May 26th Seaside review- Aurea w/ young kids

[Sthrncrusr]

What a faboulous trip. I’ll highlight info below but I’m so confused about the negative reviews as we collectively decided this was probably our favorite trip yet. Family of Four (35, 43, 7, 5). So glad we stuck it out despite what I read prior to going as we really love MSC now!

 

1. Ship: Beautiful as everyone has agreed. Very new and modern. Our Aurea pkge came with the wrist bands which were so useful for the week. Never had to bring my card anywhere unless we were getting off the ship. The kids weren’t given them as MSC was testing out new trial and just gave kids wristbands that were scannable at the entrance of the kids club but couldn’t open doors or load $ on to.

 

2. Food: we found the food to be great. Especially when feeding 5k ppl. I’m normally not a buffet person and ate everyday in the breakfast buffet on 16. They had fresh fried eggs over hard and soft which I hadn’t seen on other lines we’ve sailed. I found the Buffet to be great and always had plenty of options to eat. And the salad area offered at least six fresh veggies to add so not sure where the complaints are coming from. Tried the Sushi place and it was delicious. Canceled our reservation for Tapenyaki bc our kids were so obsessed with the kids club they wanted to stay there for dinner that night. I recall one post about how the food didn’t match the description and while my Chicken Scalopini wasn’t thinly sliced American style, I found it to still be good. They give you so much fresh bread which is a nice change from Carnival’s two pieces. We had the My time Dining with Aurea and had Hari every night as our server. I found the table service the best we’ve had. So quick, correct!, and if I was on the fence about what to order he always brought me both and called it “energy”! Haha my kids ate 3 times in the dining room with us and enjoyed the beef minute steak from the kid menu , chicken soup (kid menu), shrimp cocktail from the adult menu and plain pasta. He was always willing to accommodate us and had little napkin animals ready for when they arrived. Gelato bars were at every pool pretty much and they were as good as everyone said. We had the classic drink pkge with Aurea but after getting on board, we decided to upgrade to the Deluxe for $64 each for the week. Great deal and it really did include just about everything. However, if you choose not to upgrade the classic pkge offered so much. Plenty of selections.

 

3. Kids Club/Pools/Arcade: my kids had such an amazing time. The first day is just registration so when you enter the club, not much is “open” to play with other than foosball and Legos but don’t let that deter you. Once we set sail, there were so many activities. They even take the kids on field trips around the ship (choreographed dance routine by the Miami Beach Main Pool, older kids got to go to the 4D arcade room, etc). Every day my kids had their face painted or told me all about the cool activities they did. They loved the “Kelly and Khloe” series (about the captain’s daughter’s on board) and Doremi. I also noticed they did offer Baby Time for children under 3. Some times with parents and other times without so good to know for folks traveling with wee ones. Not sure if there is an extra charge. Something I really enjoyed about the Mini’s and Juniors (3-6 yr, 7-11yrs) is that the clubs were open 9am -11pm everyday. They did close for lunch sometimes but I think on port days I saw them taking kids to lunch one day. Ours always are lunch with us but the hours were so convenient so if it was a night we were all going to see a show and do dinner together, we’d be able to let the kids go to the club beforehand whereas on other ships the club often closed from 3-5, etc. kids club eats dinner at 7pm so be sure to feed yours snacks prior if they tend to eat earlier at home. They section off an area of the buffet away from everyone for their dinner and actually escort them from the club to the dinner area. You don’t drop off in there like on carnival. I found the security of the kids to be great. Mine really enjoyed it. They were in seperate groups but often saw each other for movies and evening activities. The juniors club has the option to check themselves out but I checked a big No on the form since mine is only 7. Our ship did have a lot of Europeans but mostly kids from England/US. My kids are bilingual and speak Spanish but they told me the Spanish, French and Italian kids they met all spoke English and So did the counselors. One of them told me she spoke Portuguese, French , Italian and English but that she wishes her Spanish was stronger....ummm, right! I was so impressed with all of them! The Arcade doesn’t have a ton of games but offers other things. We didn’t get around to bowling but it looked fun. The hours are kind of nutty but the guy told us it’s bc they realized the activity makes it too loud for people eating and socializing near by. It’s a nice room though and my kids were taken by the club to a dance disco and to do some arcade stuff (free of charge to me) so I think they got their fix bc they didn’t complain about not going as much as we normally do.

Water Park is incredible and there is plenty for smaller kids. My kids aren’t big and my 40in daughter rode all the slides except the one with the raft. However, nobody measured her so she probably could have. As mentioned in other posts, you must complete a waiver to get a wristband for the slides if you plan to ride any of them. Even adults. Turns out the Arcade guy also has the waivers available so if there is a long line outside by the water park, head up to the Arcade. They don’t have full blown lifeguards but there are attendants at every slide and around the little pool area with whistles to keep any rough housing at bay. Jungle pool was also neat bc it has a retractable roof. We went to the Main Miami Beach Pool one day after getting back on the ship. Loved the whole feel of that area. So Miami! It didn’t dawn on me that I didn’t hear a bunch of contests going on as we hung out in the Top 19 area unless we were with the kids at the water park. But they do have that stuff. The ship is just so large you have to go find it. Sure enough when we were getting smoothies for the kids at the Miramar bar, I looked out at what I thought was the edge of the boat and then saw the Miami Beach Pool. (I may be confusing this with South Beach Pool) but the main pool with the big screen for movies. There, we heard/saw some stuff going on. And there is always music playing wherever you are. Not always live but that is fine by me. Can’t say enough about this portion of our trip. You can tell MSC enjoys the family aspect of traveling. Everything seemed convenient to us.

 

4. Entertainment: shows were awesome. Not sure about the exact storylines but really neat acts. Loved Dream. Peter Punk and Timeless were great too. Skipped the first night of Frank Sinatra and Fly and My life in Music. Casino was nice. Not massive but everything we needed. The buy in on Roulette is only a $1. However, blackjack was $25.

 

5. Ports: I enjoyed how MSC has waters, tents and sofas outside for everyone to enjoy. I was worried about not being yacht club but there was never any issue feeling less than. We visited the Adastra Zoo in the Bahamas, Karakter Beach in St Maarten (great for kids and the airport is literally next to the beach so we watched tons of planes land and take off, played on the very quiet almost private beach, ate lunch and could sit in the loungers with umbrellas as long as we bought food or drinks. Food was fine. Also bought a bucket of beer. Puerto Rico we did on our own as well and walked through town to San Cristobal Fort and then stopped at a chocolate restaurant for a snack before heading back.

 

Pros: The Aurea pkge also included free massages and access all wk to the Thermal Spa area. That was neat but only went once. The massage was great and it was a free 50 min massage with hot lava stones. My choice as you could pick Balinese without stones. There isn’t a separate locker room unless you go to the thermal area and when I did the day we went to that area, our wristbands opened and closed the lockers there too. Super convenient. I tipped in cash as there was nowhere to add an extra tip as the massage and 15% gratuity added in are both not charged. I ended up getting a facial one day too. Loved it. They did have a few combo specials but I didn’t have time to take advantage of.

The free WiFi lasted us all wk. be sure to follow the prompts and turn it on /off so you don’t blow through it.

Photos, didn’t do the photo pkge but bought a few pics of the kids. Wow, their photographers really do a good job of getting many poses and what not. There are no printed photos out for display, just follow the prompts at the kiosks and you can see the photos. Before I decided to buy the three, one of the reps said he’d let me see them in person and came out two minutes later with all of the hard copies! Pretty cool. I picked the ones I wanted but only wanted them digitally. $9.99 a piece digitally and had them downloaded to my phone that night. Awesome. Included the MSC banner Inaugural Season logo too.

 

6. I can’t say enough about this ship or crew. You can tell they are trying and I really felt the family vibe. I felt very safe and enjoyed the different cultures and food. I’d be interested to try the sister ship Seaview in Europe. I only encountered one person who barged on to the elevator before I could get off but honestly, that would never ruin a cruise for me. I tried to ask ppl I met about their experience and every person said it’d been great except one elderly couple said it’s been good/okay. They typically sail Celebrity they said. Our boat was the largest one in every port btw. It was massive. And they really did try to think of everything. The interactive screens actually worked every time I used them. When I tried on RCCL I had problems a lot. I think MSC has worked the kinks out. Give them a shot.

[champagne123]

Wow! Thank you for the very detailed, positive review! Loved It. We have never sailed on MSC either, but now have 2 booked. Cannot wait....

[riclop]

Thanks for the detailed review.

[Maeves Nana]

Please explain free WI-FI. I thought you had to pay for any WI-FI usage.

[cruisedivas]

Thank you for the detailed report, especially about the children’s program. I have never sailed this line but now I want to a make a reservation.

[Jaco5NC]

Thank you for sharing your experiences...sounds like a great week!!!

 

 

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[NotATaylor]

Thank you for your review. We are sailing in a couple of weeks with our four year old so I appreciate the review of the kids club as I haven’t seen many from people with kids in the 3-5 range.

 

For the slides, is there and age restriction in addition to height? My son is 42 inches, but won’t be 5 for a another few months.

 

Our son is used to eating in restaurants and in dining rooms/specialty restaurants and typically behaves well, but I have heard that dinner service can stretch on for quite some time (longer than other lines). Did you find your kids having a hard time with the length of meals?

 

Lastly, did you book your St Maarten and Bahamas excursions through msc?

 

Thanks again!

[jocko4279]

Thanks for the review. Our family is similar in make up, looking forward to the Seaside!

[Sthrncrusr]

Responses to some questions! :

 

Free WiFi was one of the perks when we booked. Believe it was the surfer promo. Whatever it was , it was enough to get us through the week!

 

Slides: so there are two side by side toddler slides that everyone plays on. I believe the sign said 40 in for all slides and age 7 and up. The age thing was absolutely not enforced. My daughter I think was about 41 in and was never stopped either. I think they seemed to intervene when it was a child that looked very wobbly on their feet as the slides arefast and they want you to get up and out of the way as soon as you are done so the tiny tykes were the ones I ever saw them talking to. Still, never saw anyone turned away. The slide with the raft was 43 in and up. You go up quite a few stairs dragging a raft which maybe explains the slightly bigger height requirement. kids being able to carry their raft and all. My son is tiny so we did the double raft and each lifted it as we climbed.

 

Excursions: did those on our own as they were easy places to navigate to

 

Dining: we did Aurea my time dining and were in and out in about 1.5 hrs and sometimes less. My kids did fine with it. Our service was excellent.

[NotATaylor]

Thanks for these responses!

 

Responses to some questions! :

 

 

Slides: so there are two side by side toddler slides that everyone plays on. I believe the sign said 40 in for all slides and age 7 and up. The age thing was absolutely not enforced. My daughter I think was about 41 in and was never stopped either. I think they seemed to intervene when it was a child that looked very wobbly on their feet as the slides arefast and they want you to get up and out of the way as soon as you are done so the tiny tykes were the ones I ever saw them talking to. Still, never saw anyone turned away. The slide with the raft was 43 in and up. You go up quite a few stairs dragging a raft which maybe explains the slightly bigger height requirement. kids being able to carry their raft and all. My son is tiny so we did the double raft and each lifted it as we climbed.

 

Excursions: did those on our own as they were easy places to navigate to

 

Dining: we did Aurea my time dining and were in and out in about 1.5 hrs and sometimes less. My kids did fine with it. Our service was excellent.

[DaiC1]

Hi, fantastic review. I'm embarking on the 7th July also on the Aurea package - I believe this package has priority boarding, can you give a brief explanation of the check-in procedure and what time you were allocated.

Edited June 12, 2018 by DaiC1

[portofrome]

Thanks for your review!