Thinking about a Carnival cruise....

[NYCruiseMom]

Hi...we sailed in May on Disney and loved it. I have a 4 day Disney cruise booked now for January, but I've been looking around and see that I can do a 7 day Carnival for the same price as the 4 day.

 

I have two boys, 10 and 8. We are traveling with my friend and her daughter who is also 8. Has anyone been able to "up" a child into a higher age group for the kids club on Carnival? Disney let my then 7 1/2 year old be with his 9 year old brother in the club, no problem.

 

Also, is one ship better than another for kids? I'd like to do the Western Caribbean, but Eastern is doable also.

 

Finally...will we be disappointed in a Carnival cruise after having just done Disney?

[bethm214]

I was not dissappointed after doing a disney....just was prepared for it to be different. Most programs will not allow a child to age up (and in my opinion, i don't think they should). It is possible to age down. I would not want my 11 year old 'bothered' by someone's little sister (unless he wanted to be) since I am not expecting it to be that way. That is why they have age appropriate groupings. The activities are geared to a certain age/grade level and shouldn't have to be altered for younger children. I am experiencing this problem right now at Y camp. My son's 11 year old group has younger siblings with them (supposedly not allowed) and the group has now been prohibited from playing games he loves because 'someone' might get hurt. The hardest part is that the brother that is PJ's age is really great to be around and PJ really likes him a lot...but he can't get any time to have fun with just him at camp.

The Disney cruises are so so expensive now. I would rather take a longer trip on a Carnival than a shorter one on Disney.

[Crichard]

The age groups are 9-11, so all your kids would fall into the same group. If your 8 yr. old is not 9 by the time you leave, explain that they all want to be together. A lot of times the 6-8yr. olds were near the 9-11 so it should not matter. We just returned from the Conquest and our 10 and 13 year old are looking to go again. Although we have never cruised Disney, we usually go every summer. This trip was great. We didn't plan on being in the room much, so we got a room with just a window. It was great, the kids loved sitting on the window ledge and we didn't have to worry about them falling off. Plus, with the money we saved, we were able to do more expensive things like swim with the dolphins. Take a look at the Conquest, it is really nice.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Cathy

[valentina1209]

My 12 & 10 year old children had a MUCH better time on RCCL's Voyager ships than on Carnival. We were EXTREMELY disappointed in our Miracle cruise - there was simply no comparison. There was so much more to do on the Voyager-class ships, service was far superior, the kids club was more active and utilized, and most important, those ships were large enough to handle the amount of people aboard, where on Miracle it was claustrophobically crowded.

[cruisinqt]

Actually Valentina isn't comparing apples to apples. The Carnival Miracle is in a smaller class of ships than the voyager class with RCI. If you want to compare the cruise lines fairly, then you need to talk to someone that has went on RCI's voyager class and Carnival's conquest class. Both of these classes of ships are comparable in size. I have went on both the voyager and conquest class and each cruise line had it's good points.

 

On RCI, the kids get an ocean adventure dollar every time they go to the kids program. At the end of the cruise, the kids get to buy lots of neat stuff with their ocean adventure dollars. My kids bought t-shirts and stuffed octopusses named "Inky" and "Stinky." That is one of their favorite things about cruising with RCI. The kids program is very good. We really enjoyed the food and especially the pool area in the solarium.

 

On Carnival, the cruise ships have a 214 foot spiral slide that is just awesome! We can't hardly get our kids off of it. And the kids program has an outdoor play area with a small pool. Most cruises don't have that in their kids area and our kids liked it a lot. My kids like the children's program on Carnival a lot. The food is just as good as RCI's, but I have to say I thought that Carnivals shows were better.

 

I agree with the earlier suggestion to look at the Conquest out of New Orleans. The Conquest has a place called "Action Alley" that the kids really like. It's a kids recreation area that has a large arcade with a jukebox. It even has virtual reality games and a smoothie bar. Your kids are old enough to really enjoy a place like that. You can even rent a gameboy 2 for the week if you really want to make them happy.

 

The age groups for cruising on these ships are: 3-5 yr. olds, 6-8 yr. olds, 9-12 yr. olds, and 13-15 yr. olds. The cruise ships have let my older child be in the younger group with a sibling. But they have always refused to let the younger one go up to the older kids groups. I guess the older kids fuss about having a younger kid around them. And our children are only one year apart.

 

The child care is free all day long. After ten p.m. you are charged $6 for the first child and $4 for each additional child per hour. If you want to go ashore without the kids that can be done without any additional charge. If you want to dine alone, they will take your children to dinner for no additonal charge. And the instructors are college educated teachers. I have found the child care and kids programs at both RCI and Carnival to be very good. Our kids always look forward to cruising and the fun they will have at the kids program.

[cruisegirl1990]

I actually liked the Carnival cruise better. They let you age down, I know that. So if thats what you're worried about, it shouldn't be a problem. Just explain the reason.

[NYCruiseMom]

How's the overall "atmosphere" on board a Carnival ship? I think of Carnival and think "party ship", young singles or couples...lots of drinking and partying. Which is fine...but I know that they have these 'fun ships' now, too. The fun ships are geared more towards families, am I right?? As we're vactioning with the kids I'd rather not have the kids around crazy partying people all week! LOL!

[dms_cruisers04]

NYCMom, the longer cruises and cruises on the newer ships tend to be more family and "older" crowd. The short cruises tend to be the younger, colleged-aged party cruises.

We've enjoyed our 3 western cruises, but we really enjoy Cozumel. Didn't care for Ocho Rios. And sometimes Grand Cayman is just too short a stop. Will be doing a eastern in Sept, so can't say on that yet.

On a funny, financial, note, we were just speaking with friends yesterday about a Disney land and sea package they are looking into (we're doing Disney in Oct), and in checking prices, they (it's just the two of them) could get a suite on Carnival for what they'll being paying for an inside cabin on Disney in April.

I think you'll all enjoy Carnival.

[SoccerMom#3]

NYC Mom, I had the same fear as you mentioned. I thought Carnival was just full of wild folks partying all of the time. We were on the Carnival Pride earlier this month with my kids who are 13 and 14 and boy was I wrong about Carnival. It was so family friendly. There were tons of kids of all ages but I never saw out of control kids. Lots of multigenerational families too. I would sale Carinval again in a heartbeat.

 

Elise

[NYCruiseMom]

Thank you!!!! I feel better. Whew!! :) I know cruising Disney is expensive, we did the 7 day Eastern in May and I could do two Carnivals for what we paid! LOL! But, it was completely worth it, IMO. The kids were happy, they were kept busy, and my husband and I got to actually relax on this vacation.

 

I'm going to start doing some pricing now...is there a big difference, pricewise, between Carnival and RCCL??

 

Thanks again everyone for helping!! :)

[serene56]

I am sure that if the cruise lines moved your younger up with their sibling you would think twice. That age group can sign themselves in and out of the camp.

Disney allows 7 years old to be with the 9 year olds?? Maybe their age program is differnt. Carnival the 9-12 is a group and the 6-8 is another.

 

I found that when I cruised on the VOyager it was cheaper then a carnival cruise for that particular week. Mostly Royal costs a some more then carnival.

[TomD]

We took our 10 and 14 year-olds on the Carnival Conquest. The 10 year old daughter didn't need her brother. She was making new friends every day. She would plan out her entire itineray for the next day when the paper came in the evening before. Our 14 year old son discovered that most of his group was 12, not 14 or 15. Toward the end of the week, he started mingling with the 16 and older group and felt like he belonged more with them.

You probably won't need to group them together. Let them do that outside of the Carnival Kids Club.

[NYCruiseMom]

I am sure that if the cruise lines moved your younger up with their sibling you would think twice. That age group can sign themselves in and out of the camp.

Disney allows 7 years old to be with the 9 year olds?? Maybe their age program is differnt. Carnival the 9-12 is a group and the 6-8 is another.

 

I found that when I cruised on the VOyager it was cheaper then a carnival cruise for that particular week. Mostly Royal costs a some more then carnival.

 

Disney groups the kids in the Labs in 5-7, 8-9, 10-12 year olds. So, since my son was/is a mature 7 1/2 year old they did let him move up to the 8-9 year old group and he was fine. :)

 

I really don't want the younger one being separated from his brother and my girlfriend's daughter who are traveling with us, both of whom will be 10. I know what will happen...he'll feel left out and won't want to go to the clubs, leaving me with not such a relaxing vacation!! :p I was really wondering if the 9-12 group is then further broken down...do the 9 year olds really do activities with the 12 year olds?? The youngest will be almost 8 1/2, I think he'd be fine with 9-10 year olds, since that's who he hangs out with 99% of the time here anyway!

 

This is gonna be a tough decision. Thanks for all the input!!

[serene56]

Its really not a decision you have to make- On carnival the age groups are set depending on the age of the child on date of sailing. What can happen is you put your child in his age group- if he is bored then he has to let the counselors know and its up to them if he can be moved up. Ther will be no poblem with moving the older kids down to his age group. But moving the older kids down to the younger group - they may be bored.

 

The whole groups do things as a group so the 9 year olds do the same thing together with the 12 year olds. (this group can sign themselves in and out of the program) dont know if you want your 8 year old to have that authority)

The first night of the cruise thre will be a family meeting where all the kids get together and meet up. I am sure your younger will find tons of kids to hang out with.

here is a site that has some camp activities posted. Hope it helps.

http://www.webshots.com/search?query=carnival+camp+capers&new=1

[Quaker Gal]

We went on RCCL's Legend of the Seas ship for a 10 day cruise to Hawaii at the end of April. My brother-in-law ® and sister-in-law (A) also went with me and my husband. This was our first cruise, while it was the 2nd and 3rd for ® and (A). They had only cruised on Carnival. (A) kept comparing RCCL to Carnival. ® and (A) were very disappointed with RCCL. Me and my husband were very satisfied and look forward to when we can book another cruise. (A) proposed a cruise in September 2005 with us, but we have to book it on Carnival. I would like to know if anyone else has done the two different cruise lines and what your opinions are. The reason I posted here is because ® and (A) have a son who will be not quite 5 at the time of the cruise. (A) mentioned Camp Carnival for kids, but I don't think he'll be there all day. I don't mean to sound selfish because he is my nephew and I love him, but we're going on the cruise to relax and have a good time. I'm not sure I'll have a good time with a 5 year old around (been there, done that). Okay, let me have it for dissing the nephew.