NCL kids club questions

[beckyjohns]

We have sailed many times on Carnival and a few on RCCL, but never on NCL. Does anyone know the general schedule for the kids club (my kids are 8)? Is it generally open all day on both sea days and port days? Or does it close down at lunch time? Do they offer kid dinners where they take the kids to the buffet? Or are they closed for dinner time? If so, when do they re-open?

[gluecksbaer]

NCL's Splash Academy is closed for lunch and dinner while the ship is at sea. They are open on embarkation day from like 8-10:30. Then on sea days they are open from 9am to noon, then from 2pm to 5pm, then from 7pm to 10:30pm. There is an extra (for a fee) service from 10:30-1:30.

 

They are open the entire time while in port but there is a charge if your kids are there during meal times. (Not much. I think like $5. It says on the NCL page but for some reason their Splash Academy FAQ isn't working for me right now.) We have allergy & eating issues so I never left my kids for meals.

By the schedule there are no drop-offs during the normal meal breaks (noon to 2pm and 5pm to 7pm). So you have to have your kids checked in before. There is no food allowed in the Splash Academy rooms so they take the kids somewhere but I don't know if it's the buffet or one of the restaurants. We frequently saw Splash Academy staff eating in the buffet but never supervising kids. I found they were frequently back before the end of two hours and would open for drop-off again whenever they were back.

While that makes sense, I thought I would mention it as one night I was dragging out dinner waiting for 7pm and then we came out of the buffet and realized they were open and we could have just dropped the kids off.

[cadien]

When we were on in April, it was $6 for each meal on port days and they took them to O'Sheehan's.

 

They don't take the check-in/check-out terminals with them to the restaurant, so if you happen to come back for them during mealtime, you actually have to wait until they've finished eating and brought everyone back to the Splash Academy.

 

Ours was really diligent about not re-opening until 2:00 and 7:00 though. People were lined up waiting well before every time. Probably depends on the individual staff.

[gluecksbaer]

Ours was really diligent about not re-opening until 2:00 and 7:00 though. People were lined up waiting well before every time. Probably depends on the individual staff.

 

I did want to clarify that I only saw them open early on port days. I assumed that was because they already had kids so they may as well open. However, given the official "no drop offs" during port meal times, I'm sure that it depends on the ship/staff whether they start doing drop-off when they're back from meals or not.

They never opened early when they were at sea and didn't already have kids there.

[beckyjohns]

As far as the open times, can I drop off or pick up anytime during open hours or do the kids need to be there for an entire time period (I.e. 2-5, 7-10, etc)?

 

We will be on the Getaway. I'm curious how they structure camp. My kids love Camp Carnival and while there is a schedule for games, crafts, etc, the kids are also free to play on their own if they're not interested in the current game, craft, etc. We recently went on the Oasis and Allure and my kids hated the camp. They had to play whatever game was currently being played and weren't allowed to play quietly on their own. In fact, the kids room was pretty much void of any toys, coloring, board games. Just a big open room and the counsellors just led game after game with them. I'm curious how NCL compares to Carnival and RCCL.

[gluecksbaer]

You can drop off and pick-up any time they are open. However, on very busy ships some people have reported the club filling if they didn't drop off when open. (This does not seem to happen often though).

 

The only thing with picking up early is that frequently my kids were upset that they were in the middle of something. But since you can't go in there's no way to know that they were doing something and hadn't had their turn yet. This was particularly a problem for us because I would pick them up for bedtime at 9:30pm--which was already pretty late for my kids. Almost every time there was something they were just starting and upset to miss out on. So they didn't get sword balloons on pirate night because they were just starting to make them and it wasn't their turn yet. My son got a superhero cape but my daughter only got one because I asked about it and they went to make her one real quick. But my daughter was still upset because they were supposed to decorate them, etc.

 

So you may get some disappointment with early pick-ups. But they will do drop-off and pick-up while they are open.

[Wavesprite]

Does anyone know if the kids club still works on the same schedule if there aren't many children on board? My mother, myself and my 10 year old DD are going on a 14 day Panama Canal cruise in February, and I'm told we'll be lucky if there are 10 kids total on board. So I'm curious if they will still have Splash Zone? She loves going and doing crafts?

[travelhound]

We have mostly been on cruises with our dd during low times for kids. Last Oct-Nov we did a 14 day Panama Canal and I think there were about 35 regular kids' club users. There were more kids on board, but they didn't all come to the club. We also did a 10 day in March and because of the length there were less kids at the club too. Many of the children on board were not from the US and/or they were home schooled.

 

However, they never shortened the hours or cut what they planned to do. They may combine some of the ages of the kids, especially if there are only a few in one group. Our dd was 3 1/2 when we sailed the PC and she was one of only four kids that were 3-5 years old (and the only English speaker) so they usually let her play with the next group up. Almost a year later, she still remembers the kids from that trip and talks about them. They had a fantastic Halloween party and our dd had the time of her life.

 

At least in our experience, less kids is not a bad thing and on a longer cruise you really get to know the other children on board. Have fun!

[Wavesprite]

Thank you, travelhound!!