MIAMI, June 23, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- With summer travel season in full swing, Carnival Cruise Lines continues to enhance its family-friendly offerings, introducing the new Dr. Seuss Bookville family reading venue and Camp Ocean marine-themed children's program on Carnival Freedom, along with highly attractive rates for families to make a summer cruise more affordable than ever.
Recently debuting on Carnival Freedom following a multi-million-dollar makeover, Dr. Seuss Bookville and Camp Ocean featuring more than 200 new ocean-inspired activities are part of a fleetwide rollout of new children's programming designed to build upon Carnival's position as the family cruise leader. Carnival hosts more than 700,000 kids a year – the most of any cruise operator and roughly double what the line carried a decade ago.
And with rates starting as low as $279 per person for three- to five-day cruises and $429 for voyages of six days or longer, along with special discounts for third and fourth guests in the same stateroom, there's no better time for families to take advantage of the incredible value of a Carnival cruise.
"Families are an important market to us and with these new family-friendly enhancements, combined with highly attractive summer rates, we're making cruising on Carnival an even greater value while providing kids and their parents an opportunity to create a lifetime of vacation memories together," said Gerry Cahill, Carnival president and CEO. "Seuss at Sea and Camp Ocean are not only wonderful additions to our top-rated children's programs but also provide our valued travel agent partners with a highly effective tool for attracting more families to the 'Fun Ships,'" he added.
Exciting New Family-Friendly Spaces
Part of an exclusive agreement with Dr. Seuss Enterprises, Bookville features iconic decor, colors, shapes and funky furniture inspired by the whimsical world of Dr. Seuss. Here, kids and their families can read beloved Dr. Seuss books or stretch their imagination through fun activities such as arts and crafts, toys and Dr. Seuss-inspired games. Bookville will also be featured on the new Carnival Vista when it debuts in 2016.
Bookville is part of Seuss at Sea, a fleetwide family, dining and entertainment experience inspired by the amazing world of Dr. Seuss. The program also includes the Green Eggs and Ham Breakfast with the Cat in the Hat and Friends, an interactive reading event called Seuss-a-palooza Story Time, and the Seuss-a-palooza Character Parade along the ships' promenade.
Camp Ocean is a fun-filled new children's program that immerses children ages 2-11 in the wonders of the sea through fun and engaging experiences, with underwater-colored spaces and energetic, highly trained staff. Three age-related categories each have their own identity: children ages 2-5 are dubbed "Penguins," those ages 6-8 are called "Stingrays" and 9-11-year-olds are "Sharks."
In addition to fun new spaces – from miniature play igloos for the Penguins to interactive gaming stations for the Sharks – Carnival Freedom's new Camp Ocean facility includes Party Reef, a common area that brings each of the groups together, as well as a breakout room for arts and crafts activities called Creative Cove. Camp Ocean serves as the venue for a host of new activities, from educational games such as Under the Sea Mad Libs and Ocean Artifacts Memory Tray to creative arts opportunities like Design Your Own Aquarium and Make Your Own Sailboat.
Additional Family-Friendly Features
Carnival's "Fun Ships" also offer a host of all-ages entertainment and activities – from Hasbro, The Game Show, where guests are part of the show through larger-than-life adaptations of the company's iconic and popular games to family-friendly performances by hilarious comedians at the Punchliner Comedy Club presented by George Lopez.
Every Carnival ship also features an exhilarating water slide – with some vessels boasting expansive water parks – as well as game rooms featuring the latest video and arcade games. Kid-friendly dining choices – from fleetwide 24-hour pizza and ice cream to Guy's Burger Joints developed in tandem with Food Network Star Guy Fieri on select ships – are also available.
And when parents need a little "me" time, there's the Serenity adults-only retreats featured on virtually every Carnival ship.
These family friendly offerings are available throughout Carnival's "Fun Ship" fleet which this summer will offer a wide range of three- to eight-day departures from a variety of convenient homeports throughout North America. Carnival Freedom currently operates five- to eight-day Caribbean cruises from Fort Lauderdale then repositions to Galveston, Texas, for year-round seven-day Caribbean departures beginning in February 2015.
Amenities and facilities vary by ship with fleetwide implementation of Seuss at Sea expected to be completed by 2015 and Camp Ocean by 2016. Rates are based on interior staterooms on select dates and are subject to change without notice.
For additional information, contact any travel agent, call 1-800-CARNIVAL or visit carnival.com.
Carnival can also be found on:
Twitter: www.twitter.com/carnivalcruise
Facebook Fan Page: www.facebook.com/carnival
YouTube: www.youtube.com/carnival
Journalists also can visit Carnival's media site, www.carnival-news.com or follow the line's PR department on Twitter at www.twitter.com/CarnivalPR.
About Carnival Cruise Lines
Carnival, a unit of Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE: CUK), is "The World's Most Popular Cruise Line®" with 24 ships operating three- to 23-day voyages to The Bahamas, Caribbean, Mexican Riviera, Alaska, Hawaii, Canada, New England, Bermuda, Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands and Tahiti. The company's 25th ship, the 135,000-ton Carnival Vista, is scheduled to enter service in 2016.
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SOURCE Carnival Cruise Lines