Costa With kids

[mathuzula]

We have sailed on quite a few cruises, but never on Costa. Does anyone have opinions on Costa's kids club? We will be traveling with a 6 year old. She has loved this on other lines, but I can't find much information on their kids crew. Any thoughts? Thanks

[skybird123]

Hi, We took our grandchildren on a Med cruise over Spring break. The kids program is not like the ones you'll find on RCCL or Celebrity. On other cruises we've taken them on we couldn't get them out of the kids section!! The first time they went to the Costa club, they called and said they were ready to leave after a half hour. But, they were at a disadvantage. They were the only English speaking children, and the councilors were not fluent either. It seemed like total chaos whenever we went by. On this cruise I would classify the program as babysitting by bored help. But, the kids loved the cruise! The waiters and cabin attendants were all very nice to the children. I think on a Caribbean cruise where more US folks are expected it would be better.

The ship was super clean and the cabins very comfortable.

[heide]

I'll be sailing on Costa Concordia with 2 kids (12 and 7) next week, so I will check out what the situation is and give my expressions after cruise in the beginning of November.

[racingraysswimmom]

We had a group of children on our last Costa cruise 3 years ago that had a great time in the childrens program. The next 2 years we did Carnival cruises and the kids did not like the kids programs as much and always compared it to the Costa trip. The time of year was Spring break for every cruise. But this was 3 years ago and this upcoming Spring break we are back on Costa. I am interested in the upcoming reviews especially the Mediterranea Western Caribbean.

[BambiRumsey]

We took Hannah with us on Costa last year when she was 7 and will again this December too.

 

She enjoys Costa and claims it is her favorite line. This is in the Caribbean so the majority of the kids were English speaking. The counselors all spoke English, some better than others. I think once she adjusted to the individual accents it was fine.

 

She REALLY enjoyed the water slide and pools too. I found the hours for the water slide to be fairly generous - on some lines it seesm the slide is only open for about 30 minutes each day! We like to sail the week before Christmas so there are some kids but not hundreds.

 

For me, I found the hours for kids club to be a little "off". I can't remeber the exact operating hours right now but I seem to recall it not being very convenient around the dinner times. Like I think it opened during (not before) the main seating and then closed while you were in the middle of the show....Once she met a few friends, our solution was to let her eat at the buffet with kids club then get her before we went to the show (she likes the singing and dancing).

 

She liked the Squok bucks concept and came away with some cute little trinkets (every time they go to kids club or participate in an activity the earn squok bucks that they can spend on squok/costa gear on the last night).

 

In general we found the entire crew to be very kid friendly - everyone seemed to make an effort to say hello to her in the hallways, fawn over how pretty she looked, etc. The Maitre D' came by every night to speak with her, the waiters dacned with her on one of the theme nights. Sometimes on cruises I feel the NON Kids club staff sort of gets annoyed by kids on board (I realize they can often be more work), this was definitely not the case with Costa.

[duke4ncsu]

The week before Christmas we took our two children then 4 & 7 on their first cruise on the Medit. They had a BLAST! They loved the Squok club and getting the bucks. They wanted to be there all the time. Now this was their first cruise so nothing for them to compare it too but it seemed all the kids had a great time. I thought things were very organized. This was a carribean cruise so again most of the children spoke english though there were a few from Europe. I thought the counselors were outstanding. My son has some medical conditions and is allergic to latex and they went out of their way to accomodate him and keep him safe.

The kids keep asking when we are going back. We want to go back on Costa. Little do they know they will be back dancing at disco for Thanksgiving.

We Love Costa.

[Tampa Bay Irish]

Our family has cruised with both Costa and Carnival in the Caribbean. Our children liked both criuse lines kids clubs. We are scheduled to sail with Costa again this year over spring break. If all else were equal, I would prefer cruising with parent company Carnival over Costa. However Costa represents a better value in my opinion. When you book your cruise with Costa make sure to ask if "kids sail free with their parents" is available. 1-800-GO-COSTA.