Flounder's Nursery Help

[jmkclee]

We are going on the April 13 Wonder 4 day cruise. We are travelling with our 4 kids, 7.5, 5.5, 3.5 & 22 months. I am concerned about availability in Flounders Nursery. Has anyone had a problem getting reservations? Was anyone ever limited in their requests for time? Our plan is to request all times, and pay for them, and use at our leasure...it is available for 25 hours during our cruise, which is $150. We figure well worth it to go in and out at our leisure. We especially want to be able to go in and out as our older kids will want to be able to play in the pool. Jack is *mostly* potty trained (I started in Jan. when I found out that swim diapers were a no-no), he just won't poop in the potty. Ugh. Got 3.5 weeks to remedy that! We want to be able to enjoy the pool with the older kids.

We have booked 2 adjoining rooms (got the secret porthole rooms...the booking agent at DVC recommended them when we were booking...what at steal!)


Thanks for all of your help.

Jennifer Lee

 

[scschnur]

We just traveled the 7 day Eastern with a family who had a child using Flounder's. She was only able to book a couple sessions during signup. Upon using Flounder's that first evening, she handed each attendant and the manager a prepaid phone card as a way of thanking them. From that point on, the manager "found" a way to get her child in, whether they were booked solid or not.

Whatever works!!??!! Good luck!

 

[jmkclee]

Any idea how many attendants there are and what would be an appropriate dollar amount for the phone cards? I had already planed on phone cards, but at the end of the cruise, for all of the attendants in the kids clubs. Up front sounds like a better idea!

 

[scschnur]

I do know that she used 60 minute phone cards - but do not know how many she used specifically in Flounders.... Maybe someone else can tell you how many workers are in there??!!?? I am sorry I cannot help futher - I just didn't set foot in there!

 

[jel0511]

On the 4 day cruise, you will only be able to at first specify 3 times you wish to drop off your child, which is DEFINATELY not all times Flounders is open. There are usually 2 sessions a day, and one on the embarkation day. so, for a 4 night cruise, there would be 9 sessions, and for a 3 night 7 sessions. You will receive confirmation daily as to which sessions you've recieve, by a call to your stateroom the night before to confirm your sessions for the next day. After the initial sign up period on the first day, you can then request if there is additional space available to any additional times you want. So, you won't be able to initially sign up your child for all time in Flounders. Also, I don't believe Flounders allows sigining in/out. There is a sheet in which your times for the day are listed, you sign in and then out, I don't believe they like children coming/going during a session. I believe they like to work on a drop off/pick up policy, it's not like the clubs at all. They don't allow people doing exactly what you are planning because it is unfair to those families who just want one dinner alone, and can't get it because people have locked times up and their children aren't there. Please remember this when booking times in Flounders. The times and spaces are VERY limited and all families should have the chance to use it.

 

[pal2pluto]

Lori is right. Plus, if you don't take your child to Flounders when they have her scheduled, they will still charge you. They need a 4 hour notice of cancellation so some other child may be allowed to use the nursery.

 

[shelly3girls]

When we cruised in Jan on the 4-day wonder, we were told we could only allowed to have 3 sessions. We used concierge to arrange our times. On the second evening we called to see if there were any openings. I was told that there were openings, but I would have to cancel one of my other sessions if I wanted to bring my DD that evening. It sounds as if I may have received bad info?? Maybe I should have brought the phone cards in when I asked!
BTW my DD was 22 months also and we were suprised at how much she could do on the ship. My DD does not sit still yet she thoroughly enjoyed the shows. We really only felt the need for Flounders when we went to Palo and the spa.

 

[cathyrob]

We were on the 7 day cruise back in Feb. When we signed my son up for Flounders, we were able to sign him up for as many times as we wanted, but had to highlite our top three choices. They said that 90%we would recieve all three top choices, then the other times would be with what's available. We ended up confirmed for all of our time slots, and then we actually cancelled some. If you don't cancel 4 hours before your time, you are reqired to pay 50% which is $3/hr. I wouldn't worry too much about it. I saw many kids there for the first two days, then they never showed up again(many cried all the time and the parents chose to keep them out instead of getting paged every hour).

 

[jmkclee]

Thanks all of you for your advice. I didn't realize that we couldn't just bring Jack in and out at leisure. I am just so concerned about the pool issue and him not being allowed in that we thought we would use Flounders while we went to the pools with the girls. Priority for us is definitely Palo and spa. I did realize that if we didn't cancel that we would have to pay, but I wasn't worried about that (cost didn't seem that much based on all of the other stuff we have to pay for!). This is our first Disney cruise after 21 trips to WDW since October of 94. We are also vacation club members and used our Boardwalk points for this cruise. (We also own points at Beach Club). Will definitely get phone cards!

Jennifer

 

[jel0511]

Jennifer, we cruise last November a few weeks after the new regulations had taken effect. My DS was 18 month old, and obviously not potty trained. What I did was to bring some buckets and shovels up to the pool (need them for Castaway anyway) and filled them up with water from the pool. My DS sat on the rubberized mat next to the pool and had a BLAST playing with the water. He didn't even ONCE look over or try to get into the pool, and he's a water rat!!! It is something to think about if you don't want to place your child in Flounders to go to the pool. Also, a bit of advice, try to get to the pool early. The pool starts to get murky and VERY crowded as the day progresses, and it's nicer earlier on.

 

[HookedonMagic]

We sailed on the Wonder just last week and used Flounders for our 15 week old son (yes, we are crazy enough to cruise with a baby!) Anyway, when we arrived at the nursery promptly at 1pm the first afternoon we were allowed to register for three sessions. We were the first ones there, so we got our first choices (we didn't register for whole sessions, just two hour blocks.) Anyway, the staff so appreciated having our baby delivered clean and fed and on time (and by polite and smiling parents) that when we asked for more time slots the next day we were told "no problem!"

Also, we canceled one session on Saturday afternoon with only one hour's notice and we were not charged. We didn't even ask for the special attention and received it anyway!

We did tip the counselors with phone cards and gave them special reviews at guest services. Mikki and Shelley are great crew members and really went the extra mile to help make our trip special. We've already booked two more cruises with DCL, largely because of the excellent Flounder's staff.

Happy cruising.

 

[destuff]

we just returned from the 3/8 magic. we booked flounders for my 2 1/2 yo. you need to prioritize 3 times and they do thier best to get them for you. you will get a call the evening before confirming and to cancel or change any times is a 4 hours notice. we got every slot we requested and ended up cancelling most of them as the times didn't work out so well for us regarding activities we would do without him. we did nt request any port time so I am not sure if that is harder to get but we weren't doing any excursions and I felt it was better to leave those times for people who really needed it. I am thinking you may even be able to walk in or check for cancellations periodically. you might also note that there is a 2 hour minimum and they will not feed them in there other than baby food or bottles so that will affect how you sign them up.

He did love it and would ask to go to his club. I felt a little bad that he missed out on the club that my older son 4 yo got to enjoy several times.

Our experience with the pool was that he was not allowed in so we did avoid that area. we had beautiful beach days in the port that more than made up for it.

Trish

 

[cathyrob]

About the pools, we used the lounge chairs, table and chairs to baricade my son. We created a circle with the objects by the goofy pool and filled a bucket up with water. Between the water and sand toys, my son had a blast, and we were able to sit and relax pool side. As for the blue part of the Mickey pool that someone else mentioned, some guards would let my son sit there if it wasn't croweded, but others said absolutely not. I guess it depends on who is watching over the Mickey pool, and yes they do have people monitoring all the pools. But, like I said, my son had a blast with the bucket full of water, and we weren't chasing him around the deck because he was contained.