Just booked on the Carnival Valor - Questions

[bbrme]

We just booked our first carnival cruise on the Valor - Nov 28. This will be our second cruise with our kids (7&9) - last year we went on the NCL Jewel and loved it. How does Carnival compare with NCL? We are booked for anytime diniing - does that seem to work well?

 

For the Kids Club - does anyone have experience leaving their kids at Camp Carnival while they are in port? DH and I are thinking of doing a Dive excursion in Belize and the kids are too young to come along. What are the prices of all the extras? Laser tag, mani/pedi, etc. I noticed that the mani/pedi is advertised in the capers - is there an age requirement - DD is 7.

 

We are booked in an inside room with 2 upper bunks. This seems like it will work better than the room we had on the Jewel which had one upper bunk and a cot. Is there enough room for storage? We were pleasantly surprised with our cabin on the Jewel - there were lots of drawers/shelves everywhere and that worked well for us.

 

Thanks for all your help

Beth

[RoadTripFanatic]

We just booked our first carnival cruise on the Valor - Nov 28. This will be our second cruise with our kids (7&9) - last year we went on the NCL Jewel and loved it. How does Carnival compare with NCL? We are booked for anytime diniing - does that seem to work well?

 

For the Kids Club - does anyone have experience leaving their kids at Camp Carnival while they are in port? DH and I are thinking of doing a Dive excursion in Belize and the kids are too young to come along. What are the prices of all the extras? Laser tag, mani/pedi, etc. I noticed that the mani/pedi is advertised in the capers - is there an age requirement - DD is 7.

 

We are booked in an inside room with 2 upper bunks. This seems like it will work better than the room we had on the Jewel which had one upper bunk and a cot. Is there enough room for storage? We were pleasantly surprised with our cabin on the Jewel - there were lots of drawers/shelves everywhere and that worked well for us.

 

Thanks for all your help

Beth

 

I've been on two NCL cruises and a few Carnival cruises. I will say there isn't much difference in regards to service/food/etc. They are very similar.

Camp Carnival does allow you to leave your children in the center for the day while you are at port. I've done it once and I was a basket case. (Just being honest) I was just scared because she was 5 and it was the first time I've left her alone on the ship. I don't think I will do it again BUT we don't dive. If we were divers we wouldn't have choice since she is too young to dive. KWIM? LOL! They do feed and take good care of your child while you are gone. They also have you sign a medical consent at the beginning of the cruise authorizing them to take care of your child in case of an emergency.

I can't remember the cost of Laser Tag. It wasn't awful and we had fun. I know it was less than $20 for the 3 of us. (I think...it's been two years)

I don't know if there are spa age restrictions but the price is high. I'd think Vegas or high end spa prices versus the local $35 for a Mani-Pedi. If I had to guess I'd plan on at least $110 for both per person.

 

I just looked at my picture from our Valor cruise 2 years ago and had to jog my memory on storage on that ship. LOL! We had an inside and it looks like there are 3 drawers, two end tables that really don't hold much and 3 closets. One of the closets has 3 shelves in it to use for storage but when the shelves are down there isn't any room for hanging clothes. All closets have a top shelf to store stuff. The 3rd closet is usually home to the life jackets but we move them and put them under the bed.

 

There is plenty of room in the bathroom for the bathroom 'junk.' If you have a lot of bathroom stuff you could bring an over the door cady or a shoe holder to hold stuff. :)

[bbrme]

Thanks for the info. I will probably be a basket case too if I leave them on board while i am in port. Were there many kids in the kids club during port days? If there are they might think its a treat :)

[RoadTripFanatic]

I don't remember. It's been a while. :) The other thing is when you are in port the kids center on Carnival is open to everyone. You just have to let them know that the child will be staying with them for the day so they can have lunch planned. DD is usually running to get to the kids center after our day on the island. I'm sure there will be a fair share of kids in and out all day long.