Camp Carnival

I've cruised many times, but this time we are taking kids and grand kids. To put my daughters mind at ease, am looking for any information from those of you that have used Camp Carnival before. The grand babies ages are 8 and 6. Any info will be appreciated.

I am following. Our family cruise is November 2 on the sunshine. Our 8, 5 and 4 year old great granddaughters are going too, as well as their 4 year old friend. I saw the age groupings and am hoping the 8 year old won't have to go with a different group because she's older. These girls are very close.

There is an allergy form if they have allergies.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

I am following. Our family cruise is November 2 on the sunshine. Our 8, 5 and 4 year old great granddaughters are going too, as well as their 4 year old friend. I saw the age groupings and am hoping the 8 year old won't have to go with a different group because she's older. These girls are very close.

The youngest age group is 2-5, so the 8 year old would be in the older group past that

The age groups are 2-5, 6-8, 9-11, 12-14 and 15-17. Generally the age groups are pretty strict, but there have been exceptions. The 8 year old really has no business in a group with 2 and 4 year olds and should really be encouraged to make friends her age. There is plenty of time to spend together outside camp.

It is important no matter the age to go early to start making friends though with the younger groups there won’t be any camp, just a family party, the first night.

Our boys started at 2 and 8 and are now 14 and 20 so we have done it all. The camps are great and they both loved Going. Open on sea days 9-12, 1-4 ish, and 7-10 with no charge. We always sent them in the morning, gave them the option of pool, golf etc with us after lunch (more often than not they chose camp), and by 7 pm they were begging to be taken from the table to be dropped off.

If you want an adult only dinner, they do kids dinner on the Lido at 6 and you just drop them there.

Ask away if you have any specific questions.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

My 10 year old granddaughter has been on 13 cruises across three different cruise lines and her number one rule is go the first sea day to make friends. She likes to go the first morning and evening to make friends. She normally stays with the family in the afternoon to spend time in the pool or other kid friendly areas like the ropes course or water slides. She hurries us through dinner to go to camp so if your kids really like camp and don't mind kid type food you may want to let them eat with the camp kids. Our girl loves prime rib and steak so she always eats with us but can't wait to get back to her friends. She is an only child and makes friends easily but can be really shy also. She has made friends with kids from all over the US and also Australia and Germany (no English spoken) but still had a great time. I would encourage you to have your eight year old go to her assigned age group as she will have more fun doing age appropriate crafts and games.

The counselors are trained to know how to get the kids participating and making friends so no one is lonely or left out of the fun.

If they go to night owls, the kids are generally all hanging out together, so the splitting of kids in different age groups isn't really an issue.

My daughter is 10 and getting ready to sail her 6th cruise next month. The first time she cruised she was 2 so we didn’t do Camp Carnival. After that we started letting her go and she’s now more happy in camp than she is with us. I would recommend letting them go with them proper age group though. Our friend’s daughter should have been in the 6-8 age group but they let her go with the 9-11 since her brother and my daughter were there and she hated it and begged to stay with her parents the whole time. She hated it becue she wasn’t old enough to be in that age group and the things they do are age appropriate! All in all, they will have a great time!

Just did a 8 day cruise on the Legend to Alaska. I think there was a total of 66 kids (ages 2-17). I have a 7 year old daughter who has some special needs and she had an awesome experience with camp ocean. In fact she would have preferred to hang out there on port days instead of going on excursions with us (though she didn't have a choice). She got seasick the first sea day and had to wait 24 hours and be cleared by the medical staff before being able to return and you would have thought it was the end of the world. They were kind and sent a care package to the cabin with activities and crafts for her to do. Since there was such a small number of kids they were often grouped together (2-8 age groups) and I never saw more then 10-12 kids (if that) there at one time.

Our kids have been going since they were 3 & 7 (which is when we started sailing with them) and adore Camp Ocean/Carnival; they can't wait to get there once on board. We tried a different cruise line last winter, and found that their children's program didn't compare with Carnival's; too much reliance on video games and very little in the way of organized activities. On Carnival, the staff all knew our kids' names, and our kids came back to our cabin with a craft/activity every day. Both are still wearing the tee shirts they coloured in Camp Ocean a couple years ago.

My kids (6 and 11) have went several times. My daughter (11) doesn't care for Camp Carnival, but she also doesn't care for things like children's church, after school groups, or other organized activities. She is just happier keeping to herself I guess! My son (6) loves it. He loves making new friends and doing the crafts, and looks forward to it each cruise!

As a social worker, I'm a little over cautious because of what I see at work each day, so I asked a lot of questions to the staff. I was pleasantly surprised with their answers! They are very knowledgeable (at least everyone we've met) about children, and one staff member was even working on a degree in child development. It seems like they really care about the kids they see. I can't speak to the night owls program as we have never done that, my sleepyheads are always ready for bed in the evenings!