Royal Caribbean in room babysitting

[beachchick]

I am sorry to hear that there have been problems with arranging in-cabin babysitting. I know how nice (and important too, for that matter) it is for adults to have their own time. But I do want to remind everyone that RCI does say babysitting is not guaranteed. I'm not trying to make light of the issue, not at all, but RCI specifically says that babysitting may or may not be an option.

 

beachchick

[Seraphine]

Hi Beachchick

 

Thanks for chiming in. Yes, I know it says it's not guaranteed. I suppose in my stupidity that I took it to mean "not always available" as opposed to NEVER available. I understood that it had to be booked early, on a first-come-first-serve basis, and this was something I was going to request the MOMENT I got onboard.

 

But to be told that it was not available at all? Not acceptable. Especially if they wait til your on board to tell you.

[beachchick]

Seraphine: I really do feel for you. You must have been so frustrated! It would have been better had they made an announcement, perhaps on the website or by email, that there had been a policy change. I'm guessing (and this just a WAG) that the powers that be figured, "Well, we already say it's not guaranteed, so that's good enough." Someone didn't think it through.

 

beachchick

[Seraphine]

Thanks Beachchick :)

 

I just wish that if they were going to make changes, they would say something.

 

We looked at European cruises on Costa and MSC so we could avoid having to fly overseas first for a cruise, but their "policy" was "well, we don't have any babysitting, but when you get here you can always ask one of the child centre staff"

 

? ? ?

 

Oh yeah, I'll take that chance! I thought that by going with a well regarded, FAMILY cruiseline, I'd be skipping past all this nonsense.

 

If this is going to be how RCI continues, we will be going back to Carnival. If we'd known sooner, we would have changed our plans. But my parents are flying out from another country to meet us (and as this is their first cruise, and first real holiday in a decade, they are NOT getting saddled with babysitting duty the whole time - that is not why they are coming!) and we've had to buy transatlantic tickets for 4 of us to be there. It's too late to change anything now.

 

RCI - if you are adamant that this is how things are going to be, why not take a page from Carnival's book and allow the under 3's to be babysat in the kids club after 10pm? That way, the "overtime" issue should be so much of a problem. I'd be happier with that than the in-room babysitting anyway. Why cut off your nose despite your face?

[boulders]

There was a point in time a year or three ago when the Captain of one of the RCI ships suspended babysitting for a cruise or so. It's at his discretion. Possibly they were shorthanded your cruise? The people who babysit do so as a second shift in addition to their regular duties. It's not really an official feature of RCI.

 

RCI is adding nurseries to some of its ships and I am willing to guess that in cabin babysitting will be totally discontinued at that time.

[QTMichele]

RCI is adding nurseries to some of its ships and I am willing to guess that in cabin babysitting will be totally discontinued at that time.

 

I was going to point this out. :) Besides Oasis and Allure, by the end of March 2011, Liberty and Freedom will also have nurseries able to care for children 6 months and older!!! This is a wonderful move in the right direction for a "family cruiseline" - I know our family is going to take advantage of it!!! :D

 

I'm really sorry for everyone who expected babysitting availability and were told there was none. :( That is so disappointing! Our experience with babysitting was fantastic and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it. But, as Beachchick said, it's not guaranteed so please go with no expectations. (And yes, I completely understand the frustration of being told there is NO babysitting at all versus no availability for the time requested... RCCL needs to work on that!!!)

[Gatrcruzer]

Seraphine,

My apologies if my responses sounded like I meant you - poor wording on my part. I actually meant that parents who are CONSIDERING booking cruises should be warned that it could well be discontinued so they should not count on it. In your case you are booked to leave soon, so need to see what you can do to try to salvage things. You may want to try to contact RCI directly regarding this issue and see what they can tell you. My impression, though, is that often the people you would reach on the phone will tell you it is available, but each ship seems to have its own rules that change at any moment, and might be based on who is the captain. That said, are you considering canceling? If you bought the trip insurance where you could cancel at any time, then that could be an option, but certainly not a great one. One possible thing you might want to try is to go onto your cruise's Roll Call and inquire if there are any older teens/young adults sailing on your cruise with babysitting experience who might be willing to provide sitting for a few nights of your cruise. If you can find someone who is interested and who you are comfortable with (check references, etc.), that might be a way to salvage your cruise. Or you can start thinking about how you can work things without a sitter (early buffet, room service, bring things to do after child goes to bed).

 

It totally, totally stinks, and I feel your pain, but at least you are going into this with eyes wide open and can do something ahead of time to try to salvage things. We went in completely unaware and had little in the way of options once we were onboard. And for those who say that it indicates online that it may not always be available, my take on this had been similar to the OP and Seraphine, which is that it might not be available for every time I wanted but would be available overall. Imagine going on your cruise and finding out that, even though you specifically chose this cruise because of ports of call, you would not be visiting them, and for no apparent reason. While I understand this can happen in the event of issues such as weather, natural disasters or civil war, I'd be pretty pissed if my captain just decided to cruise us to the eastern Caribbean for no reason when I had specifically chosen this cruise for its western itinerary. But it says on the website that itinerary can change without notice, right?

 

At any rate, best of luck to you Seraphine, and hope you are able to find a good solution. Also know that sometimes they cancel babysitting on one cruise and then it is magically back a week or two later, so there still remains the possibility that it will be back again by the time you cruise. Hope so.

[Seraphine]

Seraphine,

My apologies if my responses sounded like I meant you - poor wording on my part. I actually meant that parents who are CONSIDERING booking cruises should be warned that it could well be discontinued so they should not count on it. In your case you are booked to leave soon, so need to see what you can do to try to salvage things. You may want to try to contact RCI directly regarding this issue and see what they can tell you. My impression, though, is that often the people you would reach on the phone will tell you it is available, but each ship seems to have its own rules that change at any moment, and might be based on who is the captain. That said, are you considering canceling? If you bought the trip insurance where you could cancel at any time, then that could be an option, but certainly not a great one. One possible thing you might want to try is to go onto your cruise's Roll Call and inquire if there are any older teens/young adults sailing on your cruise with babysitting experience who might be willing to provide sitting for a few nights of your cruise. If you can find someone who is interested and who you are comfortable with (check references, etc.), that might be a way to salvage your cruise. Or you can start thinking about how you can work things without a sitter (early buffet, room service, bring things to do after child goes to bed).

 

It totally, totally stinks, and I feel your pain, but at least you are going into this with eyes wide open and can do something ahead of time to try to salvage things. We went in completely unaware and had little in the way of options once we were onboard. And for those who say that it indicates online that it may not always be available, my take on this had been similar to the OP and Seraphine, which is that it might not be available for every time I wanted but would be available overall. Imagine going on your cruise and finding out that, even though you specifically chose this cruise because of ports of call, you would not be visiting them, and for no apparent reason. While I understand this can happen in the event of issues such as weather, natural disasters or civil war, I'd be pretty pissed if my captain just decided to cruise us to the eastern Caribbean for no reason when I had specifically chosen this cruise for its western itinerary. But it says on the website that itinerary can change without notice, right?

 

At any rate, best of luck to you Seraphine, and hope you are able to find a good solution. Also know that sometimes they cancel babysitting on one cruise and then it is magically back a week or two later, so there still remains the possibility that it will be back again by the time you cruise. Hope so.

 

 

Your post was lovely, Gatrcruzer - thanks so much!

 

I posted this over on the RCI board and am currently being raked over the coals for having the audacity to leave my children in the care of strangers... apparently I'm a very bad mother.

 

I will be going into this with both eyes open, and will be very wary of such a situation again.

 

Thanks everyone :)

[CruiserInMD]

Your post was lovely, Gatrcruzer - thanks so much!

 

I posted this over on the RCI board and am currently being raked over the coals for having the audacity to leave my children in the care of strangers... apparently I'm a very bad mother.

 

I will be going into this with both eyes open, and will be very wary of such a situation again.

 

Thanks everyone :)

 

Oh it figures. What a bad mother I am, too, for respecting my toddler's 7:30pm bedtime and wanting to still hang out on other areas of the ship while someone is in the room while he sleeps. Oy.

[Seraphine]

Oh it figures. What a bad mother I am, too, for respecting my toddler's 7:30pm bedtime and wanting to still hang out on other areas of the ship while someone is in the room while he sleeps. Oy.

 

 

Yep, you can join us... you are a horrible mother! (just kidding of course).

 

Next thing you hear that if you want to be in another room while your child sleeps, you should have booked a suite! What's the matter with you... didn't you think of that already, as well as a room for the nanny? :eek:

 

Oy is right. You can't win for losing around here.

 

(but it has been lovely meeting some nice folks like yourself in all the melee that I caused upstairs...) ;)

[Gatrcruzer]

I guess I'm a horrible mother, too! You are not alone Seraphine. And for what it's worth, I was also raked over the coals when I brought up this issue after my experience, even though I was putting out a warning to try to help others.

 

One last thing: Seraphine, I notice in your tag line that you are going on the Explorer of the Seas in November. I think the original post was about a stoppage of babysitting on the Liberty. Given that it seems to be such an individual thing, I wouldn't give up hope that there will be babysitting on Explorer when you go. Heck, there might even be babysitting on Liberty again in a few weeks!

 

Best of luck to you and hope it all works out.

[Jeff A]

Because we are surely boarding the ship and immediately booking babysitting while my daughter is sleeping for the night.

[daze6399]

I guess I'm a bad father too....I'll prolly use the babysitting or the late night group sitting in AO. I would have brought the nanny but........well I don't have one. :D

[LisaT91403]

Add me to the list of bad parents -- I used the babysitting last year when my son was a year old. I'm planning to do it again in June when my son is 3...and am hoping this get straightened out before then.

 

As for the main RC board, I feel like the people on that board are, in general, kid haters. They don't want your kids on the ship, they don't want you to leave them with babysitters, etc. No matter what you write in regards to kids, they will beat you up. That's just my experience :-)

[rolloman]

Interesting....seems they are probably canceling the in room sitting and going to focus on nursery options for their bigger ships. I still have 6 months to go before my little one is 3 so it does affect me. But I can tell you this.... it really is no great loss because the 2 times I have used it, things did not work out so well.

[Seraphine]

Interesting....seems they are probably canceling the in room sitting and going to focus on nursery options for their bigger ships. I still have 6 months to go before my little one is 3 so it does affect me. But I can tell you this.... it really is no great loss because the 2 times I have used it, things did not work out so well.

 

 

And this is not a bad thing... but they could wait until the nursery option is BUILT and operational before they cancel the babysitting services on other ships! I realise the one on the Oasis is operational, but I don't have the budget to sail on the Oasis yet... why should that interfere with the sitting on Liberty or Explorer this year?

 

I'm curious about what didn't work out well? I'm genuinely interested because there have been very few negative experiences reported here.

[rolloman]

And this is not a bad thing... but they could wait until the nursery option is BUILT and operational before they cancel the babysitting services on other ships! I realise the one on the Oasis is operational, but I don't have the budget to sail on the Oasis yet... why should that interfere with the sitting on Liberty or Explorer this year?

 

I'm curious about what didn't work out well? I'm genuinely interested because there have been very few negative experiences reported here.

 

 

 

The first time we used it our sitter looked like a "gangsta", was not friendly, we were nervous about the whole process to start with and this person did nothing to calm those fears. The 2nd time we used it the sitter assigned to our room did not show up...turns out she was too tired, we recieved no notice at all. The last time we used it, two girls arrived and we felt they did a good job, so much so we decided they could take our child to the buffett and stroll down the promenade area. This seemed like a good idea until my wife walked past one of the stores, looked in and saw our child sitting alone in her stroller, no sitters in site, one gal was looking at sunglasses and the other was in another corner looking a shirts. Needless to say, I am done with the in cabin idea. Our thought process now is if you need babysitting, bring someone or use the nursery on ships like Disney and Oasis that provide it. When your child turns 2, use NCL, they are great and then of course at 3 years old kids clubs on all lines are available.

[LisaT91403]

Wow, sounds like you had really bad luck. We did it once, and the sitter was great. Of course, all that we had her do was sit in the cabin while our 12-month old son slept in the connecting cabin. It was an easy gig for her, and I told her I didn't care if she slept in the chair and/or watched TV. We had her every night, and also rented a DECT phone so she could call us if there were any problems. On the 3rd night, my son woke up crying. The sitter called, and when I missed the call, she proceeded to call my mom's DECT phone as we'd left both numbers. This is exactly what we'd asked her to do. When we came to the cabin, she was comforting our son. She had him in her lap and he was playing with a toy. That was the only time she called us; the other 6 nights, DS slept the whole time.

 

I'll be disappointed if we don't have this option next June, when DS is 3. He will definitely need to sleep by 9:00, and I need my casino time :-)

[rolloman]

Just changed my upcoming sailing from Navigator to Oasis due to this issue. Spoke to my travel agent and she had no idea of the in cabin babysitting freeze. She called RCCL Resolutions department and after investigating (calling the ship) they allowed me to change my booking to the Oasis which of course has a nursery. Personally I am pleased with the the swap even though it is a lesser cabin and more expensive than my prior booking.

[LisaT91403]

Just changed my upcoming sailing from Navigator to Oasis due to this issue. Spoke to my travel agent and she had no idea of the in cabin babysitting freeze. She called RCCL Resolutions department and after investigating (calling the ship) they allowed me to change my booking to the Oasis which of course has a nursery. Personally I am pleased with the the swap even though it is a lesser cabin and more expensive than my prior booking.

 

 

So did the RCCL Resolutions Dept confirm that there was an "in cabin babysitting freeze", and is it on all ships?

[rolloman]

So did the RCCL Resolutions Dept confirm that there was an "in cabin babysitting freeze", and is it on all ships?

All I can say is Resolutions called the ship directly to question the fact Navigator specifically no longer supports in cabin babysitting. Resolutions came back to me after 4 days of investigating and asked me if I would be happy with a group babysitting format instead and I replied no. They said ok we will swap you. IMO it is now pretty clear in cabin babysitting is on the shelf until further notice no matter which RCCL ship you sail. I will have to believe this until a recent RCCL passenger (last 30 days) posts otherwise.

[Seraphine]

We are leaving in 7 days. This has me so angry - we were unable to change our ship or our plane reservations (this involved 6 passengers in 2 countries) and this is enough to make me want to avoid RCI altogether in the future.

 

I'm beyond livid. I will report what we find out when we get there.

 

To reiterate: "Not guaranteed" is not the same as "not available at ALL" :(

[krmlaw]

UGH im just reading this and am so upset - we are sailing Navigator on Thursday!

 

Im going to call RCCL right now, this stinks.

[Lessum]

This is exactly why we booked with Carnival over RCCL. At least on Carnival they have some (although very limited) group babysitting during port days and sea days for our 15mo LO.

[LisaT91403]

UGH im just reading this and am so upset - we are sailing Navigator on Thursday!

 

Im going to call RCCL right now, this stinks.

 

I'll be interested to hear what they tell you. I called, and the person I spoke with said that they absolutely, positively still have babysitting available. He said things heard on Cruise Critic are just rumors, not the truth. Yeah, right!