Is Carnival a good fit for families?

[H82seaUgo]

I loved the cabin on the Disney cruise. They have a privacy curtain separating the couch area from the main bed. And the split bathroom with tub was handy.

That's what we will miss.

 

yeah, those are quite nifty, as well as the larger staterooms.

[AQW]

I loved the cabin on the Disney cruise. They have a privacy curtain separating the couch area from the main bed. And the split bathroom with tub was handy.

 

I prefer DCL's cabins, especially the configuration with the privacy curtain. And their production shows are miles better than Carnival's.

 

Aside from those two factors, our entire family prefers Carnival. My kids have had excellent experiences in Camp Carnival on all our CCL cruises. It will be interesting to see how things go on our 14-night Panama Canal cruise (in 11 days, ACK!) - not only do longer sailings tend to have fewer children in general, but this one is taking place during the traditional school year.

[Kaboochi]

I think your family will be extremely happy if you select Carnival. My 15 year old enjoys the teen club. She always finds several travelers her age and wants to spend all of her ship time with them. When she was younger she also liked the group of fellow younger cruisers she met, they had tons of entertainment for them, plus we knew she was safe.

 

There is so much offered for children and teens. The staff is young and full of energy. Plus, once the children are at their nightly activities you two can enjoy the night. I hope this helps.

[Jasalth]

I was reading pages of threads yesterday, and could not find much information in regards to children & Carnival. Our kids will be DD13 and DS8 (maybe 14 and 9 by time we sail) and I'm wondering how families found Carnival. Is there enough to keep children entertained/happy? Are the cruise councillors good with kids?

 

The prices seem amazingly low but I'm not sure if Carnival would be a good family/children cruise ship. To be honest, I would prefer Disney but their prices are so much higher than other cruise lines I've looked into. Even more so once I add up port excursions. Having never cruised before, we will want to visit all the ports. I'm also looking into RCL and RCC.

 

While I can not say our experience on Carnival (yet) my kids will be 13 and just turned 10 on our upcoming cruise in December.

 

What I can do for you thought, is give you my opinion on RCL!

 

My kids were 12 and 8 on our RCL sailing (both DS). Youngest LOVED the kids activities to the point he never wanted to leave. Oldest went to go check it out the first day, and NEVER went back. IMO he had a very valid reason. The "teen" area for RCL is 12-18. That is a... LARGE age gap. He was not comfortable being 12 and having the 17/18 yr olds there. To be honest I was worried about it also when I learned of the ages for it. If I had a 12-14 DD, I don't think I would even consider letting her go spend all her time with the 17/18 yr olds!

 

Just wanted to give this as a warning, since the RCL web page makes it sounds like there is a 12-14 club and a 15-17 club when they are the same thing.

 

No clue what my kids will do this time on our cruise. Oldest has pretty much told me he is taking over my Kindle (pft.. good luck with that one buddy!!) and my youngest wants to spend "family time" together. Though I am going to try and get them into the kids clubs to get some quiet time :) If all else fails, my youngest will get family time and my oldest the Kindle during family time since he is the moody teenager and wants nothing to do with his brother and everyone will be happy (but me... I want my Kindle and my Balcony!!)

[Kaboochi]

[quote=Jasalth;3142\

 

I hope you won't be insulted by what I am going to say because I see that your post shows that you care so much about your children. All cruises lines, CCL, NCL, Celeb, etc, have wonderful programs from the young up to 17. Pick a ship you and hubby like. Your children will love whatever ship you pick - just stay away from Holland - much older crowd. Personally, I like CCL or NCL with our offspring in tow. I hope this helps.

[kathy884]

Thank you for the posts everyone. It's great hearing how much you and your children/teens enjoy Carnival. Glad to see so many thumbs up -- makes me think that the economical choice on Canival we made for summer will also be a big hit.

 

BACKGROUND

I'm not really into crusing. DH thinks cruising is fine, but I don't think would pick it as a vacation choice either. Now DS is another story. We went on a cruise about five years ago (Carribean on Carnival Liberty (a Conquest class like the Glory)) -- My parents treated everyone in the immediate family / celebrating their 50th wedding anniversay. It was a lot of fun and I was impressed with the value Carnival offered for the price (free to us of course, but I mean for what my parents paid). Anyway DS who is 16 now has wanted to do a cruise again ever since then, and I promised we'd do one in 2012 (the 100th anniversary of the Titanic sinking // I have made him wait six years -- but he's happy I am willing to do one period). Well it's time for us to keep our promise, so I booked the Carnival Glory out of NYC for summer 2012 (DS is a big Titanic enthusiast, so is happy with that choice because it's on the North Atlantic and visits Halifax a place with lots of Titanic history, plus he loves the idea of crusing out of New York Harbor by the Statue of Liberty). I'm happy with this, as we already need to go to NYC anyway to visit relatives (so means we can do this with no additional airfare cost) plus it's so much cheaper than other cruise ship options out of this port even adding a balcony which DS will love and I wanted to get (actually my whole family are into balconies at hotels / condos, etc. so good option for all if it's in the budget). (I know DS would prefer to do Disney, but I didn't even tell him Disney is doing the same intinary from the same port at practically the same time, as it is 85% more for the same length cruise and same itinary for midship balcony.) I'm sure it's not apples to apples, but not being into cruising I really didn't want to pay that premium. Doing Carnival instead, means there is money in the ole vacation budget for a pretty nice spring break trip too. // Your posts helped me feel like I'm making a good choice for my family vs. being cheap.

[FlaParrotHead]

We are looking at a 6 or 8 day Caribbean, or (my real wish!) a 14 day Hawaiian.

 

I was reading pages of threads yesterday, and could not find much information in regards to children & Carnival. Our kids will be DD13 and DS8 (maybe 14 and 9 by time we sail) and I'm wondering how families found Carnival. Is there enough to keep children entertained/happy? Are the cruise councillors good with kids?

 

The prices seem amazingly low but I'm not sure if Carnival would be a good family/children cruise ship. To be honest, I would prefer Disney but their prices are so much higher than other cruise lines I've looked into. Even more so once I add up port excursions. Having never cruised before, we will want to visit all the ports. I'm also looking into RCL and RCC.

 

I would love to hear families' experience with Carnival, please & thank you! :)

 

@Kesali. I know you already have plenty of input and I'll add a little of my own. Or two DSs were just about 3 and 5 when they first cruised, they are now 19 and 21. I can tell you honestly that they loved cruising and still do. Living in Florida, we are fortunate to have many ports in driving range and have taken the boys with us on all but a couple of sailings. When they were Camp Carnival age, they had a great time, as did we knowing that they were safe and enjoying their own activities, once they outgrew the "structured" teen events, they never seemed to have a problem meeting and greeting on their own, which was strange because at home they were pretty "home bound" of their own choosing. When they were young we always kept several pairs of strong 100+ channel 2-way radios with us along with rules so that everyone knew where the other ones were.

 

While to each their own and I have never done it, I would personally not sail Disney. Living an hour from the parks, we would go there if we wanted to partake in the Disney-Drug induced smiles of the "characters" which we did many times. Disney has also gotten out of control with their prices and even for Fla residents, they see, to nickel and dime more than others. That being said, I have heard many good things about their ships.

 

Regarding Disney and (most if not all) Hawaiian cruises, remember that they have no casinos on board (if this matters at all) and while none of us are big time gamers, we all enjoys a few pulls on the slots and my 19yo enjoys taking 20-25$ and seeing how much he is able to run it up at a table now that he's old enough. He also knows that when it's gone, it's gone.

 

In the end, we cruised RCCL and NCL first, then Carnival, and have been sailing them regularly for the dollar value, diversity of passengers, size of their cabins (sq. ft. Larger than most others), and the fun.

 

Whatever you try, enjoy it, keep an open mind, and remember that the only ones that can let your vacation be something less than perfect is you.

 

 

 

 

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