RCI Brilliance -interior stateroom: bunk beds + pack n play layout questions

[BWP]

Hi, my DH and I are cruising on the Brilliance of the Seas later this year with our 3 small children (18mnth, 6yr and 7yr). My parents will also be joining us, as we celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary. Due to a tight budget, we could not afford a family suite, and have booked into an interior stateroom (max pax 4), with our oldest child joining my parents in their stateroom.

 

We have requested a cot (pack n play) in our room.

 

I've been researching for hours, but am struggling to get a clear idea of how the layout of the room will work with a pack n play and bunk bed in place. I just can't picture it? If our twin beds are made up as a queen bed, where do the bunk beds go, and where does the pack n play go? Or do we rather use the sofa for my 6yr old instead of the bunk bed - or is there no space for the sofa if there's a pack n play in the room too???

 

Can anyone who has been on a Radiance class, in a similar situation, shed some light? Photos would be most helpful :)

 

Thanks

 

PS: I appreciate that no matter what the setup, space is going to be severely limited - we've come to terms with that... I'm just a major planner, and need to get some sort of mental picture of how the room will work.

[cb at sea]

You will have 146 (max!!!) sq. ft...the smaller interiors have 140 sq. ft,. I would leave the beds as twins....to maximize the floor space. There will be little room to move with a P&P in there!

The pullman beds come down from the ceiling or wall....save's floor space by NOT opening the sofa bed.

Have you looked at the photos of interior cabins in the brochure or on the website? That's exactly what they look like....they are small...it's NOT a "camera angle" that's making it look tight!

[BWP]

Thanks for the feedback. Yup, I fully get how small the room is, but unfortunately, we can't afford anything bigger... we're booked and simply have to make it work for us :)

 

I posted a similar msg on the RCI board, and someone kindly posted a pic of the bunk beds in place.... but it seems to me that the real problem is going to be the Pack n Play. We're travelling from South Africa - we don't get Pack n Plays here, so I'm not even 100% sure what it looks like? Would really love to see a pic of a PnP set up in an interior cabin, so that I can see the proportions and space limitations.... can anyone help out with that?

 

Otherwise I might have to forego the PnP and put the baby in bed with us.... which I don't mind doing, but it's a 12 night cruise and I'll be gutted if this messes with her routine too much and she won't settle back into her own cot once we're back home :(

[Seraphine]

Hello!

 

We sailed with our two kids for 12 nights in an inside cabin on the Explorer of the Seas in November. Okay, it can be a be tight sometimes, but it's entirely do-able!

 

We set the room up as such: we move the nightstand out of the way and push the adults bed to one side of the room against the wall, and put the pack-n-play next to it. Then our son went in the top bunk over the pack-n-play. My husband doesn't mind sleeping next to the wall, and I didn't want to sleep in separate beds by leaving them as twins.

 

RCI is good because they have the darkness curtain that separates the bed area from the rest of the room - this was a big plus for us.

 

My pics are on my hard drive but when I get a chance I'll post one so you can see the layout. It works fine - it's tight but you aren't in the room much. Definately get a plastic shoe organiser to hang on the door (I hung ours on the inside of the closet door) for all the bits and bobs.

 

You'll have a great time!

[BWP]

@Seraphine: thanks for the feedback - some good tips! Feeling a bit better about the space arrangements. I'm sure we'll manage fine. I'm just quite anal about planning... like to pre-think everything through (you'd think by now, with 3 kids, I'd know better... nothing ever works out as planned ;-) ) but it calms me nonetheless to work through the logistics of every situation.... It would be awesome if you do manage to locate those pics - always nice to get a visual!

[Seraphine]

Found a pic!!

 

Okay, this is NOT an RCI ship (this is the Carnival Glory, taken last spring... I didn't have a cabin picture for our Explorer cruise) but it's the same layout for the beds that we used on RCI. A pack-n-play is a bit lower to the ground than this crib, but it fits in the same space. We just move the nightstands so they are together, underneath the upper bunk. The kids keep their toys in them.

 

On RCI ships, there's a curtain that goes across the foot of the big bed, and then a sitting area with a sofa, so it seems a bit less like a bedroom.

 

We stash our empty suitcases underneath the beds - although I leave one open near the foot side of the bed and throw all the dirty laundry in it (then stuff it back underneath to hide it!). Each family member gets a shelf in the closet, I keep an empty suitcase on the floor of the closet for all the shoes, and a shoe-hanger on the closet door for all the incidentals (hair accessories, childs socks, sunglasses, suncream, first aid kit, etc).

 

I use the drawers too - one for all my makeup/hair stuff. One for all the papers you'll accumulate - the daily newsletters, flyers, advertising stuff. We put books on the shelf above the safe. We stash spare waterbottles in the long mirrored cupboards surrounding the mirror on the dressing table.

 

Take a powerbar for charging things - there's never enough plugs!!

 

One thing that bugged me about the RCI rooms is the phone placement - it's next to the bed, so if it rings you have to scramble over the bed to answer it in time (I usually cracked my shin on the pack-n-play). On Carnival, it was on the dressing table, which made more sense to me. Oh well!

 

Enjoy your trip, and keep the questions coming! (I'm a planner too!!)

[reallyitsmema]

This is the picture I posted on the OP other thread. It isn't the Brilliance but it at least gave an idea of what it would look like. I forget what ship it is, I just searched the RCL forum and found it. Pushing the beds to the wall should work especially if you use the pullman above the pack n play.

 

[BWP]

You guys are stars! Thanks so much for posting the pics!

 

We're doing the 12 night Med cruise in July. Very port intensive, and probably going to be quite exhausting with 3 small kids in tow... So it's quite important to me that the kids all get to sleep at a decent hour, so that they don't struggle too much with the sightseeing. My little one usually goes to sleep @ 7pm; the two older boys by 8pm latest. But they are usually in separate bedrooms - just wondering how on earth I'm going to get the little one to settle down, when her two brothers are right there in the same room with her?? Challenging!

 

We're going to request in-stateroom babysitting for as many nights as we can, so that we can join the rest of the family (we're part of a group of 17 family members!) in MDR 9pm sitting. I'd prefer all the kids to be sleeping before the babysitters arrive... but really have no idea how I'm going to get this right in such close quarters.

 

Curious to know what you did with your kids? One idea I had was to feed all the kids in the Windjammer, then one of us goes back to the room with the boys to settle them down, while the other one pushes the toddler around in her stroller until she falls asleep - then brings her back to the room once the boys are asleep (and quiet!) and transfer her into the PnP (she usually transfers ok).... all ready for the babysitter to take over. It seems a bit over-ambitious though ;-)

 

Any suggestions you may have from your own experiences would be most appreciated!

[Seraphine]

You guys are stars! Thanks so much for posting the pics!

 

We're doing the 12 night Med cruise in July. Very port intensive, and probably going to be quite exhausting with 3 small kids in tow... So it's quite important to me that the kids all get to sleep at a decent hour, so that they don't struggle too much with the sightseeing. My little one usually goes to sleep @ 7pm; the two older boys by 8pm latest. But they are usually in separate bedrooms - just wondering how on earth I'm going to get the little one to settle down, when her two brothers are right there in the same room with her?? Challenging!

 

We're going to request in-stateroom babysitting for as many nights as we can, so that we can join the rest of the family (we're part of a group of 17 family members!) in MDR 9pm sitting. I'd prefer all the kids to be sleeping before the babysitters arrive... but really have no idea how I'm going to get this right in such close quarters.

 

Curious to know what you did with your kids? One idea I had was to feed all the kids in the Windjammer, then one of us goes back to the room with the boys to settle them down, while the other one pushes the toddler around in her stroller until she falls asleep - then brings her back to the room once the boys are asleep (and quiet!) and transfer her into the PnP (she usually transfers ok).... all ready for the babysitter to take over. It seems a bit over-ambitious though ;-)

 

Any suggestions you may have from your own experiences would be most appreciated!

 

 

That sounds like a pretty good plan - one of you settling the boys, and one of you settling your daughter. Can you get her to go to sleep in the other room, and then move her over? (if she won't fall asleep in the stroller). We often did that... feed the kids first, then get them settled for the sitters (they send two).

 

Are the sitters going to the room that the boys are sleeping in? It's probably easier to move the baby from that room into your room after the sitters leave as opposed to trying to shift both boys.

 

If you can't get the settled, the sitters can handle it - they seemed very capable. We left our kids with them awake on the third night they came, and it was fine.

 

As far as sitters, as SOON as you get on board, the very first thing you need to do is go to guest services and put your requests in. Don't wait til after lunch - do it first thing. There's no way to reserve them in advance, and you don't want to be caught out. It will mean standing in line for a little while, but it's worth it.

 

We weren't worried about bedtimes - our kids normally go to bed at 8pm but not on a cruise... we all have a nap in the late afternoon, and the kids still got up in the morning with tons of energy.

 

If you get caught out with no sitter for some nights, feed them all early, put the boys in the camp, and take your wee one to dinner with you. If you walk her for a while in your stroller, she may be asleep before you eat.

 

Look into something like this:

Another thing we got that we really loved - it was a UV shade cover for the stroller - for naptimes, she got her bottle, put the shade on and we went for a walk. Out like a light every day. Get one that's nice and dark - it keeps the stroller lovely and cool, but shuts out all the activity so sleep comes more easily.

 

I wish you loads of luck and best wishes - I know this can be hard, and it always seems to fall on the mums to take care of all the little details, but hang in there. Make sure that you get some downtime on this cruise as well!

 

* When we used the sitters, I found I was often too tired to enjoy anything... I dozed off in the theatre twice. I was also counting the hours on the clock - I felt guilty for spending so much money on sitters just so I could have a few hours out (and it was only $12/hour then... it's up to $19 now) and then sleeping. I'd go back to the room with the kids, and my husband would go out and hang out with new friends, then I'd be up in the morning with the kids again and he'd be sleeping in because he was up so late. It wasn't ideal, and can lead to hard feelings. Make sure you get some down time for YOU. It's really important!

[BWP]

Hey Seraphine, thanks for all the advice - I appreciate it! And I hear you re feeling guilty about spending so much money on babysitting :eek: It's crazy! And I know I'm going to feel pretty wiped out at the end of the day, from running around after a very busy 18mnth old toddler as well as keeping tabs on 6 & 7 yr old boys..... but we're travelling with a large group of family (celebrating my parents 40th wedding anniversary), and it would be a shame to miss out on all the festivities with them in the evening. So I'm really hoping we have success booking the babysitters for as many nights as we can afford - thanks for the tip, will go and sort it out as soon as we board, for sure!

 

Will also keep an eye out for something similar to that stroller cover - looks ideal!

[Seraphine]

Don't forget your small blow-up pool for your 18 month old. Not only did I use it on deck, but afterward I put it in the bottom of the shower so Eilidh (19 months on our last cruise) could have a bath and rinse all the salt water off.

 

She spent a LOT of time in that little pool - she was amazingly content in there, pouring cups of water in and out, and I had a few little toys for her... I'd put her in there to play in the shower stall while I was putting my makeup and doing my hair in the bathroom. If she got too restless... back in the pool to play. I would just open the bathroom door fully so I could see her (the rooms are so small that it's not like you are more than 5 feet away) and I could tidy up the room and put things away in the closet, read books to my son (we'd sit on the floor next to the bathroom door). My husband said he was surprised she hadn't grown fins after all that time soaking in the tub, but she loved it! (and it bought me precious minutes of time when I wasn't chasing her around the room)

 

I can't believe they put the price up so high for babysitting. In future I'm avoiding RCI for a while for this reason - until both my kids can go to the club, it's an extortionate price to pay for a service that isn't necessarily bookable. I much prefer the nursery/kids club options for babysitting rather than having the sitters in our room - on our last Carnival cruises, we used to take our kids up there at 10pm after late seating, and our daughter would go to sleep right away in a pack-n-play. Our son would play for an hour then he'd lay down and go to sleep. We'd pick them up around midnight/1am and carry them to the room and all go to bed (I realise this is later than you wanted your own kids in bed, but it worked for us as we all shifted our bedtimes and awake times, but all kids are different). As opposed to our babysitting experience on RCI, this was preferable.

 

You are going to have a great time! Plus, there's no cooking or dishes to do, someone else makes the bed, so you really do get much more time to play with your kids and enjoy yourself.

[reallyitsmema]

Seraphine, RCI does now have a nursery on 4 of their ships. It is on Allure, Oasis, Liberty and Freedom. It is for a fee, $10/hr I think and they only allow you so many hours a week.

 

Might be worth looking into if any of those ships interest you.:)

[Seraphine]

Thanks, Reallyitsmema - I'll keep them in mind, although I'm looking forward to the day our daughter is old enough to join the regular kids club. She'll be 3 in spring 2012). We didn't realise the babysitting situation until after we'd booked onto the Explorer of the Seas, and it was too late to change it by then. We made due, but it was an education.

 

The Allure and Oasis are out of our budget (as we have to factor in overseas flights as well... there aren't too many cruise ships out of Scotland!), and I did understand that more ships are being kitted out with nurseries rather than the babysitting system. This, I think, will be an improvement. Having the two babysitters is a protection for them and for us as parents, but I really like the nursery concept, and it's much more affordable. I hate watching that clock!