Need advice- Family Carnival cruise or All-inclusive (Club Med)?

We are debating whether to take a family vacation in January 2013 on Carnival Liberty to the Carribean or vacation at Club Med Punta Cana. We have two girls (ages 6 and almost 10) and was wondering which vacation would have a better kids club and more activities for them. I have heard excellent things about Camp Carnival but I am concerned that there may be lots of little kids during a non-holiday week in January. I also wonder if they may be bored at the ports (Puerto Rico, Turks, Half-Moon Cay, and St. Thomas). I know Club Med also has tons of kid activites but I'm not sure if there will be enough English-speaking kids. We went to an all-inclusive resort in Mexico several years ago and there were no kids in the kids club that spoke English. Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated.

there always will be kids on every sailing maybe not a lot but enough counselors do a good job if 5kids or 50.

ports will be different each day if your kids are easily bored how bored will they be in the same resort day after day?

my grand daughter age 5 loved her last cruise and never participated in the camp

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I have taken my family to many AI resorts in Jamaica, Mexico, Bahamas and Turks/Cacios. The children's programs at most resorts are similar to what Camp Carnival has to offer. This year was a toss up between Club Med Bahamas (San Salvador Island) and two cruises. I was out voted and two cruises it is. Club Med does mainly cater to a more European crowd. I would suggest a Beaches Resort or an Iberostar Resort for an AI.

Two years ago we took our two boys to Jamaica for a week to the club Negril Beaches. They loved it, but the kids that they became friendly with early on in the week left for home shortly after. Last year we took them on a cruise. The kids they met were there for the whole duration. They much preferred the cruise for that reason. We will be doing another cruise this year due to our boy's constant persuasiveness.

Two years ago we took our two boys to Jamaica for a week to the club Negril Beaches. They loved it, but the kids that they became friendly with early on in the week left for home shortly after. Last year we took them on a cruise. The kids they met were there for the whole duration. They much preferred the cruise for that reason. We will be doing another cruise this year due to our boy's constant persuasiveness.

We're doing an all inclusive Carnival Dream cruise in July.

My kids are older (16 and 13) but they started cruising at 11 and 9 and we haven't been able to convince them to go back to any other kind of vacation since then. They love that we visit a few different ports and they make friends with other kids on board. As one person said, the counselors do a great job (even for the teens) and all the kids know they will be together for the length of the cruise so it works well.

Thank you for everyone who replied to my post. I feel more confident about our upcoming cruise. I am excited the beaches at the ports (Grand Turk, St. Thomas, and Half Moon Cay). Just wondering if anyone knows if there are activities, such as snorkeling or kayaking, available at these beaches or do we need to book an excusion?

We did your cruise spring break '11 on the Liberty. GREAT cruise! I almost considered doing that one again for next year's spring break (we can't cruise every year so we now shoot for every other year). Instead we're going out of San Juan and hitting all the Virgin Islands. Our kids are 9yr old boy and 13yr old daughter (they were 8 and 12 then).

With that said, when we did your cruise, here is what I suggest: San Juan - Even my kids were pleasantly surprised at how amazing that place was! It gets the award for "Most Pleasantly Surprised." The kids really liked going through the old castles. We decided to just spend our time here doing that and walking through Old Town.

St. Thomas - we booked our own excursion looking at Tripadvisor. We did a very nice catamaran sailboat ride to a little island area where we snorkeled for sea turtles. LOTS of turtles to be found. We also did a little shopping. Got some beautiful carribean saphire jewlry.

Grand Turk - NO excursion needed. Island is sooooo tiny that really there's no where to go. It's a beautiful little beach but that's it. We were disappionted in this port. But it does force you to relax.

We went to Nassau instead of Half Moon. We created our own excursion there. We played on the public beach and the kids loved jumping off the cement docks. We walked down to Fish Fry and had the most yummy fresh fish anywhere.

I will tell you, I think you are picking the best cruise leaving FL ports. We weren't interested in going near the Mexico areas. Too touristy and cheezy. I like history and with things to see and do.

When we fly into San Juan next year, I hope we can get there early enough to tour the rain forest! That's supposed to be BEAUTIFUL! When we go through St. Thomas, I think this time we'll spend some time on their beaches. They're supposed to be the most beautiful in the world. :)

Hope this helps!!! Have FUN!!! Your kids will talk about this trip for a year! (mine did, and still are ;))

Tammie,

Thanks so much for the information. I picked this cruise as I thought the ports would be good for easy access to beautiful beaches. My only concern is that we are not sure if my girls (just turned 6 and almost 10 -at time of cruise) will get bored just hanging out at the beach. While my older daughter would love snorkeling and sailing, my younger daughter is not really a swimmer yet so we may be limited with the type of excursions we can do. Do you know if you can rent snorkeling equipment and/or kayaks at any of the beaches without doing an official excursion? This way my husband can take my older one out while I stay back on the beach with the little one.

Thanks,

Georgene:o

Tammie,

Thanks so much for the information. I picked this cruise as I thought the ports would be good for easy access to beautiful beaches. My only concern is that we are not sure if my girls (just turned 6 and almost 10 -at time of cruise) will get bored just hanging out at the beach. While my older daughter would love snorkeling and sailing, my younger daughter is not really a swimmer yet so we may be limited with the type of excursions we can do. Do you know if you can rent snorkeling equipment and/or kayaks at any of the beaches without doing an official excursion? This way my husband can take my older one out while I stay back on the beach with the little one.

Thanks,

Georgene

We're doing an all inclusive Carnival Dream cruise in July.

Really? How did you manage to accomplish that?

All inclusive means that everything is paid for, including all beverages, food, and activities. Are you getting that on Carnival?

I don't think so, you are getting a moving hotel and food, almost everything else is an add on charge, so a carnival cruise is not all inclusive.

We are debating whether to take a family vacation in January 2013 on Carnival Liberty to the Carribean or vacation at Club Med Punta Cana. We have two girls (ages 6 and almost 10) and was wondering which vacation would have a better kids club and more activities for them. I have heard excellent things about Camp Carnival but I am concerned that there may be lots of little kids during a non-holiday week in January. I also wonder if they may be bored at the ports (Puerto Rico, Turks, Half-Moon Cay, and St. Thomas). I know Club Med also has tons of kid activites but I'm not sure if there will be enough English-speaking kids. We went to an all-inclusive resort in Mexico several years ago and there were no kids in the kids club that spoke English. Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated.

I would think twice about a Club Med AI, but I suspect that your family would love the Beaches Resort in the Turks and Cacios. It is geared to families, has the kids clubs, lots of activities and is all inclusive.

Tammie,

Thanks so much for the information. I picked this cruise as I thought the ports would be good for easy access to beautiful beaches. My only concern is that we are not sure if my girls (just turned 6 and almost 10 -at time of cruise) will get bored just hanging out at the beach. While my older daughter would love snorkeling and sailing, my younger daughter is not really a swimmer yet so we may be limited with the type of excursions we can do. Do you know if you can rent snorkeling equipment and/or kayaks at any of the beaches without doing an official excursion? This way my husband can take my older one out while I stay back on the beach with the little one.

Thanks,

Georgene:o

If you check out the port of call boards for each island you will find tips for all inclusive resort day passes (and other good resort day passes that aren't "all-inclusive" but offer activities and non motorized beach toys, etc.) that you can buy for your family as your excursion at different port stops. That might be perfect for your family because you can experience the resort amenities--pools, kayaks, etc. but have the ship for the week. You will find pictures of the resorts in those threads and ask questions. Then, you can check tripadvisor reviews to make sure the resorts offer everything you'd like to do. Many of the resorts really have great rates for the day pass and we usually see a lot of families from the cruiseships there. I agree with some of the posters who have said their kids preferred the cruise over land vacations. After 15 years of taking our kids to resorts for spring break, we took them on a cruise and they were like; "why didnt you bring us on one of these long ago" ...and it was cheaper!!--who knew?? Lol.

By the way, Grand Turk is one of our favorites and I would think your kids would love it because there is a MASSIVE pool right at the dock with the beach right there, as well. It's a good "fee free" stop. Plus, they bring "friends" from the ship. :)

Book the flow rider in Grand Turk for your girls. They will love it!

In St. Thomas, I personally love the view at Sapphire Beach, but I didn't see any snorkeling.

Puerto Rico we self toured San Cristobal fort. Awesome!

I second going on your own by cab to Sapphire Beach in St. Thomas. It's a beautiful beach and there is snorkeling there, in fact it is pretty good. We had our own equipment but I believe there was a place to rent snorkel gear. You can probably find out for sure by going to the St. Thomas forum.

Great point about the Grand Turk with the big pool. It is REALLY huge! And it is quite cool that it's totally free. You can't miss it. As soon as you get off the ship, you walk through the gates and it's straight ahead. There are a few little trinket shops around, really really touristy shops. Grand Turk is just so tiny. The water is absolutely GORGEOUS though. Completely see-through. :D My youngest was 8 last year and just asked him what he liked best. He said "the big pool and the beach." Snorkeling is just plain tough to manouever snorkel gear at that young age. I think the need to be about 10 before they feel confident with snorkel gear. But---of course on here, you're going to get people telling you their kid just had the EASIEST time with their snorkel gear at 6 years of age, lol. But mine didn't. I have three kids and it seemed to take them until they were about 9 or 10 before snorkeling became comfortable to them. But yea, the pool is awesome. Do your own thing in San Juan. OH! I forgot to mention all the GIANT iguanas in the old castles in San Juan. They're running around everywhere! At first we were trying to take pics of each and every one of them. Then we realized there were just too many so we stopped, lol. But the kids LOVED seeing those. I can't wait to see the beaches in St. Thomas everyone is mentioning. See, since we did the catamaran and snorkel excursion, we had to miss the beaches. When we go back, that's a "must do" for our list.

This is my favorite itinerary we have done yet, and I think you will have a great time!

Half Moon Cay is a beach day in paradise. The snorkeling is nonexistent at the beach as there is nothing to see but white sand. Carnival does have some excursions here though... there is just something about the place that makes you want to get a big pina colada and relax though.

St. Thomas has some pretty beaches and lots of shopping... hard to get bored there I would think.

San Juan is great for exploring, shopping and touring the forts... I was not looking forward to this port but after our visit there I wanted to do a land vacation there. I agree with the other poster who said it was the most pleasant surprise of the cruise!

Grand Turk... almost everything has been said. However... I don't know about the port area, but Grand Turk has some of the best underwater sealife and it would be totally worth finding a good snorkeling excursion...

I've never done an AI though I've looked at Beaches and Sandals several times. Maybe one day, but I am very happy with cruising right now...

Really? How did you manage to accomplish that?

 

All inclusive means that everything is paid for, including all beverages, food, and activities. Are you getting that on Carnival?

 

I don't think so, you are getting a moving hotel and food, almost everything else is an add on charge, so a carnival cruise is not all inclusive.

Open bar for 7 days, all your alcohol and non-alcohol, tips, & gratuities, but it only includes one excursion...inclusive enough for me!

Can anyone tell us roughly what the cost difference is between Club Med and Carnival?

It's been years since I went to a CM, but back then, there were a lot of free activities like sailing, windsurfing, waterskiing, circus, salsa dance, group exercise that I haven't seen included on Carnival Cruises.