Any Horror Sories with Babysitting??

[IResQU]

Just calming my nerves, and had a few questions...

Are there any horror sories with the Babysiting or Adventure Ocean club? We are sailing a nav. in Jan.08 . We will be tarveling with anoher couple and there two children, So there will be 4 total. 2-4s 1-6 and 1-7. Have they lost anyones children while on board, or fallen asleep on the job? Just want to know that my kids will be watched! Thanks in Advance!:o

[rebeccalouise]

First of all check with Royal Caribbean about the availability and times of babysitting. The cruise staff fills in as sitters and it is subject to availability.

 

I have not used a sitter on Royal Caribbean but did use incabin sitting on Celebrity and it was great. I wouldn't worry yourself- the staff love babies. They miss being around their own kids and kids are genuine and sweet- not like adults!

 

As for Adventure Ocean- my son loved it. He is 6 and he has sailed other lines and liked their programs as well.

 

Cruising is a fun family vacation- you will be fine but check RCL about babysitting. I read another post that said they might be discontinuing the incabin sitting.

[Yellowlily]

I've used the in-cabin sitting on RCI and had a great experience with it. I was so happy with our sitter and the care she took of my daughter. I have heard the rumor too, but I think it was a one time deal on the Liberty (Thanksgiving, huge ship, lots of kids, high demand, etc., etc. - you get the picture). I seriously doubt they will rid it, from what the info I have gathered. I guess I'll find out next week. I'll report back as we are going to use it and I have hopes that it's available like I was told. My neices have done Adventure Ocean and can't say enough good about it. They don't want to leave!

[Onessa]

We never used the in-cabin sitting with our DD (now 12YO!), but my BIL and his wife used it with their then 18MO when we were on a family cruise with them. The same lady sat for their DD several times (3 or 4). In order to calm a very jumpy dad's nerves, we (my DH, BIL, BIL-wife, or me) would occassionaly make an excuse to "check in" -- we had ajoining cabins and pretty left the door between the cabins open in the evening. Everything was always just fine. The lady who sat with my niece was in her late 40's and a grandmother of several children of the same age so she was captivated! Her English was pretty passable, and she explained that she missed her grandkids, and that her job was primarily in the early morning and afternoons -- so the chance to make some money in the evenings was welcomed. She said she would have just been reading the same book that she was while watching my neice sleep that she would have been reading in a common room below deck somewhere.

 

DD (and now Dneice) have participated in AO activities for years and both love it. The staff are all very experienced with kids. They have rules that they religiously follow as to - staff/child ratios, procedures when they take the kids out of the room for group activities (such as the pirate parade), procedures for check in/ check out for the younger ones. We were on one cruise when a boy in an activity in which my DD was participating fell and broke his arm. We just happened to be there just after it happened -- and were impressed with the way the staff handled the "emergency".

 

Talk to the staff, attend the orientation, come up with "checks" that will make you more comfortable -- and enjoy your vacation!

[crusinmama06]

You won't need babysitting because the kids are old enough to be in AO. No the counselors won't be sleeping in AO. There are 2-3 counselors assigned to each group.

 

On certain ships the kids wear electronic monitoring braclets (3-5 year old group) so they can't get out of AO without being logged out of the security system.

 

I have never heard of any horror stories of kids being lost by AO. ;)

 

Now, my 3 year old almost got kicked out of AO because she wanted to slide on the slide (instead of sitting and doing crafts) and during craft time she got marker on the table. :rolleyes: I am not kidding when I tell you that we faced a NEW and overzealous counselor. Who incidentally was reprimanded for what she did to my daughter. I just went to the head of AO and got it all worked out.

[Dr_DNA]

We had great experiences with both AO and in-cabin babysitting on the Explorer. Our son (3 1/2) loved AO so much that one day he had to drag him kicking and screaming to go whale watching (something that he had been talking about for months before the cruise) instead of the kids club. All of the counselors were very loving to the kids and the kids seemed to like each and every one. We didn't have a single problem but have to admit that our son didn't use AO as much as he would have wanted (we wanted to spend time together as a family!).

 

We used the in-cabin babysitting once on our trip and that went OK. The one snafu was that two babysitters showed up (I've heard that sometimes no one shows up). We let them figure out who was going to watch our son. He was asleep so there wasn't much too it. She was very nice and disappointed that our son was sleeping. She ended up just just sitting there for 2 hours because she didn't bring anything to do. I'm sure that she was extremely bored.

 

I would definately use AO again (multiple times) on the trip and would consider the babysitting again for a special evening.

[mark3232]

When we had toddlers we used them because they were a sleep we came in and they were not as cranky the next day like they were if we took them to the nursery. No bad stories to speak of and we do drop in once early just to see how things are going.