School holidays

[devolve]

Does anyone have experience of how busy Azura is in summer school holidays. We do not have young children anymore, but need to travel in July.

thanks

[purplesea]

I can't answer for the summer holidays, but I was on Arvia at Easter and there were 1250 children on board.

[devolve]

Was it as bad as it sounds!!

[david63]

A lot will probably depend on where the cruise is going and length of cruise but overall I would make a guess that the majority of school age children will be on the two big ships in preference to Azura.

 

Having sailed on Azura at different times of the year I cannot say that I have ever found children to be a problem.

[Thejuggler]

Our daughter has been on many cruises with us in school holidays, but we chose cruises which weren't as attractive to families,  Fjords, Iceland, Baltics.

 

The Med in July would be a different story, which is why we never chose them.

[Cloudyrain]

I would be more concerned with the busyness of the port locations than the ship as such in the Med in July.

 

I have a child, and often cruise in the school holidays, and never particularly feel that children are very "present" anywhere other than the children's tea, main pools, or kids discos. Even when there are over 1000 children onboard, I don't feel they are a problem: especially considering a portion of those children will be babies, and some will act like mini-adults (or more well behaved than some adults!)
 

There are adult only venues available, and even in peak school holidays there are adult-only activities.

[FamilyCruiserUK]

We are going on Azura July 24/25th So school holidays. When we booked it we had the last child place. 

 

From speaking to the TA who was on the phone to the REP she said P&O limit the number of children due to the spaces available in the kids clubs. Where other companies count them as third guests so as long as a room avilable for 3 then they will sell it to anyone with children. 

 

So going on that our Azura cruise in July will be full of children me thinks. 

[david63]

3 minutes ago, FamilyCruiserUK said:

P&O limit the number of children due to the spaces available in the kids clubs

I believe that is also within age group so you can have one age group full but another age group only partially full.

[Presto2]

Manic ... the ship will be full and though we always had a good time we are looking forward to it being quieter now that we are not limited to school holidays. 

In terms of when the holidays start you will still find children on board before the break up date ....

[Red Ray]

We try & avoid school holidays like the plague. Kids running up & down everywhere even in the theatre, messing about in and around the lifts are just 2 instances of bad behaviour we have witnessed. Our next cruises are outwith school holidays and it would take a bargain of the highest order for us ever to contemplate cruising in late July, August or the half term weeks.

[SarahHben]

I've not been on Azura but was on Ventura last summer holidays. The main pool areas were very busy but we had a C deck balcony cabin which gave us a big balcony to use and we paid for The Retreat for the 2 weeks and it was the best decision we made, brilliant, peaceful, restful and you could forgot how busy the other areas were. 

In the evenings we didn't think the ship felt too busy.

 

[thornegirl]

We were on Arvia at Easter this year, over 6200 onboard including 1200 children. The majority of children were fine but quite a few were not.  Examples, children from 2 adjacent balconies running up and down the corridor doing cartwheels and screaming.  Kids using the couches in keel and cow as trampolines. The obligatory throwing water from infinity pools onto balconies below, not only children doing that but adults as well. 
We will not be going on Arvia again during school holidays.