My son is on the cusp of Nursery versus Big Kids Club for most cruise lines. We took this cruise in early January and he turns three in early March. A couple weeks before the cruise he also mastered potty training. With all that stated, I knew he would still be required to be in the nursery. It's not safe to have an "almost" three year old in the same space as 12 year olds! I also believe that the cruise lines set their age groups set for specific reasons, they are not arbitrarily picked out of a hat. So we had him placed where Disney recommended, even though it cost us $9 an hour. It was well worth it to have a little it of kid-free time on our vacation.
Security
When we first boarded the ship we went right over to the nursery to be sure that all of the online registration information carried over. We had to fill out a few more forms in the nursery and they gave my son a band to wear for the duration of the cruise. If you've stayed at a Disney Resort in the last few years you'll recognize the band as a Magic Band. If you choose to keep the band at the end of the cruise it costs $12.95 and unlocks special features on the Disney Infinity game. My son was required to wear the band at all times... Yeah, right! It stayed on for about 10 minutes before he pulled it off. (You can see it on his wrist to the left). So we kept it in our bag at all times. When he would go in to the nursery program we'd strap it to his ankle. The band has all of his information stored on it. If there were an emergency, the nursery staff members will scan it and it tells them exactly which muster station to bring him to and who he belongs to! Each time we brought him or picked him up we had to give our secret password, sign papers and swipe the Magic Band.
General Experience
We had a very good experience with the nursery program. My son went on three different evenings after dinner, he also went once during the day so we could attend the mixology class, and we dropped him off one more time during the day so we could explore the ship a bit. Hubby headed to the gym and I went to the future cruise desk to ask some questions.
The ladies in the nursery were always happy and friendly. They knew my sons name after his first visit. Each time we dropped off or picked up we saw 3-4 cast members in the nursery with the children. They definitely keep to adult to child ratio low. My son would specifically ask to go to the kids club each day. This was a good sign to us, he liked it!
The ladies in the nursery were always happy and friendly. They knew my sons name after his first visit. Each time we dropped off or picked up we saw 3-4 cast members in the nursery with the children. They definitely keep to adult to child ratio low. My son would specifically ask to go to the kids club each day. This was a good sign to us, he liked it!
Sleeping
| The cast members will monitor your child for different things. If they see that they are sleepy they will have them lay down in a crib or cot. When we registered our son they ask us various questions about toilet training, sleep habits, food allergies, etc. My son took a nap on the day we had the mixology class. We went to pick him up and he had just laid down to sleep, so we left him there and had them page us when he woke up. We laugh because of the way they had paged us on the Wave Phone "Please collect your child!" |  |
Food
The nursery does have an option in which they will feed your child lunch or dinner if they are present during the set hours for meals. So if you wanted to head up to a specialty restaurant or take some time for the spa, your child won't go hungry! We did not use this option because we wanted our son to experience the fun of the dining rooms. If it were a longer cruise I would have definitely considered it. Our table mates at dinner use the meal service one night when they went to Palo rather than the main dining room. They said it was very convenient.
Availability
I reserved approximately nine hours of nursery time before the cruise. While on the ship we were able to adjust by adding and subtracting from certain days and times. I was also able to drop in one day with him, they checked their system and they had space for him. Our table mates also had their daughter drop in one night without any problems with availability. I am going to assume that cruises over any type of school holiday or break may be more crowded!
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