Ahoy there, Devon! I’m honored to welcome you aboard planDisney!
A Disney cruise with a hotel stay before and after is my favorite type of Disney cruise vacation! I love the anticipation leading up to my cruise before we sail. Plus, the fun hotel stay after our Disney cruise helps take the edge off of leaving our favorite place.
As a mom who’s been sailing with Captain Mickey since her kiddos were very small, I have plenty of experience carting those lovely car seats on and off the ship for many years. You have a few options when it comes to bringing it on board and leaving with it.
On embarkation day, you have the option to attach a
luggage tag to the car seat. It will be brought to your stateroom along with the rest of your luggage in the afternoon, and you will store it in your stateroom during your cruise. I always suggest placing the car seat in a car seat bag to keep it better protected, just like with any type of car seat travel. If you’re using it during your transportation to the port, you do have the option to tag it at the port and hand it to one of the kind porters there, if you don’t want to be carrying it all day until your stateroom is ready at 1:30 PM. Of course, if you would like to keep it in your possession the entire day, you absolutely could carry it on board yourself as one of your carry-on items.
Your car seat will be stored in your stateroom for the entirety of your cruise. Disney Cruise Line
staterooms have plenty of storage options, but how you store the car seat will depend on the size and type that you have. Storage options include storing it underneath your bed or in your closet. In my experience, I always stored them at the bottom of our closet because they fit perfectly in there, and were out of our way during the cruise.
When you’re ready to disembark the ship, new luggage tags will be provided to you the night before you disembark. Anything you don’t want to carry off the ship should be tagged with these new tags and handed to your stateroom host, to be placed outside your door by 10:30 PM the night before disembarkation. If you don’t want to carry the car seat off yourself the next morning, it should be one of these items. It will be waiting for you at the port, along with any other luggage pieces you sent with your stateroom host. If you would like to disembark with the car seat yourself the next morning, you're more than welcome to do so as well.
Since your Disney cruise is fast approaching, I also suggest peeking at this handy
Disney Cruise Packing List. I know I always find a few items on there that weren't initially on my radar that I'm always eventually glad I packed!
Devon, I wish you the most magical memories made on board! Please sail back to planDisney if you have any more questions.
Bon Voyage,
Rana