In Room Babysitting

[HotnQC]

Has anyone used the private babysitting services on Carnival or RCCL. We are hoping to book our cruise for Christmas 2007 and our son will be 13 months old, too young for any childrens activities. We will choose the cruise based on available private sitting services so we can enjoy 1 or 2 evenings of adult time.

[miksilver]

I have used both babysitting services on Carnival and RCCL. Here are my experiences:

 

Carnival -- They only have group babysitting that begins at 10pm - 3am. My DD was 6 1/2 months when we used the Camp Carnival group babysitting for about 3 nights. We would "chill out" in our cabin from 8pm-10pm and then carry a then sleeping (worn out from too much fun :) ) baby to an all ready pack-n-play. They would give us a pager and we could call Camp Carnival from any house phone. My DD was asleep the whole time so my DH and I didn't worry.

 

RCCL -- They only have in-cabin babysitting and use off-duty RCCL employees. You have to be a little more prepared ahead of time with RCCL in-cabin sitting. With much research on these message boards I found out ahead of time the formal nights, special activites, etc. for my particular cruise and pre-planned my babysitting nights. Then, first thing when I boarded, I went to the pursers desk and booked the babysitting for the nights and times I desired. If you book early you can get the best sitters and booking everything at one time guarantees you the same person. My DD (14 months) loved Maria, our sitter. You do have to pay cash after each night, so be sure to bring enough money on board. I don't tend to bring a lot of cash since you use your cabin-card for most everything.

 

My DH and I had a very good experience with both cruise lines. By using the services we too felt that we had our "adult time" without sacrificing anything and it turned out to be wonderful! Cruising with a baby and using the onboard babysitting services managed to make our family vacation one of the best ones yet since niether my DH or I felt that we were "missing out" on anything because we were travelling with a baby.

 

Good luck with your cruise!

 

Kim