Carnival and NCL kids clubs compared

Carnival’s "fun ships" of the Caribbean, are travelled on by more children than any other cruise line. Camp Carnival is the club for toddlers (two to five), juniors (six to eight), intermediates (nine to 11) and teens (12 to 14) – it offers everything from pirate parties to Sea Notes (music making) and ExerSeas (sports and fitness). For the 15 to 17 group there’s Club 02 which has sports events in the daytime and pool parties at night. Then there’s H2Ocean which offers science projects and EduCruise arranges educational visits in ports. The whole Camp Carnival experience is free and runs from 9am to 3am but after 10pm you have to pay an extra hourly charge per child.

NCL has a great holiday club, but you have to be good enough at planning ahead to take advantage of it. For example, child-sitting has to be booked by midday on the day you want it, or by 5pm on the previous day if it’s a port call day. Kid's Crew, the NCL kids club is divided into Junior Sailors (two to five), First Mates (six to nine) and Navigators (10 to 12), it’s free and runs from 9am to 10pm, with breaks for lunch and dinner. Then from 10pm to 1am you can pay an hourly fee per child for child-sitting in a group setting.