Not sure about taking your toddlers or young kids on a cruise? Here are some tips for a cruise with kids… I say go for it!

Tips for a Cruise Vacation with Young Kids. Not sure about taking your toddlers or young kids on a cruise? Here are some tips for traveling on a cruise with kids. Travel blogger review of Carnival.

A cruise with kids is super fun!

We love to travel as a family, but sometimes it’s just NOT fun with small kids. I recently wrote my 5 reasons for wanting to cruise again with Carnival. Today, I want to talk about my FAVORITE reason for wanting to cruise with kids again.

Two words… CAMP CARNIVAL! ha!

Let me tell you a little secret, my kids are CRAZY! I have a 7 year old son and daughter who just turned 4 years old that I really don’t enjoy taking anywhere for long periods of time. They are wonderful and so well behaved when there is just ONE, but put them both together and it’s crazy town.

I had NEVER considered going on a cruise for vacation, because I could not imagine being stuck on a ship in a tiny room with my little kids who leave tornados in their path. No way, no how! Then Carnival called. So we packed up our bags and so happy we did!!

Here are some reasons we loved taking our cruise with kids on our latest Carnival vacation…

Camp Carnival

Camp Carnival is where kids ages 2-11 get to play and have fun while the parents get some much needed adult time! When we first arrived on the ship there was an orientation where they talked about all the activities and introduced us to the ship’s mascot Freddie!!

Tips for a Cruise Vacation with Young Kids. Not sure about taking your toddlers or young kids on a cruise? Here are some tips for traveling on a cruise with kids. Travel blogger review of Carnival.

I was pretty impressed with the list of activities for the kids! They make it super easy to cruise with kids.

There was even late night parties if parents wanted to stay out past 10 p.m. Everything sounded great, but would my kids enjoy it?

Tips for a Cruise Vacation with Young Kids. Not sure about taking your toddlers or young kids on a cruise? Here are some tips for traveling on a cruise with kids. Travel blogger review of Camp Carnival.

The first day was rough in the younger class because kids just weren’t used to the new place and there were some little ones missing their mommies. But from what I could tell, the workers were doing a great job of trying to make everyone happy and when I returned to get my daughter… there were only smiles on the kid’s faces.

Freddie’s birthday was the same day as my daughter’s!! They had a big celebration and when I picked her up, this is what I found…

Tips for a Cruise Vacation with Young Kids. Not sure about taking your toddlers or young kids on a cruise? Here are some tips for traveling on a cruise with kids. Travel blogger review of Carnival.

From then on, all this little girl talked about was “CAMP CARNIVAL!” Everywhere we went she would sing songs about going to Camp Carnival. All around the ship, she would see her new friends from her class and be so happy!

Tips for a Cruise Vacation with Young Kids. Not sure about taking your toddlers or young kids on a cruise? Here are some tips for traveling on a cruise with kids. Travel blogger review of Carnival.

If you don’t believe me, watch this video. I stopped on the street in Grand Cayman to listen to her babble about Camp Carnival. The girl would not stop talking about it. Ha!

My son who does NOT like new places or pretty much anything new at all, even had a great time.

He made a few friends, got to do science experiments, play mini golf, color a t-shirt, watch movies, do more crafts and play his favorite video games during free time. The only thing he cried about was not getting to stay up for the late night party!

Tips for a Cruise Vacation with Young Kids. Not sure about taking your toddlers or young kids on a cruise? Here are some tips for traveling on a cruise with kids. Travel blogger review of Carnival.

By the end of the trip, we were taking the kids to Camp Carnival for dinner so we could enjoy date nights. I don’t know why we didn’t do that every night?? From 6 – 10 pm they would feed and entertain your kids.

It was wonderful to have that time which we would never have had if we had gone on another trip. They even took the 6-11 year olds to a show one evening. My husband and I had so much fun on our date nights… it was fantastic!! Camp Carnival rocks!!

More kid fun on the cruise!

When not in Camp Carnival or at port we enjoyed playing around the cruise ship.

Tips for a Cruise Vacation with Young Kids. Travel blogger review of Carnival.

My kids get up early, so they would swim right after or while we were having breakfast on deck. Morning is a great time on deck, because you have the whole place to yourself!

Tips for a Cruise Vacation with Young Kids. Travel blogger review of Carnival.

I found a kiddie pool totally enclosed up by Camp Carnival. I enjoyed relaxing on deck while my daughter swam. Rarely ever was there anyone else up there but us! It was really nice and windy too… a great break from the heat.

Tips for a Cruise Vacation with Young Kids. Kiddie pool on Carnival Ship. Travel blogger review of Carnival.

It’s such a fun place to be!

Tips for a Cruise Vacation with Young Kids. Put put golf. Travel blogger review of Carnival.

Tips for a Cruise Vacation with Young Kids. Waterslide on Carnival Cruise Ship. Travel blogger review of Carnival.

Tips for a Cruise Vacation with Young Kids. Games on Carnival Cruise Ship. Travel blogger review of Carnival.

We loved movie nights on deck! Great for any age:-)

Tips for a Cruise Vacation with Young Kids. Outdoor Movie Night on Carnival Cruise Ship. Travel blogger review of Carnival.

Really, my kids are easy to please. Just give them bunk beds and they are happy! ha.

Tips for a Cruise Vacation with Young Kids. Travel blogger review of Carnival.

If you have little kids, I highly recommend a Carnival vacation because it’s just so much fun for the kids and I felt totally at ease while they were in camp.

For those of you with pre-teens and teens… a cruise would be a wonderful trip!! Not only are they the perfect age for all of the fun shore excursions, but there is also a lot going on the ship for them as well. I was sad to find out the Michael Jackson thriller dance lesson was for only for teens. Heck, I could have taught that one! ha.

One evening we went to the “Battle of the Sexes”, a game between men and women. It totally reminded me of church camp! Lots of teens were getting in on that fun. I even learned to spell Carnival Conquest with my butt! Yes… that was one of the challenges. LOL! They made the team captains turn around and move their butts to the shape of the letters. It was hilarious! Oh, the things you learn on a cruise:-)

Of course there is a lot more fun than just being on the ship, so I will tell you all about our shore excursions tomorrow! We visited some beautiful places!!

Follow Carnival for the latest news and discounts:

  • Carnival on Twitter @CarnivalCruise
  • Join them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/carnival
  • Funville – Carnival’s online community- offers blogs from cruise directors, videos and pictures and message boards.

 

You might also love these travel tips for first time cruise vacation!

Everything you will want to know before going on a cruise.

15 Cruise Vacation Tips! Great insider travel tips for first time cruisers. Everything you need to know before going on a cruise vacation. LivingLocurto.com

Disclosure: This seven day cruise was paid for by Carnival as a part of their Brand Ambassador program.  All opinions and photos about the trip are my own.

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12 Comments

  1. YEY! I’ve been on 4 Carnival cruises & had the SAME experience! My kids are older pre-teen & teen AND Carnival Camp for the older kids is the same! It is safe. And I like that security is monitoring the ship at all times.
    We LOVE cruising with Carnival!! 🙂 Can’t wait for the Galvaston ships to be upgraded & more balconies to be available! And we loved Dream & Magic will be SO AWESOME!!

  2. SOLD! I wanna go on a Carnival Cruise!

    (this coming from ME, who is scared of deep water, and has never been on or wanted to go on a cruise. your review makes it sound way more fun than i ever imagined- and a lot less “seasick on the deck”- for us AND the kids!)

    Thanks for your pictures and all the info about the cruise line. I’m following Carnival now! 🙂

  3. Thanks for posting about your trip! I am a long time reader of your blog but I don’t think I’ve ever commented. I am attracted to Carnival cruisers but always thought they were more for older people even if their ads didn’t seem like it. Great that they are letting you experience it and talk to us about it. I really trust your opinions more than any other ad or commercial. Thanks again!!!!

  4. This looks fantastic, and would be so easy for us to cruise out of Galveston. Can you tell me what kind of room you booked to have the bunk bed set up? Thanks!

  5. I totally want to take my kids on a cruise now! For some reason I think alot of people have the misconception that you can only take kids on Disney cruises (which cost an arm and a leg!) Thanks for the review, maybe I should start looking…btw lovin’ the big pink sunglasses!

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