Flounder's Reef Nursery Question

[suesings]

Hi,
We will be going on the May 28th Cruise on the West Coast (from Los Angeles) to Mexico with a will be 5 year old and will be 21 month old. I've read that we should book time at Flounder's Reef as soon as we board. Has anyone used this service and is it really hard to get time in the nursery? It would be nice to utilize it a couple times if we could but I think I read that you only get to use it once? Is this true. I'd like to be able to go to Palo's and maybe do the wine tasting with my husband.

Thanks, Sue

 

[Buddy Bear]

We used Flounders once for Palo's brunch and it worked out well. We usually get to port early around 10:30 or so. Once we get on the ship we split up. Missy takes Catherine to the Oceaneer's lab to sign up and this time I took Sarah and went to Flounders.

The nice thing about making reservation is that the cast members realize that you are more than likely there because you want to go to the Spa or Palos so they are very good at coordinating times for you.

After Flounders I went straight up to Palos and made a reservation there. I have heard that Flounders can book up quickly so try to have a plan, know when you need the service, and make the reservation once you get on the ship. Then go to Parrot Cay, relax, and get a bite to eat.

Jeff

 

[CM_Mom]

I believe they let you make reservation requests for three times to be sure to have times available for everyone who wants to use Flounder's. Be sure to let them know of Palo or Spa ressies at this time.

You can also ask to be on a waitlist where they notify you several hours in advance is there is space available. Alternately if you plan something spontaneously, you can call to see if there is space available. The 14 day cruise may have a slightly different process - maybe let you make ressies for more times because of the longer cruise.

I've seen several posts where folks were able to get all the times they wanted, just not all of them guaranteed at the beginning of the cruise.

Maybe someone with direct experience will reply.

 

[samnick]

We've sailed twice and got our first request every time. But we went early the first day to reserve. They leave you a message each day you requested and confirm you got your choice

 

[suesings]

So should we go to Flounder's Reef first and make a reservation and then run up to Palo and hope to get the same time as we reserved for Flounders? So much to do!!!

I am keeping a list of all the do's and don't - any hint I'm getting.

 

[LoveMyBaby]

I would make Palo reservations first, then go to Flounder's Reef. Palo reservations fill up more quickly. By 1:30 PM when we boarded, we could not get either dinner or brunch reservations. We ended up on a brunch waiting list. We made reservations for our son in Flounder's Reef just in case they found room for us for brunch. When we called Palo a couple days later to check, they bumped our name up, since we told them that we already had nursery reservations.

We had our son in the nursery 5 separate times. They always had room when we called, and it was a full cruise. We booked 3 spots after boarding, and then called later for the other 2 spots.

 

[clori]

I sailed on the Jan 8th eastern. It was a full sailing. I didn't do palo's or spa but still wanted a bit of time to do adult only things. We signed our 4 year old up for kids club at the port. We actually had to wait a bit until it was time for flounders to open to take reservations and there was a short line at opening time. We were only allowed to sign up for 3 time slots. I took two evening two hour time slots (the minimum) and one two hour morning slot. I thought morning would be nice to either enjoy the adults only pool or take dd4 to the goofy pool. We asked a few other times about openings and there was never any after 10pm or day time on sea days. We were waitlisted once with dd being the first baby on the waiting list but a space did not open up. I never tried to get flounders for meal time/show times so I don't know if that would have been easier. I will say that one night I was paged after about 40 minutes since dd 7 months was fussy. I had no problem going to get her and I was only charged one hour not the two hour minimum.

 

[samnick]

Just another note, I believe Flounders opened later the first day for reservations. It seems like we had time to take care of other things first before we could reserve our spots