Has anyone used Kid’s Nite Out babysitting service?

[misscampbells]

Hi all, sorry if this has been posted previously, but the search was not cooperationg with me. Anyways....my family (ds9 and dd 3 and dh)and I will be staying at AKV for a week in June and was wondering if anyone has tried the Kids nite out sitting service where they come and watch the kids in your room? If so....what were your overall thoughts on it?

Kathy

 

[praline3001]

We did this back in 2004 and LOVED LOVED LOVED IT!!!!!
We had a 3, 10 and 7 year old. The older 2 wanted to do E nights and the night parades and fireworks and the little one was NOT going to keep up!!!

We used the service EVERY evening we were there for our little one, ensuring the older 2 got to experience the night magic with out their screaming sister.

The sitter took her out of the room for a nice long walk around the AKL to see the animals and for story time in the lobby. She brought a ton of stuff for them to play with in the room, including bubbles, nail polish and princess spa stuff ... my daughter LOVED LOVED her sitter and thought of her more as her friend than a babysitter. The sitter bathed my daughter for me each night before bed and brushed her hair out and braided it (as my daughter loves to have her hair braided so it will be wavy in the morning)
I honestly can't say enough GOOD things about our sitter!!!! She would EVENTUALLY pop in a Disney movie for bed and let my daughter watch it until she fell asleep. The sitters ARE entertainers and don't prop your kid in front of the TV the entire time ... but she (she even asked us if it was okay) liked to settle them down for bed with a quiet movie.

The only issue I had was with the resort giving us a hard time about giving the sitter an extra key. It took us FOREVER at the front desk to get it approved the first night. This had nothing to do with the poor girl and everything to do with the resort.

If you have the cash to splurge for it, I would highly reccommend it!!! That way the little ones aren't out late in the parks and tired and grumpy. This gives your older kids/ parents a chance to ride all the big rides and see the night attractions... it also gives mom a HUGE break from carrying a stroller and toddler gear

 

[misscampbells]

Oh I had one more question: Do you tip the sitters and if so how much? I wasn't sure how it worked exactly with that.

Kathy

 

[praline3001]

Oh I had one more question: Do you tip the sitters and if so how much? I wasn't sure how it worked exactly with that.

Kathy

Yes we did tip her every night. Your supposed to tip the sitter. DH handled that part of telling her bye and all while I was getting the other 2 knuckleheads ready for bed as we usually were coming strait from the park and they were beat... so I am not sure exactly how much he tipped her.. I think 20% as she was REALLY great with our daughter. Both of us were feeling guilty for leaving her behind as this was a FAMILY trip but honestly I think she did better because of us leaving her. We would eat an early supper (5ish) and after that we would meet the sitter at our room to drop off the DD. At 3, my daughter could only handle sooo much go go go and excitement without having a melt down. She is really a good girl but Disney all day and into the night is a lot for any 3 year old.
You are like me with having an older one that is going to want to do the night stuff in the park. It gave DH and I some really great quality time with our 2 older boys!!
My DD and her sitter also blew bubbles in the room, one night we gave the sitter some money for our daughter and her to go eat a snack and buy something at the gift shop. The girl was so careful with the $30 we left her.. kept a reciept for everything we just wanted to make sure our DD was having as much fun.. at a slower more gentle pace than we were having in the park and weren't expecting a detailed reciept upon our return.

Also something I really liked about this service is the fact they make sure they send the same girl every time if you book it for more than 1 night. That way your daughter doesn't have to get used to a different person each time.
By the end of the week the sitter was more like family

 

[praline3001]

PS... I wanted to add this was the first and only time I had a non family member babysit my kids. I am really picky about that kind of thing and was not as thrilled as DH and DS's about it at first but after I saw how much fun she had the first night I agreed with the rest of the family that it was the best thing for her.

 

[tinkandpan]

We just returned in Sept and used them for the first time ever. They were terrific. We were staying at the CR and took my older ds to dinner at California Grill. I felt more comfortable for the first time usage to be on premises. The sitter they sent was totally professional, came with a bag of toys and my dd2 told me she had a fun time. THey went for a walk and grabbed some dinner at the grab n go. I did not have the sitter put her down to sleep as I knew we were going to be pretty early. The only thing the sitters will NOT do is participate in any sort of water activity. This means no swimming and now (which must have changed since the PP in 2004) they will not do baths.

They charged a 4 hour minimum and transportation cost of 10. In addition we tipped her 10 which was a little more than 10%

I

 

[Disney87]

delete

 

[dmonroe]

This will be our 4th year in a row to use them, so obviously, we LOVE them! Dh and I always like to take one night to have a nice relaxing dinner and stroll around Epcot. Our youngest still isn't old enough for the kids clubs, so we use KNO.

 

[marshallandcartersmo]

Just wondering if any of you that have used KNO can comment as to why you chose an outside agency rather than the ones at the Disney resorts? DH and I are thinking of using either an agency or dropping the boys off at one of the Disney clubs one night while we go out to dinner......

thanks

 

[praline3001]

Just wondering if any of you that have used KNO can comment as to why you chose an outside agency rather than the ones at the Disney resorts? DH and I are thinking of using either an agency or dropping the boys off at one of the Disney clubs one night while we go out to dinner......

thanks

From what I was told KNO is the service Disney uses for in room sitting. As the kid clubs will only takes kids 4 and up it makes it hard for us with little ones.
I was not aware Disney had an in room sitting service on the property, I thought KNO was contracted through Disney but I could be wrong.... its been known to happen

 

[marshallandcartersmo]

From what I was told KNO is the service Disney uses for in room sitting. As the kid clubs will only takes kids 4 and up it makes it hard for us with little ones.
I was not aware Disney had an in room sitting service on the property, I thought KNO was contracted through Disney but I could be wrong.... its been known to happen

Oh no, I meant why you didn't use the kids clubs instead of hiring an agency. I didn't realize KNO is contracted through Disney......I also didn't know it only takes kids 4 & up. I'm a little clueless all around then huh??

thanks

 

[CastleCreations]

We've used KNO, because there were no kids clubs at Pop. We loved them, very punctual, very personable, and we plan to use them again this weekend!! They were great.