Cruise Travel
January 1, 2004
Cruise Guide: Baby Onboard

If you decide to take the plunge and bring your baby on a cruise, don't expect a lot of down time. It'll be a working vacation, no doubt, but a vacation nonetheless. And plenty of people sure think so. The numbers of families cruising with kids of all ages continues to swell. It's not uncommon to have 800 to a whopping 1,200 kids --- from babies to toddlers and teens --- on the big ships of Disney, Royal Caribbean and Carnival. Even much smaller ships, like Windjammer Barefoot's Polynesia and Legacy, which carry just over 100 passengers, can get about 40 kids during holiday and summer sailings. The high-end sees its slice of family business, too, with Crystal attracting as many as 100 kids on holiday cruises. The Seven Seas Voyager had 70 kids on a recent Baltic sailing. The bottom line: the convenience of cruising, with everything practically at arm's length, is a strong draw for families.

This past summer, I decided to test the waters myself and carted my 9-month old twin boys to Bermuda on the Zenith and a few weeks later, to the Caribbean on the Carnival Legend. Both cruises sailed roundtrip from New York, where I live. After taking nearly 100 cruises sans offspring, I was in for quite an education. Here's what I learned.

Choose a ship that offers babysitting for, well, babies. Some lines only offer it for toddlers on up. After an exhausting day chasing crawling babies and pushing strollers, the reward of a quiet dinner alone at the end of it is what gets you through. It's essential. Of those lines that have babysitting for infants, it's either private babysitting in the cabin or group babysitting in the playroom. Both have their pros and cons. If you can get past the fact that a stranger will be sitting in your cabin and minding your offspring for a few hours while you enjoy a quite dinner, in-cabin babysitting is the most convenient. Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, and the high-end lines offer it. Standard practice is making your request for a sitter 24 hours in advance at the purser's or guest's services desk, though I found I could often be accommodated with less notice. Rates typically range from $8 to $10 an hour, though sometimes go as high as $25 an hour (Radisson Seven Seas). Lines have different policies about in-cabin babysitters. Celebrity, for example, only uses female crewmembers from the hotel department (stewardesses) and kids program. Some lines, like Royal Caribbean, can't guarantee which department your sitter will come from. If you're only comfortable with a female sitter from a certain department, request that (though keep in mind it may not be available). Most lines have a minimum age requirement of between 3 and 6 months to cruise and to be part of any babysitting services (though, many lines will allow you to sign a waiver indemnifying them if you want to bring on a younger baby).

The Zenith offers in-cabin babysitting---like the rest of the Celebrity fleet----and it worked fabulously for us. We scheduled a babysitter each evening from 8:15 to 11:15; late-seating dinner started at 8:30. Stella, a sweet cabin stewardess from Romania, arrived every evening on the dot just moments after my babies had miraculously fallen to sleep in their cribs. Stella sat on a chair in front the cabin TV, with the volume on low and the cabin lights out. She gave us her beeper for the night in the event she needed me. She never did.

The other type of infant babysitting---group-style in the playroom---is offered by Carnival, Norwegian, Disney, Princess, Celebrity and Royal Caribbean. Some people feel more comfortable with this set up because their babies will be in the care of the ships' official kids' counselors in the line's playroom where cribs are set up in one part of the room (older kids are often in another part of the room watching videos). The down side is that the service typically starts at 10pm, so you'll have to take your babes to dinner with you. We did this on the Carnival Legend, putting the babies to sleep in their double stroller and draping it with a blanket to keep the light out. Each night they slept through dinner in the stroller, though when it came time to stroll them up to the playroom, things didn't always pan out in favor of our heading to the disco. The transition between stroller and crib or the wail of some other child, woke up my boys on several evenings. The counselors beeped me when my babies couldn't be consoled within a reasonable amount of time (you can get a beeper from them to borrow for the length of the cruise, a standard practice on ships with babysitting).

Disney and Cunard have nurseries, which boil down to baby-only group sitting facilities. Disney's is offered for children ages 3 months to three years, while on the QM2, for ages 1 to 2. The QE2 has a facility for ages 1 to 7 that combines a nursery with an area for the older kids. Carnival offers group sitting for infants as young as 4 months between the hours of 10pm and 3am, plus a few hours on port days.

As much as a babysitting service on board can save your sanity, so too can driving to the ship. Considering the great number of ships sailing from U.S. ports these days, from Boston to Baltimore, Charleston, Tampa, New Orleans and LA, it's easier than ever to drive to the ship and skip the hassles of flying. Why bother lugging your baby and all the gear needed to the airport.

Believe, me, you'll need all your energy to survive the cruise. Though your cabin is likely smaller than your house back home (I sure hope so), you don't need to spend much time there. I learned that ships harbor a host of great places for babies to crawl and play. Since none of the lines offer any kind of supervised activities for babies (they're typically offered for children ages two or three on up), you're on your own in the entertainment department.

Find an empty carpeted public lounge or two and make them your playroom. Since passengers tend to congregate by the pool on sea days and head off the ship on port days, many lounges are deserted during the day. Three times a day every day of the cruises, we headed for our impromptu playroom; the Rendez Vouz lounge and the Celebrity show lounge on the Zenith were both lined with plush seats and low cocktail tables that were baby-friendly with their rounded corners (now that I have babies and notice these things, ship interiors are loaded with smooth edges to reduce injuries if rough seas cause passengers to stumble). A few weeks later when we sailed on the Carnival Legend, my nearly 10-month old babies were now cruising while they were cruising, standing up and moving along walls, railings and furniture. On the Legend, their room of choice was the chapel. We never encountered another soul there (weddings are performed there in port), so we let the babies crawl under the pews and joyously slap their tiny hands against the room's colorful murals. All this activity did wonders for their sleeping habits; they napped easily and slept through the night the entire week.

To better your odds of sleepful nights (for you and your baby), choose a cruise that provides cribs. Many do if you request one in advance. You can also bring your own portable crib, like a Pack-n-Play, but why schlep one if you don't have to. On both the Zenith and Carnival Legend, two portable cribs were brought into our cabin, necessitating that some furniture be moved out to make room (a chair and coffee table). Quarters were tight in the standard cabins we occupied (a category 4 standard outside on the Zenith and a category 8B standard balcony cabin on the Legend), but with smart packing (and unpacking), cabin life was amazingly sane (compared to what I had I imagined).

Packing well and organizing your cabin from day one goes along way in reducing chaos. A few things are must-haves: disposal bibs, liquid formula (you don't have to mess with mixing the powdered variety with the ships' expensive bottled water; but this is only an option if your cabin has a mini-fridge or mini-bar, which you can ask your steward to empty if you need the space), winter PJs (even if its 85 degrees outside, the A/C makes cabins chilly), baby blankets (while cribs are made up with bed sheets folded up several times, but there are no mini blankets for those chilly nights), flashlight (doubles as a night light if you have to tend to baby and don't want to wake up your spouse or other children), scented diaper bags (do yourself and your cabin steward a favor by disposing of dirty diapers in these fragrant sacks), reclining stroller (while Carnival actually rents them on board, you'll need your own to get through the terminal etc; my reclining double stroller was essential in encouraging my babies to sleep during dinner on the Carnival Legend). Don't bother bringing a baby bath tub (true, most cabins don't have bathtubs, but a towel folded in half and placed on the floor of the shower worked well as a place to position my babies for a bird bath).

When it comes to storing your tons of gear in a small space, get as much out the way as possible. We could hang our folded-up strollers by their handles in the roomy closets on the Zenith and Legend. Several duffle bags of baby food and supplies were stowed under our beds and in several drawers of the dressers. Needless to say, mom and dad need to pack light so that there's plenty of room to stash baby stuff. And look on the bright side, you should go home with less than you came with if you consider the all the diapers and jars of baby food that will get used up. (Note: ships do NOT provide diapers and baby food, bring your own!)

Speaking of space, if you can, spring for a cabin with a balcony. No matter how well you pack and how organized you are, more space is more space. We had a balcony on the Legend, and one evening it became our moonlit cocktail lounge; with the babies snoozing just a few feet away inside, we could enjoy ourselves without schlepping the little tykes to the babysitting service in the playroom. Of course if you can swing a suite, you'll have that much more space to spread out. All ships have suites that can generally sleep from 4 to 8 people; some lines, including Caribbean, Celebrity and Princess, also have a handful of suites they call Family Suites (they're not all that different from any other suites). As far as standard cabins go, keep in mind size varies: Carnival's are large at 185 square feet and Disney's even bigger with a sitting area (with a couch) and a great bath and a half (one room has the toilet and sink, the other a sink and tub/shower combo).

Suite or not, you can't stay cooped up in your cabin all day. Choose a newer, larger ship if you're looking for more distractions for baby. The newest megas have the largest and best-equipped playrooms with cool stuff like ball bins (the Norwegian Dawn has two of them, for example, one for little kids and one for bigger ones) and the Disney vessels have a giant pirate ship in their playrooms that kids can crawl in, on and through. Most lines invite parents and babies to use the toys and games in the kids' playrooms during slow periods. Take advantage of this.

The downside to a mega ship is that they're just so darn big and risk being impersonal. Choose a smaller ship if it's more important to bond with other passengers than fancy playrooms. On the Zenith, we ran into two of our dinner table mates about 4,000 times a day all over the ship. They loved the babies and we appreciated the extra hands and laps when one of us wanted to sneak away to the Internet Center or spa. On a mega, you may never see the same person twice.

Though cruising with a baby will keep you busy, just keep in mind, a few years down the road your little ones can join the supervised activities many lines offer all day long for children over ages 2 or 3. Your free time will return, and in fact, you may be begging your kids to hang out with you for a little while, it'll be that tough to tear them away from their new friends and fun activities. Disney, Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Norwegian, Princess, Celebrity and Holland America, all have supervised activities for kids between age 2 or 3 and 17. The things to do are offered for three or four or five different age groups, roughly ages 3 ñ5, 6-8, 9-12, and 13+. The top facilities are found on the Disney ships, the Norwegian Dawn, Royal Caribbean's Voyager- and Radiance- class ships, Carnival Conquest and Glory, and Princess Cruises' Grand- and Coral-class ships.
Some ships don't have dedicated playrooms, but convert a card room or disco into a play area when demand warrants. Holland America, for example, has dedicated playrooms and separate teen centers only on the Zuiderdam, Oosterdam, Maasdam and Westerdam.

The standard features in playrooms are video screens for movie watching, sometimes a single large screen like on the Norwegian Dawn, or a wall of smaller screens, like the 16-monitor wall on the Carnival Legend. Arts and crafts, mini tables and chairs, and shelves of toys and games are standard. The best-equipped rooms also have ball bins and computer stations. On the Voyager-class ships there are miniature deck chairs and chaise lounges in the outdoor areas of the kids' playroom, while on the Dawn, there are mini seating clusters for kids in the buffet restaurant.

Programming also typically includes nights when kids are invited to dine with counselors so that mom and dad get a chance to enjoy dinner alone.
The high-end lines do their part for families too, at the least the bigger upscale ships do. All three of the Crystal ships, the 940-passenger Crystal Harmony and Symphony, as well as the 1,080-passenger Crystal Serenity, all have dedicated playrooms and on summer and holiday cruises, there's been as many as 100 kids aboard. The. The new Serenity also has a teen room and video arcade, while the playrooms on the Harmony and Symphony were upgraded in 2002 with new carpeting and furniture as well as special built-in kiosks for Sony Playstation video games and PCs loaded with entertainment and educational software. The Queen Mary 2 and QE2 also do their part for families; the QM2 has three separate rooms for three different age groups. Who says the British aren't any fun? The other high-end lines don't have dedicated playrooms or counselors since they get very few families with young children, though when they do, for instance at holiday times, they'll improvise a few activities.

The group being courted the most these days is teens. Lines know the ìtoo-coolî set is very influential in mom and dad's vacation choices (plus, they're all potential cruises one day themselves). All new builds have fancy teen discos that double as hang out and activity spaces. On Royal Caribbean's Navigator and Mariner of the Seas, for example, there are three separate areas for teens, including a nightclub called ìFuel,î plus a TV room with a Starbucksy feel, and an outdoor deck space. Both ships also have separate teen Internet centers exclusively for ages 12 to 17. On the Carnival Conquest and Glory, there is a huge teen area with a soda bar, dance floor and an adjacent video arcade; the Norwegian has a similarly appealing space for teens. On the Disney Magic, there are now two separate teen spots where the ESPN sports bar once resided, one with video screens for movie watching and the other a teen disco with a teens-only Internet center (the Wonder will fitted with the space in fall of 2004).
I can only imagine the day my little guys are heading for the teen disco. For now, it's dancing to the tune of dirty diapers and strained carrots. Thank god for cruises (and Stella).