One question that’s come up a lot lately is what to do about a car seat for cruises. Cruising can be an awesome vacation for families since, especially multi-generational groups! But navigating safe transportation can be tricky and some of the answers will depend on your specific itinerary and what excursions you have planned, along with your child’s age.
In this article I’ll tackle a few questions you probably have:
- Do I need to take a car seat on a cruise?
- How to get from the airport to the cruise port without a car seat
- Car seats for cruise ship excursions
- Where to store a car seat on a cruise ship
Fundamentally there are three major considerations when it comes to cruising with car seats: how to safely get to your port of call, how you’ll get around on excursions and where you’ll store your car seat.
Do I need to take a car seat on a cruise?
The biggest question you’ll face is whether or not to bring a car seat on your cruise at all. I always recommend having some sort of safe transportation available for your kiddo because you never know what can happen! But cruises are unique in that you really can spend a full week on vacation without being in a passenger vehicle. There are plenty of factors to weigh.
First, if you’re flying to your destination a car seat or CARES harness is the safest place for kids under 40lbs to ride. Smaller kids don’t get a great fit with the airplane seatbelt, so flying with your car seat on board is a great option. A compact travel car seat is much easier to maneuver and store than a huge one.
Second, you need to figure out how you’re going to get around on land. For our recent cruise we took Ubers from the airport to the port and the port to the hotel the following day, and then after our cruise we rented a car for an extra day for a land-based adventure. We also opted for private vans booked through Viator at our ports since we had a large group, but if we had been on massive coach bus tours we wouldn’t have been able to use car seats anyways.
If you’re hopping on a 3 day Carnival “fun ship” and have no plans to leave the ship or you’re on a Caribbean cruise that just docks at a walkable private island like Coco Cay or Castaway Bay, you can probably leave the car seat at home. You just need to do a little extra leg work to ensure safe travel to and from the port! For toddlers who aren’t yet 40lbs, the CARES harness could be a great solution for the airplane in this situation.
Getting from the airport to the cruise port
If you choose to bring your car seat on a cruise, you can pick basically any option for transportation to the port itself – rental car, taxi/Uber/Lyft, private transfer. Some cruise line coach buses allow you to install a car seat but not all of them do, so be sure to research if you’re considering that option.
But what if you choose to cruise without a car seat? You may want to arrange a car service with a car seat. Be sure to provide them with your child’s height and weight in advance to get the right type of seat. You’ll also have to double-check that it’s adjusted and installed correctly for your child’s size.
Some of the major cruise ports are also now served by Uber car seat, including Orlando, Los Angeles and New York. This service is being standardized and will use the Nuna Rava convertible car seat, which is great for infants to 5-6 year olds.
Special note for Orlando: In a place like Port Canaveral (far from the airport) you may not be able to get a car seat at all for the short ride from a port hotel to the port itself. For that specific case I would instead book this hotel that’s inside the airport and then get an Uber with a car seat on the morning of embarkation.
You could also rent a car with a rental car seat, though you can’t be completely certain of what you’ll get. At one Port Canaveral rental car company I saw everything from infant car seats with a max weight of 22lbs and convertible car seats topping out at 40″ to boosters you could buy at Walmart for under $20 (no shame, we own one – but it would be more expensive to rent).
With any of these options, it’s important to understand the risk of using an unknown car seat. It could have been in a crash, cleaned/reassembled improperly or be missing parts. Read more about the pros and cons of renting a car seat.
In some places you may be able to get from the airport to the cruise port using public transportation – San Francisco, Vancouver, New Orleans, Tampa and a few others are relatively convenient. That could be a great choice but prepare for lots of walking with your luggage. If you dock in Seward, Alaska you can even hop on the train!
The final option is to reserve a seat on a cruise line coach bus. Since these are typically traveling long distances on highways (versus slow-moving, predictable city buses) you really should use a car seat, but many don’t allow it.
Car seats for cruise ship excursions
As I mentioned above, different cruise excursions have different car seat needs. If you plan to get off the ship and walk around a port or take a city bus, you might not need a car seat on your cruise at all! This can work out well in Alaska since most ports are small and walkable.
For tropical ports sometimes you’re lucky enough that there’s a beach within walking distance, as in Costa Maya, Mexico. In European or Mediterranean ports you might be able to use public transportation exclusively – but definitely research your specific itinerary in advance to understand how feasible it is! Just keep in mind the limited time you have in each location as you weigh your options – for example, using public transit to get from the port near Rome to the Colosseum could take two hours each way.
Relying on rental car seats for each port may seem convenient but has the potential for a lot of stress. Invariably, a seat will arrive that isn’t in clean working order or that isn’t the right match for your child’s size or that the operator doesn’t know how to install and use properly – I have experienced all three in various countries unfortunately.
Many parents ask me if they need to bring car seat for a cruise ship excursion that uses a large bus for transportation. Technically if it’s driving at “regular” highway speeds (as opposed to bumper-to-bumper urban traffic) your kiddo should be properly secured. However, in many places those tour buses don’t have seatbelts installed. It’s a big YMMV scenario and your best bet is to reach out to the tour operator in advance to understand what the vehicle is like. That’s one reason you may consider booking cruise excursions through Viator or GetYourGuide: it’s easier to get that information when you don’t have to go through the cruise line as intermediary!
In many popular cruise destinations, know that you’ll need a locking clip to install your car seat. Find out if you need one and how to use it. Unfortunately over the last few years it has become very difficult to source locking clips, so make sure you order one well in advance of your cruise.
Special note for Alaska cruises: If you’re doing a land-based Alaska visit on either end of your cruise, you definitely need to have a car seat available. Road tripping Alaska is amazing and keep in mind that the park bus inside Denali follows state car seat laws requiring a car seat or booster seat for all kids under 8.
Where to store your car seat on a cruise ship
If you’ve ever been on a cruise ship, you know that storage for bulky items is really at a premium! Bringing a car seat with you definitely requires some creativity and imagination. The more compact and/or lightweight your car seat, the more options you have.
For bulky car seats, two creative cruise ship storage options I’ve seen are the shower and the balcony – check out the photo above for the car seat version of Where’s Waldo. Obviously each of those comes with its own challenges! If you want to store your car seat in the shower, be sure to dry the shower thoroughly before you put your car seat in there and keep the bathroom door open as much as possible to reduce humidity since there usually isn’t a fan.
For balcony storage (which is actually pretty genius) make sure you check the weather and bring your car seat inside the cabin if you anticipate rain. I suggest that you use at least a lightweight storage bag to keep your car seat clean if you put it outside at all.
Got an extremely lightweight car seat like this one or an infant car seat? You could use a few of these amazing magnetic hooks on the ceiling to make a bungee cord nest and hang it out of everyone’s way! The hooks work best when hung from the ceiling rather than a wall and nearly the entire cabin is magnetic.
If you have a compact car seat like this one or this one (with the foot folded to the forward facing position), you may be able to stand it upright in the closet. Obviously that will limit your space for storing suitcases in the closet but it may still be your best option.
You’ll have more options if you bring a folding car seat or booster seat. Those will fit on the bottom of the closet, under the desk and even under the bed!
Best car seats for cruises
So now comes the big question: what’s the best car seat for cruising? Obviously a lot depends on your child’s age and size, but in general the more compact the better!
If you have a child under age 2, you’ll probably be best off bringing their infant car seat, the Cosco Scenera Next or the Baby Trend Trooper. The Scenera is a better choice for kids under 23 pounds while the Trooper is a longer lasting choice for taller babies and toddlers. You can likely fit the Trooper standing up in your stateroom closet.
If your child is at least 2 years old, I suggest looking into the WAYB Pico. It’s expensive but really hard to beat. This harnessed car seat folds in half and fits in a backpack. We brought this on our cruise for my 2 year old niece and it was perfect for cruising. She rode in it on the plane, it could slide under the bed in their stateroom (pictured above) and it was extremely easy to carry on and off at ports. The matching backpack also fit vests for the other kids in the family.
An extremely budget-friendly alternative to the Pico is the Cosco Finale. It weighs about the same and lasts a hair longer, but is a fraction of the price. The Finale has a small footprint as car seats go so there’s a good chance you can just stand it up in the closet of your stateroom. This has a minimum weight of 30lbs so an average sized child can’t use it until 3 years old.
One option that may work very well for families is the Ride Safer Travel Vest. It rolls to the size of a soda bottle and only requires a standard lap-should seatbelt to use. While I typically recommend it for kids who are at least 3-4 years old (depending on the circumstances), if your only alternative is to bring nothing at all then you could consider using the XS size as young as two with some caveats. We brought several of these on our family cruise and they were perfect for our needs.
If you’re cruising with a school age child, consider bringing a Bubblebum for them. The folded size is similar to the Ride Safer Travel Vest, but this inflatable booster seat weighs even less and costs about as much as a Starbucks run for the family. While we didn’t bring it on our recent family cruise, we’ve been using this for years!
Wrapping up
Cruising can be a fun, relaxing way to vacation as a family. With a little advance planning you can do it safely too!
Still have questions? Drop a comment below for personalized help!