Babysitting?

My 18 month grandson(Logan) will be joining my wife and I on our Voyager cruise along with his mom and dad, and many other aunts and uncles. I would like to hear from anyone who has used the ships service before. We are all very cautous about leaving Logan with a stranger. Mom and dad would like to join us for dinner at least a few nights. My questions are

1. Are the babysitters competent.

2. Even with 24 hour notice that you would need thier service were you ever told there was none available.

3. Is the cost $10 per child per hour.

Any other input would be appreciated.

Thanks Harry

Hi,

We will be cruising on the Serenade. Our daughters will be 6 and 11. They have and will participate in AO. They love it and a lot of the times we have to drag them from there. My one question is about the in room sitting. One night my husband and I will be going to the specialty restaurants and then to a show and some dancing. Do the sitters take the kids out of the room at all? Or they only stay in the room the entire night? Reason I ask is we were wondering if the Sitter would take them and or pick them up from AO on the night we use this service or to dinner. Thank you.

My 18 month grandson(Logan) will be joining my wife and I on our Voyager cruise along with his mom and dad, and many other aunts and uncles. I would like to hear from anyone who has used the ships service before. We are all very cautous about leaving Logan with a stranger. Mom and dad would like to join us for dinner at least a few nights. My questions are

 

1. Are the babysitters competent.

2. Even with 24 hour notice that you would need thier service were you ever told there was none available.

3. Is the cost $10 per child per hour.

Any other input would be appreciated.

Thanks Harry

My kids are older were older on their first cruise so we never had to deal with the babysitting issue. However, I wanted to let you know it is thoughtful of you to suggest getting a sitter rather than make him sit thru a long meal. One question I have that may help people who have used the service to respond to is when will you cruise and how old will he be then? Enjoy your cruise.......and especially enjoy the time spent with your extended family. I'm sure you will have many wonderful memories to bring back.

i just sailed on rhapsody and they had "late night party" kids could stay in AO from 10pm until 1 am at a rate of $5 per hour. My kids were so excited to go but my 9 year old did fall asleep there.

I do not have a link but there's a really eye opening article about babysitting & kids' clubs (on land & at sea) in this months Conde Nast magazine. They have good things to say about a lot of the clubs but not all. They discuss counselor to kids ratios, pre-screening to weed out pedophiles, & the importance of having someone who speaks the child's langauge.

My 18 month grandson(Logan) will be joining my wife and I on our Voyager cruise along with his mom and dad, and many other aunts and uncles. I would like to hear from anyone who has used the ships service before. We are all very cautous about leaving Logan with a stranger. Mom and dad would like to join us for dinner at least a few nights. My questions are

 

1. Are the babysitters competent.

2. Even with 24 hour notice that you would need thier service were you ever told there was none available.

3. Is the cost $10 per child per hour.

Any other input would be appreciated.

Thanks Harry

Well, I can't really answer about RCI, but I used the service on Celebrity, we had the same sitter each evening. Who my son loved. I am hoping to find the same on RCI, for both my DS & DD. We like to get the sitter after they eat in the evening just before they go to bed and then the sitter sits with them while they sleep and we go eat and whatnot. On Celebrity you could book the whole week in advance and request the same sitter if you like who comes. I don't know if this is possible on RCI. $10 sounds about right.

I know this doesn't really help with RCI, but just thought I'd share anyway. When is your Cruise? I am crusing in November. I can tell you how it worked out if your cruise is after mine (or vice versa if you cruise first).

We used RCI babysitting twice in the last two years on Voyager. The first time was Nov '03 with our then 13 month DS and then this past May with our two sons (then 2.5 years old and 14 months). And it worked out great for us. Lots of family time during the day and then some adult time for us later on with the kids getting plenty more attention by a babysitter for a couple hours before they went to sleep. It was $8 for one or two kids, and $10 for three kids, plus we tipped her a few extra dollars each night. We booked the babysitting nights right when we got on the ship to make sure we got the nights we wanted and the same person each night. You book it at customer service desk and they contact the housekeeping manager that arranges it and will call you in your cabin to confirm the dates/times and babysitter. Our babysitter came at 6 pm (we had main seating), gave them dinner around 6:30 (we ordered room service before we left) and then played and gave them their bath and put them to bed at 8:00 pm. Both trips we had great babysitters and trusted our boys with them. We didn't have any problems leaving each evening, but did take a few little new toys for each of them to give them as we left, so they had something new to play with (dollar store stuff - coloring books, matchbox cars, little book, etc.). So they actually got excited for their present time each evening. And were happy each evening and slept well and had fun with their new friend. I would definitely recommend using the babysitting service of RCI. It was great to eat dinners in the dining room without the thought of if they boys were acting up or needed to leave or disturb anyone else. And they got to keep to a more normal bedtime schedule so they were more happy too. Let me know if you have any specific questions. Have fun!

Wendy

We used this on both of our cruises, but will just relate our RCCL experience. We arranged on the first day through Guest Relations for the days and hours we wanted a babysitter. We had late seating on this cruise. The same woman came each time and the charge was $8 per hour paid directly to her. We pay $10 for an adult to watch our child so that is what we paid her.

We brought a DVD player that plugged into the DVD and we would leave it going as we left. We were told she only put up a fuss one night. We tried to have her fed before we left which is what we did having late seating. We would take her to the Windjammer and feed her and then get her back to the room. The woman was very prompt and our daughter was always asleep by the time we came back to the room. Our daughter was 19 months on our last cruise. She will be 2.5 when we cruise this January and will be doing in-cabin babysitting again.

Thanks for the information everyone. I had these exact same questions (we will be using AO much of the time but we want to go out late one night and don't want the kids falling alseep and needing to be moved. They are heavy).

We haven't used the babysitting service ourselves but the couple we travelled with used it extensively for their two-YO. They had nothing but good things to say and did not have any problems with availability.

As to saftey, there can be "bad people" who slip through the security process and end up sitting. I don't know that there is anyway to guarentee that the sitters are perfect. My friends made it abuntantly clear to both of the ladies who sat for them that they would be stopping by and/or calling to check in. And they (and sometimes I) did. This is relatively easy to do on board - mainly daddy, my husband, or I would check (at least the early check-ins) because if their son saw mom he'd get a little clingy. A reputable sitter doesn't mind the check-ins and a less-than-reputable sitter knows that they could be interrupted at any time. It at least helps.

Thanks for all the information. I will foward it to mom and dad I am sure they will be releived. Sounds like they have a good system. Do you think the hourly fee goes directly to the sitter?

We will be on the Voyager 11/18 repo from NJ to Miami.

Harry

Great info!

Wendy - The little $ toys are a great idea. My Son will play with a new hot wheel for hours.

Flagger - Another good idea with the DVD. I think I'll do that too!

Onessa - I did the checking in thing when I used the sitting on Celebrity. The best part this time will be that my son talks now and he tells us everything that happens. He's in Daycare now and always reports what happened that day (especially if he didn't like it (time outs)..:D). Seriously though, I'm glad he tells us everything because that helps too!

Harry - you pay the sitter directly, so I would think it all goes to them.

We were just on ROS with a 19 month old nephew. This child came to the dining room with us every night, and the waiters brought all the kids meals first so parents could get them going. When the kids were nearly done when our meals came. That worked out nicely for us, because other diners were leaving and the kids went and sat by a window and looked out until we all finished dinner.

Grandma and Grandpa took turns watching the little guy during the show, and then either mom or dad went back to the room and G and G went to the casino. Mom and dad knew they needed to get to bed early anyway cause kids still wake up early if that is their habit.

Have fun!

double post, sorry.

We used RCI babysitting twice in the last two years on Voyager. The first time was Nov '03 with our then 13 month DS and then this past May with our two sons (then 2.5 years old and 14 months). And it worked out great for us. Lots of family time during the day and then some adult time for us later on with the kids getting plenty more attention by a babysitter for a couple hours before they went to sleep. It was $8 for one or two kids, and $10 for three kids, plus we tipped her a few extra dollars each night. We booked the babysitting nights right when we got on the ship to make sure we got the nights we wanted and the same person each night. You book it at customer service desk and they contact the housekeeping manager that arranges it and will call you in your cabin to confirm the dates/times and babysitter. Our babysitter came at 6 pm (we had main seating), gave them dinner around 6:30 (we ordered room service before we left) and then played and gave them their bath and put them to bed at 8:00 pm. Both trips we had great babysitters and trusted our boys with them. We didn't have any problems leaving each evening, but did take a few little new toys for each of them to give them as we left, so they had something new to play with (dollar store stuff - coloring books, matchbox cars, little book, etc.). So they actually got excited for their present time each evening. And were happy each evening and slept well and had fun with their new friend. I would definitely recommend using the babysitting service of RCI. It was great to eat dinners in the dining room without the thought of if they boys were acting up or needed to leave or disturb anyone else. And they got to keep to a more normal bedtime schedule so they were more happy too. Let me know if you have any specific questions. Have fun!

 

Wendy

Hi Wendy. I know this is an old post but, I just saw it and it is everything I needed to know and really appreciated it. I do have one more question though, if you don't mind.

What type of stateroom were you in? I just can't figure out how it would work with my son (he will be 3 at cruising time), if the babysitter is in the same room while he is trying to sleep. Does the sitter just sit in the dark? I know this probably sounds really stupid, but I am totally serious.

Depending on your answer, we could possibly downgrade from a RFS (2 BR) to a GS and save about $2K.

Thanks