Going on a cruise

We are going on a 7 day cruise over Thanksgiving and are leaving from a local port so we won't be flying. We are planning on leaving our car with both carseats at the pier for transport to and from our home. My concern is how to safely transfer between the cruise ship and excursions in port. We would prefer not to book excursions through the cruise because they are a lot more expensive. So the question is what is the safest way to get to our excursion with the 2 kids? My daughter is 3 and my son is 16 months. They are both currently in Marathon seats and that is all we have. We would prefer not to have to bring these on the ship for storage reasons (and also I don't know what we would do with them while we were on our excursions). We will be in Mexico (Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Cabo) so is there any way to find public transportation that includes car seats or is that just not possible? The other option would be to take a public bus, but I'm not sure if that is any safer down there. Any help appreciated! Thanks!

It's very unlikely you will find any carseats in that area.

To be honest, you will be lucky if you find any taxi's or other vehicles with seatbelts.

It's ideal to use child seats, a bus is a good option, but what do you do if you get stranded somewhere and the only transportation available is a car with no seatbelts? put the kids on the floor in a seat with no adult.

If it was me I would probably try to bring a Scenera for your dd and a SafeSeat for your ds. Both could be installed with only lap belts, but you might not always have them available.

Thank you. Unfortunately we can't really afford to buy 2 new carseats for our trip. Would it be worth it then to schedule through the cruise so we are on a large bus to get there? I am worried about any taxi down there. Even if the taxi driver is ok I don't trust other drivers, so the larger the vehicle we are in the better. I wish there were some better options.

I think planning for bus excursions is a smart move.

I just got off the phone with Carnival and they were SO not helpful. The guy I spoke to pretty much didn't understand why I was concerned with car safety at all. He said he couldn't tell me what kind of vehicles are used in the transfers but that they don't have seat belts most likely. So no point in bringing a car seat. But he couldn't even guarantee it was a large bus versus just a van. I don't know what to do. I want my kids to have these experiences but I just don't know how much of a risk I am willing to take.

I'm a somewhat frequent cruiser.

Book through the cruise line. You're obviously a newb. Now's not the time to go booking excursions on your own even tho it's not really that hard. The cruise lines contract with the bigger companies which tend to have the biggest, newer buses (they pack you in). If money is really an issue, post on cruisecritic.com and make sure to emphasize you're trying to book ones with the newest buses.

I wouldn't bother with the car seats. Go with the cruise line, it'll most likely be buses. Buses have a pretty good safety record, even down in Mexico cuz of how big they are.

codex57 said:

I'm a somewhat frequent cruiser.

Book through the cruise line. You're obviously a newb. Now's not the time to go booking excursions on your own even tho it's not really that hard. The cruise lines contract with the bigger companies which tend to have the biggest, newer buses (they pack you in). If money is really an issue, post on cruisecritic.com and make sure to emphasize you're trying to book ones with the newest buses.

I wouldn't bother with the car seats. Go with the cruise line, it'll most likely be buses. Buses have a pretty good safety record, even down in Mexico cuz of how big they are.

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Thanks for your response. I have actually cruised quite a bit but never with kids before. My issue with booking through the cruise is that they have additional age restrictions that wouldn't allow one of my kids to go on the excursion. If I did it on my own, we could all go as a family. I considered just paying a fee to use the ship's transport but they won't allow you to use it without booking the excursion.

If you're a frequent cruiser, you should know how things work well enough. Find out the big companies that supply the excursions for the cruise line at that port. Doesn't have to be just your line either. There's usually a second big bus for the big tour operators. If not, there's usually a big competitor. Maybe one that normally goes with another line.

Definitely start asking on cruisecritic.com to find out. But again, I'd let your kids experience it. As long as you're not doing one of those excursions that takes you way out far from the ship, it shouldn't be that dangerous. After all, your kid can be hit by lightning or swept away by a hurricane. You can only protect them so far. If you have to book away from the line, you can still be fairly safe by sticking with one of the big operators.

With some basic precautions, you really don't need that "guarantee" of waiting for you. Just leave a big enough gap of time to get back on the ship and pay special attention to any possible changes in time zone, etc.

We took the kids on a cruise this year & took one carseat (a Scenera) with us. There was plenty of room in the bottom of the wardrobe in the cabin to store it.

For our cruise, we had to first fly from NZ to Sydney, Australia so used the Scenera on the flight for then Miss 2.1 & we also used it in the taxi from the airport to central Sydney. And to be honest, once we boarded the ship we didn't use the seat again until we were home again (we disembarked at our home city so no travel to get back home).

On the excursions, in Australia we used trains & the big kids (5 & 7) sat quietly on the seats & I had Miss 2 in a Manduca (like an Ergo) on my back. The same when we went on excursions once we reached NZ, I carried her on my back as buses in NZ don't have seatbelts or require children to be restrained. We chose not to book planned excursions from the ship as the children got quite tired & we found it much easier to not go too far from the ports.

I found the people at cruisecritic.com really helpful before we sailed. I was asking about dietary things though for my gluten free child but still got lots of really great information which was great to have before leaving.

Im taking Levi on his first cruise and we are bringing the carseat - apparantly you can stick it in the shower to store it!

I have heard that you can call up to get a taxi, and just request one with seatbelts. Im going to try and stick close to the ship for the most part, and just walk to things when possible. Anything I cant get a taxi w/seatbelts for, we just will skip. I dont feel comfortable with him on a bus unless there are seatbelts to install his carseat.


yep, we are bringing the trufit, unless I can get my dad to get him something else!.