Traveling With an Infant on Disney Cruise Line

[JJZMgailey]

Disney Cruise Line allows you to travel with an infant as young as six months on most cruises, but is it a good decision? Listen to Craig's recent experience taking a cruise with his child shortly after turning one to see what he thought and the many mistakes he made.

 

[Natasha0b]

Curious if others had this experience?

 

[Cfabar1]

video is too long for me to watch, sorry. I'm not sure what his mistakes were.

That said, we have brought our infant on DCL multiple times. It does take planning, and you really have to be organized. Some aspects of the trip become extra stressful. Making sure you don't forget any supplies you need for feeding/nursing, special dietary needs, etc.

However, going anywhere with an infant is extremely challenging. A DCL cruise is amazing. You know your meals are provided, want to go to the gym, spa, pool, etc? it is right there. Mom and dad can take turns watching the baby, and if they want a date night (or 3), they can use the small world nursery to reserve childcare.

DCL provides a lot of things you might need. They go well above and beyond any other cruise line in that respect based on our research.

Yes it takes some planning, but we find cruising to be one of the easiest ways to travel with infants.

 

[SuperJ]

I watched. It seems like a lot of their problems were caused by not doing their homework ahead of time and not being prepared - they didn’t request things for the room in advance, they didn’t know Disney purées veggies for babies, they didn’t use the nursery (but somehow had a Palo brunch reservation?), they didn’t know about the open house time in the kids club for littles (not sure if the dream has a water play area but they didn’t mention that either), and he admitted it was different from how they were used to cruising as a single person or childless couple - it’s really surprising to me that someone who works for a company that sells Disney cruises and was on a cruise for work doesn’t know what they offer for families traveling with infants and didn’t take advantage of any of the offerings but then seeks to offer a review. Bizarre.

 

[westie55]

I read a lot of people saying “there’s not much for babies and toddlers.” To me, the single most important factor that makes DCL an amazing choice for parents of babies and toddlers is the trustworthy, affordable childcare the nursery offers. This is a convenience that cannot be underestimated!

 

[soniam]

I haven't watched yet. I suspect they were so used to going as adults, that they didn't rethink how they plan DCL trips. It happens. We all get overwhelmed and forgetful with infants. If you don't/didn't, then what's your secret

 

[SuperJ]

I haven't watched yet. I suspect they were so used to going as adults, that they didn't rethink how they plan DCL trips. It happens. We all get overwhelmed and forgetful with infants. If you don't/didn't, then what's your secret

At one point one of the reasons he didn’t like it was that the baby somehow got hold of a glass of red wine and flung it all over the curtain divider in the room, at which point he praised Disney’s cleaning capabilities. His “lesson”/advice to all this was “only white wine in the room.” Parenting is hard and everyone makes mistakes, but putting any alcohol where your child that young can reach it is a big one to me.

 

[Anna131517]

We’ve cruised with a six month old and a two year old. Both cruises were great. It’s true you have to do some planning, and OF COURSE it’s not like cruising without kids but we still had a good time as a family. We didn’t use a nursery at all with the six month old and we tried the nursery twice on the Fantasy with our two year old but she wasn’t a fan so we just kept her with us. It was fine. We’ve always travelled with our kids. I can’t imagine waiting for kids to be older to travel. We did wait until our youngest was old enough to use a booster seat to go to Alaska, but again that gets back to doing your homework on where you’re going.

 

[randumb0]

One of the criticisms over the years for the Dis was always the fact that there was never a perspective from a parent unless you heard from Julie

 

[morganms22]

We are bringing our 11 month old in May. It’s always been rewarding for us to travel with our children. Yes, it takes extra effort, preparation, and lots of patience, but I wouldn’t change it. I had to learn to adjust my expectations when traveling little ones.

 

[CampbellzSoup]

Traveling with an infant is the best they don’t move. It’s when they move and you have to chase them and worry about them at the cruise experience is different. I loved when he was an infant he slept the majority of the time and slept in the pack and play in the room, there’s no real tips. It’s just a human who doesn’t move really; feed and change it accordingly.

 

[RedHead0186]

At one point one of the reasons he didn’t like it was that the baby somehow got hold of a glass of red wine and flung it all over the curtain divider in the room, at which point he praised Disney’s cleaning capabilities. His “lesson”/advice to all this was “only white wine in the room.” Parenting is hard and everyone makes mistakes, but putting any alcohol where your child that young can reach it is a big one to me.

Also, that's not really a cruise-specific 'complaint.' That could happen pretty much anywhere.

(I didn't watch the whole thing so if there was a cruise-specific angle to this then I stand corrected. But putting red wine near a child could be a recipe for a mess anywhere: cruise ship, hotel room, even at home.)

 

[SuperJ]

Also, that's not really a cruise-specific 'complaint.' That could happen pretty much anywhere.

(I didn't watch the whole thing so if there was a cruise-specific angle to this then I stand corrected. But putting red wine near a child could be a recipe for a mess anywhere: cruise ship, hotel room, even at home.)

I think the cruise-specific angle was that the staff was great at cleaning it up, though that isn’t baby-specific, and the advice was don’t try to clean it yourself first because their cabin steward thanked them for calling while it was still wet because that made clean-up easier, so call the staff because that is why they are there. I guess that is cruise-specific, but if there’s an on-call DCL cleanliness standards person for home messes, sign me up!

 

[Cfabar1]

Without children we spilled wine on RCL once. The staff were not kind about it. I get that it is an inconvenience for them, but I am glad Disney handled the situation with kindness.

 

[RedHead0186]

I think the cruise-specific angle was that the staff was great at cleaning it up, though that isn’t baby-specific, and the advice was don’t try to clean it yourself first because their cabin steward thanked them for calling while it was still wet because that made clean-up easier, so call the staff because that is why they are there. I guess that is cruise-specific, but if there’s an on-call DCL cleanliness standards person for home messes, sign me up!

Ah, okay, thanks for clarifying. That makes sense.

 

[Akck]

I watched. It seems like a lot of their problems were caused by not doing their homework ahead of time and not being prepared - they didn’t request things for the room in advance, they didn’t know Disney purées veggies for babies, they didn’t use the nursery (but somehow had a Palo brunch reservation?), they didn’t know about the open house time in the kids club for littles (not sure if the dream has a water play area but they didn’t mention that either), and he admitted it was different from how they were used to cruising as a single person or childless couple - it’s really surprising to me that someone who works for a company that sells Disney cruises and was on a cruise for work doesn’t know what they offer for families traveling with infants and didn’t take advantage of any of the offerings but then seeks to offer a review. Bizarre.

His explanation for that was that they felt the cruise was a family event and they should do everything together as a family. Nothing bizarre about that.

 

[Akck]

Also, that's not really a cruise-specific 'complaint.' That could happen pretty much anywhere.

(I didn't watch the whole thing so if there was a cruise-specific angle to this then I stand corrected. But putting red wine near a child could be a recipe for a mess anywhere: cruise ship, hotel room, even at home.)

One cruise specific piece of information, was stroller size. A friend gifted them a smaller stroller, which they liked because there’s no place to conveniently store a big stroller in your room. I can understand that because the first time we took our granddaughter to WDW, their stroller took up about a third of the storage space in the car.

Another thing was that they couldn’t sit through the normal dining time. The dining crew did adjust and got them out in 45 minutes.

 

[RedHead0186]

One cruise specific piece of information, was stroller size. A friend gifted them a smaller stroller, which they liked because there’s no place to conveniently store a big stroller in your room. I can understand that because the first time we took our granddaughter to WDW, their stroller took up about a third of the storage space in the car.

Another thing was that they couldn’t sit through the normal dining time. The dining crew did adjust and got them out in 45 minutes.

I was talking specifically about the wine incident. I wasn't questioning that he had cruise-specific complaints in the video, I was pointing out that a child getting a hold of a glass of red wine and them spilling it all over could happen anywhere and isn't really specific to a cruise.

The two things you noted are completely valid for cruising with children; however, children spilling liquid is not (though I do agree with PP that noted DCL's cleaning capabilities are, somewhat).

 

[nancipants]

His explanation for that was that they felt the cruise was a family event and they should do everything together as a family. Nothing bizarre about that.

But none of the things mentioned in the previous post, with the exception of the nursery, would prevent them from doing things as a family?

 

[Cfabar1]

Doesn’t DCL provide strollers to families? We stored our stroller in the room, but it is for infants - it also functions as a car seat and easily collapses. We kept it in the closet with no issues.

For bigger kids a bigger stroller might be better.