puresqnut

Talked with my agent friday after the new release on NBC. We were scheduled to cruise out on Spetember 12th. She said they would advise on Monday how they were handling cancellations and rebookingts etc through the 15th of September.

This sucks. Cancellation #3 for this year alone.

We do it on every cruise we go on. Its been great every time and the food is excellent. Make sure your hungry.

This is very helpful information. This is our third cruise and previously we have used the kids camp with success. My boys are now 11 and 9. The oldest is a rather independent old-soul for his age. So now I'm wondering if the camp will maintain his interest - he's not really a video game kid. We were planning on allowing him to sign himself and brother out of the camp when they desire. And I'm glad you mentioned the texting feature on the app as we where really hoping to rely upon this as our main form of communication throughout the cruise. Is it reliable?

 

Thanks for any advice!

The text app works wonderfully. Our biggest issue, Our son actually turning the volume up on his phone so he could hear it, lol. But that's a phone issue not a service issue. worked everywhere on the ship and when he texted us it always worked. Just be sure to allow the app to run in the background on your phone as the text system works thru the app and if you have usage management running you wont get the messages.

As far as the older kids we will be back on the Miracle this December to Hawaii and last year when we went to Mexico he had a blast even with Camp carnival. Aside from the video games there was tons for him to do (Given there is a nice group of other kids his age there) and we did allow him to sign himself in and out and it was smooth with no worries.

PS if there was one thing bad about the self sign in and out on the first full day him mom was a worried all the time so she kept checking in to see if they were there etc. She found out he had been checking himself in and out about every 30 minutes so she followed him and found him going to lido deck about twice an hour for the soft serve machine. Lets just say he paid the price later with an upset stomach from way too much and for the rest of the cruise ice cream was not any level of importance for him. lol ....

We just did 7 Days to Mexico (Again) with two kids. We did a balcony room for all 4 of us. Couch turned into a bed and then we made sure to get the room with a drop down bed from the ceiling. Easy and Easy and kept the cost down from having two rooms.

Yeah we had to push and prod a bit on showers etc but it let us spend money in other places instead on additional accommodations.

We Just took the miracle in October with (at the time) our oldest son (11 years) and our youngest (1 Year B-Day was on the cruise).

Based on what is written on the Carnival Website we were expecting to not have much available to us for our youngest. Our oldest of course had a blast and we finally gave him the permissions to check in and out at will. However I will say Carnivals onboard Texting service thru thair app if you have kids is a must and at (if i recall) $2.95 per device it's worth every penny.

As far as our youngest when we went to register our oldest they said they would allow us to sign up our youngest son for Camp Carnival but on the restricted times.

We took him to one of the limited times (started at 8am and ended at 10am) and also to one of the few afternoon sessions (sea days) and when we went back to pick him up 2 hours later to prevent any penalities the ladies said he was so good and well behaved they said they would allow him to stay longer so we took a Camp Carnival potable phone with us and they said we could take our time. We checked back in every hour but they kept saying no rush and he was good so they weren't worrying about it.

Personally I think they have some discretion to it and typically at under two I am sure they have delt with some kids that do nothing but scream and cry for the entire time they are there so its the policy to limit that time.

play it by year but I would recommend going to Camp Carnival on day 1 and see about signing your young one up and getting them into one of small slots they have and who knows.

This was out 5th cruise on Carnival and we love Carnival simply for the kids program. It's not the most luxurious line but my kids love it and it keeps things simple for the family. The kids are well taken care of and even as my oldest gets older Camp Carnival (and the activities him and I do while ashore) is always one of the highlights of his trip to the point we have to restrict him on time so that we can have family time and events together.