review of carnival pride with 6yr and 4 yr olds

[ohcruise3]

We sailed on the carnival pride on 3/21 to 3/28. Before going on the cruise I got lots of great info here and wanted to let others know what worked out great for us. We have two 6yr olds and a 4 yr old. In port canaveral we took a shuttle for $10 per adult and he only charged us $10 for one child and the others free. You could ride the shuttle unlimited for that price and it stopped at cocoa beach, mall, and wall mart. We went to the dinosaur store which is near cocoa beach stop. They have an activity center that has alligators, snakes and turtle and different games for the kids to play. We then went to the beach and my kids loved it. We are from ohio so we have never done a beach day. In nassau we went to the british colonial hilton. That was very nice, my kids loved the beach and it was perfect for small children, the water was calm and shallow. They had kayaks that you could use and my 4 yr old loved that. It was rainy the day we were in freeport in the morning so my husband took the 6yr olds to the shops right off the ship. We would love to do this cruise again with the kids.

[Grannycb]

How was the ship experience? Did the kids go to the ship's camp?

[ohcruise3]

the kids loved camp carnival, the 6yr olds liked the dancing, crafts and games they played. Our 4yr old has a processing disorder with sensory issues, so the visual stimulation on the boat overstimulated her. She liked going to the camp but some of the counselors were not so good with her. The majority of them were really good but a few looked like they barely liked kids. She was in the room with 2-5yr olds and she is alot like a young 3yr old, some of them had a problem with her wanting to play with toys and not participate with programming. The first sea day was very rough, my son got sea sick and the counselors said 15 kids got sick that day. They said it was so bad because of cold front coming through so its not always that bad. they didn't get to do much swimming but they did get to go a few times and they enjoyed the water slide.

[Sandpiper10]

couple more questions for you, as we cruise with our 6yo and 3yo in May, their 1st cruise on the Destiny....Grand Turk, HMC and Nassau. They love the beach, so we thought this would be the perfect intinery for them.

 

What was their favorite foods on the ship? What did they prefer more for dining, in the MDR or the lido deck. Did you see alot of children on board the boat playing around the pools? Did they have any big adjustments to being on the boat vs a land vacation?

 

We travel alot with our kids, as we camp and do stay in hotels, but the boat will be a completely different experience for them. This will be our 3rd CCL cruise for us, so we've been prepping them on the trip...

just would like to hear what your opinion is of my questions.

Thanks for your help.

[ohcruise3]

My kids liked eating at all the places. We did the lido in the morning and some lunches and the MDR for dinners. They liked the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches best because they came with chips and cookies. Most of the time they ordered off the kids menu pizza, chicken nuggets and pbj. I ordered a pasta dish one night and they ate most of mine and the waiter brought them out a dish to split between the two. Our crusie was kinda of cold and the first two sea days were rough. There were kids at the pools and I think more would have been there if it would have been warmer. I heard that 600+ kids were on that cruise. They adjusted fine to being on the boat. My youngest one has sensory issues and was overwhelmed at times with the visual stimulation and change to schedule, but she loved the cruise and we would take her on another one. The only things I would change are I would not sail out of baltimore before May and after October. The last few days we took the kids down to the disco and let them run around, it wasn't open at that time and no one else was there. They loved it and it got some of their wiggles out with out them disturbing anyone else. I wish we would have done that sooner.

[Sandpiper10]

Thank you so much for your response. We are about 1 hour North of Baltimore and it would be convienent to cruise out of there, so i will keep that in mind to not book before/after those months if we choose to leave from there. It would be awesome to pass under the Bay Bridge, as we always travel on it when heading to the beach.

 

I have seen other people post about letting them go to a "disco club" during the day where they can run around and act crazy and just be normal kids and get those "wiggles" out! I will keep this in mind!

 

As far as the food, my daughters are excited about the 24/7 pizza and ice cream and my 6 yo even asked if she could have pizza for breakfast :eek: and we said that we might be able to make an exception on the last day of the cruise, depending on their behavior thru the week and that could be their reward :D. They will do very well in the dining room as they are used to eating out in nice restaurants and enjoyed picking out their dresses to wear! I figured it would be easier to be served, then trying to carry our own trays plus theirs on the lido deck, even though that is DH and I's favorite place to eat.

WOW....600 kids on board! That makes me feel better now that I'm not the only parent pulling my daughter out of school to enjoy a family vacation! Hopefully they will make some friends while on board. As far as Camp Carnival, we have the girls registered and we'll see what its all about. If they want to go for a activity here and there, that is fine, and if they want to be with us 24/7, we are fine by that too! My 6 yo said some of the things they do looked interesting to her, however, our 3 yo would probably flip out if we weren't in site of her and would be scared!

 

Thanks for all the information that you provided....:)

Jolene

[highbridge5]

I figured it would be easier to be served, then trying to carry our own trays plus theirs on the lido deck, even though that is DH and I's favorite place to eat.

 

We were on the Pride in January with 3 kids - 4, 6 and 9.

 

I found the 2 or 3 times that we did the Lido deck to be the most frustrating meals of the trip. Just taking one to get this kind of food and the other for something else and meeting up with the spouse and kid #3 and everyone's food was cold by the time all of you and your drinks and food were in the same place. And the seating in the Lido area was horribly uncomfortable. Really hard to enjoy a meal when

your chair or banquette is not good.

 

If your kids are OK with sit down meals, do the MDR. After several nights, my kids were BEGGING not to have to do a sit down dinner.

 

Having them do "dinner with friends" as part of Camp Carnival

is an awesome way to get them to camp and to be able to do the steak house or just the MDR without wondering when your kids were going to reach the silly point.

 

Upside to January on the Pride- Kennedy Space Center was absolutely empty. We did not stand in line for hardly anything when we were there.

The kids groups at Camp were nice and small so the kids weren't overwhelmed by large groups. The hallways and elevators were not overrun by bands of roaming tweens/teens either. There were no real crowds on the water slide or mini-golf.

 

Downside to January - the cruise up and down the east coast was a little rough down and really rough back. The last sea day was a totally wasted day - most of the outer decks were unmanageable because of the wind and the motion and the cold. You could barely manage the stairs inside. Weather was rainy and cold when we left and exactly the same when we came back - it was like we never left. Also, sail away in January is in the dark so you can't really enjoy it as much (as well as it being cold).

 

The water slide was not open much on the sea days due to wind and waves.

 

hb5

[Sandpiper10]

We were on the Pride in January with 3 kids - 4, 6 and 9.

 

I found the 2 or 3 times that we did the Lido deck to be the most frustrating meals of the trip. Just taking one to get this kind of food and the other for something else and meeting up with the spouse and kid #3 and everyone's food was cold by the time all of you and your drinks and food were in the same place. And the seating in the Lido area was horribly uncomfortable. Really hard to enjoy a meal when

your chair or banquette is not good.

 

If your kids are OK with sit down meals, do the MDR. After several nights, my kids were BEGGING not to have to do a sit down dinner.

 

Having them do "dinner with friends" as part of Camp Carnival

is an awesome way to get them to camp and to be able to do the steak house or just the MDR without wondering when your kids were going to reach the silly point.

 

Upside to January on the Pride- Kennedy Space Center was absolutely empty. We did not stand in line for hardly anything when we were there.

The kids groups at Camp were nice and small so the kids weren't overwhelmed by large groups. The hallways and elevators were not overrun by bands of roaming tweens/teens either. There were no real crowds on the water slide or mini-golf.

 

Downside to January - the cruise up and down the east coast was a little rough down and really rough back. The last sea day was a totally wasted day - most of the outer decks were unmanageable because of the wind and the motion and the cold. You could barely manage the stairs inside. Weather was rainy and cold when we left and exactly the same when we came back - it was like we never left. Also, sail away in January is in the dark so you can't really enjoy it as much (as well as it being cold).

 

The water slide was not open much on the sea days due to wind and waves.

 

hb5

 

That is exactly the way i pictured it to turn out trying to eat on the Lido deck with our 2 girls! We will try the MDR for most meals for as long as possible, but once going to the MDR gets old for them, we might have to switch to the Lido deck and we'll be balancing trays and eating cold food!:(

thanks for your imput!