My family, parents, brothers, sister and all of their kids, are having a reunion on a Carnival cruise! My husband and I want to take our family, too. This will include our 11 month old Granddaughter. Here is the problem, our daughter-in-law (and her mom) is not real sure about the idea. They don't think it is safe. We would take bottled water, juice, food, toys, etc. You know, like we are moving!! lol
It's only a 4 day cruise to Cozumel. Everyone says Cozumel is very safe. We will only be there for less than 8 hours(if that). She has been a very healthy baby. She is up to date on her shots. This is important to me. My brother lives in Japan, and has 4 children. They come over once a year to visit and I really want them to get to know my sweet Granddaughter. What do you think??? I have to book the rooms today!!!
Perfectly safe to cruise with an 11 month old. Like a PP said though it will be challenging at times but my 20 month old made it no problems. Visit the website www.cruisecritic.com and check out the family cruising forum. You'll get lots of help from all the moms and dads who have cruised.
Absolutely fine! We took our then 7 month old on a Celebrity cruise and it was great! Well, naps were hard, but it definitely worked. We hired the ship's babysitter (a little nerve-racking at first, but worked out really well) for the evening, just so we could go have dinner with the group and then the grandparents stayed with him a couple of evenings so my husband and I could go to the show. We would definitely do it again!
We took my daughter when she was about 8 months old and her pedi was fine with it. We took bottled water, food, etc. She was perfectly fine and she had great time. Just be sure to bring everything that you can possibly imagine on the trip because there is no where to get Tylenol, Motrin, cough medicine anything for baby. Additionally they will not let a baby swim in a pool when they are not potty trained, it is the law because there is no filtration system. We brought our own blow up pool and filled it with there water. My daughter loved it.
We had a similar decision to make and so I spoke with my pedi and he advised against (STRONGLY) any out of the country trips - ESPECIALLY A CRUISE. He said that until a child is two that their immune systems aren't strong enough to handle some things that they can be exposed to. He said that Cruises are especially bad because if their is an emergency they aren't equipped to handle little ones and would have to be flown off of the ship. I know it may be important to you that she meet your brother, however I think the safety of your granddaughter is much more important.
We thought about taking a cruise last summer with our ten month old. Overall it seemed safe, but we decided against it because we were afraid of what would happen if there was an emergency. Our friend's 16-month-old recently had to be care flighted to Cooks because of unexplained seizures. I am too afraid of something like that happening out in the middle of the ocean with such a small child. Not likely, I know, but I can understand how your daughter-in-law must feel.
Totally safe. We took our then 16 month old on the exact same cruise you are going on. It was very hard, I won't lie to you, but it is doable. The hardest parts were naps & bedtimes (2 naps a day at an hour or so each and bed at 8) did not make for fun times for whichever parent got to sit in the little bitty room!
I have written long e-mails to other people on this list about "what we did" and "what to bring" and would be happy to share those with you. E-mail me at ____@____.com if you want them.
With all the kids and family though, you are sure to have a great time! I say book it.
Good luck!
M.
