Royal Tots nursery questions

[Formytinkerbelle]

I have tried to search but cant find the answers so hoping someone can help me.  We are basing our next cruise on having child care for our 2 year old.  I understand it's a fee service and that's fine.  Does the nursery follow the same hours as the regular Adventure Ocean?  If not is there a way to find the hours for each ship...thinking Freedom but not sure yet.  Also I am reading it is a service that is first come first serve and have to book in advance.  In anyone's experience has the nursery booked up and you were unable to have care?  We are also thinking of a port intensive itinerary and would be relying on the nursery so we could actually enjoy the ports (that makes me feel like a bad mom for saying but seriously its difficult to do anything with the child at his age). I'm just nervous getting on the cruise and then having a cranky 2 year old who is bored because we weren't able to secure the nursery.  Which leads to my next question, surely they separate the little babies from the toddlers right?  I would love to hear personal experience.  My other children have loved kids programming.  This is just our first toddler experience.

[Cruiser_1977]

According to this okay CC won't let me link to it .... google "nursery on freedom of the seas" there should be a link to "Royal Caribbean Blog" titled "Review: Royal Babies & Tots Nursery on Freedom of the Seas"

 

Kids are NOT separated (2yr old and 6mos old together) and it's $8/hour, Ships available: Oasis of the Seas, Allure of the Seas, Freedom of the Seas, Liberty of the Seas, Radiance of the Seas, Splendour of the Seas, Rhapsody of the Seas, Mariner of the Seas, Grandeur of the Seas, Serenade of the Seas, Enchantment of the Seas, Legend of the Seas, Independence of the Seas, & Brilliance of the Seas

Edited February 26, 2020 by JennyB1977

[Formytinkerbelle]

10 minutes ago, JennyB1977 said:

According to this okay CC won't let me link to it .... google "nursery on freedom of the seas" there should be a link to "Royal Caribbean Blog" titled "Review: Royal Babies & Tots Nursery on Freedom of the Seas"

 

Kids are NOT separated (2yr old and 6mos old together) and it's $8/hour, Ships available: Oasis of the Seas, Allure of the Seas, Freedom of the Seas, Liberty of the Seas, Radiance of the Seas, Splendour of the Seas, Rhapsody of the Seas, Mariner of the Seas, Grandeur of the Seas, Serenade of the Seas, Enchantment of the Seas, Legend of the Seas, Independence of the Seas, & Brilliance of the Seas

Thanks so much. I will try to Google that.  I have a hard time with searches.  Everything under the sun comes up except what i am looking for.

[gerif]

Does your son go to daycare now? Just asking because if he doesn’t settle in they will call and ask you to remove him. 

[Formytinkerbelle]

17 minutes ago, gerif said:

Does your son go to daycare now? Just asking because if he doesn’t settle in they will call and ask you to remove him. 

Yes, he is dropped off 5 days a week for a few hours a day.  He doesnt have issue being away from us.  

[Grankm21]

We used the nursery twice, most recently in December on Oasis.  All babies under 3 are together.  I always head up to the nursery early in the afternoon on the first day. I’ve never had an issue getting the times I wanted, even around dinner time.  However, you are only allowed to book a certain amount of hours at first.  I think 12 or 15 hours for the entire cruise.  Later in the cruise, I think on day three for a seven day cruise, the will allow you to book more time if available.  Also, the nursery will let you check out toys to bring to your room.  At least that’s the case on the Oasis class ships.  

[GarlicBread]

Bigger ships (freedom included) the nursery will be available 9am till midnight (or 10.30 if no babies booked), but may close 12noon-2pm on sea days.

 

Smaller ships on sea days 9am-12 noon and then around 6.30ish till midnight (or 10.30) and port days usually just the evening unless you have an excursion booked and they will open it for your required times. 

 

All ships will open the nursery earlier on port days of the ship docks early and you have a ship booked excursion. 

 

The nursery is usually pretty empty on port days. They're busy sea days and evenings. 

 

All tots are together but only they only have 8 at a time (4 on a couple of tiny ships)  

 

They will follow your schedule as much as they can. They have snacks, cribs/cots for naps, toys for all ages and unlimited paw patrol haha. 

 

All ships have some form of open play every day where you can go and play together and they change out the toys every day so it different, and they also have bags of toys you can borrow and take back to the cabin to play with if you can't drop off when you want to. 

[rimmit]

We used the nursery extensively from 2012-2018 when our youngest daughter aged out.  We loved it.

 

Nursery hours vary by ship.  If you let us know the ship we can help you with that.  Capacity is anywhere from 4-16 based on ship size.   The ships with only 4 slots have a super small nursery.  The actual nursery area maybe just the size of 2 inside cabins put together and that may be generous.

 

We have rarely encountered an issue with it being all booked but we cruise off season.  The peak nursery times are sea days, and formal nights.  Also the nursery tends to be emptier at the beginning of the voyage and books up more toward the end.  We always meet couples who state they will never use the nursery at the beginning of the trip but by the end many eventually cave as it can be exhausting maintaining and entertaining a baby on board a cruise ship.

 

They give you a set allotment of hours you can boom at the beginning based on the number of babies on board and open it after about two days to book more hours.

 

They do not separate kids.  6 months to 3 years are all playing with each other.  
 

hope that helps.

[KSprite01]

We used it on Freedom (Jan 2018, Son 1 yo) and Anthem (Feb 2019, Son 2 yo).   It was $6/hr before 6pm and $8/hr afterwards, which is a bargain compared to what we pay for daycare!  They did not charge us for time we didn't use, such when we got him half an hour early, nor when he had an issue staying there (see below), which we appreciated but didn't expect.

 

Don't assume your kid will be fine if they've been in daycare!  Even though he had been in daycare since age 6 months, when he was 2 he had a tough time with it and they called us to get him a few times.  (First time after 45 mins of crying, next after 30 mins, final after 15 mins, though we told them not to wait too long if he didn't settle.)  Actually, they forgot to give us the pager, so they did a shipwide page for us the first time.  We canceled two appointments he had and were able to get him to be ok twice in the end, for a Wonderland dinner, and 2 hrs on the last sea day.

 

Which leads me to - they give you a pager and expect you to be able to pick up your kid if there is an issue.  I didn't get the impression they would be excited if you went off the ship and couldn't get the page/get back quickly (15 minutes or so), but you can ask them.  I wouldn't have wanted him crying for 3 hours while I was unreachable on an excursion - and it would have never occurred to me my daycare kid would have an issue and be inconsolable.

 

Kids are all together.  I think they may also accept older kids than 3 years that aren't fully potty trained and therefore can't be in the Adventure Ocean.  It was a windowless room so once we were contemplating booking for a 6 hr stretch and they suggested breaking it up so that he wouldn't be cooped up with no sunlight/fresh air etc for that long.  We always did 2-3 hours.

 

They had you fill out a sheet of last bottle/food, etc, expected naptimes, etc, and would report back on what the kid ate/slept/diaper change.  If yours is 2 it may not be an issue, but FYI that the first trip when he was almost 1, we mixed up a bottle of formula once while in the elevator on the way up, and they almost refused to accept it and let him have it - they needed to freshly mix it (but didn't tell us this rule in advance).  

 

As people noted, it's based on availability.  We always went to sign up and book times first thing on board.  The only times that were an issue were formal nights.  They only let you book one of them, and as others said, had a max on the hours you could book initially.  I want to say it was about 15 hours?  We've never used them all.  (The first time we didn't book the max, the second time we did, but canceled 2 visits and we had to get him early other times as noted above.)

 

Hours seem about right for what others said above.  We always got him by 8:30 for bedtime, but they do have late hours.  If no one is booked they'll close early (e.g. 10PM).  

 

Note that for privacy reasons they only let one family in the room at a time to check in/out.  This can be frustrating when you're waiting 15-20 minutes and 1) your kid is say, inconsolable and you're trying to break them out, 2) you are picking them right up at the deadline and it's stressful if you'll be counted as being "late" (never happened though) or 3) you have dinner reservations you're trying to make.  Not sure why some people took forever.

 

Our kid was great with excursions at age 2 (we did one just after he turned 2 and another when he was 2 yrs, 9 months, though no nursery on that ship), we just took care to book ones that worked for him (easy beach days, a train, a glass bottom boat, etc.)