Cruising with Carnival Cruise Line? Here’s my 10 TOP TIPS!
If you’re reading this post, you’re probably thinking about cruising with Carnival Cruise Line, or maybe you’ve booked and are keen to do some research. Whichever is the case for you, I’m glad you’re here! In this post today, I’m sharing 10 of my ‘top tips’' for cruising with Carnival, to hopefully help you make the most of your time onboard. As a British cruiser, I didn’t really know what to expect before my first cruise with this line, and so hopefully my ‘fresh eyes’ to the Carnival product can help with your trip planning! If you do enjoy this post today, I’d really appreciate it if you’d come over and support me on YouTube - you can find my channel by searching ‘Fraser at Sea’, or by clicking here - every subscriber over there really does help me to reach more people, so THANK YOU for checking it out!
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Anyway, let’s get started on my tips for cruising with Carnival Cruise Line…
1. Cruising with Kids? You need to know about Camp Ocean!
‘Camp Ocean’ is what Carnival calls their onboard kids clubs, and you’ll find these facilities available on all of their family-friendly cruise ships (that’s right - every ship in the fleet!). If you’ve read my post on cruising with Royal Caribbean, you’ll know that they split guests into age-range groups, and Carnival are no different. In Camp Ocean, your little ones will be split into the following groups:
Penguins (2 - 5 years old)
Stingrays (6 - 8 years old)
Sharks (9 - 11 years old)
This facility operates all day (during the day), every day, of your cruise, and allows you the chance to have the kids entertained while making new friends, while you head off around the ship doing exactly the same thing! Yes, you’re on a family vacation, but every family is allowed some ‘down time’! It’s important to note that this service is available during daytime hours, but additional charges and fees kick in for the evening childcare options. This late night service is called ‘Night Owls’ on Carnival ships, and is available for kids ages 6 months to 11 years. This service, at the point of writing this post (2024), operates from 10pm to 1am each evening, and the additional charge is $7.50 per child per hour, plus an 18% service charge. There are no discounts for multiple children from the same family participating in the Night Owls programme.
2. Cruising without kids? Head to Serenity!
So, in the first point above, we’ve covered some points you’ll probably want to know about if you’re cruising with kids. However, what if you’re not, or if you’ve got them looked after at the kids club for the afternoon? Well, you need to find out where the ‘Serenity’ area is, and head there to relax!
Serenity is an adult-only open deck space, and I was SO impressed with it on my recent Carnival cruises. Out here, you’ll find a wide array of comfortable furniture (including sofa loungers and day beds!), in addition to a bar and also a snack station. In my opinion, this is the perfect place to spend a few hours on a day at sea - Carnival cruise ships can be busy places, and are very child-friendly, so a great escape! It’s worth highlighting - Serenity is available on all Carnival cruise ships, but is restricted to passengers aged 21 or over.
My top tip - I found that this part of the ship would always be really quiet towards the end of the day, as the bar area would close before re-opening in the evening. During this period, it was lovely to sit out here in one of the hot tubs, while watching the sun go down - a moment of bliss on a huge, bustling cruise ship!
3. Carnival ships are VERY different - do your research!
Ok, I always tell people to do some research before cruising with a new cruise line (if you’ve followed me for a while, you’re probably bored of listening to this advice), but it’s really important with lines like Carnival. You’re going to find very different experiences depending on which ship(s) in the fleet you choose to cruise on - make sure you’re spending some time researching what YOU can expect from the ship that YOU choose to cruise on.
For example, cruising on Carnival Celebration, one of the newest mega-ships in the fleet will offer a very different onboard experience to Carnival Glory, as both the ships are different, primarily due to the fact that some are old, while others are very new! Another example is that the recent acquisition of Italian Costa ships into the Carnival family is really exciting, but you’ll find very different experiences on there to what you’ll get on the ‘normal’ Carnival ships. What would I advise you do to help? Well, start by doing exactly what you are now - get on blogs and websites to understand the overall cruise experience, and then head over to sites like YouTube! Why not see if any vloggers (or YouTubers) have cruised on the ship that you’re looking at? For example, if you’re cruising onboard Carnival Panorama, you could try searching ‘Carnival Panorama cruise vlog’ and seeing what options come up. However, if you’re going on either Carnival Panorama or Carnival Horizon, check out my channel - that’ll save you the time searching…!! You can check out episode 1 from my time onboard Carnival Panorama below:
4. The ice cream is FREE!
Ok, one of my pet hates is when I go on a cruise vacation and I need to pay for some things that are so REQUIRED on holiday. For example, ice cream!
Being a British cruiser, free ice cream isn’t something I expect from a cruise - I’ve learned to live with the annoyance of paying extra for this treat.
However, on Carnival ships, you’re going to find soft serve ice cream that’s totally included in your cruise fare - it’s usually available in the Marketplace (the buffet) and you can pour it yourself into either a cone or a cup! Top tip from me on this topic - at the lunch buffet, there’ll be ice cream toppings, but these won’t be available at night - I took some sprinkles from the lunchtime buffet in a cup and kept them in my room, which allowed me to have toppings throughout the day - what a win but shh, don‘t tell everyone!
5. Know where you can eat, and when!
This one’s really important! I hear SO MANY people board their first cruise (either their first ever cruise, or their first with a new cruise line), and they limit themselves to either the Main Dining room or the buffet and don’t really explore further. On Carnival, there are loads of options, and they don’t all cost extra!
You’ll find a number of poolside eateries on most ships - there’s often a Mexican, a Guy’s Burger Joint, a pizzeria, and a seafood option on some ships. If you’re cruising Vista Class, you’ll have a smoke house (Guy’s Pig & Anchor), an Italian (Cucina Del Capitano) and an Asian fusion (JiJi Asian Kitchen) as some of your ‘Speciality’ (or pay extra) venues, but these don’t always have additional costs associated with them! For example, did you know that you can get a FREE smokehouse lunch on a sea day from the outdoor buffet part of the Smokehouse? You can also get FREE lunches from the Italian and Asian restaurants - check your daily schedule for more information on times and days on your specific cruise!
6. Formal night - get involved on your Carnival cruise!
If you’re anything like me, you may be planning for your Carnival cruise and be a little confused about formal night. Carnival do consider themselves to be a really casual cruise line, and so the concept of a formal night does contradict what I’d expected from them.
When I boarded my first Carnival cruise, I didn’t expect there to be a formal night, but there was, and I was surprised at how many people got involved! Now, there’s a key difference with formal night while cruising with Carnival compared to some other cruise lines - dress code really isn’t strictly enforced on Carnival ships. This means that you’re going to be welcomed to dinner regardless of whether you’re wearing a ball gown, a summer dress, or jeans and a t-shirt. From my recent Carnival cruises, it was so great to see people getting involved, and everyone seemed to really enjoy it - there was even a string trio playing in the atrium!
So yes, if you’re cruising with Carnival, take something a little more special and throw it on for formal night - you’ll have a great time!
7. Take your favourite alcohol with you!
Did you know that you can take your own alcohol onto your Carnival cruise? Well, you need to be careful on this topic, but you can take SOME alcohol with you! Head over to another of my posts (click here!) when you’re finished on this page to read more about the policy that Carnival upholds on their ships!
8 - Pack a watch with you!
Ok, I’m not sure why, but of all of the cruises I’ve ever done, I’ve seen more ‘Pier Runners’ on my last 2 Carnival cruises than on all of the others combined! What’s a ‘Pier Runner’, I hear you ask? Well, this is the term affectionately given to those who almost miss their cruise ship, by returning late from their time ashore. The reason for this name is that you’ll often arrive back to a cruise ship full of people screaming and shouting at you, as you run full-speed down the dock (or pier) to catch the ship before it pulls in the gangway and takes off back to sea - in my opinion, SUCH an embarrassing situation!
In order to avoid this happening to you (or maybe even worse - the cruise ship leaving you behind if you’re late back!), take a watch! This will mean that you can set the time on your watch, and it won’t automatically update if you’re moving into a new time zone (the time on the ship won’t always change, so you need to be clear with yourself what time ‘ship time’ is during your port of call).
Sure, you can tell the time on your iPhone, but this will often update when you connect to local networks, so I always recommend avoiding the risk - just pack a watch! you can learn more about ‘Pier Runners’ on my YouTube channel…
9. During port days, Carnival ships are VERY quiet!
I’ve been on some cruise ships in the past where people tend to stay onboard during ports of call. I find that on the more ‘premium’ lines, passengers will go ashore for a short period of time, but then retreat back to the comfort of the ship to enjoy the rest of the day before the ship departs in the evening.
However, I found it to be pretty different when cruising with Carnival. I’d go for breakfast to find that most people had already left the ship for the day, and I would often find that the ship would still be really quiet an hour or two before we were due to depart - this was so interesting for me to discover! Of course - this might be down to the weather and the itinerary (I cruised from both Miami and Long Beach, and it was Summer, so perfect beach weather!), but maybe a Carnival-specific gem of a tip!
This means that the onboard facilities will often be nice and quiet during a day in port, so why not plan to try the waterslides in the morning before you head ashore, or plan to enjoy lunch at a more relaxed pace onboard by the pool, without the crowds of people also trying to do the same as on a day at sea? Yes, you’ll need to sacrifice port time in order to do this, but it’s worth thinking about if you’re docking somewhere you’re not overly keen on visiting, or somewhere that you’ve been before!
10 - Thinking about buying water? Save some money and take a bottle!
Last year, I spent over 200 nights at sea on a number of different cruise ships (yes, really!), and I can honestly count on one hand how many times I bought a bottle of water on any ships (again, yes - really!). I see so many people ordering bottled water on embarkation day, and I always feel like this is such an unnecessary expense. Sure, it’s convenient to have bottles of water delivered to your stateroom / cabin for you to enjoy during your cruise, but it’s important to note that water is readily available in so many places onboard a Carnival Cruise Line ship - you don’t NEED to pay for it!
You’re going to find free water (by the glass) available at every bar onboard, and you’ll also find water machines at the buffet, so it’ll be VERY easy to fill up! Even when the buffet isn’t serving food, there will be a minimum of one water machine left on 24-7, and you’ll find ice up there to keep it cool, too!
Personally, I just incorporate it into my ‘getting ready for bed’ routine - go back to my room/cabin, grab my re-fillable bottle, and head up to the buffet to top up before going to bed! Final point on water bottles though - don’t fill up directly into the bottle at the buffet for basic hygiene reasons - always pour water into a glass or cup, and tip it into your bottle. That way, there’s a far less chance of illness spreading onboard - thing like this are really important to remember on a cruise ship!
So that’s it - 10 of my top tips to hopefully help you have the best experience possible on your Carnival cruise. If you’ve got a cruise planned, enjoy! If you’re just here to learn more for now, then thanks for joining me! Remember - come over and support me on YouTube by hitting the subscribe button - click here to go there now!