bigdaddyyo

It is our first time visiting the Panama Canal and we are looking for the best Gatun Lake excursions for families. We are on the HAL Rotterdam in November. There are 4 of us, 2 kids are ages 15 and 7. Just wanting to find the best excursion. We are pretty much up for anything.

Trying to understand how the excursions work. Do you get off the boat prior to entering the locks or once the boat parks in Gatun Lake do you take a tender to the excursion?

I have a 15yr old and a 7yr old. Trying to find more info about Splash Academy. We are doing Iceland and Norway in May 2024. Ship seems limited in regards to kids clubs. Also anyone that has done the Iceland/Norway sailing this summer, are you seeing lots of kids onboard or is it minimal?

It would’ve been a very loud conversation. Not physical but the tone would hopefully make them aware of their behavior. I could go to Guest Services, but by the time I got there the kids would be gone and nothing would happen and they would end up doing it again.

When it is a safety issue I don’t think there should be multiple warnings. If it is a nuisance issue it should be one warning. If you set expectations up front with parents that any safety issues will have major consequences and be dealt with swiftly, then you have set the stage for what they should expect. I would say that destructive behavior should be treated the same as a safety issue. If a nuisance issue, I would reunite the child with their parent so they are all hearing the warning at the same time and let them know what the consequence is if it happens again. Safety/Destructive issues should be immediately brought to parents attention and tell them they must have their child with them at all times. If child is found without parent then they are banned for one year from sailing. If another safety/destructive issue happens again, drop them at next port and ban them for life. It might sound over the top, but at some point you have to control the situation and make the consequences have some substance. Other passengers will take notice and applaud your efforts. The days of “Please don’t do that again”, just doesn’t cut it.

Agree! I saw kids hitting golf balls on the mini golf course like they were Tiger Woods while others were trying to play. I kept waiting for one to come my way.

Here, just so we make sure we are all on the same page. You can see her FB name and reach out, if anyone still wants to play detective. I’m only posting this so I can get my post count up so I’m more credible.

So that doesn’t make me credible? You sound like a fun person to be around, god forbid anyone has opinions you don’t agree with.

There is a fine line and when that line is crossed it is on Carnival to keep control and enforce rules.

As much as I agree with what you are saying, I will say that the cruise line sees more than we think they see. I think for them the actions fall between a safety issue and a nuisance issue. I think the only ones they truly care about are the safety issues. I had a crew member tell me that on the prior cruise that a boy held down the handles on the soft serve machine and emptied all of the ice cream onto the floor. She mentioned that the biggest problem on the ship is always the ice cream machine. Now that being said Carnival is aware of the issue, but does nothing about it. On other cruise lines that I've been on (RCCL, Disney), when they had a problem with the soft serve machine, they posted an employee there and the employee is the one serving the ice cream. Is it ideal? No, but that was the solution to stop all of the waste. Another fix to a problem like this would be to send a bill to the stateroom of that child for the ice cream wasted and time to clean it up. Guarantee that would fix that child and the parents would start paying more attention. Another thing that is small but still speaks to the mindset of the crew was trash. I saw numerous times where trash was in the stairwell. Food wrappers, papers, etc and I watched time and time again how crew, both low level and officers would walk by the trash without even hesitating to pick it up. I can't remember a time on RCCL or Disney in which I saw that happen. If they saw trash they would stop what they are doing and grab it, but I didn't see that on this cruise. Now in a perfect world it should be the passengers that dropped the trash are the ones that pick it up, but we know how that goes. I think in the end it becomes a quantity over quality issue for Carnival. You want your boats to be full, because that means more money, but if the product you are providing is suffering because of it, then you have to ask yourself if you are more worried about money or about your product. I think we know the answer to that.

So you have to post a lot if you go on a lot of cruises?? I guarantee that there are many folks that have never posted and have been on a hundred cruises.

I've been on 14 cruises and I have NEVER seen anything like this. I've seen kids running up and down halls and being wild and crazy in the pools/waterparks, but again I have never seen kids act like these kids did. I spoke to numerous crew onboard and they all said the same thing, that this is the type of behavior they see week in and week out. Some weeks are not as bad as others, but overall the theme was that the kids are out of control. When I saw the kids climbing into the walls outside of the casino, I was completely dumbfounded. I know that others have mentioned that they usually see security outside O2 and Circle C, but I walked by those places multiple times and never saw any. My child was in O2 and said that he never saw security. In regards to your comment that "The cruise line is not responsible for disciplining our children", that is absolutely correct, but they are responsible for enforcing the rules on those children and their parents. If it wasn't a problem then Carnival wouldn't have instituted a curfew for kids and wouldn't have sent out press releases about behavior on their ships. Again, my initial question is this type of behavior and craziness happening on other cruise lines? Since the restart of cruising we have only done this cruise, but before that we have sailed on 6 different cruise lines without issue.

I’ve been on 14 cruises from Carnival to Disney to RCCL and what I saw last week on the Carnival Vista blew my mind. I have never seen kids behave so badly on a cruise ship. From food fights to throwing ice cream on the walls in hallways and stairwells. One kid was beaten so badly by another that part of his ear ripped from his head. I saw kids opening access hatches near the arcade and were climbing in those hatches and were walking in between the walls of the ship. I was told of other kids pushing over carts that crew were moving. Kids cussing out crew members and other guests. It was absolute chaos. When I mentioned the behavior of the kids to Guest Services, I was told that they are a little rowdy, but they are young and to keep that in mind. I had two kids onboard and if either acted like these kids it would be their last cruise. I was told by crew members that this is how the kids act on every cruise. Sometimes it is better but for the most part it is awful. The kid that assaulted the other kid was told to stay with his parents for the remainder of the cruise but that only lasted a day. The Mom said she was pressing charges on him. Again I’ve been on many cruises before and I’ve never seen anything like this. I’m just wondering if it is Carnival or are all cruise lines experiencing the same craziness. One thing is for sure, Carnival does not have control of the Carnival Vista ship.

I changed our reservation to the 8/10 sailing out of Miami. My party is unvaccinated. They just added UV to the notes and that was it. I asked multiple times if we had to do anything else and the rep said no. At this point they don’t care and neither should anyone else. It’s not like they actually have to hold to the 90%. They all make their own rules now. Time to move on and just go back to normal.