Tell me more about Camp Carnival.

[texaspixie]

Tell me what you know about Camp Carnival. I'm sure there is tons of info on the boards but my searches keep coming up with an error. The info on Carnival's website doesn't explain the ins and outs.

 

We are going on our first cruise with extended family. We are on the Ecstasy for a 5 day cruise this month. We will have 6 kids and 5 adults. We have two kids in the 2-5 age group, two in the 6-8 and two in the 9-11.

 

So tell me:

 

Do you have to make reservations for the kids to attend Camp Carnival?

 

How much time will the kids stay at the camp? How much time did your kids spend there? How do you work out if the kids stay all day or just for certain activities? Do you take your kids to the poolside activities (hairy chest contest, water wars) or do they take them from the camp. or is this stuff child friendly in the first place?

 

Do the kids eat with us (B, L & D) or do they eat in Camp Carnival? I would like to take them to the main Dining Room but I'm not sure how welcome kids are there.

 

Anything else you can think of would be much appreciated.

 

TIA

[Quilcruisers]

Hi,

 

I have the same questions. We are taking our son on his first cruise- he is 4 yrs old in less than 30 days.

 

I did read that there is an orientation the first day for camp carnival and if you wish to enroll your kids while there, you can do so then.

 

I also know that the kids are allowed to dine with you, but I don't think they have to. We will make a point of picking up our son to eat dinner with us each evening. We always eat dinner in the dining room, its a big deal for us to eat together while on vacation and we like to get all cleaned up and served fancy meals (something that does n

 

We will probably be using the babysitting service too because my son is a night owl (as we are too) and we will probably want a few evenings to do "adult" things.

 

My in-laws will be with us too, so I'm sure he won't spend his whole cruise in camp carnival. It will just be good for him to go somewhere and do things outside of being with us.

 

I also do not plan on leaving him when we leave the ship, I am leery about that right now at his age.

 

I'll keep looking for answers to your post.

 

Angela

[CeleBrat]

Hello!

 

The basics of Camp Carnival:

 

1--You must register your child before they are allowed to attend activities. A mass registrations/meet & greet occurs the first night of the cruise. Go because it's a great way to meet all the counselors.

 

2--You may drop off your children anytime that Camp is open, UNLESS they are traveling to/from a remote location (dining room, show, etc).

 

3--They may have a few dinners where the kids can eat at Camp. On those nights, a section of the buffet will be sectioned off just for the Camp.

 

4--Be sure to pick up a Carnival CAmp Caper for each age group when you board the ship. Then, you can sit down with your kids and pre-decide which activities they might want to participate in. For example, my kids prefer arts/crafts things, but do NOT necessarily enjoy Movie Time in Camp. Our favorite activities include: the scavenger hunt, any arts/crafts, ship drawing contest (DS's fav--he won!), anything involving face painting, and the kids parties.

 

If you check out cruisinmama06's signature, she has a link to many Camp Carnival capers posted there.

 

Hope that helps!

 

CeleBrat

[CeleBrat]

OK--I pulled the link to the Camp Carnival pages for you (hope you don't mind cruisinmamao6! :) )

 

Kid's Activity schedules for different cruiselines are posted here...

http://photobucket.com/cruisekidpages

 

I don't see any Ecstacy Capers in her collection, but the activities are similar fleet-wide.

 

CeleBrat

[Quilcruisers]

Thanks so much for the information!!

 

Angela

[texaspixie]

I don't know how I missed the Camp Carnival Capers. Thanks for posting the link! It looks like a lot of fun. We will be sure to go to the orientation that first night.

[crusinmama06]

Nope of course I don't mind you posting them...that's what they are there for. :D

 

The kids pages are taken from the parents here, uploaded, then posted at that link. So the link is always in my signature if you ever need another cruiseline. :D