Just returned Camp Carnival Liberty was GREAT!

[IMDORY]

We just returned from the Liberty. My 9 year old LOVED Camp Carnival. I was 100% pleased with the entire camp all week long. I had heard a few negative things here and there about Camp Carnival before we left, but we were very, very happy. The entire experience with the camp exceeded my expectations by far.

 

If anyone has questions, I'd be glad to answer...

[Wavesprite]

I will also have a 9 year old when we travel in October. Can you tell us what happened with signing out priveledges? Did you let your daughter sign herself out? Did she do the scavenger hunts, etc?

[MamaParrotHead]

Glad to hear your kiddo liked it as much as my kiddos did.

[IMDORY]

I will also have a 9 year old when we travel in October. Can you tell us what happened with signing out priveledges? Did you let your daughter sign herself out? Did she do the scavenger hunts, etc?

 

When we boarded the ship I did not allow sign out privileges for my son. I also told him I wouldn't let him do the scavenger hunts. I did not allow him to go on the ones earlier in the week. In the back of my mind, I wasn't sure if I would let him to the late night party-and if I did, I was going to pick him up by 1:30-2am rather than have him stay out until 3:30 and wait for some person to bring him to our cabin.

 

Well...Camp Carnival on the Liberty really earned my trust pretty fast. The counselors were great. Every time I picked him up or dropped him off I observed a little. They seemed to be really "tight" with who was coming and going and checking if they had sign out privileges or not. They seemed kind and caring. The kids in their care really seemed to be listening to instructions. Every time he would do an activity with camp I would listen very carefully for any signs of any issues be it with the kids or staff-and there never was anything. We've done daycare at several places since my son was 2 and believe me, I've seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. I can pretty easily pick up on if something isn't quite right. By Wed. I let him go to the late night party and let him stay until the end. A counselor had him back in our cabin at 3:35am-which is good b/c after 2 I started worrying-with no reason other than it was 2am and my son was not with me. He had a blast at the party and slept in until 10:30 am the next morning. He took a 2 1/2 hour nap Wed. at 5pm before the party so he could make it though the night.

 

Thurs. afternoon he asked if he could do the scavenger hunt. As I waited for the 2pm activity drop off with the other parents and kids I could see they were all going through the same thing I was. They had not given their kids sign out privileges all week up to that point and seemed to be considering it only for the scavenger hunt. I decided that I could trust my son to stick with the group for the scavenger hunt and that he wouldn't go into other peoples cabins, and we had that "talk" again as all the other parents and kids were having at the same time. We all made it perfectly clear to our kids that they were to stay with the camp after the scavenger hunt was over and that we would pick them up at the end of the last activity. I asked the counselors again about their groups and she said they would be in groups of at least 3 or more. Also, they were not allowed to use the elevators. All went well. I let him also do the last one on the last sea day.

 

The entire week I only let him sign himself out 2 times for the 2 scavenger hunts-that was it. I'm happy for him that he had such a good time and got a little independence with "training wheels"-but that was as far as it was going for me at his age. I always picked him up and dropped him off. When he wasn't with camp, he was with us-and that seems to be what many of the other parents in this age group were doing too. I know some people give their kids more freedom, I'm just not comfortable doing more than I did. For our family it was the right mix of independence and freedom for us at this time.

[BO HANSON]

Thanks for the review. We'll be trying Camp Carnival next week for the first time with 5 yr olds. You have a very solid opinion that has answered questions for many people including me.

[KellyMarie65]

We want to travel with 3 children (17, 11 and 10) this coming December so this review helps. :)

[crusinmama06]

Did you ask the counselors what the items were on the scavenger hunt? There were 3 scavenger hunts on Triumph. The items were things like: "towel animal", "long pants", "swim suit", "sunglasses" -- so even though the kids were in groups, the kids still ran back to the cabins to grab the items needed for the scavenger hunts.

 

So my question, did they change the items needed on the hunt? It would be awesome if they did! Can you ask your son what items were needed or can you look at the capers and give me the names of the 3 Scavenger hunts that were held during the week please?

 

I am hoping that they change the way they do them.

 

Thanks! And welcome back :D:D:D:D

[Niquein99]

When we boarded the ship I did not allow sign out privileges for my son. I also told him I wouldn't let him do the scavenger hunts. I did not allow him to go on the ones earlier in the week. In the back of my mind, I wasn't sure if I would let him to the late night party-and if I did, I was going to pick him up by 1:30-2am rather than have him stay out until 3:30 and wait for some person to bring him to our cabin.

 

Well...Camp Carnival on the Liberty really earned my trust pretty fast. The counselors were great. Every time I picked him up or dropped him off I observed a little. They seemed to be really "tight" with who was coming and going and checking if they had sign out privileges or not. They seemed kind and caring. The kids in their care really seemed to be listening to instructions. Every time he would do an activity with camp I would listen very carefully for any signs of any issues be it with the kids or staff-and there never was anything. We've done daycare at several places since my son was 2 and believe me, I've seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. I can pretty easily pick up on if something isn't quite right. By Wed. I let him go to the late night party and let him stay until the end. A counselor had him back in our cabin at 3:35am-which is good b/c after 2 I started worrying-with no reason other than it was 2am and my son was not with me. He had a blast at the party and slept in until 10:30 am the next morning. He took a 2 1/2 hour nap Wed. at 5pm before the party so he could make it though the night.

 

Thurs. afternoon he asked if he could do the scavenger hunt. As I waited for the 2pm activity drop off with the other parents and kids I could see they were all going through the same thing I was. They had not given their kids sign out privileges all week up to that point and seemed to be considering it only for the scavenger hunt. I decided that I could trust my son to stick with the group for the scavenger hunt and that he wouldn't go into other peoples cabins, and we had that "talk" again as all the other parents and kids were having at the same time. We all made it perfectly clear to our kids that they were to stay with the camp after the scavenger hunt was over and that we would pick them up at the end of the last activity. I asked the counselors again about their groups and she said they would be in groups of at least 3 or more. Also, they were not allowed to use the elevators. All went well. I let him also do the last one on the last sea day.

 

The entire week I only let him sign himself out 2 times for the 2 scavenger hunts-that was it. I'm happy for him that he had such a good time and got a little independence with "training wheels"-but that was as far as it was going for me at his age. I always picked him up and dropped him off. When he wasn't with camp, he was with us-and that seems to be what many of the other parents in this age group were doing too. I know some people give their kids more freedom, I'm just not comfortable doing more than I did. For our family it was the right mix of independence and freedom for us at this time.

 

Thanks so much for posting this information. I'm travelling with my 9-yr old son on the Carnival Dream in September and had already decided I was not going to give him signing out privileges. Reading this puts me a bit at ease about my decision. Like you, I will see how he does while on the cruise and maybe let him do at least 1 of the scavenger hunts. So glad to hear your son enjoyed himself!

[IMDORY]

Did you ask the counselors what the items were on the scavenger hunt? There were 3 scavenger hunts on Triumph. The items were things like: "towel animal", "long pants", "swim suit", "sunglasses" -- so even though the kids were in groups, the kids still ran back to the cabins to grab the items needed for the scavenger hunts.

 

So my question, did they change the items needed on the hunt? It would be awesome if they did! Can you ask your son what items were needed or can you look at the capers and give me the names of the 3 Scavenger hunts that were held during the week please?

 

I am hoping that they change the way they do them.

 

Thanks! And welcome back :D:D:D:D

 

I asked him after. The first one had things like hair clips and inside out socks...??? But he told me that they did not go into anyone's cabins (a girl in the group had hair clips in her hair that they used, etc.) and they did not use the elevators. I believe him-he's always very honest with me good or bad. The second one wasn't for items-they had to find out what language something was in. Again, not really sure specifically what they needed to do, but it sounded like they needed to ask questions and not gather items for that one. I'm not sure what the first one was b/c I didn't let him go on that one.

I did tell him before he left that if anyone needed to get anything out of a cabin for the scavenger hunt that they were to let the "owner" of the cabin go in while the others were to wait outside of the cabin in a group.

[IMDORY]

One thing I do want to mention is that was my experience on this particular week on this particular ship with this group of staff with this group of kids. There are probably a lot of variables that could possibly change the experience.

I do know that the staff changes at some point (in the fall maybe) Also, of 1300 possible kids that could be on board-there were only about 500-this was according to a conversation my husband had with one of the counselors. Also, the group of kids in his group all seemed like very nice kids-even when I saw them all hanging out at the pool/slide together in the midday-they were all good, well-behaved kids. I am very hopeful that when we sail again next April we will have the same experience. I have a feeling the ship may have more kids on board next year as the week ends with Easter the day we get off the ship.

 

So when someone does post that there weren't thrilled with Camp Carnival-they may have had a different experience than I did-but I just wanted everyone to know that when we went we were very happy and impressed.

[IMDORY]

Thanks for the review. We'll be trying Camp Carnival next week for the first time with 5 yr olds. You have a very solid opinion that has answered questions for many people including me.

 

There were even times when I went to pick up my son/drop him off that I had to the chance to see what was going on with the younger kids-and what I saw was very good. :)

[Wavesprite]

IMDORY, thank you so much for your lengthy response on how you worked the signing in and out priveledges. I think Im' going to do exactly what you did, observe, and decide....what a great parent you are to allow him a little freedom after the Carnival staff proved to you that they were doing a good job. I'm going to hopefully do the same!!!

 

One more question. Once you allowed him "sign out priveledges" for the one day, could you take them back the next day? or did you just rely on your son knowing he wasn't allowed to.

[IMDORY]

One more question. Once you allowed him "sign out priveledges" for the one day, could you take them back the next day? or did you just rely on your son knowing he wasn't allowed to.

 

yes, I could have, but I didn't and just made it clear to him that he was not allowed to just leave. On the last night as I remined him again-he said "I know, I know I have to wait for you and not sign out and leave." :) I trusted that he would follow my instructions.

 

The only thing that had me nervous was the one account someone posted about the kids with sign out privledges on one cruise were told that they had to sign out and leave-ever read that one? Believe me, I thought about changing his staus back just in case a few times in those last couple of days b/c of that thread. Well, that never happened to us. There was only less than 2 days left to the cruise at this point. Another thing-we dealt with the same Camp Carnival staff over and over coming and going for almost a week at that point-they knew that we always came to pick him up and drop him off and I was pretty confident that they knew our pattern. I would have been pretty upset with them if they just made him leave. Again, I felt I had a feel for the staff and that they wouldn't do something like that. We had little coversations everytime we dropped off and picked up, so I felt like we got to know each other a little bit as the week went on. Also, I could tell that they weren't too overwhelmed with too many kids during our week and that they were able to get to know us a little.

[Wavesprite]

I did see that post about the child being sent back to their rooms....and he was crying. YIKES!! Thanks for your great posts!