RCCL In room babysitting

[JCSM-Mom]

Hi -

 

Does anyone know if you have to book this day by day or can book what you want all at once?

 

On Celebrity we could book what we wanted at the beginning of the cruise.

 

Also, do you have to pay in Cash or can it be charged to your room? Again, on Celebrity we were able to charge it to our room.

 

Thanks,

[moakes]

We did this a few years ago on RCCL. You need to book at least 24 hours in advance. The babysitter is one of the crew members who have the night available and want to earn a few extra bucks. You pay cash directly to the babysitter. Note that the person you get can vary widely in their ability to communicate and in their desire to interact. Ours barely spoke English and for the entire time watched TV and did not interact with our children. Personally, I wouldn't do this again as they were bored and felt ignored. I guess its luck of the draw. Good luck.

[wendyvp]

I just got back from a cruise on RCCL Voyager and used the in room babysitting for almost every night. You have to book 24 hours in advance but can do it all ahead of time. We wanted someone from 6-10 PM each evening (main seating dinner & showtime) and hopefully the same person, so we booked immediately when we got on board and by the next day they had someone lined up for the rest of the cruise. Since it was a consistent time each day, we could book the same person and get them after they were done working on the ship for the day.

 

You have to pay in cash to the babysitter. It is $8 per hour for 1-2 kids, $10 per hour for 3 kids. We paid her at the end of each evening and included a little tip too. The babysitter is usually someone that works in the housekeeping department and ours was wonderful.

 

Any more questions, let me know.

 

Have fun,

wendy

[JCSM-Mom]

Thanks for the information. That's how it worked on Celebrity. We booked from 7-12 each night for the whole cruise at the beginning. We had the same sitter each night. She was fantastic with our son. We are planning on doing the same this cruise for both our kids. We'll feed them and get them back and in their jammies. Our sitter doesn't usually have to work too hard, our kids go to bed at 8:30. We will have late dinner and then some Mom & Dad time while the kids sleep. It's good to know that it's $8 for two, I thought it was $10. Too bad we will need to pay cash though instead of charging it to the room. On celebrity, if you said you wanted them for 4 hours and only stayed away 3, you still had to pay for 4 though. But we didn't mind to just have it set up. We only have one day where we want someone for a couple of hours during the day, and that's in Labadee so we can ride the waverunners, but it's only a 50 minute trip, so I figure 2 - 2.5 hours should be enough.

 

It's a real bummer that you got a bad one Moakes. If they don't want to sit, they shouldn't sign up....but that's probably a whole other topic! =)

[moakes]

I think its luck of the draw. Maybe we'll try again.