2Littletime2

I am the Uncle to a 12 year old niece who has been begging me since she could talk to take her on cruise. I kept putting it off until she was older and a little more independent. I have some questions because, this cruise will be all about her...not me. Would she do things with camp Carnival, do they cater to that age group...do they watch them carefully...are they supervised at all times? ( I once ran into a group of kids on scavenger hunt with no adult) I do not want her to ever be on her on while cruising, for her safety, my peace of mind, and as a courtesy to other passengers. I just worry about her getting bored, and i plan to be with her anytime she is not involved with some structured activity, even then I will not be far away.

What a lucky young lady! I wish I could tell you things that would put your mind at ease about supervision on the ship, but I cannot. I am the momma of three girls b/w 4 and 24 and they have all been very very frequent cruisers. The duty of supervision will fall to you. You will need to set appropriate rules and expectations based on how responsible your niece is. We've been fortunate to have girls that have followed the rules we have put in place including, never being alone on cabin decks, regular check-ins, etc. When they have been unsuccessful in finding a buddy we manage to find things to do together that keeps everyone safe and happy. Personally we have always found more than ample things to do to keep our kids from becoming bored but frequently they are things that do with us instead of with the organized activities. It seems to vary ship to ship and kid to kid on the topic of how much time our kids spend in organized camp carnival activities. Sometimes we never see our kids but for the requirement to join us for meals and shore excursions and sometimes we have to resort to bribing them to attend camp just long enough to give us some time alone together to attend an adult activity. Have an absolute blast on your trip :)

And for the record, not every woman believes that this situation is odd or perverse. Personally, I think that every single positive adult male role model in the life of a little girl is helping her to select a life partner that treats her well and will make her happy. But alas, that entire topic has nothing to do with cruising, nor with the questions you asked :)

You can check him in and out whenever you want as long as Camp Carnival is open. Having the phone is nice because when your child needs you they can call you and you know that if they don't call then he is fine. When our kids where 2 they didn't stay a long time in camp, an hour here and there but when they were in Camp for the most part they were happy to be there and the activities were very age appropriate and very well supervised. All three of our girls are cuddly and we were especially pleased to see the warmth and comfort of the many excellent camp staffers.

Happy cruising! We love taking our kids on a cruise it's the best of all worlds, mom gets time to just be and the kids get fun activities but you still all get to do the cool stuff together. It's a different pace to cruise with your children but so far for us, it's worth it. We can cruise alone when they are all grown up :)

Our four year old daughter has been cruising since she was 6 months old and now has 12 Carnival cruises under her belt. Cruising with her this most recent time was probably one of the best. Obviously I am okay with taking even wee ones but I must say that her being four this past time had some great advantages. She didn't spend a lot of time at Camp Carnival but when she did go she loved it. She loves getting dressed up for dinner and the wait staff are amazing with appropriately behaved kids. Every night they went above and beyond to make dinner with the kids outstanding, the kids menu is not the healthiest but the staff were great about making the regular menu into much smaller dishes for our wee one.

Our kids have always enjoyed the shows, etc as long as we did a good job in deciding what was appropriate for small humans.

Be prepared to encounter some folks who no matter what will never feel like kids should be on a cruise ship but for the most part, well behaved kids are welcomed and people are happy to see them.

We took card games and other small items for times when she needed to be patient, ie. waiting for a show to start, waiting for others to finish dinner, waiting in a line...you'll be amazed how much a four year old appreciates a small bag of lego or a game of Eye-Spy and how much your fellow passengers appreciate you keeping your child entertained.

Sorry, for the novel, bottom line- Take your 4 year old and have a blast :)

We were on the Breeze in Feb and Circle C was running in the evening of the first night, they were doing "icebreakers, etc" and our girls were out from 7 until 11.

15 for me, but a few of them have been multiple times. Would like to complete the fleet but can't seem to nail down any of the Spirit Class ships for some reason, LOL. Oh well, one more thing for my bucket list.

My only advice here after triple checking the paperwork would be the same advice I'd give any parent and that is to remember that you are effectively sailing with the population of a small town and that there is no screening to eliminate potential dangers associated with fellow passengers. Speaking from experience with the System I would also say that as a foster parent I would submit to my worker what I call "ship rules" and that would serve to protect you if anything does come up. At least then you have some documentation to show that you were diligent and the worker has the opportunity to review the rules and ensure that they meet their standards. Nothing worse that having a social worker say "well this is the Minister's child and we would not have permitted XYZ..." It is terrible that we have to work so hard to protect ourselves from the system when we are trying to make the lives of vulnerable children better.

Have a blast making these incredible cruising memories! We've had foster children who have come back to us 15 years later with scrapbooks from vacations that they had taken with us. They continued to cherish the memories right through all their life changes.

In December 2012, I had a gentleman die in my arms on the Promenade deck of the Dream. It was an experience that I will never forget. I wrote to his widow when I returned home and when she wrote back she told me that she took comfort in knowing that he did not die alone and that he died doing something that he very much loved.

In over 25 cruises we've encountered the occasional death and many codes being called, as a family we just stop and have a moment of prayer that whatever that family is going through that they will be supported and that the help will arrive swiftly. It's a terrible helpless feeling.

There was one time though that stopped my hubby and I in our tracks from two separate spots on the ship and that was when a code was called to Camp Carnival where we had left two of our children. The Camp staff was extremely proactive though and before I could even process the panic reaction and start to run towards the camp they called our cellphone to tell us all was well and that the situation did not involve our children and that it was under control.

We sailed on the Carnival Breeze 02/23/2014 and one of our daughters is a vegetarian. We asked at Guy's and were told "sorry no veggie burger" when we returned I posted on John Heald's FB site and suggested that this would be a great addition to Guy's and he responded within a few minutes saying that there would be no veggie burger added to the Guys menu. I know that we have gotten them on past cruises, but not at any time on any ship with Guys. Maybe some folks got lucky on this front but certainly not us and according to Mr. Heald it is not coming in the future.