Cruising the Caribbean with an Infant and a Toddler

Well here is the blog I promised you detailing our adventure cruising the Caribbean with Isabelle and Lacey!  Blake's grandparents very generously treated the entire family (Blake's aunts, uncles, cousins, and two priests who are friends of the family) to a four-day Carnival cruise to Cozumel.  I really wanted to write a novel blog post about our experience for any of you who might be considering a cruise with young ones.

The Energizer Bunnies

I don't know quite how to describe our experience.  On one hand, it was very difficult with both girls.  But at the same time, it was a lot of fun, and I'm glad we went.  I've been on one cruise before - I accompanied Blake's family (we weren't married yet) on a 7-day cruise that sailed to Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel.  Because of this experience, I sort-of knew what to expect from this cruise.

One of the things I was really worried about was the line to board the ship, especially with two hungry babies following a two-hour car ride to New Orleans.  As soon as the staff saw us, they said that guests with strollers use this line, indicating the VIP line.  So we immediately moved to the front of every line, took care of the security check, our boarding paperwork, and got right on the boat.  Good thing too, because Isabelle was screaming her lungs out a bit upset after being separated from her Aunt Sissy.  We went to get lunch on the Lido Deck and it took the rest of the family 2 hours to get on the boat.

Me and Lacey

The "Toddler Leash":  Blake has always been extremely opposed to the whole idea of a toddler leash.  But we both agreed that it was a good idea to buy one for the cruise so that Isabelle could have the freedom to stand and walk without one of us having to run after her every 5 seconds.  And it worked surprisingly well.  Blake said it was kind of like training a dog to heel.  He required her to hold his finger while they walked, and if she let go (and ran away), he would stop and the leash would hold her back.  And only when she held his finger again did he continue walking.  And I was very happy to have it a few times when I was holding Lacey and had to keep Isabelle with me.  I still don't think a toddler leash should be used on a regular basis, but during exceptional circumstances like vacationing, it proved to be very useful.

The "Toddler Leash" in action

Mealtimes were really nice because I didn't have to cook or clean up.  If you've never been on a cruise before, you have so many options for food.  There's the free room service, dining rooms (you have a set dinnertime), buffet, or 24/7 hamburgers, pizza, and ice cream.  No matter what time it was, if we were hungry, there was something to eat.  And, following the advice of another blogger, we left the bibs at home - the large cloth napkins worked just fine for us!  Our evening dining room was really nice, serving three-course gourmet meals.  The only downside to evening dining was that if one of the girls was fussy, we were stuck.  Kind of the same as taking them to a nice restaurant - you can't put them down on the floor with toys, you can't send them to bed, etc.  Blake actually rocked Isabelle to sleep in the dining room on two of the nights.

Dress-up night!

My Munchkin

Lacey chewing on bread

Sleeping.  Getting the girls to sleep was extremely difficult.  Though Isabelle goes to bed very easily at home, she would NOT go down on the ship.  I think it was the excitement of being in a new place, the disruption of  her usual routine, and the fact that we were sharing a room.  It was just too much, and she was literally bouncing off the walls, as was Lacey.  A few nights we took them to the karaoke lounge where everyone was having a blast, but that usually didn't last too long.  And when we did finally get them down, one of us (me) was stuck in the room.  It was a bit of a disappointment to miss some of the late-night excitement.

Bouncing off the walls

Chapter Five:  Mexico.  Blake was really worried about taking the girls down in Cozumel.  We decided to keep Isabelle in the stroller, and Blake sucked up his masculine pride and allowed me to introduce him to the joys of babywearing for the first time.  I helped him put on my Moby Wrap (thank God I didn't get the pink one or he never would have worn it), and secured Lacey inside.  When I asked him if he somehow felt less masculine wearing it, surprisingly, he said no - he was confident that he was in control and handling both girls.  We got off the boat and spent the morning shopping.  We had a good time, despite the shopkeepers standing in the doorways and harassing us the whole time to come inside their shops.  We got hungry and headed back to the boat for lunch, and Blake and Lacey napped while I brought Isabelle up to the deserted kiddie pool for a swim.

Dad of the Year

Cozumel's shopping district

BY the way, (I didn't know this until a few days before the cruise), due to "health reasons," no children are allowed to swim in diapers on the ship (EVEN swim diapers), therefore NO children are allowed to swim unless they are toilet trained, even in the kiddie pool.  Ridiculous.  What's wrong with swim diapers??  And I have never seen a potty-trained eight-year-old get out of the pool to use the bathroom.  Apparently Disney Cruise has the same rules about no diapers, but they have a special kiddie pool that can quickly be drained, sanitized, and refilled in case of any accidents - get with it, Carnival!  In the end, I just stuck a swim diaper on Isabelle and went to the kiddie pool anyway.

(Lacey was too tired to swim)

Diaper changing:  Many people we've talked to asked us how we dealt with diaper changing on the cruise.  You have to bring your own diapers and wipes (no place to buy them on the cruise), and we also brought some blue trash bags for dirty diapers (I think Munchkin makes them, you can find them at Walmart in the baby section).  They seal in dirty-diaper smells and they worked great.  I also let our room attendant know that we'd be putting dirty diapers in the trash can and asked him to change it often.  Also, I checked several bathrooms (including the handicapped bathrooms) and I could not find a changing table ANYWHERE.  So most of the diaper changing happened in the room, except for one during debarkation that happened on a table (because we couldn't get back to our cabin and there was nowhere else to change diapers).  Very disappointed in that.

The Carnival staff was SUPER nice and took every chance they got to smile, wave, and make funny faces at the girls.  They absolutely loved them, and I couldn't walk from one end of the ship to another without having to stop at least four times.  It did get a little annoying at times, but I know that many of the staff members get very lonely, having to leave their families behind for months at a time, and send back all that they make to support them.  I'm glad the girls were able to bring them a little bit of joy.

Singing Blake "Happy Birthday"

It was SO wonderful travelling with so many helpful family members.  There were several times when I would have gone insane if I hadn't been able to hand off the babies to a relative and go take a much-needed nap.  Various aunts, uncles, and cousins also helped keep the girls entertained so Blake and I do things that are difficult to do with babies around...like, eat.  Seriously.  :)  And Catherine (and a few of Blake's sweet cousins) volunteered to watch the girls on Saturday night (Blake's birthday) so we could go out without the kids.

Isabelle loves her Maw-Maw Gerry

Sunday morning we had Confession and Mass...in the Hollywood dance club.  No joke.  Father Bill arranged to have a room reserved, and that's what we got.  But it was a beautifully intimate Mass, and we did not miss the irony of confessing our sins while sitting at the bar.

And now we come to the Debarkation Process.  Having two babies, a stroller, backpack, three medium-sized rolling suitcases, a diaper bag, and a duffel bag, Blake and I decided not to do the self-assist option to get off the boat with everyone else (though you're the first to get off the boat, self-assist requires you to handle all of your own luggage).  So we put most of our suitcases out the night before we docked, and figured we'd spend the morning eating breakfast and let the staff help us with our bags when it was our turn to debark.  The next morning we received the final statement of our on-board purchases, agreed to the payment, and from then on we were nothing but cattle to be herded off the ship so the next group of paying customers can be welcomed on.

Well the boat was late getting back to port, and we were the last group to be called off the ship (this was at around 11:00 and the rest of Blake's family was home).  Blake held Lacey in the Moby Wrap, pushed Isabelle in the stroller, and I handled our suitcase.  (There is no VIP line to get off the ship).  After we debarked  we waited in line for about 15 minutes for baggage claim.  From then on, we were on our own, taking our two babies, stroller, backpack, three medium-sized rolling suitcases, diaper bag, and duffel bag ridiculous amount of stuff all the way through even more lines through Customs.  I wish I could have taken a picture to illustrate the difficulty of this feat, but photography was not allowed in Customs (?).  After we cleared Customs we had to lug aforementioned stuff to our van in the parking garage (thank you Blake for remembering which floor we were on!).

So, in conclusion, we had a good time.  Would I do it again?  Maybe, if we had the opportunity to go again with so many family members - it would have been a lot more difficult on our own.  The whole point of this vacation was to spend time with the whole family.  That's just what we did, and that's what I'll always remember as the highlight of cruising the Caribbean with an infant and a toddler.

Darce Family Cruise 2011