Things to do in Tampa for a day with a baby
 

My family is taking a cruise that leaves from Tampa in 2 weeks. When we return, we disembark in the early part of the morning, but our flight isn't until 7pm. We've rented a car (with a carseat for the baby- what an ordeal to arrange for that) for the day.

Any suggestions for how to spend the day for my husband and I, the baby (who will be a week shy of a year old), and my parents?

The Florida Aquarium is pretty neat. I always liked going there when I was little.

The website is www.flaquarium.org if you want to check it out.

You could pop over to Clearwater Beach or Fort DeSoto beach-easy to get to, and clean. Not sure how easy it would be to clean up afterwards though. There also is a little aquarium in Clearwater with a petting tank. Maybe 45 minute drive over the bridge. Then again, you also might be sick of beaches if you visited several on your cruise.

Lets see...aside from the bajillion beaches lol, there's MOSI, the Lowry Park Zoo, and The Pier in St. Petersburg (i've never been there personally but i've heard it worth checking out). Thats all i can really think of.

I would say since you have a little one with you, my top choice is the Florida Aquarium (plus its RIGHT by the ports in Channelside), the Lowry Park Zoo, The Glazers Children Museum or Busch Gardens. So jealous of your cruise, I work downtown Tampa so whenever there is a ship docked at Channelside, I make an excuse to eat lunch down there so I can admire (and torture myself) the cruise ships lol!

Thank you for the suggestions! I'm thinking of maybe the zoo or the aquarium. I'd love to hang out on the beach, but I'm not fond of the idea of having sand on us for the rest of the day and flying back. Busch Gardens would be awesome but it's a small fortune for admission nowadays, particularly when we would only be there for half a day.

At first we were a little irked at our plane getting changed until a later time of day (we were originally supposed to fly out much earlier in the afternoon), but I'm kind of excited now because it's adding more "vacation" to our "vacation" (though I will still have to get up and go to work the next day, boo)

YO DAWG, I HEARD YOU LIKE VACATION SO WE PUT VACATION IN VACATION SO YOU CAN VACATION WHILE YOU VACATION!
*insert xhibit .gif here*

i was going to point out that the aquarium is right by the ports too, lol. the aquarium is really nice and can be very peaceful when it's not too crowded.

I just lost. so. bad.