What if child falls asleep at dinner and....

[Stinasmom]

we don't want to call it a night yet?

We don't know yet if we have main or late seating for dinner (waitlisted for main). I have this vision of our DS4 falling asleep at dinner or elsewhere when we were planning on having the kids at the club that evening (so we could do grown up activites...). Can we still take him to the club, say around 9pm or 10pm if he is asleep? Will they accept him and just let us transfer him to a mat?

I guess we could wake him up and let him know where he is first..
Has anyone taken a sleepy (or sleeping) kid to the club so they could still get in some late night events?

 

[fairytalelover]

Dont they have babysitters on board who can sit with your kids in their room while they sleep so they can be comfortable? I wouldnt think they would be too comfortable sleeping on a mat in a room with a bunch of kids running around. Many Hotels have babysitter service.

 

[mommasita]

Dont they have babysitters on board who can sit with your kids in their room while they sleep so they can be comfortable? I wouldnt think they would be too comfortable sleeping on a mat in a room with a bunch of kids running around. Many Hotels have babysitter service.

No, they do not have this service....My daughter fell asleep a couple of times on the first cruise. We have some adorabel pictures to prove it...

I suppose you could bring them to the clubs, but we just called it a night..Especially if you have later seating (we did) as it may be almost 10pm at this point....

 

[HeatherH]

No, there is no private babysitting on DCL ships.

I don't know for sure about taking a sleeping child to the Club...if it is at a time when they have the mats out and are watching a movie I'm guessing it would be okay, but if it's earlier than that and they have the kids doing another activity, it might be an issue.

If you're really concerned, feed you son earlier (room service, fast food, or let him eat with the kids in the Club) and then he can just stay for the evening activities.

 

[jel0511]

Too follow up. There is no private sitting service on DCL, you need to use either of the group situations, the kids clubs or Flounder's Reef for kids under 3 and un-potty trained. As for bringing a sleeping child into the clubs, I don't know. They don't bring out the mats until 9:30, so before then there would be no where to sleep. Personaly, that late, I'd call it a night and bring back my child to the room, but that's just MO. We curently have late seating for our July cruise, but are wait listed for early. If we end up with late seating, the kids probably will never make it to the dining room. We'll feed them around 6 or so and drop them off with the clubs after. That way, we won't have to worry about them falling asleep during dinner and possibly not eating, or what to do afterwards.

 

[lbgraves]

DS fell asleep on our last cruise at dinner one night during early seating & DH went back to the room & got the stroller for him to rest in for the rest of the meal & while we walked around the ship before the show. He woke up before we sat down for the show. We also took him to the dining room in the stroller on two nights while he was sleeping & put him against the wall next to us out of the way until he woke up & joined us.

During different times during the late afternoon & early evening I have seen children sleeping on mats in the corner next to the small play area with the fish & octopus that they can climb on. It is out of the way & the kids who are playing didn't bother them. That could be a possiblity for you. The CMs could always page you if your DS woke up and you could be there in a matter of minutes.

 

[scrapperjill]

Just to add...once they do bring the mats out it's time to settle down (in the main club area)...all the kids have the choice to sit and quietly watch the movie..and drift off to sleep...or go to the other room for activites...so the kids aren't running all over the club...and disturbing those who are asleep or falling a sleep.

There were many many nights on our cruise that our dd fell asleep in the club...along with the many other kids in the room.

 

[hollydog]

DD5 fell asleep during dinner after spending the day on Castaway Cay. Since we were still eating and her face about fell in her plate, DH carried her up to the Club and they had mats for the kids to sleep on. There were other kids there also asleep and the CM told DH that they deal with sleeping kids all the time, especially after CC. It's not a big deal because the other kids that were awake were watching a movie. Hope that helps.

 

[Melrosgirl]

This is one reason I won't book a cruise unless I'm guaranteed main seating. I've done the waitlist thing before and it's a real pain to run around on the first day of the cruise and hope to get main seating.

 

[Stinasmom]

DD5 fell asleep during dinner after spending the day on Castaway Cay. Since we were still eating and her face about fell in her plate, DH carried her up to the Club and they had mats for the kids to sleep on. There were other kids there also asleep and the CM told DH that they deal with sleeping kids all the time, especially after CC. It's not a big deal because the other kids that were awake were watching a movie. Hope that helps.

This is exactly what I am anticipating! Thanks for providing a real life experience! After getting on the new DCL website today, I found that we are still assigned LATE dinner seating...Wait-listed for early, but who knows. I figure if we end up with late, I will only try to get the kids to join us for Formal night and Pirate night (and Animators pallet if it falls on a different night). We are a family who eats dinner together every night at home...a few nights of the kids getting chicken fingers or hot dogs earlier while mom and dad enjoy a restaurant experience alone later sounds kinda good!
Thanks everyone for your input!