Sailing with a 12 year old

[crazymomof5boys]

Has anyone recently sailed with a 12 year old?  Wondering what there is for them to do. Is the kids club open?  I see in all the dailies that the teens club is open but nothing about the kids club for a 12 year old to go to. We leave next week and trying to be prepared 

[Shayhooper]

I’m in the same position and will be traveling next week with my 12 year old. Hopefully if they aren’t doing the kids club, they will let the 12 year olds hang out with the 13 - 17 year old activities.

[crazymomof5boys]

We are sailing on the escape. Which are you on?

[Traveling Mike]

I was just on the Norwegian Bliss on November 21st.  We were only at 40% (1700 passengers) and there were a few hundred kids.  I did not see much of them except at dinner time and excursions.  That tells me they were active in the kid's area.  I cruised with my son from age 8 though 18 and if I did not see him, he was having fun with the other kids.  When they are bored they wonder the ship looking for things to do.

[mjkacmom]

10 hours ago, Shayhooper said:

I’m in the same position and will be traveling next week with my 12 year old. Hopefully if they aren’t doing the kids club, they will let the 12 year olds hang out with the 13 - 17 year old activities.

I doubt this forinsurance reasons, in the past it never happened. All of my kids disliked every tween club they tried, it’s just an awkward age. We’d give written permission for them to sign themselves out if they agreed to try again.

[bkrickles1]

I'm sailing Joy January 15th and my 2 young nieces will be joining with their parents.

The girls are 7 & 8 (and are getting their 2nd vaccine dose in 3 days) and I was very interested in them being involved with the kids club so I contacted 3 different NCL people about it a month ago.

I was assured that the kids clubs would be up and running for my nieces, so I'd imagine it'll be running for 12 year olds too.

I'm not sure how many kids my nieces age will be sailing but I'm hopeful there's enough for them to make some friends. It'll be good for them and even better for their parents.

[Shayhooper]

10 hours ago, crazymomof5boys said:

We are sailing on the escape. Which are you on?

Same 🙂

[sparkygirlfamily]

2 hours ago, bkrickles1 said:

I'm sailing Joy January 15th and my 2 young nieces will be joining with their parents.

The girls are 7 & 8 (and are getting their 2nd vaccine dose in 3 days) and I was very interested in them being involved with the kids club so I contacted 3 different NCL people about it a month ago.

I was assured that the kids clubs would be up and running for my nieces, so I'd imagine it'll be running for 12 year olds too.

I'm not sure how many kids my nieces age will be sailing but I'm hopeful there's enough for them to make some friends. It'll be good for them and even better for their parents.

Who did you end up speaking with regarding Splash Academy that assured you it will be up and running.  I've been questioning this for my 11 year old and am planning as if it will not be open.

[gmkgks]

We were told the kids club was open. We specifically pick NCL in part because our 12 year old can do kids club. On RC they had her in the teen club with a lot of 17 year old boys who liked like there were in college.  She felt very uncomfortable. 

[bkrickles1]

29 minutes ago, sparkygirlfamily said:

Who did you end up speaking with regarding Splash Academy that assured you it will be up and running.  I've been questioning this for my 11 year old and am planning as if it will not be open.

I started with my pcc and then I called ncl customer service and spoke with someone there. I made another call but I'm not remembering right now what department that call was to. 

All told me that now that kids 5 and up can be vaccinated, they will have the corresponding kids clubs open. 

It hasn't been long enough for any of the young children to be fully vaccinated plus 2 weeks yet so the clubs probably won't be open until next week. 

[MellaJoyce]

We just got back from sailing on the Escape with our 12-year-old daughter. Entourage was not budging on the age limit, even with her being 3 weeks away from being 13. Totally understandable.

 

However, they did open up the Entourage room for "Feel Free Play" time for families with kids of all ages. It wasn't a "drop your kid off" program, but opened up the facilities to offer more kid-friendly activities.

 

My daughter went in there once, found the one other 12-year-old on the ship (or so it seemed). They played a little Mario Kart, but really there wasn't much to do. She spent some time at the arcade, water slides, and ropes course, and would pop down to the Haven Bar for a milkshake or to the buffet for a snack. She and I attended the art auction and participated in some of the Trivia games. Otherwise, there really wasn't much to do without kids her age to hang out with. She ended up getting extra "vacation screen time" to play games online with her friends back home. 

 

I will say that we felt pretty safe having her walk the ship unattended. She obviously wasn't roaming the corridors with staterooms, but the public areas, the Haven areas, the buffet - all felt pretty safe to us.

 

Edited December 6, 2021 by MellaJoyce
Forgot some words

[sparkygirlfamily]

16 minutes ago, MellaJoyce said:

We just got back from sailing on the Escape with our 12-year-old daughter. Entourage was not budging on the age limit, even with her being 3 weeks away from being 13. Totally understandable.

 

However, they did open up the Entourage room for "Feel Free Play" time for families with kids of all ages. It wasn't a "drop your kid off" program, but opened up the facilities to offer more kid-friendly activities.

 

My daughter went in there once, found the one other 12-year-old on the ship (or so it seemed). They played a little Mario Kart, but really there wasn't much to do. She spent some time at the arcade, water slides, and ropes course, and would pop down to the Haven Bar for a milkshake or to the buffet for a snack. She and I attended the art auction and participated in some of the Trivia games. Otherwise, there really wasn't much to do without kids her age to hang out with. She ended up getting extra "vacation screen time" to play games online with her friends back home. 

 

I will say that we felt pretty safe having her walk the ship unattended. She obviously wasn't roaming the corridors with staterooms, but the public areas, the Haven areas, the buffet - all felt pretty safe to us.

 

 

Thank you!  This would be great for some change in routine for our days.  I am expecting no other kids on our sailing (Buenos Aires to Argentina) in mid-January.

 

[Shayhooper]

11 hours ago, mjkacmom said:

I doubt this forinsurance reasons, in the past it never happened. All of my kids disliked every tween club they tried, it’s just an awkward age. We’d give written permission for them to sign themselves out if they agreed to try again.

We did a cruise on Carnival in August and she enjoyed the kids club as a way to meet other kids her age.  Once she found a few kids she liked then they spent most of their time away from the club.

[Arizona Packer Backer]

6 hours ago, MellaJoyce said:

However, they did open up the Entourage room for "Feel Free Play" time for families with kids of all ages. It wasn't a "drop your kid off" program, but opened up the facilities to offer more kid-friendly activities.

I was told that this is how it will be on all NCL ships until further notice. The Splash Academy won't be open, but they will have "Feel Free Play" times for the younger kids. The teens area will be open, but there currently is NOT a drop off program for the 12 and under crowd. I asked when this might change, and the answer was, "We don't know, this is how it will be until further notice".

 

Edited December 7, 2021 by Arizona Packer Backer

[sugarsnap1981]

1 hour ago, Arizona Packer Backer said:

I was told that this is how it will be on all NCL ships until further notice. The Splash Academy won't be open, but they will have "Feel Free Play" times for the younger kids. The teens area will be open, but there currently is NOT a drop off program for the 12 and under crowd. I asked when this might change, and the answer was, "We don't know, this is how it will be until further notice".

 

 

I received the same response when asking about my 7 year old for a Spring Break 2022 sailing. Really hoping the drop off program will be available in March.

[bkrickles1]

10 hours ago, Arizona Packer Backer said:

I was told that this is how it will be on all NCL ships until further notice. The Splash Academy won't be open, but they will have "Feel Free Play" times for the younger kids. The teens area will be open, but there currently is NOT a drop off program for the 12 and under crowd. I asked when this might change, and the answer was, "We don't know, this is how it will be until further notice".

 

Well this would be disappointing. 

[mjkacmom]

13 hours ago, Shayhooper said:

We did a cruise on Carnival in August and she enjoyed the kids club as a way to meet other kids her age.  Once she found a few kids she liked then they spent most of their time away from the club.

I was hoping that would be the case on our last cruise with kids in this age group (10, 10, 12), but they just stuck together and then refused. Fortunately, on our next cruise they were 14, 14 and 16 and all 3 found different friend circles.

[MellaJoyce]

The reason they emphasized the "not a drop off" condition is that there is no formal supervision in there at all. I did let my daughter (3 weeks shy of 13) just go in herself while I loitered out in the hall to see if they'd let her just hang out or kick her out once they scanned her card. No one was even there to check. So if you have a mature 12-year-old you can just send them down to hang out during those times with the caveat that they might turn the child away if there is anyone supervising.

[phillygwm]

On 12/5/2021 at 10:16 PM, Shayhooper said:

I’m in the same position and will be traveling next week with my 12 year old. Hopefully if they aren’t doing the kids club, they will let the 12 year olds hang out with the 13 - 17 year old activities.

Pardon my ignorance but do they "card" the kids?  I mean, some 12 year olds look like they're 8 and others look 18 🙂  I know their age is on the reservation but not sure whether that's stringently checked.

[mjkacmom]

48 minutes ago, phillygwm said:

Pardon my ignorance but do they "card" the kids?  I mean, some 12 year olds look like they're 8 and others look 18 🙂  I know their age is on the reservation but not sure whether that's stringently checked.

For the teen club they would scan, and on the first night they told the kids not to embarrass themselves and try to pretend to be 13 if they weren’t.

[familytradition]

We cruise on December 19 with a 9 year old and 16 year old. We just got notified today that there would not be Splash Academy or any type of drop off activities for our 9 year old. We'll definitely have a good time as a family, but the kid's club is something she (and her father and I!!!) really like about the cruise. We figured she'd be one of the first to meet the vaccine requirements, but them not offering one of the key features for kids is annoying.

[jesstree]

On 12/7/2021 at 1:06 PM, familytradition said:

We cruise on December 19 with a 9 year old and 16 year old. We just got notified today that there would not be Splash Academy or any type of drop off activities for our 9 year old. We'll definitely have a good time as a family, but the kid's club is something she (and her father and I!!!) really like about the cruise. We figured she'd be one of the first to meet the vaccine requirements, but them not offering one of the key features for kids is annoying.

I completely agree. I also feel like they should have this advertised on the website. It looks like they are notifying people 10 days prior to cruise. We made dinner arrangements based on this. URGH. It is a key feature. I would not have book the cruise knowing this. We will have fun but I feel cheated. 

[jetact]

Not happy at all if this is the case. Our 9 year old grand daughter is travelling with us and not only is it a break for us but she enjoys the kids club and the activities. This should have been mentioned when booking or at least before the last payment that they were not open. We are on the Breakaway mid January and I am guessing witht eh recent issues on the Breakaway that this is not changing anytime soon. 

[jesstree]

I asked the online customer service rep today about this and he told me they put the policy in place on Dec 26th. The policy is until further notice. I have not received my formal notification on this for my Dec 26th cruise. I mentioned there is no mention of this on their website. He said sorry but this is the new policy. I'm super tempted to let my ADHD child just do their thing at Cagney's and all the other establishments. Sorry not sorry to the other cruisers, but let the kids run wild outside all the bars and in dance clubs. I would have never booked this if I knew this was the case. I should mention I'm usually not out past 10:00pm, but having 3-4 hours of adult time is part of what I'm paying for on a cruise. I could have save 2K-3K and gone to resort elsewhere or did a ski/snowboard trip (which was our second choice).

 

This is a bit of a vent.... 

[Cruisingcrew5]

On 12/7/2021 at 11:06 AM, familytradition said:

We cruise on December 19 with a 9 year old and 16 year old. We just got notified today that there would not be Splash Academy or any type of drop off activities for our 9 year old. We'll definitely have a good time as a family, but the kid's club is something she (and her father and I!!!) really like about the cruise. We figured she'd be one of the first to meet the vaccine requirements, but them not offering one of the key features for kids is annoying.

We received that email on the 7th as well for our 19th sailing.