10 reasons why your kids will love a Carnival Cruise!
When it comes to families, Carnival Cruise Line have got it covered – from free ice cream to Dr Seuss characters roaming the ship to peaceful parent retreats…take a look at our ten top reasons why you need to choose Carnival for your family’s cruise these holidays…
No time to read? Watch our Carnival Cruise top ten reasons here!
1 – Carnival Cruise’s water slides are the best!
Kids love the variety of water slides on board Carnival Cruise ships – from slow and short for the littlies to medium speed long-and-windy slides to the super-thrill water slides for adventurous kids, tweens and teens – there’s something for everyone!
2 – Carnival Cruise Line have the best characters!
Who doesn’t love Dr Seuss, and Carnival has all your favourites both walking around the ship and in special events such as the Dr Seuss Parade and the Green Eggs and Ham Breakfast. Get your photo taken with the Cat in The Hat, Sam I Am, Thing 1 and Thing 2 – there’s so much fun to be had, and the kids just love them!
Watch our Green Eggs and Ham Breakfast experience here…
3 – Ice Cream is free on Carnival Cruise Line!
Ice cream is free – yep, you read right – you can go and get yourself a vanilla, strawberry or chocolate ice cream anytime of the day or night – and it’s not just the kids who love this one. From the toddlers to the adults, everyone loves free icecream! It’s not unusual to see someone at 2am wandering about with a couple of ice creams in hand!
4 – The cruise ship pools are amazing!
It’s true – on Carnival Legend alone there were two main pools, plus an adult’s only (parent’s retreat!) pool deck. The kids or not-so-confident swimmers can grab a floatie jacket pool-side which simply clips on. A DJ plays next to one of the main pools day and night for a great party atmosphere. One of the main pool’s water even changes colour every few seconds after dark. The Carnival pools really are amazing!
5 – Carnival has the best cruise theme nights!
On an eight-night Great Barrier Reef cruise and we had three great theme nights (plus formal and casual nights). These were Mexican Night (Mexican hats and ponchos are optional!), 80’s night (think fluoro, scrunchies, braces, leg warmers – go wild, Flock of Seagulls!) and the Frightfully Fun Halloween night (their best-ever Halloween, my kids said!). There is a family trick-or-treat hunt all over the ship where the kids pick up lollies and toys at each stop and then enjoy a family Halloween dance party afterwards. Then there’s the adult’s Halloween Party later that night. A huge pumpkin figure (Jack) presides in the atrium for the entire Halloween Cruise. Some people even dress up all day, many cabin doors are decorated (guilty as charged!) – it’s simply spook-tacular! You really haven’t had Halloween until you’ve had it on board a Carnival Cruise ship!
6 – Carnival Cruise Line have great kids clubs and youth programs
Carnival have some great kid’s clubs and youth programs to keep the kids and teenagers super-entertained and happy – and even give you a night out! Programs are defined by age groups with the Penguins ages 2-5, Camp Ocean ages 2-11, Circle C ages 12-14 and Club O2 ages 15-17. Watch our video above to take a look around all of the kid areas. Children of a responsible age can sign themselves in and out as they please (if their parents permit it), and there’s lots of fun activities organised to keep even the fussiest kid, tween or teen happy. This is just another way Carnival take care of guests of all-ages on board.
7 – There are cool family-friendly cruise port excursions to go on
The only problem with Carnival port stops and excursions is that there is just too many to choose from! We wanted to do way more than we did, but we were so happy with what we chose. Our Carnival Cruise Australia excursions included a Great Barrier Reef snorkelling at Hardy Reef trip and snorkelling the Tangalooma Wrecks at Moreton Island. We would have loved to have done a flight over the Great Barrier Reef and seen the famous Heart Reef, and fed the dolphins at Tangalooma, but alas – we can’t do two things at once! It’s fine to organise your own port organised activities of course, but organising Carnival excursions ensures you get to do what you like with the experts – plus the ship won’t leave without you if you run late!
8 – Carnival Cruise Line make the cutest towel animals – ever!
Seriously – we’ve never seen so many towel animals on a ship – it’s hilarious! We had a huge collection of different ones in our cabin by the end of the cruise, not to mention the towel animal explosion that happened undetected one night around the pools! There were massive towel and blanket animal displays, plus towel animals on every pool chair! Then there’s the towel animal folding classes, and even a towel-animal theatre show for the kids – and don’t they love that. While some other cruise lines discuss dropping towel animals, we’re so glad Carnival Cruise Line are keeping the towel animal tradition alive and well on board their ships.
9 – Carnival has everything kids love to eat!
From Coco Pops, Weet-Bix, Cornflakes and yoghurt for breakfast to chicken nuggets, chips, spaghetti, pizza and hotdogs (or anything else their fussy little taste buds desire) for lunch and dinner, it’s all on the menu on a Carnival Cruise. Of course, there’s a whole bunch of delicious fruit and vegetables available too. Then there’s the free ice cream and lemonade on tap – or the Bottomless Bubbles soft drink beverage packages are available to purchase. Whatever your fussy-eater children like to eat or drink, Carnival has them covered – which means no dinnertime battles for us parents during the family holiday!
10 – There’s always lots to do onboard your Carnival Cruise ship!
Mini golf, basketball, kid’s shows and parties, craft classes, treasure hunts, movie cinemas, games arcades – you name it, they have it onboard. In fact, there are so many fun family activities to do together on both sea days and port days that you’ll never be able to fit them all in – but you can certainly give it a try! Don’t forget kids also love the good old traditional Cruise Trivia (we loved the Harry Potter Trivia especially!) and Bingo games too.
So as you can see, Carnival really do go the extra mile to tailor their cruise ships for family enjoyment. We couldn’t cover absolutely every fun family aspect of Carnival Cruise Line for you in one cruise – there’s just too many to choose from. The best way to find out what your family will love the most is to book a Carnival Cruise for yourself! You can find out more and book your own family holiday fun cruise at the Carnival Cruise Line Australia official website here.
You may also like to read our cheap Sydney cruise parking article here
Have you ever been on a cruise, or do you plan to go one day? Tell us in the comments below…
All information is correct as at 2019 – please check the above website links for relevant, up to date information and prices.
Let’s go Mum were hosted guests of Carnival Cruise Line Australia, however all opinions remain firmly our own.
