Where does 3yo go (RCCL) if not completely TT'ed?

[Trixie1001]

My daughter who will be just turning 3 when we cruise on RCCL (ROS) will more than likely not be completely toilet-trained. Who knows, by some miracle maybe she will be but if she's not I'm worried that the Royal Babies & Tots Nursery will be inappropriate for her too. She is quite precocious, ironic that the only thing she is a bit behind in is toilet-training :rolleyes: She is also used to hanging around with her big brothers and so likes doing things that older kids do. I think the nursery will be far too boring for her as I assume it is aimed towards babies and little toddlers - but if she'll be unable to completely take care of her own toileting needs - then what? Has anyone else had this trouble? Should I talk to RCCL about it?

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

We walk the halls ....

[6rugrats]

I don't know what you would be talking to RCI about.

 

If she's not fully potty trained, she can't use the kid's club. Your only options are to keep her with you or try the nursery. They don't make exceptions as staff aren't allowed to change diapers or pullups.

 

You can play with her in the Royal Tots program, which is 45 minutes long, but that's it.

[JenAndDan]

Bring books. arts and crafts stuff. toys. They also have a toy lending program you can inquire about. On our sea day, we had breakfast, went exploring, did a royal tots program, had lunch, he took a nap in his stroller while we participated in some activities, (he actually slept through the first part of the afternoon royal tots program) we did the second half of the afternoon program which was sponsored by crayola, we did some more exploring, then we got ready for dinner. After we ate dinner in the MDR, it was almost time for bed. We did the pets at sea and then went back to the cabin and read books and he played for a little bit and then it was bedtime.

 

If you bring coloring books or toys - you don't have to stay in your cabin. There are many public areas that are completely deserted during the day. We just found an area where our son wouldn't bother anyone and let him play. We took this stuff with us while we did our "exploring" so if we found an area we would ask if he wanted to play a bit and usually he said yes.

[mymollysue]

The nursery does have toys that are appropriate for a child who just turned 3. Plus they play a lot of cartoons on TV like Dora which is age appropriate. There are plenty of 3 year olds who are not potty trained so they have to cater to them as well.

[guk]

They do a toy library where you can borrow toys to have in you're cabin, I only found out about it on here but was brilliant as meant I didn't bring any from home. You can swap them as little or as often as you like

[Sparkygirl]

Am I missing something? I was just researching today and came across the RCCL website that stated parents of children who were not potty trained would be given a beeper and required to come back when the child needed to be changed. This was for the 2-5 year old group in Adventure Ocean Club.

 

I just double checked, reading to many cruise lines info at once...carnival allows a child under 3 and non potty trained, RCCL requires 3 and fully potty trained.

[P646114]

Personality certainly plays a part in toilet training or the delay of it. I didn't even consider trying to TT my toddler for our last cruise ...she was 26 mths. I really didn't even try until just before her 3rd b'day. She has two older siblings

and really has a strong/independent personality. So many people tell you to wait till they tell you they are ready but this advice doesn't work so well with strong willed toddlers in my experience. Whilst we were quite successful initially we did experience a major setback and being that much older the fear of the toilet became a major issue. I had to spend a lot of time desentising her fear of n o 2's and then deal with constipation problems. We finally got back on track but it did require a lot of work and stress. I don't allow her to decide what's appropriate for diet or sleep so not sure why I let her decide she never wanted to use a toilet. In hindsight I would have started TT before she learnt to use the word no! Lol . Our next cruise is in Dec and she will be 4... Fully TT day and night...and a very happy little girl...with no more fear! Good luck...the spirited kids are a lot of fun!

[cb at sea]

Radiance Class doesn't have the "toddlers" group yet.

[gerif]

Talking to RCCL about it won't help a bit. It is what it is. As suggested, there are lots of venues on board where you can play with your daughter. You can borrow toys so she has lots of different things to play with. Empty lounges make great places for her to run off steam. You might want to bring a small inflatable pool for her since she will not be permitted in any of the pools either.

[Cheryl H]

Radiance Class doesn't have the "toddlers" group yet.

 

Are you sure? We saw a nursery on the newly refurbished Radiance of the Seas.

 

When our son was 3 1/2, and in pullups, we did the Fisher Price playgroups. I think it was two times per day. Each session was a different theme and different toys. The staff member was there to coordinate the playtime but we stayed also. On the Jewel, the play group was in one of the lounges up top (maybe Starquest?) The lounge is just about empty during the day so it made a nice place for the kids to play.

 

That was 4 years ago. I'm unsure if they still offer the playgroups or not.

 

Also we got a lot of mileage from our portable DVD player and some headphones. (mostly waiting in the airport, and for in our cabin).

 

Have fun planning your trip!

[B_Mc]

I've heard they have a 2 strike rule. First time they'll accept as an accident, second time you'll have to keep her out. So if she's close, give her a chance, maybe the extra motivation will help???

[Trixie1001]

I just saw that I got more replies. Thank you for those who who gave helpful advice. Why would it be inappropriate for me to call the company that offers the 'edutainment' services for advice?? Anyway, I did end up ringing them for clarification, they understood the situation and assured me that she could definitely attend the nursery if she is not completely toilet trained and they would find things for her to do (as one of the PP has agreed with). She is very close to being completely PT'ed now so we might give it a go in AO and if she has accidents/doesn't like being there I'll just keep her in the nursery. She can be a hard kid to amuse because she has older brothers and is used to childcare (likes doing older kid stuff) so she's not the kind of kid just to sit quietly and play with some toys but I'm sure we'll work it out and have fun no matter what happens :)

[beachchick]

I just saw that I got more replies. Thank you for those who who gave helpful advice. Why would it be inappropriate for me to call the company that offers the 'edutainment' services for advice?? Anyway, I did end up ringing them for clarification, they understood the situation and assured me that she could definitely attend the nursery if she is not completely toilet trained and they would find things for her to do (as one of the PP has agreed with). She is very close to being completely PT'ed now so we might give it a go in AO and if she has accidents/doesn't like being there I'll just keep her in the nursery. She can be a hard kid to amuse because she has older brothers and is used to childcare (likes doing older kid stuff) so she's not the kind of kid just to sit quietly and play with some toys but I'm sure we'll work it out and have fun no matter what happens :)

 

I'm not positive, but I think there may have been a misunderstanding about why you considered calling the cruise line. My first reading deciphered it as, "Should I call and ask them about making an exception for my child to be in AO?" Reading it again, I realized that you probably meant, "Should I call the cruise line to make sure that there will be age appropriate activities in the nursery and that my child will be allowed?" You've made clear now that you mean the latter, but I suspect I'm not the only one who first thought you meant the former. I also suspect that the reason some read it that way is that many times parents come and ask questions about how strict the cruise lines are with regulations and rules for children (e.g., swim diapers in the pools, age minimums in the children's programs, age restrictions for activities). Generally, the post will include something like "My son/daughter will only be 6 months shy of the age minimum and he/she is very mature for his/her age. How do I get them to allow him/her to do whatever-the-subject-is even though it's against the rules?" Mind you, it's a minority of parents who feel, how to put this, entitled to have exceptions made for their children. In any case, I can't help but think that it's almost become a knee-jerk reaction to subjects such as this.

 

I think that RCI is really making an effort to include children who are not quite potty trained, but who are mature enough in other ways for structured activities. The nursery sounds like a good compromise at this point.

 

Hope you all have a fantastic time.

 

beachchick

 

p.s., A bunch of members here have mentioned using cruise activities as incentive. You know, the drill: Only "big kids" (i.e., potty trained) can go in the pools, etc." My only potty training experiences are with two girls and it was a long, long time ago, but my feeble brain is thinking that the final stages were almost like a light switch went off for them. So that going from being mostly trained to completely trained was quick, but they had to get to that "ah ha" moment.

[Nebr.cruiser]

I too thought that your comment about calling the cruise line meant that you wanted them to 'bend' the rules for your daughter--I realize now that you didn't mean that at all, so sorry for misunderstanding. There are plenty of posts here where people do think the rules shouldn't apply to them, so that's why people have responded as they did.

 

As to the potty training, it might be that the incentive of going to the 'big kids' club will do the trick, if you play it just right.

 

One of my granddaughters, also one of the 'very bright' ones, had absolutely no interest in potty training until, one month short of three, she found out that she could not go to pre-school (she really, really wanted to go) unless she was potty-trained.

 

This was on a Friday. School started on Monday. She trained herself completely over the weekend and never had an accident again! Obviously, she was ready physically and just needed a psychological reason to do it.

 

Doesn't meant this will work with everyone, but it's worth a shot! The tricky part is getting just the right amount of encouraging/playing it up about the kid's club without making her more stubborn or overdoing it.

[PattyW]

I know that I will be cutting it close since we cruise the week before you, but I'll let you know how it goes.

 

I plan on trying out the nursery with my almost three year old next week. He's the youngest of three kids so definitely almost three going on 10. I was reminiscing the other day about how my oldest was purely listening to "music and me" at this age and how this little guy makes requests for Ke$ha, Black Eyed Peas and Katy Perry songs. She was so innocent - he thinks he should be able to walk to the park alone!

 

I have some similar concerns and hope that the workers actively engage the kids based upon their age, abilities and interests and not just care for the babies.

 

There's a big age difference between 6 months and three years. I am reassured by the fact that my little guy likes the childcare at the gym - which is 7 months to age 6. The kids all play with similar toys - just in different ways. My guy's Valentine's Day card to me was scribbles, the bigger kids signed their names, etc.

[sandytoes03]

This is why I won't be sailing RCI for our next cruise. Hopefully my kids will be potty trained, but how can I know for sure? I don't want the stress of worrying about it!

[DALSAL]

We took my 26 month old gd (she is fully potty trained) on the Mariner in February. We took her to AO, but we had to stay while she played. We found most of the toys they had were a little too young for her, but, she did go a few times. They kept telling us they were gonna bring in some smaller hoola hoops, but never did..we finally bought her one, and she was SO excited!! Those small ones are very hard to do though! :D

[Trixie1001]

Thanks for giving me the benefit of the doubt, yes I was asking if I should give RCCL a call about whether my daughter's age would be appropriate for the nursery as I doubt whether she will be 100% PTed and zero accidents in a week! I'm still not sure about how she'll go in the nursery, and also a bit worried that she will get allocated very few hours whereas my sons who are a couple of years older will be able to attend AO whenever they like. We don't want her in too many hours as we're after a family holiday but as we're going for 18 nights, a couple of hours a night here and there just so my DH and I can have dinner alone may use up our hours without having any time for just relaxing on deck occasionally without children. We have few cruising options out of Australia so I'm just going to suck it up and hope for the best - I'm sure we'll have a lovely time regardless! :p

 

PattyW - would greatly appreciate any feedback you can give me about the nursery would be great and how your DS liked it. I hope that they have a variety of age appropriate toys, however FIT assured me they did when I emailed them. Have a wonderful cruise :cool: