12 year olds on NCL

[Moparop]

My daughter and her cousin are cruising next month with their grandparents. They are both 12 years old and fully vaccinated. My understanding is that all of the Splash Academy is closed due to kids <12 being allowed on the ship. I think Entourage is still happening, but is it still 13-17? Is there any programming for the 12 year olds on the ship? Just trying to manage expectations for my kid!

[razor7_us]

What ship are they sailing on?  Depending on the ship, there are plenty of activities for 12 year olds.  

[Moparop]

2 minutes ago, razor7_us said:

What ship are they sailing on?  Depending on the ship, there are plenty of activities for 12 year olds.  

 

They will be on the Gem doing Western Caribbean. When the trip was booked, the grandparents had planned that they would hang a bunch in the club, not thinking of it being closed because 10-11 were not onboard.

[razor7_us]

Limited activities on the Gem. Sorry.  There are 2 pools, 1 adult and 1 family.  There is a basketball court that is set up for soccer also and there is a video arcade.  If its a port intensive cruise, they can look forward to visiting a lot of different countries, see and experience new cultures and have some killer beach time.

[BirdTravels]

There was no programming for 12 year olds on the Encore. They hung with the teens outside the club.

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[BoozinCroozin]

It's too bad that NCL is not adjusting clubs for 12yos. It is kind of not fair for them not to have a place to hangout together even though they met all requirements. I know there may not be enough for a separate club, but changing from 13-17 to 12-17 is not too difficult.

[Moparop]

2 hours ago, BoozinCroozin said:

It's too bad that NCL is not adjusting clubs for 12yos. It is kind of not fair for them not to have a place to hangout together even though they met all requirements. I know there may not be enough for a separate club, but changing from 13-17 to 12-17 is not too difficult.

This is why i asked. Other cruisers don't want dozens of 12 year olds running amok on the ship.

[Moparop]

8 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

There was no programming for 12 year olds on the Encore. They hung with the teens outside the club.

. 

I remember you saying that programming was for 13+. I was hoping that they had made adjustments since that first sailing.

[J0Y0US]

1 hour ago, Moparop said:

I remember you saying that programming was for 13+. I was hoping that they had made adjustments since that first sailing.

Would they turn them away though?

 

This isn't like a 10 year old trying to go there during normal times. The whole points of 12 vs 13 being a break in groups is based on words nothing more I would suspect as well (teen vs not teen).

 

I would possibly have the grandparents take them there upon boarding and just ask. That being said I don't normally cruise, my kids are younger, and I never sailed on NCL (so you might just want to ignore me haha).

[mjkacmom]

I’m guessing it’s an insurance liability, they’ve always been very strict. Honestly my kids hated the 10 - 12 club, maybe stayed an hour at that age (they could sign themselves out). Entourage is more of a place for teens to meet up before roaming the ship.