luvmyboyz

Thank you so much for the comments! We went ahead and booked a cabana - thank goodness, too, as there are only 4 left for our cruise date! Thank you for the pictures too - very helpful! We clearly won't be able to sit in the cabana when the boys set in the ocean, but that's ok. I still think the cabana will be worth having.

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Hi everyone. We will be in HMC in early June - this will be our first time on that island and we are really looking forward to it. The tips here are great, but I have a couple questions that I can't find answers to. Hoping you can help!

Hubby and I are traveling with our two sons (ages 6 and 8.) We'll spend a good portion of the day in the ocean, but like the idea of a cabana to have a place to relax and store our stuff. I also like that they come equipped with towels, snorkel gear, floats, and some snacks. Plus, I need a place to get out of the sun for portions of the day because I burn super easy and sun block only helps so much!

So my questions:

1. Are the cabanas close enough to the ocean that hubby and I could sit and watch the boys in the ocean?

2. Also, on the map, it looks like cabanas 1-5 are closest to the food and aqua park, but are they near the swimming area (the map shows the swimming area in front of cabanas 6-10, or so it appears to me.) is there no swimming near cabanas 1-5?

3. Is a melon tray still included in the snacks? And if so, can they be customized? (I am allergic to cantaloupe).

4. Are there lifeguards?

I'm not sure which cabana we should try to reserve. Suggestions would be much appreciated!

Also, if anyone has pics of the aqua park, I'd really like to see them.

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I'm not normally one to judge another parent for their beliefs when they differ from my own. Believe me, I am FAR from being a perfect parent myself!!

That said, I do think that 9 is too young to be allowed to roam free on a cruise ship. There are just too many bad possibilities, and kids that age are rarely responsible enough to ALWAYS make the right decision. I will admit that I am crazy paranoid, but 9 just seems a little too young. My oldest son is 8 and a half, and I can't imagine letting him roam free on a cruise ship six months from now, or even a year or two from now. I will allow him some independence - he can get his own food from the buffet , and I've started to allow him to use public restrooms on his own (if my husband is not with us), and I let him ride theme park rides alone, among other things. But allowing him to sign out of the kids club and wander the ship just seems a bit too risky at this age. I agree that some kids mature faster than others and someone else's child may be far more responsible than mine, but at that age they are still so small. An adult could overpower them so quickly. I know that the chances of a predator being on the ship are very slim, and again, I admit that I am paranoid, but I would rather have my child be annoyed with my overprotective nature than be in a coffin. We teach our children to be independent in many ways, and I really don't think preventing them from wandering a cruise ship alone will hinder their ability to learn independence.

I usually will refrain from trying to impose my beliefs on others, but in this case, if it was my friend and her child, I would probably try to persuade her to reconsider (knowing that she'd probably tell me to mind my own business!!)

Speaking from personal experience as the ten-years younger sister whose older sister had to come home from college once a year to "take care of her"; the older siblings will likely make the younger kids lives an absolute living heck. I did literally spend one afternoon tied up in a corner. Another night I slept in the garage (pushed and locked out). Here's hoping this works better in your family that it did for me!

Yikes - sorry your sister was so mean! My sister is 10 years younger than me, and she only remembers the "mean" things I did, which really weren't all that bad LOL. (sure, I got annoyed sometimes and probably said mean things, and there was one incident where I put her in a closet and another where I told her our mother was never coming back because I was irritated that she woke me up in the middle of the night - ok maybe I was a little mean sometimes!!) Of course she forgets all the nice things I did, like giving up time I could have spent with friends to spend with her instead, and giving up the opportunity to participate in after school activities so I could help out my mom by babysitting her! As an older sister, I can say that younger siblings have it soooo much easier!! :p

Seriously, though, I'm sure the OP's older kids are relatively good to the younger kids; otherwise, I doubt she would leave them alone with them!!

You can keep tabs/ in touch with them if you go to the Carnival.com forums page and create your own thread under the "Currently Onboard" forum. Make sure your kids or their caretaker has a Carnival.com account so they can log in as well. Then give them the correct forum/ thread info. You can make it a few days before you go and get everyone accustomed to using it.

 

You can use the internet café or your own wifi device to log onto Carnival.com for free while onboard. (its the only website that is free to use without setting up/paying for an internet account.)

 

Then you can just chat back and forth using the forum thread. Just remember that the whole world can see every thing you type.

That's a great tip!

If you want to bring your child on the cruise with you, I don't think that your child having ADHD should be the reason you decide not to bring him. There is so much to do as a family that even if th kids club doesn't work out for him, there will be plenty of ways to keep him entertained and enjoy a family vacation! (At the same time, you shouldn't feel bad about not bringing him if what you really want is a vacation with just your husband!!)

Assuming you do bring him, I think you should just take it one day at a time, just as I am sure you do at home. ;) My youngest son is 6yo and diagnosed SLD, but not yet as having a behavior disorder. (Our pediatrician won't even consider a diagnosis until school age, and our son is in kindergarten this year.) However, he exhibits many signs of both ADHD and ODD (we have an appointment scheduled with a neurologist, but the wait list was pretty long.) For the most part, he is extremely affectionate and sweet, but when things don't go his way, watch out!! Needless to say, this can get complicated in a group situation.

However, we always allow him to at least try the kids club when we go on vacation. We do tell the staff that he can be hyper and sometimes a little aggressive, and they are usually very good at handling his occasional outbursts. (It doesn't hurt that he is super cute - of course I am extremely biased, but anyway...) We've never been asked to remove him from any of the kids clubs he's gone to. In his case, he is usually fine with "fun activities" - it's the more "academic" activities that he has trouble focusing on - so the kids clubs are usually not a problem because they aren't exactly trying to teach him his sight words! :p We just try to use our best judgement - if he is having a particularly difficult day, we won't try the kids club that day.

I hope you have a great cruise!

My son wet the bed at night until shortly after his 8th birthday. We've been on many vacations, and always used Goodnights and had no issues with leaking. Regular pullups don't have the same absorbency. (They are a little more expensive, but they work better.) If your child is leaking through the Goodnights, then I would recommend bringing the disposable mattress pads. And if they leak through to the sheets, too, don't feel bad! I am sure that the housekeeping staff will be very understanding of the situation. (Although, they might appreciate a bigger tip if they are changing urine-riddled sheets all week.) :p

With regard to "remedies", it's important to remember that in most cases, this is normal and the child will simply outgrow it - eventually. We never tried the bed-wetting alarm or medication, but we did try limiting fluid intake after 6 PM and waking our son up in the middle of the night and having him use the toilet. Even so, every morning he would have a wet diaper. Then one day, shortly after his 8th birthday, he decided he didn't want to wear diapers anymore. I don't know how it happened, but shortly after that, he was waking up dry. The only change he made was to start to go to the bathroom twice (at the suggestion of his pediatrician.) He would go before getting ready for bed, and then about 10 minutes later he would go again (he calls it his "second pee" LOL!) For some reason, this worked, and has continued to work for about 6 months now.

Although we spend a good deal of time with the kids, we do allow them to decide if they want to participate in the kids' clubs when we go on vacation. However, we make it a point to not leave them in the clubs for long periods of time (even though, sometimes, I think they may prefer that over spending time with us. LOL!) We also eat almost every meal with them - sometimes we'll have a "date night" and let the kids eat at the club, but that's usually only once during the whole trip. And we never leave them on the ship when we are at a port - I'm way too paranoid to do that, and besides, I would hate for them to miss out on the opportunity to explore a new place.

We bring the kids with us because we want to spend time with them! ;) (I'm sure this is true for the majority of people who bring their kids on vacation with them.) But I also don't see anything wrong with letting them go to the kids club for a couple of hours each day if it's something they enjoy doing. And if that means a couple of hours for my hubby and I to have a nice quiet drink by the pool, well, hey, bonus!!