 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi
Considering booking with Esprit for next season with our children who will be 6 and 4. The 6yo will be in beginner ski lessons, but the 4yo will be in the Spritelets session - this is described as "ski play" - does anyone have any experience of this directly?
Ideally I'd like him to have lessons - and in La Rosiere Evo2 do lessons for his age group, so maybe I can use Esprit for the 6yo and go direct for the 4yo - again, has anyone any experience of doing this?
Finally, what else is there for children to do in La Ros when not skiing? I see they have an ice rink and bowling, would be nice to know they have other activities for down time.
Thanks in advance,
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Hi Jesus
Have been with esprit twice now to Courchevel, our eldest when he was 3 started lessons with esprit spritelets, it tends to be in a separate area from the main slopes and revolves around play and getting used to skiing, he finished the week doing snowplough stops without clips down a small slope, which IMHO was enough for a 3 year old.
When i comes to down time, don't fret to much about finding things to do as i doubt you'll have much, We just got back and found it a rush to fit in an hours night skiing with our eldest who is now 5 on one night and to go and see the fireworks on another.
hope this helps
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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My daughter did spritelets when she was 4 in Courchevel as well
Here is a piccy we took during one of her lessons
She thoroughly enjoyed it and it was at just the right level. There was also only 3 of them in the spire lets.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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We used the snow clubs as well and that kept Ellie thoroughly entertained and she still talks about / remembers that more than 2 yrs on.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I was actually thinking of afternoons really - not assuming the kids would want or be able to last more than half a day on the slopes!!(In my mind's eye though they'll be there until last lifts; in my wife's eyes see my original post!)
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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If you do the spritelets they are on the afternoon, Esprit's argument is that it is warmer on the afternoon. The sprites are on the morning. You can book the snow clubs for the other half a day. If you book both then you drop your kids of with the staff they take them to lessons (with a member of staff staying with each class to help them) they take them back again. They give them lunch (all kids together) and then have snowclub on the afternoon and then take them into tea. That is for the 6yr old, the 4 yr old will have snow club on morning, lunch then lessons.
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Jesus - The Evo2 area that they use for spritelets is a segregated area just next to the Chalets, between the Chiatzi and Ourson etc.
ESF is next to it. If you look at the webcam
http://m.webcam-hd.com/rosiere-planica/rosiere-planica_hotel
you can see the Spritelets in action in their pink Esprit gear.
Our son was just 3 this year and we opted not to send him in the afternoon Spritelets as we felt he was too young this year, however we went to watch and suss it out for next season. They seemed to be skiing most of the time in this nursery area, by day 3 or 4 they were doing slalom around cones etc. they did seem to be learning quite a lot of skiing. The evo 2 area has a rope style drag lift that the kids seemed ok on, whereas the ESF area has a magic carpet type conveyor. Also if you book via Esprit the snow rangers are there to loom after them properly. Whereas when we watched the ESF one next door the instructors left the kids on the floor if they fell over and either ignored them or just told them to get up. I didn't see the Evo lessons outside of Esprit.
We have booked again for La Rosiere in late Feb and have the 7 year old in advanced Ski lessons. We are waiting to see how our 3 / 4 year old comes on before deciding on whether to let him into spritelets. We intend taking him to Xscape to strap him some skis on an get him a bit used to it before we go and make sure he can take instruction.
Im not sure if this helps????
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tyke2, we have booked my 3 and a half year old into spritelets for this year, she is always desperate to do anything her olde sister is doing and I have had tears in the past where she can't because of her age, my life wouldn't be worth living if I didnt book her in for skiing as well! Given you have an older child, I wonde if you will get the same reaction?
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Nickyj - The youngest watches his sister at kids club at Xscape regularly, so is used to it. I don't want to push him into it and put him off skiing for good.
He will be in the snow club in the morning when his sister is in ski lessons so he wont feel left out, perhaps the opposite will happen if he goes in spritelets in the afternoon. The 7 year old will be with us in the afternoon so he might feel left out if he's in spritlets whilst sister is with us.
My gut feeling is that if he takes to the skis during the summer at home, then we will book him in spritelets and hope he takes to it.
One of the Esprit reps told us of one youngster who cried so much during spritelets they called his parents. The parents turned up and made him stay in all week regardless of the fact the hated it!
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tyke2, that is bad, I would never do that. Keira is getting really excited (both girls are) they love looking at the pictures of the children in the brochures and deciding who is Ellie and who is Keira.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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tyke2, You know your kid best so will know how he'll react to either being in a spritelets group or being left out.
Our 3yo went out with spritelets this year and had a whale of a time - Loved it. From what I saw, the Spritelets don't really 'go' skiing per se, they just have fun sliding about on their skis, so don't think it'll be all ESF instructors bellowing at them, but equally don't expect that they'll come out of the week with perfect schuss technique...
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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| Quote: |
One of the Esprit reps told us of one youngster who cried so much during spritelets they called his parents. The parents turned up and made him stay in all week regardless of the fact the hated it!
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 It ought to be possible for the Esprit reps to just decline to look after a child who is thoroughly miserable. Some parents just don't deserve to have kids.
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You know it makes sense.
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Thanks for all responses - very interesting and useful reading.
I have decided to not go for the Esprit option (for now at least  ) since the childcare options for us personally didn't match what we wanted - ie, not wanting to put the children into childcare all day - which was what it was looking like with the eldest in ski school in the morning and the youngest in spritelets in the afternoon.
However I like the look of the Esprit model and it looks a good fit for when they are slightly older and will be able to both go into morning ski school.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Have been with esprit 4 times, in fact I write this from their chalet in les gets as we travel home tomorrow.
They are very adaptable and will shuffle kids around depending on ability however I never wanted to split my two up so when the youngest outgrew nursery we stopped going until she was old enough to go to same afternoon club.
We always booked them into afternoon snow club with the intention of taking them out most of the time with us only to find they do not want to, they prefer the reps and the activities than the boring parents.
This year there are only 5 kids in ski lessons so my two had an esf instructor and two esprit minders with them at the lessons so went at whatever pace was required.
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Poster: A snowHead
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We used Esprit a few times and the kids had a fantastic time (they screwed up once; but that was an idiot resort manager); the kids do ski as much as they are able even in spritlets; managed to get mine doing just fine and we moved onto the other levels the following years.
Each group also has an Esprit member of staff attached.
As for the "out of lesson care" they they operate a sign-out process.
Last time we were in St. Anton both kids were in all day lessons; but a few times we met at lunch time (rep was very good at texting us where they planned to stop for lunch) and we signed them out and skiied with them in the afternoon.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Jesus - We have the same situation as you, with the oldest in Ski club in the morning and the youngest in Spritelets in the afternoon. We have decided for next year to book the oldest into morning activities and then ski/play with us in the afternoon whilst the youngest will be in spritelets if he's ready by then.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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UPDATE - have booked La Ros with Esprit - and decided to use ESF for ski school - that way both children will be in lessons at the same time, hopefully leaving some time in the afternoon for us to spend together as a family. We also plan to take them to an indoor slope prior to going to get them used to boots, skis, etc.
Thanks to all who responded - really useful info as ever 
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