Do you pay for the nursery time you schedule or use?

[melyseb]

We will be taking a cruise in September and I've seen it suggested that you sign your child up for as much nursery time as you can because it fills up fast. But I am curious, do you pay for the amount of time you sign up for? Or only the time your child is actually signed into the nursery?

I am signing our daughter up for the nursery every night we are there during dinner, but I've heard that the restaurants are fantastic entertainment for little kids, so she may end up joining us for dinner. I assume I'll only be charged for the time she's actually there, but wanted to be absolutely sure.

 

[skeephistakate]

Following this thread as I have the same question.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We will be taking a cruise in September and I've seen it suggested that you sign your child up for as much nursery time as you can because it fills up fast. But I am curious, do you pay for the amount of time you sign up for? Or only the time your child is actually signed into the nursery?

I am signing our daughter up for the nursery every night we are there during dinner, but I've heard that the restaurants are fantastic entertainment for little kids, so she may end up joining us for dinner. I assume I'll only be charged for the time she's actually there, but wanted to be absolutely sure.

You are charged for the time you use. As well as any reservation you made and did not cancel. You can cancel up to 4 hours before your reservation with no penalty.

 

[AFamily]

Also they will inform you the night before on any times that you have booked the next day, so that will be there to remind you just forget what you scheduled.

 

[skeephistakate]

My issue now is figuring out what times to book? I have no idea what will be going on on the ship at this point. How am I to know when I will need babysitting?

 

[PrincessShmoo]

My issue now is figuring out what times to book? I have no idea what will be going on on the ship at this point. How am I to know when I will need babysitting?

Well, you just take your best shot. And then, if necessary, change, add, or cancel once onboard.

 

[ctnurse]

My issue now is figuring out what times to book? I have no idea what will be going on on the ship at this point. How am I to know when I will need babysitting?

We booked for dinner time, our Mixology and tasting classes, and adult dinners. We had no problem adding more hours or canceling nursery time.

 

[SailingScout]

I would definitely suggest dinner times. We learned this on our first cruise. Plus, after the first night it seems like everyone realizes they wish they would have done this. Easy to cancel and easy to add more hours onboard, usually. Another time I noticed that seemed to fill was mid-mornings.

 

[DLgeeks]

I would suggest taking your best shot at it now and then adjusting day-by-day once you get on board. They will charge you 50% of the fee if you have time booked and don't show (since they have to schedule staff appropriately), but you only have to cancel 4 hrs ahead of time to avoid it.

We generally booked some time after dinner so that we could go to a couple of the shows as well as for Palo/Remy/spa etc. One trick I would highly recommend is to book some extra time on the last evening so that you can get packed up child-free. It's amazing how much time that ended up saving me the last night!