No more in-room babysitting on Celebrity!

[Gatrcruzer]

Just wanted to let everyone know. We found out upon boarding that it had been discontinued 2 weeks prior. Apparently a bad incident on one of their ships that has led to a lawsuit. Not sure if this will also affect parent company, Royal Caribbean.

[cruisinsb]

We are leaving for a trip on the crown princess this friday and princess doesn't have any in cabin babysitting, I was hoping to find one of the kids club staff and see if we could offer to pay them privately for babysitting, I wanted to see what people's opinons on this was. I know it is hard to find good trustworthy sitters, but I figure if they work in the kids club, then they must have experience in working with kids as well as their clearances, right?????

[notentirelynormal]

Under no circumstances will they do it. They would be fired. There are only certain crew members allowed in your cabin and they aren't one of them.

[mrs.mobster]

so much for DH and I enjoying dinner at the specialty rest. since we certainly cannot bring our 1 year old with us for that.

[Kerry's Girls]

We are leaving for a trip on the crown princess this friday and princess doesn't have any in cabin babysitting, I was hoping to find one of the kids club staff and see if we could offer to pay them privately for babysitting, I wanted to see what people's opinons on this was. I know it is hard to find good trustworthy sitters, but I figure if they work in the kids club, then they must have experience in working with kids as well as their clearances, right?????

 

I agree with the previous poster - there is zero chance they will do this. The earnings from a night of babysitting wouldn't be worth losing their job and rules are very strict about being in passenger areas.

 

I have found Princess to be fantastic with toddlers aside from the child-care aspect. My twin toddlers have been on six Princess cruises, three of which before they were old enough to participate in the kids club. During the day we could play together in the kids club and at night I would take them out asleep in their stroller (with a beach towel hanging over the hood to block out light).

 

All my best for a wonderful cruise together with your family.

 

- Mia

[junglejane]

so much for DH and I enjoying dinner at the specialty rest. since we certainly cannot bring our 1 year old with us for that.

 

Have you considered the Ultimate Balcony Dining?

[crusinmama06]

Calm down folks. ;) Celebrity is claiming that they have NOT discontinued the in cabin sitting.

 

Maybe this was one ship with one crew making up their own rules. It hasn't seemed to trickled out to the rest of the X ships and it hasn't affected RCCL yet.

[kitty9]

I just called Celebrity, twice, getting two different persons in their special needs department, and both said they have no idea where the rumor of no babysitting came up, but it's not true. They do have private sitting, but the number of volunteers has declined.

[mrs.mobster]

Have you considered the Ultimate Balcony Dining?

 

Please do tell about this!

[junglejane]

I think I may have erroneously assumed you were going on Princess, because another poster (Cruisinsb) said they were leaving on the Crown Princess on Friday. Princess has Ultimate Balcony Dining where you pay $100 per couple for a private four course dinner (steak or lobster, I believe) served on your balcony by two waiters. I've never tried it because our kids are old enough for the kids' program and/or the specialty restaurants, but it sounds wonderful.

[notentirelynormal]

We are leaving for a trip on the crown princess this friday and princess doesn't have any in cabin babysitting, I was hoping to find one of the kids club staff and see if we could offer to pay them privately for babysitting, I wanted to see what people's opinons on this was. I know it is hard to find good trustworthy sitters, but I figure if they work in the kids club, then they must have experience in working with kids as well as their clearances, right?????

 

I was responding to this... and the Ultimate Balcony Dinner sounds like Princess also. Princess does not offer in cabin babysitting and if you want time alone this is how you are going to get it. I wish Princess did offer this option, but I gladly give up this feature for the cruise line that best fits all our other needs.

[Gatrcruzer]

As the OP, all I can tell you is that, although Celebrity may claim it is still available, it was not available on my recent trip (12/12) on the Century. I was told this upon embarking, that it was discontinued 2 weeks prior, and that this was due to an "unfortunate incident" and a "lawsuit." They were very firm that they would not under any circumstances allow in-room sitting, despite multiple requests. Even within the ship there seemed to be some confusion about whether it was allowed or not (my butler thought I had been misinformed), but when the paperwork was submitted they stated that it was no longer available on Celebrity, period. It totally ruined our cruise, and we would not have booked the cruise had we known that the in-room sitting would not be available. It makes me so mad to hear that it was available on other ships. Not sure if it is just being phased out slowly, or what. However, I do know that Celebrity will be receiving a very angry letter from me.

[crusinmama06]

However, I do know that Celebrity will be receiving a very angry letter from me.

 

Can you please come back to post an update if you receive one from Celebrity? This obviously has sparked a lot of interest around here and I know I would love to see an update. :) Thanks!

[Gablin]

How would you go about checking out a potential baby sitter on a cruise ship?

I would be worried to death if I left a young child or young children alone with someone who was a stranger to me.

 

When my children were young, their baby sitters were the children of friends or carefully researched through agencies. Even so, one sitter threatened one of my daughters with choking her to death! Another sitter drank my vodka and added water to cover herself.

 

The activities for young children on cruise ships would be different. There are always at least two adults, and other parents are coming and going, so it's not very likely that a child would be hurt or neglected there.

[Gatrcruzer]

Cruisinmama06 - I will keep you posted! Back at work, but maybe during the holidays I can get a letter together. There were several other snags on this cruise, and we have a previous bad experience with Celebrity (they canceled our cruise at the last minute due to mechanical problems), so I'm a little leary of this cruise line at the moment.

 

And Gablin, I agree - you are taking a risk when you do the in-room sitting because all you know is that it is a member of the staff who has received some extra training. In our case, our daughter goes to bed at 7pm and as long as there is nothing to wake her she sleeps through the night. We were just seeking a responsible adult to hang out in the room quietly for a couple of hours so that we could eat dinner or see a show. However, I'd be less comfortable with having someone I don't know spend time a long with her, bathe her, put her to bed, etc.

[Baxter]

so much for DH and I enjoying dinner at the specialty rest. since we certainly cannot bring our 1 year old with us for that.

 

We did. She did awesome...and slept in the stroller once she was tired.

[rolloman]

I am going on the Celebrity Equinox in a few days. I will let you know what their rule is.

[Julienatul]

so much for DH and I enjoying dinner at the specialty rest. since we certainly cannot bring our 1 year old with us for that.

 

Try it, you may be surprised. On our last cruise the couple next to us got a call from camp carnival to pick up their son age 1.5 for crying just as they got their appetizers. They had no choice but to bring him to the restaurant since they were already being served. He was fairly good throughout their meals just playing with his toys. I felt sorry for them since they wanted to enjoy a nice diner out and completely understood since we had just left our kids with grandparents in the cabin. You could always call and see what their not so busy times are and then ask to be seated farther away from people. Im sure they will do their best to accommodate you. Good luck!!!

[AgVball]

Just wanted to let everyone know. We found out upon boarding that it had been discontinued 2 weeks prior. Apparently a bad incident on one of their ships that has led to a lawsuit. Not sure if this will also affect parent company, Royal Caribbean.

 

That doesn't surprise me. I was on RCCL's Voyager at the same time you were cruising. RCCL still has it, although it is limited because now they must have TWO female sitters were request. And, due to regulations, the ladies can only work up to 14 hours a day (including your sitting)...so they are only available for 3.5 hours.

 

I think RCCL flies by the seat of their pants and doesn't have good policies and procedures in place for babysitting services. I used the service back in March.

 

Also, on RCCL, the rate is $12/hr with a 2 hour minimum. RCCL picks up the cost for the 2nd sitter. Their website still shows "@ $10 / hr".

 

The service desk said they made changes about two weeks prior to our Dec 13 cruise.

[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 Celebrity. We had a great experience on Holland America, so unless we decide to go on another cruise before my daughter turns 3 (in which case we might risk Carnival or NCL, who have programs for 2 year olds), I think we'll stick with them in the future. On a previous Holland America cruise we filled out a comment card in which we gave extremely positive reviews for nearly everything - the only slight negative we mentioned in passing was that our bedspread was dirty. We were shocked when they sent us a letter of apology, stating that this was unacceptable, and offering us a free meal in the specialty restaurant on a future cruise. From my perspective they know how to treat their customers.

[crusinmama06]

We had a great experience on Holland America, so unless we decide to go on another cruise before my daughter turns 3 (in which case we might risk Carnival or NCL, who have programs for 2 year olds), I think we'll stick with them in the future. On a previous Holland America cruise we filled out a comment card in which we gave extremely positive reviews for nearly everything - From my perspective they know how to treat their customers.

 

Please come back and give us a full review of your HAL experience with your daughter. I have always wondered how they are with young children. :) So I would be interested to hear all about it.

[Cuizer2]

I just called Celebrity, twice, getting two different persons in their special needs department, and both said they have no idea where the rumor of no babysitting came up ...

 

My guess would be from the first post in this thread.

[poppan]

I read this thread with interest, because we were on X (on Constellation) over Thanksgiving and they had "just changed" their policy to 1 babysitter per child, and required me to hire 2 if I wanted babysitting. What you said about the "incident" and resulting lawsuit totally makes sense... I guess the ships know about it and each ship is making their own policy? Corporate should come out and give them a guideline, but working in a corporation myself, I can see how that can be delayed and in the meantime the ships are making their own rules to protect themselves. Anyway, after reading your story I feel lucky that on my ship they at least came up with the 2 babysitter rule instead of just not offering any babysitting. Like you, the babysitting was a major reason we chose to cruise with X.

 

IMHO RCCL had the best policy in the meantime... 2 babysitters but they pick up the cost of the second sitter. I did get refunded for the cost of the 2nd sitter when I got home and complained to corporate Celebrity, so I'm satisfied.

[williamsk]

Hi, I have been following this thread with great interest as we are cruising on 2-01 on Century with a one year old.

 

I called celebrity and after being put on hold was told that he had called the highest level in the corporation and that sitting was offered on century, subject to availability.

 

So????

 

This would really change the nature of the cruise. We are just hoping for an hour or two to brush off our ballroom dancing skills after DD goes to sleep at night.

 

Has anyone else experienced this problem?

[Gatrcruzer]

Dear williamsk,

I know that folks have been calling corporate and they swear up and down that Celebrity offers babysitting on its cruises, and they have not changed their policy. That's all well and good, but if, as appears to be the case, each ship makes its own rules and policies, I would certainly not count on babysitting on the Century - that was the ship I was on, and on which this incident occurred. I will keep my fingers crossed that they will have their act together by the time you get on board, and will perhaps reconsider this policy and allow babysitting again, but they were extremely firm with me that it was no longer available under any circumstances. Hopefully someone got chewed out by corporate and they will reconsider! Best of luck to you. As an aside, a 5 night cruise is a great length for your first time with a little one. Long enough to be worth the trip, but not so long that you're really stuck if it isn't a good experience for you. I will also add that they did offer us to let our daughter go to the kids club without us (which normally they don't allow at that age) as a substitution, but given that my daughter goes to bed by 7pm it wasn't a very practical offer for us. If you are in a similar boat, what we wound up doing was going to the casual buffet or getting some quick sushi up on deck shortly before her bedtime in order to get something to eat for dinner. Hopefully it won't come to that for you.