Cruising with a Baby: Pre-Cruise Planning

We decided on cruising for our first vacation with baby boy, and now we have to prepare for an experience unlike any other vacation we’ve ever taken.

We usually are super active on vacation, and pack in a lot during each day, but considering having an 11 month old with us, we’re going to have to slow down considerably. Just being away from home, cooking, cleaning, email, phone calls, emails, obligations etc will be wonderful, and getting 8 uninterrupted days of family togetherness time is awesome for us right now.

Our plans are to: eat a lot :), explore as much as we can with Roey in tow, hit a beach up, and take advantage of all the ship has to offer activity-wise.

We’re going to make use of:

In-Room Sitter:

This service we’re going to try at least one night, once we get Roey down to bed, we’ll have the sitter scheduled to come hang out in the room with him while he sleeps, so we can have a grown up night “out” and do dinner and a show.

Switching Off:

On the nights we don’t use the sitter, we’re going to switch off while Roey sleeps, alternating some “free” time. I’ll probably use that time for the gym….wait…sorry, damn autocorrect, I meant…casino.

Nursery Service:

I’m really not 100% on this one, but I’ve been getting such good reports/feedback on it. If I check it out and it feels OK, we may leave Roey in the nursery for an hour or two on a sea day and enjoy some kid-free time. (let’s see if this actually goes down lol)

My-Time Dining:

This is essential. We’ve got “any time” dining scheduled instead of the 6:30 or 8:30 rigid meal times that the cruises normally offer. Hopefully this allows us to eat early with Rohan on days we won’t use the night time sitter, and late sans baby on days we do have the sitter.

I’m so grateful that the ships offer so much for families and so many options for flexibility. I cannot wait to get on board this ship and just enjoy!!

Have you used baby facilities on a cruise before? How was it?

(UPDATE: We’re Home From The Cruise Check It Out Here!!!)