Kids' Play Areas in Cruise Terminals

[Erica@cruisecritic]

Several cruise lines have added kids' play areas to their embarkation terminals, including Carnival (Miami), Costa (Barcelona and Savona) and Royal Caribbean (Fort Lauderdale). Have you ever tried any in-port kids' facilities? What do you think? Please let us know!

[boulders]

I've never seen a kids play area. On my 4 cruises through Florida cruise ship terminals, I've never had to sit and wait around. I don't really see how they are filling a need.

[cb at sea]

We've never had enough of a wait to warrant kid's stopping to play...sure, you may have to wait in a line for a short time, but it does keep moving....

[queenL]

Really? I never knew or have seen that. I will look on my next cruise in Dec.

[Terpnut]

We have never seen these new kid areas. We have almost always walked right up, checked-in, and boarded immediately. Our kids would rather play onboard!

[2112]

My last cruise we had to wait a long time to board (there was a customs problem and the disembarking from the previous cruise took till 2 pm). We would have loved a place for our son to play. We ended up putting him in a stroller and driving him around in circles for an hour as it was too crowded to let him walk/run around. I also had one other previous cruise that had a long wait and, although we didn't have a child at the time, it would have been hard to entertain a child during the long wait. I think it is a great idea, although fingers crossed we will never have to wait long enough again to need it.

[crusinmama06]

We haven't been lucky enough to see one yet.

Great idea though! It's tough enough listening to "Are we there yet?" when starting out any vacation with kids. But to have to sit and stare AT the ship and they can't get on yet, that's just plain torture for some kids.

At least this will give them something to do to make the wait go faster and take the pressure off the parents. Kudos to those cruise line terminals!