Kids Club and activities on NCL for 3 y.o.

[lda897]

We'll be traveling on the Sun in December. It's a two week itinerary to South America so we will have a few days at sea. I would love to get some information from anyone who has used the NCL kids club for young children. My son will be 3.5 years old and I'm worried about keeping him occupied. Is the kid's club fun for the little ones? Do they do a lot of activities with them? Do you know the typical hours? Do they have activities for parents with the kids for the sea days? I know we're going to have some trouble because I don't think our itinerary attracts a lot of families with kids (especially since it's during school) but I'm hoping there is something for him to do. Thanks!

[GORDONCHICK]

If your son likes to play, and play with other kids, and do crafts, he will have a blast. In fact, most kids hate it when their parents come to pick them up! Usually, the only thing the parents are invited to is a talent show. The kids will sometimes do a pirate parade around the ship, but I don't know if they do that with the youngest ones. You will get a schedule of what they will do the entire week. And you might be surprised about the number of kids - there should be others with children too young for school. Then there are others who either pull their kids out of school or are maybe home schooled.

[cadien]

Our son was 3.5 when we cruised NCL earlier this year and he never wanted to leave the kids club. They did games and crafts and storytime and danced. Each day had a different theme, like fairy tales or pirates or superheroes.

 

The schedule below is Mexican Riviera-specific with some of the activities, but it does give you an idea. It's only a few months old.

 

There is a room for the children under 3 that requires the parents to stay with them and has parent-child activities like coloring and play-doh. It's very possible that it's not exclusively for children under 3.

 

Some cruises have family activities elsewhere, like cupcake decorating, Legos, and dance parties.

 

 

Edited August 18, 2015 by cadien

[gluecksbaer]

Actually the biggest downside I found to the Splash Academy was that my 4 year olds (particularly my son) wanted to be there All. The. Time. In particular, on our cruise most of the big fun events (pirate night, superhero night) etc were during the latest sessions. I would usually pick them up between 9 and 9:30 which was already very late for them. Almost always they were just starting some big, fun activity and were very disappointed to be pulled away from it. For example, on pirate night they had their face painted and had done the parade but were getting balloon swords and my kids didn't have theirs yet. (Fortunately they had also done balloon swords for prince/princess night and so I reminded them theirs were in the closet in our room.) On superhero night my son came out with a cape but my daughter didn't. When I asked they said it probably wasn't her turn yet but asked what color she wanted and went and made her one quickly. However, my daughter was upset because they were supposed to decorate them.

 

I would have thought most kids in that age group wouldn't stay so late and they would be winding down in the last hour rather than starting something new. But I must be in the minority on that as the first couple of nights they seemed surprised that we were picking them up so early.

[GORDONCHICK]

Actually the biggest downside I found to the Splash Academy was that my 4 year olds (particularly my son) wanted to be there All. The. Time. In particular, on our cruise most of the big fun events (pirate night, superhero night) etc were during the latest sessions. I would usually pick them up between 9 and 9:30 which was already very late for them. Almost always they were just starting some big, fun activity and were very disappointed to be pulled away from it. For example, on pirate night they had their face painted and had done the parade but were getting balloon swords and my kids didn't have theirs yet. (Fortunately they had also done balloon swords for prince/princess night and so I reminded them theirs were in the closet in our room.) On superhero night my son came out with a cape but my daughter didn't. When I asked they said it probably wasn't her turn yet but asked what color she wanted and went and made her one quickly. However, my daughter was upset because they were supposed to decorate them.

 

I would have thought most kids in that age group wouldn't stay so late and they would be winding down in the last hour rather than starting something new. But I must be in the minority on that as the first couple of nights they seemed surprised that we were picking them up so early.

 

Ours was 3.5 when we started cruising. He's 14 now, and goes to bed at 9:30 when school isn't in session. But we always let him stay up late on cruises. That's what vacations are for, IMO. He could sleep late if needed be, unless there were early excursions. And when he was that age, we did lay him down for a nap in the afternoon right after lunch. That way he was ready to go and still well rested.

Edited August 18, 2015 by GORDONCHICK

[gluecksbaer]

Ours was 3.5 when we started cruising. He's 14 now, and goes to bed at 9:30 when school isn't in session. But we always let him stay up late on cruises. That's what vacations are for, IMO. He could sleep late if needed be, unless there were early excursions. And when he was that age, we did lay him down for a nap in the afternoon right after lunch. That way he was ready to go and still well rested.

 

I'm jealous. My kids are usually up early if they go to bed late and always crabby. With school-aged kids I wouldn't worry about them staying until 10:30. I get the relaxing bedtimes on vacation thing, but for us 9:30 was already pushing it (and it was much later than that by the time they wound down and went to sleep).

So I would see the older kids still being very active from 9:30 to 10:30. But I would think the 3-5 set would be winding down and maybe doing stories other other quieter activities that would also be easier to miss during that last hour. Like I said, obviously I'm in the minority, but I found the late activity to be in issue for our family.

[Sparkygirl]

I asked about the late activities, because they are not allowed to have sleeping children in splash academy they keep the energy up to not be calling parents to pick up their children because they fell asleep during a story time. Story time is often first on a given theme in the 3-5 age group.

 

 

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[gluecksbaer]

I asked about the late activities, because they are not allowed to have sleeping children in splash academy they keep the energy up to not be calling parents to pick up their children because they fell asleep during a story time. Story time is often first on a given theme in the 3-5 age group.

 

 

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That actually makes sense. Still annoying for my family, but it makes sense why they do that.

I also noticed late-night (for a fee) activities were all very high energy and wondered if it was some subversive punishment for parents who used the service. But the whole not-sleeping thing is much more sound reasoning.

[Starflyr3]

My 3 yo was on the Jewel in March, and she stayed at splash academy until 10:30 nightly. We did make her nap daily, though. She had a BLAST. My 6 yo was there too. He wasn't as enamored.