This will be my first cruise with a child. He will be 2 and a half years old during the cruise, and we plan to enroll him in Camp Ocean. He is in daycare M-F for 9 hours a day at home and he loves it, so I think he will love it on the cruise as well (fingers crossed!!) Just had a few questions for parents who have put their 2 year olds in camp on Carnival...
1) It looks like they offer lunch at noon every day in the Lido buffet. Do they get the food and serve it to kids in this age group? He does well with feeding himself, but obviously a 2 year old cannot serve himself from a buffet. He loves pizza, chicken nuggets, and fries, so I'm sure he'll be happy with whatever they are serving, but we would need the counselors to put it in front of him on a plate. Also, when we drop him off that morning, do they know what will be served for lunch so we can pick what they serve him (so we can pick things we know he likes to avoid a toddler meltdown if they serve him something he hasn't been exposed to before.)?
2) Carnival has the option to leave kids in camp while the parents go ashore to explore a port. We are planning to take our son ashore with us as much as possible... This is our first vacation as a family of 3 and of course we want to include our son as much as we can, and we are picking child-friendly activities in most ports. There is one excursion that we are considering which is not toddler friendly, so we would need to leave him at camp that day. It's only a 3 hour excursion in the morning so we would be back on board way before sail away (we are in port for 9 hours that day). With this in mind, I was curious if any parents can share their experiences in leaving their toddlers in Camp Ocean while they go ashore? Are there any logistics or advice we should consider?