Camp Carnival Cheers & Jeers - let's hear 'em!

[wencel]

We're taking our 26 mos old DD on her first cruise on the Carnival Spirit in mid-January. I've been doing research in the forums and have gotten some great info in general about cruising with toddlers but not a lot of info specific to Camp Carnival (although the recent posting about having to book after hours babysitting by 10:15p is very useful!).

 

Can anyone share any recent Camp Carnival tips, suggestions, etc? For example, we have late dining seating and I think it clashes with CC's first night orientation 'party'? Can someone clarify?

 

I know CC counsellors will change diapers... how frequently? Can I ask them to change diapers at specific times or time intervals?

 

Overall, how were the counsellors? There have been very recent postings about apathetic, clock-watching counsellors... ?

 

Thanks all for your help.

[Travelwiser13]

While I can't comment on your very specific information needed on diapers, I can comment on other questions. We just returned from Carnival's Inspiration sailing Dec 23rd 2006.

 

We had late seating supper and it did conflict with the orientation. We did not go to it, however, we did not find it to be a problem really because the counselors had all the answers we needed the next day (re. when does camp start - next day). Outside of the camp rooms was all the information posted in pamphlets as well. I would recommend going if you can since you have little ones but I'm sure, as we found, all your questions can be answered. I think we have a million questions and all were answered or we found the answers anyway. If you have more questions I'll try to answer some. The diaper question I can't answer, however.

 

Most of the counselors I found to be very nice. The structure is nice for the most part. My children's ages are 8,9, 15, and we had a 17yo with us as well. The 8 and 9 year old attended different camps (but at times had to start out combined). The 15 and 17 yo's were always in same camp. The 17 was never interested in the camp and it really is not well suited for kids that age at all. Maybe an immature 16yo could handle it but that is about it. It suited a 15yo well. Our 9yo loved her camp and suited her well, all activities. Our 8 yo hated most of it and really did not spend a lot of time there because of it. He couldn't go to the 9-11 yo camp and even if he had been able to, would not have fit in. His camp was 6-8 yo's. They were too immature for him but he was too immature for the 9-11 yo's. A quandry.

 

Activitywise I think there was ok things. Sometimes (2 days into sailing) there were nice things and not mostly free play (ps2's, gameboys, etc). What they don't tell you is that they do shut down a bit of time. Like 2 hours at lunch, then again at dinner times (if you are on late seating you are in luck as it is open - early seating and your children will be eating with you). I say the above as some parents are looking for some *alone time* and would like the opportunity to dine alone and it's not possible unless you sacrifice your dining options.

 

Hope this helps just a tiny bit.

[crusinmama06]

Oh I have lots to say about them...lol. We were just on Carnival Elation at the beginning of the month. Here is some from my review....

 

Both my 6 and 2 year old attended the Carnival Kids Camp. They really enjoyed it. But there were some serious problems with it. The first problem I had was organization. The kids camp schedule would have one event listed in the kids caper...you would go to drop your child off and find that they were only taking kids 2 and under. When I pointed out the schedule...they would say "Oh that's a misprint".

 

Also they really watched the clock. On formal night I attempted to drop my 6 year old off at the Formal Dinner which began at 7pm. It was 6:55pm. The camp counselor said "Oh you're early, you'll have to wait." So we had a seat right next to the camp counselor as she stared at her watch. She just stood there until EXACTLY 7pm, then she said "Ok, you can sign her in now". They were so rigid...yet so unorganized.

 

When I asked how long the kid's talents show was their answer was "2 hours" and I said "2 hours???? My youngest is only 2 and will never sit oin stage for 2 hours" I go and ask another counselor who tells me it was ONE hour. And my 2 year old did perfectly fine.

 

I witnessed at LEAST 6 different parents at 6 different times arguing with the couselors about the Build A Buddy (like Build A Bear). In the caper it would say it was a family event. When the parents would attempt to go to it, they were told it was NOT a family event, that it was a misprint.

 

They seem to be closed at the most inconvenient times. They closed from 12 - 2pm. Sometimes they closed for long periods of times like on Formal Night.

 

I was paged one night (the parents of the 2-5 group are given pagers). I thought it would be for my 2 year old. It was for my 6 year old. A girl had "gotten in her face and screamed at her for winning a game" and my normally VERY easy going 6 year old started crying. She said she wanted me to be paged and the counselor told her that she "had exactly 5 seconds to stop crying". I asked her if they asked the other girl to apologize to her...the answer "nope, not once. They didn't say anything to her" :rolleyes: I got there and asked what happened and they were very short with me.

 

I am usually a very easy going mama. I just go with the flow. I don't expect everything to be absolutly perfect. BUT, Carnival does need to rework their camp on Elation. On Disney and RCCL, their camps are like well oiled machines. I never had ONE problem with the kids clubs on any other cruise line.

 

I loved the ship. The kids had a great time. But the kids club needs some work. :(

[Travelwiser13]

Yes, they are a bit of time watchers for sure! They will not take you early and you had BEST be there ON TIME. Sometimes they even start calling your room 5 minutes early to make sure you will be there to pick up your child on time! (certain nights/events) We were never given a beeper and the second to last night we signed one out and wouldn't you know, they didn't even use it! Instead called the room (not even the right room - thank god we had a second room for a family member) instead! I have no clue what the point of a beeper is if they did not even use it.

 

As for build a bear/buddy, we did that and it was no big deal. Only seemed like 2 or 3 other parents went in with their children, 1 at a time and did it. The counselors dished out the materials but didn't participate. It was parent/child activity and definitely not part of the camp. You did it and then had to leave.

 

My son, and the reason he did not go back, cried he wanted to leave. They just called us up and that was that. He wasn't allowed back in. They have a 1 shot policy on everything. That means if your child is disruptive, or wants to leave, etc...that is the end of it. I've never been on another cruise so can't base my experiences on anything but this cruise.

 

They definitely lacked organization. Some of the activities listed on the capers never actually happened, some got cancelled. Some of the art projects weren't even returned with my children (and there were several done).

 

One very big thing I have got to mention (and I will still say it was good for my 9yo anyway), is that do NOT let your 9-11 yo's sign themselves out! (could be that the older ones were culprits too but I think it was this group that has some problems on our ship) This ship had a bunch of unruly children running around unsupervised (this age group). I'm talking about pushing all the elevator buttons at once, laying on elevator floors, a lot of them looking and acting as though they were drunk.

 

Come to find out that what the counselors do in this age bracket is allow children in pairs to go to the bathroom. 1 child that is allowed to sign out takes another child who is NOT allowed to sign themselves out to the bathroom. Mind you, if neither child knows where the nearest bathroom is, or both are prone to wander/ goof off, you have trouble.

 

My daughter was not allowed to sign out and did not know where the bathroom is. I had reversed that the last day thinking she had learned the ship enough (and there was only a matter of hours left), I learned of this the hard way. I found her wandering (thankfully back to our room) but only AFTER the counselor had called my room (mind you we still had the beeper!!!) to say that she and another child (who could NOT sign themselves out) had gone to the bathroom a while ago and not returned. It was time for camp to close and the other parent was there waiting for their child! I was horrified as my fiance was enroute to pick up my daughter (thank god I was actually in my room too to get call). I had both daughter and other child and proceeded to take both back up (2 decks) to where the camp was taking place.

 

I honestly do not think that supervision in that case is close enough and have learned the hard way. I will not be taking my younger ones again with me. Perhaps if they were really young, maybe.

[wencel]

Thanks for all your responses, but boy you're making me nervous! Our daughter will be 28 mos old by cruise time. She's quite social and enjoys playing with other people, young and old. She's had a nanny since 2 mos and we thought the Camp Carnival experience might be a good way to introduce her to the day care experience. Let me explain our cruise plan and you tell me how naive we are :) ...

 

Drop DD at CC after family breakfast at the buffet (definitely not before 9a). Pick her up at noon, we lunch together at the buffet, stroll around the ship with her a bit, then it's nap time. She usually sleeps 1-3p so by the time she wakes and we feed her a snack, it'll be around 4p. So we will either drop her off at CC for an hour (I read somewhere CC closes between 5-7p - can someone confirm?) or just spend time together. We have late seating for dinner so we expect to feed DD her dinner at the buffet, meander around ship with her a bit more, get ourselves changed for our dinner and her bathed and dressed in PJ's, and drop her off at CC right before our dinner. We enjoy the evening shows, hit the midnight buffet, then fetch DD from CC. I intend for DH and I to complete our bedtime prep (shower, teethbrushing, etc) before getting DD so once we get her back to the cabin, we can have immediate lights out.

 

Now I know there's no predicting how much DD will cooperate with my idealized vision of our cruise. I am very prepared to adjust as needed. But DH and I are hoping to have some time to ourselves as well as spend time as a family. This Carnival Spirit cruise of the Mexican Riviera started out as a RSSC Paul Gauguin cruise of Tahiti! My husband wanted a break and envisioned a romantic, child-free vacation in paradise. I didn't want to take the time for vacation and didn't want to leave DD for 2 weeks... so I tweaked his vision into a family cruise:D . And by family, I mean our cousins are also cruising with us with their DD (who is only 4 days younger than our DD).

 

One of the most disturbing things for me to read is Travelwiser13's warning that CC has a 1 shot policy. I don't worry about my daughter being disruptive, but it's possible that if she get hurts or someone upsets her, she might cry "I want my mommy". It's something she recently learned from her cousin and she doesn't really want mommy, she just says it because she hears her cousin say it all the time. I wouldn't want the counselors to kick out either girls because of something like this. I do intend to tell the counselors on day 1 that the girls don't mean it when they cry for mommy in such situations and they'll stop quickly if they're distracted. Has anyone found that greasing the wheel helped? Should I give a nice tip at the beginning of the cruise? If so, I should tip all the counsellors for the 2-5 yr group? How many are there? And what's a 'nice' tip? I know the tipping guide line for room stewarts & dining staff, but haven't a clue about CC staff!

 

I travelled a fair amount during the first year with DD (for both business and vacation). I found it exhausting. During DD's second year, husband and I just left her at home with the grandparents and nanny when we wanted a getaway. But I think travel of all kinds is good for kids and I have such a hard time being away from her. I'm really looking to cruising as a great way for us to vacation with the kid. But now I'm feeling awfully unsure about it! Thanks for all your words of wisdom and keep 'em coming!

[Travelwiser13]

You can't tip the counselors unfortunately. Or at least I've not seen it done by anyone and I really don't think it would matter as they have *set rules and schedules* they seem to strictly abide by. :( That won't help you and I'm sure plenty of people have explained the situation about their children wanting their parents. I know we had and my son also had some dietary restrictions (which they do allow for and have a form).

 

Instead of abiding by them and limiting him, they just denied him. Case in point, he could have had jello and they refused it to him which prompted the crying. I had CLEARLY stated he could have that for desert that evening as they asked me specifically if he could have that. You see this particular night they were having a kids dinner so kids were there for dinner.

 

I don't mean to alarm you but this site is for giving heads up so you are armed with knowledge. You have a younger child and perhaps aren't going on this particular ship so things may not be the same. Being ahead of the game helps.

 

As for your game plan, most of it makes sense to me and sounds very doable. You might have conflicts with timing (re: 4pm times and camp possibly being closed at that time- ours closed at that times some days others not) also conflicts of times for your shows you might want to see. Depends on the show. If it's a repeated show for late seating or a later show, no problem.

 

Be warned that camp closes at 10pm and after that you have to pay to have your child in it but they are available and open from 10-3A so you CAN still have alone time. :) We took advantage of that the second night in (although our plans didn't go exactly as we'd like we did get alone time). We didn't use it after 10 any other night. Oh, lol, that's right, I recall reading now that you already knew about that one and yes, you do have to sign up but on ours you had to do it BEFORE 10p.

 

I believe I only saw 2, 3 tops (and only sometimes) counselors per group at any given time. In the teen group there was only 1 but I never saw more then 5-6 kids at these camps. I would have expected to see a lot more especially considering it was Christmas. Surprisingly, the ship was NOT overrun with kids as I had expected to see based on many postings here about kids and vacation times.

 

I did say how my teenager loved it. I'm happy to report that the address' she exchanged with the friends she met at club 02 (her age camp) followed up and she is in contact with them and them with her so there ARE positives. I also spoke of my 9yo who had a blast but there were some issues. Take what you need and arm yourself, that's all you can do.:cool:

[wencel]

Travelwiser13, it really sounds like the counselors you encountered just didn't care. I hope it's not indicative of the majority of the counselors. And maybe those caring for the youngest children will be a bit more compassionate? You're right, though, forewarned is forearmed and I'm info gathering like a manic squirrel in hopes of being prepared for just about anything.

 

Thanks again for everyone's input. I'll be sure to post personal experiences after our cruise!

[crusinmama06]

You can tip the counselors on the last day. A tipping bucket is put up, they must divide it up amoung all of them.

 

I didn't see the "1 shot policy" because my 6 year old definatly went back after she had her problem being yelled at by the other child.

 

I pretty much had the same game plan. But much of it had to be reworked because the club was closed due to one reason or another.

[Kerry's Girls]

Oh boy - I specifically booked Carnival for our cruise in two weeks because my twins will have just turned two, also thinking this would be a great first day care experience for them, but now I'm wondering if they do something wrong or cry that I'll end up not being able to use the kids program anymore...which was the only reason I chose Carnival over our usual Princess...I guess we'll see.

 

Thanks for all the useful information!

 

Best,

Mia

[CWNNP]

Oh boy - I specifically booked Carnival for our cruise in two weeks because my twins will have just turned two' date=' also thinking this would be a great first day care experience for them, but now I'm wondering if they do something wrong or cry that I'll end up not being able to use the kids program anymore...which was the only reason I chose Carnival over our usual Princess...I guess we'll see.

 

Thanks for all the useful information!

 

Best,

Mia[/quote']

 

to Wencel and Mia,

 

We used Camp Carnival on our last cruise which was about 1 1/2 yrs ago (the 2-5 yr old and 6-8 yr old programs). Our kids absolutely loved it. We were very happy with the friendliness and competence of the councillors for both those age groups. At the time our 3 yr old, who was not used to a daycare-like setting, was made to feel totally comfortable there. I was not aware of any one-chance-and- you're- out policy, and honestly, I wouldn't be at all worried about that for a 2 yr old that might be a little hesitant or cry sometimes!!!! I'm sure that if there is any such policy it may be for the older kids? ( mind you, if your child doesn't get used to it there and has separation anxiety and cries continuously that's an altogether different story)

Wencel I think your plan sounds pretty reasonable- we never utilized the after 10pm babysitting, so i can't comment on it.( although we did go out late one night while my sister and brother-in-law sat with our 3 sleeping kids in our room!!) Also, I remember the camp generally being closed from 5-7pm except formal night where i think the schedule is different because the kids can eat dinner with the camp that day! I don't know about the diaper changing routines there.

 

Mia and wencel, please let us know when you get back how it goes with your little ones and camp !

 

I'm sorry for those that have not had such great experiences- we are cruising with carnival again in a little over 6 weeks and hope camp carnival is still good, ( now we will have all 3 kiddos in camp!) and i hope don't experience any of the problems that some others have!! :o

 

eden

[wencel]

Thanks for the words of encouragement, CWNNP! By this time next week, we'll have settled the little one in for her first sleep on a "big big boat"! I'm hoping for the best and preparing for the worst.

 

I will definitely post my experiences, thoughts and any recommendations I learn after our cruise.

 

Hope you have another great CC experience CWNNP. And good luck to you too Kerry's Girls!

[vetgirl]

The only experience I had with CC was their evening babysitting service. My DD was only 11 months at that time, and she did wonderfully. The counselors were FABULOUS. Above and beyond what I ever expected as far as doting and meeting her needs. There was one sweet young girl who took care of her every night.

 

She would be deep asleep when we walked her down at 10:00, but it seemed as soon as we layed her down in the pack n' play--those eyes were wide open!:o They encouraged us to go have fun and of course assured us we would be paged if she became "inconsolable". I had 100% faith in what they said and did not worry a bit.

 

Fast forward a year or so and here we are. My DD will be 27 months when we cruise next month, and are thinking she may be a little more reluctant to be left by herself to participate in the actual "toddler program". I guess we won't know until we give it a try.

 

I'm just hoping the counselors are as sweet and caring as they were on the Fantasy. I will never forget the kindness of our DD's wonderful care taker, Luminita, who dearly missed her toddler who was home in Romania.:( I think that had alot to do with how wonderful she was treated.

 

Anyway, I'll be checking this thread up until we leave next month, hoping to hear more experiences--especially with the 2ish age range!

[Kerry's Girls]

We leave on Sunday on the Pride! I'll report back with our amazing trip!

 

Best,

Mia