Kids on cruises, kids club, your experiences

crabby apple · #1 (**permalink**) November 29th, 2008, 08:13 AM

Our last cruise, our son tried out the kids club, and we found that the people that ran it really did not do anything about children that were misbehaving (some pretty badly) in the club.

I am hoping the crew on the Glory is different as our son really would have liked to have 'hung out' with a few more kids. We love to have him with us, we don't drink or demand alone time so it was not a big deal. It was a family vacation, but every child likes a little bit of companionship of someone their age.

What are your experiences with this? Some of the kids were just wild, but we expected that. Thankfully not many. There was a grown woman that was probably worse than most of the kids. I was embarassed for her.

2Littletime · #2 (**permalink**) November 29th, 2008, 09:30 AM

In all of our cruises with our kids we have never had this experience. Camp Carnival especially has always been wonderful and had very good control of the kids. Unfortunately, once again, it's the parenting that makes things bad. The last time we were on the Victory there was a little boy in my daughter's group and he was a first class brat. On the second day when I went to pick up my daughter the counsellors had called his parents to come and get him, when they arrived they were AWFUL, they yelled at the staff and basically said that the staff should be able to manage one small boy no matter what he was doing, then the parents stormed off minus their little brat. In a perfectly calm manner the staff contacted security who tracked down the parents and told them "take care of your child or make travel arrangements from the next port of call". He was at camp the next day and better behaved. Funny enough he wasn't afraid of his parents being called but he was really afraid of security coming again.

Despite this one experience, we have always had positive experiences within the younger groups, the older ones a little less so because I think once they are old enough to sign themselves out, the counsellors have a lot less say and thus a lot less control.

crabby apple · #3 (**permalink**) November 29th, 2008, 09:59 AM

Good to know the staff addressed it on this ship. This child was hitting, biting etc.

mehawk · #4 (**permalink**) November 29th, 2008, 11:25 AM

I have no young kids with which I can offer a comparison but... I can state that I am hardly ever bothered by out of control kids on the Carnival cruises because Carnival's kid clubs are that good.

funcruiser212 · #5 (**permalink**) November 29th, 2008, 04:41 PM

You didn't mention the age of your child. My kids are 9 & 6 and I have found the kids clubs on all Carnval ships (Conquest, Victory, Paradise & Liberty at least) to be great.

Never had an issue and one time when the younger one wanted us they called me immediately on the kids club pager. My older daughter prefers to be with the kids and loves the kids clubs - She hates to do the "fancy clothes" for adult dining, so it works out great for everyone.

crabby apple · #6 (**permalink**) November 30th, 2008, 01:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by funcruiser212

You didn't mention the age of your child. - She hates to do the "fancy clothes" for adult dining, so it works out great for everyone.

He is 8, it may have been just that particular trip--several of the parents did not send their children back but that boy was there every day. His parents probably needed a break from him, he was pretty violent and loud.

Either way, yes, our son LOVE dining room food but the dressing up part not as much! He loved eating escargot and likes fish a lot so we did have him come with us most nights.

We really did enjoy it, just would have been nice to have more interaction for him with other kids.

Ainsley · #7 (**permalink**) November 30th, 2008, 03:17 PM

i know when my sister and i were that age we loved camp carnival. now my sister is a part of circle c and my last cruise to be in club o2 was amazing. ive always had a great group of friends on my cruises and so has my sister. we love carnivals program for kids all the way up to teens. so im sure that this cruise especially on the glory will be a great experience for your son =)

cruiser7147 · #8 (**permalink**) November 30th, 2008, 06:02 PM

Well i can mention that on the conquest, the kids programs are exceptional. circle c has the best director. and club o2 has a very fun director, too. My brother loved camp carnival, and never wanted to leave! Overall, the kids programs are very entertaining and keep kids busy.

lhp · #9 (**permalink**) December 3rd, 2008, 07:01 PM

We have been cruising with our 2 boys since they were young (now they are 17 and 29) ....and we have always had a wonderful experience with Camp Carnival.

Our youngest son has a form of Autism and they have always been great with him.

Now that being said, I do believe that you probably got a counselor who was unsure of themselves. And a group at Camp Carnival is only going to be as good as the Counselors running it.

IF this ever happens again, the thing to do is address if with the Purser's Desk. That way they have a record of a formal complaint and the Counselor has some :back up:.

There were 900 kids on the Freedom last week (Thanksgiving) and most were very good. However, you had a hand full that were raised by wolves (actually that is an insult to the wolves....wolves would have done a better job).