We recently got back from a 7 night cruise in the Caribbean that we went on with our one year old daughter. In preparation for our cruise, I searched everywhere for tips and info on cruising with a baby or toddler. And there wasn’t much information out there! So after our trip we knew we had to share our experience and give 10 tips for cruising with a baby.

1. Prepare for Lots of Stateroom Time

We spent way more time in our stateroom than we usually do on cruises. And sadly, this last stateroom was the smallest one we have ever had! We spent a lot of time in our stateroom trying to get Lucy to nap or to fall asleep and she spent a lot of time playing in our stateroom as well since there wasn’t really a spot for her on our ship.

2. Check Out the Kid’s Club

Most cruise lines have a kid’s club on their ships. We recently sailed on Royal Caribbean and their club is called Adventure Ocean. While some of their bigger ships have open play time for babies and toddlers (that parents need to be present for), our ship was too small to have that amenity. But we went down to talk to the staff who worked there anyway and they had bags of toys that could be checked out and taken to your stateroom. This was great because we didn’t pack many toys for Lucy and she was able to play with new toys that she didn’t have at home.

3. Don’t Plan on the Pools

Pools on most cruise lines don’t allow babies and non-potty trained toddlers into their pools for sanitary reasons. If you’re lucky enough to have a splash pad on board, those are usually good to go for babies and toddlers.

4. Bring Baby/Toddler Eating Supplies

Most cruise lines do not have smaller sized cups, forks, spoons, plates, etc. for babies and toddlers to use. We made sure we brought a bottle, a sippy cup, a silicone bib, a water bottle and a fork and a spoon for Lucy. We ended up not using the fork and spoon because Lucy was good to eat with her hands or off or our utensils. We also made sure to bring a bottle brush and a small bottle of dish soap so we could wash her bottle, cup and bib in our stateroom each night.

5. Bring a Small Stroller

We usually use and travel with our Baby Jogger City Mini stroller and love it. But I thought it might be a bit bulky to store in our stateroom and may be a little wide for taking it around the ship and in ports. So before we left, we purchased this smaller umbrella stroller and it worked out great. It was easy to fold, stored in a very small area and was narrow enough to easily fit through cruise ship hallways and market stalls in ports. It was nice to be able to put Lucy in the stroller and walk her around the ship to help her fall asleep for naps and was a nice mode of transportation for her on some of our excursions.

6. Bring a Baby Carrier

In addition to our stroller, we also brought our Lillebaby Carrier. While we didn’t use it much on the ship itself, it was perfect for some of our excursions. We used it when we went on excursions that included lots getting on/off stops on a tour bus. It was way easier and faster to plop her in the carrier and carry her around instead of holding up our group by getting under the bus each time to pull out and set up a stroller. Bonus Tip: We put our carrier just inside of a simple cinch sack to carry it from place to place so it isn’t hanging everywhere and getting in the way. Then when we are using the carrier, the bag can be folded up very small and stored inside a pocket of the carrier.

7. Expect People to Touch Your Baby

Maybe it was just the kind of people that were on our cruise, but I have never had so many people talk to and touch my baby before. We used plenty of hand sanitizer and just accepted it.

8. Have Sleeping Arrangement Plans

We contacted our cruise line before our trip to make sure a Pack N Play was available for us to use. The good news is that there was one for us to use. The bad news is that it literally could not be set up in our stateroom because it was so small. Well, it could be set up but we would not have been able to access the bathroom or get out of our stateroom. Luckily we brought our KidCo PeaPod for Lucy to sleep in and when she wouldn’t sleep in it, we just had her sleep in our bed with us. Our bed was a King size so we all had plenty of room and I did not feel nervous about having her in bed with us.

9. Pull Down a Bunk

We asked our stateroom attendant to pull down one of the bunks for us and we used it simply as extra storage space. We ended up bringing Lucy’s car seat (long story, it wasn’t the greatest idea) and that was the only spot we could put it. We also kept her PeaPod up there when she wasn’t using it so it didn’t take up floor space and we also put things up there that we didn’t want Lucy getting into like electronics, camera equipment, important papers, etc.

10. Expect It To Be Different

Cruising with a baby or a toddler is not going to be the same kind of cruising experience that you will have without taking them. But we really enjoyed taking Lucy with us and are glad to be exposing her to all different kinds of people and cultures from such a young age. We knew going in that we may need to miss out on some of the typical cruise experiences to have her with us, but it was worth it for us to travel as a family.

**This post contains affiliate links.**