MD here! About an hour NW of Washington DC.
Can you give a quick opinion of the difference between
DCL and CCL? We think CCL is more for adults, either single or leaving their kids at home. The camp is great on Carnival, but we wish they had more family activities. I feel they are pushing people into paying for the extra childcare services in order to enjoy a lot of the activities. It seems the showtimes are being made later and later each time we sail. This is strictly my opinion. But I would love to hear yours!
Yes! The first day on the ship, DH and I noticed a huge lack of family/kid activities. Not to mention that when we boarded the ship, none of the amenities were open (pools, water slides, mini golf, etc.). This was not the case on the Magic. When we boarded, the kids could have gotten in the pool and slides right away. The only thing that was open on Carnival was the buffet of standard burgers & hot dogs. We felt like the Magic had better food and a wider variety. My husband kept saying that he couldnt find anyone to help us, but he had no problem finding someone to sell us something. We definitely felt nickel and dimed.
A couple examples of things I noticed were that sometimes, we just need some down time in our cabin, and there was only one kids channel on the TV, and it would rotate movies like Dr. Doolittle, Alvin & the Chipmunks, etc. My kids are young and would not pay attention to these movies. On the Magic, they run a channel with 24/7 Disney cartoons (I understand that Carnival cant use Disney cartoons, but they didnt even have a young kids option.) This made relaxing time in the cabin a little difficult. Another example I noticed were that there were no trays at the buffet. Managing two plates, cups, silverware, and holding the hands of a 4 yr old and 2 yr old is a little difficult. At one point, I looked up while trying to make our way to the table only to see two crew members watching me struggle. Neither of them offered to help me or take a plate from me to get to the table. This would not have happened on the Magic. At the end of every buffet line, they have cast members filling cups for you, offering to carry your trays to your table for you, clearing away plates if a table is dirty, etc. They just really set the bar high!
As for family activities, there were several times on the Magic where we had to make a decision on which activity to choose, including letting our kids play hide n seek with Peter Pan and Captain Hook. And really, who wouldnt want to do that? On Carnival, we dropped our kids off at Camp Carnival three times, and the first two times, they called us to come pick them up. The last time we dropped them off, we told them it would only be for 30 mins while we were packing up to go home.
We also noticed that there were not a lot of kids on the Carnival ship, and we often felt like they almost went out of their way to exclude kids. They only had one show at night that was family friendly, and you are correct, that the show time was much later, so our kids often would not make it through the shows. Dinner was another problematic area. They have kids menus, but they werent ready until our 3rd night on board. Also, on the Magic, our dinner drinks were always ready, on the table, with appropriate cups for our kids with their names on them. On the Magic, dinner lasted an hour, and they did an excellent job of keeping the kids entertained, cutting up their food for them, etc., so DH and I didnt have to worry about that so much. On Carnival, dinner lasted an hour and a half to two hours with no entertainment for the kids.
This was definitely a case of getting what you pay for, and so even though Disney was about double the cost, its really worth about 10 times as much as Carnival. I hope this helps. I think were definitely going to stick with Disney while were sailing with the kids, and maybe even when we arent.
Anyway, this was just my experience.
Wow, a lot of us are from GA. We dont really have to follow the school calendar yet, but I think we probably will in a year or two. I know Ill be looking for the fall break too.
And MD too. My college roommate was from MD, and I went there once by mistake. I got turned around on the beltway.
That's funny that you were on the ship next to ours. Yes, my kids really wanted to get on that boat/ship when we returned to the pier.
