New ncl kids camp policy (Live from the GEM)

[jbiz]

T

 

 

 

Thanks, Jon, for sharing all this info. Do you know how this affects the ability of kids (I think 10 and above) to sign themselves in and out of the club? That was one of our tricks to avoid the lines, but it certainly doesn't sound like it would work with this new system.

 

Have you noticed lots of children being turned away? Again, I am wondering if this is a new limit amount, or if for the first time the limit that has always been in place is being posted. There was never a discussion of what the limit was previously (at least that I was told), but we were warned that space was limited via email on both our cruises.

 

 

For 10+ they can still sign themselves in/out, only issue is at "shift" closings it's hectic and they are trying to process the kids out, so my son was standing their trying to sign out but they wouldn't let him with the bit of chaos going on (since they were trying to get the kids whose parents were in line to pickup and kept trying to clear the area inside so they kept telling him to go away from the door area and he couldn't leave) So I walked up to the front and had them let him swipe out. I sort of understand the issue so not complaining just tell your kids to sign out 5-10 min earlier than when the shift closes and all is fine.

 

I have seen a few kids on the wait list. It seems also that people are not wanting to deal with the lines so they are forgoing the kids program. The first day was trauma to most people and I think it turned them off from using it. We are at port today so I assume it will be light in the club anyway

 

 

 

 

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[garnet115]

On the flip side, I can understand where they are coming from. My son was just in the pool an hour before the drowning happened in the pool. And the pool along with the hot tubs were pack, and capacity level is not enforced. The hot tub say maximium capacity of 8, and there must have been at least 15 if not 20 kids stuffed in each of the hot tub. And I wasn't there nor did I do a head count when my son was there, but I would assume the main pool would have been over capacity by the same percentage as the hot tub at the time of drowning, yet no one was enforcing the rule.

 

This is an interesting point, and I wonder if the circumstances around the drowning are perhaps a contributing factor in NCL's decision to strictly enforce capacity limits, especially on this ship.

 

I don't think it is wrong for them to restrict capacity inside Splash Academy (or any venue for that matter). It's not just about staffing ratios in the center, but also what is considered a safe upper limit for capacity in the event of a fire (both on and off ships you will see signs posted re: max capacity). However, if they have a significant number of kids onboard beyond the capacity of the club, they should make arrangements for alternate venues that can accommodate larger numbers. On Breakaway last year, dd attended several sessions (age 10 to 12 group) in one of the lounges. There was a huge line for check in, but at least they had capacity to accommodate those on the line.

 

As I mentioned earlier on this thread, there was a night when my dd was turned away from Splash Academy at the club facilities due to capacity being filled. I have mixed feelings about it, only because my dd did not enjoy the club when it was held outside the club facilities - there were too many kids and she just felt lost in the shuffle. So, I see a need to hold more activities inside of Splash Academy. It is much better service and quality.

[jenseib]

If the cruise line and governing agency audit found they were beyond capacity, yes, they will enforce the new restrictions immediately, at least until the audit is done.

 

Not a fan of NCL, in fact, I have yet to cruise with them, but I'm at Gold with DCL, again, arguably the most kid-friendly cruise line in the market, and I have seen first hand turning kids away due to capacity. Due to personnel-to-kid ratio and safety concerns there _is_ a max capacity in all boats from all cruise lines. I'm betting what happened is that they were not enforcing that limit before, and they might have gotten dinged/wrist slapped when the audit result came about.

 

DCL only books the amount of kids that the clubs can handle. You may see a cruise opening for 3 adults but put in one adult as a child and it goes away. It's because they don't allow booking for more than what the clubs can take for each age group....now there could be times where a counselor is sick or something and then they don't have enough to work for the adult/kid ratio.

[legion3]

Imagine if they sold Vibe passes this way.

 

Not weekly but daily.

 

First 40 get them or to bad and be in line 30 minutes before. Oh and sorry for the 1.5 hour wait but don't worry we have a chair hog policy to enhance your experience.

 

How would that go over?

 

Hey they can do it for Spice too if they think about it.

Edited May 25, 2015 by legion3

[texangal39]

You don't piss me off this policy does. And this is a big reason to cancel our upcoming ncl cruise if this becomes some sort of norm.

 

 

 

Why is NCL coming up with this stupidity?

 

 

 

And whats next?

 

 

Please don't take this as a personal attack or challenge to spar on the CC board, but .... Before throwing your hands up and canceling, would you consider writing an email to NCL and giving them a chance to address your concerns and make some changes? I thought if it is that upsetting to you that you might want to do something to make sure they hear your concerns and suggestions. Just wondering ...

[Barnes11]

Okay, I often try to look at the other side of the coin, even though for some reason that makes people angry.

 

First of all, hasn't there always been a limit to the number of kids that can be in the kids club? Prior to both of our cruises last year we received emails warning us that there might not be space due to the volume of kids sailing, and to arrive early, etc. That part isn't new.

 

It's logical and expected that there would be a limit to # of kids due to safety. I think everyone would agree to that. Do we have any idea what that number was before? Do we know that the number was reduced, or is it just now finally being posted so that people are aware?

 

On both of our cruises last year (Getaway and Epic), there was never a time when there were more than 75 kids in the club at one time.

 

There was almost always a line of people waiting to sign their kids in. If I'd gotten to the front after waiting all that time and been turned away, I'd have not been very happy that I wasted all the time waiting. Under this new system, it eliminates that (if I'm understanding correctly). You show up, you either get a ticket if there is space, or you don't if they are already handed out. Am I misunderstanding this?

 

I haven't seen this mentioned yet, but during the late night (for pay hours) in the club, the most kids ever signed up on either of our cruises (which were overflowing with kids) was 11.

 

FYI, we sailed summer and Thanksgiving on Getaway and Epic - both "high kid" times on family ships.

 

This makes sense. Since the policy change happened awhile ago and this is the first we are hearing about it, it seems as though max capacity is rarely an issue. I think putting a sign out advertising a system that has long been in place is causing huge panic for those of us with kids that love kids club. We leave for Getaway in 5 days, I'm hoping there won't be issues. This is our first NCL cruise after many sailings on other lines. I am trying to stay positive here rather than totally freak out after all the recent changes on a line I was already unfamiliar with. Just fyi Carnival kids club is awesome. Staff will know your kids names after first day and we have never been turned away.

[legion3]

Please don't take this as a personal attack or challenge to spar on the CC board, but .... Before throwing your hands up and canceling, would you consider writing an email to NCL and giving them a chance to address your concerns and make some changes? I thought if it is that upsetting to you that you might want to do something to make sure they hear your concerns and suggestions. Just wondering ...

 

Yes. I intend to tomorrow both by phone and letter.

[theloo]

Wow now that makes sense why on the jewel last week they had a sign that said occupancy 76. But being may sailing to alaska I just thought that maybe that was the total number of the kids signed up for that age group. But that same sign did hang at the entrance to the kids area.

 

We did not have this problem last week on the jewel although there were several children on board they probably were nowhere close to full capacity at any time.

 

I would have been pissed had we been turned away at the kids area especially since we booked our cruise a year out as well. And if this is a new policy going forward it will change the way we would book a cruise with ncl.

 

Thanks for the info on the Jewel, as I will be sailing her next January with 3 kids. I'm glad to hear there were no problems of being turned away. I hope someone else will be able to comment on whether the "ticket" system with advanced line-up will be implemented.

[legion3]

This makes sense. Since the policy change happened awhile ago and this is the first we are hearing about it, it seems as though max capacity is rarely an issue. I think putting a sign out advertising a system that has long been in place is causing huge panic for those of us with kids that love kids club. We leave for Getaway in 5 days, I'm hoping there won't be issues. This is our first NCL cruise after many sailings on other lines. I am trying to stay positive here rather than totally freak out after all the recent changes on a line I was already unfamiliar with. Just fyi Carnival kids club is awesome. Staff will know your kids names after first day and we have never been turned away.

 

Certainly would like to hear how it goes on GA. If you have any kids club issues. I agree with Carnival and its club, they have always been awesome.

[William W]

You waited 1 hour and 15 minutes to get into the kids club???!!!??? Whoa.

 

No, we waited 1 hour and 15 minutes only to find out they have reach capacity, there was probably 15-20 other families who were either just ahead of us in line or behind us, who were also turned away.

 

Based on what the OP said about their new procedure of handing out tickets, at least people would know ahead of time whether they are able to get in or not rather than standing in line and waited for NOTHING.

[texangal39]

Yes. I intend to tomorrow both by phone and letter.

 

 

Excellent and thanks for the response! I'm hoping if we get enough people to call and email they will take our concerns and suggestions and really look at what they can do to make some great changes. It certainly can't hurt to try!Happy calling and emailing!

[theloo]

So I still stick to safety concerns. Does anyone know how many youth staff is on board a jewel class ship like the gem? Even if they had other spaces to put kids like the theatre or other lounges not needed they still need staff for that as well.

 

The Sun is a smaller ship than the Gem and on my mid-May sailing to Alaska there were 4 counselors for the 6-12 (merged) age group and 2 counselors for the 3-5 group. Also, 1 supervisor, who I suppose could have gone where needed. This did not include any staff for Entourage, which had at least 1 counselor/person on duty. Based on what I saw, including the kids who appeared in the circus, I would say there were normally about 5-10 kids in the younger group and up to 20 in the older group. Fortunately, no where near capacity. By the way, I heard that there were 300 kids on board (surely including babies and teens). So even though there might have been about 150 kids possibly using the kids club, no nearly that many wanted to at any given time.

Edited May 25, 2015 by theloo

[triptolemus]

Excellent and thanks for the response! I'm hoping if we get enough people to call and email they will take our concerns and suggestions and really look at what they can do to make some great changes. It certainly can't hurt to try!Happy calling and emailing!

 

How cute. An optimist.

 

Good luck with that. Del Rio has made his position clear on "those people" posting on social media.

[legion3]

No, we waited 1 hour and 15 minutes only to find out they have reach capacity, there was probably 15-20 other families who were either just ahead of us in line or behind us, who were also turned away.

 

Based on what the OP said about their new procedure of handing out tickets, at least people would know ahead of time whether they are able to get in or not rather than standing in line and waited for NOTHING.

 

I guess that tickets would be better? Though the same disappointed parents and kids still get nothing.

 

I dont want to wait to be turned away and or be ticketless. Both would suck and be massive time wasters and my kids, who have never not gotten in to the kids club when they wanted to, will be disappointed. And they have plenty of other places to learn disappointment. Not on a cruise where the kids club is advertised to be available.

 

Especially at night if I have a pre paid dinner or show planned.

Edited May 25, 2015 by legion3

[StolidCruiser]

So if I understand this correctly:

 

1. There was always a capacity limit to the childrens program... just now there is a "ticket system" implimented to perhaps deal with more interested than capacity can handle.

 

2. On sailings where the children ratio may be more heavily skewed (perhaps due to "Kids Sail Free" promotions), the line should reassign staff and restructure activities accordingly.

 

3. Parents shouldnt expect any difficulty finding activities to entertain their children on a vacation promoted as "family friendly".

 

What is the radical change to the program which is so dramatically different to cause so many to express such dismay?

 

I offer my apologies in advance if the transgression has escaped my understanding.

[Kingofwylietx]

You know, "hitting the roof" could mean writing an angry letter to Corporate. Why do some people feel the need to pick on those who are expressing their frustration with this new policy? Leave her alone.

 

I've been on this earth long enough to know that 'hitting the roof' does not equate to a letter sent after a cruise.

[legion3]

So if I understand this correctly:

 

1. There was always a capacity limit to the childrens program... just now there is a "ticket system" implimented to perhaps deal with more interested than capacity can handle.

 

2. On sailings where the children ratio may be more heavily skewed (perhaps due to "Kids Sail Free" promotions), the line should reassign staff and restructure activities accordingly.

 

3. Parents shouldnt expect any difficulty finding activities to entertain their children on a vacation promoted as "family friendly".

 

What is the radical change to the program which is so dramatically different to cause so many to express such dismay?

 

I offer my apologies in advance if the transgression has escaped my understanding.

 

No other cruiseline does this and its never been like this before on NCL. This policy is a major change . Like no food from the buffet.

[legion3]

Oh and I disagree you can find plenty to do on this family-friendly cruise for certain age kids.

 

More kids will be at the pool. At the waterfront dining. At trivia. At bars. Etc...

[NLH Arizona]

No other cruiseline does this and its never been like this before on NCL. This policy is a major change . Like no food from the buffet.

Actually according to Kingofwylietx others do: We had this happen on Disney during an Easter cruise. We once had to wait until a child left before we could drop off our child. If it's for safety, I'm all for it.

 

See post #26: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2186719&page=2

[tvguy72]

So many people commenting in this thread with so much self-righteousness and so little clue about child-care safety rules and regulation is disheartening.

 

 

 

Cruise lines are given (by the regulating agencies) the maximum capacity as well as the maximum suggested child:care-taker ratio. That max number can be lowered if for whatever reason they don't have enough personnel, even if the physical space is the same.

 

 

 

In case you missed the safety drill, in the unlikely event that the ship should be evacuated or an on-board emergency, those people will be wholly responsible for marshaling and shepherding all the kids to safety. It's not you -- in fact, you won't be allowed to go get your kid in the case of an emergency --, or anyone else in the ship, for that matter. The youth leaders and care-takers are the ones to follow safety protocol. They cannot accept more kids than they can handle. It's a simple concept, not sure why people are upset by this.

 

 

 

We always travel with both of our kids who are 10 and under. And if I the kids can't get in the club, it's so freaking easy to entertain them in a cruise, really, not understanding the pitchforks and torches attitude.

 

 

 

If this is not acceptable to you, fine, cancel your reservation. No need to spew your sour grapes about the $7.95 room service change in every thread that pops up in this forum.

 

 

No phun intended but I really think you missed the boat on this one. I believe the spirit of most of the posts on this thread is, the constant changes to what is perceived to be expected with good reason.

 

Too many people drank the Kool-aid and feel ripped off. Now, as you can easily research I am an argumentative person on this board. I'm a real touch guy living in protective anonymity.

 

I understand both sides. The S.O.L.A.S initiative keeps us safe while at sea. The Dawn class of ships, which I believe Gem is part of. Has a larger capacity then 76 kids in the 5-12 age group.

 

I even asked the OP if this was a staffing issue. The response was "No" so there are not many other reasons for the sudden downsize of the amount of kids allowed.

 

If that venue was only allocated to hold 76 max. Over the years you would have heard about this hundreds of times.

 

I totally respect and agree with some of your post. But not on this matter.

 

Something's just not adding up.

 

[emoji2]

[legion3]

Actually according to Kingofwylietx others do: We had this happen on Disney during an Easter cruise. We once had to wait until a child left before we could drop off our child. If it's for safety, I'm all for it.

 

See post #26: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2186719&page=2

 

Once is not a policy. And I have used kids clubs more recently than you. So I have some understanding of the norm. I get it happens but it is not the norm on any cruiseline.

 

Notice you did not mention the majority of posters who have not heard or dealt with this even during holiday cruises.

[LASilva]

I do not agree that no other cruiseline does this. I'm sure there is a maximum child/staff ratio on all ships, its just how they manage it. I've never seen a child care facility not have a set ratio, its a huge liability issue if something happened. I would not send my kid to a summer day camp for example where there were 100 kids with 2 staff. Its just not safe (even with older kids). I believe that the sail free promotion really threw off the numbers. There are way more kids on the ship than typical but NCL did not bother to increase staff to manage it. On Getaway (2 weeks ago) I was surprised how many kids were on the ship considering it was not during a school holiday. I would say if there wasn't a promotion there would typically be a lot fewer kids. There were a lot of staff on that ship however, I kept seeing new ones all the time, likely moving from different rooms I guess based on the need.

 

On Getaway we had to wait in lines for approximately 10-15 minutes when it opened (in the morning, after lunch, dinner etc). No wait during after opening. So I would think on holidays the wait could be a lot longer at opening time. On the Getaway the kids club is really big (two levels). I don't think there would be much issue on the big ships except for maybe holidays like spring break and Christmas.

 

We have been on a Disney Cruise where it was at max capacity and the counsellor apologized and told us one staff member was really sick (we just came back a while later and it was fine). However as a previous poster said, DCL switches staff around during high and low seasons and tries to regulate how many kids are on the ship to keep the staff/child ratio somewhat sensible. I was told this by DCL. So, I would think that capacity is not always a set number and may change, based on the number of staff. So if say, two staff members got sick with Norovirus, they would probably lower the capacity - unless they have some way to add substitutes.

[Kingofwylietx]

i hope this gets sorted out to everyone's satisfaction, in a way that is safe and fun for the kids.

Edited May 25, 2015 by Kingofwylietx

[NLH Arizona]

Lmao! We had it happen on an 8-day Disney Easter cruise too! It was in 2013. We had a day at Disney World, it was VERY crowded. I heard a staff member say that Easter is one of their busiest weekends.

 

Conclusion: Don't cruise during Easter.

Here is where legion3 posted this policy on the Family Cruising threads and he only got one response to his questions has anybody see this before and was from RSLeesburg:Yes. Over Thanksgiving cruise on RCI Grandeur, they were turning people away from club due to capacity. I think this only really happened on one or two nights, but when parents were registering the kids club staff were cleaning telling parents about the capacity limits, and that they would be enforced. We never had any problems, but I think the older age groups hit limits. The teens were not impacted as their room was much bigger

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=46642803#post46642803

[wimsikl]

So if I understand this correctly:

 

1. There was always a capacity limit to the childrens program... just now there is a "ticket system" implimented to perhaps deal with more interested than capacity can handle.

 

2. On sailings where the children ratio may be more heavily skewed (perhaps due to "Kids Sail Free" promotions), the line should reassign staff and restructure activities accordingly.

 

3. Parents shouldnt expect any difficulty finding activities to entertain their children on a vacation promoted as "family friendly".

 

What is the radical change to the program which is so dramatically different to cause so many to express such dismay?

 

I offer my apologies in advance if the transgression has escaped my understanding.

 

Thank you for trying to understand.

1) Not to my knowledge. I have sailed NCL with my two kids 3 times in the last year, including one summer and two Spring Break. There has NEVER been an occupancy sign before, and email warning, a ticket system, or anything else threatening space constraints. This FOR ME PERSONALLY, is brand new.

 

2) Yes they absolutely should. But they obviously aren't since people on this thread have reported being turned away, along with a bunch of families in front of them and behind them.

 

3) Family-Friendly is extremely personal. No one should dictate to another how they should view Family Friendly. For my family, entertaining my children so that Mommy can get a massage, read, and eat a meal without interruption, and thus be ready to take care of everyone after disembarking is Family Friendly. Activities which Mommy has to supervise, just like the other 358 days a year, is not what my family needs or wants. Mommy needs a rest.

 

I believe that the Kids Club will soon be For Pay. I believe that this trauma is a first step to it. I can tell you this; we fortunately are financially secure. There is pretty much no amount I would not pay for easy, unfettered access to the Kids Club.

 

The problem, is that I have had easy, unfettered access to Kids Club on every cruise. And now, out of the blue, 21 days before my next sail, I am hearing I won't.

 

Honestly, I would rather have Noro.

 

Ok CC trolls, have fun with that one!