Sitters at Sea Discontinued Sept 30th, 2018

[happilyafterever]

Just received an email saying that Sitters at Sea (in-room babysitting) will no longer be offered after this month.

 

Here's the full email:

"Dear Guest,

 

We wanted to update you on a change in our programming. Our Sitters at Sea program will be discontinued beginning on September 30th , 2018. We are dedicated to offering a variety of children's and teens' activities and have other childcare services onboard, but unfortunately we'll no longer offer in-stateroom sitter services.

 

We are sorry for any impact this may have on your vacation. If your sailing departs on or before September 30th and you were planning on using this service, we will happily accommodate your request if sitters are available. Once onboard, please visit Guest Services regarding availability.

 

Our kid programs, Adventure Ocean and Royal Babies & Tots, remain unchanged, and we still offer our "Late Night Party Zone" group sitting by our Adventure Ocean Youth Staff for children between the ages of 3 through 11. To learn more about our Youth and Teen Program, please click here http:// https://www.royalcaribbean.com/experience/cruises-for-kids-and-teens.

 

Thank you for understanding. We look forward to having you onboard very soon!

 

Sincerely,

 

Royal Caribbean International"

[happilyafterever]

I sail on Allure October 7th. Luckily I wasn't planning on using this service for my daughter during the cruise, because she'll be just under the 1-year age minimum. But that really stinks for anyone who was planning on using it soon. 2 weeks notice [emoji849]

[Inconspicuous]

Yeah, nice of them to give everyone a whole two weeks of notice. I'm guessing they also won't be doing any refunds to folks who booked on the no-refund deposit specials but were counting on having the sitters at sea available.

[ONECRUISER]

Not surprised. In room sitters started years ago before they had a kids program wasn't many kids on cruise ships. Back then was only choice...

[moopetguy]

I received the notice as well. It's unfortunate for those who may have been counting on the service being available. My family used it every night for two of our cruises when DD was younger, and we were always extremely satisfied with the crew members who provided the service.

[later]

Sounds like a legal decision made by the corporate lawyers to reduce their risk.

 

Can’t blame them for making the change though. The in-room baby sitting is a major risk compared to group baby sitting.

 

 

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[pattak619]

Sounds like a legal decision made by the corporate lawyers to reduce their risk.

 

Can’t blame them for making the change though. The in-room baby sitting is a major risk compared to group baby sitting.

 

 

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Totally agree,this was the reason.

[gerif]

From reading recent posts, it seems that people were having difficulty getting crew members willing to do in-cabin sitting for their cruises. Just because it was offered doesn’t mean you could actually get it once onboard if no one volunteered, so saying you were planning for it in advance of your cruise doesn’t make sense. No way of knowing until onboard whether you could get it or not. Now people know.

[moopetguy]

DW and I were wondering if there was a complaint or if something actually happened to prompt the seemingly sudden change with little advance notice.

 

 

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[Ourusualbeach]

From reading recent posts, it seems that people were having difficulty getting crew members willing to do in-cabin sitting for their cruises. Just because it was offered doesn’t mean you could actually get it once onboard if no one volunteered, so saying you were planning for it in advance of your cruise doesn’t make sense. No way of knowing until onboard whether you could get it or not. Now people know.

 

Agree. To offer a service and then not be able to offer that service is a much larger negative in the consumers mind than simply not offering the service.

[Classynfun1]

I received the email and posted it on our blog Facebook page. I feel bad for all the parents planning to use this service and inside the 100% cancellation period; both those that did not have it available on their cruise and now that they will no longer have the option on any cruise.

[Homosassa]

Sounds like a legal decision made by the corporate lawyers to reduce their risk.

 

Can’t blame them for making the change though. The in-room baby sitting is a major risk compared to group baby sitting.

 

 

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It may be more likely that passengers have overlooked the fact that the service MAY be available on their cruise and assumed it was their right to have an in cabin baby sitter and raised Cain with Guest Services when the sitters were not available. Not having them available at all will avoid any problems with passengers.

[Bettyscruiser]

We are a family very negatively affected by this sudden change. We have used sitters many times on cruises (always in Celebrity, this is our first cruise on RCI) and they always send two lovely young women, usually either from the kids clubs or once we even had the captain’s secretary. While my sons are now old enough to stay in the kids clubs until 11 pm, my niece is not and now my brother in law or sister in law will be stuck in the cabin every evening while the rest of us have dinner. Our kids were usually asleep when the sitters came and both of our families always have our own sets of adjoining cabins so the sitters were actually in the adjoining cabins while the babies slept. We are sailing on the New Year’s cruise we booked over a year ago. Such a bummer.

[Bettyscruiser]

And PS - we never had a “creepy” sitter. They were always upstanding crew members that we tipped quite nicely on top of their nightly rates.

[Paulxyz2004]

The cruise line always assigned two crew members for in-room sitting.

 

 

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That´s not correct, they used to have just one crew member assigned, but it was changed some years ago to two crew members. I don´t know when this changed, but it certainly did.

 

I think people need to be aware this was never a guaranteed service. It was always limited by the number of crew members willing to do this in their spare time. If nobody volunteered the service was not available. So nobody could ever count on this being available.

[illiniwahoo]

I'm sorry this impacts you! It stinks that they changed it with so little notice. I was planning to book a family cruise on royal for next fall, and will definately be looking at other lines with sitters now. My kids will be 3 by then, so can go to the kids club, but I want them asleep in bed! They will be disasters the next day if they stay up late partying!

 

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[VPIcruiser]

My kids are older now, so we aren’t affected by the change, but the reason we started cruising Royal as a family was because of the in cabin babysitting. We would use it about 3 nights a cruise when we had kids under 3 yo.

[moopetguy]

That´s not correct, they used to have just one crew member assigned, but it was changed some years ago to two crew members. I don´t know when this changed, but it certainly did.

 

 

 

I think people need to be aware this was never a guaranteed service. It was always limited by the number of crew members willing to do this in their spare time. If nobody volunteered the service was not available. So nobody could ever count on this being available.

 

 

 

My apologies, I wasn’t aware that originally, only one crew member was assigned. My personal experience is from using the service nightly during two 7-night cruises in 2013 and 2014. We met the sitters in advance each time and felt very comfortable with them. We had the same pair of sitters for the entire sailing, and even saw them around the ship a few times.

 

And yes, it was never guaranteed to be available and I remember reading/hearing in advance about it being very limited. We went to GS pretty much immediately after boarding each time to maximize our chances, which worked out each time. It was also only available to a maximum of 2 hours on each occasion they were booked.

 

 

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[MajMom96]

We are a family very negatively affected by this sudden change. We have used sitters many times on cruises (always in Celebrity, this is our first cruise on RCI) and they always send two lovely young women, usually either from the kids clubs or once we even had the captain’s secretary. While my sons are now old enough to stay in the kids clubs until 11 pm, my niece is not and now my brother in law or sister in law will be stuck in the cabin every evening while the rest of us have dinner. Our kids were usually asleep when the sitters came and both of our families always have our own sets of adjoining cabins so the sitters were actually in the adjoining cabins while the babies slept. We are sailing on the New Year’s cruise we booked over a year ago. Such a bummer.

 

 

 

Sorry you’re impacted by this decision, but I am curious why your sister and brother-in-law will be stuck in their room for dinner? Why can’t they bring their daughter with them to dinner? I’m assuming she knows how to behave in a restaurant. When my daughter was young, she always came to dinner with us and the waiters loved her and went out of their way to spoil her.

 

 

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[MajMom96]

This made me laugh and reminded me how much my attitude has changed since becoming a parent. I have lots of examples but one in particular I used to see kids in cars watching DVD’s while travelling. I always said “no way my kids are doing that! They can have proper conversation with their parents and play games like I spy”

 

Now I have 2 kids I will not entertain a car ride without a DVD [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]

 

Easy to judge when you have never been in that situation but it all changes when you have your own

 

 

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Well said, and so true! 🤣🤣🤣

 

 

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[Bettyscruiser]

Sorry you’re impacted by this decision, but I am curious why your sister and brother-in-law will be stuck in their room for dinner? Why can’t they bring their daughter with them to dinner? I’m assuming she knows how to behave in a restaurant. When my daughter was young, she always came to dinner with us and the waiters loved her and went out of their way to spoil her.

 

 

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Our family has always done late seating for dinner. We are a family of 20 with many different ages, but several people do not have children and we prefer late seating without our kids to have an annoyance free evening. Their children (and mine) are ages 3, 4, 6 & 7. What kids that age wants to sit through a two hour dinner every night? My boys behave in restaurants, but they are still kids who get antsy and I am also a responsible parent who recognizes other passengers’ need for their own enjoyable evening. The three year old just does not have the stamina to stay up in the kids club until we are done. Even if we switched to early seating (which I am trying to do, but with a group that large it’s not easy) kids that age still go to bed around 8-9 - and some kids don’t deal well with late bedtimes. And it’s not just dinner - even if we get early seating one person misses out on any evening activities, period. We don’t use sitters every night, sometimes grandparents or aunts and uncles stay back. But using a sitter 2-3 nights made it so we could all be together a few evenings was a wonderful thing.

[LrgPizza]

^^^ These kids could probably adjust better than you think if given a chance.

[fla33023]

^^^ These kids could probably adjust better than you think if given a chance.

I think people know their kids. I even thought about using it for my 8-year-old. She is sleep by 8:30 most every night, maybe 9 during a school vacation. My husband and I know we won't be doing many activities together at night. She's just always been an early riser (6/6:30) and even if she was up she sure wouldn't be pleasant!

[Bettyscruiser]

☝️ This. This particular three year old turns into a monster without a sufficient amount of sleep. I applaud parents for knowing their kids limits. It makes a happier vacation for all! We will make do with the new policy but its certainly a major inconvenience.

[MJSailors]

May I suggest another point of view-that of the sitters dealing with some children (not all) that are not used to discipline and limits to their behavior.

Perhaps these children have caused situations that are difficult for a sitter - no matter their child care training- to decide not to want to participate in the program.

Perhaps, less people willing to staff the sitter service program led to Royal Carribean to cancel such a program.