So we’ve decided to jump on board the NaBloPoMo train and give it a whirl. We may not post every day, but will try to at least every other day. We are still open to any questions or topics you may have for us to blog about, and will do our best to come up with posts “with substance!”
A couple weeks back, we took a road trip and met up with love+love=marriage and Adding Baby. It was great seeing the love+love girls again, and meeting the Adding Baby family. Though our boys are not quite at the age where they play together, they were definitely interacting with one another and enjoying the activities. I had mentioned that we stayed at a hotel we got on Pric@line and were hoping the bathroom was big enough to keep the pack n play in. It was very large and worked out perfectly:
Of course, this means we had to use the hotel’s facilities after he went to bed around 7pm, but being able to put him in a dark, quiet room with the door closed works out perfectly. Nutella graciously allowed me to go downstairs to the hotel bar and have a drink- such freedom! I brought profiteroles for us to share back up to the room afterwards.
Our next big trip is a cruise in December. We started out with a small (146 sq ft) interior room, but have since upgraded to a larger (190 sq ft) balcony room. Still, it’s going to be very interesting cruising with a toddler. The bathrooms are the size of closets so it is highly doubtful the PnP will fit in there. There is a curtain that separates the bed area from the sitting area, but of course, it’s not like having a separate sound- and light-proof room. Thankfully, Nutella’s parents will be cruising with us and staying in a room adjacent to ours. With a monitor, it should work out that we can hang out in their room if they’re out, or they can keep watch on the monitor if they’re back in their room while he’s napping/sleeping. We also purchased a very strong set of voice-activated walkie-talkies ( just like a super-strong monitor) so that we can hang out at the library or lounge just down the hall on our same floor and still be watchful of him. There’s also tag-teaming and if available, on-board babysitting (it’s supposed to be available, but there have been issues with that as of late). We’ll have to play it by ear to see what works best.
It’ll be very interesting/challenging cruising with a toddler, as it always is when traveling with him, but we’re really looking forward to the trip. How could Curly possibly not like the all-you-can-eat buffets, live music, hallways to run down, and international travel?
1 In Vermillion 
I bet he has a blast. 😀
I have a friend from college whose husband worked for ex.pedia for a while, and they took cruises with their son (from baby up to 3) ALL.THE.TIME. They said it was the best kind of trip to take with a toddler.
We are cruising in November with Ryan… he’ll be 11 months at the time of the cruise. Funny enough, we are also traveling with parents! We are simply hoping there will be room for the pack n play…
I love the idea of the pack ‘n’ play in the bathroom to give you a separate room at the hotel.
Good luck on the cruise! I’m sure it will work out fine and you’ll have a great time.
The title of your post confused me for a bit. I just spent last evening with a bunch of people who are involved in NaNoWriMo (http://www.nanowrimo.org/). GB decided to get involved in that as well. Feel free to bug him to write!
We’re actually considering the crib-in-bathroom set up for our vacation next week. Owen is a LOUD sleeper, and we’re very light sleepers…not a great combination. I’m hoping when we get there that we can fit the crib in! 🙂
Your cruise set up sounds perfecto!
How do you get hotel bathrooms that are big enough? Do you ask before you book? I love the idea of using the bathroom as her bedroom, but the places we have been don’t have enough room.
NIL- It’s true you can’t guarantee a bathroom big enough for the PnP…what we’ve been doing is choosing 4 star hotels on Priceline and crossing our fingers. Usually when a hotel is that fancy schmancy, the bathrooms are big enough. Priceline seems to work best for large cities…it’s much harder to get good deals on hotels for other areas we’ve noticed. If you’re going to a big US city like Vegas, Philly, NY, Miami…chances are you’ll be ok. Beach towns, etc…not so much.
Also, I find the website http://www.tripadvisor.com to be an invaluable resource before booking hotels and even restaurant reservations.
Oh, I should add that we choose the ‘Name Your Own Price’ method and have gotten $200/night hotels for as little as $85/night.
The bathroom idea is brilliant! I hope everything works out on the cruise. I think he will love those miles of hallways to race up and down 🙂
The cruise sounds awesome – I am so jealous! Having Grandma and Grandpa in the next cabin is perfect! I’m sure Miles will have a blast, and maybe you two can sneak off a bit too, since you’ve got such qualified babysitters right in your traveling party.