Travelling on a ferry with a baby.

[LanguageAsAFlower]

Going to see my parents across the waters in a week. Quite excited as little baby's first non UK adventure.

We are quite used to fairly long car drives, so that bit is ok. Looking for advice on things to take/not take, and in particular any advice on sleeping in a ferry cabin with 7month old. We usually co-sleep, but obviously that's not a thing on those ferry bunk beds. I was thinking maybe bringing the pram/buggy up and he could sleep in that?

I'm very excited and want to pack everything!

[BewareOfDragons]

When mine were under 2, we would put them on the floor between the two beds so they couldn't roll off onto the floor. Spread out one of the duvets, they're quite thick, or bring a matt, and pop them the little one on top of it.

[Mindchilder]

When we have done overnight ferries we booked a cot. There wouldn't have been enough room for a buggy.
I just had the baby in the bunk with me half the night though.

[winesolveseverything]

Can you book a cot? Definitely no room for a buggy in the cabin..plus would be a pain carrying it up the rather steep and busy stairs from the car deck.
Mine slept comfortably in the cot- we folded the bottom bunk up and it went in the space. Left room to walk around it.

[GinNeeded]

Yes book a cot. If it's p&o you'll need your own bedding, but it also doubles as a Safe place to pop them down in that they can't escape from!

[Knitjob]

I shared with my ds until he was 2. The beds are quite wide I found. There is no room for pushchair in a standard cabin. We sail DFDS from Newcastle, maybe other routes are different. And the fancier cabins for 2 look nicer, maybe you could fit a cot or pram in one of those easier? We have 5 in one cabin, never experienced the luxury ones!
You can ask for a bed guard for the side of the bed if you do want to give ds his own bed. The bottom bunk is not far off the floor.

[averylongtimeago]

I agree, book a cot, it made life much easier for my dd with her dc.

Take nappies with you, I'm not sure where you are going but they are £££ in France.

[Autumn31]

When we did an overnight ferry with our baby we booked a cot for the cabin. We had a standard cabin with Brittany Ferries and there was just enough room for it and the beds.

For getting around the ferry we used a baby carrier and left the pushchair in the car, it worked well as ferry was busy.

We also took ready made formula bottles for the ferry much easier than having to boil/cool powder if your formula feeding. Have a great trip.