Tell me about the Camp Carnival Scavenger hunt...

[MaiTaiMary]

My oldest just turned 10 years old. I keep hearing how much fun the Scavenger Hunt is for this age group. But this requires them leaving CC on their own and wandering the ship without an adult, right? :( I'm just not sure I'm comfortable with that. What kind of things do they look for? Any idea how long they are out & about? Do they buddy up with a partner? If we opt out of this, will she still be able to stay at CC and do something else or will I need to pick her up?

 

Thanks. :)

[uncleg]

All I know is they travel in small teams, I am not comfortable with it myself and it has been concern of mine because my niece wants me to take her on a cruise, she is 11.

[sailor_jimc]

They don't send them off by themselves. They team up with 3 or 4 others. Normally they are asked to find various things on the ship. Like a picture of this or that, a statue etc.. sometimes they are asked to take a picture of it. I have no idea what they would have available for the children that did not want to do the activity. I would think they would still be have someone in camp to supervise them. All the kids I see doing the hunt seem to be having a good time.

[riffatsea]

There are group teams looking for the items on the ship.

It is hard for me to understand why someone would worry about their child doing this activity? The children have a purpose, they stay together, and then they return to camp to report what they have found.

It sounds like a fun time! What is the problem you foresee??

[sapphiregem]

This actually does sound fun...Do they offer it for the Circle C group as well?? If it is a group activity children are more likely to stay with their group to find the items and race back to Camp simply because, and I assume here, there is a prize to be had for the first back. I would be totally comfortable when I go on my cruise this summer for my 10 yr old to do this in a small group. Im just hoping the 12 yr old has something similar as she would love it!!

[MaiTaiMary]

It is hard for me to understand why someone would worry about their child doing this activity? The children have a purpose, they stay together, and then they return to camp to report what they have found.

It sounds like a fun time! What is the problem you foresee??

 

I don't think my daughter would be comfortable if she got separated from her group and was all alone on the ship. She is shy and would be uncomfortable asking an adult or crew member for help.

[heckmanland]

When my daughter was that age we did not allow her to leave CC without being signed out by myself or husband. With that she was not allowed to go on the scavenger hunt but YES she was allowed to stay and they had other things planned for the kids who stayed. I totally understand your concerns. Not all parents want to let a 9or 10 yr old loose on the ship. Some parents do and I think it is totally a family decision.

 

 

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[Noremacc]

My son just did it with the 12-14 year old group and he had a blast. One of the things they were to do was to find out the Captains name, so they went up to a Carnival Employee they saw and asked what the Captain's name was, and they were told Captain Morgan. The kids knew that wasn't the right answer, but everyone got a good laugh out of it.

Edited September 11, 2014 by Noremacc

[Athankfulheart]

Circle C had several scavenger hunts on the Dream in January. I had a child in that age group who enjoyed it very much. I also had a child in the 9-11 group (10yo girl) and she was not able to sign in/out. While she is a pretty responsible child, I was not comfortable with this. What we did was we had our teenagers as well as the 10yo join the "all passengers" digital scavenger hunt. My group of kids wound up too big for one group so another mom and her son joined some of my kids ( I had 6 of my kids plus a few friends and the group limit is 6) . Everyone had a good time and it was a great family activity. Everyone got to do a hunt and my 10yo never missed not doing the one at camp. One of our groups won the hunt and took home a coveted ship on a stick.

[Cruiserpkg]

My 10 year old son loved the scavenger hunts. At first I had it so that he was not allowed to sign himself in or out, because I had concerns. After a further discussion with my son we set some rules for him and he followed them and had a blast. He was only allowed to sign himself out for hunts, he was told to stay with his group, and I told him that he was NOT to run or to play in the elevators. We always went to "pick him up" after the activities and he got to participate with his new friends.

[MaiTaiMary]

What we did was we had our teenagers as well as the 10yo join the "all passengers" digital scavenger hunt.

 

Oh, tell me more about this! :D

 

There are some many little things I want to do, I'm afraid I'm going to miss something! LOL

 

:D

[Rowan555]

Our kids did the scavenger hunts from age 9 up and loved them. We never felt they were in any sort of danger, and it really added to the fun they had on their cruises. There are different scavenger hunts each day, so your child will miss out on quite a bit if they can't participate. Depending how many kids are on board, they may or may not be bored if they have to stay in the camp room. There are often no/few kids left in Camp Carnival during the scavenger hunts if you cruise when school is in session. They are required to stay with their partners at all times, and they return to camp as soon as the hunt is completed. There is a time limit, so they're not just wandering the ship for hours on their own. Our kids had a blast with these, and I'm glad we allowed them to do it.

 

If you cruise a lot, this is a good first step towards your kids having a bit of "freedom of movement" around the ship. By the time our kids were 10/11, we allowed them to go to Waterworks together, without us, to go on ice cream runs, etc - as long as they stayed together. Now they are 13 and 15, and on their 21st cruise coming up this weekend they are comfortable enough with the ship layouts and we are secure enough in their ability to follow the rules that they will have quite a bit of freedom throughout the cruise. Giving kids that little bit of leeway early on really helps them establish independence and build trust, IMO.

[MaiTaiMary]

If you cruise a lot, this is a good first step towards your kids having a bit of "freedom of movement" around the ship.

 

Good point. I hadn't looked at it this way. Honestly, it's more of my daughter's comfort level with this, than mine. I'm sure she will want to, but if for some reason she gets separated from her group/partner I think she would freak out a bit.

 

 

Now they are 13 and 15, and on their 21st cruise coming up this weekend....

 

Adopt me??

[Rowan555]

Think about it this way - it's possible for your daughter to get separated from YOU at some point on a cruise - we've had this happen with our own kids. The scavenger hunt is a great way for her to establish some comfort and familiarity of the ship with other kids, which will only benefit her if she *was to get lost at some point. I'll say the kids are very good about staying together on the hunts because if they don't, they can't win the game!

 

When we cruise with kids who have never been on a ship before, on embarkation day after lunch we give them a "tour" of the ship, with an emphasis on how to get from commonly used areas (camp, lido buffet, arcade) back to the stateroom, as well as back to the guest services area, where we tell them to go immediately if they are in trouble or lost and need help.

[heckmanland]

Another idea with kids is walkie talkies. We have cruised with our DD every year. Once she was old enough to have more freedom coming and going from CC or lido or whatever activity was going on for her age at that time. She and I each carry one. Yes I know she is generally in a loud area and cannot hear it but she has rules that if she is leaving an area she has to radio us and tell us where she is going. That way if she cannot hear us we always know where to go find her. She is 15 now and we have been using this for about five years now. This helped us and her since they do leave CC at that age because when she was 9 and 10 we did not let her sign out but decided the next year we wanted to allow her that new responsibility. But I totally agree with others that take them on a tour of the ship so they know where important areas are located. We plan on using them again this thanksgiving when we go.

 

 

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[amyh13]

My son will be 9 on our next cruise and I have been worried about this too. Only because the boy has NO sense of direction. We were with another family on our last cruise (Disney) and they gave their son check-in/check out privileges. He could leave the dining room, go up 2 decks and check himself in. So I was feeling guilty. We were leaving our room and I asked my son to lead me to the club. We were on the SAME DECK as the club and he had no idea how to get there. He's a smart kid, with no navigation skills. If he got separated, he would have no idea where to go.

[jma624]

I recently took my 9yo GS on the pride, and I was concerned about the scavenger hunt for a different reason. There were a lot of kids on this cruise and they were very rambunctious. Around the pool, they were playing very roughly, running, pushing, pulling / dunking. My GS likes to play rough, and I had to remind him (and his playmates, since their parents were not around for the most part) that this was not ok around a crowded pool. At one point I got the kids to agree to play “tag” – so that if they tagged someone they would have to jump in rather than being pushed.

Eventually, someone in uniform came and told the kids they weren’t to run or jump at all.

 

Back to the point – I was worried that the boys would disturb other passengers if they were let loose on the ship on groups for the scavenger hunt. As it turned out, it wasn’t one of the camp activities he chose to participate in anyway. And a few of the groups I did notice about the ships were kind of rowdy.