Quad cabin and getting little kids to sleep?

[TamBut]

Hi Guys, I am hoping for some tips on getting my 4 year old and 16 month old to sleep in our quad cabin.

 

We are first time cruisers and will be traveling on Royal Caribbean Voyager of Seas in October. Its a 14 day cruise and we will be in a quad cabin.

 

Apparently, the bedding configuration will be 2 single bunks (*how romantic!*) One of the beds will be stowed for the cruise liners pack n play for the baby. At home they both go into thier own rooms, bedtime story and then lights off, door closed and all is well.

 

Noise, light and us being distractions in the cabin will mean this is definitely not going to work. Baby goes to sleep at 6.30pm and 4 year old at 7pm.

 

How did you do it? Or were you all far more sensible and booked interconnecting cabins or suites etc? I have called my agent and interconnecting cabins are fully booked and a suite will add another $5500 to our bill which we really cant afford. Any ideas? Surely we cant be the only family that has traveled in a quad?

 

Thanks in advance for your time and advise.

 

Tammy:)

[charlies_mom]

Hi there,

 

We travel 4 to a cabin too. When our kids were younger, it was a little bit tough. This is what I would suggest...

 

Get the kids ready for bed together, pjs and teeth. One of you stay in the cabin and put the baby to bed. The other parent take the preschooler somewhere quiet for book time or a walk around the deck or something until the baby was asleep.

 

Then the parent and the preschooler could quietly go back to the cabin and go to bed.

 

Otherwise, I would put them to bed at the same time and take turns just laying down with them.

 

Our kids always stay up about an hour later than usual on vacation and are usually really tired at bedtime, anyway.

 

Good luck! It will be worth the hassle. :-)

[goofy810]

We have taken our DD on one cruise so far (we have been on 50 or more) and are taking DD on cruise number 2 in Sept, that said we just put her to bed when we go to bed usuly around 10 or 1030, our DD is not on a schedule so we just make sure she gets a nap around 5 or 6 (at home she only naps one time a day, but on the cruise she does 2 naps). If your kids are not the type to flex from there schedule then I would say get a balcony and then put them to bed at the same time and you can hang out on the balcony. the only other option and its not the best would be to try and get a inside cabin right across the hall (look at the cabin layouts real close make sure its in the same fire/water door section as your cabin) and bring the video baby monitor then you can put the kids to bed and hang in your cabin, this only works if your 4 year old cant open the door on his own (you can put the child lock thing on the inside of the door). again the last option is not the best and alot of folks wont feel comfertable doing that. I would but my wife would not im sure.

[Mom2B&Z]

ITA that the vacation schedule always ends up looking different than your schedule at home. Personally, I would put both children to bed at the same time, snuggle up, do your usual bedtime routine and then lights out. DH and I have resorted to reading in the bathroom or taking turns sitting in a dark room until the kids go to sleep. We love balcony cabins for this reason, as you have a nice place to spend the evenings while the kids get to sleep. Just make sure you have a clear path to move around the cabin so you don't wake them up!

[cb at sea]

Hopefully, you have a balcony...that's where you'll go after getting them in the bed and quiet for the night....

[jpr1908]

Our boys are a little older than your little ones. Their first cruise was last year. We did two adjoining cabins. In October, we are doing a quad on Oasis with a balcony. I am a strict scheduler but have learned to relax the routine some on vacation. We are planning to let the boys stay up later for that week. We will probably have them take late naps or "quite time" so they can extend their days without being too cranky. We also plan to make use of the balcony once they are asleep and if we are not ready to retire at that time.

 

I think you can still have a great vacay in a quad. I definitely plan to!

[queenL]

We are always in the same cabin with our kids. We seldom get a balcony, I know I'm in the minority but for safety reasons I'd rather not have a balcony with small children nor do I feel it is worth the extra expense.

 

First, I am stickler for bedtime at home but on vacation that gets tossed out of the window. It just isn't feasible for us. DD 5yrs, stays up with us or is in the kids club. On the days we return to the cabin earlier, I dim the lights or turn them off completely and watch TV. Within 20 minutes or so she is asleep and we turn the low lights back on and resume whatever we were doing.

 

This is DD #2 first cruise. She is 5 mos. We will do with her what we did with my older daughter. She stayed up with us too as long as she wanted. When she got tired she slept in the stroller, snugli or our arms.

[MichelleChell]

Bedtime goes out the window on our cruises. If you put your kids to bed at 6:30 and 7 you do know you will miss dinner right? That is unless you plan to eat buffet every night. Even then I don't think they open untill 6:00pm.

There is to much to miss and do to have a bedtime for us. My kids stay up and go to sleep when we do. They sometimes will lay down for a rest during the day and have been known to take a nap by the pool in a chair. They love the ocean breeze.

[Showtune]

You have to know your kids and how they might adjust. Our DS will not sleep in a stroller or chair and cannot sleep with light or noise. We have a very small bit of leeway with his schedule now that he's over 3, but when he was littler we had to stick pretty closely to it. Yes, even on vacation. That meant My Time Dining on RCI with a standing 6pm reservation or dinner in the buffet. We then got an in room sitter for 2 hours so that we could go out. We brought our tooth brushes and brushed our teeth and used the bathroom before coming back to the cabin. The sitters had to stay in a mostly darkened room, but that's what it had to be!

 

On Carnival, we paid for a friend to travel with us in her own cabin next to ours. She was our nanny for nap time and evenings. We ate in the buffet with DS at 6, and then went to a standing 7:15 dinner reservation together after he went to bed.

 

I know this isn't quite the advice you were looking for, and I know others have made it work, but if you have a kid like mine, an interior quad may not be the best option for you.

[DG2007]

When traveling with our two (2.5 and 15 months) we put them both to bed at the same time. Regular bedtimes are not followed especially when changing time zones - usually bedtime is 7:30 (15 month old) and 8:30 (2.5 year old) but when traveling it's typically around 9pm.

 

While we haven't cruised with them yet, we have stayed in hotels with them for a couple of days to a week before (most recently two weeks ago). For us it's easiest to get them both to sleep at once, get them ready together, turn off the lights, lay everyone down. Our 2.5 year old falls asleep easily on her own like this, our 15 month old can take a little bit longer but it usually works. For our upcoming cruise we got a balcony so that we'll have somewhere to sit and enjoy after they fall asleep without feeling imprisoned in our stateroom. This way we'll be able to read, chat, whatever out there once the girls are asleep at naptime or bedtime.

[cantw8togo]

Hi there,

 

We travel 4 to a cabin too. When our kids were younger, it was a little bit tough. This is what I would suggest...

 

Get the kids ready for bed together, pjs and teeth. One of you stay in the cabin and put the baby to bed. The other parent take the preschooler somewhere quiet for book time or a walk around the deck or something until the baby was asleep.

 

Then the parent and the preschooler could quietly go back to the cabin and go to bed.

 

Otherwise, I would put them to bed at the same time and take turns just laying down with them.

 

Our kids always stay up about an hour later than usual on vacation and are usually really tired at bedtime, anyway.

 

Good luck! It will be worth the hassle. :-)

 

This is what we did when our kids were little. Our then 4yr old DS (who is also named Charlie :p) and DH discovered the games room and learned to play checkers on that trip. We have always stayed in quad rooms and it gets easier as they get older and big enough for the pullman bunks.

[TamBut]

Wow! Thanks to everyone for taking the time to post and give me their opinions and suggestions. This was my first post and I am very happy to see how friendly and helpful you all are.

 

Charlies mom, b&Z mom, QueenL, Showtune, Cantw8togo; I think I will be following all your advise the most closely as I feel this will be the best workable solution for my kids.

 

I would love to get a Balcony or a family suite so we have room to go once kids in bed but really cant justify the cost increase. What all the balcony advocates have said makes great sense and I know I always try to get a balcony or enclosed garden space in hotels when we go away for exactly this reason.

 

A few people have said it and I totally agree, we will need to be as flexible as the kids will allow regarding bedtime. I think the 4 year old will be ok with all the activities but the baby will just get overstimulated if allowed to stay too long.

 

We will definitely be meeting with the baby sitters once on board and I wil decide then if I am happy with this as an option for a at least a few evenings. I think it was Michellchell that commented on dinner and times. Not sure if you are referring to the same ship or perhaps they have since changed their schedule. We will be on the first dining sitting at 5.30pm and doing family dining which will mean the kids eat first and rushed through (if it goes as they say?!) then back to the play program for my 4 year old should he wish to go. I will let him decide what he wants to do when (within reason) as its his holiday too.

 

Question though - anyone heard of the bed tents? Thinking this might be an option to help block light and if there is a p+p option?

 

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to reply. Your advice is greatly appreciated.

 

Tammy

[Showtune]

I've never seen a bed tent for a PnP, but we have the PeaPod Plus sleeping tent that we use for travel. Packs totally flat and our son loves it. It does a great job at blocking light (we have the red one, reviews said the yellow one wasn't as good for light blocking). Another thing to highly recommend this is that when not in use, you can pick it up and store it on the bed, so it won't take up too much floor space.

 

If you do get one, I recommend introducing your kid to it at home as a place to sleep, not play. Some kids take to it right away, but some won't go for it.

 

Good luck! And I'll admit I'm quite jealous you're taking a 14 day cruise!!

[MichelleChell]

Try amazon for the bed tents. There are a bunch of different options.

[Mimajo]

I've never seen a bed tent for a PnP, but we have the PeaPod Plus sleeping tent that we use for travel. Packs totally flat and our son loves it. It does a great job at blocking light (we have the red one, reviews said the yellow one wasn't as good for light blocking). Another thing to highly recommend this is that when not in use, you can pick it up and store it on the bed, so it won't take up too much floor space.

 

If you do get one, I recommend introducing your kid to it at home as a place to sleep, not play. Some kids take to it right away, but some won't go for it.

 

Good luck! And I'll admit I'm quite jealous you're taking a 14 day cruise!!

 

Where do you put the tent? On the bed? Beside the bed? Trying it figure how to fit it in a balcony cabin. Not alot of room.

Thanks

[Showtune]

Tent goes on the floor for sleeping. It has it's own self contained air mattress. I wouldn't put it on a bed while in use, it would not be safe. There won't be a lot of room to move about when it is in use, but the "foot print" isn't much larger than a pack n play.

[new2crooze]

We are a family of four in an interior quad room with the same issues to face in our first cruise on Rhapsody coming up in November. I have found all your advice helpful too! I booked this room because on the website images, it seemed to have a curtain that could be pulled across the room in between the beds and sofa area, but I've since learned that this isn't a real curtain, simply a decorative item?? (I don't get the point of a pretend curtain) Anyway, one poster suggested asking the room steward for an extra queens size bed sheet and sticking it up with either duct tape or strong magnets (apparently the ceilings are metal?) Have no idea if this will work or not, but we might try it. Ours will be 5 and 3 by the time of the cruise, so we are planning to relax a bit about bed times for the cruise and hopefully they'll be tired enough to fall asleep fairly easily (hopefully, not at the dinner table!). Plus, because it is a totally dark room we might get a little bit of a sleep in in the mornings - this, of course, may be very optimistic!

[gymbomb]

We are a family of four in an interior quad room with the same issues to face in our first cruise on Rhapsody coming up in November. I have found all your advice helpful too! I booked this room because on the website images, it seemed to have a curtain that could be pulled across the room in between the beds and sofa area, but I've since learned that this isn't a real curtain, simply a decorative item?? (I don't get the point of a pretend curtain) Anyway, one poster suggested asking the room steward for an extra queens size bed sheet and sticking it up with either duct tape or strong magnets (apparently the ceilings are metal?) Have no idea if this will work or not, but we might try it. Ours will be 5 and 3 by the time of the cruise, so we are planning to relax a bit about bed times for the cruise and hopefully they'll be tired enough to fall asleep fairly easily (hopefully, not at the dinner table!). Plus, because it is a totally dark room we might get a little bit of a sleep in in the mornings - this, of course, may be very optimistic!

 

Ok, I had a good laugh about the falling asleep at the dinner table part! We did a family cruise earlier this summer and my sister in law has a great picture of our 5 year old niece asleep at the dinner table :) She fell asleep before her food arrived and slept until the next morning. So even if they do fall asleep there, it's ok!

[MMluvsWDW]

I didn't read everything so I hope I'm not repeating, But have you thought about a way you might jerryrig some blankets up to create a "private" quiet place for the kids. Someone else might have a suggestion on how to do it but that was the first thing I thought of whenI saw your post. Also, I agree with everyone, might be worth the money for a balcony. Props to you for starting the kids off young in a quad. They will be better for it in the long run :D

[Prinycesa07]

We also share 4 to a room. Not worth the extra cost for me to get another room and i also wouldnt feel comfortable with them in a room away from me yet. They are only 1 and 2. Anyways, we cruised when DD was 10 months and she had no problems going to sleep. By the end of the day she was beyond exhausted and would fall asleep within minutes. I suspect this cruise will be the same. We are not sticklers for bed time though. EVen at home, they go to bed later than the average kids and i just go by their cues of when they're tired. Usually 9:30-10 for both of them. Im thinking vacation bedtime may be an hour later. We'll see.

[Julienatul]

We have done it many times with our two kids. We just put them to bed when they are tired..depends on the age and what we did that day. We are flexible. We just darken the room and lay with them. Sometimes it takes the younger one a while to settle down but most times he is so tired from teh busy day that he just crashes. I always bring and ipod with movies/tv shows loaded on it and books. You can still view it with headphones in the dark. When they are asleep DH and I will then turn on the tv or go out to the balcony and enjoy some alone time.

[rebeccalouiseagain]

There is in-cabin babysitting at night on Royal. I used it on Celebrity and highly recommend it. The sitters are usually available after 8PM for a cost of $19 per hour.

 

What we did with our then 13 month old is serve him dinner in the buffet and have the sitter come while he was awake. The sitter entertained him and even took him on formal night for photos! She loved having a baby to show off around the ship. He had a ball. Do a sitter and enjoy dinner with your husband at least two nights of your cruise. The 4 year old can do dinner with the kids in Adventure Ocean.

 

What we did was leave the twin beds as a queen size bed. At night- my husband slept with the baby and I took the top bunk. You can actually leave both the kids in the double bed- and you and hubby can do the bunks if you worry about the 4 year old falling out.

[Seraphine]

We're a 4 person family that always sails in an inside cabin - here's a pic of our typical bed arrangement so you can see how you can still have a queen sized bed set up. My husband doesn't mind being next to the wall, and it's easier than having both kids in bunks overhead (a lot fewer bruised heads!)

 

 

 

For privacy, you could ask for a spare topsheet from your Cabin Attendent - you can hang it from under the mattress of the top bunk, making a tent-like arrangement for the lower bed. As you mentioned how you're concerned the kids won't settle at night, this might help (and be less to carry than a bed tent)... if one child is in a tent, the interaction between the both of them will be less.

 

Another thing... they will be so tired by bedtime that sleep should hopefully happen easily! (my two usually sleep pretty soundly without a lot of fuss)

 

Our son is 7 but has been taking the top bunk since he was 4, and our daughter (now that she's gotten too big for a pack-n-play) sleeps on a small mattress on the floor under the bunk. On our last cruise (July 2012), our Cabin Steward found a small mattress that fit perfectly, so just ask if you don't see anything readily available.

 

Have a fantastic cruise!!

[cantw8togo]

Ok, I had a good laugh about the falling asleep at the dinner table part! We did a family cruise earlier this summer and my sister in law has a great picture of our 5 year old niece asleep at the dinner table :) She fell asleep before her food arrived and slept until the next morning. So even if they do fall asleep there, it's ok!

 

 

Our youngest has fallen asleep at the table more than once and yes, it was at the earlier sitting! We have had waiters bring over a second chair so that he could stretch out more, but usually we just carry him back to the cabin.

 

When both kids became old enough to use the pullman bunkbed and if there was only one, we used who got to sleep there as a reward for good behaviour throughout the day.

[MumInOz]

G'day Tam! Nice to see other aussies on here.

 

I think you'll be fine in an inner quad room and your ship is amazing! (cruised that ship 10 years ago in the caribbean during hurricane season and have quite fond memories of it) Anyways, I think you have some great advice already and wish we had this before our recent cruise (just came back from 7-day NCL Pearl to Alaska). My kids are almost 3 and almost 1, we did the one parent stays in the darkened room thing and it worked out. The advantage of the inner cabin with no natural daylight? Kids slept in!!!! OMG, I loved that.

 

I also looked into the bed tent thing and decided not to get it. One, there was a recall on one of the brands, can't remember which, as little kids/babies were suffocating if they rolled to the gaps in the sides. Two, our cruise ship offered portacots (aka Pack and Play in US terms). The set up is similar to the photo in Seraphine's post except we had 2 single beds to the sides, the portacot was in the middle. Later on, we moved the portacot to the end of one of the beds (my toddler's bed) and it was both a hit and miss. My sons kept each other awake as the toddler would keep on climbing into the portacot. At the end of the day, the less you bring onboard the better.