Camp Carnaval switching age group?

[2910car]

We will be travelling on the Carnival Freedoom with 6 grandculdren (and their parents). The three oldest girls will be 7, 6 and almost 6 (5 and 8 months) They are cousins and want to be together in the camp. We feel the almost 6 year old will be bored being with her 3 year old brother and 2 year old cousin. Is there anyway they would allow her to go to the camp with her girl cousins? It would just make everyone happy - which as their grandmother is my main goal! Thanks

[gkrnjlr]

Our kids are 14 months apart and we wondered if we could keep them together and were told that they're very strict about the age groups. The staff at Camp Carnival did allow us to keep them together though.

[6rugrats]

The rules are usually they can move down an age group, but not up. That said, I don't think these rules are always followed. Speak privately to the staff once you are on board and see what you can do.

[crusinmama06]

We were able to move my friend's 5 year old daughter up to the 6-8 year old group to be with her brother and my oldest daughter - this was Carnival Sensation. ;)

 

Just ask NICELY. :D They told us it would be a "trial" to see if she would fit in with the 6-8 year olds....she did fine.

 

Just don't demand it. Ask if they can stay together. Prepare her that they may not allow it, but you will ask. :D

[GatorGirl13]

Just off the Freedom yesterday, DD will turn six tomorrow (we sailed last week) and they kept her in the 2-5 group. We asked politely several times and all times were rejected. However DD is an only child. They may or may not give consideration to kids with sibs. DD didn't have as much fun as we thought (we have been on one Carnival cruise a year since 2004 so she is well aquainted with Camp Carnival) and at end basically just refused to go because they were doing "baby" stuff.

 

Each cruise I am told is different.

[crusinmama06]

Just off the Freedom yesterday, DD will turn six tomorrow (we sailed last week) and they kept her in the 2-5 group. We asked politely several times and all times were rejected. However DD is an only child. They may or may not give consideration to kids with sibs. DD didn't have as much fun as we thought (we have been on one Carnival cruise a year since 2004 so she is well aquainted with Camp Carnival) and at end basically just refused to go because they were doing "baby" stuff.

 

Each cruise I am told is different.

 

That's too bad. :( It's very frustrating when they won't work with you...especially when she is having a birthday just days later. Did you ask to speak to the head of Camp Carnival? Did they have an unusually high number of kids this week?

[GatorGirl13]

That's too bad. :( It's very frustrating when they won't work with you...especially when she is having a birthday just days later. Did you ask to speak to the head of Camp Carnival? Did they have an unusually high number of kids this week?

 

Yes we did we speak to the director and no the number (in our opinion) of kids in either group wasn't outrageous at all. I teach school so I am pretty familiar with the general ratio of adults/kids aspect of these situations. The bad part is DD is big (she is usually mistaken for 7 or 8 anyway as she is over 4 feet tall already!) so I am sure some of the two year olds were a little intimidated just by her size. My only real issue was with some of the Dora and Blue's clues stuff they did (she has done most of it before) and she hasn't watched or been interested in those shows/characters since she was 3. The 6 to 8's were doing more age appropriate stuff (more group type games, charades, board games, etc.) that she was interested in and does in school. We are lucky though as she is not a complainer per se, has an agreeable nature and that there was another girl in there with her who had a March 12th birthday (she was also about to be six) so they kind of hung out together a bit. So it was okay and obviously it didn't ruin our trip or anything. We just figured they decided to draw the line with us and that it happens sometimes.

 

If our child had a different/less agreeable personalty then it could have been a whole lot worse/different for all of us.

[ETinCA]

Our Disney Cruise was the only one in which the ship didn't stick to the age rules. For some reason HAL and Carnival have been very strict despite our requests.

[bankerbabe]

We were on the Carnival Conquest at the end of March and had no problems switching our daughter. They told everyone at the orientation meeting that if the child was within 3 months of the next age group they could be bumped up upon request. My daughter was just under 3 months from her birthday so they didn't even hesitate to move her.