Aoumd

Thank you everyone! Our plans changed and so we ended up on a different cruise and line for next year but this is great info to have if we can make things work with my wife’s cousin on NCL in the future!

Excellent, thank you!

Thanks this is reassuring! My concern was basically whether or not my son would be the only kid in the Stingrays group (ages 6-8) at Camp Ocean for many of the programs, or if there would be at least a few other kids on a typical day in the program.

So I'm looking at my cruise options for next year, and in addition to the usual suspects, see some 10-day and 11-day cruises from San Francisco to Alaska in August. My son (will be 7) LOVES playing with other kids in Camp Ocean and also is very social. My question is: Have any families done this cruise before, and are there more than a handful of families on these longer Alaska itineraries? On the one hand, the 10/11-day length and smaller Spirit Class size of ship might mean fewer families and kids on board. On the other hand, in early-to-mid August, many schools across the US are still on summer vacation (ours doesn't start up again until the last week of August), so it's still a school break week (or two). Curious what to expect in terms of passenger mix if we decide to make this our family vacation next year. Thanks for any advice you can provide!

After 10 cruises on Carnival and Royal Caribbean, my wife asked me about joining her cousin's family on NCL Bliss for the kids' spring break week next year. My son (will be 7) LOVES Camp Ocean on Carnival and will thus probably want to spend as much time in Splash Academy as possible -- especially with the reviews I have seen. When doing some homework on sailing NCL, I saw some comments about Splash Academy filling up quickly, sometimes turning away kids just 5-10 minutes after opening. Is this commonplace? Or was this a temporary issue due to staffing that has been resolved? Thanks in advance for any info!

Thanks for the info...I seem to recall a place within the port complex that overlooked the water and the ships. But good to know Chankanaab also is a possibility!

Do the waitstaff do their performances every night, or just certain nights? Also, does anyone have recent experience with the massage place in the port on Cozumel? When I was there in 2019, you could get a massage outside by the water in the Carnival port area for significantly less than on-board. Curious if that's still the case, as I tend to like to get my back un-bricked during vacations :-).

Thanks for finding that from the website. Sounds like the letter must be signed but doesn’t have to be notarized. Makes things a little easier.

Thank you everyone for your feedback and experiences!

Tampa to Cozumel and return.

Sailing with my DS6 later this month on a father son cruise. I remember reading in the past some parents got notarized letters from the parent not traveling, indicating permission for the child to leave the country with the parent traveling, for their cruises where one parent but not both were traveling. I asked my PVP who I booked through and she said it is not necessary. Can anyone share experiences with needing the letter or not? We’re US citizens on a closed loop cruise from and returning to a U.S. port, so the only time we clear a border formality will be coming BACK into the US. We’re traveling with our passports. Thanks!

Thanks for the info, sounds great!

Just registered my son for Camp Ocean as part of the cruise check-in process, and was curious when the activities start. In the past I recall embarkation day being when kids would get registered on board, with activities starting the following morning...but this was in 2019 on a six-night cruise. My son and I are sailing on a four night cruise on the Paradise in a few weeks, and I was curious if they do the kids' dinner or evening activities on the first night of the cruise. My son will be a Stingray this time, he was a Penguin in 2019. My son has fond memories of Camp Ocean from 2019, so I was curious when that fun could start for him. Any info would be great. Thanks!

Thanks for the info!

First cruise since 2019, taking my son on the Paradise for four nights. Memory is a little rusty on a few things and I know others have changed, so wanted to ask the experts here... For a four-night cruise, when do the Camp Ocean activities start? I recall in the past signing my son up for Camp Ocean on the first day, but programs not starting until the second morning. Is that the case on a four night cruise? And what were the program hours on the sea days and port days (e.g. all day port call in Cozumel)? Do any families here have recent experience with (or programs from) Camp Ocean on the Paradise or Elation? My son LOVED Camp Ocean on the Vista in 2019, but I realize we're on a smaller ship this time and I want to manage expectations accordingly. My son would be in the Stingray group. Curious how similar vs. different the activities and experience is in Camp Ocean on the smaller vs. larger Carnival ships. If one "only" has Gold VIFP and does not purchase FTTF, but selects a check in right at T-14 days when check in opens, any odds on getting an earlier (i.e. 11am or 12 noon) boarding time? Debating going to the Tampa Children's museum before boarding if we get stuck with a late embarkation time, will make a decision once we know our actual boarding appointment time. Conversely, if one is doing self-assist debarkation, what is the latest time one can get breakfast and get off the ship? Our flight home is not until 7pm so I am thinking of taking my son to the Aquarium after, but we're not going to be in any sort of rush. And my son likes to get his beauty sleep until 7 or 8am... Any info would be great, thanks in advance! Looking forward to getting back on a ship!

Glad to hear! Thanks for checking back in!

Thanks for the info! Would be interested in hearing if anything has changed when you're on Mardi Gras regarding dinner!

I agree there’s lots of time for change, but if things are back to where they were pre-2020 already, it’s a lot more likely to remain that way by next summer, versus the odds if something hasn’t come back yet. Just curious where things stand now!

Just booked a father-son cruise for next August on one of Carnival Magic's new sailings out of Norfolk (got a GREAT deal). My son LOVED Camp Ocean on his first Carnival cruise in 2019 on Vista (he was in the age 2-5 Penguins group back then), and he's looking forward to going back to Camp Ocean as a Stingray (age 6-8) this time. Does anyone have recent kids' program schedules or experiences to share from Camp Ocean on Magic? I saw posts from March indicating that the Camp Ocean dinner in the buffet had not yet resumed, the sessions on Sea Days were shorter to allow for cleaning, and the late night program (after 10pm for a fee) had not yet resumed. Is this still the case? Many thanks for any info you can provide!

A few thoughts... The concentration of Caribbean port calls around Grand Turk and Amber Cove probably reflect Carnival's stake in the properties the ships call at on each island; they get to keep more of the land revenue (like at Half Moon Cay) but there's a local population they don't have to pay to get to the island. Conversely I'm amazed at how few Carnival port calls St. Maarten, Martinique, Barbados, etc. get now. A lot of places that were staples back in the day with weekly port calls year-round. I'm curious if this is a post-COVID sign of the times with the itineraries in Carnival's current booking window reflecting decisions made a year ago that emphasized drive-to-homeport cruises, and thus call at the ports that can be easily reached in 7 days from mainland homeports versus the Southern Caribbean ports that used to be reached by ships homeported in San Juan. If Carnival CORPORATION's focus is to have Carnival CRUISE LINES be the "entry-level" brand, and then have people go on to HAL, Princess, Cunard, etc. when they want more robust port itineraries, then it would behoove them to merge VIFP and the other lines' programs into a single loyalty program across the corporation.

Thanks for the info and reminder on height over the course of the day!

Thanks for the tip 🙂 but I am not looking to cheat the system. With the world returning to normal I envision plenty of future cruises in my son's life, and I can tell him he can do it next time. I just got curious when I realized how he'd be right on the border...

I was more curious if the measuring sign/stick/etc. is another inch or two higher, or if a 4'7.5ish" kid in sneakers is going to pass as 4'8" (in regular shoes, not stilts, not doing anything to cheat the system). Obviously I don't know EXACTLY what my son's height will be next summer, but based on his current height and typical child growth charts I know he'll be somewhere around that ballpark, and it got me curious as to how they measure height :-). Hope you had better luck than I had on tonight's Powerball drawing since it sounds like you play!

Thinking of taking my DS on a Father-Son cruise next year, as I have much more PTO than my wife. Potentially looking at the Magic next August, at which point my son should just be hovering around the 48" mark that is the minimum to go on the ropes course. And so my question: Do any other parents with kids right around the cutoff remember if the height measure sign (or whatever they use) measures 48 inches WITH or WITHOUT shoes on? Because it literally might come down to that. My son LOVED his first CCL cruise on Vista at the end of 2019 (wouldn't let us cut off the muster station wristband for 3 months after coming home, and then we had to hang it up as a decoration in his room). Since then he's gotten into all things physical -- his favorite things to do on land are the Zava Zones, Sky Zones and Urban Air type places, and he goes to Ninja Warrior camp during the summer...so the ropes course is up his alley. I just hope he will be tall enough to do it!

Thanks! So it sounds like the program itself is different from class to class.