Splash Academy reopening?

[jstewartgt]

Any news on Splash Academy?  I noticed on one of the news articles it said the club was suspended for Jan and Feb.  I have not seen any communications for March.  Curious if they are quietly opening it back up

[Cilosgirl]

The chat agent spoke with today said drop off services are targeting to resume in June. I still have not received a formal communication from NCL  and I sail in 11 days. I am so disappointed in their lack of transparency.

[jstewartgt]

17 minutes ago, Cilosgirl said:

The chat agent spoke with today said drop off services are targeting to resume in June. I still have not received a formal communication from NCL  and I sail in 11 days. I am so disappointed in their lack of transparency.

 

Same.  We leave sooner than that and nothing official has been communicated to us either.

And I completely agree it's the lack of transparency that will definitely push me to try out other lines

[Cilosgirl]

My daughter is going to be really disappointed, she loved Splash Academy. We booked with Disney for 2023. 

[jstewartgt]

1 hour ago, Cilosgirl said:

My daughter is going to be really disappointed, she loved Splash Academy. We booked with Disney for 2023. 

 

She will likely love Disney no matter what age she is.  We did Disney for many years, but ultimately feel like the juice isn't worth the squeeze any longer.  Disney wanted over 2x what we paid for this NCL cruise for what I would consider similar class rooms.   

 

Over the years Disney constantly has found ways to charge more for less and the perks have slowly dwindled.  But kids love it and that's why they get away with it.  My kids have aged to the point where we can be a little more flexible, but my youngest is definitely disappointed.  My oldest may be as well based on what I've seen in other threads(with so few kids cruising).  We'll see.  We'll make it work either way

 

 

[JillK]

I am a planner by nature but for the first time ever, we made the decision to do a last minute cruise. We booked last Monday and sail in just under two weeks. We could have chosen between Royal or NCL but went with NCL as they are the preferred line of my parents who are joining us and we had a CruiseNext to use up. 

 

In looking at the website, there is NO indication that SA is suspended - in fact, under the tab relating to families they do nothing but speak to how great their offerings are. I hadn't been on the NCL board here in a few months and was not aware that it had been suspended. I booked directly with NCL and the agent did not mention it either, despite the fact that I am travelling with four children.

 

It feels to me as though NCL is deliberately concealing this information. Nothing I can do about it now but frankly if I had known, we would have booked with Royal instead. 

 

We have been cooped up under a myriad of lockdowns for two years and could use some space from one another. That's one thing I've always liked about cruises for families - lots of things to do together but opportunities to do things separately too. 

 

I emailed my agent and she confirmed that it is suspended until June, subject to change so I think it's safe to assume it will not re-open in March.

 

Very disappointed at the lack of transparency. 

[jstewartgt]

I finally received the email this evening.  Pretty much the exact same email people in December received.  Still blaming COVID...

 

Dear Valued Guest,

Thank you for choosing Norwegian Cruise Line. We're glad to have you sailing aboard Norwegian Cruise Line and can't wait to help you make new and exciting memories on your amazing vacation.

Sailing from the US, and per the CDC Guidelines, Entourage Teen Program will be open for teens ages 13-17. Once onboard, you can refer to the Entourage Daily Program for activity times and locations.

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic and CDC Guidelines, Splash Academy will not be offering drop-off services during your sailing for children ages 5-12 years old.

However, we will be providing tailored activities for youth and families on board. We are offering a range of daily activities from relaxing movie nights and game shows to our fun Feel Free Play sessions. Feel Free Play is not a drop off service and parents must attend the session with their children. Times and locations will be noted in the Freestyle Daily.

Check out the Freestyle Daily for the complete schedule, times and locations. In addition, be sure to download the NCL mobile app, so you can keep up to date with everything happening on board right at your fingertips!

To ensure your health and safety, and with an abundance of care, all activities will follow the social distancing, sanitizing and mask protocols that are in place on board. All guests must adhere to the direction of the crew while participating in the activities.

We hope you have an incredible vacation, and we look forward to seeing you around the ship.

Best Regards,
Norwegian Cruise Line

Edited March 3, 2022 by jstewartgt

[texas poker]

I also just received this email for our sailing Saturday...little late to disclose.🙄

[WinesAtSea]

We got this same email for our 3/19/22 cruise just this evening. Just the same as those above is that this is the first we have heard of any closure of splash academy. We are traveling with 11 and 7 year old and this was precisely why we booked a cruise as opposed to another vacation.

 

The most frustrating part of the email above was the reference to " the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic and CDC Guidelines." We called this evening and asked specifically which CDC guidelines and of course, we got only silence from the rep. In fact, the first rep we spoke with, Gene, hung up on us when we continued to ask questions and were willing to hold for a supervisor. 

 

At this point, the choice not to staff a cruise ship is completely at the discretion of the line. If they choose not to staff if that is their choice, but it is the same as failing to offer any other amenity (e.g., dining, bar service, theater shows, etc). If the line fails to offer a service they should, at the very least, offer the cruiser the chance at a full refund or some compensation for the inconvenience. 

 

We're incredibly disappointed at NCL and can't believe they would fail to disclose such an important detail until 2.5 weeks before the sail date.  And, the customer service was appalling.  The second rep we spoke with (Sean) who was actually so nice said he was not empowered to help make this situation right. This, despite agreeing that what we were experiencing was unfair. It illustrates that NCL simply doesn't care if it will be a poor customer experience. 

[Starflyr3]

Yeahhh…..

 

im really glad my older kids is 13.  The younger one would be in dolphins, and we’d let her sign herself out after 2 hours, so if she can find a few friends, she’ll probably be allowed to hang out with them, too.  This is cruise # 7 for her, so she knows the drill.

 

I’d be really pissed if they were younger.

 

 

[JillK]

Curious to see if there will be any side effects of this decision such as an increase in kids running amok unsupervised. I generally have seen small gangs of kids misbehaving on several cruises in the past, but without a dedicated place for them to go be kids with structure, I suspect we'll be seeing more shenanigans. 

 

Since a vacation isn't a vacation from parenting, my younger two will have to suffer with being with me full time and I will now need to plan/bring activities along (so basically just take the stuff we do here all the time on the road). At least the teen club is open for my older two but ironically, they are the two that I could have left on their own (16 and 17)! 

 

As someone said on another post, they've also just lost my spa and casino business and likely many other parents' as well! 

 

It's one thing to be aware and book the trip, but quite another to have no idea and find out accidentally a week before your cruise. I'm sure NCL could communicate this in a more transparent way if they wanted to. Curious business decision to not be forthright.

 

 

 

 

 

[shof515]

3 minutes ago, JillK said:

Curious to see if there will be any side effects of this decision such as an increase in kids running amok unsupervised. I generally have seen small gangs of kids misbehaving on several cruises in the past, but without a dedicated place for them to go be kids with structure, I suspect we'll be seeing more shenanigans.

 

i was on the getaway last week and this was my experience onboard. lots of kids going crazy around the ship. they was also a group of kids asking people for selfies. very strange 

[JillK]

2 hours ago, shof515 said:

 

i was on the getaway last week and this was my experience onboard. lots of kids going crazy around the ship. they was also a group of kids asking people for selfies. very strange 

 

Not surprised really. Yikes. 

[Cilosgirl]

2 hours ago, shof515 said:

 

i was on the getaway last week and this was my experience onboard. lots of kids going crazy around the ship. they was also a group of kids asking people for selfies. very strange 

I saw on the Dailies there was a digital scavenger hunt, the kids asking for selfies could have been part of that activity.

 

Clearly NCL didn’t think this decision through as it impacts everyone’s enjoyment, not just the families.

[Lionkingrichard]

2 hours ago, shof515 said:

 

i was on the getaway last week and this was my experience onboard. lots of kids going crazy around the ship. they was also a group of kids asking people for selfies. very strange 

I was on the Dawn last week(school vacation) and there were 9 preteens and 21 teens on the ship!

 

You never seen a child anywhere!

[mjkacmom]

Last week was a vacation week for NYC schools, and many schools in the northeast, I’m sure there were way more kids than usual.

[LGW59]

If you go to Disney and find out that your kids favorite ride(s) are closed for maintenance, it happens all the time, then they whine and stomp their feet, and you booked the vaca a year or two in advance, do you demand compensation of some sort?  Let me think, NO!

[sugarsnap1981]

I received the same email that Splash Academy was not going to be offering drop-off services for our March 20-27 sailing to Mexico. All of us are disappointed and I would have opted to cruise with Disney or figured out alternative plans for my 7 year old...but alas, we've already paid and FCC would likely go unused. Will still enjoy being away, but would also have liked to not have a bored child and some adult only time. Huge Bummer.