We sailed on the Carnival Sensation on October 9, 2008.  This was my 8th carnival cruise but my first with children.  My husband and I decided to take two of our grand daughters with us ages 4 and 6.  We signed the girls up for Camp Carnival and decided what times we wanted to leave them with Camp Carnival.  We checked the different activities onboard and decided which ones we would attend while the girls were in Camp Carnival.  Needles to say it did not work out that way.  Camp carnival is closed for hours at a time.  All of the times we wanted to leave them there were the times that it was closed or for a different age group.  You can leave your children with Camp Carnival only when they want you to.  It is not the great children's program that you are led to believe it is.  We were led to believe that it is a children's program that is available the entire cruise.  It is not.  Also they want you to pick your children up at least 15 minutes before the time is up.  We ended up using Camp Carnival only about 40 minutes the entire cruise.  The only times that it is never closed is the times when they start charging extra.

 You may have opened another can of worms. This was posted a couple weeks ago and didn't turn out very nice, so be prepared. I CAN understand your reason for being upset, this is very true that camp carnival is not what it appears to be. Theres nothing to do about it now, I guess you can call that a lesson learned. The fact that you wanted to take 2 of your grandchildren along was wonderful, I'm just sorry it didn't quite turn out the way you wanted.

Well my wife and kids sailed on the Triumph in nov 07 and the kids absolutely loved camp carnival.  14, 12 and 10 were their ages and we saw them while we were in port and for dinner.  Other than that they were off playing with new friends or doing some activity with camp carnival.  We think it's an excellent program and very well organized by carnival.  Maybe the kids that are much younger are different, but my kids ages were busy 24/7.  They loved it and still keep in touch with friends via email.  My wife and I were on the triumph this year 10/5, with no kids but we still saw the camp kids and supervisors, everywhere we went. 

Goldieda1

I totally agree with you.  We have been on many cruises with our children who are now 13 and 14 years old.  It is very rare that you find anyone older than 8 or 9 that enjoy camp carnival.  My children usually set up a meeting time with the new friends they have met and then spend time just hanging out or getting ice cream.  There are only so many scavenger hunts and UNO games that you can play.  I have heard of parents being paged to pick up their children because there were not enough children at a particular event to run it.  It is my opinion that a lot of the counselors cannot think on their feet and change events/games if need be.  They have an opportunity to make it a great program (there are other programs that they can use as a model), but they just aren't there yet.

I'm sorry to hear you had a bad experience with Camp Carnival.  Our two boys 4&8 love Camp Carnival! I don't understand your complaint about the hours? Our kids usually went to Camp around 8-9 am til lunch time when they do ask you to pick them up for lunch.  They would then go back around 2pm until 4-5pm, at that time we picked them up again, did some fun stuff then they wanted to go back for the kids dinner. They usually were there until 10-11pm more than enough time for us and them. 

ReadyToCruise:

when we took him the day after orientation my husband and I were told that we could only stay in the room for one minute and then we had to leave.

Well, duh.

The sooner the parents get out, the sooner the child will acclimate to the new surroundings.  When parents linger and ask endless questions about "Are you alright?  Will you be okay?  We'll miss you; give mummy a widdow kiss" the more stress it puts on the kids and it gives the little buggers the notion that maybe something should be wrong about staying here.  And then they cry, and that makes other kids cry, and pretty soon it's complete bedlam.

Honestly, they know what they're doing.  Drop the kids off and get the hell out of the way.  I don't know of many day cares that let parents of new kids stick around, either.

The one thing to remember in regards to the Original Poster's complaint is the time of the cruise. Just because Camp Carnival is available on all cruises don't forget that staffing requirements differ.

The cruise was October 9th, on a Fantasy Class Ship - these two points should point out that children on the ship would be limited due to school schedules. I have been on some sailings where they grouped the age groups together because the number of children were low. During this time, staffing needs are not up to the "normal" needs.

If you booked with an experience travel professional, you should have been apprised of this when you booked. If you booked directly with Carnival - they got your money, no need to counsel or advise you. A third-party professional is a necessity to avoid situations like this.

DS -

I want to thank the person who started this post. I had no idea they could close camp carnival or have you pick you children up early unless they were upset or ready to be with you.  I am cruising at a time when there won't be many kids and now you have me thinking. I'm going to call my pvp  and get some facts because this is my vacation also and I don't want to spend the who trip entertaining my 9 year old son.

 I know some people  don't want to hear anything negitive about carnival, but I for one would like to know what's going on that way I can try to get to the bottom of it. I'm crusing in Jan on the Insperation when many kids will be in school. thanks for the info.

ReadyToCruise:

I too was disappointed with Camp Carnival, but for a diffirent reason. My son is four and when we took him the day after orientation my husband and I were told that we could only stay in the room for one minute and then we had to leave. Our son needed a little time to become comfortable with his surroundings and obviously strangers. Needless to say he did not participate in the Camp Carnial Program. I was really disappointed...

It sounds more like YOU and your spouse had the problem leaving. if you are dropping you child off it's best to say goodbye and leave.

Why would you need to hang around? Yes, he's with strange adults..but if there is another child within a five mile radius.....they are off to play and don't have time to be bothered with parents...

For future reference:

 We have used Camp Carnival for our two boys for the past 10+ years.  They have been through every age group (now they are 17 and 20) and they loved every age group.

Yes, back when they were in Camp Carnival.... it started at 9AM  and closed from noon-2pm ( you actually have to feed your own children SHOCK)....then they reopen at 2PM and  (at that time) closed from 5PM -7pm (again so that you could feed your own children).  Then they were open from 7pm-10pm.  This is all for free.

Now if you want to pay $6 an hour for the first child and $4 an hour for additional children.... they will keep them from 10pm - 3 AM.

On port days, they don't close for lunch at all.  So it is 9AM - 5PM so that parents can take excursions and leave the kids on the ship.  (we never did, but lots do).

Our 17 year old is about to cruise on his 25th and 26th Carnival cruise next month.

We have sailed on 15+ different Carnival ships...so I do consider myself fully experienced in this matter.  

I think these hours are very accommodating and there is certainly nothing "misleading" about it.  If someone doesn't want to be around their children 4 hours during the day...they should leave them at home.

Yes the camp may be misleading and not every vacation is perfect.The sarcasm sure doesn't help.Come on people every one has a right to vacation as the want to and if they want time alone I agree they should have some..most of you get it..you don't really know what happened on that cruise do you??????I feel sorry for the grandparents who had to suffer the sarcasm