First time cruiser - babysitting and baby bed questions - Help!

[littledaisychain]

Hello, this is my very first post :)

 

We are hoping to go on the South Pacific 12 night Radiance of the Seas cruise in 2012. But I have some questions that I can't seem to find specific answers to...

 

Firstly, we want to book an interior stateroom however our 12 month old daughter will need a packnplay/portacot to sleep in. Looking at the floorplans and photos on the RCI website, it doesn't look as though a packnplay will fit. Ideally we'd like the packnplay next to our bed so that there is still room to walk around and access the bathroom etc without having to squeeze through every time. Anyone had experience fitting a packnplay into an interior stateroom?

 

Secondly, I'm wondering about the in-room babysitting. I read on these forums that two crew members are needed, which is fine. What I want to know is, what do they do if the baby is asleep? Do they literally sit there in the dark?? :confused:

Also, what times is the in-room babysitting usually available and is there a minimum or maximum number of hours?

 

Thanks!

[cb at sea]

A P&P will fit...barely. More floor space is there if you don't have the bed together, but it WILL fit. Squeezing will be required.

 

Yes...they will just sit there with your child...that's why they are called "baby-sitters"!

[littledaisychain]

Thanks cb. Good to know the p&p will fit.

 

In some photos I've seen a curtain that can screen off a section of the staterooms - is this standard? That would make it SO much more pleasant for a sitter I'd imagine! And for us too, so that we can watch tv or something when she's napping.

[mamato5girls]

We cruised last August in an inside stateroom - my recommendation is to ask the steward to take the table out of your room as that eats up your space. I put the cruises' pack and play at the foot of my bed and it worked out well. This way I could walk on my side to get to the baby or to the bathroom if I needed without my path being blocked.

 

As for the sitter, they will sit there and watch your little one. There are two of them (on RCCL) for one price. In my experience, they had the bathroom door open to make for some light. I can't remember if there was a curtain or anything. Sorry :(

[kitty9]

Before you book anything, make sure your cruise doesn't have a higher minimum age. There are lines that have 18 months as a minimum age for the exotic cruises, and the South Pacific is one of those.

[Showtune]

Just took a look at the square footage and room layout of the interior rooms on the Radiance. If you can ask to have the beds together but flush against either the right or left wall you will be able to keep the PnP up against the bed on the open side. This will mean that the person sleeping against the wall will have to "exit" at the foot of the bed, but it will save significant floor space in the room. The curtains you see at the foot of the bed in the picture probably don't go all the way across the space.

 

We used sitters on the Enchantment in 2010 for our 19 month old. We visited guest relations the first night and booked sitters for every night of the cruise for 2 hrs. We were lucky because there were very few children on our cruise. Sitters are assigned on a space available basis, so when a cruise has lots of kids RCI can put a cap on the number of hours you can use or they may not have the staff to offer sitting at all. They assigned 2 people each time, in our case, one from Guest Relations and another from Housekeeping. The ladies were prompt, quiet, and very nice. Our son was always asleep by the time they arrived and they sat and either watched TV quietly or read by low light.

 

Before we cruised all of the information we had seen said that we would need to pay cash to the sitters, however when we used it they put it on our shipboard account.

[littledaisychain]

Before you book anything, make sure your cruise doesn't have a higher minimum age. There are lines that have 18 months as a minimum age for the exotic cruises, and the South Pacific is one of those.

According to the FAQ on RCI's website, it is a 12month minimum for Australian cruises (which includes South Pacific I believe). Everything else is 6 month for RCI, there's no 18month limit anywhere which is good for us! :)

[littledaisychain]

We cruised last August in an inside stateroom - my recommendation is to ask the steward to take the table out of your room as that eats up your space. I put the cruises' pack and play at the foot of my bed and it worked out well. This way I could walk on my side to get to the baby or to the bathroom if I needed without my path being blocked.

That sounds great to me, thanks for your reply!

[littledaisychain]

Just took a look at the square footage and room layout of the interior rooms on the Radiance. If you can ask to have the beds together but flush against either the right or left wall you will be able to keep the PnP up against the bed on the open side. This will mean that the person sleeping against the wall will have to "exit" at the foot of the bed, but it will save significant floor space in the room. The curtains you see at the foot of the bed in the picture probably don't go all the way across the space.

 

We used sitters on the Enchantment in 2010 for our 19 month old. We visited guest relations the first night and booked sitters for every night of the cruise for 2 hrs. We were lucky because there were very few children on our cruise. Sitters are assigned on a space available basis, so when a cruise has lots of kids RCI can put a cap on the number of hours you can use or they may not have the staff to offer sitting at all. They assigned 2 people each time, in our case, one from Guest Relations and another from Housekeeping. The ladies were prompt, quiet, and very nice. Our son was always asleep by the time they arrived and they sat and either watched TV quietly or read by low light.

 

Before we cruised all of the information we had seen said that we would need to pay cash to the sitters, however when we used it they put it on our shipboard account.

Thanks, that's really helpful info! I like the idea of having a couple of hours to ourselves at night. It's so hard to know how my daughter will cope with it all but I'm thinking positively ;)