruise ship pools. You might consider bringing a small inflatable pool along that you can fill with a bucket so he has a place to splash around a bit and then you can just empty it into the drains on the deck when you are ready to go back to your room. You can also put it out on the balcony!

If you are going with others and they have an adjoining balcony and you would like to have the partition opened (so you can have one long balcony for the kids to play on)... go right away to the pursers desk and request it be opened. Apparently they can only open so many doors per cruise!

consider bringing a soft sided cooler to keep in your room (the room steward will happily fill it for you each day with fresh ice)... if the rooms on your particular ship don't offer an in room refrigerator..... I'm thinking to keep milk cool and handy in your room for your little one.

Bring some small toys along for playing in the room and out on the balcony... beach ball (or 2) easy to inflate and deflate as needed. Some matchbox pop up play sets and hotwheels cars to play with. Lego/duplos maybe?

I recall someone mentioning they put together their children's outfits for each day and then put them into gallon sized ziploc bags and wrote their names in them. That way each child had their clothing top,bottom, underwear and socks, ready to just put on and go.... no searching around for what matches with what. Then you also have the ziploc bags handy to put wet/dirty clothing and stuff into (stinky diapers too). They packed a few extra outfits to have handy for spills/accidents! Kept things really organized.

make sure you bring along any and all medicines you "Might" need. Tylenol, Motrin, Benedryl (adult and childrens), cough drops, cold meds, teething tablets. They do sell some stuff in the shop on board but they are often WAY over priced. better to be safe than sorry and have those things with you.... it would be a bummer if your kiddo started having hives or an allergic reaction and they didn't have childrens benedryl. Also take along some non drowsy children's seasickness meds... chances are your kids won't need it but better to have it on hand just in case you do.

Hope this helps!

[rlu]

Not OP and not quite the same situation as DS is much older, but I appreciate your suggestions as we're cruising this summer as well. I especially like the over-the-door holder and the outfits in a ziplock bag suggestion.

Seconding the toy suggestion - we found bringing a few fav toys (and a new surpise toy) helps when we travel for my work and DS and DH are at the hotel without transport. When we traveled with DS when he was around 2 we had a small assortment of Brio train pieces and track that kept DS entertained for a quite a while. We also purchase a souvenier toy at the beginning of the trip to entertain DS. If you have ports, the toys may still be a little overpriced at tourist traps, but less than on board.

[Cam&Clay]

Excellent ideas, ladies! Thank you so much for your help!