Tips/experiences for traveling on Allure with 3 & 6 year olds?

[k8ln711]

Hey all!

 

Traveling on Allure soon, and was hoping to hear feedback from previous Allure sailors on their Allure experiences with kids! We have 3 & (recently) 6 year old. I have a few specific questions, which if you could answer THANKS! But, any advice or experiences are very welcome and appreciated :)

 

1. Any experience with in-room babysitting? We were considering this for the Rita's Fiesta night.

 

2. Could they be together in Adventure Ocean, if being separated is a problem? I think the 6 year old would rather be with her sister if possible...

 

3. Do you get a DECT phone for the entire week if you register for Adventure Ocean on Day 1?

 

4. How was Adventure Ocean for these ages?

 

5. Any especially great shore excursions for Eastern ports (Nassau, St. Thomas, St. Martin)?

 

I know the kids are very excited about the DreamWorks Experience, so hopefully it lives up ;)

 

Thanks in advance to any responders! :)

[Babyberger]

See my answers below. Feel free to ask anything else you can think of. My kids were 4 and 5 when we sailed Freedom, and 5 and 7 when we sailed Oasis.

 

Hey all!

 

Traveling on Allure soon, and was hoping to hear feedback from previous Allure sailors on their Allure experiences with kids! We have 3 & (recently) 6 year old. I have a few specific questions, which if you could answer THANKS! But, any advice or experiences are very welcome and appreciated :)

 

1. Any experience with in-room babysitting? We were considering this for the Rita's Fiesta night. Did this on both Freedom and Oasis. RCI made some changes in between our sailings for the best. You know get two sitters when you request in-room babysitting. I have heard that the prices have gone up, but in November we paid $12/hr for 2 sitters, for a maximum of 3 hours per day. We would pick our kids up at AO at 10pm then get them ready and settled into bed and had the sitters come about 10:15ish. Worked out great and we had the same two women for 5 nights in a row.

 

2. Could they be together in Adventure Ocean, if being separated is a problem? I think the 6 year old would rather be with her sister if possible...

RCI's rule is that they don't age up or down. Having said that, it really depends on your sailing and how many kids are in each age group. When you register the kids for AO, you can definitely request for your 6 year old to be aged down. They may ask to see how it goes with the kids separated for the first day, and go from there. My DS has special needs and the AO staff could not have been more accommodating, they were truly FABULOUS!!!!!

 

3. Do you get a DECT phone for the entire week if you register for Adventure Ocean on Day 1? Again, I have heard this has changed since we sailed on Oasis in November, but when we registered the kids for AO we were given a DECT phone because our DD was in the 3-5 group. It was for the entire week and when the battery started to die we just brought it back to AO and they changed out the battery for us. I would try to verify with someone who has been Allure recently what they are doing now, because if they are not giving them out at AO, I would make guest relations your first stop when you board and rent one for $25 for the week. This way AO has a way of getting ahold of you as well as the in-room babysitters at night.

 

4. How was Adventure Ocean for these ages? As I mentioned the staff was incredible. They had so many different activities for the kids. Every night you will be giving your cruise compasses and AO planners for the next day. I would sit with my kids and figure out what they wanted to do, so we knew when they wanted to go to camp. I have all my compasses posted on Flickr if you want to take a peak just to get an idea of what is offered.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/babyberger/sets/72157626049976014/

 

5. Any especially great shore excursions for Eastern ports (Nassau, St. Thomas, St. Martin)? We honestly didn't get off the ship on Nassau and St. Thomas, in St. Martin we took the beach rendezvous excursion and spend a few hours on Orient Beach.

 

I know the kids are very excited about the DreamWorks Experience, so hopefully it lives up ;) We are looking forward to that too! It was not on Oasis when we sailed, so that will be a new experience for us.

 

Thanks in advance to any responders! :)

[tag319]

Hi just got off the Alure today.

 

We didn't use in room babysitting but they nursery was open until midnight and they had kids 3 and over programs until 2 am. I think I saw the late night shift charges $6 and hour in the adventure ocean programs.

 

We were given a phone to use the whole week and were able to call staterooms with it. They only give you one phone no matter how many children you have.

 

Dreamworks was great. Something every day. Be sure to reserve the character breakfast early. We never got reservations but they did let us come in and sit one day. The final day they had a puppet black light show and an extra show in the aqua theater. One day they had a how to train your dragon show on ice and it was very good. They were always willing to stop and interact and often let you use your own camera. We found the characters to be much more accessable than Disney.

 

Nassau I would consider the day pass at Atlantis. The water park is amazing and it is beautiful. So much to look at and a neat rope bridge adventure area too. We bought ours directly through Atlantis in 2009 and saved $ that way.

[Babyberger]

Just read another review from a recent Oasis sailing, and went back to an older Allure sailing, and it does appear that they are no longer giving out the DECT phones to the 3-5 age group, only those who register nursery program. So this is something I strongly say to make a priority with guest services as soon as you board.

 

Also, as tag319 mentioned, there is a late night zone for 3 and older. The 3-5 age group has a quiet zone where the kids can actually lay down and some even sleep. We did this for a few nights on Freedom and would get calls that the kids wanted to go back to the cabin and get in bed. We planned on using it as a back up if we couldn't get in-cabin babysitters.

[k8ln711]

Thank you guys so much for the feedback! It's great to hear such positive reviews about all things kids on Allure. :)

 

Babyberger: I'm very happy to hear that in-room babysitting was such a positive experience too, and that the AO staff was great! Thanks so much for uploading the compasses on Flickr, that is such a great resource! And we'll definitely head to Guest Relations first thing when we get on for the DECT phones. According to Tag319 they were giving the phones out to AO people, but we have 5 staterooms booked across our party and the other groups would like them too!

 

Tag319: Thanks for the response! Great to know they do give our the DECT phones to AO ppl, and that Dreamworks was fabulous. The kids are so excited about it. :) That was a great tip about booking right thru the Atlantis site. I did that and saved $50 *per person* on the Dolphin Excursion (for 6 people, that was big savings!). We'll just take a taxi over there. :)

 

Thanks again for the responses! :)

[k8ln711]

We are back! What a great week :)

 

Kids didn't really take to AO. At first I thought it was because my 3yo DD had never been left with non-family members before (she doesn't start preschool til this fall), but my 6yo DD also didn't really take to it. Luckily they gave me a DECT phone (they said it was only b/c my younger one was 3, I think that's the age cutoff), so they called me during Chicago to say they were both crying for me. No problem, went and picked them up, and if was off to the Cafe Promenade for some cheer-up cookies while the rest of the adults finished the show. On our way to the Cafe we saw Alex the Lion and got our photo with him, then got our cookies, rode the Carousel, then went back to the Promenade to see Shrek, then it was off to bed. Everyone was happy. :) After that we just used in-room babysitting, which was great. We'd have the kids already asleep and the sitters (there were 2)would show up and watch TV and talk while the kiddos slept in the adjoining stateroom. They were friendly as can be, and one of the sitters was actually one of the leads from Chicago! So cool. The rate was $19, and sooooo worth it for our peace of mind that our kiddies were off in dreamland while we joined the rest of my family for late night events (the Headliner show, Rita's Fiesta, etc). The last night we used in-room sitting, the sitter said that we could stay out later than the 12:15 endtime we'd requested, no problem. We laughingly said thank you, but that was plenty late for us, the kids will still be up at their regular time and we want to be ready to go for our last day at sea. ;) But anyways, was a lovely experience, and one I'll definitely do again on the next cruise.

 

We beelined it for Guest Services when we boarded for Dect phones, but they were not available to rent - apparently there was a problem with them and they were ordering new ones or something? Not sure. Bummer, b/c they would have been very handy. The one I was loaned for the week from AO was very useful.

 

We actually didn't book a single excursion through RCL this week. We booked directly thru Atlantis for the dolphin excursion in Nassau (thanks for that tip tag319!) and saved about $350 for our party of 6.

 

In St. Thomas we got off the boat and just got a taxi (there are a million right outside the terminal) with some other guests to Magen's Bay Beach. GORGEOUS! Oh my, wow. The water, the setting, glorious. The taxi cost us $40 round trip(with tip) for the 4 of us (didn't charge for the 3 year old, just $5 for the 6 year old). RCL wanted about $98 to do the same thing, drive us there and back.

 

In St. Maarten, same thing. Got off, there were taxi's right there at the dock, asked them which beach to go to that was NOT nude (aka not Orient Beach), and they recommended Dawn Beach. Done. Was also great...not as beautiful as Magen's Bay (guessing not many are though), but the setting was relaxing and the kids loooved the beach. We rented 4 chairs and 2 umbrella's for $40, and there was a restaurant (Mr. Busby's I think?) right there where we ate lunch. Nice and clean, good service. The only complaint I'd have about Dawn Beach would be that there were a few local peddlers, but it really didn't hamper our day. A quick "no thanks :)" and they moved on...that taxi cost us $6 each for the 2 adults and 6 year old, so $20 with tip. Anyways, the just-catch-a-shuttle-to-a-beach (or Atlantis) strategy worked really well for us this trip, I will be doing that again. When the kids are older and can do things like snorkeling, I may book through the cruise line, but for simple beach-and-shopping trips, my own taxi it is. Cheaper, and on my own time, not the pre-determined excursion time...

 

So, that's about all that I'd asked about before, just wanted to give my feedback on the results! Any questions from those just reading this, let me know. :) We had Boardwalk Balcony rooms on Deck 10.

[LisaT91403]

Welcome back -- glad you had a nice trip! We are on Oasis this coming Saturday, and are hoping our 3 year old will go to AO! A few questions:

 

- Did you pay cash for the babysitters, or was it charged to your SeaPass? I have heard both.

 

- To clarify, you are saying that the DECT phones were not available for rental, but you still had one for the week provided by AO?

 

Thanks!

[k8ln711]

The babysitting was charged to our SeaPass account.

 

-Correct, the DECT phones could not be rented at guest services, but when I went to AO on the first day to register, I inquired about them. They said "how old is you daughter? 3? Then yes, we can give you one." It wasn't an automatic "Oh, you have a 3 year old? Here's your phone." I had to ask. But I did have it for the whole week after that, was told to return it on the last night by 10pm.

 

Hope this helps!

[Babyberger]

The babysitting was charged to our SeaPass account.

 

-Correct, the DECT phones could not be rented at guest services, but when I went to AO on the first day to register, I inquired about them. They said "how old is you daughter? 3? Then yes, we can give you one." It wasn't an automatic "Oh, you have a 3 year old? Here's your phone." I had to ask. But I did have it for the whole week after that, was told to return it on the last night by 10pm.

 

Hope this helps!

 

The babysitting charged to the seapass, was that in-cabin babysitting? I have always had to pay in cash before and would love to be able to charge it to the seapass account instead. I know the late night charges at AO were charged to the seapass.

[k8ln711]

Yup, the in-room babysitting (for 2 kids was $19/hour for 2 sitters) was charged right to the SeaPass account. Although I did tip each sitter in cash at the end of the night, but yes - the main charges just went right onto the SeaPass.

 

Like I said - SO handy and will definitely do that on the next cruise as well!!

[k8ln711]

Also, by no means are you required to tip them, in fact every sitter seemed surprised and flattered by the tip, so I'm guessing it's not normal/expected.

[Babyberger]

Also, by no means are you required to tip them, in fact every sitter seemed surprised and flattered by the tip, so I'm guessing it's not normal/expected.

 

Thanks for the info! I knew the rate went up, but wasnt sure to what. Good to know. We usually tip the sitters as well, so I will make sure to have cash for that but dont have to bring as much now :)