Major Props to the Royal Babies Program on RCCL's Liberty of the Seas

[elephant98]

My wife and I returned this past weekend from a 7-night sailing on the Liberty of the Seas. We took our 10 month old son with us. There is currently no nursery onboard where you can drop off your child for a couple hours so that you can have a little "me time", but one will be put in place during the upcoming January 2011 drydock. Nevertheless, we were very happy with the Royal Babies program offered onboard for infants.

 

Each morning, between 9 am and 10 am, there was a supervised play time with a counselor up on deck 14 in one of rooms located next to the Viking Crown lounge. The counselor set up play mats on the floor and there was a different set of toys (almost all Fisher Price) each morning for the babies to play with. Lots and lots of toys. Not just balls and dolls. But, interactive toys with shapes, sounds, buttons to push, to walk with, to crawl through, etc. Things similar to what you would have at home, but is way too large to pack in your suitcase. The counselor interacted with the babies. But, since parents are supposed to stick around too, we were obviously playing with him as well. And, our son enjoyed playing with the other babies he met.

 

In the afternoon, between 2:30 pm and 3:30 pm (I think), there was an unsupervised play area set up with toys for the babies to play with in one of the teen lounges in the Adventure Ocean are on deck 12. And, on a couple of days, the afternoon play time was followed up by counselor supervised activities like finger painting, crayon drawing and even a "birthday" party. Not only that, there were also set times on at least one afternoon where the counselor brought water toys to the baby splash pool for the infants to play with.

 

Most nights, between 7:30 pm and 8:30 pm, there was another play time for the babies back up in the room on deck 14, followed by a short bedttime story.

 

Oh, they also had a toy check out program, where you could sign out a bag of toys that you were free to take with you back to your stateroom. And, you could either keep the bag of toys you checked out, or exchange them for something else. Things like stacking cups, a ball, books, a playset of farm animals, etc.

 

My wife and I ended up taking our son to the morning play time pretty much every day and caught a lot of the afternoon activities as well. Outside of letting him roam the promenade early in the morning before most other passengers were up and moving, the playtimes were really the only time that we felt comfortable letting our son walk and crawl at his leisure without having to worry about his safety and the safety of others.

 

Major props to the Royal Babies program. We were worried that our son wouldn't have anything to do on the cruise and that we wouldn't be able to keep him entertained. That certainly did not end up being the case. We really took advantage of playtime and activities and it made our cruise experience all the more memorable and enjoyable. My only criticism is that I wish that the ship had done a better job of advertising the program. There were supposedly some 60 children under the age of 3. But, we maybe only saw 7 other babies participating in the play times. We knew about the program before we boarded the ship, so we made a point of visiting the Adventure Ocean area and getting a handout of the week's activities on the first day of the cruise. But, outside of seeing a small mention of Royal Babies and Tots in the daily Compass, which is easy to miss amongst all the other things that are listed on there, I didn't see any other efforts to let parents know about the program.

 

On that note, I should also give major props to the rest of the cruise staff on board the Liberty as they were very accomodating to us. From embarkation to disembarkation they were wonderful. After the muster station drill was over, we were among the first allowed to go back to our staterooms to avoid the mad rush on the stairways. Our stateroom attendant went to great lengths to have our room cleaned before our son's morning nap (10 am) and before his relatively early bedtime (7 pm). The wait staff in the Windjammer always brought us a high chair and checked in on us to see if we needed any food that wasn't out for some reason or another, like cheerios, a banana or cheese. And, our waiter and assistant waiter in the main dining room were absolutely terrific, bringing out food for our baby ahead of time and packing up dessert for us to go.

[cbowler]

That's great to hear! We are contemplating a March 2011 cruise on the Liberty with our 2 year old and 4 year old but I'm hesitant because of the 2 year old and being able to entertain him. Granted, by then they'll have the nursery. But, I'm pleased to hear your positive review.

[elephant98]

As a quick follow up, the counselor told us that when the Liberty goes into drydock that the nursery will be located with the Adventure Ocean area on deck 12. Apparently, that area will be reconfigured to accomodate the new infant space. Once opened, the nursery would offer each family 20 hours of supervised care per child for a 7-day cruise. The current rate being charged on the Oasis nursery is $9/hour (I think). Additional hours are subject to availability.

 

The ability to drop off our son for an hour or two one evening so that we could do dinner and a show would be nice. But, it is much more important to us that that the ship continue to provide the free playtimes with toys throughout the day at a designated space, separate and apart from the paid babysitting that the nursery will provide. The counselor acknowledged that there would continue to be playtimes. But, she really couldn't comment on how the playtimes will be handled once the nursery is put in place, other than suggesting that the playtimes would probably be moved from the room(s) on deck 14 to the Adventure Ocean area on deck 12.

[Gatrcruzer]

Thanks so much for sharing - you made my day! Did you ever wind up trying to take advantage of the in-room babysitting? We didn't have good luck when we went on Celebrity, and I've heard mixed things regarding it on RCCL ships.

[rolloman]

I have been very happy with the royal babies program as well. Very good news about the Freedom class ships getting a nursery for the under 3 crowd. My only beef is why do you have to pay extra for it when a 3 year old does not.... anyways not really an RCCL thing, they all charge for it, even Disney. Thanks for the review.