babysitting on RCI

[jtorbs]

Has anyone ever used the in-room babysitting on Royal Caribbean? What are the requirements, if any? Any experiences worth mentioning?

[guinness67]

We had an in-house sitter last Wednesday for our 5 1/2 year old. Not too eventful. I think that my wife made the arrangements on Tuesday and had no trouble getting a sitter with short notice. Although the sitter stated that she could take our son (with our permission) to the Windjammer, Royal Promenade, etc., he decided he wanted to stay in the room and order room service. They ended up watching DVDs and he read to her. She put him to bed at 9:00 as we had requested and was watching TV when we arrived.

[lv2cruisgrl]

This may not be much help but 5 years ago friends of ours used it on a RCCL ship and loved it. At that time I think it was $10 an hour but I really am not sure (memory is going). It certainly saved them as they were able to go out after the kids were put to bed and party with the rest of us that didnt have kids.

[guinness67]

But I'm not too sure. My wife made the arrangements and paid the sitter. One thing to remember is that you pay CASH directly to the sitter. The cost per hour increases with each additional child.

[wishtdream]

We have used the in-room babysitter and can't say a bad thing about it.:) Last year on Voyager my 3yr DD got sick while the sitter was there.:eek: When we returned to the room the sitter had changed DD's clothes and cleaned up the mess on the floor with towels. The sitter didn't complain about it at all and even called the room the next morning to see how DD was feeling. Needless to say we booked the same sitter two nights later.

 

You are supposed to arrange a sitter with 24 hours notice, but when we booked the sitter for the first time we only gave a shorter notice that we wanted a sitter. Still there was no problem. You do pay the sitters in cash and last year the cost was $8 per hour. We also order room service for DD and sitter before going out and leave tip $ for room service with sitter.

 

We are going on Explorer this Oct. and plan on using a sitter 4 of the 9 nights. The other nights DD will be at Adventure Oceans. AO is free up until 10pm. After that you pay $5 per hour, but you must pick up your child by 1am. This can be charged to your SeaPass. DD stayed there late a couple of nights last year and still talks about how she can't wait to go back. Their late night program is a little less structured, but the kids still have fun watching movies and playing games.