Splash Academy not open on Port Days

[J0Y0US]

So I just found this out that while the area is open its not actually allowed for a drop off except for the late night hours. The daytime hours are only for time with parents supervising.

 

Never heard of this before but did find a couple hidden posts in other threads so thought I would just call it out separately.

 

Its not the end of the world but did catch us off guard but hope that on port days where you don't get in until afternoon or you are back on the ship by noon hopefully the kids club is fully open when at sea at that point. Sounds like this was never a thing with NCL prior to COVID either I guess.

[Tplanav1]

We found this out shortly after booking and wasn’t the happiest either. We are sailing in March with our two sons , 3yo and 8mo(at the time of sailing), and was hoping for some parents only time. Luckily my parents and their friends who are like aunt/uncle to me and my kids are on the sailing as well, hopefully we will be able to break away for some much needed parent time.

 

We sailed with our oldest while my wife was pregnant back in February this year on Royal. They offered under 3 childcare at a fee during the day, you just had to prebook the 2 hour windows and pay a nominal $6-7 for each window. The timing wasn’t always the best, but gave us a great opportunity to have a date night on the ship and get that feeling of what cruising was like pre-kids. Really wish NCL had something similar.

[kitkat343]

15 hours ago, J0Y0US said:

So I just found this out that while the area is open its not actually allowed for a drop off except for the late night hours. The daytime hours are only for time with parents supervising.

 

Never heard of this before but did find a couple hidden posts in other threads so thought I would just call it out separately.

 

Its not the end of the world but did catch us off guard but hope that on port days where you don't get in until afternoon or you are back on the ship by noon hopefully the kids club is fully open when at sea at that point. Sounds like this was never a thing with NCL prior to COVID either I guess.

If you are still on the ship, could you please find out if this is fleet wide? I called NCL and they haven't been updated (not that that means much).  We are sailing in January and my kids kept asking to go to the kids club after their last cruise.  It's a disaster already because NCL advertised a port they can't make (dominican republic) because they ran a ship aground their last march, and finally cancelled the stop in December, but they are still selling that cruise as going to the Dominican Republic on their website even though they know they can't make it there.  They've replaced it with a sea day, so we have 3 sea days in a row.

[kitkat343]

4 hours ago, Tplanav1 said:

We found this out shortly after booking and wasn’t the happiest either. We are sailing in March with our two sons , 3yo and 8mo(at the time of sailing), and was hoping for some parents only time. Luckily my parents and their friends who are like aunt/uncle to me and my kids are on the sailing as well, hopefully we will be able to break away for some much needed parent time.

 

We sailed with our oldest while my wife was pregnant back in February this year on Royal. They offered under 3 childcare at a fee during the day, you just had to prebook the 2 hour windows and pay a nominal $6-7 for each window. The timing wasn’t always the best, but gave us a great opportunity to have a date night on the ship and get that feeling of what cruising was like pre-kids. Really wish NCL had something similar.

Only the Escape had a nursery, and its been permanently closed.  Drop off daycare starts at the age of 2 on Cunard and Carnival, and RC and Disney have fee based nurseries for under threes (this was precovid so you'd need to check to make sure there aren't any changes prior to sailing) .  We wound up on a Cunard ship to Norway because they were the only ones going there that would take my 2 year old in the kids club. He turned 2 the day of the flight into Heathrow.  It was funny because Cunard's passengers tend to skew older like HAL's , so there my family was on a ship with people in ball gowns (formal night was the whole ship, not just the MDR) wreaking chaos.  Norway was amazing though.

Edited December 29, 2022 by kitkat343

[J0Y0US]

3 hours ago, kitkat343 said:

If you are still on the ship

 

Have not sailed yet but was looking at Freestyles for our ship and itinerary.  

[SuzieQ521]

19 hours ago, J0Y0US said:

So I just found this out that while the area is open its not actually allowed for a drop off except for the late night hours. The daytime hours are only for time with parents supervising.

 

Never heard of this before but did find a couple hidden posts in other threads so thought I would just call it out separately.

 

Its not the end of the world but did catch us off guard but hope that on port days where you don't get in until afternoon or you are back on the ship by noon hopefully the kids club is fully open when at sea at that point. Sounds like this was never a thing with NCL prior to COVID either I guess.

So on PORT days (all day), you can take your kids there to play but have to stay with them?

 

Do you happen to know the hours on SEA days? *Sailing the Bliss in a few weeks. Thanks!

[J0Y0US]

1 minute ago, SuzieQ521 said:

So on PORT days (all day), you can take your kids there to play but have to stay with them?

 

Do you happen to know the hours on SEA days? *Sailing the Bliss in a few weeks. Thanks!

 

You might want to find a freestyle from the bliss.

 

I did a quick search and found this:

Sea Days Splash Academy is 9-12, 2-4, 7-11

 

 

[kitkat343]

52 minutes ago, SuzieQ521 said:

So on PORT days (all day), you can take your kids there to play but have to stay with them?

 

Do you happen to know the hours on SEA days? *Sailing the Bliss in a few weeks. Thanks!

I'd agree with Joyous - when I called NCL the second time they told me each ship is setting its own hours, so try to find someone from a recent sailing on your ship. There's a live review of the next breakaway cruise (I'm two cruises from now) so I'm hoping to get the dailies from the next cruise on the getaway.  I can ask when I board on the 8th, but if each ship is setting different times that might not be too helpful.