Baby onboard: more cruise lines than ever are family-friendly, but sailing with an infant presents its own set of challenges - Cruise Guide

Cruise Travel, Jan-Feb, 2004 by Heidi Sarna

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 both ships. Several duffle bags of baby food and supplies were stowed under our beds and in several drawers of the dressers. Needless to say, room and dad need to pack light so 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 Carnival 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 four to eight people; some lines, including Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, and Princess, also have a handful of so-called "Family Suites" (they're not all that different from 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 (including a conch) 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 megaliners have the largest and best-equipped playrooms with cool stuff like ball bins (NCL's 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 megaship 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 to have 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 that a few years down the road your little ones can join the supervised activities many lines offer all day long for children over ages two or three. 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, and Celebrity all have supervised activities for kids between age two or three and 17 (Holland America offers activities for ages five to 17). The things to do are offered for three, four, or five different age groups, roughly ages 3-5, 6-8, 9-12, and 13-17. The top facilities are found on the Disney ships, the Norwegian Dawn, Royal Caribbean's Voyager and Radiance Class ships, Carnival's Carnival Conquest and Carnival Glory, and Princess Cruises' Grand and Coral Class vessels. 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 onboard the Maasdam, Oosterdam, Westerdam, and Zuiderdam.