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Independence of the Seas- Kids Daily Planners

12/10/2018

We sailed on the Independence of the Seas from December 6-10th, 2018. Here are all the daily planner sheets for the Adventure Ocean and Nursery programs. The sheets that they gave us were dated wrong, but the day by day (day 1, 2, and so on) info was correct.
A few things to note:

Adventure Dining was offered on Nights 2 and 3 only.
They initially allotted 8 hours to each family for the nursery. In the afternoon of Day 2 they opened it up to sign up for additional hours. They were easy and flexible to work with when wanting additional hours. There were reportedly 75 children between the ages of 6months and 3 years on the sailing.
Many of the evening family activities were offered at 5:15pm. Early dining was at 5:30pm. Making nearly impossible to do any of the organized family activities on this trip.

Royal Babies and Tots Nursery

Adventure Ocean Daily Planners

Harmony of the Seas- Aquanauts and Royal Babies & Tots

12/11/2017

Open Play

An area unique to the Oasis Class (Oasis, Allure, Harmony, Symphony) ships is the open play area in the center of the Adventure Ocean facility. This space has toys, both large and small, for children six months to 6 years. My kids used this a few times on the cruise. It's a nice option if your child wants to play inside, rather than in the sun/rain. It is unsupervised, so you need to remain there with the child(ren), and socks need to be worn, no shoes! My big guy kept playing with the giant Legos, and my little one was fascinated with the slide as you can see in the final picture on the right (below) ;) The hours are 9 am-10 pm, so it's a nice chunk of the day that the kids can use it.

AquaNauts

Aquanauts is the room for kids ages 3-5. My older son was part of this group during our trip.

He went each night for Adventure Dining (5-7pm). We dropped him off at the room before 5 pm and they took the kids up to the Windjammer Buffet and served pizza, chicken nuggets, and french fries. While repetitive, this works for MOST kids. It worked for him until the final night when he said: "I don't want to eat the same thing again!"

From 7 pm-10 pm he attended the evening sessions back in the Aquanauts room with organized activities. If you check out my other post about Adventure Ocean, I have scanned and posted each day's events for all Adventure Ocean groups. Not just Aquanauts. He had a lot of fun. They had everything from Circus school, face painting, hero capes, science experiments, art projects and more.

In the Adventure Ocean complex there are a few specialty rooms as well. They have a full Science Lab and Art Studio, as well as a theater for their black-light puppet show and movie screenings. This is, by far, the most exciting kids club I've ever seen on a ship!

Royal Babies & Tots

Our, almost, one year old went to the Royal Babies & Tots Nursery on every night. Sometimes we sent him during dinner, and we always sent him while we went to shows. The remaining time on the cruise he was with us. Cost is $6 an hour before 6 pm and $8 an hour after 6 pm. The nursery bill was the biggest chunk of our onboard charges. However, having some kid-free time on vacation was a nice touch.

We've used the nursery onboard a few other Royal Caribbean and Disney cruises in the past. On this trip, I wasn't overly impressed, but they kept the kids safe and happy. That's the main point. Is it the ideal environment I would want my kid in back home for daycare? No. They seemed to be overwhelmed with the number of kids. They maxed out at eight babies at a time, but when four cried at once, I can understand the challenge. There were a few extreme criers that did make it challenging for the nursery workers. We saw a lot of the babies in their strollers in front of the TV while the women were tending to the kids who needed attention.

My younger son went nightly, so he was always asleep 30 minutes after dropping him off. They kept him in his stroller for sleeping, which made getting him back to the room a snap! On the two occasions we sent him before dinner, they had me answer questions about what he could eat, and they fed him shredded chicken, mashed potatoes, and carrots. They changed diapers, gave bottles, and did their best to ensure that each child was safe and happy. I will use the service again on our next Royal cruise (right now that's next December on the Independence)

Liberty of the Seas- Third time's the charm...

1/12/2015

2014

We've sailed on the Liberty of the Seas a total of three times. For our one year anniversary in 2010, as a babymoon/3rd anniversary (I was pregnant) in 2012, and the most recent time was this past November for our 5th anniversary. We sailed with a large group: our family, my mom, my in-laws, brother-in-law, his wife, their two kids, and their friends plus THEIR daughter! Any day on vacation beats a day in the office, so I don't want it to sound like a huge downer, but it was the least enjoyable of our three experiences on the ship. Maybe it was the turnover on the ship- the day we boarded the ship had just returned from a transatlantic cruise. there is a lot of extra paperwork and processing for the crew on those days. I am sure they were burnt out! Here is a run-down of the experiences.

2010

2012

Royal Babies and Tots Nursery
The Liberty runs their nursery different than Enchantment and Brilliance. They have booking hours all day long. Which in a sense is good, parents did not have to conform to the set schedule for dropping the children off. On Brilliance they had evening hours only. The Liberty gives the ability to drop the little ones off in the day if you're going to lay by the pool for some adult time or even get off the ship child-free for a little bit. The nursery did not offer any "open play." The program set up some toys in a lounge on the very top deck on the final day of the cruise, but it just wasn't the same as having my son play in the actual room with all of the regular toys in the nursery. Plus it was only offered on the last day of the cruise. We never used the nursery on this trip because we had both sets of grandparents with us. My mom even took him overnight once so we could see a show and do our own thing. As you can see in the photos below, the Liberty nursery is significantly smaller than the Brilliance nursery, but still larger than the one on Enchantment. Click the photos to enlarge them.

Onboard Fun
This was the first time we were able to bring my little guy in the pool on a cruise ship. Liberty of the Seas has a small section in the H20 Zone for diapered kiddos. So we strapped on his swim diaper and swim diaper cover and let him play. He LOVED it. It was small, but what more does a 20 month old really need?! There were a few other little ones in there with him and they all had a blast.

Being that this was my son's 3rd Royal Caribbean cruise he was given Crayola Twistables as a "Welcome Back Gift." While Royal Caribbean cut out welcome back gifts for most Crown & Anchors levels a few years back, they still give the kids a gift. Just a note, my 4 and 5 year old nieces also received the Twistable Crayons, so it is not age specific.

My mom was staying in a Promenade view room. It overlooks the Royal Promenade. It's a great alternative to spending more money on oceanview or balcony rooms. My son loved to sit on the window seat and watch all the action below. See the photo of him with my mom below.

I have no photos of this next event, because it took place in the dark! On the last sea day, Adventure Ocean offers a puppet show in the dark, with blacklights. It is called ImagineOcean. It was held in the lounge at the forward end of the Promenade. Kids and adults of all ages enjoyed it. The show was about 30 minutes long and included sea creatures singing and teaching manners. It was a bit "Nemo-esque." Very cute and be sure not t skip it if you have young kids!

Belize
This was our second visit to Belize. The first time we took a trolley tour around the main city area. This time we decided to walk around the shops at the port. We had a fresh cut coconut with some rum added to the coconut water once they cut it open for us. WOW! After our coconut drink we ventured in to the shops where the was free wifi. We used the free wifi in connection with an app I recently downloaded- WePhone. I bought $5 worth of minutes before leaving the US. The rates are a penny a minute for regular or 1.5 cents a minute for premium. This allowed my husband to call his employees and check on his business. It worked pretty well for what it was. There was about a 1-2 second delay in sound, but no big deal for a penny a minute!

Cozumel
We have been to Cozumel 10 times. Yes, that's a lot. I think it makes me an expert what what there is to do there. This time we chose to head over to Playa Mia Beach Club. There are options in which you can pay just to use the facilities, food, drink, etc. We chose to just pay for entry fees. We didn't plan to stay very long because we were unsure of how long my son would tolerate it. It's a great place, I'd love to go back when my son is a bit older though. The kids pool was downright cold. very few kids played in it due to the temperature. My son actually started to turn blue in the lips and fingers. We had to warm him up in the sun. There are plenty of evens going on all day. They even let the little ones hit the pinata a few times! Check out the photos to see all it has to offer!

Changing Rooms & Excursions

10/28/2014

We were in no hurry to wake up, as it was another sea day. Just like Monday, I took my son to the play group in the nursery while my husband went to the gym. They had arts and crafts again today. He was able to paint on a fish, but he opted for coloring again. I told you he likes to color!

After play and art we had lunch, then nap time. Cruising with a young child certainly changes up your entire cruise routine! Thankfully my mom has offered to come along on our cruise in November to help us out. While my son napped I started thinking about the excursion we had chosen, I wasn’t sure of it.. Hop On Hop Off Bus and Reversing Falls Rapids via train. I talked it over with hubby and decided we’d switch to something else. It sounded like fun when we bought it, but as time got closer I wasn’t so sure.

Since the Shore Excursion desk was closed I thought I would check on our room situation. Guest Services finally had a solution. They would move us to the room that suddenly opened up. So they have me a key to check and see if it would be acceptable. Well Key #1 didn’t work. I went back to Guest Services. Key #2 didn’t work. I was getting annoyed. Key #3 finally worked. I checked it out and it was identical to our current room but on the other side, port, room 7148. So I ran over to our room and spoke with my husband. We decided to move. It was a good decision because our son slept soundly every night after that! Boy was it a PAIN to pack up our entire room. We “move in” on a cruise. We use all the drawers, hangars, etc. They sent a guy with a cart but my husband told him we didn’t need help. That didn’t go over well with me. We needed the help!

I went down to the Shore Excursions desk at 4 (when they reopened for the day) and switched to St Martins & the Sea Caves. I had been told about this being a great experience so I was looking forward to it. My son would probably think the caves were neat.

Day Two, First Sea Day

10/22/2014

We slept in a bit this day because it was a sea day. We did a whole bunch of nothing! Well, actually I brought our son to the nursery at 10am for Play Group. Play Group is when a Nursery staff member is in the room, but parents must still stay with their child. I think it’s more of a secretarial time where parents can meet the nursery staff, sign up for hours, ask questions, etc. Hubby went to the gym and met us there during the next session. At 11am is “Art.” The project they had planned… coloring. Older kids would probably think it is lame, but my son loves to color! So she brought out the crayons, coloring sheet, and a tray. This kept him busy for a long time, then he played with the toys in the room. We talked with Chelsea about the nursery. She explained that she had to fly to Miami for an intense week long training to be certified to work in the onboard nursery. In the US they can change diapers, but any cruises leaving from the UK they cannot change diapers.

We had lunch in the Windjammer, shocker, and then headed back to the room for a family nap!

After family nap time we watched some TV, yes we are the weirdos who watch TV and even order a movie or two on a cruise. My son had fun playing on the balcony, point and yelling “WA-LA!” That would be water in his language ;)

I stopped by the nursery to pick up a bag of toys. Despite the fact that Royal Caribbean no longer has a relationship with Fisher Price, they still have toy lending available. So Chelsea got a bag together for us and we brought it to the room so Junior would have a few things to play with. I read the card attached to the bag and was very worried about the cost of replacing the items if lost. I was basically a nut case every time my son played with the toys. I kept all pieces accounted for to ensure we didn’t have to pay $150!

Royal Babies & Tots Nursery- Drop Off

10/22/2014

We headed back to our room to find that the pack n play had been set up for us. We made a bag for my son with diapers, wipes, his monkey blanket (attachment toy), a snack, and water in his sippy cup. We brought him up to the nursery. We were going to attempt to leave him in their care for an hour or two so we could spend some time together. Nikki (Nicolita from Croatia) and Chelsea (from Kansas) were there. We signed him in and they gave us a cell phone. I wish I had taken a picture of it as it’s not a smart phone, just a late 90s/ early 2000s cell phone called a Dect Phone. It uses the ship’s signal and can only call other locations on the ship.

We handed our son’s bag over to the ladies and then they opened the gate for my son to go in. He ran toward the toys, but as soon as he saw the gate close behind him he began to cry. My son has had a regression of sorts.

At 15 months old I started my life as a stay at home mom. Within a month my son became attached to me. It was difficult to leave him with anyone because he’d cry. In the middle of August I started sending him to a Parents Morning Out program for 2 hours once a week. We knew this would be a challenge on the cruise and we wanted to prepare him for it. About 20 minutes after dropping him off in the nursery the cell phone rang, my heart sank, I immediately started to worry what could have gone wrong. It was Nikki, she said that they gave him his monkey and a snack and he stopped crying. He was being a little wimper-y but doing just fine and that we should enjoy our evening. I appreciated that she called to let us know he did finally calm down. Hubby and I just wandered the ship and I took some more photos.

Royal Babies & Tots- Brilliance

10/20/2014

After eating lunch we decided to walk around the ship so I could take all my pictures. My final count from this trip was about 1200, so I’ll spare you the torture. I will posts photos of the ship based on events that we attended or other things I will mention.

After touring around we decided to stop in to the Nursery/ Adventure Ocean to register our son. We peeked in to the Royal Babies & Tots Nursery and then went around the corner in to the Adventure Ocean area to get him set up. It appears to me that each ship staff gets to make its own hours for the nursery. On Enchantment they varied between “Drop Off” and “Open Play” throughout the day. On this cruise there were no “drop off” times during the day, only nights. I have provided a photo of the hours in case anyone is interested. Later in the cruise I had asked one of the nursery staff members why and she said that they get very few children on the ship until it gets down to Tampa. There were exactly 20 souls under the age of 18 on this specific voyage. Five of which were in my son’s age group. He was the ONLY baby/tot that ever used the nursery this week. Both drop off and open play! We saw the other babies and toddlers throughout the week. Three of them didn’t even know there was a program for the under 3 crowd.

Royal Babies & Tots Evening Experience

7/20/2014

After we were done wandering we decided to go back to the nursery to pick up my son. We approached the door and there was another "babies sleeping" sign up. Of course it was my son

We supplied both the yellow and white blanket as well as his monkey lovey. (The small thing in his hands.) They change the sheet on the cot with each child's use. There were two other babies in there at the time. One in a crib and the other playing on the floor. Two women were working the nursery at this time as well.

Overall I was very happy with the nursery. I felt that the women working in the room were competent, caring, and friendly. They were always engaged with the kids when we saw them.

We went back to the room, packed up, and went to sleep. Getting off the ship wasn't difficult. I think we were off by 9:30am. We got back to our car within 20 minutes. The driver from the Radisson was really nice, he dropped each family off at their personal cars, unloaded the suitcases from the bus, and even put our suitcases in our SUV for us. Overall I HIGHLY recommend the Radisson Resort at the Port parking option in Canaveral!!

Royal Babies & Tots- Open Play

7/11/2014

After my son's nap we planned to go to the Royal Babies & Tots open play. This is a time that the nursery is open for parents to go with their child to play with the toys in the room. It is not a supervised session.

By the time he woke up there was about 45 minutes left. So we made our way upstairs. All three of us had fun!

My son is very active. He's a climber. So this soft-foam mat and wedge were great for him. We recently signed him up for a toddler gymnastics class in our area because he just loves to climb and tumble!! We were the only people in there during this time. There may have been people in there earlier in the day, but during the last hour or so we had the place to ourselves!

We're excited that our New England cruise is on a ship with the Royal Babies & Tots Nursery as well. It really is a great space to let your toddler burn off some energy.

Sleeping Babies

7/6/2014

So I scrambled up the stairs. I had no patience to wait for an elevator with a crowd waiting at it's doors. I run up to the door and there is a sign posted... I can't read it from the elevator, so I get closer and...

So I quietly open the door to the nursery. The lights are dim. Two children are playing on the floor on the mats quietly. I don't see my son. Oh no they've thrown him out!

No no no, one of the ladies working pointed on the other side of the half-wall by the cribs.

He was asleep! I took off my sandals and tip toed over to the nap area. He was curled up with a blanket, sleeping peacefully. The nursery staff member told me I could let him keep resting and they would page the beeper when he woke up if I wanted to come back then. I opted to take him with me. We had dinner reservations for 5:30pm and I didn't want him freshly awake and crabby at dinner.

Upon leaving the nursery they gave me a paper that provided me all the details from his stay. Diaper changes, foods he ate, toys he played with, his demeanor, etc. It was very nice. His daycare here at home gives us a similar sheet at the end of each day. I was very happy to see two adults with three children. That's better than the mandated ratio in Florida of 4 children to 1 adult.

It cost $6 an hour during the day. The total charge was $24 for him to be there from a little after noon to a little after 4pm. They swiped my SeaPass right there and had me sign a receipt.

Nassau, Bahamas

7/2/2014

This was the first time I've ever been to Nassau and we got a front parking spot. It was very nice. Convenient especially considering the issue we ran in to later in the day. We hung out on the balcony after the Crown & Anchor party. As I said earlier in the review, my son loved the balcony. It was entertaining for him and equally safe because it was contained yet he could see the ocean and Nassau from the space. He's at the right age that he can't get in to any real trouble like climbing over the rail so it worked out great.

We've been to Nassau more than enough times, so we planned to stay on the ship and use the spa.

We had booked my son in to Royal Babies & Tots for noon. This would give us time to explore the ship a bit before our 1pm appointments. We arrived at RB&T (the Nursery) at noon. The woman there asked if he had eaten lunch, at this point we were under the impression that they would feed him lunch. When we told her no she said she would suggest we feed him because they only have crackers and juice in the nursery on this particular ship.

So we went up to the buffet and quickly fed him. Then went back down to the nursery to check him in.

Our original plans were to get massages and then lay by the pool. But it wasn't a nice day. Rain and dark clouds seemed to be the only thing in sight. SO we changed our plans to massage and a quick trip off the ship to see if we could find good deals on perfume and makeup.

After the spa we decided to head off the ship for a quick trip. We were done with our massages at 2ish and we had my son in the nursery until 4pm. We got off as it was sprinkling, but not pouring. We took each other's picture with the ship behind us, a tradition.

We headed over to Bay Street. My mom was looking for a specific Sugar Cane Brandy by Mt Gay Rums. They no longer make it, so she's probably never going to find it. But she never gives up hope. She compared liquor prices on the ship vs Nassau. She was upset because they were "Costco prices." Meaning she could buy the liquor for the same price at Costco.

We headed back over to Festival Place. The line to get back on the ship was enormous! I have never seen it so bad. I've been to Nassau on some of the largest ships, when every berth was full, and there still wasn't a line this long. It went out the doors of the building! There were actually two lines, so where the two lines merged there was a huge bottleneck jam and it took us nearly 45 minutes to get back to the ship. I was panicking because my son was on the ship. I normally wouldn't just leave my kid behind, but we only planned to be on Bay St and then get right back on. Normally its a two minute thing to go through security.

So we finally got to the checkpoint where we show our ID and SeaPass and I glance at the clock. I'm getting really nervous. I have this thing. I have to be early for everything. If I show up on time I feel like I am late. Yes, it bothered me that we didn't get on the ship right away on Friday also!! So the fact that we were down to the wire of when I needed to pick up my son made me full of anxiety. When I'm anxious I get crabby. It's not good. I won't leave him in the nursery ever again when getting off the ship because it really bothered me. Okay, some of you might be thinking "This girl is nuts. She left her kid on the ship and now she's freaking out about her son being in the nursery past the assigned time." Yes, I realize they weren't going to throw my 15 month old out the door of the nursery if I wasn't there at exactly 4pm. I know the ship wasn't leaving anytime soon either. I still need to be on time. I don't care about flexibility sometimes. It's a flaw. I'm sure someone out there understands my craziness.

Getting on the Ship and Exploring the Nursery

6/18/2014

Security
Going through security was a hassle. I had a large bag, smaller cooler for my son's drinks, and a stroller, along with my son. They separated my mom and I for some reason. She was told to go through the machines on the left, I was sent on to the right. So I struggled with taking everything apart to go through security. They searched the cooler and questioned me what was in his cups...Um, toddler formula! I think the woman thought I was smuggling alcohol on. My son ran off in the other direction when I took him out of the stroller, I was reprimanded for leaving my bag and stroller behind when going after him. I think the woman that was doing the checks in my line just didn't like kids. She gave me a hard time. Made me collapse my stroller to put through the xray even though it was empty. On a side note, I have flown 3 times with my son and cruised once previously with him. This was by FAR the most frustrating experience with security with my travels. I completely understand why there is security and I am not debating that, I just felt like the woman was picking on me. A number of things I don't feel like listing, for the sake of time, also went on. Once I was on the ship I had realized that my son's hat, sunscreen, and snacks must have been left back at security. I didn't want to deal with the lady again. A crew member onboard told me it would all be there when we return on Monday morning and I could collect it then.

MTD
Check in was very quick. We were on within minutes. I went right to the dining room to check on our MTD reservations. I had made them in advance, but when our cabin number changed our reservations disappeared from the website. The lady at the desk confirmed that our 5:30pm reservations were in fact still there. We chose 5:30 because we felt it would be calm and empty to eat with my son.

Royal Babies & Tots
We went right up to Adventure Ocean to fill out the paperwork and register my son with Royal Babies & Tots. Caution: the girls that work in Adventure Ocean don't know the facts when it comes to the Nursery. They told me that the children will be given food (lunch & dinner) in there so I should be specific about food allergies (which my son has). This is not correct. The nursery only has juice and crackers, it is a parent's responsibility to feed their kids!

Later in my review I will tell you all about the nursery services and open play.

Here are photos of the Enchantment Nursery.

At first I thought it was stupid to have the nursery right next to the arcade. But surprisingly they have insulated the walls well and the sounds cannot be heard in the nursery.

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