Tips and Tricks for cruising with small kids?

We are getting ready to go on our 4th cruise, our 2nd with kids, our first time on Carnival. We last sailed on Disney 3 years ago and I hadn't realized how well they catered to little ones until recently. Just in the last couple of days I discovered that there are no kid's cups on board in the dining room on Carnival (or many other lines) and not so long ago discovered that my kids will have to wear a bracelet on their wrists for the entire cruise. What other "little" things am I missing? Hoping to find out all of the "surprises" before we get on board. My kids are 2 and 6.

The children need to be potty trained in order to swim in the pools. The muster station band the children have to wear isn't that bad. DD was 2yo on her first cruise and we told her she needed that bracelet to get ice cream at the Lido buffet. It worked!

The kids should have a ball in camp carnival. Mine really enjoyed themselves, the counselors are very friendly, animated and attend to all the kids very well.

Enjoy your cruise!!

The children need to be potty trained in order to swim in the pools. The muster station band the children have to wear isn't that bad. DD was 2yo on her first cruise and we told her she needed that bracelet to get ice cream at the Lido buffet. It worked!

The kids should have a ball in camp carnival. Mine really enjoyed themselves, the counselors are very friendly, animated and attend to all the kids very well.

 

Enjoy your cruise!!

LOVE the "bracelet for ice cream" idea! Genius!! I'll be using that for sure.

The biggest wristband my ds has had to wear was on a Disney cruise. The other cruiselines' wristbands are quite small. Another difference you will find on Carnival is that their kids club hours are not continuous throughout the day. Also, they tend to have toys/tshirts etc for sale right outside Camp Carnival, and sometimes inside.