Questions about camp on Carnival

[deladane]

This will be my first cruise with a child.  He will be 2 and a half years old during the cruise, and we plan to enroll him in Camp Ocean.  He is in daycare M-F for 9 hours a day at home and he loves it, so I think he will love it on the cruise as well (fingers crossed!!)  Just had a few questions for parents who have put their 2 year olds in camp on Carnival...

 

1) It looks like they offer lunch at noon every day in the Lido buffet.  Do they get the food and serve it to kids in this age group?  He does well with feeding himself, but obviously a 2 year old cannot serve himself from a buffet. He loves pizza, chicken nuggets, and fries, so I'm sure he'll be happy with whatever they are serving, but we would need the counselors to put it in front of him on a plate.  Also, when we drop him off that morning, do they know what will be served for lunch so we can pick what they serve him (so we can pick things we know he likes to avoid a toddler meltdown if they serve him something he hasn't been exposed to before.)?

 

2) Carnival has the option to leave kids in camp while the parents go ashore to explore a port.  We are planning to take our son ashore with us as much as possible... This is our first vacation as a family of 3 and of course we want to include our son as much as we can, and we are picking child-friendly activities in most ports.  There is one excursion that we are considering which is not toddler friendly, so we would need to leave him at camp that day.  It's only a 3 hour excursion in the morning so we would be back on board way before sail away (we are in port for 9 hours that day).  With this in mind, I was curious if any parents can share their experiences in leaving their toddlers in Camp Ocean while they go ashore?   Are there any logistics or advice we should consider?

Edited July 15, 2023 by deladane

[kitkat343]

6 hours ago, deladane said:

This will be my first cruise with a child.  He will be 2 and a half years old during the cruise, and we plan to enroll him in Camp Ocean.  He is in daycare M-F for 9 hours a day at home and he loves it, so I think he will love it on the cruise as well (fingers crossed!!)  Just had a few questions for parents who have put their 2 year olds in camp on Carnival...

 

1) It looks like they offer lunch at noon every day in the Lido buffet.  Do they get the food and serve it to kids in this age group?  He does well with feeding himself, but obviously a 2 year old cannot serve himself from a buffet. He loves pizza, chicken nuggets, and fries, so I'm sure he'll be happy with whatever they are serving, but we would need the counselors to put it in front of him on a plate.  Also, when we drop him off that morning, do they know what will be served for lunch so we can pick what they serve him (so we can pick things we know he likes to avoid a toddler meltdown if they serve him something he hasn't been exposed to before.)?

 

2) Carnival has the option to leave kids in camp while the parents go ashore to explore a port.  We are planning to take our son ashore with us as much as possible... This is our first vacation as a family of 3 and of course we want to include our son as much as we can, and we are picking child-friendly activities in most ports.  There is one excursion that we are considering which is not toddler friendly, so we would need to leave him at camp that day.  It's only a 3 hour excursion in the morning so we would be back on board way before sail away (we are in port for 9 hours that day).  With this in mind, I was curious if any parents can share their experiences in leaving their toddlers in Camp Ocean while they go ashore?   Are there any logistics or advice we should consider?

Cruising is a wonderful way to travel with kids.   We haven't sailed Carnival with kids so I can't answer those questions, but I would recommend strongly that if you are exploring ports (as opposed to just going to the beach) to consider finding private  tours for just your family if you can afford them.  If you can't afford a private tour, a private small group tour is still usually a better choice than a ship tour  because there are fewer people to wait for and load onto buses, and less time waiting around. Private small group tours are still cheaper than ship tours.  Private tours for just your family are sometimes the same price as a ship tour - shockingly it was much cheaper for us in St. Petersburg because our child was free on our tour, so for some crazy reason it would have been more expensive for us to take a ship tour there. 

 

With private tours for just our family, we were able to create custom tours that made our children happy.  The port you want to leave your child behind at might be too far or too adventurous for a child, but you might want to consider if a private tour would make that tour manageable (it depends on the kids temperament and what you are doing of course).  With a private tour, we were able to visit everything our child liked and stay longer when he was happy, and that had a lot to do with the travel working out well for our family.  

 

I'd also recommend on your first day to go to the buffet and get fruit, yogurt and bring ziplock bags to take cereal back to the room so you have food on hand.  Most cruise lines stopped giving out boxes of cereal which you could take off the ship, so please make sure you have something that works as a snack (once I brought pancakes intending to feed stray cats in San Juan, but my husband's friend picked this crazy restaurant where we waited an hour for 3 small appetizers and the kids ate the pancakes and I was really glad I had them since it saved me the embarassment of needing to take my kids our of a restaurant my husband's friend picked to bring them somewhere else to feed them.  Giving kids treats can avert a meltdown on a tour, so that's something nice to get at the buffet.  But please don't bring fruit off the ship or unsealed food so you might need to prepack some snacks for excursions.  

 

If you tell us your itinerary, people may also have suggestions as to what to do or where to eat.

Edited July 15, 2023 by kitkat343

[serene56]

What you are describing lunch is port days.  On sea days the  camps is not opened for lunch or dinner time. Very different from a port day.    

[gluecksbaer]

I would recommend bringing pre-packaged snacks for port days.  Fruit is especially problematic but sealed packages are more likely to be allowed off the ship than even other snacks in baggies.

I agree with bringing baggies and saving some snacks for later on the ship too.   Littles frequently need snacks and you don't want to be searching out something he likes/wants between meals.

[deladane]

Thanks for your replies!

 

Since we are driving to the cruise, I plan to bring all of his favorite pre-packaged snacks for port days (pouches, granola bars, etc.).  

 

My lunch question was about the port day when we are considering leaving our son on the ship during our adults-only excursion. 

 

We will be sailing on the Carnival Panorama on the 8-day Mexican Riviera itinerary.  We are all set on DIY excursions for most of the ports, but La Paz is kind of hard for me to find something that works for the toddler because I really want to go snorkeling with whale sharks, but I wouldn't feel safe having my 2 year old on that small boat, even if my husband and I took turns going in the water.   

[soozles]

My kids have been in daycare/preschool since they were a year old. They love going to school.  They both refused to go to camp, would cry bloody murder until we picked them up. Wed try to leave them and then get a call 15 minutes later to pick them up. So I hope he’ll like it, but don’t assume… and that’s also why I’d be cautious leaving him onboard while you go on a shore excursion until you know how he’ll like it. 

[deladane]

4 hours ago, soozles said:

My kids have been in daycare/preschool since they were a year old. They love going to school.  They both refused to go to camp, would cry bloody murder until we picked them up. Wed try to leave them and then get a call 15 minutes later to pick them up. So I hope he’ll like it, but don’t assume… and that’s also why I’d be cautious leaving him onboard while you go on a shore excursion until you know how he’ll like it. 

 

Yes, I did think about that.  I am trying to find an excursion with a good cancellation policy.  Ideally, I will drop him at camp for short periods of time on the first few days of the cruise to see how he likes it.  If he hates camp, then I would cancel the excursion and go with plan B (maybe just go to the beach?  Definitely not as appealing as plan A!). 

[kitkat343]

5 hours ago, deladane said:

 

Yes, I did think about that.  I am trying to find an excursion with a good cancellation policy.  Ideally, I will drop him at camp for short periods of time on the first few days of the cruise to see how he likes it.  If he hates camp, then I would cancel the excursion and go with plan B (maybe just go to the beach?  Definitely not as appealing as plan A!). 

This plan sounds perfect.  I hope it all works out.  It really depends on the kid - one of mine was totally fine in the kids club at 2, another was a bit shier at that age.  You'll know early in the cruise and be able to find something that works.