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Carnival touts new kids' venues, low rates for summer cruises

Carnival Cruise Lines
Camp Ocean - underwater-themed venues, activities
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 discounts for third and fourth passengers in a stateroom during summer sailings.

Recently debuting on Carnival Freedom following a multimillion-dollar makeover, Dr. Seuss Bookville and Camp Ocean with more than 200 new ocean-inspired activities are part of a fleetwide rollout of fresh children’s programming. Carnival claims to be the family cruise leader, hosting more than 700,000 kids a year, roughly double what the line carried a decade ago.

During the peak family vacation period, Carnival's rates start at $279 per person for three- to five-day cruises and $429 for voyages of six days or longer. The line also has discounts for third and fourth passengers in the same stateroom.

'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. He added that Seuss at Sea and Camp Ocean give travel agents new selling points for families.

Bookville features iconic décor, colors, shapes and funky furniture inspired by Dr. Seuss. Here, kids and their families can read Dr. Seuss books or stretch their imagination through 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 that 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’ promenades.

The new Camp Ocean children’s program immerses youngsters ages 2 to 11 in the wonders of the sea, with underwater-themed spaces and energetic, highly trained staff. Each of three age-related categories has its own identity: kids 2 to 5 are dubbed 'Penguins,' those 6 to 8 are called 'Stingrays' and 9- to 11-year-olds are 'Sharks.'

In addition to elements ranging 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.