Staff supervision in Club C and Co2 plus what is there to do?

[nzdisneymom]

We will be taking our first Carnival cruise on the Carnival Dream as a family in December. Our boys will be 14 and 15 when we sail so it looks like they will be in separate groups as far as youth programming is concerned. We have sailed with Disney multiple times and found their youth programs to be adequately supervised during the time the youth spaces are open whether it's "free time" or scheduled activities, and if there is not a youth staff person there, the space is closed. We sailed once with Royal Caribbean on Freedom of the Seas where the tween/teen space was open nearly all the time but only supervised during times when specific activities were scheduled and not so otherwise (and therefore no supervised "free time"). My boys had trouble with some older teens during a non-supervised time that resulted in security being called and all the teens (and my boys) being asked to not return for 24 hours. The whole encounter turned my boys off even wanting to go to the scheduled activities which they had been enjoying up to that point. We talked with the youth staff about what happened and everything ended up ok - but now that we're embarking on a new cruise line, we want to find out ahead of time what the real deal is regarding supervision for the tweens and teens so we can plan accordingly.

 

I've read the materials provided by the cruiseline and it looks like the teen space is open 24 hours but I can't get a sense of how much of the time there will be scheduled activities and/or supervision. Also trying to find out what kinds of things there are to do there - video games, computer games, board games, etc.? Or is it like what we encountered on Royal Caribbean where there were basically only computers with internet that they could use for the exorbitant fee (and we didn't participate). Do they do organized sports or scavenger hunts or other types of activities? We'd love to hear about your teen's experiences!

 

Thanks!

[SadieN]

Have them go to the clubs the first night to get a feel of them. It really depends on the mix of kids whether they will enjoy it or not.

 

There are organized events like the ones you listed.

Scavenger hunts, Wii Sports (and the other gaming systems), Dances, 'Casino Night', soda/ice cream parties, etc

 

Club02 usually has a shore excursion planned. It is one of the regularly scheduled ones. A counselor goes with them. In Ensenada it is horseback riding.

 

Events start around 7-8pm on port days and around noon on sea days.

On the Paradise my DDs only went to scheduled events. On the Splendor the kids did hang out on the couches inside. IIRC the Club did lock it's doors at a certain time.

[arpie05]

I know my son (14 last year) had a great time last year. There were scheduled activities and then when there weren't activities - they would met and play basketball. (Which closed around 5 or 6 pm due to location) I don't have the activities scanned, I might still have the schedule at home - I will look - and I will ask if the room was open during non scheduled times. I'm thinking it was sometimes. He loved all the games and activies. I'm attaching an example of one I had just so you can see.

(I'm having trouble attaching the file I want so I'm sending a different one)

This will give you great info on all programs.

https://www.goccl.com/irman/bookccl/sections/shipboard/Camp_Carnival.html

[arpie05]

Be sure you are scheduled for early dinner as most activities end around 4 or 5 and start again around 8 or 9.

[nzdisneymom]

arpie05 - thanks so much for the link - that gave me a lot of the information I was looking for!

 

We have second seating for dinner - if I remember right, there's an anytime dining that I need to see if our TA can switch us to. Having a specific dining time is the one thing DH doesn't like about cruising, so having the flexibility of when to have dinner is something we're looking forward to. I like the dining room experience, while he'd just as soon go to the buffet. This might be a suitable compromise!

[arpie05]

If your boys enjoy the activities - the late seating is hard because they will have to eat quick or be late for Ice cream eatting contest or hoops contest etc.

 

We LOVE early seating because Carnival does a great job of taking care of you. Your servers seem so interested in making sure you enjoy the food. They'll bring the boys lots of food. Mine ordered two melting cakes, no ice cream and ours always remember and ask him if he wants that the next night.

 

He loves the special attention the servers give him. On the Dream, I let him get a soda card. Even the guy who delivered the drinks gave him attention and they don't make anything off those cards (he'd have one waiting for him when he sat down) - so I tipped him $10 for the 7 days. (Yea, 3 sodas per dinner - I know was too many to drink - no soda card this time)

 

Doing the ANytime dining - the lack of specialized service was our complaint (I'm talking my son's complaint, too) ;) - Any Carnival is not overly fancy. My sister did not enjoy the Disney dining room experience. Carnivals MDR food is great. They will bring you three appetizers if you want. Some times the appetizers sound better than dinner selection. If you don't eat it all - they will ask you if you didn't like it - and offer another selection.

Have a great time!

[nzdisneymom]

We had our TA switch us to the any-time dining so that we'll have that flexibility for the boys to eat dinner with us and still be able to enjoy their early evening activities and yet not have to be totally rushed to make dinner or miss sailing away from the various ports - that's one of my favorite things to do on a ship is watch us pull out.

 

Thanks again for the links and information.

[nzdisneymom]

Just following up to my own thread to share our experience.

 

We went with the Anytime Dining which worked out well for our family - we ate three times in the MDR and the rest of the time in the Gathering, either buffet, burgers, pizza, etc.

 

The boys were in the 12-14 club together. The space was absolutely closed during the dinner time (and you couldn't go in), and we went to the family Comedy show each evening it was offered, so that filled in the dime that the club was closed.

 

We went to the welcome session and the required parent meeting where you register your kids for the programs and they get their stickers they have to show to participate. The boys liked some of the scheduled programming and didn't care for others (dance parties) - there were enough things to entertain them both in the club and not.

 

If there was not a scheduled activity, the space was not available for just hanging out for the tweens. The tweens found plenty of things to do onboard - we didn't see any just sitting around bored to death :)

 

The counselors were great - there were two and they seemed to be definitely on top of their game. There were over 300 tweens onboard the week we were (Christmas week) and over 400 in the 15-17 group. (or maybe it was the other way around - either way, a lot).

 

Anyway, we were impressed with the way Carnival ran their youth program for the tweens and what we saw of the teens. My boys still prefer Disney Cruise Line's youth program but were happy enough with Carnival's that we would sail with them again. They put Royal Caribbean's on the bottom of the three lines we have sailed and would pick Carnival over RC any day - at least til they are out of the youth age group (won't be long - blink my eye).

 

Anyway, just thought I would follow up on our experience.

[ScubaKat]

Thanks for getting back to us with your experiences with the youth programs. It seems so many times people leave us hanging after a cruise and we don't know if things turned out well or not. :)

[Niquein99]

Just following up to my own thread to share our experience.

 

We went with the Anytime Dining which worked out well for our family - we ate three times in the MDR and the rest of the time in the Gathering, either buffet, burgers, pizza, etc.

 

The boys were in the 12-14 club together. The space was absolutely closed during the dinner time (and you couldn't go in), and we went to the family Comedy show each evening it was offered, so that filled in the dime that the club was closed.

 

We went to the welcome session and the required parent meeting where you register your kids for the programs and they get their stickers they have to show to participate. The boys liked some of the scheduled programming and didn't care for others (dance parties) - there were enough things to entertain them both in the club and not.

 

If there was not a scheduled activity, the space was not available for just hanging out for the tweens. The tweens found plenty of things to do onboard - we didn't see any just sitting around bored to death :)

 

The counselors were great - there were two and they seemed to be definitely on top of their game. There were over 300 tweens onboard the week we were (Christmas week) and over 400 in the 15-17 group. (or maybe it was the other way around - either way, a lot).

 

Anyway, we were impressed with the way Carnival ran their youth program for the tweens and what we saw of the teens. My boys still prefer Disney Cruise Line's youth program but were happy enough with Carnival's that we would sail with them again. They put Royal Caribbean's on the bottom of the three lines we have sailed and would pick Carnival over RC any day - at least til they are out of the youth age group (won't be long - blink my eye).

 

Anyway, just thought I would follow up on our experience.

 

Thanks so much for your input! My son just turned 12 and will be a part of the 12 - 14 Circle C club on our Breeze cruise in April. I appreciate your thoughts on Carnival's tween program, especially how it compares to Royal. He's excited to move up to the tween group. Me, not so much! :D