So will our boys (5 & 9) like Camp Carnival?

[hassellcastle]

Hi all,

 

This will be me and my wife's third cruise.

Our first was back in 1998 on the Carnival Celebration on our honeymoon.

 

We took our second cruise last year on the Carnival Ecstacy.

And this year will be our first cruise on the Carnival Conquest with both of our boys, Blake (5) and Andrew (9).

 

We're wondering will they like Camp Carnival?

 

How many others here on the board took their kids to Camp Carnival for the first time and how did your kids like it? Any others here taken there kids that are in the same age groups as mine.

 

I want all of us to have a good time on the cruise. I'm not saying I want to "dump them off" but then again, I'm hoping Mommy and Daddy can have some fun on the ship too and enjoy ourselves without being slaves to our little dictators. ....ha ha.

 

Let me know,

Thanks.

 

Craig

 

....counting down the days until July 8th! :D

[l2c4fun]

We're taking our first cruise next week along with our kids - ages 9 & 11. I'm unsure how my kids are going to like Camp Carnival. I will report back when we return. I would love to hear other experiences as well.

[baby_tran]

My kids first cruised at ages 6 and 8, they loved Camp Carnival that time. During summer break there's lot of kids on board so they'll have a great time. If they're sociable, they'll have fun.

 

As my kids got older, the activities didn't attract them. They would just pop into the ones they were interested in.

[lbrav]

My son loved it when he was 5.. He would be up and ready to go get checked in before they were even open!! He spent just about every minute he could there.

[willyy]

My kids have grown up with camp carnival and love every minute of it, they tell me that its the freedom of being "on their own". My son is 9 now and and dying to get back to camp. I know every kid is different and mine are outgoing so yours may be different. you do have the option of dropping them off for activities that they want to do and picking them up right after, at least you guys can grab a few hours of adult time. But my kids will go open to close, and stay for the late night parties as well. we have to pry them out for dinner and shows. Have fun!

[MommaOf3Princesses]

I am very curious about this as well....my 3 girls (2, 5 & 8) will be going with us in July on Ecstacy and I am hesitant about sending them to Camp Carnival. We did a Disney cruise back in '09 when my 2 oldest were 2 and 5 and they really werent interested in it....

I'm ok with whatever...just dont want them to miss out on a fun time if Camp Carnival is as good as I have heard it is.

[CruisersNC]

When our son was little he loved Camp Carnival. We would ask him if he'd rather go on a cruise or go to Disneyworld and he'd choose the cruise every time without hesitation. Unfortunately he grew up and I can't carry him around on my shoulders anymore or tickle him mercilessly :( He still loves cruising though.

[Robpuffdaddy]

We took our boys on a cruise on the Valor back in 2006. They were 8 and 5 years of age. So I know what you are wondering because I was wondering myself back then. So I got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that they are going to have a great time in Camp Carnival, they had so much fun playing with other kids and the area they have set up is amazing. Boy were we deprived when I was there age, wish we had that set up when I was a kid. With that said here is the bad news, if you were looking forward to going on a cruise with the family and having fun together, forget about it!!! YOU WILL NEVER SEE THEM!!! They will want to spend the whole time there and never want to be with you. Back in 2006, I do not know if the policy has changed, but back then, on sea days, they closed Camp Carnival for several hours around lunch time to give staff some time off. They deserved it though. Si it basically forces the kids to spend time with the parents, have lunch, play by the pool for a bit. then they change and go back and have fun. So if you are a parent that hates your kids and does not want to see them for the whole week, camp carnival is great, cause you will hardly ever see them. BUt to wrap this long dissertation up in a nutshell... your kids will have a great time!!! and so will you.

[rdevine10]

I honestly think it just depends on your kids. Mine at 8 and 5 didnt care for the Disney kids club (it was just too over whelming for them) and more recently at ages 9 and 6 did not care for Camp Carnival. But- I will say the kids club on the Legend was located in forward deck 5 and the seas were a bit on the rougher side. My kids felt sea sick there. On our sailing they combined the 5 to 8 and 9 to 11 year olds. My older daughter was not thrilled with this.

[UATLB]

our kid loved camp carnival and is still asking to go back and its been 4 years

[Zanpa]

My 9 year old loved it. I even had to pay for the night owl camp because his new friend was going. My 13 year old hated Circle C.

[cruznkate]

OP, we are taking our boys (12, 10, and 8) and our nephews (6 and 2...also named Blake) on the Conquest on July 8, too! I can tell you that on our last cruise, two years ago, our boys really enjoyed Camp Carnival. They went a few times each day and then would spend the rest of their time with us. So I guess you could say they had fun but didn't want to spend the whole time there. I hope you and your family have a great time. See ya on the Lido! Woo Hoo!

[Westbank is bestbank]

I have good news for you and bad news for you....

 

The good news is they should love it. When I would go to get my son he would beg to stay....even when I had to pay by the hour. :)

 

Now for the bad news......as another person stated don't expect a family vacation because you will not see your children. I only got to spend time with mine on the islands. More bad news....I personally don't like Carnival's policy when it comes to the scavenger hunt. 9yr - 11yr olds must have privileges to sign themselves in and out if they want to participate in an unsupervised scavenger hunt. I did not like this AT ALL but I didn't want my 9 year old to be the only one who couldn't participate. They are sent all over the ship on every deck to look for things. They even have to talk to strangers to have them sign papers showing that they did find the item. :mad:

[imluvncruzn]

My son began cruising at age 4 and I found that he loved it from 4-8yr. He's 10 now and doesn't care for it much anymore. He'll choose one or two activities for the whole week and attend those but that's about it.

[Silent Penguin]

I honestly think it just depends on your kids. Mine at 8 and 5 didnt care for the Disney kids club (it was just too over whelming for them) and more recently at ages 9 and 6 did not care for Camp Carnival.

 

 

I was going to suggest something along these lines. It depends on their temperments and also about how the cruiseline chooses to group the kids. None of my kids are even close to qualifying as shrinking violets, yet two of them, when they were your children's ages did not like the Club that much at first. The high energy activity, running around and noise during "free time" made them uncomfortable. Maybe, it has something to do with never having experienced day care or public school. Their older brother was already in the pre-teen age group by the time we took our first cruise. He's a different story.

 

Our youngest child progressed from tolerating a couple hours here and there (when she was 4) to preferring the Club over hanging with us depending on what the scheduled activity was going on (when she was 9). She never graduated to wanting to spend almost every minute there. She made friends with other girls in the Club who she would rather go to the pool with than stay in the club with.

 

Her older brothers were different. Our middle son, who was 8 on the first cruise, hated the club on the first day because he was grouped with kids from about 5 or 6 up to 8 years old. He has a more retiring personality and all the hooplah and running around and screaming during free play drove him crazy. As soon as he was allowed to switch to the pre-teen group, he was as happy as a pig in mud. He enjoyed the free time best when he could play games but was more likely than not to want to do the planned activities like karioke or charades.

 

For our oldest son, who was 10 on his first cruise, Kids' Club was love at first site. He would sleep there if he could, and he enjoyed every kind of activity -organized or not.

[krazy4cruising]

If your kids are outgoing chances are they will love camp carnival. If they are shy then they may not want to leave you.

 

I have one shy child who isn't crazy about any of the kids clubs ie Disney or Carnival. My other child went on his first cruise at 3 years old and LOVED camp carnival... he would cry when we picked him up because he didn't want to leave.

 

THey run an excellent program on Carnival and have lots of great freebies ie backpacks, t shirts etc... that the kids make and take home with them.

[MommaOf3Princesses]

How is security handled on Carnival in regards to the kids program? My biggest fear...maybe others out there as well...is being one of those horror stories you hear about kids being given to a stranger, or let out of the club by themselves.

Disney they had us sign them in and out and they gave us a pager for when they were ready to leave or if they needed something.

[krazy4cruising]

You have to sign in and out with your S&S card so it's the same as Disney. You also have a pager for them to contact you.

[Redsfan]

we have found it is the group of counsellors that really makes the trip for our kids...some very terrific, a few had zero patience for the little ones. Programs seem to be geared towards the younger ones as well which is a concern for me as well....either way, my oldest daughter met some great friends and has a blast no matter what...we gave her permission to sign herself out (eeks) and she was fine of course...

[thebsinmiss]

Had out 9 & 11 year old on the Dream April 21 so our experience was based on them being in the same age grouping.

 

They did a couple of hours per day at the camp. Gave them both sign in/out privileges (you can set it up so they have to be signed in and out by you or they can do it themselves).

 

Son (9) only really liked the Wii hour (set times for using the video games) the scavenger hunt (did it multiple times) Daughter (11) loved the scavenger hunt and a tee-shirt decorating session. Both liked the water fight/pool activity and they both insisted on doing the 3 am late night event (extra cost).

 

Overall they enjoyed the camp and it gave us lots of free time to spend in the spa and serenity area. If your kids are fairly independent and will look out for each other then I would see not problem with the sign in/out authorization.

 

Go to the orientation on the first day and try and get them to introduce themselves to some kids that look the same age as it gives them a few 'contacts" for the first few days until everyone gets to know each other.

 

Staff was dedicated but seemed overwhelmed/frustrated (hey, my two kids frustrate me so a whole room full.....)

 

We never had pagers so that might be for the younger set. I can say there was always lots of kids in the younger area and always lots of happy noise so that seems to be a recommendation for it

[MommaOf3Princesses]

Great info! ;) Thanks!

[Superjoku]

We just returned home from our cruise on Sunday.

My six year old daughter could not get enough of Camp Carnival. No matter how long she was there, it wasn't enough.

No matter what we were doing she would ask if it was time to go back to Camp Carnival.

One the first day, you'll get a schedule of ALL the Camp Carnival activities for the whole week. Very similar to the fun times except that it has the whole week.

 

We were able to pick and choose what we thought she would enjoy.

On our trip, they had three special party nights (fee applies) - Mardi Gras themed, Party Like a Rock Star, and Pirate's Farewell. They go from 10pm-midnight.

[cruzlovr75]

Our boys are 6 and 9 they went on there first cruise in October. They really enjoyed it. They went to camp carnival usually once or twice a day. Our younger son really enjoyed it, our oldest son not so much. It seemed like he was bored, or he just wanted to hang out with us? Maybe he felt like he'd be missing something else more fun? We did have some alone time, but to be honest, not much. Have a great cruise.

[chelspie]

I honestly think it just depends on your kids. Mine at 8 and 5 didnt care for the Disney kids club (it was just too over whelming for them) and more recently at ages 9 and 6 did not care for Camp Carnival. But- I will say the kids club on the Legend was located in forward deck 5 and the seas were a bit on the rougher side. My kids felt sea sick there. On our sailing they combined the 5 to 8 and 9 to 11 year olds. My older daughter was not thrilled with this.

 

I agree with this. My kids always took a while to warm up to new situations, but I have relatives who cruise a lot, and my niece has always really enjoyed it.

[momof3cruisers]

Totally depends on the kids. My more mellow one who generally goes with the flow on everything absolutely hated Camp. He said it was too loud and crazy/busy, the counselors were too hyper and you got in trouble if you weren't having fun. LOLi am sure that last part isn't true. He's 10. The 11 year old liked it okay and chose a few activities to participate in. He is usually way more wary about new experiences, but he met a couple of boys his age and they hung out together.