Azura with Kids in April

[sealegs14]

After reading some negative reviews about the Italian lines MSC and Costa, I'm now thinking of sailing P&O from Southampton to Spain, France and Portugal in April.

I will be travelling alone with 2 kids (14 and 7) and wanted some honest feedback on family experiences so far with this ship. How are the kids and teen clubs, entertainment, daily programs etc?

How are the prices onboard? Is there a soft drinks package for adults or children?

Also, any experience of travelling from Southampton in April would also be greatly appreciated - what sea conditions should I expect?

Thanks for your input.

[blitznbobs]

After reading some negative reviews about the Italian lines MSC and Costa, I'm now thinking of sailing P&O from Southampton to Spain, France and Portugal in April.

I will be travelling alone with 2 kids (14 and 7) and wanted some honest feedback on family experiences so far with this ship. How are the kids and teen clubs, entertainment, daily programs etc?

How are the prices onboard? Is there a soft drinks package for adults or children?

Also, any experience of travelling from Southampton in April would also be greatly appreciated - what sea conditions should I expect?

Thanks for your input.

 

I Ttravelled with our son on Azura in September and can't recommend 'The Reef' highly enough. The kids have an absolute blast (the majority, from what I saw, preferring to be there than with their boring parents.)

 

The kids were well catered for with food as well with their own 'tea' if they preferred with the usual 'kids' options including healthy foods as well as the more unhealthy ones. The pizza and burger bars are open all day too or they can join you in the restaurants which we did most nights - with no issues - unless you want to share with other guests that is as the staff don't seem inclined to put children on 'mixed' tables which tbh I think is fair enough.

 

There is no soft drinks package but we took a bottle of squash with us and he was happy with that and the occasional lemonade (1.95 I think) In all with our 200 on board credit we paid £20 over that... but we aren't big drinkers and don't use the spa... we did do sindhu and 17 tho.

 

We were on a similar route going to spain and france and the sea was fine, a little rocky one night but nothing much (and we had an aft facing cabin).

 

The only vague gripe I would have (which probably given the age of your children won't effect you) is selfish parents who bring their children to the night nursery awake. Once one is awake then they all wake and as my son is still fairly hard to settle, once awake this meant our evening was over.

 

Also, there is no covered pool on azura which I thought was a little annoying as it can be cool in the western med and it would have been useful for my son to have somewhere to swim...

 

But all in all we had a great time...

 

Any questions, fire away...

 

Blitz

[Thejuggler]

Children will be very well looked after with lots to do. My only reservation would be the lack of an indoor pool in April. It may be OK when you get further south, but the first day at sea may be cool for swimming.

[cclarke12]

We travelled in August on Azura and I can say kids facilities are brilliant (although minge are younger). It is a great ship for families. As someone else mentioned it is worth checking out Ventura for that period too as having a covered pool is a real bonus for the kids when weather is not so good.

 

There is also a sailing doing a similar route on Oceana which we are doing in April (Easter hols) as it was coming out cheaper than the other ships. Can't mentione particular agents on this but we booked with a cruise agent that is also a well know high street agent and got a very good price with OBC. We don't normally book with them but it was a really good deal for Easter hols.

 

Drinks for kids are cheap on P&O - about £1.30 a time, or 75p for mixer size drinks

[mrspjotter]

cclarke12 - can I ask what ages your kids are - we are travelling on Azura on 5th Feb, my son will be 10 and twin daughters will be 7 and i'm keen to hear from anyone who has similar aged kids how they got on.

 

My kids are asking for info on what sort of activities they can expect in the kids club as we have sailed RCI twice.

 

Also do the kids have wristbands with their muster station on?

[cclarke12]

cclarke12 - can I ask what ages your kids are - we are travelling on Azura on 5th Feb, my son will be 10 and twin daughters will be 7 and i'm keen to hear from anyone who has similar aged kids how they got on.

 

My kids are asking for info on what sort of activities they can expect in the kids club as we have sailed RCI twice.

 

Also do the kids have wristbands with their muster station on?

 

Mine are 4 and 17 months so much younger. I was on a cruise with someone that had 2 kids in the 5-9s room and they loved it. It is a bit different to RCI in that it is much less rigid in the club. They have lots of organised activities and parties (pirate parties, discos, pool parties and talent shows etc.) but this is alongside free play so kids can just play on the computer or in the ball pit if they don't fancy joining in the activity.

 

The over 9s have a different room and can sign themselves in and out. They don't where bands, basically they would take all children to a muster drill in the event of emergency rather then trailing them round the ship to different muster stations trying to find parents.

 

I can't rate P&O highly enough for the kids clubs, and the youth director and manager on that ship are just fanastic.

[mrspjotter]

cclarke12 - thanks very much for that - did you have any experience of the children's tea or did your children always eat with you?

[cclarke12]

cclarke12 - thanks very much for that - did you have any experience of the children's tea or did your children always eat with you?

 

My kids could never manage until the time we like to eat (7.30pm +), even when the older one did come to the restaurant for dinner. They went to the children's tea everynight even if it was just for a snack before dinner in the main dining room (usually formal night as my son likes to dress up). After a couple of nights in the restaurant the novelty value wore off for my son and he just wanted to have dinner at the children's tea then get changed and go to club.

 

The children's tea has a couple of hot main courses, e.g. fish pie, sausages, chicken breast, salmon, steak etc. plus pasta and sauces, a couple of different potato dishes, veg and salad. They also have cold meats, finger sandwiches, cakes, fruit and jelly etc. Apart from breakfast time this is the only other time you can get free squash/juice for the kids.

[mrspjotter]

cclarke12 - thanks very much for that - my kids love the dining room too but on a couple of nights it might be nice for them to have tea at the kids club with hopefully some friends that they make and then go to the club in the evening for a movie.

[sealegs14]

Going to book for Azura on 1st April tomorrow! Any insight on the demongraphics would be really interesting since I'll have 2 children (14 and 7) with me.

Also, are there formal nights on this 7-night Cruise?

Anyone have copies of typical daily schedules, since it's likely to be cool in April and we won't be getting off at every port?

Thanks again.

[lancashire_cruisers]

Hi sealegs

 

Prior to booking your travel agent should be able to get an idea from P&O of the number of children onboard.

 

Don't worry too much about getting copies of the daily 'what's on' as they change anyway.

 

We came back from a Canaries cruise on Azura just 2 weeks ago and had a fabulous time (as did our 11 year old daughter, in fact we hardly saw her!).

 

Debbie:)