Carnival Valor with 3 and 6 year old. Camp Carnival question..

[jgonzalez]

My husband and I have been on several cruises before but not with our boys who are 3 and 6. We will be sailing on the Valor out of Miami on March 29th and will be going to Grand Cayman, Isla Roaton, Belize and Cozumel. We really want to go scuba diving at one of the ports, but are not sure how the Camp Carnival works. Will we be able to drop the kids off and take a shore excursion while they are there? If anyone has been to these ports, can you recommend any of the shore excursions that would be appropriate for their ages? Any information would be greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks!:)

[jam82]

Camp Carnival will be open during port days. They ask you to pick them up for lunch if you're on board. If you're not they take them to the buffet for lunch. My two year old had a great time there. What I have seen on my four Carnival cruises is that the younger age group (2-5) had about a dozen children on port days. I don't know about the older age groups.

 

The last time I was in Belize was on NCL. We took a boat to a private island for the day. There was a calm beach with good shade for kids. I'm don't know if CC offers this. There were only about 50 people there all day. It would be a great family stop.

[Palmfam]

My husband and I have been on several cruises before but not with our boys who are 3 and 6. We will be sailing on the Valor out of Miami on March 29th and will be going to Grand Cayman, Isla Roaton, Belize and Cozumel. We really want to go scuba diving at one of the ports, but are not sure how the Camp Carnival works. Will we be able to drop the kids off and take a shore excursion while they are there? If anyone has been to these ports, can you recommend any of the shore excursions that would be appropriate for their ages? Any information would be greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks!:)

 

 

We did the Valor in 2007, this is what we did:

 

Grand Cayman-we took my then 2 1/2 yr old to the turtle farm and 7 mile beach.

Isla Roatan-we left him in Camp Carnival we went to an orphanage to donate toys & food and took a tour of the island

Belize-in 2007 we went to Cucumber Beach-did not care for this beach. It is a man made lagoon.

2008 we did Belize again but went to Bannister Caye. It is a private island. It was so nice, white sandy beaches w/crystal blue water.

Cozumel-we left son in Camp Carnival, it poured down rain and didn't do much other than walk around and have lunch and mango margaritas.

 

My son loved Camp on the Valor, at 3 1/2 on the Miracle he wanted to stay with Mommy, Daddy instead of going to Camp.

 

We walked off the ship and booked our own excursions.

For the beach excursions we brought sand/water toys and little Happy Meal like toys for beach and the pool.

 

If you have questions, please let me know-I would be happy to help.;)

[serene56]

Camps are broken down in age groups- 2-5 6-8

You could move your 6 year old down in group if you wanted to keep your kids together-- but how bored will he get doing "baby" stuff.

 

How long is your excursion? Camps take the kids in the morning- People do this but not many. Camps are free for the kids that are over 2.

[jgonzalez]

Camps are broken down in age groups- 2-5 6-8

You could move your 6 year old down in group if you wanted to keep your kids together-- but how bored will he get doing "baby" stuff.

 

How long is your excursion? Camps take the kids in the morning- People do this but not many. Camps are free for the kids that are over 2.

 

The only time we would not be able to take them is when we go scuba diving. The other ports we plan on taking them with us to show them the different places. The scuba diving trip should not be more than 3-4 hours or so.

 

Do they charge for 3 year olds on the excursions? Has anyone been to the zoo in Belize that I read about? Any good?

[serene56]

The only time we would not be able to take them is when we go scuba diving. The other ports we plan on taking them with us to show them the different places. The scuba diving trip should not be more than 3-4 hours or so.

 

Do they charge for 3 year olds on the excursions? Has anyone been to the zoo in Belize that I read about? Any good?

 

 

you should be able to see prices on carnival web site once you put your booking number under the MY PROFILE link. It will list prices for kids-

[PMMF]

We will be in Belize end of Feb, want to go to a beach--will have a 5yr old and 15 month old---I see you did not like cucumber beach, what is Bannister Caye like?? How much??? and what facilities are there????

Thanks

[Drew B]

You might want to think about doing the scuba diving excursion through Carnival. That way, there is less of a chance that the ship would leave without you if you're back late due to any unforeseen issues. It's still not out of the question, though, that the ship could leave without you. If that happened, they would pay to get you to the next port, but meanwhile, your kids will be onboard without you...

[Palmfam]

We will be in Belize end of Feb, want to go to a beach--will have a 5yr old and 15 month old---I see you did not like cucumber beach, what is Bannister Caye like?? How much??? and what facilities are there????

Thanks

 

I just posted this on the Belize board for someone else who was asking also...

 

We have been to Belize twice.

2007-we went to Cucumber Beach-not impressed

2008-we went to Bannister island-AWESOME!!! We did the Eco tours for $30 a person. I believe our guides name was Natalie. I can't remember the driver's name. Amazing team. Very nice.

They provided water to drink.

They did not charge us for my 3 1/2 year old.

 

I will say in 2007 Belize was our least favorite port in 2008 it was our favorite!!

 

We did not book through the ship-but on our own.

Once we found them, decided what we were going to do, they asked us to wait maybe 30 mins until they found a few more passengers then we all went together.

The 30 mins we walked around the belize shops.

 

A few people wanted to go snorkeling. They dropped us off at the beach and then took the others on a 30 min snorkel, that I think was maybe $15 more? My husband went-he enjoyed it and said it was worth it.

 

We had lunch. I had a chicken sandwich and fries, nice sized portion $8, most all the sandwiches were $8. They had a lobster sandwich for $20.

Beer and drinks were reasonable. I don't know how much, our husbands were the bar runners. :D

 

They had changing rooms, restrooms, bar and restaurant, gift shop (not much there and pricey) and they had some trees/huts that provided shade.

 

I hope this is helpful.