Nanny for Trip

[palpluto]

Has anyone ever hired a nanny (not their regular nanny or a relative, but a travel nanny) for their Disney trip? How did you find the person? Cost? How was the experience?

 

[Schneewittchen37]

I've only used Kid's Nite Out to watch my two kids (DS9 and DD7) along with my friend's kids (FD9 and FS7) for an adult night out - maybe 6 hours or so while we did adult things at the Boardwalk.

The sitter watched the kids at our resort - Caribbean Beach back in April. They ate pizza in our room, went to the playground, tried to watch the fireworks from the hammocks on the "beach", ate snacks, watched TV and then collapsed. The kids loved the sitter and wanted us to hire another sitter for them for our next trip rather than go out to dinner with us.... I'll call that success.

With tip and everything, it was probably about $230 for the 4 kids. At home, my usual sitter will watch my 2 kids overnight for $80 cash. So, a bit pricier than usual, but worth it for me.

The adults had several cocktails at AbracadaBar, dinner at Trattoria al Forno with lots more wine and then we went to Atlantic Dance Hall were we got sloppy drunk. Highlight of the night - I got the DJ to play Salt-N-Pepa's "Push It". So proud of myself....

So the "experience" was awesome.

 

[TwinkleKS]

Do you want someone full time to be with your child at the resort while you are out in the parks or do you want someone to help you with the kids navigating the parks?

As the previous poster mentioned, if you want someone to babysit in the room ... go with Kids Night Out or a like service. If you want someone to help you with the kids navigating the parks and don't want to splurge on a Disney VIP guide, I would get one of the non Disney guides. I have used some in the pasts that are awesome with kids!

 

[siren0119]

Do you want someone full time to be with your child at the resort while you are out in the parks or do you want someone to help you with the kids navigating the parks?

As the previous poster mentioned, if you want someone to babysit in the room ... go with Kids Night Out or a like service. If you want someone to help you with the kids navigating the parks and don't want to splurge on a Disney VIP guide, I would get one of the non Disney guides. I have used some in the pasts that are awesome with kids!

To add to this - if you are thinking of using someone to bring the kids back to the hotel for naps while you stay in the parks, or bring the kids to the parks while you do other things - you would have to hire a private nanny for that. KNO will either watch the kids in the hotel room, or accompany you and your children to the parks (with you paying for their park ticket) to be an extra set of hands in the parks. They won't do pickup/dropoff with your kids for liability reasons.

 

[Klayfish]

When our kids were really young, we brought our live in au pair, which went so-so. When the twins were about 4 and my oldest about 7, we used one of the babysitting locating websites (either Sittercity or Care.com) to find a local babysitter. There were a bunch who applied, including several who were part time or full time CMs at WDW. After interviewing several, we picked one. The first few times, she came to our offsite rental house and watched the kids there. Once we get to know her, we started letting her take them around WDW with her. That was about 8 years ago, and she has watched the kids every trip thereafter and became a family friend. On our last WDW trip our oldest was 14 and the twins were almost 11 so we no longer needed a "babysitter". But we still had her come and hang out with them in the parks and then we all went to dinner together. So it has worked out fabulous.

 

[palpluto]

Do you want someone full time to be with your child at the resort while you are out in the parks or do you want someone to help you with the kids navigating the parks?

As the previous poster mentioned, if you want someone to babysit in the room ... go with Kids Night Out or a like service. If you want someone to help you with the kids navigating the parks and don't want to splurge on a Disney VIP guide, I would get one of the non Disney guides. I have used some in the pasts that are awesome with kids!

Thanks! This is something that was actually suggested to me. I am a pediatric nurse who does mostly newborn care in homes in the first weeks. I was discussing traveling to work with a family, when this WDW travel nanny was brought up. I have been to Disney a lot. I was just looking for family point of view and how they found the travel nanny. as I contemplated this idea.

 

[TwinkleKS]

Thanks! This is something that was actually suggested to me. I am a pediatric nurse who does mostly newborn care in homes in the first weeks. I was discussing traveling to work with a family, when this WDW travel nanny was brought up. I have been to Disney a lot. I was just looking for family point of view and how they found the travel nanny. as I contemplated this idea.

In that case I know several people (as well as me) that have traveled with their normal nanny or hired a college age student to travel with them to help with the children. That is all about setting expectations - do you get your own room, who pays for what, do you get any time off, do you do everything with the family, all of that. Normally, when I see people traveling with a nanny that isn't someone that they normally employ it is families that I know that go to Colorado (for example) for four or five weeks in the summer and take a college aged girl with them. I'm not sure about traveling with someone I've never worked with before (versus hiring someone there for a few hours, a night, etc.)