FaMily CruiSinG | Carnival STyle
ABOVE: Twin racing slides on Carnival Magic. RiGHT: A super soaking under the sprinklers. BELOW, FROM LEFT: SkyCourse; basketball; miniature golf.
GeT your FeeT WeT When it’s time for family fun together, jump into your swimming suits to sample Carnival’s theme-park-style water features. Several ships harbor WaterWorks: mini water parks with sprinklers and sliding boards for younger kids, as well as tall, twisty water slides that beckon all ages. The newest ships in the fleet — the 3,646-passenger Carnival Magic, Carnival Dream and Carnival Breeze — boast the most elaborate theme-park-style set-up, with an infant slide, a spiral slide and a huge corkscrew waterslide 312 feet long and four decks high. Other active outdoor pursuits aboard most of the fleet include miniature golf courses and courts for basketball, volleyball and soccer. On Carnival Magic and Carnival Breeze, thrill seekers will gravitate to the SkyCourse, a ropes course suspended above deck — the likes of which have never before been offered at sea. Another innovative first that kids love is Carnival Laser Tag, which is set up in the main show lounge on board several ships.
CaMP Carnival and The Teen CluBS
Carnival rolls out the red carpet for tots through teens in five age groups, with complimentary all-day supervised activities and dedicated, experienced staff for each group. The Camp Carnival program targets the 2-to-11 set in sprawling indoor play spaces — some as large as 5,500 square feet — outfitted with games, toys and video screens. The entire fleet has stand-alone video arcades. Camp activities are geared to three age groups (2 to 5, 6 to 8 and 9 to 11) and broken down into areas. Creative kids will enjoy the WaterColors (art) and SeaNotes (music) activities, for instance, while the curious ones will be all over the H 2 Ocean (science) and EduCruise (geography) stuff. Hands-on fun also includes T-shirt decorating, face painting, sand art and pizza making, as well as the chance to build a stuffed animal in the Beary Cuddly Workshop. Sporting events are always a big hit, and so are bingo competitions. Even dinner can be part of the day’s fun, with staff supervising mealtime most nights for parents who would like an adults-only dinner date.
Circle “C” is geared to the particular whims and fancies of 12- to 14-year olds, with cool hang-out spaces designed with a dance floor, high-tech sound and lighting systems, plasmascreen TVs showing movies, and video games, gaming pods and more. Circle “C” attendees can join in sports such as basketball and volleyball, as well as ping-pong and various water games (depending on the ship). Catch a latenight movie or check out “swimming under the stars” pool parties.
Teens doin’ their thing at Circle ‘‘C’’
Making new friends at Club O 2
Club O2 , for 15- to 17-year-olds, is a spacious teen club with a dance floor and DJ, state-of-the-art sound and lighting system, plasma TVs and gaming pods. Teens can swill nonalcoholic drinks in the “Coke-tail” lounges, while listening to music or relaxing. Special teen coordinators organize karaoke sessions, theme parties, movies, video game contests, basketball, ping-pong and other events (depending on the ship). all photos this paGe: carnival cruise lines
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