Allure with 3.5 and 6 year old QUESTIONS!!!!

[jmpaull]

Figured I would start my own thread instead of taking over someone elses. If its all jumbled its because its been one of those days. LOL

 

In April 2014 we will be going on Allure of the Sea. It will be Myself (wife), my husband, our 2 girls who will be 4.5 years old and 6 years old. Also joining us will be my husband father and his wife. I know we still have a year to go but i have some question because YES i like to have everything planned out. LOL

 

1-Does anyone know how much in room babysitting is on the Allure. I have looked it up but keep getting different prices. We dont want to rely on the grandparents to watch them at night so we will book it for every night we can and then cancel when we dont want it.

 

2-Since we dont know what shows will be on the ship or the times yet, how would i go about planning (fund wise) for the sitter. We want to see all shows so how late should we expect to be out? Midnight?

Do we pay in cash?

 

3-does anyone ever bring their kids to any of the night shows? I dont want to look like bad parents but if there is not sitter available and my husband and i want to see the show, what should we do? Dont really want to split up per say.

 

4-I know AO offers to feed the kids lunch/dinner for an extra price. Does anyone know the cost of this onboard the Allure.

 

5-I know AO offers late night sitting sometimes but does that apply to my girls age group or only older kids?

 

6-Can we drop off and pick up whenever we want during the AO time frame?

If we have an early excursion can we drop them off early?

 

7-Is there a dress code for the AO?

 

 

I will probably have more questions in the future.

 

I am being a BIG worry wart and trying to ease myself that we are making the right decision to bring them with us.

 

Yes, my girls would rather play with other kids than be with us so they will be in AO most of the time. We do plan on keeping them with us some of the time so we can take them to do stuff.

[boulders]

Figured I would start my own thread instead of taking over someone elses. If its all jumbled its because its been one of those days. LOL

 

In April 2014 we will be going on Allure of the Sea. It will be Myself (wife), my husband, our 2 girls who will be 4.5 years old and 6 years old. Also joining us will be my husband father and his wife. I know we still have a year to go but i have some question because YES i like to have everything planned out. LOL

 

1-Does anyone know how much in room babysitting is on the Allure. I have looked it up but keep getting different prices. We dont want to rely on the grandparents to watch them at night so we will book it for every night we can and then cancel when we dont want it. I haven't used in room babysitting in a few years, but the last I heard it was$19/hour. That, of course, may change.

 

2-Since we dont know what shows will be on the ship or the times yet, how would i go about planning (fund wise) for the sitter. We want to see all shows so how late should we expect to be out? Midnight?

Do we pay in cash? It used to be in cash, but I've seen some references to being able to pay with the Seapass. The shows have early and late showings. You don't need to be out until midnight unless you want to.

 

3-does anyone ever bring their kids to any of the night shows? I dont want to look like bad parents but if there is not sitter available and my husband and i want to see the show, what should we do? Dont really want to split up per say.

Lots of people bring their children to shows. There is a wide variety in types of show though.

 

4-I know AO offers to feed the kids lunch/dinner for an extra price. Does anyone know the cost of this onboard the Allure. About $6/child

 

5-I know AO offers late night sitting sometimes but does that apply to my girls age group or only older kids? It applies to all kids eligible for AO.

 

6-Can we drop off and pick up whenever we want during the AO time frame?

If we have an early excursion can we drop them off early? You can drop off and pick up whenever you like. AO opens 30 minutes before the first shore excursion.

 

7-Is there a dress code for the AO? No.

 

 

I will probably have more questions in the future.

 

I am being a BIG worry wart and trying to ease myself that we are making the right decision to bring them with us.

 

Yes, my girls would rather play with other kids than be with us so they will be in AO most of the time. We do plan on keeping them with us some of the time so we can take them to do stuff.

 

I haven't been on the Allure or Oasis yet. They look like tremendous fun!

[sunshine0503]

We took our kids on the Freedom when they were just shy of 4 and 7. They LOVED it!! They were huge fans of AO and often wanted to spend more time there than with us.

 

We always gave them the option-to go to AO or hang with us. If we were just laying out at the pool, they would choose to swim, unless something cool was going on in the AO, like the Pirate Party or Talent Show, in which case, we met up with them to see the parade, etc.

 

When it came to excursions, we chose some that we could all do together. At the end of the one excursion, we went back to the ship to have lunch and gave them the choice to go back to shore and shop/walk around with us or go to AO and they chose AO. At night they dined with us in the main dining room and then we dropped them off in AO so we could see the shows.... Unless they wanted to go with us. The only show they chose to see with us was the ice skating and they loved it!! We would go to the shows on our own and made it out in plenty of time to get them from AO at 10 pm. Only once did we pay for extended AO time. Never used the in-room babysitting.

 

We are going on the Allure in April 2014, as well. So I'm trying to plan it all out, too. But plan on going with the flow and just letting my kids decide what they want to do.... They will be 7 and almost 10 at the time.

[crusinmama06]

Can I add - you might not need in cabin sitting for kids of that age. At that age - my kids went to AO and didn't want to see me again for the rest of the night.

[lgionet]

For kids over 3 years old that are potty trained you can bring them to the programs, after 10pm you pay 5dollars an hour, they charge your sea card.

 

For kids under 3 Years old they have babysitting in the room next door with cribs etc... That is also 5 dollars an hour...they don'T recommend you leave your kids for longer then 3 hours at a time for those ages which make sense.

 

They didn't offer in room babysitting on the Allure

 

As far the late show....I would say it depends on your kids....if your kids are not going to cry or disturb anyone then bring them, I would not worry if people are "going to think you bad parents or not" its none of their business and you are on vacation.

 

We just got back from a cruise in March and we brought our son with us Who is 4.5 to a disco show at 9pm and he loved it, lots of singing and dancing....then we slept in until 10 am the next morning :)

[crusinmama06]

Lgionet - did you ask for in cabin sitting on Allure? You would have had to ask at the customer relations desk - it's run separately from AO because it is not staffed by counselors.

 

This is the first I am seeing that someone was not able to get in cabin sitting on that ship.

[flhokie]

My understanding is that in room babysitting is $19 per hour and can only be booked onboard the ship. From what I've read on here it's not guaranteed to be available--staff volunteers to do it on their "off" time. You just have to check availability once on board.

 

We are sailing on Allure with DD (2 years old) next month. We plan to use the nursery one night since she is not old enough for AO, have grandparents watch her one night and we will see about the rest. We reserved the earlier shows & plan to take her to the ice shows & Aqua Theatre shows.

[cb at sea]

You may certainly take your kids to any show that isn't billed as "adult"....the "adult" shows are not suitable for kids.

[Cruz77]

Sorry I don't mean to hijack your thread but how soon can you reserve shows/excursions? I'm so used to reserving things months before for our wdw trips I feel like I may be a little late I'm the game for a Sept sailing.

[Caranguejo Sinistro]

My understanding is that in room babysitting is $19 per hour and can only be booked onboard the ship. From what I've read on here it's not guaranteed to be available--staff volunteers to do it on their "off" time. You just have to check availability once on board.

 

We are sailing on Allure with DD (2 years old) next month. We plan to use the nursery one night since she is not old enough for AO, have grandparents watch her one night and we will see about the rest. We reserved the earlier shows & plan to take her to the ice shows & Aqua Theatre shows.

 

Does the babysitters have some training to do it? Assuming they are volunteers, is there a chance to they don't be prepared to take care of our "treasures"?

 

We are from Brazil and sailing on Allure in May. We expect to have someone prepared (and a Portuguese or Spanish speaker) to take care of our daughter late at night. She probably will be sleeping, so it may be a "piece of cake"...

[Julienatul]

Thanks we are planning to do Allure next year

[flhokie]

Does the babysitters have some training to do it? Assuming they are volunteers, is there a chance to they don't be prepared to take care of our "treasures"?

 

We are from Brazil and sailing on Allure in May. We expect to have someone prepared (and a Portuguese or Spanish speaker) to take care of our daughter late at night. She probably will be sleeping, so it may be a "piece of cake"...

 

I believe I recall reading that most are off duty Adventure Ocean staff/staff that has to meet certain requirements, but availability is completely dependent on their individual availability so in-room babysitting may or may not be available at given times. As for requiring a specific language that would also be dependent on if they have staff that speaks the language and their availability. In other words,there are no guarantees that in room babysitting may or may not be available when you want it.

 

We are on the Allure next month & plan to use the nursery when we need babysitting. That being said, I'd be comfortable with their staff for in-room babysitting if we wanted to use it.

[LisaT91403]

Does the babysitters have some training to do it? Assuming they are volunteers, is there a chance to they don't be prepared to take care of our "treasures"?

 

We are from Brazil and sailing on Allure in May. We expect to have someone prepared (and a Portuguese or Spanish speaker) to take care of our daughter late at night. She probably will be sleeping, so it may be a "piece of cake"...

 

We've used the babysitting twice, but it's been 2 years since we've done so. I'm not sure what has changed since then. However, our most recent experience on Oasis in 2011 was:

 

- They send 2 babysitters to watch your child

- You could use your SeaPass card (not on our first cruise, but we could in 2011)

- We never had Adventure Ocean staff as sitters. The sitters we had, for example, were people who worked as office staff as well as housekeeping/cleaning staff. Most, if not all of the sitters we had said they had children of their own at home, and missed them...and that's partially why they "volunteered" to babysit during their time off from work. Of course, they also did it for the extra money.

- We reserved when we got on the ship, and they tried to get us the same sitters every night. One sitter was the same every night, and we had the 2nd sitter for 2 nights and then a different for the other 5 nights.

 

Again, this was 6/2011, so I'm not sure what's changed.

[IttaBit]

Can I add - you might not need in cabin sitting for kids of that age. At that age - my kids went to AO and didn't want to see me again for the rest of the night.

 

That's been my experience too. They will have a ton of fun there, allowing you and your husband to see some shows. Also, don't worry about anyone thinking you're a bad parent if you bring them to a later show, provided it's age appropriate. You're on vacation and when on vacation, we get to do fun things we wouldn't ordinarily do like stay up way past our bedtime, eat way too much ice cream, and so many other things we'd say no to if we were home. ;)

[Sthrncrusr]

Sailed Allure 2 yrs ago with our then 13 month old. Every night the nursery and kids club was open at 10pm for parents to drop their kids off to sleep while they went to watch shows, gamble, etc. this cost us $6 an hr but was well worth it. We did in room babysitting one night ($19 an hr) and they were fabulous. They come in a set of two and were literally just sitting in the dark whispering when we walked in at 11:30! While I totally trust the in room care, my paranoia gets the best of me and I like the more public sleep setting at the nursery/kids club better. It is open to all kids from what I remember and they let us park our stroller there so the transfer back to our room was easy. And of course RC is the only line that changes diapers which makes it so much easier when your child isn't potty trained!