Bluefox

1 minute ago, kitkat343 said:

so sorry about that.  How did the virtual que system work?  I've read about cruises over holidays where people had to line up before the kids club opened to get into the kids club, but never about virtual ques

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 🙂

4 hours ago, Bluestar01 said:

The teen club, entourage as well as Splash academy for younger kids was open on the ship, but heard from other fellow passengers that they were short staffed and never had enough space. The teen club had some scheduled activities such as the dodgeball game, ping pong tournament etc but mostly the teens just gathered around in different parts of the ship.overall the organization was poor. 

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... 

5 hours ago, Homosassa said:

It certainly could have been  a great life experience teaching moment for the whole family for how to handle disappointments and adapt to a situation.

 

If one travels, there will be many unexpected problems.  Some of the best travel memories will be the alternate experience that one would have never had if everything had gone to plan.

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!

2 hours ago, Homosassa said:

What is a "que?"

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

9 hours ago, JT1962 said:

I’m guessing a Covid outbreak on the ship among the staff. This would also explain the change of ports and canceling Saint Thomas since that port will allow the ship to dock once cases exceed a certain threshold.  It also would explain why NCL is not giving an explanation for why they missed St. Thomas two weeks in a row.

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." 

9 hours ago, travelhound said:

For the people that think it's a place to dump the kid, you must not have ever had a child in the club. Maybe some people use it that way, but for my daughter, who is an only child, it's what makes cruising extra special for her. We were just on Discovery Princess to Alaska and she met 16 new "friends" (she counted them) that she interacted with on excursions, at the pool, and has even played games with this week online. So it's not just disappointed parents. If I had to tell my kid there was no kids club after she was looking forward to it, that would be paramount to telling other people there are no bartenders for the week. So don't be too quick to judge. I wouldn't have stormed the kids' club or anything, but it would have felt a little bait and switch. And if it is because the staff is sick, NCL should be upfront about it. That's easier to understand than "unforeseen circumstances". That seems to be the excuse for everything now. Just be upfront. You don't have the staff.

 

We've been on plenty of vacations where our daughter is with us 24/7 and we know that's what it's going to be before we leave and we're all fine with it. Cruising it just one where she expects she can get away from us once in a while. 

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. 

14 hours ago, dexddd said:

I didn't read the whole rant, but did catch the part about no one there wanting to deal with 'infuriated' parents.  The crew there are normally very young and used to dealing with young children not infuriated adults.  

 

Maybe try management.

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

20 hours ago, redwave said:

Sorry to hear. Was the capacity control for the daytime slots as well or just the evenings?

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! 

I don't know if anyone has answered this recently- but I checked in with NCL today and they said the Splash Academy will return June 1!

I’m not booking again until splash academy is open. That’s the major draw of bringing kids on a cruise! 😭

On 2/25/2017 at 5:51 PM, Ashland said:

We'll be in #9729, 9727, 9725 & 9723 in a few weeks.....We'll just look around that obstruction 😉

Can you tell me how it was itr do you have a picture? We have 9725 booked. Thanks!

I am about to cruise with Royal for the first time in awhile... and I'm sad about the drink package! I got a little too used to it being included on Norweigan. Can we petition them to include it?? I bet NCLs sales have been booming because of it.

I mentioned in the title I’m looking a Harmony or Allure. I’m aware not all have nurseries, but I thought these two did? Baby stuff - meaning babysitting/ hours etc. I’ve been on many cruises, and I have been on one with a baby.

Im looking for costs of programs and the specific hours. It doesn’t seem you know them either? 

Alo? 🙂

Hello-

I have a 4yo and a 1yo. I know they are different programs. Does anyone have cost on the baby stuff? Is there a sitting service with a nursery? Any cost/times/info would be great. I can't really seem to find solid information. Thanks!

from the above poster -in case you don't want to scroll 4 pages to find it ;)

"It's there, I visited the Nursery on Monday. Capacity of 10, staff of 7...nice rooms. There is a fee for this area, $10 per hour for first child $8 for each sibling. Late night fee is $12 per hour for first child, $10 per hour for siblings. Reservations are needed (first come first served)."

Thank you for the info!

Any updates on cost or drop off schedules? Thanks!

Sorry that you all doubted my original report- but I just got off of the Jade today. Wifi isn't exactly cheap on the boat. Word spreads pretty fast when you're on board and thats why I came here to see if there were any confirmed reports of the man dying "with the Sharks" - as the week went on we did hear it was a heart attack as well- but now reports of drowning? Either way- my point was that our particular cruise just seemed cursed with bad falls, heart attacks and the one death.

I had always heard you should never sail right after a repositioning cruise- and I have to agree. While a lot of the staff was awesome- I witnessed some crazy stuff too. For instance- last night in the casino the man next to me ordered a beer and the bartender told him he was tired and didn't feel like getting for him- and then walked off. I guess it was the end of his shift? I also saw a dealer going for gold; for about 4 minutes. It was late and his table was dead- but I'd hate to be at that table after that. Yuck.