Has anyone used Flounders care?

[bemily]

Hi All

We are going on the Wonder Dec 26th, and am still contemplating if we should bring our son who will be one at the time (also have a 5 year old)..

Has anyone on here used flounders, and how is the care/area? Not that i would leave him there alot, but just want an option if he does come..

Thanks!
Sherry

 

[CGC33A]

I have used Flounder's on my 2 past cruises when DD was 12 months & then 19 months. My biggest problem with it is the hours vary & are not all day. On the 2 cruises (both 3 day) the hours were different. The first time, it was open until 3 pm on Nassau day. The second, only till 12 or 1 PM which interferred with shore excursions & her nap. It also has limited capacity so if you don't reserve space fairly early, you might get what you want (I didn't have any problem though).
The care was excellent. They seemed to have enough help. I have heard that CM with children come to help to get their baby fix (as if they don't anyway!). Like all of the kids programs, they give you a beeper so they can call you if there is a problem. My daughter is used to day care, but not being away from us in the PM so she was upset with that & they called us.
I didn't see much "programming", it was more babysitting. Lots of toys, videos, cribs for napping in a separate section. You must bring all food, formula, milk etc (I don't remember the solid food policy) so be prepared (Milk on deck 9 or roomservice) They will inform you.
If you are interested, you need to decide how much you will need their services & if it will meet your needs.

 

[Gillian]

Although my son seemed quite happy there, it is just babysitting, as the above poster said. The hours on our 4 day were all evenings and all afternoons except the day we boarded. They have toys & movies. The room is quite small, but it was big enough. They didn't make my son, 2 yo, go to sleep at any particular time. he went to bed at 10:15 one night and was up at 10 when we picked him up the next.

The cribs are in a separate room, and they looked to be in good condition. Standard day care type wood cribs. They have mats for the older kids. Not sure where a 1 year old would sleep.

They are very sweet there & will cuddle with the children when their parents leave until they calm down. There are lots of the same toys, so there is no fighting.

 

[akasleepingbeauty]

We used Flounder's last year for our then 13-month old dd. She went 2 times during the day over the 7 days and went every night after dinner. She had never been in any kind of group care before but she did great. After dinner each night (she really enjoyed eating with us every night), I took her back to our stateroom and put her pajamas on. We then went to Flounder's. Most nights she was just about ready for bed so I would either lay her down in one of the cribs right then or just tell the CM's to go ahead and lay her down in a few minutes. Only one night was she still awake when we came to get her - otherwise she slept fine there every night.

We took water for her to drink (they didn't allow food but did allow bottles or sippy cups) and diapers/wipes along with her own blanket and pacifier. Make sure to label everything to it doesn't get mistaken as belonging to someone else.

We were the first people in line to make reservations for Flounder's and we had no problem getting everything we wanted. We were only "guarantee" 3 nights but we did get all of the others as well. They would call us each night and tell us which hours we had reserved for the next day. You do need to cancel in advance in order to avoid a charge.

We were very thankful to have Flounder's available for our cruise and even more thankful that our dd enjoyed her time there!

 

[bemily]

THANKS so much for the posts. I do want to bring him, because even though he is just little, i am sure he will love the beaches, characters, but want an option for some "out" time if possible.