Huiangchen/Linda & everyone else, ? on babysitting

[Eclipsepearl]

Hi everyone,

 

We've booked for the Celebrity for August 13th. A quick question on babysitting; the limit it to 2 children per sitter. We have three, ages 3, 5 & will be 8 at the time.

 

Do we simply book for two and then make a "deal" when they show up or do we really need two babysitters? I'll give them a good tip. We'll have two connecting rooms and none are babies. I just don't want to drag ds to dinner just because of this 3 kid rule or have two babysitters bored silly with not much to do in those tiny cabins.

 

Should I write the cruise company and suggest they "adjust" the rule according to age or ask for an exception? Or could I do that onboard directly with the crew? It's reasonable to not leave infant twins and a toddler all in diapers with one babysitter but these are more solid little people. The oldest only really needs an adult around for security and no actual "care" is necessary.

 

WWYD?

 

Does this rule exist on other lines?

 

TIA!

 

Hi Linda,

 

Thanks for your visit over on Multilingual Families. I tried to email you but couldn't on either site. Can you contact me at my infamous screenname, at either hotmail or yahoo? (I'm Eclipsepearl on both).

[SleepingUgly]

Hey Sharon:

 

From what I understand of the Celebrity in-cabin babysitting program, you can have up to two children for the rate of $8 per hour. I wonder if you can somehow work in a pro-rated additional fee for your third child? They may be willing to work with you on the ship, since from what I understand, this is not an "official" babysitting program, but the persons who will be watching the kids have other duties on the ship and they are babysitting to either make a bit more money and/or because they miss their own kids at home. So it sounds as if they would be fairly flexible. Hopefully, someone who has had recent experience can speak better re: this topic.

 

Also, did you know about the group babysitting services for the kids at night? I believe for $6 per hour per child, they can hang out in the kids club from 10 pm to 1 am. The couple of hours before that do not require an additional charge, unless you want to participate in the dinner party from 6-8 pm. For the most part, I think our kids will want to go hang out with the other little ones for at least a couple of hours each night, and then I'm guessing we'll be too tired from the day's activities to last much later than 10 pm anyway!

 

BTW, my email is lhqueiroz-at-hotmail-dot-com. I'd love to hear from you! Congrats on deciding on a cruise. I've heard really great things about Celebrity, which is why we decided to book with them for our cruise later this month. Which itinerary are you sailing?

 

Linda