To celebrate Baby L’s first birthday, we decided to bring him on his first ever cruise!!
As my mother is a RWS member and can get free rooms on World Dream, we decided to sail with them. Another reason for the preference over Royal Carribean is the number of days of leave we have to take – World Dream is the only cruise that sails Friday – Sunday, so we only have to take Friday off. Royal sails from Thursday – Saturday, meaning we have to take at least 2 days of leave.
When I checked the room availabilities (directly from the website here), balcony staterooms were still available at around $250/pax (including taxes). Because Mr Messy kept forgetting to ask his HR if he could go on cruise, only balcony deluxe staterooms were available by the time he obtained approval and we wanted to book. It was $330/pax for deluxe room inclusive of taxes.
However, no regrets booking the deluxe room in the end! Deluxe rooms are slightly bigger and some deluxe rooms have a bathtub – we specifically requested for that during our booking. See the comparison between a deluxe and a normal balcony stateroom below, but pardon all the mess ok.
I hope the pictures helped you to decide on which room is more suitable for you! If you are not planning to stay long in your room, honestly just save the money and get a normal balcony. But if you have a young child like us, a bigger room and bathtub really helped in entertaining the small one. P.S. they also gave free masks during the cruise, so thoughtful!
Baby Amenities
Before going on the cruise, I did my research to make sure it would be baby friendly. I read that I could request for baby bed, bottle sterilizer and bathtub. When I called in to book, I was also informed that there is baby cereal available at Level 16 Lido. Certainly makes me more assured!
There are two kinds of baby crib – Pack n Play cribs (size: L40” x W 28.5” x H 29”) and regular wooden cribs (size: L40” x W25.5” x H38.5). During booking I requested for the wooden crib, but somehow they gave me the Pack n Play one instead. It served its purpose though and we could throw some toys inside for him to self-entertain as we pack our stuff.
The baby bathtub looks so cute! My son could fit into it. It may be more useful for smaller babies though and we didn’t use it in the end.
Although we were told there are Heinz and Gerber cereal, when we went on board they provided only Heinz in apple or pear flavor. I chose the apple flavor and it was super sweet. My son didn’t like it. We didn’t give it to him again and he enjoyed eating the same food as us.
I hope this post makes you more assured about bringing your baby on board the cruise. Apparently there is baby toilet seat available as well but we did not request for it. Throughout the ship, there are wheelchair-friendly toilets and these toilets also have a diaper changing station, so it is really convenient to find a place to change his diapers.
Read on to find out more about the swab process, food and activites on board the cruise!