We did it!
We’ve successfully been to Europe and back and are overjoyed to talk about it! We travelled to Barcelona where we boarded the Norwegian Jade with ports of call including: Monte Carlo, Monaco, Florence, Rome, Naples and Palma de Mallorca. Within the 7 day cruise – there was only one day at sea…and how we cherished that day at sea to re-cooperate!
The worst part was probably flying there via Air Transat. It was a red-eye flight…so he was extra fussy unfamiliar with his surroundings and eager to sleep! Once we arrived and he accumulated enough sleep through short naps here and there it progressively got better. And since we were so focussed on Ethan’s sleep, hubby and I were failed to catch up on our own! This combined with a very busy port lineup meant a very tiring and grueling couple days/nights…poor hubby – he hates walking and is always beaten by my need to see everything…
Once we somewhat caught up on our Zzzss the trip was amazing! Baby Ethan was napping well thanks to the stroller bumping on the cobblestone streets…the only thing he was lacking were regular feedings *oops*. We gave him tons of water and organic mum mums but it wasn’t until we’d get back onto the cruiseship where I could really nurse him and give him solids *the cruise ship was so nice to prepare anything we wanted for Ethan – we chose pureed mangoes, yams (which they misinterpreted for potatoes twice) and papayas*. This and the change in schedule led to Baby Ethan not pooping for almost the entire week! We tried everything – even Yogurt (as mentioned to another mommy friend) to no avail 
Finally when we gave him TONS of papaya – he pooped the night before our departure as well as during the ENTIRE flight home.
We took Norwegian Cruise Line and it was only mediocre. We’ve sailed on Carnival in the past and we found that it provided better quality service and food. They did have facilities for kids under 2 – a little small room w/windows with toys and Ethan’s favourite – a jumperoo! 
The highlight of our cruise was a hostess at one of the main dining rooms aboard the ship – she was hilarious! Loved to play with Ethan and even jumped around like a monkey to put a smile on his face!
Our flight home – again with Air Transat was horrible! The seats are tiny and it was fully booked to the point where no parties were seated together! Me and Ethan were seated in very last row (thank goodness they have lumbar support for the flight attendants!) w/another mother and her 6yr old son.
The flight was horrible:
- the service was terrible
- my hubby got water poured him 3 times
- 1 flight attendant poured coffee over our laps – cms away from my face…bleh!
- the changetables on the flight were being repaired so myself and another mom were forced to change diapers on our seat
- a flight attendant – unaware of the out of order changetable even made a remark to the other mom about changing diapers at her seat!
If the price isn’t THAT much cheaper – we will pay extra NOT to fly Air Transat – unfortunately, I believe this was one of the only flights available direct.
yay