Camp Carnival for 8 year old girl

[excitedcruiser]

This is our 4th cruise but the 1st cruise for our 8 year old DD. She is nervous about Camp Carnival and I don't have much information to offer her. What age group will she be in? What activities do they usually do? Is it a 24 hour thing? Any information about Camp Carnival will help. Thanks.

[nybumpkin]

She'll be in the 6-8 group. My middle son (then 8) was in this group on his first cruise and had a great time. Camp Carnival operates at designated hours - usually 9-12 in the morning, 2-4 in the afternoon, and then evenings until 10. After 10, babysitting in Camp Carnival is available at $6 per hour. Except the first and last nights, there's usually a Camp Carnival dinner in the Lido restaurant as well (my kids alternate nights in the dining room and nights with Camp Carnival), and there are also family activities like cookie decorating, talent shows, and sundaes.

 

The first night, go to the Camp Carnival orientation; they'll introduce the counselors and tell you a little about the activities. There's also a Capers for each age group in Camp Carnival to give you the activities schedule. They have arts and crafts, movies, games, exercise, etc. Your daughter can participate in as much or as little of Camp Carnival as she wants. I've generally been very pleased with the activities they've offered, and my kids really look forward to meeting new kids.

 

I'd strongly recommend the early seating for dinner; most of the Camp Carnival activities are structured around that time.

 

Hope this helps - Have a great cruise!

[excitedcruiser]

Thanks so much for the information. She is looking forward to it. Not to worried about the dinner times. We never eat in the dining rooms. The lido buffet works for us.

[JunieBJones]

We did not care for Camp Carnival much. Two daughters age 9 and 12 at the time (barely, both bdays were the week of the cruise, so more like 10 and 13) and altho there were only a handful of kids, they made our youngest stay with the very young aged kids - younger, and our immature 12 year old (ie not into fashion, boys, gossip, cell phones or any of that) was to go with the teens, which was NOT what we wanted.

 

We asked them if they could be in the same group as there were so few kids and were told no. We spoke to the person in charge, NO. A firm NO.

 

Now here is the dilemma, we had one child with activities most of the day and night and the other - well none started til mid-day, so here is this 12 yr old having to hang around mom and dad most of the time! The teen disco had just two kids there.

 

It DID NOT WORK OUT AT ALL. We pulled the youngest and then they could spend time together - like the family that we are. The pool was open to them BOTH, not just the younger at certain times.

 

If it is a single child, or two in the same age group then GO FOR IT!

[PelicanBill]

Well sorry to hear that but I think that bad arrangement is a rare situation... must have been too few kids onboard to operate the normal age groups.

 

Most of the time they are in suitable groups. Even during late night when our 7 year old had to combine with the next older group, they ran several activities so there was something she wanted to do. If they are not running activities your child(ren) like, say something about it, and I bet they will try hard to accomodate.

 

If you want your vacation to be the adults and kids together then do that... no problem. But don't insist your kids need to be together out of their age groups... that creates difficulty for the camp managers. The staffing is planned around the numbers and ages of kids that are on each cruise. Your kids will have a ball 99% of the time... tons of posts on cruise critic will demonstrate that. I see real issues maybe 1 in a hundred.

[LHP]

Our boys have grown up in Camp Carnival since 1998 (they are now 19 and 15). On all of the 16 different cruises they have been on, Camp Carnival has always been excellent. Our youngest son is a special needs child and the staff have gone out of their way to make sure he was well cared for.

 

The oldest is now to old for Camp Carnival, but the youngest still loves Club O2 and is looking forward to August as much as we are.

 

Just follow her lead. Let her decide what she is comfortable with. You can pick and choose which activities she wants to participate in. They will give you a Caper for the entire cruise that will list her activities.

 

Have a great cruise!!