baby monitors on board?

[kmoore]

Anyone had experience using baby monitors on board? Our daughter has pretty fixed sleep patterns, and she'll be asleep fairly early. I don't much care for the idea of leaving her at the kids club to fall asleep in front of a movie, which seems to be the only other option (besides sitting in the cabin in the dark). I thought if a baby monitor would work on board and if we get a cabin near the restaurants (our monitor has a 500 yard range) we could tuck her in and have dinner or sit in a nearby lounge. I don't know if this is practical. Any tips would be helpful.

 

[sixcats]

I wouldn't feel safe doing that personally. Could you get a cabin with a balcony? Then you could enjoy a bottle of wine or coffee without disturbing your baby.

 

[Steve H.]

I can't imagine that you'd be able to have any reception on a baby monitor on board. I would suggest either using Flounder's or, like sixcats suggested, sitting out on the verandah (or on the other side of the privacy curtain, like we did), once your child is asleep.

 

[wovenwonder]

Maybe you could take along a grandparent or teenage friend to help with room sitting during the evening. If there would be a fire or other emergency, you may not be able to get back to the room to your child. There are not any public areas such as dining areas or clubs close to staterooms.

 

[CyranoJones]

Another vote for "not a good idea," even if the monitors worked well on the ship.

 

[4nana]

Sorry, but I do not think anyone should leave children alone in their cabin awake or asleep unless they are of age. I would highly recommend the club/flounders. When are you going??
We will be cruising Dec. 14 and have our 7 grands in adj. rooms
if we can help out at all

 

[CamColt]

Personally, I wouldnt do it, but thats just me. How old is your child? If shes young, you could keep her in a stroller while asleep and take her with you. Obviously you couldnt do the adult only stuff, but at least you could get out for a while. When we cruised with an 8 month old and a 3.5 yo, the oldest didnt want to go to the club, and I didnt want to leave the youngest with a stranger. This was a family vacation after all. One night we went to family karaoke and one night we went to the deck party. There was plenty to do with the kids. Also on our last cruise without the kids, we spent one evening in the Promenade lounge, listening to the singer there. Kids are allowed in there and I believe its non smoking. It was pretty empty and very relaxing. Kids can go to ESPN too, but that can get pretty smokey. There is a lot of stuff you can do with the sleeping child in a stroller. However, if shes older, like beyond stroller age, then you might have a problem.
Good luck!

 

[kmoore]

Wow! This is my first post to this site, and so many responses within the hour. It's going to be a great resource as we finalize our trip plans. Thanks, everyone, for the very helpful assessment. Guess a monitor isn't going to work out. We'll have to rely on the clubs. Our daughter will be about 4 by the time we get on a cruise, so strollers, etc. won't work too well. Our biggest problem will be handling the jet lag, since we're flying in from Switzerland - she'll be exhausted by 6pm, and I would think the clubs will be pretty active and noisy around then. I don't suppose there's a "quiet" room in the kids clubs? I guess it'll be room service on the verandah in the evenings, otherwise. Could do worse!!! Thanks again to all you helpful people - it's a really wonderful community!

 

[hydster]

with your daughter and her "sleeping" patterns! I know whenever we take our kids foreign or domestic they have NEVER kept to their patterns of sleep and have actually adjusted better than we did to the time changes! You may be pleasantly surprised that she might adjust after the first night and you may have her awake and available at dinner and out "on the town" so to speak! Kids are resilient and she may perk up since she is out of her own routine, not sleeping in her bed, going on the airplane and such! Also at the age of 4 our kids handled being up later than we thought they could so you just never know! Just go prepared to handle whatever is thrown at you and you will be fine!

Heidi

 

[jellymoon]

I would be very nervous to leave my kids alone in the room. When we cruised in '99, there was a fire alarm in the middle of the night. Although, wouldn't you know we slept through it?? That'll show you parental sleep deprivation--- if it ain't a crying baby you don't hear it.

Anyway, a crew member came and raised us to get out on deck as there was a small fire on board. It happened very quickly, and in such an event it would be nearly impossible to get back to the cabin to get small children.

 

[Gillian]

I have to agree with Heidi that sleeping patterns on vacation are very hard to predict!

We took our 22 month old camping for July 4th weekend. His normal bedtime is 8 pm, but he surprised us by staying up for family events 2 nights in a row! He sat quietly through bingo, playing with his cars, listening to the numbers being called & enjoying a new book. After that he danced with his cousins during karoke! Both nights he went to bed after 10:30 and was fine the next day. We weren't planning to disrupt his schedule, and were ready to take him out of anything he didn't like, but he had so much fun that I'm glad we were flexible

And you never know, a 4 year old might LOVE the kids clubs!

 

[sumfun]

when we cruised last year our dd was 4 yrs old . the night we were to go to palos she fell asleep . we took her to the club anyway and asked if she could stay. they said no problem put a little sleeping mat in the play area that was not being used and she slept peacefully until we returned,and we noticed 3 other children sleeping on their own mats in the same area when we returned. i am sure it will work out have a wonderful trip.

 

[kmoore]

Thanks again, everyone, for the helpful advice and opinions and even (thanks, 4nana!) babysitting assistance! We're still looking at dates - never been on a Disney Cruise and waffled a bit, until we found this site. Now I'm really looking forward to going, so we're looking at the calendar. I'll be posting lots of questions, I'm sure, in the near future. In the meantime, I'm enjoying reading everyone's posts and especially the trip reports.

We'll just play it by ear on the evening question - either our daughter will manage at the table or in the club, or else we'll just all enjoy quiet time (and room service) in the room. The food's not the thing, anyway, is it?

Thanks again - you're all WONDERFUL.