carnival cruise line child care

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Camp Ocean (Carnival’s Kid Area): What to Know Before Your Kids Go

Cruising is without a doubt a great way to vacation for the entire family. Whether you are 8 or 80, there is always something for you to do. But that doesn’t mean a family traveling together always wants to spend every moment together.

Sometimes parents want some time without the kids. And sometimes the kids want to play with other people their age. That’s where the dedicated kid areas — like Carnival’s Camp Ocean — can be the perfect solution.

These spots give children a place to play and hang out without their parents while still being watched by the staff. That means for both kids and adults, it may end up being their favorite places on the Carnival ship.

But if you and your kids have never visited Camp Ocean before, you might have some questions about how it works. We have you covered below…

What Is Camp Ocean?

First things first, Camp Ocean is a dedicated kid area that’s available across the entire Carnival fleet. It offers staff that supervises the kids and tons of things for kids to do from video games to arts and crafts to physical activities to movie nights.

Parents can drop off their children while Mom and Dad get some time to enjoy the cruise on their own terms. Kids get to play and do things they want to do with other kids their own age.

Think of it as daycare on the cruise ship, allowing everyone to have a good time.

Is Camp Ocean Free for Kids to Attend?

For the vast majority of times, admission to Camp Ocean is included in your cruise fare. So you simply check your child in and pick them up when ready at no additional charge. That means you won’t pay anything extra whether your kids stay there for an hour or all day.

The one exception is after 10 p.m. From 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. Carnival’s Camp Ocean offers the “Night Owls” session. During this time there is a charge of $7.50 (plus 18% gratuity, for a total of $8.85) per hour for each kid who stays.

So if you have a kid that stays anytime up until 10 p.m. there is no charge. It’s about $9 per hour after that.

As well, there is an hourly charge for kids staying in Camp Ocean during the more limited hours for children aged 0-2 years old.

What Age Groups Are Available to Participate?

As mentioned, children are grouped by age. Camp Ocean offers the following groups on the ship:

• Turtles (0-1 years)
• Penguins (2-5 years)
• Stingrays (6-8 years)
• Sharks (9-11 years)

For older kids there are also youth areas known as “Circle C” (12-14 years old) and Club O2 (15-17 years old) that technically aren’t part of Camp Ocean, but offer a dedicated spot  and programming for older kids. These two spots still offer things for kids to do but on a more independent basis. For example, teens in these groups can sign themselves in and out as they please.

I Have Kids in Two Different Age Groups. Can They Go to the Same Area?

Carnival’s website says they have a “strict policy” of not moving kids from one age group to another.

In our experience, however, we noticed some leniency. Say you have a 9 year-old and an 8 year-old. In that case we’ve seen some bending on the age policy to allow the siblings to be in the same group. You can just talk to the Camp Ocean staff when you first arrive.

However, larger age differences likely won’t be accommodated. Don’t expect a 5 year-old to be able to go to the same group with a 9 year-old.

How Does the Drop-Off/Pick-Up Process Work?

Before your child can join Camp Ocean, you’ll need to go through a registration process. This can be done online ahead of time, which is highly suggested. If you don’t do it before the cruise then you can visit once on the ship. During embarkation day there is an open house where kids and parents can come, meet the staff, register (if not already done), and then explore Camp Ocean.

Once the camp opens, then you’ll simply arrive at the front desk when you want to drop off your kid. The staff will take your room number to bring up your account, check your room keycard to make sure you have pick-up/drop-off privileges, and then have the child get their name tag to wear in camp. The staff will then take the child back. You’ll be able to see the time of check-in on the Carnival Hub app.

When it’s time to pick-up, the process is similar, just reversed. You’ll arrive at the front desk, provide your room number, and show your keycard. The staff will then go back and get your child.

Who Can Pick-Up/Drop-Off a Child in Camp Ocean?

When you register, you can provide who has the ability to pick-up and drop-off. There are different rules based on their age that you can choose from.

• Kids Under 9: May be picked up by a designated adult over 18 years old only.
• Kids 9-11: If a parent/guardian chooses, then kids 9-11 are allowed to sign themselves in and out of Camp Ocean until 10 p.m. After that time, an authorized adult must sign them out. As well, a parent can opt to not let kids 9-11 be able to sign themselves in/out.
• Kids 12 and Older: Children over 12 years are allowed to sign themselves in/out as they wish.

What Hours Is the Camp Open?

Hours vary based on whether you are at sea or in port. During a recent cruise, we found the following schedule:

• Sea Days: 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. | 6 p.m. – 1 a.m. (Charge applies after 10 p.m.)
• Port Days: Port Arrival – 12 p.m. | 1 p.m. – 1 a.m. (Charge applies after 10 p.m.) Kids-only lunch from 12 p.m. – 1 p.m.

As you can see, there are some hour-long breaks during the day where the camp closes around dinner time. Carnival says that parents are “encouraged to pick up for meal times.” However, there is also the option on some days in port to have your child eat lunch/dinner with Camp Ocean.

To be sure, you’ll want to check the Carnival Hub app when you are on your cruise to see the exact opening hours each day.

Can My Child Stay in Camp While I Go to Port?

Everyone knows that having a small child with you completely changes the dynamic of exploring a new place. And whether it be that a shore excursion you’ve booked is only for kids above a certain age or you just don’t want to try and plan a day in an unfamiliar port around a child’s needs, you do have an option with Camp Ocean.

Kids are welcomed to stay at Camp Ocean while a parent goes off the ship into port . The only issue is if something goes wrong at camp while you are off the ship, then there may be no way to contact you. Carnival says if you are on a Carnival excursion, they will contact the tour operator if something goes wrong. Otherwise, you will be notified when you get back on the ship.

What if my Child Has a Problem While at Camp?

Anyone that has a kid knows that occasionally issues do come up. From smaller kids who miss their parents to older kids that get too rough, there may be times when the staff can’t fix the situation and need to get in touch with parents.

For smaller kids, the camp will have a limited number of shipboard phones that you will be provided. For older kids they are available on request, but are meant for those with younger children. These phones work on the ship and allow the staff to call you directly should there be an issue where a parent is needed.

If you don’t get one of these phones, then the staff will try to contact you other ways. For instance, this might be a call to your stateroom phone. If something is extremely urgent and you can’t be reached over your cabin phone, there could be a shipboard announcement.

What Is There For Kids to Do?

During the day there is a schedule of different activities arranged.

For instance, during “Kid’s Choice” campers get to do what they please, whether that’s playing games, playing with toys, video games, and more.

During “Active” times, campers do things like play Capture the Flag, Dodgeball, or Bean Bag Toss.

Arts & Crafts sessions include everything from jewelry making to creating whatever you want. There are also movie times, themed parties, and karaoke. You’ll see a full schedule of what’s available each day on the Carnival Hub app once your board.

A Special Word About Kids Under 2 Years Old

Kids under 2 years-old are treated a little differently with Camp Ocean. For most kids, the camp is simple. You bring your child, check them in, and they have fun while you go around the ship.

That’s not the case for the youngest children. These kids are in the “Turtles” group. Because smaller children require more care, Carnival offers more limited times for them.

In this case, there are times where you and your child can go enjoy the area designed for smaller kids for no charge. But if you want to leave your child during these times, then it’s a $7.50 per hour (plus 18% service charge) per child.

Available times will vary based on sea days/port days, so you’ll want to check the Hub app once you board. However, just know that it won’t be as inexpensive or flexible as sailing with an older kid.

Our Personal Experience With Camp Ocean

We recently cruised with our 6 year-old who attended Camp Ocean for the first time. During past cruises the area was closed (sailing right after cruises returned) or he wasn’t yet old enough to attend. 

First things first, our son loved the experience. He would regularly ask during the day if he could go back to “Ocean Camp” (as he wanted to call it for some reason) multiple times during the day. For him, the chance to be social with other kids and also play video games were big draws. In fact, there were even times when we went to pick him up after a couple of hours, only for him to ask to stay longer.

On the parent side, the staff put us at ease and despite there being a lot of kids around, things seemed to be organized well. Lines during peak check-out times were long, but took no more than five minutes of waiting. As well, having the ability to drop off our kid and then go do things like have a drink, gamble in the casino, or just have some peace and quiet was amazing.

The cost is included in your cruise fare. Definitely take advantage. 

More Tips & Advice

• If you have a child that requires medicine during their stay at Camp Ocean, know that the staff isn’t allowed to give it. Also, no medicines other than epi-pens and inhalers are allowed at camp. Parents will have to come to give medicine if it’s required during the stay.
• The person picking up a child doesn’t have to be the same one who dropped off. It also doesn’t have to be a parent or guardian. It just has to be someone that was authorized during registration and over 18 years old. So, for example, if you are sailing with another family, you can each authorize the other to be able to pick up kids. That way only one person of the group would have to go grab the kids when it’s time.
• Look on the schedule for family programming. These are activities that parents and kids can do together, giving you a chance to do some things that are designed for kids to enjoy while spending some time together.

You can read more about Camp Ocean on Carnival’s website .

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Carnival Cruise Lines Kids' Program - Camp Carnival

Carnival Cruise Lines is the leader in family cruising , with more than 100,000 kids aboard its ships each year. Carnival's program for kids is called Camp Carnival. The family-friendly cruise line allows infants over four months old on board, but all guests under 21 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian 25 years or older in the same stateroom.

Carnival's Dedicated Kids' Club

Camp Carnival is a year-round, fleet-wide program that provides daily fun-filled and age-appropriate activities for children and teenagers between the ages of 2 and 11 years old. Also, there is supervised "free play" and babysitting service (for a fee). The playroom on each Carnival ship comes completely stocked with toys, games, and puzzles for children of all ages. In addition, each ship has an electronic game room filled with all of the latest video games.

Camp Carnival is much more than just babysitting. The program is designed so that families are able to enjoy quality family time together, and yet kids also have the choice of being with peers of their own age if they wish. Carnival knows every parent wants the best for their children. That's why they've hired youth counselors who are either college-educated in a related field, have professional childcare experience, or both.

Carnival Cruises performs a thorough background check on each and every one of the youth counselors. And everyone on the youth staff is fully trained in CPR and basic first aid.

Youth Programs

Carnival's Camp Carnival youth programs are geared to 3 age groups from 2 to 11. These are:

• Toddlers (ages 2-5) — Splash pool, fund family games, late-night munchies, cartoon time, little tykes toys, learn your colors, can you count, sponge painting, indoor beach parties, mousercize, pizza pig out, drawing contests, sing-alongs, bingo, face painting, arts and crafts, cookie decorating
• Juniors (ages 6-8) —Talent show, face painting, cartoon time, indoor fair, sea animals, mousercize, Disney trivia, ice cream sundaes, cookie decorating, button making, puppet show, beach party, outdoor fun and games
• Intermediate (ages 9-11) —T-shirt painting, photography, jewelry making, board games, dance class, video tournament, ping pong, talent show, volleyball, showtime, scavenger hunts, meet the entertainers backstage, breakfast fun

Older Kid's Programs

In addition to the Camp Carnival programs, Carnival has a youth program called Circle C for ages 12 to 14 and a teen program called Club O2 for ages 15 to 17. Both these groups have their own dedicated spaces on each Carnival ship . 

• Circle C — Youth ages 12 to 14 will enjoy their dedicated lounges on Carnival Cruise Line ships. The Circle C lounges feature a dance floor with a high-tech sound and lighting system, along with a 42-inch plasma-screen TV for displaying movies. The youth have access to gaming pods with video games and consoles and additional plasma-screens positioned throughout the room for video gaming. 
• Club O2 — Older teens ages 15 to 17 also have their own dedicated space, with no younger kids or adults allowed inside. The club is designed to be a great gathering place for teens, but also a spot for planned activities like sports (basketball, volleyball, ping pong, and miniature golf) or fun theme parties. 

Carnival is strict about its age requirements and does not make exceptions so that children from the same family can be in the same group. Some activities overlap age groups, so kids won't necessarily be away from siblings all the time. It is important to know that teens over 17 are not allowed in Club O2 even if they are still in high school. 

Carnival has other features that make the ships attractive to kids and their parents. Staterooms on most Carnival ships are more spacious than on many other cruise lines, and some ships have adjoining rooms. Carnival provides babysitting for a fee and has a special children's dinner menu. Every Carnival ship has a terrific aqua park with water slides and other outdoor entertainment that adventurous kids of all ages love!

Camp Carnival gives kids the opportunity to meet and socialize with others in their age group from all over North America and the world. Your children will go home with new friends and new memories. Plus, they'll have the opportunity to learn more about the world by visiting new places and sharing experiences with their family members. Your only complaint might be that they'd rather be spending time with their new friends than with their parents. So, what's new?

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A Parent’s Guide to a Carnival Cruise with Kids

I feel like my kids have hit the ages where travel is fun .

I was always that pre-mom that said, “Kids won’t slow me down!” when talking about my travel dreams. But then I had kids and my reality was a lot different than what I had expected it to be.

I’m excited to partner with  Carnival Cruise Line  on this cruising series. All opinions and experiences are my own.

Boooo reality , right? That might not be the case for you – but I struggled! At this point, though, I kind of feel like we’ve entered this glorious life stage where the kids get as excited about going somewhere new as we do, and that is so much fun.

I mean, we literally counted down the days to our most recent cruise. We were all so excited! But if you’ve never cruised with kids before, it can look a lot different than an adults-only trip. Today I’m sharing my best tips for taking a carnival cruise with kids – what to do, where to eat, what to expect in your stateroom – and then some!

Carnival Cruise with Kids

The great thing about Carnival is that they are totally family-friendly . From the second you walk on the ship (actually, enter the terminal), friendly crew members are welcoming everyone…and that includes the littlest cruisers!

You’ll notice my kids have green wristbands in all of these pictures. All kids (I think under the age of 16?) are required to wear these while onboard. Your child will get their wristband on the first day of the cruise.

Here are some things we really loved about our experience (which was onboard the Carnival Breeze …but you can expect a similar experience on any Carnival ship).

Kid-friendly dining: Of course, there are tons of family-friendly places to eat. The buffet on the Lido deck is full of kid-friendly fare. But we chose to eat in our assigned restaurant (Blush) most nights. On our first night, Claire was a little wary of the menu. Our fantastic waiter brought her macaroni and cheese and chicken tenders, neither of which was on the menu. And then he asked if she wanted the same thing the next night (she did!).

We found this level of service extended across all aspects of our trip, but if you have kids you know how much work goes into feeding them…having Claire’s needs (ahem, pickiness) accommodated just made dinner so much easier, you know?

We also took the kids with us to Cucina del Capitano, the Italian restaurant onboard.

I probably wouldn’t have taken them to the steakhouse (we didn’t see any kids when we were eating there), but older, non-picky kids who can appreciate a good steak might enjoy it (you have to pay extra for the steakhouse though).

Onboard activities: If you saw my Carnival Breeze photo tour . you know there were tons of activities for the kids. Between the rope course, mini golf, basketball court, arcade, movie theater (movies cost extra, but there are movies every night at sea for free by the pool), candy shop, and planned activities, your kids will be entertained.

My mom and mother-in-law were with us on this trip, which meant they took the grandkids for us a couple of times. My mom took them to bingo. My mother-in-law took them to see a magician. There were tons of activities, every day, that the kids could participate in.

Childcare: Carnival cruises have onboard daytime childcare for kids ages 2-11 at Camp Ocean. Use your first day at sea to get the kids signed up (the process takes about 15 minutes per kid). There’s a schedule of daily activities so you and the kids will know what to expect each day.

Kids are grouped together by age and activities run all day. Meals are even served on some days!

Evening camp is also available, but at a cost. This is good to know if you’d like an adults-only evening at the steakhouse…you can drop the kids off and enjoy your time, worry-free! Evening activities run until 1 AM (on some nights), provide dinner, and give kids a chance to party, too!

Seuss at Sea: One of our highlights of the trip was taking the kids to a special Seuss at Sea Geen Eggs and Ham breakfast celebration! Not only did the Cat in the Hat show up, but the Grinch made an appearance, too (we were traveling at Christmas time).

Many of the Seuss at Sea activities are free. The Green Eggs and Ham breakfast is an additional cost ($5 per person, I believe), but it was such a cool experience – totally worth it! Reservations are required and I recommend making them before your trip (they were turning people away from the breakfast we attended).

And don’t judge, but this Fruit Loops French Toast? This was *my* breakfast.

Movies and tech: OK, so what about when it’s time for bed and everyone is chilling in the stateroom? What to do?

We did not let the kids bring any tablets or devices on this trip, so they didn’t get to do much tech outside of some video games in Camp Ocean. Wifi wasn’t very good, so keep that in mind if you’re bringing a device…load any movies onto the device before you come. Streaming will be impossible.

There is TV onboard though, and at night we’d all hang out and watch a movie or some cartoons before bed.

Sleeping and stateroom arrangements: Our stateroom had a king-size bed and a couch that turned into a bed with a pulldown bed above it. Bunk beds!

The bathroom has a shower (no bath). You might think about bringing an inflatable bath if you have a baby.

If you’re bringing a baby, you can request a crib at no charge.

Excursions and port days with kids: The last time we cruised with the kids, they were too young for most excursions. Be sure to check age requirements and also the travel time involved if you have really little ones. Our trip to Tulum , for example, required a 45-minute boat ride followed by an hour and fifteen-minute bus ride, each way, to reach our destination. That would be tough with a baby or toddler, for sure!

So be sure to keep travel time to and from the excursion in mind (you know your kid, you’ll know what they can do!).

I recommend a baby carrier and/or an umbrella stroller if you have little ones, too. It can be a lot easier to transport the umbrella stroller in tricky spots (buses! boats!) than a full-size stroller.

If you decide to forego the excursions completely, keep in mind that the quietest and least-crowded times on the ship are port days. Everyone is on land! This can be a good time for little kids to enjoy the pool and slides.

Also, another port day recommendation that comes from experience: if you have kids and choose not to go on an excursion, be sure to make some plans! It can be tough wandering a foreign city on a tight schedule with cranky kids (that didn’t happen to us on this trip, but it has happened on another trip…and that’s why we always have a destination in mind before we disembark the ship).

Honestly, traveling with my kids is such a gift. For them, of course, but also for me . I love taking them new places and experiencing new things with them! A cruise is a great way to explore new places and foster the travel bug while still enjoying a vacation that accommodates everyone in the family.

Did I miss anything? Do you have any questions? Let me know below and I’ll answer them to the best of my ability!

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How does communication work on board with kids? Mine are 8 and 12 and we are wondering what are good tips to stay in touch with them. Does carnival provide means of any types?

If you all have phones, Carnival has an app that you can download with texting capabilities to anyone on the ship. I think it’s $5/person, but you can text anyone on the ship with the app. I also saw a couple of families with walkie talkies!

Can you go on excursions and leave kids in camp carnival?

I believe so…but I think there might have been age requirements.

I’m booked on the Valor & would like to take my grandkids to the Green Eggs & Ham breakfast, you mentioned making a reservation before we cruise How/where would I make the reservation?

You are going to have SO much fun and the kids will love it!! It looks like you now need to make the reservation once you’re onboard. I’d do it as soon as you get settled it so you can get the time and date you want!

Hi, thanks for all your info. Did you ever find the kids club were full and not able to accommodate your kids? We probably think at least 1-2 hours most days for some adult only time would be good, but have heard kids club can book up as so many families travel. Do you book the kids club sessions in advance? Thanks

I took my daughter on a carnival cruise when she was 7, and it was fantastic as well. She actually spent most of her time in the kids camp. It was where she wanted to be, and I would stop in regularly to see if she wanted to leave but mostly she declined. At first I felt like a neglectful parent, but came to realize that she was having a wonderful vacation doing exactly what she wanted, and this just so happened to allow me to spend my vacation enjoying adult activities. I was available anytime if she had needed or wanted to be with me though. Cruising with Carnival was a great choice with kids!

I totally agree! I LOVE that there are fun options for kids…my kids loved it, too!

My wife and I have only sailed one Carnival Cruise and didn’t love it, partly because the sexual innuendo was OUT OF CONTROL everywhere – all the shows, the debarkation party, etc. There was also constant DJ music everywhere at annoyingly high volumes. Did you experience this as well? Was there any kid-friendly programming beyond the kid camps and movie theater?

I didn’t notice that on our trip. We found lots of programming that was suitable for the kids. There were several family-friendly BINGO games. Also, there was a magic show and a balloon art guy that did very kid-friendly shows. We also found some fun games in the library and played games with the kids at night. There was also a family-friendly trivia event! I’m sure there were more, but those are the ones we did with our kids.

Thank you, Carrie! This was extremely informative and helpful. I’ve never been on a cruise, and plan to bring little ones. so this definitely gave me insight from a mother’s perspective on what to expect. Thanks again for sharing!

You’re so welcome – you guys are going to have a great time on your cruise!!

Thanks for the info, it is super helpful. In your opinion were the deck parties or themed nights suitable for children? Mine are 4 and 8. Couldn’t get a read on the “atmosphere” or even what time of day they were.

Hi Danyelle! We didn’t do any deck parties with the kids. We did accidentally crash a deck party though…there was a showing of the movie Dunkirk by the pool, and we happened to walk out on deck while the movie was showing. We walked out during a super violent battle scene (of course) and it was a little much for my kids, lol. Aside from that, the kids were usually super tired and in bed before anything exciting was going on so we didn’t make any deck parties! We did do the Dr. Seuss breakfast, which was totally geared towards kids and lots of fun!

Hi, Carrie, thanks for the tips! I noticed you said you were also traveling with an 8 mo old. My son will be 14 months. Since they can’t use the pools (or at least Carnival Dream won’t let non potty trained kids in the pool, but I’m fairly sure it’s across the board), were there enough activities to keep them entertained as well? I hear they’ve also started the Turtles program for kids under 2, as well.

Hi ShaMekha! There was a little splash area for toddlers and that kept them enterained for a long time actually. The other thing my kids liked was walking the track and being in that area on top of the ship…there was lots of room to run around. I didn’t do the Turtles program so I’m not sure how that is.

Another thing they really liked was the themed breakfast…it was Dr. Seuss when we were on the ship. This was an extra thing we had to sign up for in advance, but the kids LOVED it. They were a little older than toddler age when nwe did this, but it would be good for a 14 month old too since it’s geared so heavily to little kids (unless he’s afraid of the characters, which I did see happen!).

Total honesty here – when they were that little, going on a cruise was a lot of work. But we ended up having a good time.

A couple other things I don’t know if I mentioned in the original post – when they’re that little, skip the expensive excursions and take him to the beach! My kids had waaaaay more fun at the beach playing in the sand than on the long, hot excursions. Learned that the hard way. lol. Also – we took one cruise where there were two days at port in Cabo San Lucas. We took them to the beach on the first day and on the second day stayed on the boat. Nobody was on it, and the kids had free run of the splash pad and the whole ship. No lines for ice cream! 🙂

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Carnival's Infant Program Under 2 Years Old

Camp ocean - turtles infants under-2: things to know, sign in/out policy.

• All children must be registered by a parent/guardian prior to participating in any Youth Programs.
• Carnival’s policy is to group children together according to their age. The age is determined according to the child’s birth date.
• Parent/guardian can authorize other guests (over the age of 18) during registration in order to sign in/out their children from activities.
• The adult is required to present their Sail & Sign card each time they drop off and pick up their child.

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• The Youth Staff will distribute wristbands to all children 12 years of age and younger. These wristbands will indicate your muster station in bold letters and must be worn at all times. As parent/guardian, it is your responsibility to ensure that your child wears the wristband throughout the duration of the cruise.
• If at any time during the voyage, a child loses or breaks his/her wristband, replacement bands are available at Youth Facilities or Guest Services.
• If your child is participating in a supervised “sign-in” youth activity, in the unlikely event of an emergency, you will be reunited with your child at your assigned muster station. Upon hearing a “Crew Alert” announcement, all activities will stop, and children will be gathered and guided to their assigned muster station. At that time, parent/guardian must proceed to their staterooms (if safe to do so) to collect their life jacket, and that of their child’s, before proceeding to their assigned muster station.

Potty-Trained

Hours (time/activity may vary based on cruise itinerary).

•   Sea Days : There are limited times throughout the cruise for ‘Under 2' time. During these times, parents/guardians have the option of leaving their child in the care of the Youth Staff (fees apply: $8.00 AUD per hour per child) – or - they can stay and use the camp facility at no charge. This time is designated for the use of 'Under 2’s' and parents/guardians only. Check onboard for specific times offered. Hours may vary due to cruise itineraries.
• Port Days : While in port, parents/guardians have the option of leaving their child in the care of the Youth Staff (fees apply: $8.00 AUD per hour per child), however, we do not provide meal times for children Under 2.
• Evenings : Night Owls (babysitting fees apply: $8.00 AUD per hour per child). From 9:00pm-12:00am each evening in the Camp Ocean facility, a ‘slumber party’ type atmosphere, including movie time, toys and room service snacks. During this time, there will be children from other age groups (Ages 2-11) participating in Night Owls. Cribs are available if needed.

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Equipment for infants and toddlers.

• Per day: $12 AUD
• Per Voyage: $45 AUD
• A $75 AUD deposit is required which will cover if equipment is lost, damaged, broken or not returned in the same condition.
• Single Stroller - Kolcraft Cloud Plus Model #KL029-FRR1

TRAVELING WITH INFANTS AND TODDLERS

Making your cruise reservation, infant policy, baby food and formula, breast milk, breast feeding policy, nappies and baby supplies, high chairs and booster seats, strollers/prams, babysitting.

• Travel Documentation

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• Carnival's Youth Program Ages 2-11
• Carnival's Teen Program Ages 12-17
• Carnival's Youth Programs
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• Do you have drink packages or programs onboard?

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Carnival Child Care

By beckymomof2 , October 18, 2009 in Carnival Cruise Lines

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beckymomof2

We will be taking a 3 year old and a 5 year old on our next Carnival Cruise. I searched child care but the posts were mostly from a few years back. So I was wanting opinions of the child care provided. How you liked it (or didn't like it), how it worked our for your family? How the kids liked it? Etc?

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itchin2cruz

I can't speak for every child but I took my 3 year old on a cruise last year and he loved camp carnival. They keep them very busy with activities and fun stuff to do. they were great with him and when he was with us if he passed one of the camp carnival workers in the hallway or something they all took time to stop and greet him by name and talk to him. I was very impressed with them.

1timecruiser

But then he is very sociable and eager to meet new "friends" so it really depends on the child. He's 6 yrs old and accustomed to being around others at a very young age, whereas my BFF's son (7) isn't crazy about meeting others and not as sociable, even with my son at times.

When you register your children, you will be able to do several activities during the cruise with them (cookie decorating, team event), which will allow you to interact them in that environment giving them additional comfort. The counselors are GREAT and you'll be given an itinerary similar to capers on daily activities that give you pickup/drop off times when they take their breaks, and other information. The counselors are also good at answering any of your concerns to ease your mind.

We did the Welcome Aboard Family Dance Party w/Camp Carnival and my son was dancing in no time and I left him with no fears.

Try it out and if not, just adjust as we mom's do!! :)

Perhaps it'll help to know that all of the folks who work in Camp Carnival are professional educators...

I've never heard a bad comment about Camp Carnival with the exception of one woman who thought her 'genius' child needed to be with an older group of children...

mapman_2004

What are the hours of the kids clubs? It is hard to find on the website.

Troller's

We just came home yesterday from a 7 day Canada cruise on the Triumph. Our 3 year old son Stephen loved Camp Carnival! Every day all he wanted to do was go to camp. We felt a little guilty leaving him there for 3 hours on a sea day but he had a blast. The camp staff was great! Don't worry about packing any toys They have plenty! The kids did projects that they could bring home. There was face painting that Stephen never wanted to wash off. They played lots of games and at night there was story time with milk and cookies. Even the rest of the crew from the dining room staff, room stewards, bartenders and even the entertainers all went out of their way to make our son's cruise very special.

Of ten Carnival cruises with our kids, we had only one cruise where I was less than thrilled with the Camp Carnival staff. Overall, we've had a wonderful experience. They have good activities, the staff interacts well with the kids, and we've always felt very secure. They are strict about the sign in/sign out procedures.

mapman - The hours vary based on specific itineraries, but you can generally expect that on a sea day, Camp Carnival will be open around 9, then close for two hours at lunch, open again around 2, close around 4:30 or 5, then open at 6 for dinner and stay open until 3 a.m. There's a charge for Camp Carnival after 10 p.m. Dinner with Camp Carnival is available every night except the first night. I like the schedule - it's given us plenty of "family" time and "mom and dad" time.

Kingisacruiser

We were on the Miracle this summer, two of my children were 3 and 4 at the time and they absolutely loved Camp Carnival. They were always involved in some craft and kept busy. My son can be incorrigible (sp?) at times and the staff at Camp Carnival were able to "deal" with him. I thought the Camp staff would call me constantly but there was rarely a call from them. They really know how to engage the children. They are worth their weight in gold.

Also, check the boards under Family cruising and try to search for Cruisinmama06 who has links to Camp Carnival Capers in her signature. She also has a cruise review and has some thoughts on Camp Carnival on her cruise from Spring 09. I hope that is helpful.

How were they able to call you? I will be taking my 4 yr old son on my cruise in May so this makes me curious...

My understanding is you'll get a phone that they can call you on.

And Mapman, I just called Carnival yesterday to double check the hours, rates and any other conditions at the Camp Carnival, and I was told 10am - 10pm. After 10pm there's babysitting for $6/hour/child until 3am.

We just booked on the Valor in February with our 3 and 6 year old boys and I'm really excited about all the fun they'll have.

Question: Do the different age groups get to intermingle? My 6 year old wanted to know if he'll get to play with our 3 year old while they're in camp.

They give you a cellphone and it has a 4 digit number attached to it. It's an "old school" cell phone. Really big, kind of heavy. LOL. If they are calling you from the Camp Carnival room, it shows up as "Camp Carnival" on the caller ID. When they are calling you from somewhere else (e.g. the lido deck, where the kids eat dinner), it just shows a 4 digit number. You are supposed to take this phone with you everywhere as long as the kids are at Camp Carnival. You keep the phone in your possession for the duration of the cruise.

Based on the ages of the kids they may not get to mingle all of the time. I think it depends on the set up. On the Miracle, the first time i brought kids with me, the 2-5 year old age group was literally next door to the 6-8 yer old group. Actually, the two age groups could see each other. So, there were a few kids in the 2-5 year old age group that cried and their siblings were walked over to sit with them, if they were in the 6-8 year old group (I saw that a few times). At dinner, I think the kids could mingle also because the 2-5 year olds and the 6-8 year olds eat dinner together on the Lido deck. Although, they make the 6-8 year olds sit on one end of the table and the 2-5 year olds on the other end. I think they would allow it. If you ssearch for Cruisinmama06, she describes this exact situation in her review of the Carnival Triumph.

Our daughter has been with us on all five of our cruises, from age 5 to almost age 9. She's enjoyed all of them, though the last one the least. There were far fewer kids on board due to the time of year, and most of them were boys. She still had fun, just not as much as past cruises.

My baby girl was finally old enough to go to Camp Carnival on our last cruise. She was 3 and had never been away from me much. But she had a BLAST. Big sis was 7 and was in an attached room so she checked in on her a few times.

The best thing to do is go to their welcome party or open house or whatever. If your kids are like mine, just the sight of all the cool new (to them) toys leaves them begging to stay.

The staff at Camp Carnival is excellent. Even if we ran into a staff member somewhere else in the ship, they remembered the girls names!

I could barely get my kids to leave Camp Carnival, to be honest.:)

deborah grimes

My grand will just turn 1 when we cruise. I know they do not have camp carnival for her but do they have babysiting servce in the evenings for her age?

We LOVE Camp Carnival. Our 2 year old has been on 7 cruises. Yes, Carnival has babysitting for babies under two. Usually for 2 hours during the day (around lunch time), port days until noon, and then from10pm-3am. They put all the kids under 5 together. The staff is great.

spaceflower77

I'd forgotten until I read the above post but they do have under 2 babysitting and they also have times for family play in camp carnival just for babies, or they did on my last cruise anyway. I did not partake as I had bigger kids who LOVED CC. My DD was 3 at the time and my DS 8. They both spent a lot of time at CC and a lot of time with us... I agree with the poster who said it was a perfect mix of family time and mom/dad time. We took advantage of the PJ Party after 10, let them watch movies with CC and got them around 11.30 or so after we'd done grownup time in the adult spa, or gone to the casino.

The only thing I wish my kids had wanted to do more was dinner with CC -- the one night they did it our staff complained because they LIKED our kids and WANTED us to bring them to the MDR (crazy, right?). We liked our alone time, but our kids were actually really well behaved and preferred trying out new menu items, particularly my son who found out he LOVES calamari, es cargot and chocolate melting cake, but does not care for lobster (what?!). My DD on the other hand snuck the butter tub off the table and tried to eat it with her finger under the table. (Eck!)

We were thrilled with CC. And we got pagers, not cell phones, on the Conquest. I don't think it went off once. For anyone who's nervous about it I would recommend going with an open mind, participating in first day CC activities, including touring CC, meeting staff, going to the dance party and then look at your capers and see if there's something the kids want to participate in the next day and see how it goes. Worst case scenario you prefer to keep your kids the whole time and forego the CC experience -- still sounds like fun to me ;) Everyone is different, and that is why the program is set up in such a way that you can use it as much or as little as you like.

The only thing I wish my kids had wanted to do more was dinner with CC -- the one night they did it our staff complained because they LIKED our kids and WANTED us to bring them to the MDR (crazy, right?). We liked our alone time, but our kids were actually really well behaved and preferred trying out new menu items, particularly my son who found out he LOVES calamari, es cargot and chocolate melting cake, but does not care for lobster (what?!). My DD on the other hand snuck the butter tub off the table and tried to eat it with her finger under the table. (Eck!).

LOL, the only night our kids "let" us send them to Camp Carnival for dinner is when DH and I have "Mom and Dad's date night" at the supper club! They really have a good time with the other kids at the camp Carnival dinner, but they love the main dining room. Our youngest son has shrimp cocktail and caesar salad every night - and he always finds an entree he wants as well. And the wait staff dotes on the kids.

We just got off the Conquest Sunday. DD is 4 and begged to go back to Camp Carnival. We had to crash her vacation a few times and beg her to hang out with mom and dad. They do all kinds of great activities, some are family participation, like the Build a Bear program or the cookie eating and water wars games. DD came back with princess crowns she made, Funship Freddie tattoos, facepaints and a t shirt she colored herself. They do issue you a cell phone that you keep for the duration of your cruise. They will call you if your child becomes ill or wants to leave. They also check the phone to make sure the battery is good when you check them in and leave. I never saw a crying child there and the ladies working in there are very friendly. Give it a shot. If your kiddos dont like it they dont have to go.

cruiseaholic76

We took my then 2 1/2 year old son back in Jan on his first cruise and he loved going to the playroom and all the people that took care of him. He loved it so much that when it came time for dinner he got so upset because he wanted to go play and not be with us. I think the childcare and activites on Carnival are great for the kids.

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Guests With Disabilities

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FACILITIES AND SERVICES FOR GUESTS WITH DISABILITIES

At Carnival, we're dedicated to offering a fun and memorable cruise experience to all our guests. Our team of trained crew members provides attentive service and our ships have a variety of accessible features to ensure our guests with disabilities have a relaxing and enjoyable cruise. We are working on additional modifications to our ships and services to further enhance the guest experience. Look for updates to this page periodically for more details.

While we provide attentive service, we do not provide one-on-one personal care assistance, and all guests must be able to provide such care for themselves (e.g., performing personal tasks such as eating, dressing, toileting, bathing, and getting around the ship). Once on board, our crew will not provide any assistance with such personal tasks.

General Access

We've made substantial modifications to our ships, to help make them easier to navigate. Our ships feature accessible elevators at each elevator bank, equipped with both tactile controls within reach of guests who use wheelchairs and audible signals for guests who are blind or have limited vision.

Accessible routes are available throughout most areas of the ship and signs are posted to assist you in locating these pathways. Accessible tables are available in the dining venues of each ship. In addition to the main dining rooms, each ship offers a variety of accessible dining options within Lido Deck casual dining areas and other restaurant venues. 24-hour room service is also available for all our guests. Pool lifts are available on Carnival Celebration, Carnival Firenze, Carnival Freedom, Carnival Horizon, Carnival Jubilee, Carnival Miracle, Carnival Panorama, Carnival Paradise, Carnival Pride, Carnival Radiance, Carnival Sunrise, Carnival Venezia, Carnival Vista, and Mardi Gras, all of which have a 300 pound weight limit.

For each ship, diagrams of accessible routes, accessible staterooms*, and accessible public restrooms are available below. Use our accessible PDF deck plans to locate accessible rooms, while the interactive deck plans allow you to easily get more details about a particular room, including dimensions, when you search by room number.

* Carnival Celebration, Carnival Jubilee, Mardi Gras – Not all staterooms can accommodate scooters. If you are traveling with a scooter on one of these ships, please review your ship’s PDF accessible deck plan and confirm the stateroom you have selected accommodates your needs.

If you need general information about accessibility before you cruise, or have an ADA complaint, please call our Guest Access team at 1-800-438-6744 ext.70025, or 1800 072 670 ext. 70025 if calling from Australia. You can also email us at [email protected] . All post-cruise ADA concerns will be responded to within 30 days. Carnival's designated ADA Responsibility Officer is Clarisa Stollenwerck, Vice President, Guest Operations.

ACCESSIBLE STATEROOMS

Our ships have specially designed staterooms for guests using wheelchairs, or those who have mobility limitations and could benefit from the features of an accessible stateroom. We request our guests to acknowledge the need for the accessible stateroom by completing this Mobility Questionnaire , or one will be sent to you once the reservation has been secured and you have notified Carnival that you, or the person you are securing the stateroom for, requires the accessibility features of the stateroom.

If an accessible stateroom is booked by a guest who does not need the accessibility features in the stateroom, they may at any time be moved to a non-accessible stateroom in order to accommodate a guest with a disability.

We have four classifications of staterooms:

Fully Accessible Cabins (FAC) : These staterooms are designed for use by guests with highly limited mobility or no mobility, who require the regular use of a wheelchair, scooter or other similar assistive devices. FAC contain accessible elements including turning space, accessible routes throughout the stateroom and an accessible bathroom. Additionally, the bathrooms contain grab bars and shower seats.

Fully Accessible Cabins – Single Side Approach (FAC-SSA) : These staterooms are designed for use by guests with highly limited or no mobility, who require the regular use of a wheelchair, scooter or other similar assistive devices. FAC–SSA are a type of FAC that provide an accessible route and clear floor space on only one side of the bed, in staterooms configured to provide only one bed. In a stateroom configured to provide two beds, the clear floor space will be between the beds, with one side of each bed getting an accessible route. Additionally, these staterooms have an accessible bathroom that contains grab bars and shower seats.

Ambulatory Accessible Cabins (AAC) † : These staterooms are designed for use by guests with mobility limitations, who do not require the regular use of a wheelchair, scooter, or other similar assistive devices. For example, AAC are ideal for guests who only use an assistive device (like a cane or a walker) for traversing longer distances, and who may benefit from certain accessible features like grab bars, to assist with balance. Please keep in mind this type of stateroom has a step going into the bathroom and balcony (if applicable).

Standard Cabins † : These staterooms have an entry doorway measuring approximately 22" (55.9 cm), an 8" (20.3 cm) lip into the cabin bathroom, a 4" (10.2 cm) lip into the shower stall and a 7" (17.8 cm) lip to the balcony (if applicable). If an accessible stateroom is booked by a guest who does not need the accessibility features in the stateroom, they may at any time be moved to a non-accessible stateroom in order to accommodate a guest with a disability.

As with all Carnival reservations, staterooms within each category are assigned on a first-come, first-served basis. Therefore, it is advisable to reserve the appropriate stateroom in advance. If an accessible stateroom is booked by a guest who does not need the accessibility features in the stateroom, they may at any time be moved to a non-accessible stateroom in order to accommodate a guest with a disability.

† Carnival Celebration ® , Carnival Jubilee ™ , Mardi Gras ® – Not all staterooms can accommodate scooters. If you are traveling with a scooter on one of these ships, please review your ship’s PDF accessible deck plan and confirm the stateroom you have selected accommodates your needs.

PERSONAL MOBILITY DEVICES (WHEELCHAIRS/SCOOTERS/SEGWAYS)

We strongly encourage guests to inform us if they are traveling with wheelchairs/scooters at the time of booking, or as soon as the need is known, to ensure they have a stateroom that best accommodates their needs.

Due to safety considerations, mobility devices cannot be stored in corridors or public areas. In order to purchase a standard stateroom † , mobility devices must be able to fit through its 22" (55.9 cm) wide entry doorway, and must fold and collapse so when stored, allows for safe exit from the stateroom. Guests who bring scooters that are larger than 21" (53.34 cm) wide, or travel with multiple scooters in the same stateroom, must purchase a fully accessible stateroom with a wider doorway (32”, 81.3 cm), or rent a smaller scooter appropriately suited for their stateroom. Guests may be required to have their scooters sized at the time of check-in to ensure it fits in the stateroom. Scooters that do not fit in the stateroom will not be allowed on board. Should a guest be unable to make alternate arrangements to rent a smaller scooter or travel without it, he/she will be denied boarding and no compensation will be provided.

If bringing a scooter, please bring one that can collapse or fold so that it may be stored in the closet or underneath the vanity area. Once on board, guests may contact their room steward for assistance.

Only mobility devices operated with gel, dry cell, absorbed glass mat, or lithium-ion batteries will be allowed on board. Batteries must be charged in the guest's stateroom and for this reason, we recommend guests travel with a scooter that has removable batteries.

Guests must drive at a safe speed to ensure their own safety and the safety of others on board. Raised door thresholds are present throughout the ship, which need to be traversed with care. Careful attention must be paid when backing in and out of elevators as they are often in close proximity to the staircase and may be narrow and difficult to navigate.

Mobility devices cannot be left unattended in any venue area unless the guest is temporarily away attending an event and, the device is parked in an area that allows all guests safe exit from the venue. When in public areas, guests must maintain their device clear of any exits or fire doors and ensure it does not obstruct any fire or safety equipment.

Guests bringing a Segway must store it in their stateroom for use at ports of call only.

RENTAL SERVICES

AIRPORT TRANSFERS

North America Departures: For transportation from the airport to the cruise port, a hydraulic lift transfer is available for guests with mobility limitations. This service must be requested in advance. Hydraulic lifts have a maximum weight limit of 500 pounds (226 kg), including wheelchair/scooter and guest. Standard airport transfer charges apply; there is no additional cost for the lift. If you require this service, please let us know no later than 14 days prior to sailing. After booking your cruise, you can reserve your hydraulic lift transfer online, by accessing the Manage My Cruise page or by calling the Guest Services Contact Center at 1-800-438-6744 ext. 70025 or 1800-072-670 ext. 70025 if calling from Australia.

• Barcelona: +34 606-289-559
• Lisbon (Portugal): +351 917 630 855
• London (Dover): +44 798-988-1258
• Rome (Civitavecchia): +39 064-202-0498

WHEELCHAIR ASSISTANCE

Each terminal has a limited supply of wheelchairs used to transport guests on and off the ship, so we are unable to loan you our wheelchairs for the duration of the cruise. If you need wheelchair assistance for boarding the ship, please contact one of our representatives once you arrive at the cruise terminal. Assistance will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis. For assistance with debarkation, instructions on where to meet will be provided the last evening of your cruise.

Please note, all wheelchairs have a maximum guest weight limit of 325 pounds. For safety reasons, we are unable to provide wheelchair assistance to those who exceed the maximum weight limit and we reserve the right to deny assistance if the weight presents operational or safety concerns.

GOING ASHORE

Carnival is committed to accommodating its guests with disabilities so they can fully, yet safely, enjoy the ports of call. Guests wishing to disembark the vessel on their mobility device must be able to safely navigate the angle of the gangway while the ship is docked in port.

At certain ports of call, water shuttles are required to transport guests between the ship and shore. Whether guests with mobility limitations can board a water shuttle is subject to numerous factors, including weather and tidal conditions, which may affect the transfer from one moving vessel to another. Also, facilities in ports vary and, therefore, certain water shuttles may not be accessible to individuals using wheelchairs, scooters and other mobility devices. While the sea and wind conditions may be acceptable to safely board the water shuttle, fluctuations in the weather may make re-boarding to return to the ship dangerous. The final determination of whether any guest may board a water shuttle is made by the captain. Safety restrictions prohibit crew from carrying individuals on or off water shuttles.

In the event you are unable to go ashore, our shipboard team will have activities and entertainment for you to enjoy.

Ports Requiring Water Shuttles

* Limited availability of accessible water shuttles

** No accessible water shuttles available

*** Water shuttles sometimes required; varies by sailing. Based on local availability, accessible water shuttles may not be available.

If you require additional information or need assistance to ensure you have the best accommodations for your needs, please call our Guest Access team at 1-800-438-6744 ext.70025 or 1800 072 670 ext. 70025 if calling from Australia. You can also email us at [email protected] . All post-cruise ADA concerns will be responded to within 30 days. Carnival's designated ADA Responsibility Officer is Clarisa Stollenwerck, Vice President, Guest Operations.

Carnival makes available to all guests who require them a visual-tactile, cabin alert system that notifies room occupants of a door knock, a telephone call, the alarm clock, or a smoke-detection event. A TTY (teletypewriter) is also available to communicate with Guest Services, 24 hours a day.

A safety briefing video with open captions is televised in all staterooms throughout the cruise. Carnival-created TV content has closed captions. Additionally, when available through our service provider, closed captions are offered for certain in-stateroom TV programs and movies. Should you require closed captioning for our outdoor movies, please contact our Guest Services team once on board. Other important information can be found in the Fun Times (our daily newsletter).

Assistive listening headsets are available to amplify the sounds of live, onboard performances in our main show room. You may request them at Guest Services once on board.

Deaf or hard of hearing guests who use sign language as their primary means of communication may request a sign language interpreter. Sign language interpreters can be requested, on a shared basis, for cruises departing from and returning to a U.S port for the purpose of interpreting our main production shows, port and shopping presentations, and other major organized activities.

Please inform the Guest Access Department at the time of booking, or at your earliest possible convenience, if you need a sign language interpreter. A form will be sent to you, which must be completed and returned to us for the request to be processed. We will always make reasonable efforts to obtain a sign language interpreter at the time of the request. Since interpreters are subject to availability, a 60-day notice is strongly encouraged whenever possible. We are unable to take requests for a specific interpreter.

If you need general information about accessibility before you cruise, or have an ADA complaint, please call our Guest Access team at 1-800-438-6744 ext.70025 or 1800 072 670 ext. 70025 if calling from Australia. You can also email us at [email protected] . All post-cruise ADA concerns will be responded to within 30 days. Carnival's designated ADA Responsibility Officer is Clarisa Stollenwerck, Vice President, Guest Operations.

Braille signage, indicating stateroom numbers and public room names, is available on board our ships. The only Braille format document available, absent advance request, is our in-cabin 'Good to Know' Information Sheet.

Large print format is available for our daily newsletter (the Carnival Fun Times), dining room menus, and shore excursion information. We ask that you request large-print items prior to sailing, so we can have them ready for you upon arrival. Please send your request to [email protected] or you may call our Guest Access team at 1-800-438-6744 ext. 70025 or 1800 072 670 ext. 70025 if calling from Australia. We also provide an audible format of our Carnival Fun Times. Additional requests for large print information or alternate formats may be made at the Guest Services desk, once on board; however, there may be a delay if not requested prior to sailing.

Dining rooms menus can be provided in an electronic PDF file, readable via screen-reading software. Our dining team will also be happy to review the menu with you in detail. You can also access information directly on your phone via the Carnival HubApp.

Specific computers in the internet café are equipped with screen-reader software.

If you need assistance with the safety briefing or require an orientation of the ship’s layout, please contact Guest Services once on board. While we provide attentive service, we do not provide sighted guide services throughout your cruise.

Service dogs are welcome on board. For specific details and requirements, please click on the Service Dogs tab.

If you need general information about accessibility before you cruise, or have an ADA complaint, please call our Guest Access team at 1-800-438-6744 ext. 70025 or 1800 072 670 ext. 70025 if calling from Australia. You can also email us at [email protected] . All post-cruise ADA concerns will be responded to within 30 days. Carnival's designated ADA Responsibility Officer is Clarisa Stollenwerck, Vice President, Guest Operations.

Carnival works with parents or guardians to include children within the designated age ranges in the available youth programs. Each child's needs are assessed, on a case-by-case basis, to determine how she or he can be accommodated and integrated in the program to have a fully and equally enjoyable experience. Youth Programs rules and regulations still apply to all children, in terms of age policy, illness, hours of operation and acceptable conduct (unruly behavior) while in the program.

In order to participate in Carnival Youth Program activities, the parent/guardian will need to register their child for the program. When registering the child, the staff will work with the parents to determine what special assistance will help aid the Youth Staff in how to best serve the child while participating in the activities. Parents/guardians may choose to have their child move down one age group as an accommodation. No child who is 18 years or older can participate in Youth Programs. Carnival does not provide one-on-one attention, but the parent or assigned helper may stay and participate in the activities with the child.

Staff members are not to change diapers of children who are older than 5 years old and/or exceeding the diaper weight requirement due to the diaper changing table procedure and safety of child. Due to safety concerns, staff, and crew, cannot lift or carry guests.

Medical care consent is required to participate in youth programs. In the event your child requires regular medication while attending a Youth Programs activity, a parent/guardian must return to administer that medication. The Youth Staff will not administer any medication and/or needles to child participating in a Youth Programs activity, with the exception of epi-pens. Only epi-pens, self-using inhalers, self-administered diabetic testing equipment, self-administered insulin and glucose tablets are permitted in Youth Programs.

Supervised lunch with Youth Staff is scheduled for children ages 2-11, during port days only. Supervised dinner with Youth Staff is scheduled nightly (except embarkation night) for children ages 2-11. Since the Youth Staff is not able to provide one-on-one assistance, children will need to be able to feed themselves. In the event a child needs to be fed, the adult responsible for the child may remain with him/her during dinner or bring the child to activities following the dinner service. Special diets cannot be accommodated for meals served in Youth Programs. Kid’s menus are subject to change based on availability.

Carnival is the first cruise line to be certified “sensory inclusive” by KultureCity ® , a leading nonprofit for individuals with sensory and invisible disabilities (such as Autism, ADHD, Down Syndrome, PTSD, etc.). If a child with a sensory or cognitive need is cruising, you can meet with Guest Services to discuss any special accommodations. Youth Staff have different resources on hand to help soothe, calm and entertain children participating in our Youth Programs, such as weighted vests, conversation cards, sensory games and other aids.

“WE DEDICATE THIS TO ABSOLUTELY EVERYONE.”

KULTURECITY AWARDED CARNIVAL

THE 2022 HUMAN HIGHLIGHT AWARD

FIND OUT MORE

Carnival is the first cruise line to be certified "sensory inclusive" by KultureCity , a leading nonprofit dedicated to accessibility and inclusion for individuals with sensory and invisible disabilities.

All of Carnival’s guest-facing crew have been trained to understand and help guests with sensory/cognitive needs. The Guest Services and Youth Staff are ready to assist adults, youth and children with sensory-related questions or issues relating to conditions such as Autism, ADHD, Down Syndrome, PTSD, etc. KultureCity Sensory Bags can be checked out for the duration of the cruise (on a complimentary and first-come, first-served basis) by visiting Guest Services or one of our Youth programs. Each bag contains items to help calm, relax and manage sensory overload, and include comfortable noise-canceling headphones, fidget tools, a visual feeling thermometer, and a KultureCity VIP lanyard, to help the staff easily identify a guest.

These measures have been proven to be helpful to guests in a variety of venues including stadiums, arenas, amusement parks, and now Carnival ships!

Informational videos designed to create greater awareness among all guests, and featuring actor Christopher Gorham, a member of the KultureCity board of directors, are playing in our in-stateroom televisions.

If a guest with a sensory or cognitive need is cruising, the family should meet with Guest Services once they are on board to discuss any special accommodations, including a private safety briefing.

Youth staff has different resources on-hand to help soothe, calm and entertain children participating in our youth programs: such as weighted vests, conversation cards, sensory games, and other aids.

Carnival Cruise Line and KultureCity share a heartfelt commitment to acceptance and inclusivity. Working together, all guests can be the truest versions of themselves onboard a Carnival cruise ship.

MEDICAL CARE

In the event a guest requires medical attention while on board, our ships have medical facilities and staff to assist 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  In case of a serious medical emergency, where more comprehensive facilities are required, guests are referred to shoreside medical facilities. Our Medical Center cannot supply or refill prescriptions.

We strongly encourage guests to carry a copy of their medical records (e.g., a list of medical conditions, allergies, names, and medication dosages as well as the name and contact information of their physician).

For guests who are traveling with injectable medication and need a Sharps disposal container, please contact the Medical Center or the onboard Housekeeping staff. Some ships have staterooms equipped with mini-bars designed to maintain the temperature of beverages. Mini-bars are not to be used to store medications that have specific temperature requirements. Portable medi-coolers are available in limited quantities, and on a first-come, first-served basis with a refundable rental deposit required. If a cooler is not available, our Medical Center can assist guests with refrigeration needs (accessible during operating hours of the Medical Center only) or you may bring your own personal-size cooler for this purpose. Ships equipped with mini-bars are:

There are significant risks associated with undergoing dialysis during a cruise. Guests should be aware that our ships do not have kidney specialists or dialysis equipment and supplies available on board and our medical staff are not trained to perform dialysis.

We highly recommend that guests have been stable on their home dialysis treatments for a period of at least 12 months prior to sailing.

Considerations prior to cruising

Guests requiring peritoneal or hemodialysis, travel on our ships at their own risk. Guests traveling while on dialysis should consult with their nephrologist and provide them a copy of our risk acknowledgement letter prior to making any travel arrangements.

The ship does not carry a nephrologist onboard and timely availability of this specialty may be severely limited during the port visits. Any necessary medical care required by a specialist nephrologist will not be available while the ship is at sea.

Ships do not have back-up battery support for dialysis related equipment. In the event of a power outage on board, dialysis equipment requiring electricity may not be functional.

The risks to the guest who misses a scheduled dialysis treatment are very serious. The guest assumes additional risks when a ship is unable to make a scheduled port of call for operational reasons.

Among the many recognized risks dialysis patients may experience include pericarditis, cardiac tamponade, congestive heart failure, anemia, hemorrhage and death. Risks associated with peritoneal dialysis include infection, obstruction of the catheter, hemoperitoneum and metabolic complications. Recognized risks associated with hemodialysis include low blood pressure, bleeding, infection, clotting of the vascular access, and seizures.

Guests should be aware that charges apply for treatment in the ship’s medical center, which must be paid before disembarkation. An itemized bill will be provided which can be submitted to the guest’s travel or health insurance. Typically, standard trip travel interruption insurance does not cover medical costs.

We strongly suggest that guests contact their own health insurance to determine their benefits for medical providers outside of the United States, as well as available air-ambulance and repatriation benefits. Travelers are advised to purchase travel health insurance with defined out-of-country treatment and repatriation benefits, even if this coverage might be redundant.

Arrangements

Guests are expected to make all arrangements regarding dialysis, whether self-administered on board or at a shore side facility, and therefore take full responsibility for their arrangements, equipment and supplies.

For security reasons, the Guest Access Department must be advised of the type of supplies the guest is taking to the ship, the quantities of each, and the name of the medical/vendor supply company the guest will be using to transport supplies, no later than two weeks prior to sailing, in order for the ship’s security access systems to be updated. If a guest will be bringing their own supplies, it is important that they be hand-carried. Guests should not pack these supplies with their checked-in luggage.

The electrical outlets on all the ships are compatible with U.S. household standards: 110 volts/60 cycles, while our Australia-based ships offer one 230 volt/50 cycle powerpoint per cabin. If there are specific requirements for machinery (such as water intake), these must be communicated to the Guest Access Department as soon as possible. Medical waste receptacles can be provided for disposal of bio-hazardous waste.

Prior to the ship sailing, the guest must verify that all supplies and equipment are on board the ship and any equipment is fully functional in the stateroom. Failure to do so will prevent the guest from sailing. In the case of certain medical complications that cannot be treated onboard, you may be required to be disembarked to a medical facility ashore. The patient will be responsible for all medical expenses both on board and ashore.

If, after considering this information, a guest plans to sail with us while undergoing dialysis, they must send a fit to sail clearance letter from their nephrologist and a signed risk acknowledgement letter by e-mail to [email protected] . Failure to submit this form, along with the fit to sail letter from their nephrologist, 5 weeks prior to sailing will result in full cancellation with penalties.

The Medical Center is equipped with oxygen for emergency use ONLY. If you require the use of oxygen during your cruise, you must arrange for an adequate supply to be delivered to the ship on your sailing date. Please contact Guest Services once on board for proper storage of your oxygen. Guests are responsible for the pickup and delivery of their own oxygen. Please have your medical supply company contact us, otherwise port clearance may not be granted.

If you choose to bring your own personal supply of oxygen, you must hand carry it with you. Packing oxygen cylinders and/or tanks in your checked luggage is strictly prohibited, as is putting them through security x-ray machines. Please hand-carry your oxygen machines (BiPAP, CPAP, Concentrator, Nebulizer, etc.) and not place them in your checked luggage.

* Guests who use oxygen or depend on hemodialysis are welcome to cruise if sailing on itineraries of 15 nights or less.

Carnival can provide our guests with meals suited to the following special dietary needs: vegetarian, low-cholesterol, low-fat, low-carbohydrate, low-sugar, and gluten-free. Our chefs will make every effort to fulfill your requests, and will gladly prepare freshly-made options that meet your dietary needs. Once on board, we ask you speak with the headwaiter or dining room host in advance, so they can assist in planning your daily meals in the dining room. This will allow us the necessary time to prepare foods, as requested, in a timely manner.

Gluten-free pizza dough, pasta, bread for deli sandwiches, and hamburgers buns, as well as cake are available upon request. Plus, our frozen desserts and yogurt are gluten-free. All items are freshly prepared and may take a little longer than regular menu items. Gluten-free alcoholic beverages are available for your enjoyment on our U.S.-based ships.

Guests who require a different dining time than they chose when booking can change once on board the ship. Guests will be accommodated on a first-come, first-served basis.

Food Allergies

Our ships* are equipped with Menu Mate™ food ingredient program fleetwide to accommodate guests with food allergies. Easily operated on touch-screen tablets at food venues, the Menu Mate food ingredient program is powered by award-winning CertiStar software to mitigate the risks of allergic reactions. The new program is the first of its kind among major cruise lines. Our staff will ask guests about food allergies and enter any restrictions into the program. The software will then sort through all available options and display which items are allergen-free, which options can be modified to exclude the specified allergen and which selections should be avoided. If preferred, guests can also use the Menu Mate designated tablet themselves to enter in their own allergy/dietary information and then order from the options curated to meet their needs. Guests will also be able to find a Menu Mate tablet on display near the Lido buffet stations as well.

* Currently not available on Carnival Luminosa ® and Carnival Splendor ®

Other Dietary Needs

Although we do not have dietitians on board, we can offer assistance with simple requests such as the method of preparation of menu items. Diet requirements need to be arranged with the head waiter on the first night of the cruise. If dining in the Lido Restaurant, the guest should discuss requirements with senior dining staff.

If you need general information about accessibility before you cruise, or have an ADA complaint, please call our Guest Access team at 1-800-438-6744 ext. 70025 , or 1800 072 670 ext. 70025 if calling from Australia. You can also email us at [email protected] . All post-cruise ADA concerns will be responded to within 30 days. Carnival's designated ADA Responsibility Officer is Clarisa Stollenwerck, Vice President, Guest Operations.

The only dogs Carnival permits aboard our ships are working service dogs, which are legally defined and individually trained to meet disability-related needs by performing tasks like guiding a blind person, alerting a deaf person, pulling wheelchairs, alerting and protecting a person who is having a seizure, or performing other special tasks. Working service dogs are not pets.

Pets, or service dogs in training, are not allowed aboard. Emotional support dogs, which are not recognized by the US Department of Justice, are also not permitted on Carnival ships.

If you are traveling with a working service dog that meets the requirements described above, please review the following policies and procedures:

• Carnival is not responsible for limitations imposed on working service dogs by entities or shore excursion providers in foreign ports of call.
• Note that many of the ports you may visit will only accept annual rabies vaccinations and do not recognize three-year rabies vaccination.
• Mexican ports require service dogs to have received an ecto-parasite and endo-parasite treatment no more than 15 days prior to arrival to port and this information should be included in the dog’s health certificate. If you have any questions, please consult with your veterinarian.
• If your itinerary includes a visit to Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos Islands requires service dogs to travel with the necessary documentation (including an import license) regardless of whether or not the service dog will disembark in Grand Turk. Grand Turk also has breed restrictions as per their Dogs Control Ordinance 2014. No import license shall be issued for the restricted breeds. Any restricted breed service dog, or any service dog without all the proper documentation, will not be able to board the ship at embarkation.
• You must hand-carry (not packed in your baggage) all required documents, along with your working service dog’s current vaccination records. You will be asked to submit these records once aboard.

So that we may provide you with the additional information you will need in order to sail with your working service dog, please email our Guest Access Department at [email protected] , or call 1-800-438-6744 ext. 70025 or 1800 072 670 ext. 70025 if calling from Australia.

Facilities, services and accessibility across ports of call vary significantly and accessibility may not be available for shore excursions or in certain ports of call due to limited infrastructure and other factors. We want our guests with mobility limitations to be able to enjoy their time ashore, and where possible, we will do our best to secure accessible tours, but options may be limited or non-existent altogether. Facilities, services and transportation equipment outside the United States may not be required to be ADA compliant. Carnival is not responsible for accessibility in foreign ports of call or for restrictions imposed by shore excursion providers that are not owned by Carnival. Additionally, numerous factors including weather, tidal conditions, and other safety concerns can impact the ability for an accessible tour to be safely operated. In the event an accessible tour is deemed unsafe to operate in full or for an individual guest, a full refund for the tour will be extended.  

Detailed information is provided in the shore excursions section of carnival.com and carnival.com .au indicating the approximate amount of physical activity anticipated for the excursion, as well as which tours are wheelchair accessible. Carnival has a wide variety of onboard activities during every port stop, should guests decide not to disembark.

ACTIVITY LEVEL FOR SHORE EXCURSIONS

Guests can select the shore excursions best suited to their abilities, and we have added descriptions that provide a general idea of the level of activity to expect on each tour:

• Easy – May include relaxing or walking short distances over relatively level terrain. Comfortable shoes may be recommended.
• Moderate – May involve varying amounts of activity (long walks, rough terrain, basic water play). May not be recommended for guests with physical limitations. Comfortable, sturdy shoes are recommended.
• Difficult – Involves physical exertion for an extended period of time; can involve swimming and/or rough, uneven or steep terrain.
• Extreme – Involves intense physical exertion for an extended period of time.

We strongly recommend accessible shore excursions be pre-arranged prior to your cruise. However, if you need assistance once on board, please visit our Shore Excursions Desk and specify your accommodations needed. Accessible tours are available in certain destinations only, and our shore excursion staff can provide you with suggestions. Motor coaches and other forms of transportation may require you to climb 2 to 3 steps. Most, but not all motor coaches, can accommodate collapsible wheelchairs. Where available, we require a minimum of 24-hour notice for accessible transportation to be arranged. Vehicles, ramps and lifts may vary depending upon the port and availability. For safety reasons, staff is not able to lift guests into or out of vehicles. Specific dietary requirements cannot be guaranteed on shore excursions.

Shore excursion providers operating within the U.S. and its territories are responsible for providing effective communication. Tours operating in foreign ports may not provide auxiliary aids and services, depending on local law and availability. In non-U.S. ports where guided narrated tours are available but the operator does not provide an interpreter, and the interpreter provided by Carnival Cruise Line elects to participate in the excursion, we will make every attempt to secure a complimentary tour ticket for the interpreter. However, if we are unable to do so, you may purchase the tour for the interpreter or forgo interpreter’s services. Please notify us in advance so we can coordinate the necessary accommodation.

Carnival is not responsible for limitations imposed on working service dogs by independent entities or shore excursion providers in foreign ports of call.

If you have additional questions specifically regarding an accessible tour that is offered, you may email our shore excursion team at [email protected] .

Hello everyone! You're welcome here.

We are proud to welcome guests with disabilities aboard our ships and have worked hard to make sure carnival.com works well for visitors of all levels of ability. This means that however you access the Internet (whether using assistive technologies like screen readers, screen magnifiers or keyboard navigation, etc.), you can expect our website to give you the best experience possible, following best practices and stringent WCAG 2.0 AA standards as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Contact us if you have any questions or concerns.

If you have any issues accessing carnival.com using assistive technologies, we'd like to hear about it! You can contact us via email at [email protected] . When writing to us about your issue, please include pertinent information that will help us replicate the issue, including the device, web browser, and accessibility software you're using, plus the specific address (URL) of page(s) on carnival.com that aren't working as expected for you.

Do you have accessible routes on your ships?

Accessible routes are available throughout most areas of the ship and signs are posted to assist you in locating these pathways. Accessible tables are available in the dining venues of each ship. In addition to the main dining rooms, each ship offers a variety of accessible dining options within Lido Deck casual dining areas and other restaurant venues. 24-hour room service is also available for all of our guests.

For each ship, diagrams of accessible routes, accessible staterooms, and accessible public restrooms are available.

Please see our Accessibility Aboard section for more details and deck plans.

Do you have accessible staterooms on your ships?

We have three classifications of accessible staterooms. In order to determine which type of accessible stateroom meets your needs, please review the features of each type listed below.

Fully Accessible Cabins (FAC): These staterooms are designed for use by guests with highly limited mobility, who require the regular use of a wheelchair, scooter or other similar assistive device. Fully Accessible Cabins contain accessible elements including turning space, accessible routes throughout the stateroom and an accessible bathroom. Additionally, the bathrooms contain grab bars and shower seats.

Fully Accessible Cabins – Single Side Approach (FAC-SSA): These staterooms are designed for use by guests with highly limited or no mobility, who require the regular use of a wheelchair, scooter or other similar assistive device. Fully Accessible Cabins – Single Side Approach are a type of FAC that provide an accessible route and clear floor space on only one side of the bed, in staterooms configured to provide only one bed. In a stateroom configured to provide two beds, the clear floor space will be between the beds, with one side of each bed getting an accessible route. Additionally, these staterooms have an accessible bathroom that contains grab bars and shower seats.

Ambulatory Accessible Cabins (AAC): These staterooms are designed for use by guests with mobility limitations, who do not require the regular use of a wheelchair, scooter, or other similar assistive device. For example, Ambulatory Accessible Cabins are ideal for guests who only use an assistive device (like a cane or a walker) for traversing longer distances, and who may benefit from certain accessible features, like grab bars, to assist with balance. This type of stateroom has a step in the bathroom and balcony (if applicable).

If you require additional information or need assistance to ensure you have the best accommodations for your needs, please call our Guest Access team at 1-800-438-6744, ext. 70025 or 1800 072 670 ext. 70025 if calling from Australia. You may also email us at [email protected] .

How do I know if I'm reserving the correct type of accessible cabin (FAC, FAC-SSA, or AAC)?

Selecting the best type of accessible cabin is based on the guest's level of mobility.

Guests with highly limited or no mobility, who require the regular use of a wheelchair, scooter or other similar assistive device would benefit from the features of either a Fully Accessible Cabin (FAC) or a Fully Accessible Cabin – Single Side Approach (FAC-SSA) .

Guests with mobility limitations who do not require the regular use of a wheelchair, scooter, or other similar assistive device would benefit from the features of an Ambulatory Accessible Cabin , which include grab bars. This type of stateroom has a step into the bathroom and balcony (if applicable).

If you require additional information or need assistance to ensure you have the best accommodations for your needs, please call our Guest Access team at 1-800-438-6744 ext. 70025 or 1800 072 670 ext. 70025 if calling from Australia. You may also email us at [email protected] .

How can I be sure to receive an accessible stateroom?

As with all Carnival reservations, staterooms are based on availability within each category and are assigned on a first come, first serve basis. Therefore, it is advisable to reserve an accessible stateroom in advance. Please review all the information that is sent to you to ensure the stateroom you selected meets your needs.

What assistance do you provide guests with mobility limitations getting on and off the ship?

Wheelchair assistance is available at home ports for getting on and off the ship.

Do you rent wheelchairs or scooters for use on board?

Guests who require the regular use of a wheelchair/scooter or other mobility device are encouraged to bring their own or rent from our preferred vendor, Scootaround, if they are sailing from a US port.

Wheelchairs on board are for emergency use only and are limited in size and quantity.

Do you provide accessible transfers from the airport to the cruise port?

For guests with mobility limitations who wish to purchase our transfer services to and from the airport, a hydraulic lift transfer service is available and needs to be requested no later than 14 days prior to sailing.

Hydraulic lifts have a maximum weight limit of 500 pounds (226 kg), including wheelchair/scooter and guest. Standard airport transfer charges apply; there is no additional cost for the lift.

After booking your cruise, you can reserve your hydraulic lift transfer online, by accessing the Manage My Cruise page or by calling the Guest Services Contact Center at 1-800-438-6744 ext. 70025 or 1800 072 670 ext. 70025 if calling from Australia.

What are the requirements for bringing a personal mobility device on board?

Due to safety considerations, devices cannot be stored in corridors or public areas. In order to purchase a standard stateroom, devices must be able to fit in its 22" (55.9 cm) wide entry doorway, and when stored, must allow for safe exit from the stateroom.

Guests, who bring scooters that are larger than 21"  (53.3 cm) wide, or travel with multiple scooters in the same stateroom, must purchase a fully accessible stateroom with a wider doorway (32" or 82.3 cm), or rent a smaller scooter appropriately suited for their stateroom.

Guests may be required to have their scooters sized at the time of check-in to ensure it fits in the stateroom. Scooters that do not fit in the stateroom will not be allowed on board. Should a guest be unable to make alternate arrangements to rent a smaller scooter or travel without it, he/she will be denied boarding and no compensation will be provided.

Guests must be prepared to collapse their device so it can be safely stored in a way that allows for safe exit from their stateroom. If bringing a scooter, please bring one that can collapse or fold so that it may be stored in the closet or underneath the vanity area. Once on board, guests may contact their room steward for assistance.

Guests wishing to disembark the vessel on their device must also be able to safely navigate the angle of the gangway while the ship is docked in port. Additionally, if the ship is calling on a water shuttle port, the captain will make a determination as to whether guests may disembark with their device, given prevailing maritime conditions and water shuttle limitations.

Mobility devices cannot be left unattended in any venue area unless the guest is temporarily away attending an event, and the device is parked in an area that allows all guests safe exit from the venue. When in public areas, guests must maintain their device clear of any exits or fire doors and ensure it does not obstruct any fire or safety equipment.

Where can I store my personal mobility device?

Due to safety considerations, devices can only be stored inside their stateroom. Devices cannot be stored in corridors or public areas.

In order to purchase a standard stateroom, devices must be able to fit in its 22" (5.3 cm) wide entry doorway, and when stored, must allow for safe exit from the stateroom. Guests who bring scooters that are larger than 21" wide, or travel with multiple scooters in the same stateroom, must purchase a fully accessible stateroom with a wider doorway (32" or 81.3 cm) or rent a smaller scooter appropriately suited for their stateroom.

Guests must be prepared to collapse their device so it can be safely stored in a way that allows for safe exit from their stateroom. If bringing a scooter, please bring one that can collapse or fold so that it may be stored in the closet or underneath the vanity area.

What if my personal mobility device does not fit through my stateroom door?

What are the requirements for guests traveling alone with disabilities.

We do not require that a guest with a disability travel with another person as a condition for traveling on our ships. However, we do not provide one-on-one personal care assistance, and all guests must be able to provide such care for themselves (e.g., performing personal tasks such as eating, dressing, toileting, bathing, and getting around the ship). Once on board, our crew will not provide any assistance with such personal tasks.

Do you provide wheelchair push assistance onboard?

Personal wheelchair push assistance service is not provided while on board or in ports of call.

Are personal mobility devices allowed to go ashore in ports of call?

Guests wishing to disembark the vessel on their device must be able to safely navigate the angle of the gangway while the ship is docked in port. Additionally, if the ship is calling on a water shuttle port, the captain will make a determination as to whether guests may disembark with their device, given prevailing maritime conditions and water shuttle limitations.

Are the ports of call accessible for those with mobility limitations?

Facilities across ports of call vary significantly and accessibility may not be available in certain ports of call due to limited infrastructure and other factors. Facilities, services and transportation equipment in non-U.S. ports may not be required to be ADA compliant. In the event you are unable to disembark, Carnival has a wide variety of onboard activities during every port stop should guests decide not to disembark.

Are accessible shore excursions available?

We want our guests with mobility limitations to be able to enjoy their time ashore, and where possible, we will do our best to secure accessible tours, but options may be limited or non-existent altogether.

Detailed information is provided in the shore excursions section of carnival.com, indicating the approximate amount of physical activity anticipated for the excursion, as well as which tours are wheelchair accessible.

Are service dogs allowed on board?

Carnival is happy to welcome working service dogs on board. Service dogs are legally defined and individually trained to meet disability-related needs by performing tasks like guiding a blind person, alerting a deaf person, pulling wheelchairs, alerting and protecting a person who is having a seizure, or performing other special tasks. Service dogs are not pets.

Please see our Service Animal section for more details about our service animal policies.

What are the requirements for traveling with a working service dog?

What type of relief area will my service dog have on board.

A relief area in a non-guest traffic area of the ship using Second Nature Dog Litter will be set up on board by our team.

Should you prefer another material, we ask that you bring it along and provide the Guest Access Department with this information, pre-cruise.

What happens if my service dog is not allowed to disembark at a port of call?

Are emotional support dogs allowed on board.

Emotional support dogs, which are not recognized by the US Department of Justice, are not permitted on Carnival ships. Pets, or service dogs in training, are also not allowed aboard. We do, however, welcome working service dogs, which are legally defined and individually trained to meet disability-related needs by performing tasks like guiding a blind person, alerting a deaf person, pulling wheelchairs, alerting and protecting a person who is having a seizure, or performing other special tasks.

Do you provide Braille formatted material on board?

Do you provide large print formatted material on board.

Large print format is available for our daily newsletter (the Carnival Fun Times), dining room menus, and shore excursion information.

We ask that you request large print items prior to sailing so we can have them ready for you upon arrival. Please send your request to [email protected] or you may call our Guest Access team at 1-800-438-6744, ext. 70025 or 1800 072 670 ext. 70025 if calling from Australia.

Additional requests for large print information or alternate formats may be made at the Guest Services desk, once on board; however, there may be a delay if not requested prior to sailing.

Dining rooms menus can be provided in an electronic PDF file readable via screen reading software. Our dining team will also be happy to review the menu with you in detail.

You can also access information directly on your phone via the Carnival HubApp.

Do you provide alert systems for guests who are deaf or hard of hearing?

Carnival makes available to all guests who require them a visual-tactile, cabin alert system that notifies room occupants of a door knock, a telephone call, the alarm clock, or a smoke-detection event. A TTY (teletypewriter) is also available to communicate with Guest Services, 24 hours a day. Please notify us in advance should you need an alert system for your stateroom.

Do you have closed captions?

A safety briefing video with open captions is televised in all staterooms throughout the cruise.

Carnival-created TV content has closed captions. Additionally, when available through our service provider, closed captions are offered for certain in- stateroom TV programs and movies. Should you require closed captioning for our outdoor movies, please contact our Guest Services team once on board.

Do you offer assisted audio devices in the Main Lounge?

Do you offer sign language interpreter services.

Guests who are deaf or hard of hearing, who use sign language as their primary means of communication may request a sign language interpreter. Sign language interpreters can be requested, on a shared basis, for cruises departing from and returning to a U.S port for the purpose of interpreting our main production shows, port and shopping presentations, and other major organized activities.

Do you accommodate food allergies?

We ask that you please inform the Maître d' directly as well as your dining team of any food allergies and special preparation you may require to accommodate your allergy. Please discuss this the first evening of your cruise.

Although there are a number of options at our various restaurants, special dietary and food requests can be accommodated in our main dining rooms only.

Can I bring my own pre-packaged food or drinks in order to accommodate a food allergy or specific dietary need?

Due to concerns for food safety and contamination prevention, any food items brought on board must be pre-packaged and unopened. Homemade items or pre-cooked foods are not allowed. We are unable to provide food preparation, refrigeration or storage for personal food or beverage items.

Due to medical needs, guests may bring pre-packaged, frozen meals and certain beverages (Ensure, etc.). However, we need to know in advance to coordinate boarding of the pre-approved items. If pre-approval is not provided, prohibited items will be confiscated on embarkation day.

Please contact our Guest Access department so we can discuss your plans in advance. The Guest Access team can be reached by phone at 1-800-438-6744, ext. 70025, 1800 072 670 ext. 70025 if calling from Australia or via email at [email protected] .

Can I bring a blender to make my own food to accommodate a food allergy or specific dietary need?

Please contact our Guest Access team in advance of your cruise to discuss an accommodation. We do not allow professional industrial grade blenders due to the high voltage. However, we can permit (with approval) items such as a NutriBullet and Magic Bullet. If pre-approval is not provided, prohibited items will be confiscated on embarkation day.

Do you offer gluten-free food and drink options?

Can children with disabilities participate in youth program activities.

Carnival works with parents or guardians to include all children within the designated age ranges in the available youth programs.

Each child's needs are assessed, on a case-by-case basis, to determine how she or he can be accommodated and integrated in the program to have a fully and equally enjoyable experience.

In order to participate in Carnival youth program activities, the parent or guardian will need to register their child for the program. When registering the child, the staff will work with the parents to determine what special assistance will help aid the youth staff in how to best serve the child while participating in the activities. Parents may choose to have their child move down one age group as an accommodation to a disability. No child who is 18 years can participate in youth programs.

Youth programs rules and regulations still apply to all children, in terms of age policy, illness, hours of operation and acceptable conduct (unruly behavior) while in the program.

Does Carnival provide one-on-one attention for children with disabilities?

Carnival does not provide one-on-one attention, but the parent or assigned helper may stay and participate in the activities with the child. Due to safety concerns, staff and crew cannot lift or carry guests. Parents of children who are unable to feed themselves should remain with the child during meal times. Special diets cannot be accommodated for meals served in Carnival youth programs. Kids' menus are subject to change based on availability.

What do you offer for individuals with sensory and invisible disabilities?

All of Carnival's guest-facing crew have been trained to understand and help guests with sensory/cognitive needs. The Guest Services and Youth Staff are ready to assist adults, youth and children with sensory-related questions or issues relating to conditions such as Autism, ADHD, Down Syndrome, PTSD, etc. KultureCity Sensory Bags can be checked out for the duration of the cruise (on a complimentary and first-come, first-served basis) by visiting Guest Services or one of our Youth programs. Each bag contains items to help calm, relax and manage sensory overload, and include comfortable noise- canceling headphones, fidget tools, a visual feeling thermometer, and a KultureCity VIP lanyard, to help the staff easily identify a guest.

Do you offer oxygen for purchase?

If you require the use of oxygen during your cruise, you must arrange for an adequate supply to be delivered to the ship on your sailing date. The Medical Center is equipped with oxygen for emergency use ONLY.

Please contact Guest Services once on board for proper storage of your oxygen. Guests are responsible for the pickup and delivery of their own oxygen. Please have your medical supply company contact us, otherwise port clearance may not be granted.

If you choose to bring your own personal supply of oxygen, you must hand- carry it with you. Packing oxygen cylinders and/or tanks in your checked luggage is strictly prohibited, as is putting them through security x-ray machines. Please hand-carry your oxygen machines (BiPAP, CPAP, Concentrator, Nebulizer, etc.) and not place them in your checked luggage.

Do you offer CPAP machine for rental?

You must bring your own equipment on board for personal use. Please hand- carry these items and do not place them in your checked luggage.

Do you offer distilled water?

Carnival carries distilled water which can be purchased either pre-cruise if you are sailing from a US port, or once on board. For pre-purchase, please contact our Fun Shops department at 1-800-522-7648 ext. 70039, Monday-Sunday from 9:00am-9:00pm ET. For purchase on board, please contact Room Service. Should you wish to bring your own distilled water with you, it must be hand-carried along with your CPAP machine.

Do you offer extension cords?

It is recommended that you bring your own extension cord to accommodate your equipment comfortably.

There is one electrical outlet in each stateroom located in the area of the desk/vanity. The outlet is equipped with a 3-prong 110 volt (North America Grounded) and a 220 volt (Europe/German-Style). Our Australia-based sips offer one Australian powerpoint in each stateroom.

Do you offer sharps disposal containers?

For guests who are traveling with injectable medication and need a sharps disposal container, please contact the Medical Center or the onboard Housekeeping staff.

Do you offer storage for medication?

A small, personal-sized cooler no larger than 12" x 12" x 12" (30.5 cm x 30.5 cm x 30.5 cm) for the purpose of housing medications is permitted as carry-on luggage.

Portable medi-coolers are available in limited quantities, and on a first come, first serve basis with a refundable rental deposit required. If a cooler is not available, our Medical Center can assist guests with refrigeration needs (accessible during operating hours of the Medical Center only).

Some ships have staterooms equipped with mini-bars designed to maintain the temperature of beverages only. Mini-bars are not to be used to store medications that have specific temperature requirements.

Who can I contact for accessibility related concerns or questions?

We strongly suggest you communicate any needs to our team before you cruise so that we can do our best to meet any accommodations. If you need general information about accessibility, please call our Guest Access team at 1-800-438-6744 ext.70025, 1800 072 670 ext. 70025 if calling from Australia, or email us at [email protected] .

Once on board, you can request to speak to the Guest Services Manager.

No kidding: These 12 cruises are the perfect multigenerational family vacation option

T he launch of Disney Cruise Line in 1998 was a game changer for family cruises. Now in its third decade of operation, Disney Cruise Line consistently tops the list of best cruise lines for families. And its newest ship (for now), Disney Wish , is unquestionably one of the best cruise ships for kids ever made. But Disney isn't the only major player in the family cruising space. 

A host of other cruise lines, including Carnival Cruises , Princess , Norwegian , MSC , and Royal Caribbean , have helped usher in a new era of family vacations on cruise ships with amenities like kids clubs, water parks, stage shows, theatrical dining experiences, reduced fares for young children, and even kids sail free deals . And because the best cruise ships for kids are also great for grownups , you have plenty of options when it comes to the best family cruises. 

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1. Disney Wish

Disney Cruise Line

The sheer volume of onboard entertainment options for families on Disney Cruise Line's newest ship, Disney Wish , takes things to a whole new level. From action-packed dinner-and-a-show experiences like Worlds of Marvel and Arendelle: A Frozen Dining Adventure to the Star Wars: Hyperspace Lounge , and Incredibles-themed inflatable obstacle course , you'll never run out of things to do. 

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Sailings on the Disney Wish also include a stop at Disney’s private island, Castaway Cay , which is always a highlight of any family cruise. Castaway Cay’s family beach is a great place for swimming, and you can rent bikes, kayaks, and snorkeling gear to see colorful tropical fish and perhaps even a sea turtle munching on seagrass.

2. Disney Magic

While every ship in the Disney Cruise Line fleet has a claim to be among the best family cruises, the original DCL family cruise ship deserves a special mention: Disney Magic is the ship that launched Disney Cruise Line in 1998, and with DCL's constant improvements and upkeep, the ship doesn’t feel outdated at all. Pirates, princesses, superheroes, and a thrilling water slide with a three-story drop are just a few of the fun features that make this a kid-favorite ship on one of the best cruise lines for families. In 2013, Disney added the AquaDunk high-speed thrill slide and Marvel Avengers Academy kids club. In 2018, a Tangled dinner theater restaurant made its debut. 

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As one of the smaller ships in the Disney Cruise Line fleet, Disney Magic can be a less overwhelming experience for younger kids and first-time cruisers, especially given the trend among family cruises to be bigger and louder with every new ship. (The fabulous Disney Wonder is similarly sized.) But there's more than one reason to consider a Disney Magic voyage in 2024. This year, the ship will be the first to sail to Disney Cruise Line’s newest private island destination, Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point , in the Bahamas.

3. Disney Treasure

Making its debut in December 2024, Disney Cruise Line's sixth ship will be called Disney Treasure and it will be the ship for fans of the Disney theme parks. Venues inspired by classic attractions such as the Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise, and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea are among the highlights to look forward to when the ship sets sail. The sister ship of Disney Wish will also have a high-tech Worlds of Marvel dinner show and a theater-in-the-round dining experience, this time themed to Pixar’s Coco. 

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Disney Treasure will also feature a brand-new original Broadway-style production called "Disney The Tale of Moana" in the Walt Disney Theatre. Other shows performed on board will include "Beauty and the Beast" and "Disney Seas the Adventure." Best of all, Disney Treasure will sail seven-night itineraries to both the Eastern Caribbean and Western Caribbean. That means you can enjoy two distinct dinner shows in the Worlds of Marvel and Plaza de Coco restaurants, and all of the Broadway-style shows on stage during one family cruise. 

4. Icon of the Seas

Royal Caribbean

A brand-new class of ship is heading to North America in 2024, and it starts with Royal Caribbean's Icon of the Seas in January. Among the many firsts for Icon of the Seas is the AquaDome, the largest glass and steel structure on any cruise ship, seven pools, six record-breaking waterslides, eight separate neighborhoods, 40 ways to drink and dine, four stages, and a three-level ultimate family townhouse. The innovative AquaDome is a peaceful oasis during the day and a vibrant hotspot at night with a 55-foot-tall water curtain and AquaTheater that debuts performances with divers, skateboarders, and robots. 

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Thrill-seekers will love Category 6, the largest waterpark at sea with six waterslides. There's also the Crown’s Edge, which is part skywalk, part ropes course, and 100 percent thrill ride where you can dangle 154 feet above the ocean. And, of course, you'll also find the Royal Caribbean staple FlowRider surf simulator and the Lost Dunes mini golf course. Those looking to take it easy should head to Chill Island, which features four pools spread over three decks with sweeping ocean views.

Fans of Royal Caribbean will enjoy the Royal Promenade with 15 restaurants, bars, and lounges; Central Park's open-air neighborhood filled with live plants and trees; and Surfside, the first neighborhood designed specifically for young families. The ship's seven-night Eastern and Western Caribbean family cruises all stop at Perfect Day at CocoCay , the line’s award-winning private island. Families will find an array of activities on Perfect Day at CocoCay, such as its beaches and freshwater pool (included) and an expansive water park and zip line (available for an extra charge).

5. Wonder of the Seas

Royal Caribbean's Oasis-class ships debuted in early 2022 and instantly ignited buzz that they might be the most kid-friendly cruise ships in the entire world. At 1,188 feet long and 18 decks tall, there's plenty of room for families to spread out and find entertainment onboard the Wonder of the Seas . Two dedicated private teen spaces onboard make vacationing with teenagers a little easier. In fact, teens aged 16 and up can even enjoy a massive teens-only hot tub that literally protrudes over the edge of the ship on Wonder of the Seas' deck 15. 

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Grade school kids and even the littlest ones have it pretty great, too. For big kids, there’s an enormous multiple-deck play area called Wonder Playscape . For the youngest passengers, there's the Adventure Ocean play area full of soft toys and games for toddlers. And a playground with climbing equipment gives them a space to work off their energy. Wonder of the Seas also has the most amazing family suites around. They come complete with two levels of space, an in-suite slide, table tennis, and plenty of room for the whole family.

6. Oasis of the Seas

When it launched in 2009, Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas was the largest ship in the world, accommodating more than 5,500 passengers per voyage and cementing the line's place among the best cruise lines for families. After a reimagining 10 years later, Oasis of the Seas is still a popular option for family cruises in 2024 with its Caribbean-inspired pool deck, rock climbing walls, and Perfect Storm trio of multistory waterslides. Among the many reasons that make Royal Caribbean one of the best cruise lines for families is that its Symphony of the Seas builds upon the strengths of the line’s other Oasis Class ships. 

7. Norwegian Viva

Norwegian Cruise Line

What makes Norwegian one of the best cruise lines for families? For one thing, you’ll never hear "I’m bored" from kids. And with its three-story race track, two escape rooms, The Rush and The Drop dry slides, The Wave waterslide, immersive virtual reality games, Topgolf simulator, mini golf, waterpark, splash ground, and kids’ clubs, your family’s biggest problem on the Norwegian Viva might just be deciding how to balance all the activities with quiet relaxation. 

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The Norwegian Viva arrived in North America in December 2023 and offers Caribbean cruises from San Juan, Puerto Rico, in early 2024 before heading to Europe through November. The ship's Observation Lounge has panoramic 180-degree views to soak in the scenery or take Insta-worthy photos on Oceanwalk’s glass walkway. After playing the day away in port or on the ship, your family can enjoy dinner followed by a live performance of Beetlejuice: The Musical, based on the cult-classic Tim Burton film.

8. Carnival Panorama

Carnival Cruise Line

One of Carnival Cruise Line ’s newer ships, the Carnival Panorama 's many kid-friendly features have already made it one of the best cruises for families. The Panorama has supervised kids programs in three different age categories, a massive aqua park, the popular SkyRide aerial attraction, SkyCourse ropes course, and the first SkyZone trampoline park at sea. 

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In addition, Carnival's exclusive partnership with Dr. Seuss Enterprises provides "Seuss at Sea" experiences on family cruise vacations, such as Dr. Seuss Bookville, Green Eggs and Ham Breakfast, and the Seuss-a-palooza Parade. Based in Los Angeles, Carnival Panorama sails week-long round-trip cruises to the Mexican Riviera in 2024.

9. Caribbean Princess

Princess Cruises

Made famous by the classic '80s TV series "The Love Boat," Princess Cruises now hosts more than two million passengers each year. Kid-friendly Caribbean Princess underwent an extensive renovation in 2017 that boosted its family offerings to include Camp Discovery Youth and Teen Center, HD Movies Under the Stars, and the Reef Family Splash Zone (the line's first splash zone at sea). 

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Caribbean Princess will be 20 years old in 2024, but another extensive drydock refurbishment in 2022 has kept the ship from feeling dated. Other features that earn the Caribbean Princess a spot on my list of best family cruises include its partnership with Discovery Inc. for "Discovery at SEA" activities, which feature Animal Planet and Discovery Channel programming, the Stanley the Bear experience, and JrChef@Sea cooking classes. In summer 2024, Caribbean Princess heads to Southampton for a series of European cruises before heading back to Florida.

10. MSC Meraviglia

Unless you're a hardcore cruise family, MSC Cruises might be the largest cruise line you’ve never heard of. One of the leading cruise lines in Europe, South America, and other parts of the world, MSC is working hard to get a foothold in North America by offering great deals on family cruises. These include kids ages 18 and under sailing free on select departures , and young children ages two and under always sailing free. 

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Family-friendly MSC Meraviglia launched in 2017 and it features seven different kids’ clubs for children from babies to age 17. Teens have their own space with a cinema, game room, and live stage. And Meraviglia’s Polar Aquapark has three different waterslides, including a high-speed “champagne flute,” that easily make it one of the best cruises for families. Families can play together in the vast entertainment area that includes an MSC Formula One Racing Simulator, a full-sized bowling alley with two lanes, an interactive XD cinema, a flight simulator, and a video games arcade. There’s also a Sportsplex facility for basketball, tennis, squash, volleyball, pickleball, mini golf, and five-a-side soccer.

11. MSC Seascape

MSC Cruises

The U.S. flagship of the MSC Cruises brand, MSC Seascape was designed with families in mind and offers plenty of options for onboard entertainment. The cruise line's partnership with LEGO includes a DUPLO room for children ages three to six and a second LEGO room for kids ages seven to 11 with the opportunity to earn a LEGO Master Builder certificate. Teens have three different themed areas to engage with their peers. 

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You have to check out Robotron on these family cruises. Robotron is a robotic arm ride that sends you 173 feet above the sea, giving you a unique 360-degree view as you're moved in different directions and flipped upside down. At night, Robotron offers a personalized DJ experience where you can curate your musical journey with colors and music preferences. 

MSC Seascape sails from Miami on the Bahamas and Caribbean family cruises, including a visit to MSC Cruises' private Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve. Ocean Cay features two miles of white sand beaches and a variety of family-friendly activities such as snorkeling, stand-up paddleboarding, kayaking, and swimming. Some family cruises dock overnight at Ocean Cay, allowing you to watch the spectacular Lighthouse light show.

12. Celebrity Equinox

Celebrity Cruises

An upscale cruise line with prices to match, Celebrity Cruises appeals to families with older children or multigenerational groups looking for luxurious family cruises. Celebrity Equinox is not the newest ship in the line (its inaugural sailing was in 2009), but this kid-friendly cruise ship received an extensive overhaul as part of the "Celebrity Revolution" in 2019 and continues to impress with its family cruises in 2024. 

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Celebrity's Camp at Sea kids' program offers a diverse and constantly changing series of activities so that it’s "never the same camp twice." And Celebrity Equinox partners with Miami’s Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science to offer STEM programming on topics such as the importance of plankton to the Earth’s oceans. Other kid-friendly activities on Celebrity’s family cruises include hot glass blowing classes and demonstrations, as well as lawn games such as croquet and bocce on the real grass of the Lawn Club.

7 great cruise lines for families (and their 12 most kid-friendly ships) originally appeared on FamilyVacationist.com .

More from FamilyVacationist:

• 13 cheap family vacations that are super fun
• 50 best family vacation ideas for all ages
• 25 best family vacation spots in the U.S.

FamilyVacationist.com and TourScoop.com are owned and operated by Vacationist Media LLC. FamilyVacationist covers family vacation ideas ; family vacation spots ; all-inclusive family resorts ; and must-have travel accessories for families. TourScoop covers guided group tours and tour operators , tour operator reviews , tour itinerary reviews and travel gear recommendations . The views and opinions expressed in this column are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: No kidding: These 12 cruises are the perfect multigenerational family vacation option

The 7 Best Cruise Lines for Families, Vetted by a Frequent Cruiser

For a long time, I thought cruises were for the older crowd . The only thing I knew about cruising was from my 58-year old aunt, who was constantly traveling all over the Caribbean via ship. From her, I thought cruises were basically laying by the pool all day, checking out the views and eating at speciality restaurants. (I mean, it is, but there’s so much more.) But in 2018, I finally set “sail” on a vacation at sea of my own, and my mind was completely changed. Now, I’m kinda obsessed with them. From the fun trivia to the adventure-filled excursions, cruises are for everyone! Whether you’re looking for a relaxing getaway (with a killer kids’ club), unique activities for your thrill-seeking teen or play areas to keep your toddler entertained , here’s a list of the seven best cruise lines for families.

The Best Cruise Lines for Families at a Glance

Best for Young Kids

Disney cruise line.

Best for All Ages

Royal caribbean .

Best Entertainment Options

Carnival cruise line.

Best for Teens

Norwegian cruise line.

Best for International Cruising

Msc cruises, how i chose the best cruise lines for families.

As mentioned, I’ve been going on cruises since 2018 and will be heading on my sixth cruise this year. I’ve been on Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian, so I have first-hand experience on how each cruise line’s amenities, activities, entertainment, food and more. I also spent hours researching everything you need to know about each cruise line, from the ships themselves to the offerings available for each. To make sure all types of families and their needs are covered, I chatted with our parent editors, who vouched for a few of these cruise lines on the list. Keep reading to find one that’s right for you.  

1. Disney Cruise Line

If you’re searching for one of the best cruise lines for families, look no further than Disney Cruise Line. It takes all the magic we know and love from the parks with an at-sea flair. Character meet and greets replete with Mickey and friend, princesses and superheroes are a frequent occurrence. The ships also have themed days (like Pirate Night and Marvel Day at Sea), award-winning performances, specialty activities (Iike Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and The Pirates League) and dance parties filled with spectacular fireworks—it is Disney after all. 

Parents can drop their young kids off at the Oceaneer Club, where they’ll be able to interact with their favorite characters, enjoy themed play areas and games. The older kids can also enjoy their own daily activities through The Hideaway, The Edge or Vibe club, featuring gaming systems, karaoke and a dance floor. One more thing: The fun isn’t just for the kiddos. Pack some dancing shoes and be ready for the nightclubs and lounges on board for guests 18 and older. 

Aside from main and casual dining options, Disney Cruise Line offers interactive dining experiences (like Animator’s Palate and Royal Court Royal Tea) for the whole family. There’s also adult-exclusive dining in case parents want a romantic dinner away from tantrums and time outs. Guests will also enjoy checking out Disney’s own private island in the Bahamas called Castaway Cay, where you just might see some hidden statues of your fave characters if you like to try out snorkeling under the sun.

• Best Ships to Consider: Disney Wish, Disney Fantasy, Disney Dream, Disney Wonder, Disney Magic
• Amenities: Oceaneer Club, Oceaneer Lab, The Edge, Vibe, The Hideaway
• Activities: Character Meet and Greets, Themed Dinners, Live Shows, Dance Parties, Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, Pools
• Price Range: $422 to $5,592 per person (varies based on location, number of nights and ship)

2. Royal Caribbean 

Royal caribbean.

There’s no limit when it comes to Royal Caribbean. They have over 28 ships, which are categorized into six classes. Among them are family favorites like the Oasis class and the new Icon class, marketed themselves as the ultimate family vacation. The Icon of the Seas features everything you love from a Royal ship—rock climbing, FlowRider (aka a cool surf stimulator) and more—but with an entire ‘neighborhood’ dedicated to kids. As our Executive Managing Editor Catrina Yohay previously shared after a vacation on the largest ship in the world : “If you’re traveling as a family or in a large group, cruises just make sense, and that’s especially true on the Icon of the Seas. Like a fully planned vacation with minimal effort and the added bonus of a zero-commitment itinerary, this ship offers something for every generation to enjoy (yes, even Elvis trivia).”

The cruise line offers a Babies and Tots program, which you can drop off your baby (6 to 36 months). The baby-proof space have a bunch of toys and activities to keep them occupied. (Note: The Jewel, Adventure and Explorer of the Seas currently don’t have this service on board.) There are also three different clubs for older kids that you can book ahead of your trip, ranging from Aquanauts (3 to 5), Explorers (6 to 8) and Voyagers (9 to 11). They can explore arts and crafts, hands-on science experiments and friendly gaming competitions. As for the tweens and teens, they have more freedom to choose between pre-planned activities or spend their days hanging out at the lounge.

You’ll find even more activities to do with the family at their private island, Coco Cay. It’s home to one of the tallest water slides in North America, as well as a huge wave pool, expansive beaches and more. As for the food, the cruise line prides itself on buffet style at the Windjammer, specialty restaurants and complimentary favorites (like Loco Fresh, Sorrento’s Pizza and Park Cafe). If you’re looking for a table service, Royal Caribbean offers kids’ menu at their main dining halls, featuring pizza, spaghetti and chicken tenders. 

• Best Ships to Consider: Oasis of the Seas, Odyssey of the Seas, Symphony of the Seas, Wonder of the Seas, Icon of the Seas
• Amenities: Aquanauts, Explorers, Voyagers, Teen Club
• Activities: Water Slides, Dry Slides, Rock Climbing, Surf Stimulation, Live Performances, Pools
• Price Range: $326 to $3,287 per person, kids under 12 can sail free (varies based on location, number of nights and ship).

3. Carnival Cruise Line

Carnival is known for being the most entertaining and party-filled of the bunch. Whichever of their 26 ships you set out on, the cruise line is all about having a good time. My first cruise (along with my 80-year-old grandmother) was on a Carnival. And we all had a blast. The company prides itself for having activities and amenities for every generation through dance parties, trivia and live performances. 

Each ship (yep, all 26) have Camp Ocean, a program broken down into Penguins (2 to 5), Stingrays (6 to 8) and Sharks (9 to 11). Each group can experience a host of activities. Some ships also have Seuss at Sea, where the iconic book characters come to life through character breakfasts, story time and a fun parade. Depending on the Carnival ship, the older kids can try out the Sky Zone (indoor trampoline park), catch a movie at the IMAX theater, experience the ropes course or hang out in their very own Club O2 or Circle “C”. Other amenities the kiddos will just love? Build-A-Bear Workshop, NASA-inspired activities, Thrill Theater and the first ever roller coaster at sea. FYI: Carnival currently has a Night Owls program, where you can leave your kids under 11 as late as 1 a.m, so you can enjoy a bit of nightlife on vacation. 

When it comes to dining, parents can rest assured that Carnival has you covered. Multiple dining venues have kids’ menus, featuring everything from chicken nuggets to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Plus, the ships have complimentary all-you-can-eat pizza and soft serve that’s available through the wee hours. 

• Best Ships to Consider: Carnival Mardi Gras, Carnival Freedom, Carnival Breeze, Carnival Vista, Carnival Glory
• Amenities: Camp Ocean, Night Owl
• Activities: Water Slides, Rollercoaster, Pools, SkyRide, Live Performances
• Price Range: $154 to $3,972 per person (varies based on location, number of nights and ship)

4. Norwegian Cruise Line

If you have older kids, Norwegian may be the best cruise line for your family. They have a ton of amenities for all ages. Zoom around the largest race track at sea, immerse yourself at the high-tech Galaxy Pavilion or take a plunge on the water slides. I had the chance to check out their latest ship, Norwegian Prima, which has two drop slides, a duo waterslide and a huge sports area (with mini golf, pickleball court, ping pong and more).

They also have programs for each age group, including the Splash Academy (3 to 12) and Entourage (13 to 17). As for the Guppies Program (6 months to 4), parents are required to stay with their child and enjoy the amenities together. However, Norwegian does offer group babysitting during the evenings for parents to enjoy a child-free dinner. 

While I love all the amenities, the food options were superb. They have both specialty (where kids under 12 can eat for free) and a complimentary buffet where even the pickiest eater of the fam will find something to enjoy. Aside from the buffet and 24-hour spots, newer ships offer the Indulge Food Hall. They are set up like a food market, where you can order from any station and have it all brought right to your seat. It was a great experience trying out new dishes and having a family-style meal. 

• Best Ships to Consider: Norwegian Encore, Norwegian Sky, Norwegian Bliss, Norwegian Prime, Norwegian Viva
• Amenities: Guppies Program, Splash Academy, Entourage
• Activities: Water Slides, Racetrack, Laser Tag, Virtual Reality
• Price Range: $129 to $4,598 per person (varies based on location, number of nights and ship)

5. MSC Cruises

From Norway, Greece or Rome, MSC is the best cruise line for families that want to take their young explorers out to the open sea—and this one has a ton of amenities to keep them busy in the meantime. Whether you want to try your hand at zip lining or prefer staying on the ground and playing bowling, grab yourself a MSC Fun Pass to try out these activities throughout your trip. All the ships also show Broadway-level shows, live music and immersive performances that will even have your teen engaged in the theatrics. 

You’ll also find five different clubs on the ship, Baby Club (0-3), Mini Club (3-6), Junior Club (7-11), Young Club (11-14) and the Teen Club (15-17). They vary depending on the age group, but some highlights include sports competitions, dance parties, karaoke and more. There are also additional services for your babies, including MSC Baby Time, MSC Baby Care Service and the MSC and Chicco. FYI: MSC has their own baby laundry service, so you don’t have to worry about cleaning out those stains once you get home. 

At MSC, dining is elevated to give kids just as amazing (and sometimes luxe) food options as the adults. Assessed by nutritionists, the menu features fun dishes for all ages, including babies from 6 to 12 months. The buffets each have a Kids’ Corner and all the specialty restaurants have a menu, so your kiddo can find a meal that they’ll like.  

• Best Ships to Consider: MSC Seascape, MSC Seaside, MSC Divina, MSC Seashore, MSC Virtuosa
• Amenities: Baby Club, Kids Club, Junior Club, Young Club, Mini Club
• Activities: Zip Line, Waterpark, Himalayan Bridge, Pools, Bowling Alley
• Price Range: $109 to $20,799 per person (varies based on location, number of nights and ship)

Best Kids Programs

6. celebrity cruises, celebrity cruises.

PureWow Editor-in-Chief Jillian Quint shares, “Celebrity is great for families with older kids. It's very sophisticated and sleek (no giant plastic water slides here), but there's still a ton for big kids and teens to do: shows to see, one million pools to lounge at, and destinations like Bahamas, Aruba and St. Maarten. There are also various ‘Camp at Sea’ options to keep kids entertained all day long. But the best part is knowing you can let your kids go off by themselves, but they can never get too far.” 

Speaking of Camp at Sea, this entertainment center is home to over 500 activities for kids, including arts and crafts, culinary, sport competitions and STEM-based activities. It’s broken down by Shipmates (3-5), Cadets (6-9) and Captains (10 -12). On the flip side, the Teen Club offers different classes, competitions and parties throughout the day. Luckily for them, they have the freedom to leave whenever they want—although the dedicated space for them is worth checking out.  

Kids can try out the buffet or main dining room to get everything from grilled cheese sandwiches to a mini margarita pizza. MSC also offers in-room dining menus in case your kiddo gets a little restless at the dinner table. Plus, the cruise line is especially loved for being sensory- and autism-friendly, offering a wide range of services like priority checking, Camp at Sea flexible grouping and more.

• Best Ships to Consider: Celebrity Summit, Celebrity Silhouette, Celebrity Reflection, Celebrity Equinox, Celebrity Edge
• Amenities: Shipmates, Captains, Cadets, Teen Club
• Activities: Live Shows, Silent Disco, Lawn Club, Pools
• Price Range: $222 to $17,535 per person (varies based on location, number of nights and ship)

Best for Multi-Generational Families

7. princess cruises, princess cruises.

Princess Cruises is known for being the best cruise line for the whole family, from baby to grandma. Request everything from highchairs to cribs to pureed food. And let the grandparents join in on the fun through educational excursions partnered with Discovery and Animal Planet, as well as splash zones, backyard games and yes, a kid-friendly bar with sweet mocktails. The cruise line also has their very own mascot, Stanley, who spends his time all over the ship to play games, take photos and interact with guests. 

Get the kids set up with one of the on-ship Camp Discovery programs including The Treehouse (3-7), The Lodge (8-12) and The Beach House (13-17). In partnership with Discovery, your kids will have immersive hands-on activities, sports competitions, dance classes, movie nights and science programs. Did we mention they even have a secret club for young adults, 18-20, too? They’ll need to know a special handshake and code in order to get in. Talk about an exclusive party. 

• Best Ships to Consider: Sapphire Princess, Caribbean Princess
• Amenities: The Treehouse, The Lodge, The Beach House
• Activities: Discovery at SEA, Culinary Demonstrations, Pools, Outdoor Sports, Live Shows
• Price Range: $128 to $20,879 per person (varies based on location, number of nights and ship)

Frequently Asked Questions

Are cruises worth it for families, yes. as you can see by the list above there are plenty of amenities and accommodations for the whole family. many cruise lines offer programs and have play areas for all different age groups. i recommend looking through the cruise line’s age policies before booking your trip. some cruise lines won’t allow infants younger than six months to board the ship. most may even require the child to be at least a year or older. , what is the best cruise length for kids, it depends on your child/children. according to celebrity cruises, they recommend 3 to 4 days for toddlers, especially if it’s their first cruise. however, many kids can deal with 7 to 10 day cruising. it boils down to how comfortable your children and you are at sea. , which cruise lines are not kid-friendly, the two most notable cruise lines that are not kid-friendly are virgin voyage and viking, which are strictly 18 and over. viking has been around for decades and implemented the age restriction around 2015. their guests are mainly geared towards 55+. on the flip side, virgin voyage is the latest cruise line with three ships dedicated to millennials.  .

My First-Ever Cruise Was on the Largest Ship in the World—Here’s My Honest Review of Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas

Associate Editor, Ultimate Fangirl, Aspiring Beauty Guru

Vacationing woman killed when shuttle bus crashes into group of people near cruise port

HONOLULU ( KHNL/KGMB/ Gray News) - A woman on vacation was killed when a shuttle bus dropping passengers off near a cruise port in Hawaii crashed into a group of people.

Dianna Cricelli, 68, from Pocahontas, Illinois, was taken to a hospital in critical condition where she later died, according to police traffic investigators.

She was reportedly with family celebrating her 46th wedding anniversary. Her husband, 66-year-old Frank Cricelli, was also seriously injured in the crash.

“The family is mourning the loss of Dianna. They are asking for privacy during this difficult time,” Frank Cricelli said in a message relayed by the Visitor Aloha Society of Hawaii.

Three others, including a 67-year-old woman, a 55-year-old woman, and a 58-year-old man, were also seriously injured in the crash, according to officials.

Additionally, a man in his 70s was taken to the hospital in stable condition while six other adults, ranging in age from their 40s to their 70s, suffered minor injuries and declined transport.

The crash happened at about 10:20 a.m. Friday in a private parking lot near a cruise ship port in Honolulu. Honolulu police reported the 57-year-old driver of the shuttle bus was dropping passengers off and picking others up when he was notified that the vehicle was moving forward.

According to police, the driver jumped into the driver’s seat in order to stop the bus but pressed the gas pedal instead of the brakes.

“Somebody screamed, and then I looked over and the bus hit into the crowd,” Janet Lightfoot, an ER nurse from Florida, said.

Lightfoot and her mother had been on a cruise and just disembarked Friday morning to go shopping. They were waiting for a shuttle when they saw a bus with a Hilo Hatties logo heading toward a crowd of people.

“It just kept going and my daughter yells out, ‘There’s nobody driving the bus.’ And then poof, it hits the wall,” Linda Reck, who was vacationing from Florida, said.

Police said the bus crashed into a group of people, pinning several against concrete barriers.

“It just kept going until it hit the wall there. Big, cement block was pushed out and the bus hit into the wall,” Lightfoot said. “I ran over and kind of started triaging people and trying to help.”

Bystanders said the chaotic scene unfolded in seconds.

“It was shocking,” witness Mike Frost said.

Lightfoot said she’s accustomed to seeing traumatic injuries, but that witnessing this crash felt different.

“We’re on vacation. The husband of one of the family members was there and just sad,” she said.

The Visitor Aloha Society of Hawaii said those who were seriously injured were all from Illinois and that they are being offered assistance.

Carnival Miracle issued a statement following the crash, reporting that nine of the people hit by the shuttle bus were guests on their cruise.

“Members of the Carnival Care Team are assisting the guests,” the statement said in part. “Our thoughts are with the guests affected and their loved ones.”

They reported the ship was on a 15-day trip that departed from Long Beach, California on April 6.

Honolulu police said it’s unknown if drugs or alcohol were factors in the crash.

Copyright 2024 KHNL/KGMB via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Crying Myself to Sleep on the Biggest Cruise Ship Ever

Seven agonizing nights aboard the Icon of the Seas

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Updated at 2:44 p.m. ET on April 6, 2024.

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MY FIRST GLIMPSE of Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas, from the window of an approaching Miami cab, brings on a feeling of vertigo, nausea, amazement, and distress. I shut my eyes in defense, as my brain tells my optic nerve to try again.

The ship makes no sense, vertically or horizontally. It makes no sense on sea, or on land, or in outer space. It looks like a hodgepodge of domes and minarets, tubes and canopies, like Istanbul had it been designed by idiots. Vibrant, oversignifying colors are stacked upon other such colors, decks perched over still more decks; the only comfort is a row of lifeboats ringing its perimeter. There is no imposed order, no cogent thought, and, for those who do not harbor a totalitarian sense of gigantomania, no visual mercy. This is the biggest cruise ship ever built, and I have been tasked with witnessing its inaugural voyage.

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“Author embarks on their first cruise-ship voyage” has been a staple of American essay writing for almost three decades, beginning with David Foster Wallace’s “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again,” which was first published in 1996 under the title “Shipping Out.” Since then, many admirable writers have widened and diversified the genre. Usually the essayist commissioned to take to the sea is in their first or second flush of youth and is ready to sharpen their wit against the hull of the offending vessel. I am 51, old and tired, having seen much of the world as a former travel journalist, and mostly what I do in both life and prose is shrug while muttering to my imaginary dachshund, “This too shall pass.” But the Icon of the Seas will not countenance a shrug. The Icon of the Seas is the Linda Loman of cruise ships, exclaiming that attention must be paid. And here I am in late January with my one piece of luggage and useless gray winter jacket and passport, zipping through the Port of Miami en route to the gangway that will separate me from the bulk of North America for more than seven days, ready to pay it in full.

The aforementioned gangway opens up directly onto a thriving mall (I will soon learn it is imperiously called the “Royal Promenade”), presently filled with yapping passengers beneath a ceiling studded with balloons ready to drop. Crew members from every part of the global South, as well as a few Balkans, are shepherding us along while pressing flutes of champagne into our hands. By a humming Starbucks, I drink as many of these as I can and prepare to find my cabin. I show my blue Suite Sky SeaPass Card (more on this later, much more) to a smiling woman from the Philippines, and she tells me to go “aft.” Which is where, now? As someone who has rarely sailed on a vessel grander than the Staten Island Ferry, I am confused. It turns out that the aft is the stern of the ship, or, for those of us who don’t know what a stern or an aft are, its ass. The nose of the ship, responsible for separating the waves before it, is also called a bow, and is marked for passengers as the FWD , or forward. The part of the contemporary sailing vessel where the malls are clustered is called the midship. I trust that you have enjoyed this nautical lesson.

I ascend via elevator to my suite on Deck 11. This is where I encounter my first terrible surprise. My suite windows and balcony do not face the ocean. Instead, they look out onto another shopping mall. This mall is the one that’s called Central Park, perhaps in homage to the Olmsted-designed bit of greenery in the middle of my hometown. Although on land I would be delighted to own a suite with Central Park views, here I am deeply depressed. To sail on a ship and not wake up to a vast blue carpet of ocean? Unthinkable.

Allow me a brief preamble here. The story you are reading was commissioned at a moment when most staterooms on the Icon were sold out. In fact, so enthralled by the prospect of this voyage were hard-core mariners that the ship’s entire inventory of guest rooms (the Icon can accommodate up to 7,600 passengers, but its inaugural journey was reduced to 5,000 or so for a less crowded experience) was almost immediately sold out. Hence, this publication was faced with the shocking prospect of paying nearly $19,000 to procure for this solitary passenger an entire suite—not including drinking expenses—all for the privilege of bringing you this article. But the suite in question doesn’t even have a view of the ocean! I sit down hard on my soft bed. Nineteen thousand dollars for this .

The viewless suite does have its pluses. In addition to all the Malin+Goetz products in my dual bathrooms, I am granted use of a dedicated Suite Deck lounge; access to Coastal Kitchen, a superior restaurant for Suites passengers; complimentary VOOM SM Surf & Stream (“the fastest Internet at Sea”) “for one device per person for the whole cruise duration”; a pair of bathrobes (one of which comes prestained with what looks like a large expectoration by the greenest lizard on Earth); and use of the Grove Suite Sun, an area on Decks 18 and 19 with food and deck chairs reserved exclusively for Suite passengers. I also get reserved seating for a performance of The Wizard of Oz , an ice-skating tribute to the periodic table, and similar provocations. The very color of my Suite Sky SeaPass Card, an oceanic blue as opposed to the cloying royal purple of the standard non-Suite passenger, will soon provoke envy and admiration. But as high as my status may be, there are those on board who have much higher status still, and I will soon learn to bow before them.

In preparation for sailing, I have “priced in,” as they say on Wall Street, the possibility that I may come from a somewhat different monde than many of the other cruisers. Without falling into stereotypes or preconceptions, I prepare myself for a friendly outspokenness on the part of my fellow seafarers that may not comply with modern DEI standards. I believe in meeting people halfway, and so the day before flying down to Miami, I visited what remains of Little Italy to purchase a popular T-shirt that reads DADDY’S LITTLE MEATBALL across the breast in the colors of the Italian flag. My wife recommended that I bring one of my many T-shirts featuring Snoopy and the Peanuts gang, as all Americans love the beagle and his friends. But I naively thought that my meatball T-shirt would be more suitable for conversation-starting. “Oh, and who is your ‘daddy’?” some might ask upon seeing it. “And how long have you been his ‘little meatball’?” And so on.

I put on my meatball T-shirt and head for one of the dining rooms to get a late lunch. In the elevator, I stick out my chest for all to read the funny legend upon it, but soon I realize that despite its burnished tricolor letters, no one takes note. More to the point, no one takes note of me. Despite my attempts at bridge building, the very sight of me (small, ethnic, without a cap bearing the name of a football team) elicits no reaction from other passengers. Most often, they will small-talk over me as if I don’t exist. This brings to mind the travails of David Foster Wallace , who felt so ostracized by his fellow passengers that he retreated to his cabin for much of his voyage. And Wallace was raised primarily in the Midwest and was a much larger, more American-looking meatball than I am. If he couldn’t talk to these people, how will I? What if I leave this ship without making any friends at all, despite my T-shirt? I am a social creature, and the prospect of seven days alone and apart is saddening. Wallace’s stateroom, at least, had a view of the ocean, a kind of cheap eternity.

Worse awaits me in the dining room. This is a large, multichandeliered room where I attended my safety training (I was shown how to put on a flotation vest; it is a very simple procedure). But the maître d’ politely refuses me entry in an English that seems to verge on another language. “I’m sorry, this is only for pendejos ,” he seems to be saying. I push back politely and he repeats himself. Pendejos ? Piranhas? There’s some kind of P-word to which I am not attuned. Meanwhile elderly passengers stream right past, powered by their limbs, walkers, and electric wheelchairs. “It is only pendejo dining today, sir.” “But I have a suite!” I say, already starting to catch on to the ship’s class system. He examines my card again. “But you are not a pendejo ,” he confirms. I am wearing a DADDY’S LITTLE MEATBALL T-shirt, I want to say to him. I am the essence of pendejo .

Eventually, I give up and head to the plebeian buffet on Deck 15, which has an aquatic-styled name I have now forgotten. Before gaining entry to this endless cornucopia of reheated food, one passes a washing station of many sinks and soap dispensers, and perhaps the most intriguing character on the entire ship. He is Mr. Washy Washy—or, according to his name tag, Nielbert of the Philippines—and he is dressed as a taco (on other occasions, I’ll see him dressed as a burger). Mr. Washy Washy performs an eponymous song in spirited, indeed flamboyant English: “Washy, washy, wash your hands, WASHY WASHY!” The dangers of norovirus and COVID on a cruise ship this size (a giant fellow ship was stricken with the former right after my voyage) makes Mr. Washy Washy an essential member of the crew. The problem lies with the food at the end of Washy’s rainbow. The buffet is groaning with what sounds like sophisticated dishes—marinated octopus, boiled egg with anchovy, chorizo, lobster claws—but every animal tastes tragically the same, as if there was only one creature available at the market, a “cruisipus” bred specifically for Royal Caribbean dining. The “vegetables” are no better. I pick up a tomato slice and look right through it. It tastes like cellophane. I sit alone, apart from the couples and parents with gaggles of children, as “We Are Family” echoes across the buffet space.

I may have failed to mention that all this time, the Icon of the Seas has not left port. As the fiery mango of the subtropical setting sun makes Miami’s condo skyline even more apocalyptic, the ship shoves off beneath a perfunctory display of fireworks. After the sun sets, in the far, dark distance, another circus-lit cruise ship ruptures the waves before us. We glance at it with pity, because it is by definition a smaller ship than our own. I am on Deck 15, outside the buffet and overlooking a bunch of pools (the Icon has seven of them), drinking a frilly drink that I got from one of the bars (the Icon has 15 of them), still too shy to speak to anyone, despite Sister Sledge’s assertion that all on the ship are somehow related.

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The ship’s passage away from Ron DeSantis’s Florida provides no frisson, no sense of developing “sea legs,” as the ship is too large to register the presence of waves unless a mighty wind adds significant chop. It is time for me to register the presence of the 5,000 passengers around me, even if they refuse to register mine. My fellow travelers have prepared for this trip with personally decorated T-shirts celebrating the importance of this voyage. The simplest ones say ICON INAUGURAL ’24 on the back and the family name on the front. Others attest to an over-the-top love of cruise ships: WARNING! MAY START TALKING ABOUT CRUISING . Still others are artisanally designed and celebrate lifetimes spent married while cruising (on ships, of course). A couple possibly in their 90s are wearing shirts whose backs feature a drawing of a cruise liner, two flamingos with ostensibly male and female characteristics, and the legend “ HUSBAND AND WIFE Cruising Partners FOR LIFE WE MAY NOT HAVE IT All Together BUT TOGETHER WE HAVE IT ALL .” (The words not in all caps have been written in cursive.) A real journalist or a more intrepid conversationalist would have gone up to the couple and asked them to explain the longevity of their marriage vis-à-vis their love of cruising. But instead I head to my mall suite, take off my meatball T-shirt, and allow the first tears of the cruise to roll down my cheeks slowly enough that I briefly fall asleep amid the moisture and salt.

I WAKE UP with a hangover. Oh God. Right. I cannot believe all of that happened last night. A name floats into my cobwebbed, nauseated brain: “Ayn Rand.” Jesus Christ.

I breakfast alone at the Coastal Kitchen. The coffee tastes fine and the eggs came out of a bird. The ship rolls slightly this morning; I can feel it in my thighs and my schlong, the parts of me that are most receptive to danger.

I had a dangerous conversation last night. After the sun set and we were at least 50 miles from shore (most modern cruise ships sail at about 23 miles an hour), I lay in bed softly hiccupping, my arms stretched out exactly like Jesus on the cross, the sound of the distant waves missing from my mall-facing suite, replaced by the hum of air-conditioning and children shouting in Spanish through the vents of my two bathrooms. I decided this passivity was unacceptable. As an immigrant, I feel duty-bound to complete the tasks I am paid for, which means reaching out and trying to understand my fellow cruisers. So I put on a normal James Perse T-shirt and headed for one of the bars on the Royal Promenade—the Schooner Bar, it was called, if memory serves correctly.

I sat at the bar for a martini and two Negronis. An old man with thick, hairy forearms drank next to me, very silent and Hemingwaylike, while a dreadlocked piano player tinkled out a series of excellent Elton John covers. To my right, a young white couple—he in floral shorts, she in a light, summery miniskirt with a fearsome diamond ring, neither of them in football regalia—chatted with an elderly couple. Do it , I commanded myself. Open your mouth. Speak! Speak without being spoken to. Initiate. A sentence fragment caught my ear from the young woman, “Cherry Hill.” This is a suburb of Philadelphia in New Jersey, and I had once been there for a reading at a synagogue. “Excuse me,” I said gently to her. “Did you just mention Cherry Hill? It’s a lovely place.”

As it turned out, the couple now lived in Fort Lauderdale (the number of Floridians on the cruise surprised me, given that Southern Florida is itself a kind of cruise ship, albeit one slowly sinking), but soon they were talking with me exclusively—the man potbellied, with a chin like a hard-boiled egg; the woman as svelte as if she were one of the many Ukrainian members of the crew—the elderly couple next to them forgotten. This felt as groundbreaking as the first time I dared to address an American in his native tongue, as a child on a bus in Queens (“On my foot you are standing, Mister”).

“I don’t want to talk politics,” the man said. “But they’re going to eighty-six Biden and put Michelle in.”

I considered the contradictions of his opening conversational gambit, but decided to play along. “People like Michelle,” I said, testing the waters. The husband sneered, but the wife charitably put forward that the former first lady was “more personable” than Joe Biden. “They’re gonna eighty-six Biden,” the husband repeated. “He can’t put a sentence together.”

After I mentioned that I was a writer—though I presented myself as a writer of teleplays instead of novels and articles such as this one—the husband told me his favorite writer was Ayn Rand. “Ayn Rand, she came here with nothing,” the husband said. “I work with a lot of Cubans, so …” I wondered if I should mention what I usually do to ingratiate myself with Republicans or libertarians: the fact that my finances improved after pass-through corporations were taxed differently under Donald Trump. Instead, I ordered another drink and the couple did the same, and I told him that Rand and I were born in the same city, St. Petersburg/Leningrad, and that my family also came here with nothing. Now the bonding and drinking began in earnest, and several more rounds appeared. Until it all fell apart.

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My new friend, whom I will refer to as Ayn, called out to a buddy of his across the bar, and suddenly a young couple, both covered in tattoos, appeared next to us. “He fucking punked me,” Ayn’s frat-boy-like friend called out as he put his arm around Ayn, while his sizable partner sizzled up to Mrs. Rand. Both of them had a look I have never seen on land—their eyes projecting absence and enmity in equal measure. In the ’90s, I drank with Russian soldiers fresh from Chechnya and wandered the streets of wartime Zagreb, but I have never seen such undisguised hostility toward both me and perhaps the universe at large. I was briefly introduced to this psychopathic pair, but neither of them wanted to have anything to do with me, and the tattooed woman would not even reveal her Christian name to me (she pretended to have the same first name as Mrs. Rand). To impress his tattooed friends, Ayn made fun of the fact that as a television writer, I’d worked on the series Succession (which, it would turn out, practically nobody on the ship had watched), instead of the far more palatable, in his eyes, zombie drama of last year. And then my new friends drifted away from me into an angry private conversation—“He punked me!”—as I ordered another drink for myself, scared of the dead-eyed arrivals whose gaze never registered in the dim wattage of the Schooner Bar, whose terrifying voices and hollow laughs grated like unoiled gears against the crooning of “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.”

But today is a new day for me and my hangover. After breakfast, I explore the ship’s so-called neighborhoods . There’s the AquaDome, where one can find a food hall and an acrobatic sound-and-light aquatic show. Central Park has a premium steak house, a sushi joint, and a used Rolex that can be bought for $8,000 on land here proudly offered at $17,000. There’s the aforementioned Royal Promenade, where I had drunk with the Rands, and where a pair of dueling pianos duel well into the night. There’s Surfside, a kids’ neighborhood full of sugary garbage, which looks out onto the frothy trail that the behemoth leaves behind itself. Thrill Island refers to the collection of tubes that clutter the ass of the ship and offer passengers six waterslides and a surfing simulation. There’s the Hideaway, an adult zone that plays music from a vomit-slathered, Brit-filled Alicante nightclub circa 1996 and proves a big favorite with groups of young Latin American customers. And, most hurtfully, there’s the Suite Neighborhood.

I say hurtfully because as a Suite passenger I should be here, though my particular suite is far from the others. Whereas I am stuck amid the riffraff of Deck 11, this section is on the highborn Decks 16 and 17, and in passing, I peek into the spacious, tall-ceilinged staterooms from the hallway, dazzled by the glint of the waves and sun. For $75,000, one multifloor suite even comes with its own slide between floors, so that a family may enjoy this particular terror in private. There is a quiet splendor to the Suite Neighborhood. I see fewer stickers and signs and drawings than in my own neighborhood—for example, MIKE AND DIANA PROUDLY SERVED U.S. MARINE CORPS RETIRED . No one here needs to announce their branch of service or rank; they are simply Suites, and this is where they belong. Once again, despite my hard work and perseverance, I have been disallowed from the true American elite. Once again, I am “Not our class, dear.” I am reminded of watching The Love Boat on my grandmother’s Zenith, which either was given to her or we found in the trash (I get our many malfunctioning Zeniths confused) and whose tube got so hot, I would put little chunks of government cheese on a thin tissue atop it to give our welfare treat a pleasant, Reagan-era gooeyness. I could not understand English well enough then to catch the nuances of that seafaring program, but I knew that there were differences in the status of the passengers, and that sometimes those differences made them sad. Still, this ship, this plenty—every few steps, there are complimentary nachos or milkshakes or gyros on offer—was the fatty fuel of my childhood dreams. If only I had remained a child.

I walk around the outdoor decks looking for company. There is a middle-aged African American couple who always seem to be asleep in each other’s arms, probably exhausted from the late capitalism they regularly encounter on land. There is far more diversity on this ship than I expected. Many couples are a testament to Loving v. Virginia , and there is a large group of folks whose T-shirts read MELANIN AT SEA / IT’S THE MELANIN FOR ME . I smile when I see them, but then some young kids from the group makes Mr. Washy Washy do a cruel, caricatured “Burger Dance” (today he is in his burger getup), and I think, Well, so much for intersectionality .

At the infinity pool on Deck 17, I spot some elderly women who could be ethnic and from my part of the world, and so I jump in. I am proved correct! Many of them seem to be originally from Queens (“Corona was still great when it was all Italian”), though they are now spread across the tristate area. We bond over the way “Ron-kon-koma” sounds when announced in Penn Station.

“Everyone is here for a different reason,” one of them tells me. She and her ex-husband last sailed together four years ago to prove to themselves that their marriage was truly over. Her 15-year-old son lost his virginity to “an Irish young lady” while their ship was moored in Ravenna, Italy. The gaggle of old-timers competes to tell me their favorite cruising stories and tips. “A guy proposed in Central Park a couple of years ago”—many Royal Caribbean ships apparently have this ridiculous communal area—“and she ran away screaming!” “If you’re diamond-class, you get four drinks for free.” “A different kind of passenger sails out of Bayonne.” (This, perhaps, is racially coded.) “Sometimes, if you tip the bartender $5, your next drink will be free.”

“Everyone’s here for a different reason,” the woman whose marriage ended on a cruise tells me again. “Some people are here for bad reasons—the drinkers and the gamblers. Some people are here for medical reasons.” I have seen more than a few oxygen tanks and at least one woman clearly undergoing very serious chemo. Some T-shirts celebrate good news about a cancer diagnosis. This might be someone’s last cruise or week on Earth. For these women, who have spent months, if not years, at sea, cruising is a ritual as well as a life cycle: first love, last love, marriage, divorce, death.

Read: The last place on Earth any tourist should go

I have talked with these women for so long, tonight I promise myself that after a sad solitary dinner I will not try to seek out company at the bars in the mall or the adult-themed Hideaway. I have enough material to fulfill my duties to this publication. As I approach my orphaned suite, I run into the aggro young people who stole Mr. and Mrs. Rand away from me the night before. The tattooed apparitions pass me without a glance. She is singing something violent about “Stuttering Stanley” (a character in a popular horror movie, as I discover with my complimentary VOOM SM Surf & Stream Internet at Sea) and he’s loudly shouting about “all the money I’ve lost,” presumably at the casino in the bowels of the ship.

So these bent psychos out of a Cormac McCarthy novel are angrily inhabiting my deck. As I mewl myself to sleep, I envision a limited series for HBO or some other streamer, a kind of low-rent White Lotus , where several aggressive couples conspire to throw a shy intellectual interloper overboard. I type the scenario into my phone. As I fall asleep, I think of what the woman who recently divorced her husband and whose son became a man through the good offices of the Irish Republic told me while I was hoisting myself out of the infinity pool. “I’m here because I’m an explorer. I’m here because I’m trying something new.” What if I allowed myself to believe in her fantasy?

“YOU REALLY STARTED AT THE TOP,” they tell me. I’m at the Coastal Kitchen for my eggs and corned-beef hash, and the maître d’ has slotted me in between two couples. Fueled by coffee or perhaps intrigued by my relative youth, they strike up a conversation with me. As always, people are shocked that this is my first cruise. They contrast the Icon favorably with all the preceding liners in the Royal Caribbean fleet, usually commenting on the efficiency of the elevators that hurl us from deck to deck (as in many large corporate buildings, the elevators ask you to choose a floor and then direct you to one of many lifts). The couple to my right, from Palo Alto—he refers to his “porn mustache” and calls his wife “my cougar” because she is two years older—tell me they are “Pandemic Pinnacles.”

This is the day that my eyes will be opened. Pinnacles , it is explained to me over translucent cantaloupe, have sailed with Royal Caribbean for 700 ungodly nights. Pandemic Pinnacles took advantage of the two-for-one accrual rate of Pinnacle points during the pandemic, when sailing on a cruise ship was even more ill-advised, to catapult themselves into Pinnacle status.

Because of the importance of the inaugural voyage of the world’s largest cruise liner, more than 200 Pinnacles are on this ship, a startling number, it seems. Mrs. Palo Alto takes out a golden badge that I have seen affixed over many a breast, which reads CROWN AND ANCHOR SOCIETY along with her name. This is the coveted badge of the Pinnacle. “You should hear all the whining in Guest Services,” her husband tells me. Apparently, the Pinnacles who are not also Suites like us are all trying to use their status to get into Coastal Kitchen, our elite restaurant. Even a Pinnacle needs to be a Suite to access this level of corned-beef hash.

“We’re just baby Pinnacles,” Mrs. Palo Alto tells me, describing a kind of internal class struggle among the Pinnacle elite for ever higher status.

And now I understand what the maître d’ was saying to me on the first day of my cruise. He wasn’t saying “ pendejo .” He was saying “Pinnacle.” The dining room was for Pinnacles only, all those older people rolling in like the tide on their motorized scooters.

And now I understand something else: This whole thing is a cult. And like most cults, it can’t help but mirror the endless American fight for status. Like Keith Raniere’s NXIVM, where different-colored sashes were given out to connote rank among Raniere’s branded acolytes, this is an endless competition among Pinnacles, Suites, Diamond-Plusers, and facing-the-mall, no-balcony purple SeaPass Card peasants, not to mention the many distinctions within each category. The more you cruise, the higher your status. No wonder a section of the Royal Promenade is devoted to getting passengers to book their next cruise during the one they should be enjoying now. No wonder desperate Royal Caribbean offers (“FINAL HOURS”) crowded my email account weeks before I set sail. No wonder the ship’s jewelry store, the Royal Bling, is selling a $100,000 golden chalice that will entitle its owner to drink free on Royal Caribbean cruises for life. (One passenger was already gaming out whether her 28-year-old son was young enough to “just about earn out” on the chalice or if that ship had sailed.) No wonder this ship was sold out months before departure , and we had to pay $19,000 for a horrid suite away from the Suite Neighborhood. No wonder the most mythical hero of Royal Caribbean lore is someone named Super Mario, who has cruised so often, he now has his own working desk on many ships. This whole experience is part cult, part nautical pyramid scheme.

From the June 2014 issue: Ship of wonks

“The toilets are amazing,” the Palo Altos are telling me. “One flush and you’re done.” “They don’t understand how energy-efficient these ships are,” the husband of the other couple is telling me. “They got the LNG”—liquefied natural gas, which is supposed to make the Icon a boon to the environment (a concept widely disputed and sometimes ridiculed by environmentalists).

But I’m thinking along a different line of attack as I spear my last pallid slice of melon. For my streaming limited series, a Pinnacle would have to get killed by either an outright peasant or a Suite without an ocean view. I tell my breakfast companions my idea.

“Oh, for sure a Pinnacle would have to be killed,” Mr. Palo Alto, the Pandemic Pinnacle, says, touching his porn mustache thoughtfully as his wife nods.

“THAT’S RIGHT, IT’S your time, buddy!” Hubert, my fun-loving Panamanian cabin attendant, shouts as I step out of my suite in a robe. “Take it easy, buddy!”

I have come up with a new dressing strategy. Instead of trying to impress with my choice of T-shirts, I have decided to start wearing a robe, as one does at a resort property on land, with a proper spa and hammam. The response among my fellow cruisers has been ecstatic. “Look at you in the robe!” Mr. Rand cries out as we pass each other by the Thrill Island aqua park. “You’re living the cruise life! You know, you really drank me under the table that night.” I laugh as we part ways, but my soul cries out, Please spend more time with me, Mr. and Mrs. Rand; I so need the company .

In my white robe, I am a stately presence, a refugee from a better limited series, a one-man crossover episode. (Only Suites are granted these robes to begin with.) Today, I will try many of the activities these ships have on offer to provide their clientele with a sense of never-ceasing motion. Because I am already at Thrill Island, I decide to climb the staircase to what looks like a mast on an old-fashioned ship (terrified, because I am afraid of heights) to try a ride called “Storm Chasers,” which is part of the “Category 6” water park, named in honor of one of the storms that may someday do away with the Port of Miami entirely. Storm Chasers consists of falling from the “mast” down a long, twisting neon tube filled with water, like being the camera inside your own colonoscopy, as you hold on to the handles of a mat, hoping not to die. The tube then flops you down headfirst into a trough of water, a Royal Caribbean baptism. It both knocks my breath out and makes me sad.

In keeping with the aquatic theme, I attend a show at the AquaDome. To the sound of “Live and Let Die,” a man in a harness gyrates to and fro in the sultry air. I saw something very similar in the back rooms of the famed Berghain club in early-aughts Berlin. Soon another harnessed man is gyrating next to the first. Ja , I think to myself, I know how this ends. Now will come the fisting , natürlich . But the show soon devolves into the usual Marvel-film-grade nonsense, with too much light and sound signifying nichts . If any fisting is happening, it is probably in the Suite Neighborhood, inside a cabin marked with an upside-down pineapple, which I understand means a couple are ready to swing, and I will see none of it.

I go to the ice show, which is a kind of homage—if that’s possible—to the periodic table, done with the style and pomp and masterful precision that would please the likes of Kim Jong Un, if only he could afford Royal Caribbean talent. At one point, the dancers skate to the theme song of Succession . “See that!” I want to say to my fellow Suites—at “cultural” events, we have a special section reserved for us away from the commoners—“ Succession ! It’s even better than the zombie show! Open your minds!”

Finally, I visit a comedy revue in an enormous and too brightly lit version of an “intimate,” per Royal Caribbean literature, “Manhattan comedy club.” Many of the jokes are about the cruising life. “I’ve lived on ships for 20 years,” one of the middle-aged comedians says. “I can only see so many Filipino homosexuals dressed as a taco.” He pauses while the audience laughs. “I am so fired tonight,” he says. He segues into a Trump impression and then Biden falling asleep at the microphone, which gets the most laughs. “Anyone here from Fort Leonard Wood?” another comedian asks. Half the crowd seems to cheer. As I fall asleep that night, I realize another connection I have failed to make, and one that may explain some of the diversity on this vessel—many of its passengers have served in the military.

As a coddled passenger with a suite, I feel like I am starting to understand what it means to have a rank and be constantly reminded of it. There are many espresso makers , I think as I look across the expanse of my officer-grade quarters before closing my eyes, but this one is mine .

A shocking sight greets me beyond the pools of Deck 17 as I saunter over to the Coastal Kitchen for my morning intake of slightly sour Americanos. A tiny city beneath a series of perfectly pressed green mountains. Land! We have docked for a brief respite in Basseterre, the capital of St. Kitts and Nevis. I wolf down my egg scramble to be one of the first passengers off the ship. Once past the gangway, I barely refrain from kissing the ground. I rush into the sights and sounds of this scruffy island city, sampling incredible conch curry and buckets of non-Starbucks coffee. How wonderful it is to be where God intended humans to be: on land. After all, I am neither a fish nor a mall rat. This is my natural environment. Basseterre may not be Havana, but there are signs of human ingenuity and desire everywhere you look. The Black Table Grill Has been Relocated to Soho Village, Market Street, Directly Behind of, Gary’s Fruits and Flower Shop. Signed. THE PORK MAN reads a sign stuck to a wall. Now, that is how you write a sign. A real sign, not the come-ons for overpriced Rolexes that blink across the screens of the Royal Promenade.

“Hey, tie your shoestring!” a pair of laughing ladies shout to me across the street.

“Thank you!” I shout back. Shoestring! “Thank you very much.”

A man in Independence Square Park comes by and asks if I want to play with his monkey. I haven’t heard that pickup line since the Penn Station of the 1980s. But then he pulls a real monkey out of a bag. The monkey is wearing a diaper and looks insane. Wonderful , I think, just wonderful! There is so much life here. I email my editor asking if I can remain on St. Kitts and allow the Icon to sail off into the horizon without me. I have even priced a flight home at less than $300, and I have enough material from the first four days on the cruise to write the entire story. “It would be funny …” my editor replies. “Now get on the boat.”

As I slink back to the ship after my brief jailbreak, the locals stand under umbrellas to gaze at and photograph the boat that towers over their small capital city. The limousines of the prime minister and his lackeys are parked beside the gangway. St. Kitts, I’ve been told, is one of the few islands that would allow a ship of this size to dock.

“We hear about all the waterslides,” a sweet young server in one of the cafés told me. “We wish we could go on the ship, but we have to work.”

“I want to stay on your island,” I replied. “I love it here.”

But she didn’t understand how I could possibly mean that.

“WASHY, WASHY, so you don’t get stinky, stinky!” kids are singing outside the AquaDome, while their adult minders look on in disapproval, perhaps worried that Mr. Washy Washy is grooming them into a life of gayness. I heard a southern couple skip the buffet entirely out of fear of Mr. Washy Washy.

Meanwhile, I have found a new watering hole for myself, the Swim & Tonic, the biggest swim-up bar on any cruise ship in the world. Drinking next to full-size, nearly naked Americans takes away one’s own self-consciousness. The men have curvaceous mom bodies. The women are equally un-shy about their sprawling physiques.

Today I’ve befriended a bald man with many children who tells me that all of the little trinkets that Royal Caribbean has left us in our staterooms and suites are worth a fortune on eBay. “Eighty dollars for the water bottle, 60 for the lanyard,” the man says. “This is a cult.”

“Tell me about it,” I say. There is, however, a clientele for whom this cruise makes perfect sense. For a large middle-class family (he works in “supply chains”), seven days in a lower-tier cabin—which starts at $1,800 a person—allow the parents to drop off their children in Surfside, where I imagine many young Filipina crew members will take care of them, while the parents are free to get drunk at a swim-up bar and maybe even get intimate in their cabin. Cruise ships have become, for a certain kind of hardworking family, a form of subsidized child care.

There is another man I would like to befriend at the Swim & Tonic, a tall, bald fellow who is perpetually inebriated and who wears a necklace studded with little rubber duckies in sunglasses, which, I am told, is a sort of secret handshake for cruise aficionados. Tomorrow, I will spend more time with him, but first the ship docks at St. Thomas, in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Charlotte Amalie, the capital, is more charming in name than in presence, but I still all but jump off the ship to score a juicy oxtail and plantains at the well-known Petite Pump Room, overlooking the harbor. From one of the highest points in the small city, the Icon of the Seas appears bigger than the surrounding hills.

I usually tan very evenly, but something about the discombobulation of life at sea makes me forget the regular application of sunscreen. As I walk down the streets of Charlotte Amalie in my fluorescent Icon of the Seas cap, an old Rastafarian stares me down. “Redneck,” he hisses.

“No,” I want to tell him, as I bring a hand up to my red neck, “that’s not who I am at all. On my island, Mannahatta, as Whitman would have it, I am an interesting person living within an engaging artistic milieu. I do not wish to use the Caribbean as a dumping ground for the cruise-ship industry. I love the work of Derek Walcott. You don’t understand. I am not a redneck. And if I am, they did this to me.” They meaning Royal Caribbean? Its passengers? The Rands?

“They did this to me!”

Back on the Icon, some older matrons are muttering about a run-in with passengers from the Celebrity cruise ship docked next to us, the Celebrity Apex. Although Celebrity Cruises is also owned by Royal Caribbean, I am made to understand that there is a deep fratricidal beef between passengers of the two lines. “We met a woman from the Apex,” one matron says, “and she says it was a small ship and there was nothing to do. Her face was as tight as a 19-year-old’s, she had so much surgery.” With those words, and beneath a cloudy sky, humidity shrouding our weathered faces and red necks, we set sail once again, hopefully in the direction of home.

THERE ARE BARELY 48 HOURS LEFT to the cruise, and the Icon of the Seas’ passengers are salty. They know how to work the elevators. They know the Washy Washy song by heart. They understand that the chicken gyro at “Feta Mediterranean,” in the AquaDome Market, is the least problematic form of chicken on the ship.

The passengers have shed their INAUGURAL CRUISE T-shirts and are now starting to evince political opinions. There are caps pledging to make America great again and T-shirts that celebrate words sometimes attributed to Patrick Henry: “The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people; it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government.” With their preponderance of FAMILY FLAG FAITH FRIENDS FIREARMS T-shirts, the tables by the crepe station sometimes resemble the Capitol Rotunda on January 6. The Real Anthony Fauci , by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., appears to be a popular form of literature, especially among young men with very complicated versions of the American flag on their T-shirts. Other opinions blend the personal and the political. “Someone needs to kill Washy guy, right?” a well-dressed man in the elevator tells me, his gray eyes radiating nothing. “Just beat him to death. Am I right?” I overhear the male member of a young couple whisper, “There goes that freak” as I saunter by in my white spa robe, and I decide to retire it for the rest of the cruise.

I visit the Royal Bling to see up close the $100,000 golden chalice that entitles you to free drinks on Royal Caribbean forever. The pleasant Serbian saleslady explains that the chalice is actually gold-plated and covered in white zirconia instead of diamonds, as it would otherwise cost $1 million. “If you already have everything,” she explains, “this is one more thing you can get.”

I believe that anyone who works for Royal Caribbean should be entitled to immediate American citizenship. They already speak English better than most of the passengers and, per the Serbian lady’s sales pitch above, better understand what America is as well. Crew members like my Panamanian cabin attendant seem to work 24 hours a day. A waiter from New Delhi tells me that his contract is six months and three weeks long. After a cruise ends, he says, “in a few hours, we start again for the next cruise.” At the end of the half a year at sea, he is allowed a two-to-three-month stay at home with his family. As of 2019, the median income for crew members was somewhere in the vicinity of $20,000, according to a major business publication. Royal Caribbean would not share the current median salary for its crew members, but I am certain that it amounts to a fraction of the cost of a Royal Bling gold-plated, zirconia-studded chalice.

And because most of the Icon’s hyper-sanitized spaces are just a frittata away from being a Delta lounge, one forgets that there are actual sailors on this ship, charged with the herculean task of docking it in port. “Having driven 100,000-ton aircraft carriers throughout my career,” retired Admiral James G. Stavridis, the former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, writes to me, “I’m not sure I would even know where to begin with trying to control a sea monster like this one nearly three times the size.” (I first met Stavridis while touring Army bases in Germany more than a decade ago.)

Today, I decide to head to the hot tub near Swim & Tonic, where some of the ship’s drunkest reprobates seem to gather (the other tubs are filled with families and couples). The talk here, like everywhere else on the ship, concerns football, a sport about which I know nothing. It is apparent that four teams have recently competed in some kind of finals for the year, and that two of them will now face off in the championship. Often when people on the Icon speak, I will try to repeat the last thing they said with a laugh or a nod of disbelief. “Yes, 20-yard line! Ha!” “Oh my God, of course, scrimmage.”

Soon we are joined in the hot tub by the late-middle-age drunk guy with the duck necklace. He is wearing a bucket hat with the legend HAWKEYES , which, I soon gather, is yet another football team. “All right, who turned me in?” Duck Necklace says as he plops into the tub beside us. “I get a call in the morning,” he says. “It’s security. Can you come down to the dining room by 10 a.m.? You need to stay away from the members of this religious family.” Apparently, the gregarious Duck Necklace had photobombed the wrong people. There are several families who present as evangelical Christians or practicing Muslims on the ship. One man, evidently, was not happy that Duck Necklace had made contact with his relatives. “It’s because of religious stuff; he was offended. I put my arm around 20 people a day.”

Everyone laughs. “They asked me three times if I needed medication,” he says of the security people who apparently interrogated him in full view of others having breakfast.

Another hot-tub denizen suggests that he should have asked for fentanyl. After a few more drinks, Duck Necklace begins to muse about what it would be like to fall off the ship. “I’m 62 and I’m ready to go,” he says. “I just don’t want a shark to eat me. I’m a huge God guy. I’m a Bible guy. There’s some Mayan theory squaring science stuff with religion. There is so much more to life on Earth.” We all nod into our Red Stripes.

“I never get off the ship when we dock,” he says. He tells us he lost $6,000 in the casino the other day. Later, I look him up, and it appears that on land, he’s a financial adviser in a crisp gray suit, probably a pillar of his North Chicago community.

THE OCEAN IS TEEMING with fascinating life, but on the surface it has little to teach us. The waves come and go. The horizon remains ever far away.

I am constantly told by my fellow passengers that “everybody here has a story.” Yes, I want to reply, but everybody everywhere has a story. You, the reader of this essay, have a story, and yet you’re not inclined to jump on a cruise ship and, like Duck Necklace, tell your story to others at great pitch and volume. Maybe what they’re saying is that everybody on this ship wants to have a bigger, more coherent, more interesting story than the one they’ve been given. Maybe that’s why there’s so much signage on the doors around me attesting to marriages spent on the sea. Maybe that’s why the Royal Caribbean newsletter slipped under my door tells me that “this isn’t a vacation day spent—it’s bragging rights earned.” Maybe that’s why I’m so lonely.

Today is a big day for Icon passengers. Today the ship docks at Royal Caribbean’s own Bahamian island, the Perfect Day at CocoCay. (This appears to be the actual name of the island.) A comedian at the nightclub opined on what his perfect day at CocoCay would look like—receiving oral sex while learning that his ex-wife had been killed in a car crash (big laughter). But the reality of the island is far less humorous than that.

One of the ethnic tristate ladies in the infinity pool told me that she loved CocoCay because it had exactly the same things that could be found on the ship itself. This proves to be correct. It is like the Icon, but with sand. The same tired burgers, the same colorful tubes conveying children and water from Point A to B. The same swim-up bar at its Hideaway ($140 for admittance, no children allowed; Royal Caribbean must be printing money off its clientele). “There was almost a fight at The Wizard of Oz ,” I overhear an elderly woman tell her companion on a chaise lounge. Apparently one of the passengers began recording Royal Caribbean’s intellectual property and “three guys came after him.”

I walk down a pathway to the center of the island, where a sign reads DO NOT ENTER: YOU HAVE REACHED THE BOUNDARY OF ADVENTURE . I hear an animal scampering in the bushes. A Royal Caribbean worker in an enormous golf cart soon chases me down and takes me back to the Hideaway, where I run into Mrs. Rand in a bikini. She becomes livid telling me about an altercation she had the other day with a woman over a towel and a deck chair. We Suites have special towel privileges; we do not have to hand over our SeaPass Card to score a towel. But the Rands are not Suites. “People are so entitled here,” Mrs. Rand says. “It’s like the airport with all its classes.” “You see,” I want to say, “this is where your husband’s love of Ayn Rand runs into the cruelties and arbitrary indignities of unbridled capitalism.” Instead we make plans to meet for a final drink in the Schooner Bar tonight (the Rands will stand me up).

Back on the ship, I try to do laps, but the pool (the largest on any cruise ship, naturally) is fully trashed with the detritus of American life: candy wrappers, a slowly dissolving tortilla chip, napkins. I take an extra-long shower in my suite, then walk around the perimeter of the ship on a kind of exercise track, past all the alluring lifeboats in their yellow-and-white livery. Maybe there is a dystopian angle to the HBO series that I will surely end up pitching, one with shades of WALL-E or Snowpiercer . In a collapsed world, a Royal Caribbean–like cruise liner sails from port to port, collecting new shipmates and supplies in exchange for the precious energy it has on board. (The actual Icon features a new technology that converts passengers’ poop into enough energy to power the waterslides . In the series, this shitty technology would be greatly expanded.) A very young woman (18? 19?), smart and lonely, who has only known life on the ship, walks along the same track as I do now, contemplating jumping off into the surf left by its wake. I picture reusing Duck Necklace’s words in the opening shot of the pilot. The girl is walking around the track, her eyes on the horizon; maybe she’s highborn—a Suite—and we hear the voice-over: “I’m 19 and I’m ready to go. I just don’t want a shark to eat me.”

Before the cruise is finished, I talk to Mr. Washy Washy, or Nielbert of the Philippines. He is a sweet, gentle man, and I thank him for the earworm of a song he has given me and for keeping us safe from the dreaded norovirus. “This is very important to me, getting people to wash their hands,” he tells me in his burger getup. He has dreams, as an artist and a performer, but they are limited in scope. One day he wants to dress up as a piece of bacon for the morning shift.

THE MAIDEN VOYAGE OF THE TITANIC (the Icon of the Seas is five times as large as that doomed vessel) at least offered its passengers an exciting ending to their cruise, but when I wake up on the eighth day, all I see are the gray ghosts that populate Miami’s condo skyline. Throughout my voyage, my writer friends wrote in to commiserate with me. Sloane Crosley, who once covered a three-day spa mini-cruise for Vogue , tells me she felt “so very alone … I found it very untethering.” Gideon Lewis-Kraus writes in an Instagram comment: “When Gary is done I think it’s time this genre was taken out back and shot.” And he is right. To badly paraphrase Adorno: After this, no more cruise stories. It is unfair to put a thinking person on a cruise ship. Writers typically have difficult childhoods, and it is cruel to remind them of the inherent loneliness that drove them to writing in the first place. It is also unseemly to write about the kind of people who go on cruises. Our country does not provide the education and upbringing that allow its citizens an interior life. For the creative class to point fingers at the large, breasty gentlemen adrift in tortilla-chip-laden pools of water is to gather a sour harvest of low-hanging fruit.

A day or two before I got off the ship, I decided to make use of my balcony, which I had avoided because I thought the view would only depress me further. What I found shocked me. My suite did not look out on Central Park after all. This entire time, I had been living in the ship’s Disneyland, Surfside, the neighborhood full of screaming toddlers consuming milkshakes and candy. And as I leaned out over my balcony, I beheld a slight vista of the sea and surf that I thought I had been missing. It had been there all along. The sea was frothy and infinite and blue-green beneath the span of a seagull’s wing. And though it had been trod hard by the world’s largest cruise ship, it remained.

This article appears in the May 2024 print edition with the headline “A Meatball at Sea.” When you buy a book using a link on this page, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic.

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Helicopter used to evacuate pregnant passenger from disney cruise ship.

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A pregnant passenger had to be evacuated from a Disney Cruise ship via helicopter after a medical emergency.

The Coast Guard said the Disney Fantasy ship was 180 miles off the coast of Puerto Rico on Monday, when the 35-year-old patient required a higher level of medical care.

Once on scene, the Coast Guard Jayhawk aircrew deployed a rescue swimmer aboard the cruise ship. A rescue basket was used to hoist the patient and a cruise ship doctor onto the helicopter.

“Our crew was able to quickly, safely, and efficiently execute a long-range MEDEVAC for the patient to receive the higher level of care she required,” said Lt. Cmdr. Todd Stephens. “This case demonstrates the value of good crew resource management and the capabilities of our Jayhawk helicopter.”

The woman was taken to a hospital in San Juan for treatment. Her current condition was not immediately available.

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Our team creates a safe, nurturing learning environment..

In an environment of nurturing care, children grow in confidence and learn developmentally appropriate skills to create a life-long love of learning. Charlie Bear’s Child Care is a dynamic program that provides early-learning opportunities for infants, toddlers, preschoolers and preschool-plus children of Gritman Medical Center employees and the local community.

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At Charlie Bear’s Child Care, we provide children warm, responsive, individualized care. We partner with parents and families to create a caring circle in which children are secure and nurtured. Our teaching staff applies curriculum and play-based learning activities. Children spend their day in a nurturing, safe and happy environment that promotes natural curiosity and desires.

Accreditation and Licensing

Charlie Bear’s Child Care is licensed and inspected annually by the City of Moscow’s Health and Welfare Department. We comply with all requirements for a licensed child care center.

We strive for excellence according to the professional standards set forth by the Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale. We are committed to meeting these national standards of quality education.

In addition to following all state and federal regulations, Charlie Bear’s Child Care participates in the Idaho Stars Quality Program. Although participation is not required, this is one more way we can go above and beyond for the children that attend our daycare.

Our educational program is based on Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale guidelines. This comprehensive program includes many areas that contribute to positive child development. The curriculum includes opportunities for children to make their own choices among various learning areas in the classroom, as well as daily teacher-planned activities in language, math, science, art, music and fine motor and gross motor areas.

Importance of Family

You are encouraged to be part of your child’s day at Charlie Bear’s Child Care. Daily reports and information are provided, along with a Parent Resource Center with books, videos and community updates. Family events are held throughout the year to develop strong relationships among the staff, families and children.

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In compliance with the City of Moscow regulations, the maximum teacher-to-child ratios are as listed:

Children under 2               1:3 Children 2-3                        1:5 Children 3 and older       1:10

We have the opportunity to leverage additional staff during structured learning times so that children receive the attention they need to maximize their learning potential.

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The teacher in each classroom who plans activities must reflect Idaho’s Early Learning Standards and national standards, have a degree in early childhood education or a related field or have prior experience in early childhood programs. Assistants are also qualified by education or experience to work with young children.

All staff are required to have criminal background checks, child-abuse record clearances and annual health appraisals. Staff members are licensed through the City of Moscow. They are certified in First Aid and CPR, and they receive a minimum of 12 hours in annual service training related to their duties as early childhood educators.

Vacationing woman killed when shuttle bus crashes into group of people near cruise port

HONOLULU ( KHNL/KGMB/ Gray News) - A woman on vacation was killed when a shuttle bus dropping passengers off near a cruise port in Hawaii crashed into a group of people.

Dianna Cricelli, 68, from Pocahontas, Illinois, was taken to a hospital in critical condition where she later died, according to police traffic investigators.

She was reportedly with family celebrating her 46th wedding anniversary. Her husband, 66-year-old Frank Cricelli, was also seriously injured in the crash.

“The family is mourning the loss of Dianna. They are asking for privacy during this difficult time,” Frank Cricelli said in a message relayed by the Visitor Aloha Society of Hawaii.

Three others, including a 67-year-old woman, a 55-year-old woman, and a 58-year-old man, were also seriously injured in the crash, according to officials.

Additionally, a man in his 70s was taken to the hospital in stable condition while six other adults, ranging in age from their 40s to their 70s, suffered minor injuries and declined transport.

The crash happened at about 10:20 a.m. Friday in a private parking lot near a cruise ship port in Honolulu. Honolulu police reported the 57-year-old driver of the shuttle bus was dropping passengers off and picking others up when he was notified that the vehicle was moving forward.

According to police, the driver jumped into the driver’s seat in order to stop the bus but pressed the gas pedal instead of the brakes.

“Somebody screamed, and then I looked over and the bus hit into the crowd,” Janet Lightfoot, an ER nurse from Florida, said.

Lightfoot and her mother had been on a cruise and just disembarked Friday morning to go shopping. They were waiting for a shuttle when they saw a bus with a Hilo Hatties logo heading toward a crowd of people.

“It just kept going and my daughter yells out, ‘There’s nobody driving the bus.’ And then poof, it hits the wall,” Linda Reck, who was vacationing from Florida, said.

Police said the bus crashed into a group of people, pinning several against concrete barriers.

“It just kept going until it hit the wall there. Big, cement block was pushed out and the bus hit into the wall,” Lightfoot said. “I ran over and kind of started triaging people and trying to help.”

Bystanders said the chaotic scene unfolded in seconds.

“It was shocking,” witness Mike Frost said.

Lightfoot said she’s accustomed to seeing traumatic injuries, but that witnessing this crash felt different.

“We’re on vacation. The husband of one of the family members was there and just sad,” she said.

The Visitor Aloha Society of Hawaii said those who were seriously injured were all from Illinois and that they are being offered assistance.

Carnival Miracle issued a statement following the crash, reporting that nine of the people hit by the shuttle bus were guests on their cruise.

“Members of the Carnival Care Team are assisting the guests,” the statement said in part. “Our thoughts are with the guests affected and their loved ones.”

They reported the ship was on a 15-day trip that departed from Long Beach, California on April 6.

Honolulu police said it’s unknown if drugs or alcohol were factors in the crash.

Copyright 2024 KHNL/KGMB via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Moscow (Russia)

Cruise port schedule, live map, terminals, news.

Region Russia Rivers

Local Time 2024-04-18 16:27

Moscow is a Volga River cruise port, Russia's capital and largest city (population over 12,2 million, metro 17 million). Moscow City covers a total area of approx 2610 km 2 (970 mi2). By population, the city is ranked the world's 14th largest. Moscow is one of the Russian Federation's all 3 federal cities - together with St Petersburg and Sevastopol .

Being Russian Federation's capital, Moscow is a major economic, political, scientific and cultural center, as well as Europe's biggest city.

According to Forbes 2013, Moscow has been ranked as the 9th most expensive city in the world by Mercer and has one of the largest urban economies, being ranked as an alpha global city according to Globalization and World Cities Research Network. It is also one of the fastest-growing tourist destinations in the world according to MasterCard Global Destination Cities Index. Moscow is the northernmost and the coldest megacity and metropolis on the Earth. It's home to Ostankino Tower, the tallest free-standing European structure; the Federation Tower, the tallest European skyscraper; and the Moscow International Business Center. 

Moscow is situated on Moskva River in the Central Federal District of European Russia, which makes it the most populated inland city in the world. Moscow city is well known for architecture, particularly its historic buildings like Saint Basil's Cathedral. With over 40% of its territory covered by greenery, it's one of the greenest capitals and major cities in Europe and the world. Moscow is the seat of power of the Russian Government, being the site of Moscow Kremlin, a medieval city-fortress that is now the residence of the President of Russia. Moscow Kremlin and Red Square are among the several World Heritage Sites in the city. 

Moscow has 2 passenger terminals, North River Terminal (Rechnoy vokzal) and South River Terminal. The regular ship routes and cruises along Moskva and Oka rivers are used mostly for entertainment. North River Terminal (1937-built) is currently the main hub for long-range routes along the river. There are 3 freight ports that serve Moscow.

In late-July 2021 the city announced plans to incorporate a fleet (unspecified number) of fully electric passenger ferries into its public transportation network from summer 2022, the goal being to reduce the dependence on cars.

• The boats are designed with length ~22 m (72 ft), passenger capacity 42, modern amenities (Wi-Fi, USB charging points, tables for working commuters), spaces for storing scooters and bicycles.
• Moscow Transport confirmed that two routes (with max daily capacity ~16,000 passengers) have already been mapped out.
• Passengers will be able to pay via bank cards, the city’s Troika card (smart card for travel by any public transportation) or biometric payment cards. Those with monthly/yearly public transit tickets will use the boats at no extra cost.
• The new electric ferry service is up to 5 times faster (in comparison to other city public transports) and ~2 times faster than by car.

Moscow cruise terminal

Moscow's cruise terminal is called North River Terminal or River Station  ("Rechnoy Vokzal" / "речной вокзал").

The terminal was opened in 1937 and is one of 2 passenger terminals (the other being South River Terminal) of the city's river transport. North River Terminal is the main hub for long-range (including cruise) shipping routes. 

South River Terminal (above photo) was opened in 1985.

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