When Sandy and I booked our cruise in June of 2017, we had a daughter that didn't walk, was generally happy, and slept through the night.

Fast forward to our cruise in March 2018, and Sarah walks and runs, throws wild temper tantrums, and screams herself sleep.  In general we had a great trip.  However, there are a few areas where cruising and traveling with a toddler was much different than at more of the newborn/infant stage.  Read about our trip to Mexico here and here.   The post for tips for an all-inclusive resort with babies is here
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As many of our loyal readers know, we went to Mexico (Part 1 & 2) this past August.  Along for the trip we brought our then 10 month old daughter, Sarah.  We didn't have grandparents, friends, or another family to split childcare with.  It was just us 3!  And in all honesty, it was a wonderful time.  Looking back, one of, if not my favorite weeks of all of 2017.

Below are some tips that I put together for those that are thinking about going to an all-inclusive resort with babies, or have already booked their trip.  As Sarah gets older, I hope to create more of these guides.

We had a quick transfer from the Now Sapphire to the Playacar Palace.  Two years ago I visited this small, relaxed resort right in the heart of Playa del Carmen for an afternoon and instantly thought it was wonderful.

When I was booking the resort, I found out that they were closing the week after we'd be there.  The whole resort was going to be renovated over the course of three months.  Sandy and I both felt like the staff had the feeling of it being the last day of camp.​

According to the U.S. Department of State, there were over 18 million passports issued in 2016.  While both my wife and I have a few years to go until we need to get our passports renewed, this spring we applied for a passport for our daughter.  To be honest, we were both teenagers when we first applied for our passports and our parents did all the paperwork.  When it was time for the renewal in our late twenties, it was rather easy.  We were nervous that actually applying for our (young!) child would be confusing and filled with tedious paperwork.

When push came down to shove, it was much easier than we thought.  Here are the steps to take to make applying for your child's passport as pain-free as possible!

1) Figure out when you are going on your trip.  It can take 6-8 weeks to get your passports processed by the government.  Make sure you have enough time.  There are ways to expedite the process incase of emergencies or last minute circumstances, but this can be both expensive and time consuming.