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We had heard about Royal Caribbean’s partnership with Fisher Price and Crayola and were excited to try out the Royal Babies and Royal Tots programs on our cruise in May. Maddie fit into the Royal Babies age group which contained babies 6-18 months old. I’m not sure that the two groups vary that much in activity as we accidentally attended one of the Royal Tots (18-36 months) sessions. I think that she may have liked it even better, but I don’t know if it varied at all from that day’s Royal Babies session.

Royal Caribbean makes the program sound more organized and educational than it really is, but we expected that going into the trip. The ship provided 3 activities for these age groups each day. In the morning, they had an hour long playgroup. They had a stroller walk late morning. In the late afternoon, they did a combined art session (Crayola Beginnings) followed by a story time.

Other Babies on the Cruise
Five other babies were in Maddie’s age range and five babies were in the Royal Tots age range. I believe that we saw many more younger children on this cruise than we did on our Alaskan cruise, which is not surprising. I was excited to meet the other babies through the Royal Caribbean organized programs.

Playgroups
We attended two of the playgroups – the ones that were offered on the “at sea” days. I think that the playgroups were offered each day, but we didn’t have time on port days to attend. These sessions consisted of the Adventure Ocean counselor providing toys which seemed to fit into the same theme.

The first session’s theme was animals which had toys that I felt were still good for Maddie though more suitable for younger kids. This makes sense since the starting age range is 6 months. Four total babies attended this session, and Maddie seemed a bit overwhelmed. She mostly sat in my lap and watched the other kids. The counselor would try to get the kids involved by showing them a toy and telling the kids about that toy. She did a pretty good job with that (and apparently they are required to have degrees in childhood education or similar). Maddie was the oldest in this age range and the only child walking.

The second session that we attended was in the Royal Tots slot, and she had a bunch of Little People in a sort of travel theme with airplanes and campers and such. None of the Royal Tots showed up for the session, but one of the other Royal Babies showed up. Maddie played a lot more this time and seemed to have fun with the familiar Little People toys.

Stroller Walk
This session is clearly intended to be a workout. Gabe and I were thinking more along the lines of a social visit with other parents. Only one other family attended the one session that we tried, and the same counselor had us “race” on the track on the 10th deck. Needless to say, we didn’t mind that the other “team” won. The race was only one lap, which I think is a quarter mile, but we all opted to go a second lap. I guess it’s fair to say that this wasn’t what we expected and it was a little disappointing. We didn’t get a chance to really chat much with the other parents, which is what would have been more interesting to me.

Crayola Beginnings
We attended both sessions on the at sea days. On the first day, Maddie was the only one who attended. She seemed to have fun playing with the Crayola Beginnings stamps and the crayons. They had butterflies for the kids to decorate. We had to help her do most of it as the stamps are a bit difficult for a one year old to press onto the paper. Lots of kids attended the last session! Some of the older kids were in attendance as well. This time they had some other shape (I think a ship) for the kids to decorate. I guess they also had some sort of postcard type thing with places that the kids could color in the lines. They had a few other art supplies this time, including these paintbrushes that had paint in the “stick.” Pretty neat, but much more suitable for older kids! The babies kept trying to eat the paint or got it all over their hands. The stuff is washable, but only to a certain extent (and I’ve seen firsthand that washable markers do not come out of clothing). I was irritated that it seemed like Maddie had another marker or paintbrush in her hand every time I turned around. I even snapped at Gabe and said, “don’t let her have the marker!! Geez, how hard is it to keep it from her!” Poor Gabe. Turns out that the counselor had given it to Maddie. I felt a little embarrassed later when Gabe told me what had happened, but I also felt like the counselor should know that markers and one year olds do not mix!

Story time
After the Crayola Beginnings session, the counselor would read one “bedtime” story. I can’t remember the first book, but the second one was I love you, Stinky Face. It was cute. The only problem is that the counselor had an accent, so even I had trouble understanding her sometimes! It didn’t really matter – the kids paid attention as best as one year olds can.