First time cruising with kids

[silverpenguin]

Hi! My sister and her family have booked their first Carnival cruise. After I got over my jealousy, I was able to help her some. However, she had some questions I could not answer about cruising with an 11, 7, and 4 year old.

 

1. What is the best way to communicate with them onboard without paying out the nose for internet? She will not use the ship as a baby sitter, but will probably utilize the kids activities. She will want to know when they want to leave. I suggested walkie-talkies, but tbh we haven't had great success using those in the past. Any ideas?

 

2. I also suggested lanyards for their sail and sign cards, but she was wondering if there were any other ideas? She is worried they may lose a lanyard.

 

Any other advice gor sailing with kids on Carnival would be greatly appreciated as well. Thanks for any help you can give!

[2 cruzen]

edited, see below

Edited February 15, 2015 by 2 cruzen

[2 cruzen]

Personally, I don't think the 7 or 4 yr olds even need to carry their cards around. Once they go to Camp Carnival, a parent has to sign them out and I'm sure she's not letting them run around the ship without her. Why would they need them? As for communicating, I just bought a small white board to put on our door for notes, again, not helpful for the 4 yr old.

 

Camp Canival has phones available, but I think it's only for parents of 3 yr olds or younger.

[skrufy]

Tried the walkie talkie route and found them too noisy and too much interference. Also I think they annoy other cruisers. Have not heard one on a cruise in many years. The white board is a good idea, as is sticky notes. We use the, Ill meet you somewhere at a certain time. If you want to communicate from home to ship there is only the internet or phone.

[AngAndBoys]

As already stated, she will have no problems keeping up with the younger 2 since they can't get in or out of camp without her. For the 11 year old...I've never used walkie talkies or anything like that on a cruise. I just look over the kid club dailies with the kids, see what they are planning on being there for, see where I'll be for the day and make meet times and places for everyone. So, for example, if the kid is planning an activity at camp from 9 to 11, meet me at the pool at 11:10.

 

And then go from there. If he's met a friend and they want to do the slides, fine, but come to me at X time and check in. That sort of thing.

[silverpenguin]

This is some great stuff. Thanks!

[JMHAM1]

We took our six kids on a cruise and hubby was worried about all sorts of stuff. Our 3 year old was with us all the time so that was not an issue. We tried kids club but they wouldn't let us come back with him so he could get comfortable and he wouldn't just walk in by himself. No biggie, we just didn't get to have a nice dinner or see any production show.

 

The other kids aged 8 - 14 at the time had a blast. They met up with friends their age at the kid's club and either did activities there or went with those friends to various activities throughout the day.

 

We used the sharpie and post it note method of communication with specific touch point times during the day. They would decide by looking at the schedule what they wanted to do so we kind of had and idea. Plus we were pleasantly surprised that they wanted to hang with us for a good part of the days.

 

Of course we had excursions booked that were family friendly at each port. We also planned to have dinner together as a family two nights so we would say be back at the cabin to get dressed at X time.

 

It was a trip that our littlest still talks about. All the kids said it was our BEST family vacation ever and we have one planned for the future and are looking for another for Fall Break this year.

 

The best advice is to have LOW expectations. We also loaded several family favorite movies and kids shows on our tablet so that the toddler could be occupied if needed. We had a cabin that had a DVD player in it and brought DVD's for watching in the cabin if they wanted. We also swiped the little boxes of cereal from the buffet in the morning to have in the cabin as snacks. For some reason, they loved the little boxes of Fruit Loops in the evening before bed!

 

Have her visit the family board for more great info!

[cruisecraze96]

Since they have a 4 year old they will get a phone the first time they drop off at Camp, get there early because they might run out. I have a 5 and 11 year old and last trip (4 and 10) my 10 year old would call the phone if she wanted to leave camp and go to pool or get icecream/food. I also kept my youngest's card with mine on the lanyard since she was never anywhere without me. My oldest carried hers around with her, I got her a lanyard as well.

 

Since your sister has one that is 11, and we haven't cruised with ours yet at 11, they will not be in the tween club area. I just suggest they make some rules and then use the phone (can call from any house phone to the camp one given no charge) or use the white board/sticky notes for where are you. Mine was allowed to go on decks 9-11 and then deck 2 for camp and game room but she had to let me know when moving between those.

 

I don't know when they are going or on what ship, but the Breeze has the new Hub app that allows texting for $5 per person the whole week on the ship and that could also be a good suggestion if they go on one that has that option.

[Martini Mom]

We took our boys when they were 12 and 9. They wanted to spend a majority of their time with us, but when they were on their own they had a walkie (they stayed together at all times). They also had lanyards for the S&S cards. We had specified meeting times and locations, they could check in with us. We used post it notes here and there, but not often.