Question about Camp Carinval during non-holiday weeks...help!

[rgfeldman]

We are planning a family cruise in January 2013 on the Carnival Liberty. I have a 6 and 9-year old and am concerned that there may not be enough children at the kids club on that week (since it is not a typical school holiday week). Carnival has given me no information regarding how many families vs. singles/couples sail that time of year. Could anyone tell me if there are still plenty of kids and children's activities (esp. for the almost 10 year old) that time of year. Thanks!

[ginger123snaps]

We just got off the Carnival Magic last Sunday. We have 4 YO and 2 YO...so we were around the kids club a lot...there were plenty of kids onboard. Our cruise had a little over 4,000 passengers on it. I noticed kids of all ages.

[rgfeldman]

Thanks for the info.

[lrowe70]

We went on the Splendor at the end of January and they told us there were around 300 people under age 18 on board, about 40 were under age 2.

 

I think the ship holds 3000 people, so that's not a lot of kids, but they did have Camp up and running and I saw kids out having fun a lot of the time.

[Jasalth]

While we didn't sail January, we sailed the 1st week of December. One of those considered the ultimate down week for kids since it is right after Thanksgiving break, and 2-3 weeks before Christmas break.

 

There were actually over 300 kids on our sailing. There was about 60 teenagers. My youngest is 10 so that is more the age group you were looking for, but there were over 40 kids in that group on our sailing.

 

My son was ALWAYS busy! We actually had to change dinner plans around a few days for things he wanted to do.

 

I think the "less kids" sailing will be going the way of the dodo soon to be honest. Our oldest is cyber schooled, our youngest still in a normal school for 1 more year before we take him out also. My oldest had to take his State Assessment tests this year, I was actually shocked that with 6 testing areas in a 15 mile radius from us, there were over 400 kids there to take the tests at ONE location just with 8th and 11th graders taking the tests. That is more than my whole high school in the same area was when I graduated!

 

To be honest, even with 300 kids on the Legend (tiny ship!) it never felt crowded with kids, and never saw any acting up! The kids were A LOT better behaved than on our July sailing the year before and my kids liked the environment a lot better also.

[TheCalicoCat]

Neither of my son's 2 cruises were during holidays & there was enough going on in Camp Carnival for him. He would have been happy alone too.:)

[MamaParrotHead]

We only cruise during non-holiday weeks, and never had the kids complain about lack of kids in Camp.

[mcfam5]

When we have cruised during off-peak weeks, there have still been quite a few kids on board. Definitely not as many as during Spring Break, Summer or Holidays but enough for there still to be buddies for your kids! :)

[alise007]

We are taking our 4 and 6 yr old Oct 6th week to New England. Our choice of location I am sure will limit the number of kids but am told there are still a decent number on board! The 1st grader will only miss 4 days of school bc we picked a week with a workday.

 

They didn't offer longer Carnival cruises to NE/Canada over the summer and this is really to celebrate our 10th anniv and hubby 40 bday!!

[LOVINCRUIZIN]

As a point of reference, last year RCCL Explorer had 300 kids from Dec 10-23, but 1200 kids over Christmas week.

The 300 kids on our sailing made it just the right mix of families and my kids made friends easily. It was not such a big crowd that it was overwhelming (which would concern me much more!!!)

[Carnival_Brides]

You should be fine--we also only sail non-holiday weeks. If it really concerns you, a few days before final payment, you could call Carnival and inquire about the number of kids booked or you might try FBing John Heald to ask

We are cruising the same week as you on the Pride and had the same concern.