Nursery

[jeleadams]

Is this something you have to book in advance or is it something you book was on the ship?

 

[HooKooDooKu]

On board the ship, opens around 1-2 on departure day for reservations.

 

[jeleadams]

Where is the sign up?

 

[Serena6010]

You sign up at Flounders(5th level next to the buena Vista theater).

 

[justhat]

Just some stuff we noticed when we used Flounder's Reef in June for our then 3 month old daughter. It was often overcrowded, and though for kids almost 3 years old this isn't so bad, for infants it's a big problem since they need so much attention. We ended up not leaving her on 2 nights because they didn't even have enough staff for someone to check us in. After waiting 10 minutes, we told them we weren't leaving her. (We had signed her up for each night with the intention of leaving her there 30 minutes or so to get used to being away from Mommy so we could do dinner at Palo's the last night.) To avoid this, we changed her time to the earliest possible slot (6pm) on the night we did Palo's since it seems the crowd comes in around 8ish.

If your child sleeps, they are put in a separate room in the back with doors and are checked on every 20-30 minutes. Well, when the place is mobbed with toddlers, there's no way that they'd notice if your baby is crying in that back room. Not a problem for me as my daughter would never sleep in a crib anyway (not that I like that, but that's just how she is), but if your child does sleep in a crib, she could wake up or be in an uncomfortable position for quite some time before someone notices.

Also, when we did leave her to go to Palo's, we specifically told them to page us if she cried, since we saw a little boy, about 10 months old, in there everynight from 6-12 and he was always crying. We didn't want Madison to be there crying just so we could eat dinner, so we told them to page us and we'd come get her. We never got a page so we thought she was happy. Well we went to get her and she was in her travel swing (we brought it with us since we know she likes it), they said she had just fallen asleep and they didn't want to wake her so they asked me to go get her. When I went in this playroom in the back where she was sleeping in the swing,she was doing the sniffle breathing that babies do after they've been crying for a LONG time. I felt horrible for leaving her, but angry since they never paged me. They said she 'fussed a bit', but it was obvious she had done more than that. We've never left her with anyone since then and won't for a very long time.

Anyway, I won't say I hated Flounder's and would never use them again, but just never again with such a young baby. If my daughter were 1 or 2, I could handle her crying, but IMO 3 months is too young. So if you have a young infant keep that in mind.

 

[We Love the Mouse!]

We used flounder's last year on the New Year's cruise when our son was 5 months old. It worked great! We did not see any problem with overstaffing. The staff was very helpful and attentive. They greeted us each time we entered and always remembered my sons name. I don't think they leave the little ones sleeping in the back without attention. Someone always seemed to be quite close by. We ended up using Flounders for a couple hours everyday and we thought it was a great age to be able to do so. Actually the age that I think Flounders is tough for is the 2-3 yr olds. We went on a previous cruise just before my daughter turned 2 and she wasn't as keen on staying there. She was more independent. We will be going again this New Year's and will definetly use FLounder's again but then we will probably hold off cruising until my son turns 3 so he can go to the clubs. I am sorry the above poster did have a great expereince but sometimes expectations can be to high.

 

[justhat]

I worked in a daycare before my daughter was born, so I really didn't have high expectations. Though the child/CM ratio was higher than allowed in a DC daycare, it was 4-1 on the ship, though it was definitely higher than that on at least 2 nights. That's why I said it's better for 1 and 2 year olds, because they can handle a higher ratio since they do not need to be carried, held, fed, etc. like an infant does. The night we decided not to drop her off, another parent was waiting to check-in with her 2.5yo daughter, and she said it looked very crowded too and that they told her that if it gets overcrowded they bring in CMs from the Lab or Club. They may do this, but htey hadn't as of the time I was there so we left. Also, they didn't charge us for that night, probably because they were glad to have one less kid. Really though, when it comes to your child, should you have low expectations about childcare?

The reason I said they leave them sleeping unattended in cribs in the back is because they told us that. When we arrived the first night, my daughter had just fallen asleep so they said "You can put her in one of the cribs in the back room, pick any one you like." So I did, though I knew she'd wake up once I put her down, I figured I'd give it a try. While I was doing this, one of the CMs came back there with my husband and I and he asked her what they do with sleepers in these cribs and she said they were checked on every 20-30 minutes. I'm sure she would not have said this if it weren't true. This was the 1st night of the cruise and there was only 1 other baby there so at this time they were not understaffed so there would be no reason for her to say that if it weren't true. She woke up as soon as I put her down anyway so it wasn't an issue. My daughter liked it enough the first night as when we picked her up around 45 minutes later she was relaxed in a rocking chair with a CM. Like I said, though, that night wasn't crowded at all so I'm sure that made the difference. Also, every CM who worked there was very friendly and nice, I never encountered a rude one. I was very upset that they didn't page my when my daughter was crying for a long time, instead of just leavign her in the swing, but I really only attribute that to them being overcrowded and not having a chance to use the phone, as when I went in the room she was in to get her, a very nice CM was sitting next to her swing on the floor, with 5 or 6 other little ones in the room with her. We liked her a lot though and she really seemed to like my daughter, but they simply didn't have enough staff in there.