Sensation 3-day 8/30-9/2 – Kid Stuff version!!

[obx_fintoo]

Background:

This was our first family cruise. DH and I had been on 13 prior cruises (all Carnival) and decided it was time to take DD (3.5 yrs old) as she put it “on the big boat with Mommy and Daddy”. Our neighbors and their DD (6 yrs old) came along but we agreed ahead of time that each family would mostly do their own thing once on the boat.

NOTE: Here is a link to my full review if interested. I copied and pasted some of this but there is additional, not necessarily kid related info.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=622281

Packing:

We packed all of our clothes into 2 duffle bags, 1 garment bag, 1 rolling suitcase and DD’s rolling backpack. We carried all but the rolling suitcase onto the plane, then carried everything onto the ship. DD’s backpack had DVDs, snacks, crayons, an activity pad, a disposable camera for her to take pics with, and her two favorite stuffed animals. I had the DVD in my carry on duffle. We didn’t use it on the flight down, but did on the flight back and often in the room.

Sleeping arrangements:

Our room had a pull down bunk from the wall, but we didn’t trust our wild sleeper on it. We asked our steward and he placed a trundle bed in the corner (under this bunk) that was perfect. She also got a cookie on her turned down bed on formal night.

Camp Carnival (2-5 years):

We got a flyer on CC as we walked on board. Open for registration from boarding until Sail Away. We went to register after lunch. For this age group the family is issued a pager that is kept with you for the entire cruise, returned by 10pm the final night. You must bring your pager each time you check in your child so they can verify you have it with you. The counselors will fill out a plastic name tag with the child’s name, age and cabin # and this tag is attached to the child’s shirt as soon as they check in. You can keep this as a souvenir when you leave.

You may recall I was questioning the after 10pm babysitting, thinking there was no way DD would stay up until 10pm. I had several books and had thought I would spend the evenings in the room with her then maybe one night, check her into the babysitting once she was asleep. After reading all of the advice, we decided to let her try the 7-10 activities to see if she liked them and how she did on staying up. The first night, I checked on her probably every 30-40 minutes. She was always having a blast and not interested in coming with me!

CruisingMama06 (Michele) has the capers posted and they do not vary much for the 3-day vs. 4-day, so this is a great resource. Basically for this age group, each night they have several activities (that may include face painting!) then they end at 9:30 with a cartoon while the kids are stretched out on blankets! It worked out great for us to let her stay until 10 (9:30 on the last night) then just make sure we had some quite time, either a nap or just watching a movie, during the afternoon.

DD only attended CC during the day on the sea day for a couple of hours 10-12. This was the first face painting! They had a Circus activity and all the kids were painted to look like clowns! They colored t-shirts as well during this time. It was fun in the buffet to see who else had been at CC. They were closed between 12-2 for kids under 2 to play in the room with their parents and for the family Build-a-Bear session. I asked DD but she opted not to do the bear. Our friends with the 6 yr old, did and the bear was just adorable!

On the last night, she attended the end of the CC dinner in the Seaview Bistro. Afterwards, the counselors led the kids over to Camp for the evening’s activities. There was another face painting when I picked her up. They also gave her a drawstring backpack that can be colored to take home. All in all, she really enjoyed CC and is looking forward to going again on our next family cruise. She has not been in pre-school or day care before, so it was good to see that she had no trouble socializing with the other kids. The counselors were all young women from various countries and seemed to have as much fun as the kids did. I was pleased with our experience.

Dining:

We had early seating in the Ecstacy dining room and were seated in a booth by ourselves. We usually have early seating because we eat early at home, and although we had heard that most families with younger kids also did early seating, we had never noticed an abundance of kids in the dining room. Now we know why! All families with younger children (say 10 and under) were in the middle of the dining room in the raised area. I did not notice any problems or noise, but we were all nicely out of the way of cruisers without kids.

Jesus was our head-waiter and Tatiana was his assistant. They all immediately fell head over heels for DD and proceeded to entertain her for the entire dinner.

We let DD order from the adults menu in the dining room. On the first night, the only night we used the dining room she had the Strawberry Bisque (which tastes like a strawberry shake in a bowl!), and the Fresh Salmon entrée as well as bread before the meal. She had some of my prime rib as well. I have to say that this was one of the best pieces of salmon I had ever tried. It was so moist it practically melted in your mouth. For dessert she had brownies. We left before the singing, etc. to get to Camp Carnival at 7pm.

The rest of the cruise we ate in the Seaview Bistro for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Several times we opted for the pizzeria or deli selections. We all were pleased with the food and DD especially loved the 24 hour soft serve ice cream. Note that there is regular ice cream as well as fat free yogurt available.

We ordered room service most every night but DD was usually asleep before it arrived. She did have a PB&J one night and pronounced it yummy!

Nassau:

The weather was beautiful but it was hot! We had originally planned to do the Dolphin Encounter, but it was only offered at 1pm and would have been a pretty tight schedule for the formal night festivities. Our Plan B was to visit the Ardastra Gardens and Zoo, but that fell through as well. DD was just too hot to walk around the Zoo for any extended time. We debated the Glass Bottom boat tour but none were leaving when we were ready. I would recommend this option for others when it’s hot as it felt so nice by the water. We plan to try this next time as a Plan B to the Dolphin Encounter, which we won’t miss again if possible.

.We looked into the Hansom Cab rides and were told the horses were resting until 3pm. Don’t blame them, ‘cause it was hot! We walked around and stopped at some of our favorite shops, took a few pics, then went back on board to cool off. DD watched a movie on our portable DVD and we all relaxed in the A/C. Please note that I am not complaining about the weather. My last few trips to Nassau have been cool and rainy, so I could adjust to a little heat!

After 3, we headed out to try the Hansom Cabs. For $20 they will drive you around for about 25 minutes and point out landmarks. It is a nice relaxing way to explore the area. We now come to the most humorous part of our adventure. As stated above, the driver is supposed to tell you all about the sites and the area as you go by. Our driver was a nice old man named Tony. Tony had apparently had some throat problems and was unable to speak above a whisper! He did indeed point our sights but we had to lean forward and strain to hear him. DD announced, “Mommy, Tony talks funny!” Still it was an entertaining half hour and we probably got to see more than most folks, because Tony’s horse was pretty slow too! After the trip was over, we headed back to the room to get prepped for formal night.

Formal Night:

We had a quick nap and then got ready. The shower head does detach from the wall, so I was able to hose off DD even though she wasn’t thrilled about it. We finally got ready and headed upstairs. With the nap, we had decided not to eat in the dining room. DD didn’t want to do the CC formal party, so we took several formal portraits and had a snack in the Seaview.

Back to the room for casino clothes for me and play clothes for DD. Paul, our steward, had left us a bunny towel animal and a cookie for DD. The entire time, all of the staff just fawned over her! I had planned to pick up DD from Camp at 9 since it had been a long day, but she wasn’t interested in that idea. She actually blew me a kiss goodbye! LOL I came back after the cartoon and picked her up at 9:55.

Tea Time:

On the last day (sea day), there was an Afternoon tea. This was very nicely done. It was in the Touch of Class piano bar which is decorated by these enormous fingers of black and white. It fit very well with the rest of the décor! The waiters first came by with our tea selections. I chose the lemon and DD had orange spice with lots of cream. We had salmon on baguettes, cucumber finger sandwiches, chocolate biscuits and lots of other goodies. As appears to be the norm, the waiters loved DD. One came by with the last raspberry tart that he had saved for her, and when she told him “Thank you!” he just beamed from ear to ear. It was done very casually with a few couples but mostly women with a few mother and daughter tables. DD was the youngest there.

Miscellaneous observations:

I was very glad we had the DVD player and movies with us. The “kid movies” were Doctor Dolittle 3 and something I had never heard of called AquaMarine about a mermaid who hooked up with some human teens for the summer. We only caught the end, so I can’t be more detailed. Neither of these was an attention getter for DD, plus with the DVD’s they started when we were ready. Although the movies run all day, it is every two hours, so there is some dead time in there when nothing is on. Boomerang had ok morning shows but in the afternoons it was more a tween kind of selection.

Service overall was good. The staff was friendly and very attentive to DD. Food was good in both the dining room and buffet. The deli was good but the pizza seemed sub-par with not enough sauce. The De Chevre was good.

This was a different type cruise for DH and me as it was more geared to DD’s needs. We enjoyed seeing the ship through her eyes and plan to continue to do some adults only cruises with some family cruises in the mix (possibly with grandparents included). Again, the 3 day was just too short, but we wanted to make sure she liked it prior to a longer commitment. Lesson learned!

If anyone has questions that I haven’t covered, please feel free to ask away.

Happy Sailing!

[crusinmama06]

I read your review over on the Carnival board and I agree with everything you said. And I can just imagine how short 3 days felt because our 4 days felt really short as well.

 

Glad you had such a great time! And have fun planning the next one. :D

[obx_fintoo]

I read your review over on the Carnival board and I agree with everything you said. And I can just imagine how short 3 days felt because our 4 days felt really short as well.

 

Glad you had such a great time! And have fun planning the next one. :D

 

Thanks! and yes, we will be planning a longer trip next time!:)