GEM Children's Program?

My two grandsons are cruising with me on my upcoming January cruise on the GEM.

Their ages are 8 and 5 and I asked this question a few months ago and did not get an answer.

I know that they changed the format from a few years ago and some people were concerned.

Has anyone cruised on the GEM with children in my grandsons' age group that can give me a brief review of your experiences?

Thanks.

Don

What do you mean by changing the format? It's been the same for the past few years, so I assume your experience was some time ago.

We've not been on the Gem, but our son really enjoys the kids club on NCL. He has been cruising since he was 7 and he's now 10.

One problem you may have is that they are strict with the age ranges, so I think your two grandsons won't be in the same group.

What do you mean by changing the format? It's been the same for the past few years, so I assume your experience was some time ago.

 

We've not been on the Gem, but our son really enjoys the kids club on NCL. He has been cruising since he was 7 and he's now 10.

 

One problem you may have is that they are strict with the age ranges, so I think your two grandsons won't be in the same group.

Yes, I am aware of the strict age ranges that are on NCL.

However, I read in a thread several months ago that NCL no longer uses the group that that had the Nicolodean characters and are now using a different group to administer the children's programs in Splash Academy.

Many people had commented on how good the original program was and the kids enjoyed those characters during their cruises. They are supposedly no longer on NCL.

There was also a new sign up program instituted that had brought about some negative reviews several months ago from GEM cruisers with children. There was a thread that indicated some difficulties in that area, but that might of been during the summer when there were many kids on board.

I just want to hear some good reviews from recent GEM cruisers with children to alleviate my concerns or be prepared for some upcoming issues because it has been a while since I cruised with children in my family! :)

Don

I've just checked with my son and he said that Nickelodeon had little or no impact on Splash Academy itself. That was more about characters like SpongeBob turning up around the ship and the kids pool on some newer ships having theming. The only thing that we can recall from Splash Academy itself is that on one night there used to be something to do with making an iCarly episode, which I assume had gone now.

He didn't notice any difference at all after the Nickelodeon change.

The only thing I can think about regarding sign in is that there was discussion about warnings that there are lots of kids onboard and that entrance to Splash Academy is restricted. Those sort of warnings were given in previous years too, just didn't get any attention here. In practice, very few, if any, people were actually affected by it.

Hopefully someone who has been on the Gem will be able to comment, but I can't see any reason why it should be significantly different from other ships.

Nickelodeon had nothing to do with splash academy it was just a 'feature' on the ship. The new group isn't actually new because they've been doing programming on the 'older' ships for a couple of years now. I don't know why it was such a big announcement that the British company was on the new ships.

There is still circus school and scavenger hunts and the normal programming that went on in Splash Academy.

Thank you....

It appears I will have no concerns in January on the GEM. :)

Don