Camp Carnival Questions for 2yr old

[Need-A-Vacay]

Hubby & I cruised before but now we have little one that will be 2 in Oct. Wanted to get your input on Camp Carnival for 2yr olds. Any opinions? Did kids that young like it? Did kids want to go? I'm having hard time with it because I don't see my 2 yr old wanting to stay somewhere with strangers? Do they allow parents to stay while kids are in camp?

 

Any and all advice or experinces are welcome for this situation.:confused:

[Kerry's Girls]

I have twins who cruised Carnival the week after they turned two and had never been with strangers. One of them loved Camp Carnival and the other didn't. Parents are not allowed into the kid area for security purposes. I did the drop and run (ok, drop and hide around the corner where I could hear them but they couldn't see me). Both girls cried at first, and the staff was great about consoling and re-directing, but I'd end up getting called to come get one of my girls who would start crying again and wouldn't stop. At night I would take the girls after they fell asleep in the stroller, and when I'd go to pick them up they'd both be playing and having a great time.

 

Best,

Mia

[mikesteg]

I'm interesting in this as well since this next cruise will be our kids first chance to go to camp. In fact, we've delayed this cruise and the additional airfare is costing us $500 so I really want to make use of camp. :D

 

What I do know: for security reason parents are only allowed in camp on the first night during the meet-n-greet. After that, there is a gate right inside camp and you will not be allowed past it. (For under 2s, there is a play time where parents are required to stay but I think that is when other kids are not in Camp.)

[mikesteg]

(ok' date=' drop and hide around the corner where I could hear them but they couldn't see me). [/quote']

 

I love it! If I weren't in a conference call right now, I'd have laughed out loud at that one. :D

 

You know, if Carnival were smart they's put a little coffee/dessert shop right outside Camp. Comfort food at the point of greatest weakness. How many parents would stay for hours and spend buku bucks on those first days?

 

I suspect (hope?) I'll have more issues with DW than the kids, since I can always ply her with booze. :D She's a SAHM so is rarely apart from them, and virtually never when I'm not with them. They've really only had a sitter one time, and that was grandma. Uh oh... :eek:

[TheCalicoCat]

Hubby & I cruised before but now we have little one that will be 2 in Oct. Wanted to get your input on Camp Carnival for 2yr olds. Any opinions? Did kids that young like it? Did kids want to go? I'm having hard time with it because I don't see my 2 yr old wanting to stay somewhere with strangers? Do they allow parents to stay while kids are in camp?

 

Any and all advice or experinces are welcome for this situation.:confused:

 

My 2 year & two day old son LOVED it, but he is in day care while my husband & I work, so he is accustomed to being with "strangers."

Parents can not stay with the kids.

You'll be suprised the short amount of time that they are in camp.

I think the camp opened at about 10, you pick them up for lunch, then my son had a nap, he returned for a couple hours in the afternoon & then was picked up again for dinner... (4 maybe 5 hours total a day.)

[beckyjohns]

Hard to say. I think every child is different. My kids have been on 2 cruises so far, once when they were 2 and once when they were 3. They had been in preschool before the cruise, but that didn't seem to make much difference in their comfort with strangers. They both cried when we dropped them off. We also did the "drop and hide behind the corner" dance until they stopped crying (less than 5 minutes). The counselors were great with the boys. They tried to console them, realized that didn't help, then let them cry until they were ready to play. As I said, the crying never lasted more than 5 minutes and once they got over it, they had a great time playing at camp. We always made sure to call down to camp about 30 minutes after we left to make sure all was fine, and it always was.

[msublonde1]

My 2 1/2 year LOVED it when we took her on the Ecstasy last April. She was mostly potty trained. She had a couple of very little accidents. They were wonderful about it! We quickly figured out that she liked to be there in the morning, after breakfast, and after dinner. Not so much after lunch.

 

The thing I would encourage every parent to do, is to go spend some time up there on the day of embarkation. The Ecstasy had an "open house" from 12-2pm, or something like that. We went, met some the counselors, let her play, get exposed, etc, etc. It helped her to feel more comfortable there. Our next cruise is coming up. We plan on spending some time in there if they do that again. Also, we are going to talk it up a lot in the upcoming weeks. It's also good to look at their capers so you can encourage them to go to certain activities-especially the realy cool stuff like decorating the t-shirt, or face painting. Our daughter just turned four so we are REALLY going to talk about the "party" at night (from 10-12am). We would love to stay out a little later!

 

Hope this helps a little! We had a great time with her when she was younger. We are really looking forward to taking her now that she is a little older. I think the best thing to do is to have reasonable expectations. And try to have the best vacation you can!