Best nursery booking times?

[BradChristian]

Hello!

Taking our first Disney Cruise on March 2nd 2015 on the Dream... 4 night...

Trying to think through the best time to book our 10 month old son into the 'Its a Small World' nursery.

Dinner is a big deal for my wife and I... We cruised Celebrity for our honeymoon 5 years ago and dinner was the highlight. Very romantic and celebrity sat us at a table for two.. who knows if that will happen on the dream.

I am thinking about booking our son into the nursery during dinner because we have late seating, and he maybe grumpy being that is at 8:30p right? His usual bed time is typically around 7.

We also love theatre... so do we just need to book him for both the show AND dinner? Haven't been able to find out when the early show is, so not sure how long that would be in the nursery. I'm sure the shows are family friendly, but we have not done theatre with our 10 month old yet.

Thanks for your help!

 

[SarahandPaul]

We took our son when he was 4 months old (back before the rule change) and it was lots of fun! Pre boarding, we booked him for the max hours allowed, choosing a few dinner times and a longer spell on Castaway Cay day. When we boarded, we immediately booked the rest of the dinners and had no problem. We added random hours throughout the week, sometimes just dropping in and were never turned away. We will be sailing with him again in September at age 2 1/2 and will surely book him for a few dinner hours again with plans to feed him from room service before taking him up there. Our project is working on potty training so the kid can actually go swimming!

 

[MoonSka]

We took our son when he was 4 months old (back before the rule change) and it was lots of fun! Pre boarding, we booked him for the max hours allowed, choosing a few dinner times and a longer spell on Castaway Cay day. When we boarded, we immediately booked the rest of the dinners and had no problem. We added random hours throughout the week, sometimes just dropping in and were never turned away. We will be sailing with him again in September at age 2 1/2 and will surely book him for a few dinner hours again with plans to feed him from room service before taking him up there. Our project is working on potty training so the kid can actually go swimming!

Good info to know! Our first cruise won't be until March 2016, but I intentionally held off until then to try and accomplish the same goal with our youngest.

 

[ctnurse]

We sailed when DD was 18 months and booked the max number of hours prior to boarding. We used them for dinner and our Mixology class. Once on board we had no trouble booking more hours which we used to go to the adults pool, spa, and we booked a couple of hours for our CC day.

It was so nice to be able to have the nursery so DH and I could enjoy some adults time.

 

[BradChristian]

We took our son when he was 4 months old (back before the rule change) and it was lots of fun! Pre boarding, we booked him for the max hours allowed, choosing a few dinner times and a longer spell on Castaway Cay day. When we boarded, we immediately booked the rest of the dinners and had no problem. We added random hours throughout the week, sometimes just dropping in and were never turned away. We will be sailing with him again in September at age 2 1/2 and will surely book him for a few dinner hours again with plans to feed him from room service before taking him up there. Our project is working on potty training so the kid can actually go swimming!

Awesome! This is encouraging that we are not alone in wanting adult dinners... Had not thought about Castaway Cay as a great adult activity. I guess with the 'Adult Beach' be a nice relaxing - 'don't worry about the baby' time.

Any other suggestions for baby on board?

 

[BradChristian]

It was so nice to be able to have the nursery so DH and I could enjoy some adults time.

This is encouraging! I'm going to look into the mixology class...

 

[Quellman]

The shows are during the dinner time. Since you have the late dinner you go to the early show which is the 530 dinner seating time.

They also broadcast the shows into the staterooms (at least on the Fantasy) with replays throughout the night in case you miss it. We had a 14 month old with us and took him to the theater. You have to remember this is Disney and Children are everywhere. We gave ourselves an OK spot if we needed to bail.

Our went from 2 naps a day to 3 naps to make late dinner seating. You cn always request separate dining, but it is only a request.

 

[ladyj0212]

Congrats on your first Disney Cruise!! You will just love it!

If you wanted to check your child into the nursery for both the show and dinner, I would recommend a 5 hour slot. From around 5:30 till 10:30 should cover your show and dinner.

If your little one has a bedtime of 7pm, just let them know when you check him in, and they will be sure to try and lay him down in the cribs(don't be afraid to call the nursery to check on him, I must have called a zillion times to make sure my daughter was adjusting well).

On the Dream, they should allow you to pre-book a maximum of 10 hours nursery time, so my suggestion would be to pick either the time frame of the show or dinner(whichever is more important to you to have adult time) and book those hours each day. Once you embark on the ship, you can then go to to the nursery or call them to see if they have availability for the rest of the time to cover your shows or dinner(we did this, and we got ALL the slots that we wanted), if the nursery and times are not at capacity, Disney will do their very best to accommodate.

Lastly, you mentioned dining alone at dinner at a table for two on your honeymoon...you can call Disney and request a table for two during your dining time. Although it is only a request, Disney is extremely accommodating, and in all times I have requested for my family or even my husband and I to sit alone, it has been granted. It never hurts to ask.

 

[BradChristian]

The shows are during the dinner time. Since you have the late dinner you go to the early show which is the 530 dinner seating time.

Very helpful!