With all the current Zika concerns, would you take a family cruise from Orlando to the Caribbean right now?
I am not pregnant but we are thinking of trying again in the next year or so (not in the next few months). I feel like on a cruise ship mosquitoes are almost nonexistent. We could also stay on board while at port since it would likely be a very short 3-4 night cruise and my kids are young so would still have fun on the boat.
81 votes
wonderful pomelo / 30692 posts
Uhhh... I have a cruise coming up in the Caribbean and I didn't even think about Zika...
We're not planning on having another child though, so hopefully it's fine??
ETA: If I was definitely planning on having another, I don't think I'd go. If you get infected with Zika, don't you have to wait a WHILE (months or even a year+) before it's safe to get pregnant?
eggplant / 11824 posts
Yes, I would as long as I wasn't planning to TTC within the next few months. I've never gotten bitten by mosquitoes on a cruise before and I'm a total mosquitoes magnet!
pomegranate / 3375 posts
A friend of mine went to a Zika area ... she and her husband couldn't even have sex for months, because if she passed it to him, he could have it for so long, and pass it back to her. It delayed their TTC.
blogger / wonderful cherry / 21628 posts
If it's going to be more than 6 months before you ttc then I would go.
pear / 1955 posts
@Adira: After a positive zika test, the CDC recommends waiting 8 weeks from last possible exposure for women, and 6 months for men.
I wouldn't go, but only because I'm 8 months pregnant. In your case, since you're planning to try a year or later from now, I'd definitely go!
nectarine / 2242 posts
@raspberries: that is good to know! I was just about to google that! Thanks.
pear / 1955 posts
@HappyBaker: No prob! One of our (male) employees was just diagnosed with zika after a business trip to Brazil, and being the paranoid pregnant lady that I am, I was brushing up on my zika facts since I have meetings with him pretty frequently. It's all good since I don't plan on trading bodily fluids with him. 
hostess / wonderful grape / 20803 posts
@raspberries: @HappyBaker: I think the recommendation is wait 6 months after exposure to Zika, because for men, it can supposedly live in semen that long. I would go if you aren't planning to TTC for 6 months after!
honeydew / 7463 posts
I 100% would and your train of thought is the same as mine. My husband will not. He is being ultra conservative about Zika. We aren't pregnant and aren't planning on ttc so it's frustrating for me.
grapefruit / 4649 posts
In your case, definitely! We knocked it off our list of options this year because we were trying while planning.
grapefruit / 4988 posts
We're probably going to go in the fall. We're done having kids, though, If I was planning to get pregnant again though, I'd probably wait.
pear / 1648 posts
I would go and just wait 6 months to TTC. Caribbean sounds lovely right now!
wonderful kiwi / 23653 posts
I just gave birth a month ago so I guess I'm not worried about Zika? Not that I'd be abel to go on a cruise with a newborn but that sounds nice... 
blogger / pomelo / 5361 posts
We took a Caribbean cruise with friends in July and we knew we would want to TTC in the next 6 months to a year.
I never saw a mosquito on the ship, but DH and I both put on bug spray just in case even on our ship days. We still did excursions, but we drenched ourselves in bug spray and reapplied frequently. I am the most mosquito bite-prone person ever. They always find me, and I get tons of bites, but I didn't get a single bite the entire trip, thanks to a ton of bug spray I'm sure. It was so fun, and I'm so glad we went before I got pregnant. That said, if we had gotten any symptoms, we would have been okay with post-poning for a longer period of time. Since we had no evidence of bites and not symptoms, we waited about 3 months before TTC.
nectarine / 2242 posts
@Mrs. Blue: thanks for the real life feedback! That's what I was thinking.
Thanks everyone for the responses! We decided to hold off one more year but because of our kids food allergies, not Zika. DH is concerned since they are little and super picky it would be hard to feed them safely in that environment.
pomelo / 5628 posts
I just went to the Carib and was eaten alive even with bug spray. I got a major rash but docs don't think it was Zika. (I'm not ttc.) everything I read says wait 6 months before TTC.
pear / 1767 posts
Our pediatrician said to avoid Zika areas with our baby since there hasn't been much research to determine the effects of Zika on infants.
blogger / pomelo / 5361 posts
@Shantuck: Did s/he give you a range of when they thought it would be okay? Like after the first year or longer? I haven't heard anything about recommendations for littles, so I'm curious how that might affect future travel plans.
pear / 1767 posts
@Mrs. Blue: She said that her son just turned two and she might personally consider traveling to that area now using repellent, etc. She didn't provide a clear cutoff. I asked her in November about bringing a baby somewhere in February who would be 4 months at the time and that was the response I got so we opted for a trip to Palm Springs.
pear / 1521 posts
We're being really conservative about Zika - we canceled a trip last year to Puerto Rico when we were still at least a year from TTC and took our trip to San Diego this year purposefully to avoid zika areas (though that makes sense since we're about to TTC).
We will not go to any zika affected areas I think until our kids are at least 2 and we are definitely done having kids. The affects of the virus are just so devastating and it seems like there is a lot we don't yet know about it.
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