Virtual Queue for Splash Academy Kids Clubs on Encore?

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

We board the Encore in July for an Alaskan cruise and I just read a comment on another platform mentioning a virtual queue for the kids clubs on NCL.

 

They were saying it was very frustrating because their kids often didn't get in before a long line via virtual queue and then they'd get alerted in the middle of dinner and they'd have to leave in the middle of the meal to get their kids to the club before they lost their spot.

 

Is that really how NCL does things? 

 

We've cruised on all the major lines but this is the first time we're sailing on NCL, but we've never seen a system like this on any of the other lines.

 

If we have to fight to get our kids into the kids clubs this will likely be our first and last cruise on NCL.

 

Has anybody sailed on the Encore in Alaska to know how much of an issue we should expect? 

 

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

[BirdTravels]

45 minutes ago, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

We board the Encore in July for an Alaskan cruise and I just read a comment on another platform mentioning a virtual queue for the kids clubs on NCL. They were saying it was very frustrating because their kids often didn't get in before a long line via virtual queue and then they'd get alerted in the middle of dinner and they'd have to leave in the middle of the meal to get their kids to the club before they lost their spot. Is that really how NCL does things? 

 

We've cruised on all the major lines but this is the first time we're sailing on NCL, but we've never seen a system like this on any of the other lines. If we have to fight to get our kids into the kids clubs this will likely be our first and last cruise on NCL.

 

Has anybody sailed on the Encore in Alaska to know how much of an issue we should expect? Thanks in advance for any feedback!

 

If mom and dad understand and follow the process, there should be minimal "issues". 

 

You do not need an internet package. But, you need the NCL app on your phone and you need to be connected to the ship's WiFi/intranet. 

 

Bottom Line: To promote social distancing and minimize crowding at the Splash Academy, NCL uses a Virtual Queue for Splash Academy check-in. So rather than standing in line at the club, you stand in a virtual line and come to the club when you get to the front of the line.  Verify process when you register your kids. 

 

Exactly 1 hour before each session starts, the queue opens. Plan on checking your kids in at the start of a session. Get in the queue exactly 1 hour before the club opens. About 15 minutes before the club opens, notifications are sent out to the first 10 people at the front of the virtual line. 

 

If you decide that you want to check your kids in at random times (i.e., not at the start of a session), your time in the queue/line will vary. 

 

When you get to the front of the line and receive a notification, you have exactly 15 minutes to get your kids to the club. At 15 minutes and 1 second, you are deleted from the system. So, yes, when you are asked to bring your kids down, it means "NOW". 

 

Norwegian Encore

Edited May 27 by BirdTravels

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

4 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

 

If mom and dad understand and follow the process, there should be minimal "issues". 

 

You do not need an internet package. But, you need the NCL app on your phone and you need to be connected to the ship's WiFi/intranet. 

 

Bottom Line: To promote social distancing and minimize crowding at the Splash Academy, NCL uses a Virtual Queue for Splash Academy check-in. So rather than standing in line at the club, you stand in a virtual line and come to the club when you get to the front of the line.  Verify process when you register your kids. 

 

Exactly 1 hour before each session starts, the queue opens. Plan on checking your kids in at the start of a session. Get in the queue exactly 1 hour before the club opens. About 15 minutes before the club opens, notifications are sent out to the first 10 people at the front of the virtual line. 

 

If you decide that you want to check your kids in at random times (i.e., not at the start of a session), your time in the queue/line will vary. 

 

When you get to the front of the line and receive a notification, you have exactly 15 minutes to get your kids to the club. At 15 minutes and 1 second, you are deleted from the system. So, yes, when you are asked to bring your kids down, it means "NOW". 

 

Norwegian Encore

I appreciate the explanation. 

 

That sounds like a truly horrible system... I'm happy no other cruise lines have adopted this. 

 

I can't imagine how frustrating it will be to have to stop eating and run to the kids club mid-meal but I guess we're going to find out. 

[mjkacmom]

2 hours ago, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

I appreciate the explanation. 

 

That sounds like a truly horrible system... I'm happy no other cruise lines have adopted this. 

 

I can't imagine how frustrating it will be to have to stop eating and run to the kids club mid-meal but I guess we're going to find out. 

On NCL you can go to dinner whenever you want.

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

Just now, IAcruising said:

 

So, you'd rather stand in a real line for who knows how long? I've never brought kids on a cruise, so I'm honestly curious if you would prefer that.

 

We've cruised 6-8 times/year for years on all the different major cruise lines, and we've never had to wait at any of them before. 

 

On day 1 you may have to wait a bit for everybody to get their kids registered, but that's it. 

 

We've definitely never been turned away and told the kids club was at full occupancy. 

 

Heck, we just sailed on the MSC Seascape over Spring Break, which was at 107% occupancy and absolutely full of kids, and there was never a single time where they told us to come back later because they were full. 

 

Either we're the luckiest parents of all time when it comes to cruising (we're absolutely the luckiest when it comes to having great kids), or NCL just has a very inefficient way of doing things. 

[mjkacmom]

I have not read any complaints here, maybe wait and see before being disappointed at the inefficiency.

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

Just now, mjkacmom said:

On NCL you can go to dinner whenever you want.

Yes, but that doesn't change having to stop eating and race to the kids club for dropoff if you for want to lose your spot.

 

On any other cruise line we'd just enjoy our dinner at our own pace (we are usually in suites so we never have to worry about MDR timings), and after dinner we'd drop the kids off at the kids club for a bit. 

 

Apparently if we try to do that on NCL, we won't be able to drop them off because it will be full. 

 

So our options are to join the virtual queue early and hope we time it right (and if we don't, we won't be able to finish dinner) or we wait until after dinner but the kids won't be able to go to the kids club. 

 

We aren't loyal to any cruise line (we currently have 8 cruises booked on 8 different cruise lines), so it's not like I'm being blinded by loyalty to a different line or anything like that.

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

1 minute ago, mjkacmom said:

I have not read any complaints here, maybe wait and see before being disappointed at the inefficiency.

That's definitely my hope and it was the reason for my original question. 

 

The folks on the other platform were making it out to be the worst system ever and I came here hoping somebody would tell me they were wrong, but what Bird described does indeed seem pretty awful.

[Wayward Son]

On 5/27/2024 at 1:07 PM, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

I can't imagine how frustrating it will be to have to stop eating and run to the kids club mid-meal but I guess we're going to find out. 

 

On 5/27/2024 at 3:17 PM, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

Yes, but that doesn't change having to stop eating and race to the kids club for dropoff if you for want to lose your spot.

 

Sorry, but I have to ask the obvious question, why would you choose to dine when you know your kids are going to be in queue for the kid's club?

 

[cajun-crazy]

It isn’t all NCL ships. We did have it on Breakaway, but not on Sun. Our Breakaway trip was over New Years. Sun was to Alaska in July.

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

19 minutes ago, Wayward Son said:

 

 

Sorry, but I have to ask the obvious question, why would you choose to dine when you know your kids are going to be in queue for the kid's club?

 

 

We don't exactly have a choice, do we?

 

If we don't join the queue in time then we're risking them not getting a spot at all after dinner. 

 

It's not our fault (or the fault of the thousands of other parents who have found themselves in the have exact situation), that NCL has managed to create an issue here where literally no other cruise line has a problem.

[Wayward Son]

Just now, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

 

We don't exactly have a choice, do we?

 

If we don't join the queue in time then we're risking them not getting a spot at all after dinner. 

 

 

 

 

Except that you do have a choice, it's NCL, you dine whenever you want.

 

Perhaps you misunderstood me, so let me rephrase: Why would you choose to dine at the same time as you know your kids will be in the queue?

 

If I recall correctly (and that's not a given), the kid's club opened at 7:00 pm every night. So why would you choose to be dining at 7:00 (or 7:15, 7:30, 7:45, whatever)?

 

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

19 minutes ago, Wayward Son said:

 

Except that you do have a choice, it's NCL, you dine whenever you want.

 

Perhaps you misunderstood me, so let me rephrase: Why would you choose to dine at the same time as you know your kids will be in the queue?

 

If I recall correctly (and that's not a given), the kid's club opened at 7:00 pm every night. So why would you choose to be dining at 7:00 (or 7:15, 7:30, 7:45, whatever)?

 

Very bold of you to assume MDR service will be quick enough to have us in and out in less than 90 minutes. 

 

I'm sure most (perhaps all) dinners we will be eating at 5:30pm but that doesn't mean they'll have us out by 7pm (when the kids club opens).

 

Regardless - why even put parents in that position? Why not just build a kids club that's large enough to accommodate whatever amount of kids choose to use it like literally every other major cruise line? 

 

It's not as if this is some complicated problem to solve. We cruise 6-8x/year on every different cruise line out there and there isn't a single other cruise line we've come across where this has been an issue. 

 

Hopefully it won't be a problem for us, but even if it's not for us, that doesn't mean it isn't a problem for thousands of other parents who make the mistake of cruising on NCL.

 

Based on the feedback from others on a different social media platform, this does appear to be a pretty major issue. 

[Wayward Son]

5 minutes ago, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

Very bold of you to assume MDR service will be quick enough to have us in and out in less than 90 minutes. 

 

Based on the feedback from others on a different social media platform, this does appear to be a pretty major issue. 

 

I apologize if I've offended you in some way. I have been on 6 NCL cruises for a total of 59 days, and I can't recall a single meal in the MDR that took 90-minutes. On the other hand, I have asked the server to speed things up and was out in 45. 

 

I don't know what you've been reading elsewhere, or who these "thousands of other parents" are, but I can assure you, if this was as huge a problem as they seem to be making of it -- we would know it here.

 

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

9 minutes ago, Wayward Son said:

 

I apologize if I've offended you in some way. I have been on 6 NCL cruises for a total of 59 days, and I can't recall a single meal in the MDR that took 90-minutes. On the other hand, I have asked the server to speed things up and was out in 45. 

 

I don't know what you've been reading elsewhere, or who these "thousands of other parents" are, but I can assure you, if this was as huge a problem as they seem to be making of it -- we would know it here.

 

 

I'll see for myself in July - I asked the question here to see what others have experienced, but I can say it did sound like a very common issue from what I read elsewhere. 

 

Fortunately there are lots of cruise lines so we just won't sail NCL again (at least with kids, which should make plenty on here happy)... Just bummed we chose NCL for Alaska this summer. Had I read about this sooner we would have booked Celebrity instead (we want to see Glacier Bay and my kids love Celebrity).

[Wayward Son]

2 minutes ago, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

.

I'll see for myself in July

 

Fortunately there are lots of cruise lines so we just won't sail NCL again 

 

Just bummed we chose NCL for Alaska this summer. Had I read about this sooner we would have booked Celebrity instead (we want to see Glacier Bay and my kids love Celebrity).

 

Now see, this is where I get my panties in a bunch.

 

You have not yet experienced NCL for yourself, and yet you already know won't sail NCL again. How does that work?

 

You are bummed about Alaska, yet NCL goes to Glacier Bay and Celebrity does not.

 

Why would you assume a problem? Wouldn't it better assume an amazing cruise? Only you can make yourself happy, and you're already making yourself unhappy before you even set foot on the ship.

 

Give up your predetermined "problems" and you may find they don't exist.

 

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

7 minutes ago, Wayward Son said:

 

Now see, this is where I get my panties in a bunch.

 

You have not yet experienced NCL for yourself, and yet you already know won't sail NCL again. How does that work?

 

You are bummed about Alaska, yet NCL goes to Glacier Bay and Celebrity does not.

 

Why would you assume a problem? Wouldn't it better assume an amazing cruise? Only you can make yourself happy, and you're already making yourself unhappy before you even set foot on the ship.

 

Give up your predetermined "problems" and you may find they don't exist.

 

That's certainly the hope. 

 

I'm sure we will have a fantastic time... We've yet to ever go on a cruise we didn't enjoy. 

 

However, with so many great cruise options out there, I don't know why we'd intentionally book a cruise line with a system like this that's going to cause potential issues. 

 

And you're right about Celebrity...I was thinking it was Princess and Celebrity that do GB... But it's Princess and HAL. We're doing the Sun Princess over Thanksgiving but we've never sailed them to know if my kids will enjoy them (and I'm very confident we're about 30-40 years too young for HAL).

 

I really do hope we enjoy NCL - I may be come across annoyed on here, but when we board the ship, we will have open minds. 

 

We did Margaritaville at Sea last month (immediately following two weeks in the Yacht Club on MSC) and we had an amazing time, so I'm sure if we can have a great time on Margaritaville, NCL will be enjoyable, even if the kids club is poorly organized.

Edited May 30 by FamilyAtSea.travel

[mjkacmom]

If it makes you feel better, I’ve never even heard about this issue on CC, and folks love to complain here. 

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

1 minute ago, mjkacmom said:

If it makes you feel better, I’ve never even heard about this issue on CC, and folks love to complain here. 

So true and that does make me feel better 😅

 

Fingers crossed this all ends up being a complete non-issue for us!

 

Thanks for the feedback and reassurance.

[Lucky Dude 2101]

Wondering if anyone can validate this?  Been a few weeks since the last post.

 

Me and my family have cruised NCL several times, and this would be a first.  Granted, NCL did institute a virtual queue after Covid and if you were not some of the 1st people in line, you were turned away and had to keep eye on the queue.

Sailing the Encore in a few weeks, and really hope the virtual queue is not the only option!  I'd much rather line up with our kids 10-15 minutes before opening than mess with a virtual queue all the time.

[carohs]

I hadn't heard of a virtual queue before! Wow. 

 

So this can be very good or very bad. On spring break two years ago, they had way more kids than they had capacity for on the Jewel. Now Alaska tends to be less interesting to kids, so you may not have quite as many on board in the first place. For our sailing, we had to line up 30-45 minutes ahead of time to get a spot in the kids club and then wait as kids were checking in for our turn. The whole process probably took an hour out of the day. Given that, a virtual queue and YTD would have made that process so much more convenient. OTOH, given the capacity restrictions, a virtual queue means setting alarms and making sure not to miss it the first minute or risk not getting a spot at all for that session. Yikes.

 

Kids club on NCL have set times, and close for meals. Usually they're open from 9-12, 2-4, and 7-11. After 11 you can pay per hour. It's not too difficult to plan for meals around this time (2 hour window for lunch and 3 hour for dinner), and NCL has not only YTD but also the buffet open. We have been know to dine in one and get dessert in the other, or even dine at the MDR and come back for dessert at a later time. Say you do eat at 5:30, and you're pinged at exactly 7pm... you have until 7:15 to get your kids there. You don't have a receipt to sign, and you can take your dessert to-go if absolutely necessary. There's no reason you can't make it to kid's club 1hr 45 min after you sit down and chances are you won't get pinged at exactly 7pm. Or depending on your kids' age let them check themselves in while you enjoy a leisurely dinner. 

 

Please come back and let us know how it works out for you!

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

5 minutes ago, carohs said:

I hadn't heard of a virtual queue before! Wow. 

 

So this can be very good or very bad. On spring break two years ago, they had way more kids than they had capacity for on the Jewel. Now Alaska tends to be less interesting to kids, so you may not have quite as many on board in the first place. For our sailing, we had to line up 30-45 minutes ahead of time to get a spot in the kids club and then wait as kids were checking in for our turn. The whole process probably took an hour out of the day. Given that, a virtual queue and YTD would have made that process so much more convenient. OTOH, given the capacity restrictions, a virtual queue means setting alarms and making sure not to miss it the first minute or risk not getting a spot at all for that session. Yikes.

 

Kids club on NCL have set times, and close for meals. Usually they're open from 9-12, 2-4, and 7-11. After 11 you can pay per hour. It's not too difficult to plan for meals around this time (2 hour window for lunch and 3 hour for dinner), and NCL has not only YTD but also the buffet open. We have been know to dine in one and get dessert in the other, or even dine at the MDR and come back for dessert at a later time. Say you do eat at 5:30, and you're pinged at exactly 7pm... you have until 7:15 to get your kids there. You don't have a receipt to sign, and you can take your dessert to-go if absolutely necessary. There's no reason you can't make it to kid's club 1hr 45 min after you sit down and chances are you won't get pinged at exactly 7pm. Or depending on your kids' age let them check themselves in while you enjoy a leisurely dinner. 

 

Please come back and let us know how it works out for you!

Thank you for sharing your perspective...I hope it goes smoothly for us. 

 

I'm guessing NCL will be a one and done for us, but the good news is there are many other cruise lines who have kids clubs who can handle the capacity of the kids on their ships. 

 

Why do you think NCL struggles with this when larger ships like the Icon don't have the same problems?

 

I'm guessing they just built their kids clubs too small for the size of ship (or they under staff them).

[carohs]

Just now, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

Thank you for sharing your perspective...I hope it goes smoothly for us. 

 

I'm guessing NCL will be a one and done for us, but the good news is there are many other cruise lines who have kids clubs who can handle the capacity of the kids on their ships. 

 

Why do you think NCL struggles with this when larger ships like the Icon don't have the same problems?

 

I'm guessing they just built their kids clubs too small for the size of ship (or they under staff them).

 

I think it's a little of both. On the Jewel, we asked about capacity and they told us it was limited to 8 kids per staff. The room wasn't very large either and it seemed quite full when it was at capacity. Previous experiences for us has primarily been on DCL. On DCL, they actually limit how many kids can be booked on the sailing based on their kids club capacity. This based on anecdotal evidence of rooms being available (or not) when changing the ages of the kids sailing. The only time we sailed CCL with the kids was to Alaska the 1st week of September .There were only a dozen kids on the ship then so I never had to worry about capacity then. Frankly, I was surprised at how NCL handles the kids club and was disappointed too, especially with the restrictions on time. Not that we would have left them there all day, but having to sign in exactly at opening or not having a change to go in at all for that session was a bummer. We def won't sail Spring Break on their ships again but the kids had fun. Even standing in line, they were having fun socializing with the kids around them.  Have you sailed other cruise lines during peak times?

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

2 minutes ago, carohs said:

 

I think it's a little of both. On the Jewel, we asked about capacity and they told us it was limited to 8 kids per staff. The room wasn't very large either and it seemed quite full when it was at capacity. Previous experiences for us has primarily been on DCL. On DCL, they actually limit how many kids can be booked on the sailing based on their kids club capacity. This based on anecdotal evidence of rooms being available (or not) when changing the ages of the kids sailing. The only time we sailed CCL with the kids was to Alaska the 1st week of September .There were only a dozen kids on the ship then so I never had to worry about capacity then. Frankly, I was surprised at how NCL handles the kids club and was disappointed too, especially with the restrictions on time. Not that we would have left them there all day, but having to sign in exactly at opening or not having a change to go in at all for that session was a bummer. We def won't sail Spring Break on their ships again but the kids had fun. Even standing in line, they were having fun socializing with the kids around them.  Have you sailed other cruise lines during peak times?

Yes, we typically cruise 6-8 times/year and with young kids (8 and 9), we sail almost exclusively during the most busy times since that's what works with their schedules (Spring Break, several in summer, Thanksgiving, and Christmas).

 

I'm trying to remember a single time we've ever had to worry about capacity in a kids club and I can't think of any at all. 

 

We have a YouTube channel targeted at family cruisers so I do a bunch of research in advance to prepare so we can produce the best possible content for the families who watch, so that's what I'm doing here, but it doesn't sound ideal. 

 

With that said - of all the cruises we've ever done, we've never had a bad cruise. Some cruises are better than others, but we find reasons to love every single experience. 

 

Here's to hoping our sailing won't be as crowded with kids since it will be in Alaska but it's peak season in July so I'm guessing there will be plenty (which our kids will love once they get in).

[kitkat343]

Cunard actually had an excellent system for the kids club on our last cruise.  Slots for the kids club open up online the previous morning.  Once you sign up for a slot (morning, afternoon or evening) the entire time is your slot.  You can come at any time during the morning opening hours, and you can leave and come back later - once you sign up for a slot its yours to use however your child wants to use it.  If a parent signs up for slots and doesn't cancel and no shows, their ability to book future slots can be put in jeopardy.  It was extremely convenient on our holiday cruise, and kept me from having to schedule our vacation around making sure the kids were at the kids club at opening time so we could get a slot.  This system probably accommodates fewer children than NCL's, so that's the tradeoff.  But we were lucky since our Xmas cruise had quite a lot of children, but some of the parents chose to never utilize the kids club and we never had any trouble getting the slots we needed (but Cunard is obviously dealing with far fewer numbers of children than NCL, Carnival or RC) so the ability of this program to be utilized by the other cruise lines might be limited.  

Edited June 19 by kitkat343