Breakaway-children's program??

[Crusin Karen]

I have no experience with NCL! :o My DS and DIL are thinking of booking Breakaway for the end of April. My granddaughter is going to be 6 in May, grandson was 3 in September. Can anyone tell me about the children's "camp" or programs on the ship? TIA. ;)

[aquarianne11]

I have no experience with NCL! :o My DS and DIL are thinking of booking Breakaway for the end of April. My granddaughter is going to be 6 in May, grandson was 3 in September. Can anyone tell me about the children's "camp" or programs on the ship? TIA. ;)

 

We were on the Breakaway last summer and had a fantastic family trip! My daughter (7 yrs old) loves the Splash Academy and begged to go every day and as often as possible.

 

These were taken during the open house (embarkation day). The parents can go in with the kids during the open house. This is very helpful especially if they have younger kids who are hesitant to try Splash Academy.

 

[Crusin Karen]

THANK YOU! And for the pictures too! Looks like a fun place!

[aquarianne11]

These are the Splash Academy flyers/activity schedule that we got from last year. Hope this helps. :)

 

 

 

[Crusin Karen]

Oh, DS would like to know if the parents get something in case they need to be contacted. I cruise CCL and I believe the parents always got a cell phone or something similar. THANK YOU!

[aquarianne11]

THANK YOU! And for the pictures too! Looks like a fun place!

 

Thanks!

Anytime. Yeah, the place looks fun! :)

Edited March 7, 2015 by aquarianne11

[Crusin Karen]

Schedules are AWESOME! THANK YOU! I am getting more excited than GD lol. ;)

[aquarianne11]

Oh, DS would like to know if the parents get something in case they need to be contacted. I cruise CCL and I believe the parents always got a cell phone or something similar. THANK YOU!

 

I believe they will give a phone or pager for kids who are not yet potty trained.

That was 4 yrs ago when DD was 3 yrs old so I can't remember if it was a pager or a phone.

 

During our last cruise, whenever we drop her off the camp/splash academy, we have to mention where we will be while she is in the splash academy so they can find us if they need to.

 

Schedules are AWESOME! THANK YOU! I am getting more excited than GD lol. ;)

 

Welcome! I'm sure they are going to have a blast! :)

[Crusin Karen]

Okay, thank you. They are both potty trained. DGS is so tiny that he has to sit on the seat tho! :p

[conandrob240]

They don't have phones or pagers. You tell them where you are going to be or you go check on them.

 

During the prime evening hours, the 3 and the 6 yr old will most likely be separated doing different activities just so you know. This was wonderful for my 7 yr old niece because she didn't have her annoying little brother following her around ( LOL) but devastating for her 4 yr old little brother who has to do everything she does. After one night of crying, he started to enjoy his own groups' activities but her never liked it as much as his sister because he wasn't with her. It is good to know that going in so you can set expectations if need be.

 

During less busy times ( during the day or in the after hours program, they will be together in the same room)

 

The activities and the counselors are excellent. My niece said it was WAY better than a Disney cruise. The counselors were absolutely amazing.

[Crusin Karen]

They don't have phones or pagers. You tell them where you are going to be or you go check on them.

 

During the prime evening hours, the 3 and the 6 yr old will most likely be separated doing different activities just so you know. This was wonderful for my 7 yr old niece because she didn't have her annoying little brother following her around ( LOL) but devastating for her 4 yr old little brother who has to do everything she does. After one night of crying, he started to enjoy his own groups' activities but her never liked it as much as his sister because he wasn't with her. It is good to know that going in so you can set expectations if need be.

 

During less busy times ( during the day or in the after hours program, they will be together in the same room)

 

The activities and the counselors are excellent. My niece said it was WAY better than a Disney cruise. The counselors were absolutely amazing.

This is great information. Grace and Connor are very close and it MIGHT be a problem at lst until they meet some new kids, but I'm sure it will all work out. They enjoy being together, but then again, they both have friends from school they are close to and do things apart also.

[conandrob240]

My niece is very social with tons of friends and loves meeting new people. Her brother tends to tag along and really tries to annoy her when she's with her friends (jealous, I think) so she was thrilled. He was mad. But the counselors were great at engaging him and giving him special things to do so he would feel involved. He was also the older end of the 3-5 group and is quite tall and mature for his age so he didn't love playing with the "babies". A 3 yr old won't have that issue.

Edited March 8, 2015 by conandrob240

[Crusin Karen]

Thank you for that! I am sure they will be okay! They have been on a cruise already and loved it, BUT they went with their cousins who are the same age and they are all BEST BUDDIES...so it will be something new. Neither one of the "sets of kids" knew the other was going to be on the ship and our DS'es and DDIL's "bumped into each other" and surprised them. Kind of worried they are going to be looking for them!!! But I'm sure they'll have a great time! ;)

[conandrob240]

The other issue was they had done a disney cruise six months prior where there is no separation by age group anymore so little Quentin was disappointed and a bit confused.

[Crusin Karen]

Oh, that's tough. I guess be thankful they get along so well. Hope it all worked itself out during the cruise. What a nice name!

Edited March 8, 2015 by Crusin Karen

[joetop2467]

Is this included in the cruise price other than the few times and charges listed?

[Sparkygirl]

They don't have phones or pagers. You tell them where you are going to be or you go check on them. .

 

 

This is not true. Splash academy does have several methods to contact parents that are dependent on the child's needs.

 

A) handy-phone - same as all other phones used by crew onboard and in suites. Used when splash academy staff need instant communication with parents that requires 2 way communication.

 

B) pagers - one way communication when splash academy needs to reach parents but can wait for parent to find ship phone to call splash academy or return to splash academy

 

C) location notes - splash academy will ask where you will be located and splash academy will call that area or send someone to look for you in that area

 

D) parents can call splash academy at the number provided on business card during open house and ask for a status update on their child.

 

I have a child with a life threatening allergy that is found in many common products and the environment. Splash academy needs to be able to reach us and most issues can be resolved by phone call rather than returning to splash academy.

 

We are issued two phones that we keep for the cruise and turn in on the last night. This allows the various officers as well as splash academy to reach us and collaborate on ensuring a safe environment for my daughter.

 

This is not the norm as the pagers and phones are usually issued each time the child is signed into splash academy and returned when the child is picked up.

 

 

 

 

 

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[conandrob240]

Well, for the vast majority of kids and families, it IS exactly true.

 

As the guardian of children with no special needs or allergies, I have never been offered a phone or pager for kids who traveled at ages 4,5, 6,7 and 12 across three different NCL ships. Never. They ask where you will be. And, yes, of course you can call them or go physically there to check on kids at any time.

[SuperMommy]

Although we have not sailed on the Breakaway, we have participated in Splash Academy on the Sun and on the Star. My children (and niece) absolutely loved it both times. One of the youth counsellors had changed ships and remembered them so that was fun. They have planned programming for part of the day and free play for a bit at the start of each session so you can look at the schedule and make plans to attend some of the things that interest them the most. As for being able to be reached, you will give them a location you plan to be when you check them in and if your plans change they ask you to call the Splash Academy from any house phone and give them your new location. We only did this once but they managed to reach one of our party on a few occasions by calling our stateroom or dining room. This sounds like they call a lot, but it was really for only one toilet accident and my niece who often wanted her mommy and my sister encouraged them to call her (plus it was a 14 night cruise so they spent a lot of time in there).

On our second trip we learned to listen to the kids when they begged to go (mostly in the evenings) and instead of making them sit through lengthly dinners we fed them in the buffet, checked them in for the evening, and enjoyed a nice dinner and a show at our leisure and when we picked them up around 10:30 they had had a wonderful time and we ready for bed...and sometimes they fell asleep there which I secretly think the counsellors loved with the little ones.

That said, we did leave a nice tip specifically for the youth staff for the wonderful service they provided and the all the hard work they put into giving our kids their own vacation. Have fun and I hope they have as much fun as our kids did.

[Crusin Karen]

Thank you,SuperMommy. I am sure they will be thrilled to read all these good reports! :)

[BubbaNJ]

Hi. Does the Breakaway offer dinner drop off/pick up for the kids? This is going to be our first time sailing on NCL. We have sailed on RCCL prior to this, and they take kids to the buffet before the evening session or if we ate together they would pick up at the front of the MDR (dinner seating was 6 and pick up was 6:45 - they would express serve them). Hope they have something similar as it would be nice to do dinner without them some nights.

[Mom2B&Z]

Our experience was Breakaway's children's program was quite different than other classes of ships. Keep in mind we also sailed at a peak time and they would close the kids club because they kit capacity. My boys love kids club on NCL...except on Breakaway. The personal attention, staff remembering their names, taking time to talk to them etc didn't happen on Breakaway, because there were just too many kids. Don't get me wrong, they didn't mind going when DH and I went to ROA, but they weren't begging to go like on previous (and subsequent) cruises.

On Breakaway though there are lots of things for the kids to do outside the kids club, whereas other ships have much less. This could be the reason mine didn't want to go to kids club-too much other fun stuff to do. We don't mind, we go on vacation to spend time with our children and I secretly hate it when they'd rather go to kids club than spend time with me :)

 

 

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[conandrob240]

Our experience was Breakaway's children's program was quite different than other classes of ships. Keep in mind we also sailed at a peak time and they would close the kids club because they kit capacity. My boys love kids club on NCL...except on Breakaway. The personal attention' date=' staff remembering their names, taking time to talk to them etc didn't happen on Breakaway, because there were just too many kids. Don't get me wrong, they didn't mind going when DH and I went to ROA, but they weren't begging to go like on previous (and subsequent) cruises.

On Breakaway though there are lots of things for the kids to do outside the kids club, whereas other ships have much less. This could be the reason mine didn't want to go to kids club-too much other fun stuff to do. We don't mind, we go on vacation to spend time with our children and I secretly hate it when they'd rather go to kids club than spend time with me :)

 

 

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Disagree completely.the staff knew our kids names and personalities after first day on BA. They took extra time to make up special games for the younger one who wasn't thrilled in the club because he wanted to do what older sister was doing. One day, his activities were around animals ( sort of babyish) but hers were a spy theme which he was excited about. Well, one counselor asked him what was wrong and when he told her, she added spy activities just for him ( like the little kids were the animals and he had spy glasses because his job was to watch over them from predators- so creative!) I also watched in awe at how they incorporated special time with children with various disabilities. The older kid loved it even more and they all knew her name and greeted her warmly every time she came in. She loved it and the counselora and begged to go. They were wonderful! And this was a packed kids cruise- 1400 kids!

 

Yes, you can pay to have them go for lunch or dinner programs- $6. Or you can eat later- free program starts at 6:30 or 7 depending on the night.

Edited March 8, 2015 by conandrob240

[LrgPizza]

On Getaway they asked for our iConcierge info in order to contact us if needed, so we provided it.

 

On Epic, we asked if they wanted our iConcierge info to contact us, and they looked at us like we were crazy.

 

Different ships, different procedures, I guess.

[Crusin Karen]

Just "copied and pasted" this info to send to my DS. MANY THANKS for helping him make a decision and putting all our minds at ease. Kind of wish they had a Splash Academy for my age (which shall remain a secret! :p) HAPPY CRUISING everyone!