Cruising again for the 1st time in almost 10 years, with kids this time

[Littlegoo75]

It's been almost 10 years since we last cruised! What changes can I expect? Our last cruise was in 2009 on the Valor, and we took our son who was 11 months at the time. He is now 10, and our daughter is 7. We will be sailing on the Freedom out of Galveston on June 9th. I'm excited about the kid's club, and I'm pretty sure the kids will have a blast.

[cruisenewbie1]

Our kids who were 7 and 8 last October loved the kids club on the breeze. They pretty much abandoned us. (oh darn). The counselors were incredible. expect to be asked for your choice for room cleaning time. morning, evening or both. They will love the water slide. Guy's burgers and the Blue Iguana have great food. Go to have fun and you won't be disappointed. Ask your steward for ice. Get to know him or her. The same with the dining room staff. It makes the cruise that much more enjoyable. They don't do the chocolates on the bed any more. No tablecloths except on formal nights (I didn't miss them)

[Littlegoo75]

Probably a good thing about the chocolates....my kids would probably fight over them anyway!

 

Yeah, we are really looking forward to the kids club, we haven't had a vacation with a lot of time to ourselves in about 10 years! They are both very social, so I'm betting they will both love it, and we will hardly see them. Because of the age difference, they'll be in different groups, which will be a good thing....they need breaks from each other too.

[Joebucks]

There are some things that weren't there before, and some things may be gone that were once there. Overall, you can expect a great vacation.

[scpirate]

After 10 years you will see a huge difference but the kids will have fun.enjoy your family time.personally I rather do land vacations with kids.but it's all good.almost everyone in my tribe is grown so we get separate cabins and rarely see the kids accept when they try to sneak passed us.

[cruisinqt]

Also download the new Carnival Hub app. It’s free and has an interactive ships map, restaurant locations with what times they’re open, you can view your account, buy bottomless bubbles, buy Cheers, view and buy onboard photos, and see the list of daily activities on board (fun times.) No more dragging around those ships maps or copies of the fun times. :) And you can purchase reasonably priced internet packages on it too. But the best feature IMHO is the messaging that’s available. For only $5 (for the week per device) you can text one another via the app. The service is a little spotty at times and you have to keep the app open and running to receive the messages, but it’s a heck of a lot better than keeping up with one another using post it notes stuck on the cabin mirror. ;)

[Barsnikel]

Your kids will have a blast. Make sure you gt them in the kids camps. Carnival does a great job with those. Also, since you have not cruised for some time, here is a document which may be useful....

Tips For New Cruisers.docx

[chrelaine]

We cruised with our daughter (7) for the first time last month. She loved the kids club. The daytime hours vary with port days, etc. but every night she wanted to go right after dinner when they opened, 7 pm, and she wanted to stay until the last minute at 10 pm. After 10 there is a fee. They had a movie night, dance party, crafts, they built a volcano, pirate night. She still talks about it! Movies on deck were something we really wanted to do with her, but it never worked out time wise. They have popcorn and family movies for the early show most nights.

[Littlegoo75]

Sounds great! The kids are very excited. I was my daughter's age (7) when I went on my very first cruise (Sitmar cruises, Mexican Riviera cruise) and it was the best vacation we ever took, and what got me hooked on cruising. We are already signed up for kid's camp, and I have a feeling they aren't going to want to leave.