Can kids stay in Camp Ocean while parents do excursion off ship?

[Jwood9149]

We are traveling with our 4 children. We have two that are teenagers and two that are younger. There is an excursion that we would love to do with our teens that is more adventurous and the younger kids cannot participate. Is it possible to leave them on the ship in the care of Camp Ocean? My sister and brother in law did this on our last Carnival Cruise in 2016 but I cannot remember if it was because my husband and I were still on board the ship. We also were able to leave our then 6 month old on a Disney ship once but we were on Disney's private island Castaway Cay so that may have been the only reason we were allowed to do it...I can't remember. Thanks for the help.

[tinkr2]

We were able to leave our sleeping lazy teens in the cabin.  

[Jwood9149]

Did you have an excursion booked? If yes, was it booked through the cruise ship? 

[OCruisers]

How old are the two younger children?

[Jwood9149]

4 and 6

[klfrodo]

You can,,,,,, 

whats your backup plan if you don’t get back to the ship before it departs?

car accident, medical emergency, just loss track of time.

Rarity, but ship happens

[Jwood9149]

58 minutes ago, klfrodo said:

You can,,,,,, 

whats your backup plan if you don’t get back to the ship before it departs?

car accident, medical emergency, just loss track of time.

Rarity, but ship happens

My back up plan would be to book the excursion I am interested in with Carnival. My understanding is that if you book an excursion through the cruise ship...if something were to happen they wouldn't leave you. Someone please correct me if I am wrong. The same excursion is cheaper through other tour companies and would probably be more enjoyable to be in a smaller group of people but I would be too worried about something happening and the ship leaving us behind. 

[Doctorsbaby]

My husband and I do this at least once on every cruise. My comfort level is that I will only book a Carnival excursion for those times and I make sure Camp notes down which excursion. I normally book things that keep us within an hour of the ship and prefer something that is scheduled to return 2+ hours before back on board time. 

[sanger727]

6 hours ago, Jwood9149 said:

My back up plan would be to book the excursion I am interested in with Carnival. My understanding is that if you book an excursion through the cruise ship...if something were to happen they wouldn't leave you. Someone please correct me if I am wrong. The same excursion is cheaper through other tour companies and would probably be more enjoyable to be in a smaller group of people but I would be too worried about something happening and the ship leaving us behind. 

 

If you book the excursion through carnival it is extremely unlikely that they will leave you but not impossible. If there was a delay returning to the ship and the excursion returned late; on a carnival excursion (unlike an independent excursion) the ship will know about the delay and will wait as long as they can. However, if the delay was major (only road that returned to port closed indefinitely or bus broke down and they were unable to get another one) the ship can only wait so long. If they ship was to leave,  then carnival would be responsible for getting you to the next port to reunite with the ship. 

Edited February 25, 2019 by sanger727

[elcuchio24]

2 hours ago, sanger727 said:

 

If you book the excursion through carnival it is extremely unlikely that they will leave you but not impossible. If there was a delay returning to the ship and the excursion returned late; on a carnival excursion (unlike an independent excursion) the ship will know about the delay and will wait as long as they can. However, if the delay was major (only road that returned to port closed indefinitely or bus broke down and they were unable to get another one) the ship can only wait so long. If they ship was to leave,  then carnival would be responsible for getting you to the next port to reunite with the ship. 

 

Can you actually ever remember an instance like this? I have never heard of the ship leaving folks at port from CCL excursions, ever. 

[emoorehead]

10 hours ago, tinkr2 said:

We were able to leave our sleeping lazy teens in the cabin.  

Slight hijack....sorry.

They will not allow anyone under 18 off the ship without their parent, correct? (I might leave my 17 year old on the ship for an hour or so at one of our ports if he doesn't want to come shopping with me.)

[TravelScholar]

Yes, you can leave your kids in Camp Ocean whilst you go ashore. I have done it on several different Carnival ships.

[sanger727]

13 hours ago, elcuchio24 said:

 

Can you actually ever remember an instance like this? I have never heard of the ship leaving folks at port from CCL excursions, ever. 

 

I’ve heard of specific instances on princess and royal. There’s no reason carnival is exempt. If you literally could not return to the ship that same day, it’s illogical to expect that the ship would put 30-60 passengers over the rest of the ship and start missing ports because of an excursion delay.

[elcuchio24]

9 hours ago, sanger727 said:

 

I’ve heard of specific instances on princess and royal. There’s no reason carnival is exempt. If you literally could not return to the ship that same day, it’s illogical to expect that the ship would put 30-60 passengers over the rest of the ship and start missing ports because of an excursion delay.

 

The ship 'could' be hit by a comet too. The OP will be fine, it has been done literally millions of times without incident.

[Joseph2017China]

It happened on Carnival.  Don't know if it was a Carnival excursion, or not, or if it was just Senior Frog's party, but it does and has happened.  Kid's were waved good bye to parents as they ran up the dock.  I do believe, that an uncle was on the ship, so at least it ended well for the kids, and they now have a story to hold over the parents head for the rest of their lives..... Personally, I never left my kids on a ship, in a foreign country by themselves.  We just always did something that everyone can do based on their current ages at the time. 

[elcuchio24]

3 minutes ago, Joseph2017China said:

It happened on Carnival.  Don't know if it was a Carnival excursion, or not, or if it was just Senior Frog's party, but it does and has happened.  Kid's were waved good bye to parents as they ran up the dock.  I do believe, that an uncle was on the ship, so at least it ended well for the kids, and they now have a story to hold over the parents head for the rest of their lives..... Personally, I never left my kids on a ship, in a foreign country by themselves.  We just always did something that everyone can do based on their current ages at the time. 

 

 

 

It has CERTAINLY happened in general, I have been witness. I don't deny that. OP was saying they would do a CCL Excursion to be safe. What I do not believe is the ship left carnival cruisers behind who where on a carnival excursion. Never heard of that, ever. 

Edited February 26, 2019 by elcuchio24

[bingomamma19]

9 hours ago, sanger727 said:

 

I’ve heard of specific instances on princess and royal. There’s no reason carnival is exempt. If you literally could not return to the ship that same day, it’s illogical to expect that the ship would put 30-60 passengers over the rest of the ship and start missing ports because of an excursion delay.

Carnivals guarantee with booking their excursions is that they will not leave without you.    I was in Montego Bay a few years ago when there was a bad fuel truck accident that blocked the main road getting back to the ship.   The accident happened mid morning and the roads were still blocked in the afternoon.   The ship waited several hours to get the people back to the ship.  I was one of them stuck in traffic.

 

OP, as long as you are taking a Carnival excursion, you can be assured that they will make sure you get back to the ship.    Have fun.

[Futureman3000]

I would not leave my kids behind on a boat in a foreign country for a few hours of fun.  

[elcuchio24]

On 2/24/2019 at 10:13 PM, Jwood9149 said:

We are traveling with our 4 children. We have two that are teenagers and two that are younger. There is an excursion that we would love to do with our teens that is more adventurous and the younger kids cannot participate. Is it possible to leave them on the ship in the care of Camp Ocean? My sister and brother in law did this on our last Carnival Cruise in 2016 but I cannot remember if it was because my husband and I were still on board the ship. We also were able to leave our then 6 month old on a Disney ship once but we were on Disney's private island Castaway Cay so that may have been the only reason we were allowed to do it...I can't remember. Thanks for the help.

 

I hope you got your answer OP, it seems like the thread is transitioning to judgey posts at this point :-)

[sanger727]

3 hours ago, bingomamma19 said:

Carnivals guarantee with booking their excursions is that they will not leave without you.    I was in Montego Bay a few years ago when there was a bad fuel truck accident that blocked the main road getting back to the ship.   The accident happened mid morning and the roads were still blocked in the afternoon.   The ship waited several hours to get the people back to the ship.  I was one of them stuck in traffic.

 

OP, as long as you are taking a Carnival excursion, you can be assured that they will make sure you get back to the ship.    Have fun.

 

I know that’s their guaranteee reads. But I personally think they are overselling. I agree that they will wait as long as they can, up to several hours. I don’t think for a second that they would wait overnight. Say you had an excursion that involved a ferry ride. And weather picked up in the afternoon that shut the ferries down for the rest of the day. Do you really think they will stay as long as it takes up to overnight to wait for an excursion and start missing the rest of their timeline and ports.

 

I do believe the one I read about on princess was similar to this. The excursion involved a plane transport. they were about to get to where they were going fine but were unable to return due to weather or mechanical failure. Cruise line made the right decision to simply get the people on the excursion to the next port to meet than stay indefinitely.

 

i had my own scary experience in a port once. We were in Hilo in Hawaii. We (on an independent excursion but cruise excursions were right behind us) were at the volcano park when a 8.2 earthquake hit. Our guide suggested we leave for our safety because the volcano started going crazy and because there is 1 road that connects that park to the rest of the island. And if that road became impassible due to earthquake activity we weren’t getting back. Luckily, everything turned out fine but was a reminder of how quickly and unexpectededly a natural disaster can hit.

Edited February 26, 2019 by sanger727

[bingomamma19]

10 minutes ago, sanger727 said:

 

I know that’s their guaranteee reads. But I personally think they are overselling. I agree that they will wait as long as they can, up to several hours. I don’t think for a second that they would wait overnight. Say you had an excursion that involved a ferry ride. And weather picked up in the afternoon that shut the ferries down for the rest of the day. Do you really think they will stay as long as it takes up to overnight to wait for an excursion and start missing the rest of their timeline and ports.

 

I do believe the one I read about on princess was similar to this. The excursion involved a plane transport. they were about to get to where they were going fine but were unable to return due to weather or mechanical failure. Cruise line made the right decision to simply get the people on the excursion to the next port to meet than stay indefinitely.

Since it has not happened that anyone can show here, I do believe it would be such a rarity that you would not have to worry about.  If its a carnival excursion, it will have several passengers on board.   Carnival would not be stranding several passengers that are going on a Carnival excursion that guarantees the ship will not leave without them.   Their whole premise of selling these at the premium price due to that protection would be ruined.    They aren't going to risk losing all the future customers and profits from all the bad publicity that would create.

 

Carnival does miss ports and schedules due to medical emergencies all the time, and that is usually just for 1 person. 

Edited February 26, 2019 by bingomamma19

[elcuchio24]

1 hour ago, sanger727 said:

 

I know that’s their guaranteee reads. But I personally think they are overselling. I agree that they will wait as long as they can, up to several hours. I don’t think for a second that they would wait overnight. Say you had an excursion that involved a ferry ride. And weather picked up in the afternoon that shut the ferries down for the rest of the day. Do you really think they will stay as long as it takes up to overnight to wait for an excursion and start missing the rest of their timeline and ports.

 

I do believe the one I read about on princess was similar to this. The excursion involved a plane transport. they were about to get to where they were going fine but were unable to return due to weather or mechanical failure. Cruise line made the right decision to simply get the people on the excursion to the next port to meet than stay indefinitely.

 

i had my own scary experience in a port once. We were in Hilo in Hawaii. We (on an independent excursion but cruise excursions were right behind us) were at the volcano park when a 8.2 earthquake hit. Our guide suggested we leave for our safety because the volcano started going crazy and because there is 1 road that connects that park to the rest of the island. And if that road became impassible due to earthquake activity we weren’t getting back. Luckily, everything turned out fine but was a reminder of how quickly and unexpectededly a natural disaster can hit.

 

If you have a CCL example, please post it. Otherwise your argument is invalid and alarmist hyperbole

[Futureman3000]

2 hours ago, elcuchio24 said:

 

I hope you got your answer OP, it seems like the thread is transitioning to judgey posts at this point :-)

 

Please don't mistake my post above as "judgey"...  But as others have noted, it is worth mentioning that circumstances COULD happen that would possibly separate you from your kids.  The chance appears to be very small, but if an emergency happened, most people would want to have the peace of mind of not being separated from their kids.

 

The OP wants to have some fun, and they are entitled to that, but it is worth noting that.  I'm not judging.  I'm just saying that I would not be comfortable enough to do it.  

[sanger727]

7 hours ago, bingomamma19 said:

Since it has not happened that anyone can show here, I do believe it would be such a rarity that you would not have to worry about.  If its a carnival excursion, it will have several passengers on board.   Carnival would not be stranding several passengers that are going on a Carnival excursion that guarantees the ship will not leave without them.   Their whole premise of selling these at the premium price due to that protection would be ruined.    They aren't going to risk losing all the future customers and profits from all the bad publicity that would create.

 

Carnival does miss ports and schedules due to medical emergencies all the time, and that is usually just for 1 person. 

 

To be fair, all cruise lines sell their excursions as a premium based on the premise that they won’t be left behind. And I’m not suggesting they would be stranded. Believe either the port agent or a cruise line employee stays behind to organize transportation, putting them up in a hotel, and transportation to the next port. They are certainly responsible for u if you are on their excursion and they were to leave; however, to blindly believe that under no circumstances would they ever leave an excursion behind is IMO naive. I agree the occurrence of this is such a rarity that it’s not worth worrying about;  just pointing out that it has occurred before on other lines and there’s no reason to think it couldn’t occur on carnival.

[tinkr2]

On 2/25/2019 at 9:02 AM, emoorehead said:

Slight hijack....sorry.

They will not allow anyone under 18 off the ship without their parent, correct? (I might leave my 17 year old on the ship for an hour or so at one of our ports if he doesn't want to come shopping with me.)

 

yes I have left teens that refused to wake up many times.

16 hours ago, Joseph2017China said:

It happened on Carnival.  Don't know if it was a Carnival excursion, or not, or if it was just Senior Frog's party, but it does and has happened.  Kid's were waved good bye to parents as they ran up the dock.  I do believe, that an uncle was on the ship, so at least it ended well for the kids, and they now have a story to hold over the parents head for the rest of their lives..... Personally, I never left my kids on a ship, in a foreign country by themselves.  We just always did something that everyone can do based on their current ages at the time. 

 That example that you are stating is parents who just stayed shopping . They were not on an excursion at all and they certainly not on a ships excursion. So while I am sure the original poster enjoys everyones parenting tips, thats not the point. It seems clear that they can leave their kids and they will be fine on a ships excursion....unless that comet hits.🙄