Camp Carnival?

[LisaDee]

Would you feel comfortable leaving a child with Camp Carnival and going on an excursion?

 

We've cruised 3 times with our kids and we left them onboard once while we went on an excursion. It was our wedding anniversary and we were in Alaska with our then 5 and 3-yr olds. The excursion was one that we knew the kids wouldn't appreciate (float plane trip to a salmon bake) plus it was very pricey. The excursion was arranged through Carnival so I knew that the ship wouldn't leave without us. It worked out great and I'd do it again for the right excursion.

[LisaDee]

I'm wondering if others feel that they got a good balance between kids having a good time at Camp Carnival on their own, and time spent all together as a family. I'd like some quality time spent with just DH out of this vacation too! ;)

 

Yes, this is what I love about a cruise vacation. You have fun together family time and then alone time with your spouse :). Camp Carnival organizes some family activities such as a scavenger hunt, kids talent contest, etc that can be enjoyed together. I don't know if it was mentioned above but in the evenings they host dinner for the kids in the buffet restaurant so if you choose to dine alone with your spouse on those nights you have the option.

[BlueJacketsFan1]

We have never heard anything bad about it in any way.

[Indiansbaseball]

We did the Glory in March and my daughter Jessica (9) loved it !!! She spent all her time there. I have never spent so much money on babysitting in her whole life ...LOL. I allowed her to sign herself out because of the scavenger hunt but we told her that she needed to stay until we came to get her on the nights we were out late. She did the pajama party and they dropped her off at 4 AM and she loved it. She is sad that she did not get email addresses of her friends. So if anyone who was on the March 21 Glory sailing had kids in the 9-11 group is reading this ...Jessica would love to email your kids !!

 

Jen

[SCUBADOO414]

We did the Glory in March and my daughter Jessica (9) loved it !!! She spent all her time there. I have never spent so much money on babysitting in her whole life ...LOL. I allowed her to sign herself out because of the scavenger hunt but we told her that she needed to stay until we came to get her on the nights we were out late. She did the pajama party and they dropped her off at 4 AM and she loved it. She is sad that she did not get email addresses of her friends. So if anyone who was on the March 21 Glory sailing had kids in the 9-11 group is reading this ...Jessica would love to email your kids !!

 

Jen

 

Oh my gosh! They dropped her off at 4:00AM?! Did you know she would be returning that late? I would've been a nervous wreck. Was she crabby the next day because of the lack of sleep?! ;)

Also, I'm assuming that if you leave your kids in CC to eat dinner, you have to pay babysitting fees, correct?

[Indiansbaseball]

It was a special activity...a late night pajama party. It was $26 for the evening...they had pizza and activities. Then they walked the kids to their cabins. I was not nervous at all.... and she had a blast. It was a sea day the next day....and I let her sleep till noon :D or yes ...she would have been crabby.

 

She is already begging for the next cruise... shhhhhhhhh...don't tell her the girls are taking one before her :o

 

She loved our waiters and never ate with Camp Carnival....I don't think there is a charge for eating with them...only for leaving them at CC after 10PM !

 

Jen

[SCUBADOO414]

It was a special activity...a late night pajama party. It was $26 for the evening...they had pizza and activities. Then they walked the kids to their cabins. I was not nervous at all.... and she had a blast. It was a sea day the next day....and I let her sleep till noon :D or yes ...she would have been crabby.

 

She is already begging for the next cruise... shhhhhhhhh...don't tell her the girls are taking one before her :o

 

She loved our waiters and never ate with Camp Carnival....I don't think there is a charge for eating with them...only for leaving them at CC after 10PM !

 

Jen

 

It sounds like fun! I'm not sure any of my kids could stay up until 4:00am! We let them stay up on New Year's Eve and most of them don't make it past 11:00! :D Although, since we'll be on vacation, you never know. Also, having a sea day the following day certainly helps!

Thanks for the information... lots of food for thought.

[cruisinsly]

We took our son, who is 4yrs old, on his first cruise back in Dec. He LOVED camp carnival. He would have rather went there than spend time with us!! Every day they did face painting. He also did the paint your own t-shirt. They painted their own little canvas back pack. We were only on a 4 night cruise, so there was probably other things that would have been scheduled if we were on there longer. They gave us a pager when we first signed him in. Never once did we need the pager. Because we were cruising in Dec, they worked with all the children in camp and did a special stage performance for all of us on the last day with Santa and the Carnival singers and dancers. We would pick him up most nights right at 10pm. Brought him back to the room, quick bath, ordered a grill cheese for him (he would only eat a few bites, but just needed a little something in his tummy) and would fall into bed exhausted. This was our first experience with CC and I was very impressed with everything they did with the children.

 

I am including a picture of one of his face paintings.

[aggieastrosfan]

I see no one has answered your question and I had the EXACT same question. My 26 month is the same way and I was wondering that also.

 

They do give them some time to adjust. Our 3 year old apparently was not fond of Fun Ship Freddie at all the first time he met him, and he was crying and scared and asking for us. They never paged us, though. They said he calmed down after about 15 minutes of so and they kept him away from him.

 

On our last cruise, my aunt dropped her almost 3 year old off, and she did get paged about 20 minutes later. Of course, when she went up there, her daughter was fine, so she snuck back out.

[Familyforce6]

Can the children eat lunch and dinner with CC? I thought they never closed except for maybe early mornings. I know on our Disney cruise we rarely saw the kids because they didn't want to leave the club, and I think they even had lunch with them.:confused:

[Cape]

How often is funship freddie in the camp area - I have a son who will be 6 when we cruise and he is afraid of characters. On our Disney cruise we talked about it with them ahead of time and anytime a character came in - they made sure to move him to another part of the club or his favortie counselor would sit with him in he back to watch what was going on - I just need to make sure that I know when he will be around to avoid any problems.

 

Also - is he in the 9 year old area at all? I have a nieve who has some sensroy issues and I know that she can't handle if he comes in there. We can simply avoid the area but for my sister - knowing when he will be around is key.

 

 

Familyforce: I know what you mean about the difference with Disney. I had to DRAG my son out at the end of the end of the day - I was disappointed to see the limited hours Carnival has - I never took my kids to lunch and forced them to go to dinner and the shows with me a couple of nights.

[nenasmum]

I am cruising with Carnival for the first time this Oct with my 7 year old. Maybe I am a bad mother but I have no problems leaving her on board when I go ashore. On our first cruise New Engalnd when she was 5 on the Grand Princess she was one of only 6 kids on board and begged to stay at kids club - rather than going on some of the shore excursions she would have found very dull. We got on the ship in Quebec - she went to her first kids club and then refused to come back off the ship with me to go shopping!!Same last year on the Superstar Virgo. in China. Our cruises are always part of long 3 or 4 week family holidays and we all enjoy doing our own thing by the time the cruise comes around. We have plenty of family time and my daughter still sees a lot of the world- this will be her forth continent this cruise.

[SCUBADOO414]

This will be a struggle for us... leaving them on board versus not diving in Belize. My husband and I would like to do a one-tank dive in Belize in the morning, come back afterwards to get the kids and take them to do something. Given some of the feedback, I'm a little leary of leaving them on the ship.

Decisions Decisions!?!? :rolleyes: