Which Kids Club when changing age on cruise?

Hello, we are sailing in Oct to celebrate my daughters birthday. When signing her up it lets us only sign up for camp ocean that goes to 11 years old. She will be turning 12 halfway through making her in the Cricle C age bracket. Will they let her switch camps after she turns 12 or will she only be able to attend the one signed up for initially? Thank you in advance for your thoughts.

Great question and I don't know the answer, but, you can talk to the counselors and they can make an exception and allow her into the older group from the beginning. Not guaranteed though. It would make little sense if they wouldn't let her at least change groups after she reached the appropriate age.

Carnival's policy dictates that the age on the date of sailing is the age that is in effect for the entire cruise.

I don't know if they will let her switch, have her remain in the camp in which she qualifies at the beginning, or just put her in the other one from the start. I'm guessing it will be up to the Youth Counselors onboard.

Switching groups mid-cruise is going to be hard. The older kids on Circle C and Club O2 meet up the first night and form their groups. If they won't move her up on boarding, be cautious about moving mid cruise. If they don't do it upon boarding, perhaps she will get lucky and meet a bunch of cool 11 year olds with sign in/out and be fine sticking with them in Camp.

The question of kids of different ages in the different camps comes up a lot, but not sure if I've seen this one. I would highly recommend going to Circle C on the first night instead of the little kids camp. I think you'll have better luck talking to the counselors there. They'll know how many kids are most likely going to be in Circle C and if they can accommodate her. It definitely never hurts to ask!

Our son turned 9 on our last Carnival Cruise, so he got to move up from the Stingrays to the Sharks. We asked at the Kids Club what to do, and they let him choose. It's a bit easier with that age break, though, since both groups go to Camp Ocean.

FWIW, he started in the Stingrays with his little brother, then bumped up to the Sharks on his birthday, but wound up back in the Stingrays since he knew those kids better from the get go.

For your daughter, I would definitely take her to Circle C on the first day, and try to sign her up there. In her case, I wouldn't even sign her up in advance for Camp Ocean, in case the two systems can't handle that.

It is supposed to be their age at embarkation. But if you can get her into the circle C, it will probably be much more fun for her. My daughters have cruised from age 2, and they all enjoyed Circle C more than anything. But other posters are correct: friends are made the first night. So if you can't get her in until her birthday, just let her stay in the initial group.

Our last cruise we had the same situation with my daughter turning 12 three days after the cruise started. When we checked my 14 yr old into Circle C, the counselor said that she could join Circle C if she wanted. We ended up looking at Camp Ocean for fun, but she ended up choosing to stay in Circle C. Hope that helps!

We just got off Carnival Ectasy today and our youngest is 5. He is mature for his age and turn so 6 in Sept but we moved him up on day 1. I knew he wouldn't have as much fun with 2-5 year olds so we asked to move him up and had no issues. He had a blast in the older group. We talked to a lady on day 3 after our kids played on the island together and she moved her daughter up that night with no problems.

Considering you're sailing in an off-peak time, it probably will be easy to move her to a different group.

Please report back to us what happens, as this question doesn't come up a lot.

My daughter turned 11 just before our October 2016 cruise. She's a mature 11. They allowed her to up to Circle C at her request & with my permission. She decided towards the end that "Cricle had too much drama" & Camp Carnival welcomed her back with open arms for the last 2 nights.

Thanks for the great advice and information everyone. When we get there we will see if she can join Circle c right away, and if not she loves playing and helping with littler kids so it will not be a hardship if they will not let her. Will let you know what happens.