No more in-room babysitting!

[CruisinManiac]

A crew member (who is not vetted, trained, or hired by HAL as a babysitter) volunteers to do it in his/her spare time.

 

To me, this is scary practice. Although my children are older, I would never want to leave my children with a complete stranger - someone that I did not know, or a person that did not come recommended from another trusted friend. :eek:

 

Also, our daughters were asleep during the sitting time, and we asked the sitters to sit outside the cabin and listen to the monitor that we provided. This is pretty standard for a sitter in your home. Three nights in to the cruise, the service manager stated that the sitters MUST be IN the room, and there must be some type of light on...even if its a bathroom light so they can see to make sure the children are alright and don't fall out of the bed. (although ours were in pack-n-plays).

 

What did you mean? Did the sitters have to sit in the hall?

[Gatrcruzer]

As an update, I did write a very lengthy and angry letter, which I sent to Celebrity. In it I detailed the negative experiences I had while on the ship, and spent a long time explaining the extreme hardships related to the babysitting issue. Their response was to say we're sorry for your bad experience, and provided us with vouchers toward a future cruise, worth approximately 10% of what we paid for this cruise. I'll be returning the vouchers to them with a short letter letting them know they lost a customer. I've had it with this cruise line.

[AgVball]

Also, our daughters were asleep during the sitting time, and we asked the sitters to sit outside the cabin and listen to the monitor that we provided. This is pretty standard for a sitter in your home. Three nights in to the cruise, the service manager stated that the sitters MUST be IN the room, and there must be some type of light on...even if its a bathroom light so they can see to make sure the children are alright and don't fall out of the bed. (although ours were in pack-n-plays).

 

 

 

What did you mean? Did the sitters have to sit in the hall?

 

Yes, we asked the sitters to sit in the hall and listen to the girls over a monitor. The same practice that would happen at your home if you were to hire someone. When you hire sitters for home, they do not go in to the baby's room and turn on a light and just sit there. They sit out nearby and listen and/or listen with a monitor. This way, the baby is not disturbed by light, people moving around or two people trying to talk. In balconies and jr. suites, there isn't a way to separate the "sitting room" (where the pack-n-plays were) from the "bedroom"...its all one big open area. Although we did bring our own large blanket and some clothes pins and tried hang up our own separator.