Best Way for Kids to Make Friends?

[jesron1269]

My kids are 10, 7 & 5 (boy, boy & girl respectively). I have already enrolled them in Camp Carnival so I know they will meet kids their own age there but beyond that is there any group activities you would recommend to allow kids to meet kids and perhaps make friends? The only reason I ask is because we did a Disney Cruise last January and while we really enjoyed it my kids did not like the kid programs which meant mom and dad were on call 24/7. While I love my kids and do plan on spending the majority of the cruise with them it sure would be fun if they could meet some kids their own age, go to some of the kid activities and allow mom and dad to have to some time to unwind. Thoughts?

[cb at sea]

The best way to meet other kids is to attend the 1st orientation meeting...that way, EVERYONE is new, so they all start out on equal footing. You don't want to wait until everyone has already started making friends, and then show up...they'll feel like the "new kids" in town!

 

I think the concensus is that Disney's program isn't as structured as Carnival or RCI...and kids seem to prefer the structure more than Disney's "do your own thing" method.

[emelvee]

Have you posted in the Roll Call for your cruise? There are likely other families there that you could meet, in addition to the Camp Carnival activities.

[jesron1269]

cb at sea... thanks for the suggestion!

 

emelvee... yes I have and had some response. I just thought I would try in the mains too.

 

Thanks to both of you!

[Fourkids4us]

After the orientation there is a Camp Carnival "Party" in one of the discos with Fun Ship Freddy and the camp staff. Its for all ages. I think its like 7pm or something.

 

I went once and only two other families showed up. I do cruise off peak so that may be why. I would love it if my 9 year old could make a friend thre. He REALLY REALLY wants to do the scavenger hunt but Im having lots of anxiety over it being unsupervised. Maybe if he makes a friend that night Ill "know whos he with".

 

Anyway hope this helps.

[jesron1269]

After the orientation there is a Camp Carnival "Party" in one of the discos with Fun Ship Freddy and the camp staff. Its for all ages. I think its like 7pm or something.

 

I went once and only two other families showed up. I do cruise off peak so that may be why. I would love it if my 9 year old could make a friend thre. He REALLY REALLY wants to do the scavenger hunt but Im having lots of anxiety over it being unsupervised. Maybe if he makes a friend that night Ill "know whos he with".

 

Anyway hope this helps.

 

Yes it does. Thanks for the heads up! We are going over Thanksgiving so I would think the ship would be full of kids. The reason we pick that particular week was due to the fact the kids would only miss two days of actual school.

[beachbum53]

Two activities that kids of all ages can participate in that seem to bring great joy to the "little darlings":

 

1. push all of the buttons on the elevators

 

2. run up and down the hallways (especially in the evening), singing, hollering, removing door decorations, or anything else that might annoy adults

 

Ahh, the joys of youthful irresponsibility.:D:D:D

[bruisin4cruisin]

Camp Carnival will seperate them into age groups, too. They will be with 2 or 22 kids their own age, depending on when you are going and the likely hood of children on board. Plus, they have age appropriate things for kids to do while in the camp. I am sure your kids will have fun.

[SadieN]

We have discovered how well camp is for our DD depended on the personality of the other kids not the amount of other kids. Best was when there were only 4 in the group. Worse was when our bandkids walked into a full room of cheeleaders and football players from the same highschool. Oh, the joys of homeport cruising.

 

Make them go the first night. They won't know how 'lame':rolleyes: it is until they tried it.;):D

 

On the Family Board CruisinMomma6 has many of the Camp programs online.

[ShakyBeef]

Two activities that kids of all ages can participate in that seem to bring great joy to the "little darlings":

 

1. push all of the buttons on the elevators

 

2. run up and down the hallways (especially in the evening), singing, hollering, removing door decorations, or anything else that might annoy adults

 

Ahh, the joys of youthful irresponsibility.:D:D:D

 

Why the need to inject ugliness into this thread?:confused: Neither the OP nor anyone else here was talking about letting kids misbehave/ run around unsupervised. OP asked a good question and everyone else had good input for them. It's uncalled for comments like yours that turn new people (as the OP is) off of CC and give these boards a bad reputation.

 

 

 

Jesron1269 - Welcome to Cruise Critic and happy cruising!:)

[ccruisequeen]

There's a game room with all kinds of arcade games. They may be able to meet kids there over lively game of foozeball.

[Elationismyship]

Have you posted in the Roll Call for your cruise? There are likely other families there that you could meet, in addition to the Camp Carnival activities.

 

I will add a ditto to the roll call. I have one child that we have cruised with for the last 10 years. I typically meet folks via my roll call that have kids the same age and the kids actually start chatting before they get on the cruise (through Facebook typically). My daughter has made many friends this way and we get on the ship knowing she is going to meet kids she chatted with for months before.

 

This past cruise we were staying in the same hotel precruise as some of the other families. The kids met at the pool, swam, hung out, etc.

[PR0318]

The best way to meet other kids is to attend the 1st orientation meeting...that way, EVERYONE is new, so they all start out on equal footing. You don't want to wait until everyone has already started making friends, and then show up...they'll feel like the "new kids" in town!

 

I think the concensus is that Disney's program isn't as structured as Carnival or RCI...and kids seem to prefer the structure more than Disney's "do your own thing" method.

 

Yes this is totally true. If they go to the 1st group activity my kids had no problem finding new friends, on cruises that they didn't it was more difficult.

[timcar]

I have been on 3 cruises with my kids, I usually just bring them to the first night and they like to go to the camps most of the time. The first 2 cruises they were 5 and 7 and then they were 7 and 9. They didn't care if they made friends...they kind of just hung out and played. Last cruise (at ages 9 and 11) both my kids made friends, but they really didn't hang out with the kids outside of the camp. My younger daughter is more outgoing and my son is a little bit shyer but I never had a problem with them making or not making friends, they just make their own fun.

 

As far as the scavenger hunt, I wouldn't let my 9 yo sign himself out of camp and he complained that he had to stay in the camp room by himself. I told him I would let him sign himself out if he could find his way back to our room. We walked for a long time around the boat! Lol! But he eventually made it and we let him sign himself out and there were no problems.

 

I really think it all depends on the kid, I knew going in, that the camps would be my way to get a little time away so I kept saying how fun it was. I showed them the schedules and kept saying ooohhh that looks like fun. lol! I have friends that cruise and it all depends on the kid, either they love it or hate it.

 

Good luck! Hope you get some quiet time!

[PSkinner]

The 1st time we cruised our DS was 8. While chatting on our roll call we found out that there were several kids the same age and they would be in the same Camp Carnival groups. Kids ended up exchanging emails and by the time we boarded they were best of friends. Now DS is 19 and still keeps in touch with a couple of "the guys". We even had a Roll Call B-day party because 3 of the kids were sailing on their b-days and were all on the same date! Lots of fun.

[3dashers]

These suggestions are great. Carnival and Disney have 2 very different kids programs. Honestly DS was lukewarm on Disney, on a whim we tried carnival and now we have to pry him out of there.

 

On the checkout ... We were on a Panama Canal cruise and the kids stuff wasn't that great (not carnival). We made the rule he had to go straight back to the cabin. It broke me in as far as letting go. The idea of finding the cabin is awesome.

 

I just asked DS and the rules for scavenger hunt are along the lines of..stay with your group, no running, no elevators, be back at xyz, don't talk to strangers...

[jesron1269]

Great suggestions and thanks to all who contributed! My kids are not particularly shy but we are very active in their lives so perhaps they are more outgoing as long as they have us around to be the security blanket. You are right for each kid it is a different experience. I will try to implement several of these suggestions and see what happens. Thanks again to all!

[beachbum53]

Why the need to inject ugliness into this thread?:confused: Neither the OP nor anyone else here was talking about letting kids misbehave/ run around unsupervised. OP asked a good question and everyone else had good input for them. It's uncalled for comments like yours that turn new people (as the OP is) off of CC and give these boards a bad reputation.

 

 

 

Jesron1269 - Welcome to Cruise Critic and happy cruising!:)

 

Ummm, my post was done with tongue in cheek.:rolleyes: Geez, lighten up. Apparently there's no room on here for a little humor.

[tanyaewa]

My kids are super friendly and sociable in their regular lives but don't like daycare type facilities at all. :( I will try and get them to our orientation on the off chance it will finally be OK. We are cruising with another family whose kids love tis kind of stuff but it has never worked for us. Fortunately they have each other to hang with at the pools and mini golf etc. Looking for any suggestions as to what they might enjoy, as well.

[Scott34787]

 

I think the concensus is that Disney's program isn't as structured as Carnival or RCI...and kids seem to prefer the structure more than Disney's "do your own thing" method.

 

I can tell you our son prefers Camp Carnival over

the Disney kids programs.

 

I used to work in a club that had a couple Disney

Cruise execs as members and they REFUSED to

believe me. :)

[tanyaewa]

Well that is good news. My boys really aren't impressed with the Disney clubs. But, in all honestly there was so much else for them to do we had a great time without it.

[DanJ]

While it might be a good suggestion to go to the orientation on the first night, honestly it's not something to panic about if you miss it. We didn't go on the Pride because it was during dinner, and the kids got along fine after going the next day for the first time. There were over 800 "under 18's" on that cruise, and there will likely be that many or more on a Thanksgiving cruise, so I think as long as the kids don't mind interacting, there will be no shortage of kids to meet and hang with.

[reeree313]

My kids are 10, 7 & 5 (boy, boy & girl respectively). I have already enrolled them in Camp Carnival so I know they will meet kids their own age there but beyond that is there any group activities you would recommend to allow kids to meet kids and perhaps make friends? The only reason I ask is because we did a Disney Cruise last January and while we really enjoyed it my kids did not like the kid programs which meant mom and dad were on call 24/7. While I love my kids and do plan on spending the majority of the cruise with them it sure would be fun if they could meet some kids their own age, go to some of the kid activities and allow mom and dad to have to some time to unwind. Thoughts?

 

Hey there! My family is on this cruise too! My son, 16 and his friend, 17 will be on there as well as my 10 year old daughter. She usually doesn't care too much for Camp Carnival but I am hoping that she finds some friends also....we should introduce them :)

[ShakyBeef]

Ummm, my post was done with tongue in cheek.:rolleyes: Geez, lighten up. Apparently there's no room on here for a little humor.

 

In that case, I sincerely apologise. It seemed to me to be more of the "child hating" that goes on too much on these boards. I hate to see kids running amok, but also hate to see innocent parents jumped on around here for simply discussing children cruising, as if we all have out-of-control brats. I am sorry I read your post to be one of those. I guess I was a little overly sensitive.:o

[timcar]

Ummm, my post was done with tongue in cheek.:rolleyes: Geez, lighten up. Apparently there's no room on here for a little humor.

 

I got it and gave a little chuckle when I read your post.:cool: