Splash Academy on Norwegian Bliss vs Joy

[JasonShen]

When we booked our cruise with Norwegian Joy, there was very little information about the ship so we referenced Bliss (the sister ship) for everything. Now more and more information about Joy surfaced. We surprisingly found out just now that the Splash Academy on Joy seems to be much smaller than that on Bliss! The size of the Splash Academy was one of the deciding factors that we booked Norwegian Joy ... Can someone confirm this? Thanks in advance.

 

Deck plans (Splash Academy is on Deck 5, don't know how to get the right URL)

Bliss

Joy

Edited April 3, 2019 by JasonShen

[BirdTravels]

The Joy is still in dry dock, so no one has seen the Americanized version. Deck plans would indicate that it is much smaller

[Rassilon]

We are booked on Joy later this year with two children.  Did not realize the kids area might not be comparable to Bliss.  Since we are traveling with a group we can't really deviate without hassling others so this is a bummer if true.  The space that is labeled on the bliss's splash academy is unlabeled for Joy.  So maybe it's just not updated due to the upgrade? Guess we'll be hearing back in a few weeks and find out. 🤞

[Fred702]

We did a W Caribbean cruise two years ago on Escape and it was phenomenal. We used Splash for our then-PreK child and we were completely satisfied. We booked Joy for next year because it was the "sister" ship to Escape/Bliss. But, now, doing a side-by-side comparison, I see Splash on Bliss is about a third larger then Escape and Joy is half the size as Escape! So it seems Splash on Joy is significantly smaller than Bliss (maybe 40%?). Speaking with other American cruisers with children between 4 and 10 years old, Splash is super popular. I would image it's going to be booked up quickly. We're going to register at Splash as soon as we board.

[JasonShen]

Hope with Joy's first cruise, this issue will soon be clarified!

[TheDougOut]

Other than Entourage, which is a closet in the Galaxy Pavilion, the Joy’s Splash Academy rooms are quite large.  The crew member said larger than Bliss - for whatever that’s worth.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 4, 2019 by TheDougOut

[JasonShen]

Thanks, Doug! It is a piece of wonderful news for us. Apparently, the Joy deck plan on the NCL website is not accurate about the size of the Splash Academy.

[Chrislyn]

On 5/3/2019 at 9:55 PM, JasonShen said:

Hope with Joy's first cruise, this issue will soon be clarified!

We just wrapped up our May 11-18th cruise on Joy, it was a fantastic size, granted we are off season but it can handle a lot of kids. This is an area they got sized right. While Entourage is tiny, they use that mainly as a meet up spot and then move to other locations for activities. My son loved the fact they were not confined to a room, even though he did enjoy the limited hangout time spent their. He was disappointed in the game systems only a Wii and PlayStation, but again this was limited time on those as they kept them busy and away from screens (hallelujah! NCL is awesome for this)!