Small World Nursery on Fantasy

[CTCruiser221]

First time on Fantasy in a couple months, and first time cruising with kids (will be 17 month old twins). Just have a few questions.

We want to book the "Kick Start Tasting" taking place at the Senses Spa Juice Bar, but it is scheduled at times before the ships leaves on embarkation day. I think the Small World Nursery is only open for Open House at that time (and not for actual drop off), but I may be mistaken? If so, please let me know.

Would we be able to take the babies with us to the "adults only tasting" in the Senses Spa Juice Bar? Honestly, at that time, they would probably be napping in the stroller. I know kids are allowed in the spa area during open house with parents, and I'm assuming it would be okay for them to be there since this tasting takes place during the open house hours. Has anyone had any experience with this?

Also, I've seen some Personal Navigators that list a closing time of 11pm and others that list 12am for the Small World Nursery. Is there a reason why sometimes it closes later on one cruise over the other? How strict are they with closing time? For my particular cruise, it looks like the nursery closes at 11pm (based on what I can reserve online). Wishful thinking - I'm hoping the babies will be asleep at the nursery while we enjoy the adult entertainment at night, and wanted to see if it would be possible to maybe have a nightcap at one of the fun bars onboard. Most of the nightly adult entertainment ends around 11pm, so would they account for that at the nursery regarding pick up?

Thank you for your help. Looking forward to our first real family vacation, but just want to have realistic expectations too.

Thank you!

 

[lspst8]

I haven’t done that exact tasting on the Fantasy, but I was at a Mixology where someone wanted bring their infant to the class, and they were not permitted to do so. I know on my cruise last month there was a champagne tasting on embarkation afternoon at 2 pm that some people were sad they couldn’t book because there is no secure childcare prior to the muster drill.

Depending on what time you book your twins in the nursery, there is plenty of time to have a drink in any of the bars. My husband and I really like to grab drinks around 7:30pm - there is usually a trivia session going on the pub, but the other bars will be open, some with live music. To be honest, a lot of the evening game shows are really crowded and loud, and it’s more fun to have a drink in the champagne bar or Skyline where there are usually fewer people.

 

[cdoc29]

As I recall the nursery does not have 'open house' It has been two + years since I used them but as I recall they were open day one after the muster drill for drop off. Just remember their is a per hour fee for the nursery and they have limited space. I do know you can prebook 10 hours of nursery time in advance (when your excursion/onboard activity booking window opens) so you'll know before the cruise if it is a possibility.

 

[James G]

First time on Fantasy in a couple months, and first time cruising with kids (will be 17 month old twins). Just have a few questions.

We want to book the "Kick Start Tasting" taking place at the Senses Spa Juice Bar, but it is scheduled at times before the ships leaves on embarkation day. I think the Small World Nursery is only open for Open House at that time (and not for actual drop off), but I may be mistaken? If so, please let me know.

Would we be able to take the babies with us to the "adults only tasting" in the Senses Spa Juice Bar? Honestly, at that time, they would probably be napping in the stroller. I know kids are allowed in the spa area during open house with parents, and I'm assuming it would be okay for them to be there since this tasting takes place during the open house hours. Has anyone had any experience with this?

Also, I've seen some Personal Navigators that list a closing time of 11pm and others that list 12am for the Small World Nursery. Is there a reason why sometimes it closes later on one cruise over the other? How strict are they with closing time? For my particular cruise, it looks like the nursery closes at 11pm (based on what I can reserve online). Wishful thinking - I'm hoping the babies will be asleep at the nursery while we enjoy the adult entertainment at night, and wanted to see if it would be possible to maybe have a nightcap at one of the fun bars onboard. Most of the nightly adult entertainment ends around 11pm, so would they account for that at the nursery regarding pick up?

Thank you for your help. Looking forward to our first real family vacation, but just want to have realistic expectations too.

Thank you!

My twins will be 22 months when we go in April. I was wondering how things turned out for your children? I'm not sure how mine will do and don't know if we will be able to use the nursery because we believe they will cry non-stop.

 

[KT2038]

My twins will be 22 months when we go in April. I was wondering how things turned out for your children? I'm not sure how mine will do and don't know if we will be able to use the nursery because we believe they will cry non-stop.

Even if they do cry, we won’t call you right away. We will try everything we can to calm and distract them first. It’s so much fun and there’s so much to see and do in the Nursery so they may be ok!

 

[MomOTwins]

My twins will be 22 months when we go in April. I was wondering how things turned out for your children? I'm not sure how mine will do and don't know if we will be able to use the nursery because we believe they will cry non-stop.

My toddler did cry nonstop the first cruise and they did try to sooth him for around 30 minutes, but he just wouldn't settle down so I was called to picked him up. Tried around 3/4 times over the course of the cruise and it was just a total bust every time. Hope you have better luck! My older twins always entertained each other and did better with sitters as a result so maybe having each other in there will help. They did not charge us for the nursery time I had booked but was not able to use, but unfortunately there were incidental costs as well so in hindsight I wished I hadn't tried to do anything nonrefundable on the assumption of having nursery available (e.g., bingo tickets I had to give to the next able over; having to leave the spa early)--so my recommendation is don't plan anything during nursery time that you wouldn't be willing to walk away from. The good thing is same kid, next year, we tried again and he did much better and would stay an hour or two at a time, and we actually ended up booking extra nursery time over the course of the cruise.

 

[CTCruiser221]

My twins will be 22 months when we go in April. I was wondering how things turned out for your children? I'm not sure how mine will do and don't know if we will be able to use the nursery because we believe they will cry non-stop.

Surprisingly, my twins were amazing on our cruise. Embarkation day was probably the most stressful, but we were actually able to do everything we planned. We were allowed to bring our napping (thankfully) twins in their stroller for the “Kick Start” tasting at the spa juice bar. If they weren’t napping, I think they would have been okay to be there, as I think I remember seeing an older child sitting with her family, but it would have just been uncomfortable for us as they were just cranky right before.

They were great in the nursery. We only got one text that they were fussy (because they had finished their yogurt, but wanted more), but we were close by to check in on them, and by that time they were fine.

Best advice I can give is to try to keep them on schedule as much as possible. Utilize the nursery for their nap times, and bed times at night. Luckily, our twins fell back asleep in our cabin after picking them up at nursery closing times. We were able to enjoy some time at the adult pool, ride the water slide, and enjoy some of the late night adult entertainment.

If there is anything more specific you’d like to ask, I’d be happy to answer. Don’t be afraid to have a plan, but just be flexible. We were planning on seeing the shows with the twins every night, but that first night after getting to theater early to get good seats, it was apparent they were not going to sit still, so we ran them up to the nursery, and they were able to take them in earlier than we had scheduled that first night. The nursery staff was great, and I’m confident that ALL of us had an amazing cruise experience.

 

[James G]

Surprisingly, my twins were amazing on our cruise. Embarkation day was probably the most stressful, but we were actually able to do everything we planned. We were allowed to bring our napping (thankfully) twins in their stroller for the “Kick Start” tasting at the spa juice bar. If they weren’t napping, I think they would have been okay to be there, as I think I remember seeing an older child sitting with her family, but it would have just been uncomfortable for us as they were just cranky right before.

They were great in the nursery. We only got one text that they were fussy (because they had finished their yogurt, but wanted more), but we were close by to check in on them, and by that time they were fine.

Best advice I can give is to try to keep them on schedule as much as possible. Utilize the nursery for their nap times, and bed times at night. Luckily, our twins fell back asleep in our cabin after picking them up at nursery closing times. We were able to enjoy some time at the adult pool, ride the water slide, and enjoy some of the late night adult entertainment.

If there is anything more specific you’d like to ask, I’d be happy to answer. Don’t be afraid to have a plan, but just be flexible. We were planning on seeing the shows with the twins every night, but that first night after getting to theater early to get good seats, it was apparent they were not going to sit still, so we ran them up to the nursery, and they were able to take them in earlier than we had scheduled that first night. The nursery staff was great, and I’m confident that ALL of us had an amazing cruise experience.

How old were your twins? Thanks for the advise. Maybe I'll utilize the nursery for naps.

 

[CTCruiser221]

They were 17 months at the time. Granted, we were only on a 3-night (trial) cruise, but we would definitely go on a longer cruise with them now.

Some background at the time - they were fully on table food, with milk in the morning and before bed. We ate every meal with the kids, but they had snacks and milk at nights at the nursery. They’ll feed them full meals in the nursery if you’d like.

My twins were on a 2 nap schedule at the time (but could manage with 1). I think every time at the nursery we always specified what time they should go down. The nursery staff changed them into pajamas at night, and into their swimsuits after a morning nap, and before taking them onto Castaway Cay.

On embarkation day, go up to the nursery to register them first thing so you don’t have to do it later.