Vacation with a 5 month old?

[suzi]

Am I crazy to want to go on a cruise with the baby for spring break? He'll be 5 months old at that point. Would get 2 staterooms for the 6 yo, 4 yo, grandma, DH and myself. Has anyone done this? Thanks!

[Ms B]

I am interested to hear the responses. DS is 5 months old today and we are seriously discussing going to Chicago for a few days in May (with the ILs) and then either London in September for a week to ten days (without the ILs) or a Caribbean cruise in December (maybe with and maybe without my parents). I figure DS only will become less portable once he walks, so best to get trips in now, but am open to persuasion by the more experienced parents here.

[mikala]

I actually think that is a good age for travel. It is harder once they become mobile and want to crawl everywhere and stick everything in their mouths. Assuming his sleep isn't a total trainwreck I think you'll be fine.

[Tondi G]

I don't think it's crazy at all but you need to check with the cruise line cause many of them now have minimum age restrictions for infants (I think most bumped them to 6 months... I think Disney accepts them at 3 months). Your 6 and 4 year old will have a wonderful time with other kids in the kids programming leaving you and your hubby and Grandma to enjoy some mellow time with the baby. As long as the baby is sleeping alright it will be a great trip. People working on cruise ships typically love babies! Only thing to consider is that your little one won't be allowed in the pools on the ship (no swim diapers allowed) but you can buy a little inflatable bathtub to use in the showers to bathe the little one and also bring it up on the pool deck ... fill with a few buckets full of water so baby can splash around a little and then just empty it into the shower or drains on deck!

I decided to look it up and it seems all of the lines have a 6 month age restriction ... except Disney :(

http://vacationstogo.com/preg-infant.cfm

[iaam]

IMO, if you want to take a vacation (cruise, beach trip, anything) and are ready for some compromise (e.g., when baby sleeps, what baby eats) then you'll find a way to make it work!

We have two DC and have made several non-weekend (i.e., longer) trips with them - some with grandparents and others without - all have been awesome and I am glad that we didn't curtail our trips because of the kids (we just chose different destinations than we otherwise might have).

DS is 4 and DD is 21 months. Before DD was born, we took DS to Mexico and Toronto (at 4 months), Seattle and Vancouver (at 9 months), India (at 1 year), Spain (at 18 months) and India (at 2 years). Since DD was born, we have made trips to Jamaica, Costa Rica, Turks and Caicos, India three times and Sri Lanka.

ETA: just read about 6-month restriction! Perhaps you can go to a beach destination, those are awesome with kids and infants alike.