kids on carnival ships

[tamsvaca]

I am new to these threads and have only cruised once. Our first was in Oct/Nov on the Disney Wonder. We are looking at cruising with the family again in a year and are trying to decide which cruiseline. We loved Disney, but wanted to try something else. I realize this is a heated debate about allowing kids on cruises, but since I have been researching, it does show that Carnival is a good line for families. With this info in mind, can anyone tell me which ship would be most kid friendly? We want to go with one of the larger ships. I will have 7 and 10 yr old boys. We liked dining at the later seating on Disney, as we didn't feel rushed to get there. Are kids able to go into the late seating? How about the programs - from what I can see, they are only offered at certain times of the day (unlike Disney which is offered all day). It also looks as if after 10:00 pm, we have to pay for them to go into the clubs as a babysitting service - is this correct?

 

I realize these are a lot of questions, but I need to get a starting point for which cruiseline we will take. Thank you, in advance, for the help!

[GoinCruisin]

You could try posting these questions on the family board as well.... Kids are allowed at either seating. Not sure there is a certain "ship" that is better for children. Here is CC info from Carnivals website.

 

Camp Carnival is a year-round, fleet wide program that provides daily fun-filled and age appropriate activities for children and teenagers between the ages of 2 and 15 years old. In addition, there is supervised "free play" and babysitting service. Scheduled activities are planned for the following age groups:

 

2 - 5 years old

 

Juniors 6 - 8 years old

 

Intermediate 9 - 11 years old

 

Teens 12 - 15 years old

 

Camp Carnival is not a "Day-Care". The program is designed so that families are able to enjoy "quality family time" together, and yet also have the choice of being with peers of their own age, whenever desired.

 

The program for children, ages 2-15 Hours on Sea Days: Scheduled activities run from 9:00 am to 10:00 pm. This service is complimentary.

 

Babysitting is provided for ages 2-11, nightly, from 10:00pm to 3:00am. There is a charge for this service (see "Babysitting").

 

Hours on Port Days: Supervised free play begins 15 minutes prior to the first scheduled ship tour to approximately 2:00pm; scheduled activities resume at 2:00pm until 10:00pm. This service is complimentary.

 

Babysitting is provided for ages 2-11, nightly, from 10:00pm to 3:00am. There is a charge for this service (see "Babysitting").

 

Program for infants, ages 4 months-23 months Hours on Sea Days. Infants under 24 months (2 years) may not participate in any scheduled activities taking place in Camp Carnival. THERE ARE NO AGE EXCEPTIONS TO THIS POLICY.

 

Babysitting is provided for infants, nightly, from 10:00pm to 3:00am. There is a charge for this service (see "Babysitting").

 

Hours on Port Days: Care for infants is considered "Babysitting". There is a charge for this service (see "Babysitting"). On port day mornings, infant care begins 15 minutes prior to the first scheduled ship tour to 12:00 noon, or port day afternoons until 6:00pm (for ships arriving in port after noon time).

 

Sign In/Out Policy

 

All Toddlers (2-5) and Juniors (6-8) must be signed in at ALL times. The same parent that signs them in must also sign them out. While most of the activities for the Intermediates (9-11) are supervised, there are times when they are divided into small groups for scavenger hunts and are not accompanied by a counselor. The children may attend whichever activities they choose and are free to come and go as they please unless otherwise requested by the child's parent or guardian with the Youth Staff on duty.

 

Beepers

 

All parents with children 2-8 years of age will receive a beeper upon drop-off on the first day, which they will keep throughout the cruise. Parents will be beeped if the child is misbehaving, ill, seriously unhappy, asking continuously for their parents and in case of an emergency. The beeper is used for ship-use only; the range does not extend beyond the ship. If the beeper is lost, stolen or broken, the guest will be charged $75.00 on their Sail and Sign Account.

 

Safety Information

 

All children 11 years of age and younger must wear a muster station wristband throughout the cruise. Wristbands are available from the Room Steward or from the Youth Staff. In the event of an emergency, children participating in Camp Carnival activities will be taken to their muster station by the youth staff. During an emergency situation, the parents should collect their child life jacket from their stateroom.

 

Meals

 

There are no scheduled activities from 6:00pm to 7:00pm on any day. Children are expected to eat meals with their parents during their scheduled dinner seating. The children's menus feature a wide variety of kids' favorites, including hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken nuggets, French fries, pepperoni pizza, peanut butter/jelly sandwiches and banana splits, along with a "daily junior special" offering something new and different each day. The new menus are included on the back page of a fun coloring/activity book featuring word finds, mazes, tic-tac-toe, crossword puzzles, connect the dots and other games. Crayons are also provided.

 

Children's Dining Program (ages 2-11)

 

The children's dining program provides kids with supervised meals with their fellow young cruisers in the ships' casual Lido restaurant while their parents enjoy a night to themselves. The program is fleet wide. Dinner takes place from 6:00pm-7:00pm nightly with the exception of the following evenings:

 

3-day and 4-day : first night of the cruise

 

5-day and longer: first night and last night of the cruise

 

Toddlers

 

It is not mandatory for toddlers to be potty-trained in order to avail themselves of the Camp Carnival Program. Parents must provide the youth counselors with diapers and toiletries to be used for their child.

 

Medications

 

Camp Carnival staff do not administer medications to children.

 

Youth Staff

 

Depending on the ship capacity, the itinerary and the time of year, we staff between eight and twelve youth counselors on board each ship, year round. Most of the youth counselors are from the United States, Canada, England and Peru. All youth counselors are either college educated in education, child psychology or youth recreation - OR - have professional experience with children, such as teaching, daycare or camp. The youth staff is professionally trained in CPR; they are able to provide basic first aid for cuts and bruises and are fully aware to contact the parents/guardians as well as the infirmary for any medical emergencies

[cali-croozer]

About late dining. Yes, you can request it, but your boys will miss the evening Camp Carnival activities. When my younger boy was 11, on the Elation, we had early seating (5:45). Even then, he would sometimes skip dessert because there was something important he had to attend (he'd come to dinner with his Camp Carnival schedule). As you can see from GoinCruisin's informative post, Camp Carnival ends at 10pm. After that, it's paid babysitting (still fun, but not free). Most of your kids friends will not be participating in this (that was our experience). Yes, early dining is early, but we adjusted and it gave the kids time to have fun with their friends after dinner while my husband and I went to a show or lounge. We would meet up at 10pm and spend the rest of the evening as a family before turning in for the night.

[happy cruzin]

I think that all Carnival ships a well suited for families. We have sailed the Pride (February 2002) and the Glory (March 2004) and the kids that were in with us has a fantastic time.

 

My nieces -9 at the time- tried Camp Carnival activities during the Pride cruise. The opted to stay with family members rather than do more kid centered activities. Not because they did not enjoy Camp Carnival, but rather they had not seen the family and preferred to stay with them.

 

My son - late teen - did not like to participate in any Camp Carnival activities. He was not real keen on striking up converstations with kids that he did not know. But he was offered many activities from a dance to video game tournament.

 

A second point to consider....it depends on when you go how may kids you will see. Since we have typically cruised early in the year there are not alot of kids, most are in school. I'm sure that cruises during the summer and break times have significantly more children on board. The kids on our cruises met and hung out around the pool together - without the organized Camp Carnival activities.

 

It worked out fine. I highly recommend Carnival for families. There are actvities for all ages. We have ages from 67 - 12 and everyone enjoys themselves...everytime!!

[Gracie'sMom]

Thanks for the replies. I've been on several cruises, but our last 2 cruises have been DCL. I am also concerned that we will be disappointed with other cruiselines, but I've decided that DCL has finally pushed their prices higher than their product justifies. We are booked on the Pride for next Nov. The one thing that I'm sure I won't like about the other cruiselines is the tendering. Unfortunately, I'm also tired of DCL's destinations (I've been to St. Thomas 3 times now - no more!), so I guess I'll be lining up to tender!:)

[Guest Time2gocruzn]

I did a lot of research b4 booking our cruise, as we are taking our kids (almost 2 and 4). After much reading here and elsewhere, Carnival sounds like the best bet! We chose the Carnival Miracle 7 day out of Tampa since it is a newer ship and has 4 ports as opposed to 3 ports like many 7 day itineraries offer. I want to see as many places as possible, lol. The Miracle is not the biggest ship Carnival has, but it is one of the bigger ones. Look up Spirit Class ships on their website to see how they compare to other ships in the Carnival fleet. Also if you pick up a Carnival brochure book from a TA they have good diagrams in the back so you can see the size and plan of the ships.

 

Here is a link to the Camp Carnival Capers from a poster here who recently sailed the Miracle. It really helped me understand the time frames, rules, and get an idea of the great activities they offer. I think my little men will be pleased;) :) . http://joephila.net/CampCarnival/

[tamsvaca]

Thanks for all the info guys! Keep it coming! GoinCruisin - I didn't think about the early seating like that, but it makes perfect sense. :)

[MrPete]

My daughter has been with us on 4 cruises so far, and her fifth will be this May. She started at 4 and is now 6. She loves cruising! As do we love having her with us. Disney was no better or worse for her....she enjoyed both lines.

[rhecker]

we just went on the Conquest. My son was 2 weeks shy of being 11. He loved the camp carnival. He doesn't have alot of oppurtunity to actually play with other kids so he loved hanging out there. At his age they can sign themselves in and out. At first I didn't want him to do this but he was able to navigate the ship a whole lot quicker than us. He would check both the adult and kids schedule everyday and decide what he wanted to do. If he didn't like the kids schedule he would sign out and come by us. We always let him know exactly where we would be. If we didn't know where we would be he had to stay at the kids club until we came up there to tell him where we would be. They also had a couple of nights where there were activities planned for his age group all night long. We cruised over New Years Eve and they had an all night party for the kids. It went from 10 p.m. until 8 a.m.

They activities changed every 30 minutes. We made our son come home about 2 a.m. so he wouldn't miss the activities the next day.

 

Monday -Friday the counselors take the kids to dinner. They had Pizza, hotdogs, ect. Our son would have been bored to death eating in the fancy dining room.

 

I highly recommend it. They don't have to stay there the whole day. They can pick there activities just like us.

[GayleR]

As mentioned above, you can request late seating with kids. On our last cruise our kids were 11, 11, and 12 and they would have prefered early seating. Now that our kids are getting older, they have told us they don't mind late seating as they don't do as much with camp carnival. I just think it depends on your kiddos.

 

Happy cruising,

Gayle

[disneylynn]

I agree with djklove, We have been on both of Disney's ships. Now we are trying Carnival. We are going on the Miracle with 9 kids in our group (3-17). We also have the late seating. our sailing is a hoilday week I expect about 1000 children on board.

[SunFunCruiser]

Having done both cruiselines several times I can say IMO, DCL beats CCL in every way as far as the kid's club. There just is no comparison, especially when they are a little older. After about the age of 5 or 6, the kids really need a little more structure. Disney has them doing something different almost every hour. They go all over the ship and the club on Castaway cay is amazing. They also have that cute Disney Sea University graduation on the last day!

I also love that you don't have to pay extra after 10:00!!

It doesn't stop me from cruising Carnival, but there is a difference!

My son just turned 8 and hasn't done the CCL camp since he was 5, so I'm sure this time he will notice the difference.

Oh well, he'll just have to spend more time with us, much to his dismay!

[SunFunCruiser]

One thing I really can't understand on Carnival, is why the same parent has to check them in and out. It really can be a hassle at times.

[ciship]

For those who have used Camp Carnival, how did you find the youth counselors? Are they responsible? Actually interested in the children and their jobs? I'm concerned that they are just a bunch of teenagers who will ignore the children and be off in "teen" land. I know they are all supposed to have some sort of degree to have this job......but, how did you actually find them to be???

[cruisinqt]

We have been cruising with our 2 children for a number of years and have never found any teenager types doing the supervision in the kids center. It's usually older ones well into their 30's. You occasionally see someone in their late 20's but that's rare because Carnival will only hire degreed professionals that have a degree in child education or child developement. ( That really goes for most all of the cruise lines.)

 

Overall, I've always been very pleased with the supervision the kids get in the kids program.:) My kids come back knowing each counselor by name and telling me all of the fun stuff they did like getting their faces painted like a pirate and going on a treasure hunt or making candy necklaces, or painting a t-shirt. My kids normally bond to one of the counselors that they prefer and then have a hard time saying good-bye at the end of the cruise. Overall, I would say that Carnival has a top notch kids program, much better than some of the other cruise lines, except for Disney, that's one cruise line that we haven't done. It's just a little too pricey for our family.

[SunFunCruiser]

Never had a problem with the camp councelors. they always seem very professional.