Carnival kids club, confused, help please!

[Lakufu]

I am considering taking my daughter on our cruise next year if we feel she is ready, so I'm doing some preliminary looks into it. Assuming we stay with carnival, I'm looking at the kids club hours and see scheduled activites are broken up into blocks throughout the day with gaps of 1-2 hours in between.

 

For example, 10-1, 2-5, 7-10. Does this mean that for the hours in between we would have to go retrieve our child?

 

Please don't think I want to dump her in there from sunup to sundown, but I'm curious about how this would work and it wouldn't lead to us stalking a clock all day to ensure we don't miss her pickup time. I understand they don't provide meals and we'd have to pick her up to feed her, and it seems like these time gaps are at typically mealtimes so is that their reasoning?

 

But, basically, I guess my question is, is the kids club closed for those hour gaps there or is that meaning it's open but there aren't structured activites at that time.

[sillychicky]

They are closed during those gaps. Often times we wouldn't use Camp Carnival (Camp Ocean) during the mornings when they'd have a break like that. We stuck to the evenings which had more consistent blocks of time we could use. If we did use it (if the kids insisted on going) then we'd plan an activity that ended right before we had to go get them, so we weren't looking at a clock all the time. The only gap they do cover is dinner when they do kid's dinner but that's usually noted on the schedule.

 

One note, they do not have Camp Carnival early enough for both parents to do the Behind the Fun tour so plan accordingly. I had to cancel my ticket after I bought it because nobody told us they don't have kids club til after 10am or something on sea days. Very frustrating when you want to do a tour that kids can't go on!

 

Have fun!

[legion3]

On our last two Carnival cruises, most every evening Camp will feed the kids. You drop the kids off at the buffet at 6PM and the counselors take them and feed them, they even rope off a special area of the Buffett and have a special line set up with kid friendly items. They then take them back to the club area. you then get them normally.

 

At least that's how its been.

[ccartman2]

On our last two Carnival cruises, most every evening Camp will feed the kids. You drop the kids off at the buffet at 6PM and the counselors take them and feed them, they even rope off a special area of the Buffett and have a special line set up with kid friendly items. They then take them back to the club area. you then get them normally.

 

At least that's how its been.

 

That's how it was in March on the Liberty. We didn't let our kids do Kids Dinner every night, as we wanted them on Formal nights and we had them on the 1st night as well. Also, the menu is nothing fancy, and didn't see much on the healthy side of things (for those that worry about those things). My kids loved going to it though.

 

The gaps are when they are closed to set up for something else, like kids dinner or to sell build-a-bears. They will have a fun times for the whole week, so you can look at the schedule with our child (if they are old enough) to make sure they do the things they want. Also, I don't know the age cut off, but for the real young ones, they give you a cell phone so they can reach you. For those of you who get that cell phone, though it's not an intended use, you can call other rooms on the ship, and if you can figure out the number of the phone, people can call you as well. :)

[riffatsea]

Hi,

I didn't have kids in the Carnival club but every time I passed by the area where the children were having dinner with the counselors all I saw was pizza and french fries! If that is what is considered "kid friendly food" then I'd not want mine to have that every night!

[legion3]

Hi,

I didn't have kids in the Carnival club but every time I passed by the area where the children were having dinner with the counselors all I saw was pizza and french fries! If that is what is considered "kid friendly food" then I'd not want mine to have that every night!

 

Hey! They're on vacation!!! :cool:

 

Feed them nuts and twigs and arugula the rest of the year!!!! :D

[Homosassa]

Just keep in mind that your child may not wish to go to the children's program at any time.

 

My very outgoing, social daughter never wanted to go to the children's program and wanted to stay with us.

 

Her reasoning was they did stuff she could do at home; Mom and Dad was where the action was.

[Xclusive]

For us those times work out great. We wanted our daughter (7yrs old now) to have fun and play with other kids but to eat meals with us. A normal day for us would be dropping her off after breakfast, going back to get her for lunch and then dropping her off after dinner(early dining) until about 10pm when they start to charge for sitting. My daughter absolutely loves Camp Carnival and honestly always asked us to drop her off. We are curious to see how it will be this cruise since Funship Freddy has gone bye bye and Dr. Seuss is the new theme. Actually this is kind of welcomed because within the last few years Freddy made fewer and fewer appearances until we didn't see him at all. Hopefully Dr. Seuss will have a presence on board!

[cruizinisthebest]

Hi,

I didn't have kids in the Carnival club but every time I passed by the area where the children were having dinner with the counselors all I saw was pizza and french fries! If that is what is considered "kid friendly food" then I'd not want mine to have that every night!

 

I was just chatting with my kids tonight about camp.

 

They often eat dinner with camp and they serve more than fries and pizza. As a matter of fact, my kids have never mentioned having pizza.

 

The dinner menu will be posted in the camp schedule, which is great because they can see ahead of time whether they like the menu or not. Though truth be told, they almost always opted to eat in camp regardless.

 

One night last year my son got a plate from the buffet on his way to dinner with camp, which was fine with the counselors.

 

The gaps in time are when camp is closed. If they enjoy it, just get a handle on activities and family time, etc. My kids are in two age groups and if you're not careful, that camp schedule will dictate the whole vacation!

[Weeziblu]

Our daughter was about that age on her first cruise. We were surprised at how easy and relaxed a cruise vacation was with our kids. Generally, we all had breakfast together and my daughter chose to hang out with us at the pool throughout the morning. We typically hung out there (or at the water slides) long enough to grab lunch on Lido and then shower and rest a bit before the mid afternoon kids club activities started. Sometimes she would go, sometimes, she would nap depending on the activity, but she always wanted to be there for evenings. She did eat dinner with them a few times and loved being able to eat at the buffet with her friends. We required the kids to eat with us in the dining room on days we felt we didn't see much of them throughout the day.

[cruisecraze96]

The first night when DD had dinner with the camp (2nd night of cruise) she refused to go to the dining room since she had friends to play with, didn't have to sit still, and they had a nice variety. She had carrots, and other veggies, as well as pasta and chicken.

 

On Port Days they are open for you to leave the ship if you need to and they will feed them lunch those days. They just ask that as soon as you get back you pick up your child to give the kids (and counselors I assume) a break :) I did not want to take DD 5 off the ship in Belize so she had a fun day of having her face painted like a pirate and other activities.