I had read many of the cruise critic reviews of the last 6 months in preparation to our latest cruise. We cruised the Carnival Valor the week of February 21st. There were 20 people in our group. The group was comprised of three sets of grandparents, four sets of parents, and six children ranging from 2 years to 12 years of age.

First and foremost I would like to commend the Valor Camp Carnival Staff. I work in education and felt like their programming was well thought out and well implimented. The staff was very strict about adhereing to certain guidelines (like having to have the assigned cell phone with me when checking my five year old in and out of the camp), but I always felt that it was for the best interest of the children. The staff had a way of instilling confidence in the parents and enthusiasm in the children. They were fabulous! The kids got souvenier t-shirts, scrapbooks and backpacks from camp carnival. My son, age seven, appreciated the spin art and my daughter, age five, loved the face painting. The talent show on the last day was super cute and very inclusive.

We chose to travel during a week that is not typically a vacation week. There were 300 children (under the age of 18 on board). I never saw more than 20 in each of the Camp Carnival Programs (divided by ages 2-5, 6-8, 9-11) during the times that we utilized them. Read more