Bluefox

NCL has a onboard app- you'd have to go into the app 2-4 hrs before the open time (2 days at 6am!) and register them in a virtual que. It was terrible, the app wasn't working for many and many gave up even trying. It was really disappointing for my kids who LOVE kids clubs.

Thank you SO much! NCL had 2 hrs in the morning and 2-3 hrs at night. And it was a virtual que system that made everyone mad. This is great news. THANK YOU!

Can anyone tell me what these services have been like post-covid? Just had a really rough week on NCL and am debating switching back to RCCL. They didn't have much staff, they had a tiny capacity (25/30 kids total) and also very limited hours. Please tell me your experience has been different RECENTLY on Royal! Thank you 🙂

ugh! This scares me because we had a terrible time getting our kids into Splash Academy on Getaway last month. I really want to book another cruise but this is the kinda thing I don't want to have to deal with on vacation. It was pretty stressful, the kids love it and get very depressed if they don't make it in. The que and the app were a mess. I found this post by search "Splash Academy" and was hoping to see better reviews on another ship, but I fear this is now a company wide issue...

It was, but you have to understand this was after 5 nights of being turned away... Everyone seems to want to lecture me on how to handle this when in reality- I shouldn't have had to deal with this at all on our vacation. And I handled it appropriately, thank you very much.

I think my kids will be almost 7 and 10 by the time we are planning to go. We are looking to go over our fall break in October 2024. Best kids club/activities? The reason I ask is we just got off of the NCL Getaway and they had very limited spots in the kids club and they removed the rock wall and putt putt. It was still a good time, but we were expecting something a little different. Plus I've never been to any of these ports which is quite a nice change of pace from 12 Caribbean cruises in a row 😉 Thanks!

An online waiting line (aka QUE) for the Kids club.

St Thomas had been cancelled off our itinerary long before we sailed. They basically just said it was a "staff shortage" and they had "no control over the Que system" and that it was new and they had to use it "under directive from Miami."

THANK YOU! I wasn't trying to dump them. My husband works offshore (and was sadly NOT on the cruise with us), I work from home, and we just moved here last year. They are basically entertaining each other most of the time during the summer because they don't really have any friends yet. They LOVE the kids club. I cried because I felt like I was failing them and not giving them the part of the vacation they were most looking forward to.

That was done, all the up to the cruise director by myself and many, many others. Don't worry- no lectures are needed 😉

Every session- which was only once a day at night on port days and twice (once for 2 hrs in the morning and once at night for 2/3 hrs) on sea days.

We were just on the NCL Getaway July 9-16. I have 2 children, ages 5 & 8. I have cruised with them both children before on Royal Caribbean. I have cruised multiple times with both lines. I looked into the kids club before even booking this cruise, as I didn't want to waste my time booking one yet if the club wasn't open. They LOVE kids club. I was assured on multiple occasions the club would be open by June 1 and there would be no issues. I figured a month and a half to sort issues would be good. That was an incorrect assumption. For starters let me say the staff we encountered was doing the best they could with the hand they were dealt. They handled the situation the best they could and we really appreciated them. Thank you to Jester and Pink. The manager Monkey, on the other hand, was not helpful at all and basically hid after the first night. She couldn't handle the situation as there were MANY upset parents and children. She never stood at the sign-in desk again to face the upset parents. The app and que are INFURIATING. First off, who wants to get up at 5:55am to rapid fire que to "maybe" get your kids into the club for a very limited amount of time. One of the upset parents said he was an app designer and was contemplating sending his resume in so he could fix all of the bugs in it. Parents were literally bonding over their frustration and high-fiving over getting low que numbers. I'm all for meeting strangers on a cruise and bonding- but this is not the way I envisioned it. 😆 The first night, my app said I was good to go and to "head to the kids club." I stood in line with my kids for 20 min, get to the front and was old that means your app "malfunctioned" and you only get "in" if the standby number says "0". Another night my reservation "mysteriously" cancelled while I had already been waiting around for 20 min and I had finally gotten a low enough number that my kids should have gotten in. Instead we were turned away yet again, higher numbers than ours were called and my kids were crying. Then I was crying because I felt like I was failing my kids by not being able to get them into the one thing they were so looking forward to. 🤦‍♀️ It was a vacation fail moment. The kids club overall was just a VERY stressful component that was absolutely unnecessary. Both the kids club manager and the cruise director said there were "over 1k kids on this cruise." They only had about 5 staff members in there (normally 25 staff is what I was told), taking only around 25 kids a night. This was a MAJOR staffing fail on NCL's part. A summer cruise, with over a thousand kids, and spots for 25 kids. Also they changed the ages allowed in the club after many families had booked; so kids aged 3 & 4 had no drop-off service available. Terrible. Also, the whole thing probably could have been avoided if there were just about 5 more staff members. That probably would have covered the kids that I saw waiting and hoping, every single session. Anyways, I like you NCL, but this was so disappointing. Please staff your kids club appropriately- or at least warn people that space is so limited. RCCL's Ocean Academy kids club was always welcoming, available and it was NEVER stressful. Please fix this!!!

We just got our notice for the July 9th cruise on NCL, and they cancelled it on the cruise before ours and then someone said that a RCCL cancelled a port day there as well. Just curious!

Multiple cruises on multiple lines had their St Thomas port cancelled in July. Anyone know why?

I contacted NCL today and was told the Splash Academy will be returning June 1st! YAY! I can't wait to cruise again!