How kid-friendly is the Norwegian Sky?

[zeppgirl]

Our in-laws want to take a Panama Canal cruise next Thanksgiving break.  I usually opt for the larger ships with more to do, but do like the itinerary on this one.  I would also love to join them, but am concerned with the size of the ship and whether there will be enough to entertain the kids, who will be 12 and 15 at the time of the cruise.  What are your thoughts?

[dexddd]

8 hours ago, zeppgirl said:

Our in-laws want to take a Panama Canal cruise next Thanksgiving break.  I usually opt for the larger ships with more to do, but do like the itinerary on this one.  I would also love to join them, but am concerned with the size of the ship and whether there will be enough to entertain the kids, who will be 12 and 15 at the time of the cruise.  What are your thoughts?

Other than buffet, soft serve, and a pool, Sky is one of the oldest in fleet.  Not kid friendly at all.

[Nclcruise1415]

For the most part, it's really not kid friendly at all. Smaller ship, one pool for everyone, no water slides, etc. I would recommend going on YouTube and watching a few ship tour videos on the Norwegian Sky.

[ggTexasGal]

The Sky is fine for adults, especially on short cruises!  But, as a grandmother of four (younger than your kids), I would say that the ship itself would not necessarily provide a lot of active entertainment for kids the ages of yours.

If they are happy to play basketball, ping pong, trivia, and/or swim in the pool, read, play board/card games, then they would be fine!

Edited March 31, 2020 by ggTexasGal
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[mugtech]

1 hour ago, dexddd said:

Other than buffet, soft serve, and a pool, Sky is one of the oldest in fleet.  Not kid friendly at all.

Heard it's been a few weeks since any kids were on board, heard no children are scheduled to be on the Sky the entire month of April.

[Nclcruise1415]

1 hour ago, mugtech said:

Heard it's been a few weeks since any kids were on board, heard no children are scheduled to be on the Sky the entire month of April.

 

1 hour ago, mugtech said:

Heard it's been a few weeks since any kids were on board, heard no children are scheduled to be on the Sky the entire month of April.

 

There will be no passengers on board until mid-May at the earliest.

[Georgia_Peaches]

Some friends of ours took their kids ages 12 and 14 on the Sun (Sky's sister ship) last summer.  It was the family's first cruise experience.  They reported that their kids felt like there was nothing to do other than sit by the pool.  They had an arcade that they spent some time in but that's about it.  Not very kid friendly.

[bluesea777]

3 hours ago, Nclcruise1415 said:

For the most part, it's really not kid friendly at all. Smaller ship, one pool for everyone, no water slides, etc. I would recommend going on YouTube and watching a few ship tour videos on the Norwegian Sky.

 

The Sky has two pools. 

 

 

[Lupush]

Sky is an awful ship.  I was on a few years back and it was the only NCL ship I absolutely hated.  Definitely not kid friendly.

[bluesea777]

21 minutes ago, Lupush said:

Sky is an awful ship.  I was on a few years back and it was the only NCL ship I absolutely hated.  Definitely not kid friendly.

 

But the Sky underwent an extensive dry dock a year or two ago and she is a different ship now.

 

 

[dexddd]

On 3/31/2020 at 9:57 AM, Georgia_Peaches said:

Some friends of ours took their kids ages 12 and 14 on the Sun (Sky's sister ship) last summer.  It was the family's first cruise experience.  They reported that their kids felt like there was nothing to do other than sit by the pool.  They had an arcade that they spent some time in but that's about it.  Not very kid friendly.

 

We ended up on the Sun with our kids for a 12 nighter.  We originally had booked the Jewel for the Baltics and they replaced it with the Sun.  Ended up in an aft mini on the Sun which was great.

 

That was a very port intensive trip so we weren't on the ship a whole lot.  There were only 50 kids on that sailing.  Luckily our kids met two kids about same age and sex as they were and they were right next door!  Kids were from Florida and they had fun times doing things when on the ship and we ran into them on some excursions.

[Comi.uy]

On 3/31/2020 at 11:57 AM, Georgia_Peaches said:

Some friends of ours took their kids ages 12 and 14 on the Sun (Sky's sister ship) last summer.  It was the family's first cruise experience.  They reported that their kids felt like there was nothing to do other than sit by the pool.  They had an arcade that they spent some time in but that's about it.  Not very kid friendly.

Usually theres a ton of activities every day, many of which are totally kid and teen friendly. You just have to mark them in the freestyle daily the night before and be on time.

[dexddd]

37 minutes ago, Comi.uy said:

Usually theres a ton of activities every day, many of which are totally kid and teen friendly. You just have to mark them in the freestyle daily the night before and be on time.

When we were on the Sun with only 50 kids, yes, activities were listed but many were cancelled due to low or no attendance.  Many were also combined across some or all age groups.

 

On the Jewel Class and older ships, some of the things for kids like separate pools and slides have been removed or replaced by things like Spice.  I don't blame NCL for doing that as most of the year they probably didn't get much use, but at least it was something kids could do by themselves or with a friend.