Splash Academy questions (Breakaway)

This will be our first NCL cruise and we're on the Breakaway over Thanksgiving. DS (7) and DD (5) are excited about it and we booked a family mini-suite. A few questions.

What are the hours of Splash Academy?

Can the kids eat lunch or dinner there?

Are there any times where we'd have to pay a fee?

Is there a way for the SA staff to contact parents if the children need to be picked up or do you just have to go there and see how your kids are doing?

Do they break up by age for activities? I doubt a 12yo wants to buddy up with my 5yo but I'd like my two to be together if possible (ages 7 and 5)?

Thanks!

bump

in hopes of a response

They do not eat in the club, it closes for a couple of hours around lunch and dinner. Your children will not be together (I think it's 3 - 6, 7 - 9, 10 - 12). NCL is very strict on this, need to have a birthday to move up. When you drop them off, they will ask you where you might be reached (cabin, bar, restaurant...).

They do not eat in the club, it closes for a couple of hours around lunch and dinner. Your children will not be together (I think it's 3 - 6, 7 - 9, 10 - 12). NCL is very strict on this, need to have a birthday to move up. When you drop them off, they will ask you where you might be reached (cabin, bar, restaurant...).

I don't understand that (and same thing frustrated me on RCCL). To me, that represents the opposite of "Freestyle" cruising. It's basically telling everyone that they should be eating lunch/dinner at those specific times. What if we sleep in and eat a very late breakfast? So then, after breakfast, our daughter goes to the club and they close in 30 minutes for "lunch". Well, we don't want lunch. We only just finished breakfast. And when they close for "dinner"...again what if you're not eating at that time? So they're basically trying to pigeon-hole all families with Splash Academy age children into a defined schedule. Not very "Freestyle" IMO. Kids clubs (on all cruise lines) should have continuous hours.

While you're in port, they might offer a fee based babysitting service, but I don't think they feed them.

I don't understand that (and same thing frustrated me on RCCL). To me, that represents the opposite of "Freestyle" cruising. It's basically telling everyone that they should be eating lunch/dinner at those specific times. What if we sleep in and eat a very late breakfast? So then, after breakfast, our daughter goes to the club and they close in 30 minutes for "lunch". Well, we don't want lunch. We only just finished breakfast. And when they close for "dinner"...again what if you're not eating at that time? So they're basically trying to pigeon-hole all families with Splash Academy age children into a defined schedule. Not very "Freestyle" IMO. Kids clubs (on all cruise lines) should have continuous hours.

Up until a few years ago, they did have continuous hours. Supposedly, parents were leaving kids in the clubs for hours on end, so they started closing them here and there.

Up until a few years ago, they did have continuous hours. Supposedly, parents were leaving kids in the clubs for hours on end, so they started closing them here and there.

Our daughter would love to be left in there all day, if we allowed it. Anyway, I don't believe the cruise lines felt it was their responsibility to close in order to get parents to pick up their kids during the day. If I had to guess, I'd bet it's about cutting costs.

We were on the thanksgiving cruise last year. There is a fee for late night from 10:30pm to 1:30am, I believe. 6 dollars an hour. Our daughter wanted to stay a few times so we let her. I think we picked her up about 12:30am. She loved it. We are going back in 41days. She is 12 so she will be in the kids club still she is going to be so excited.

For this trip coming up. We I made a couple of reservations at specialty dining for 7pm and that's when the club reopens. So we are taking to the buffet before we go to eat and she goes back to the club.

You can leave them in the club for lunch on port days only. I think it was $6 for this service. The age groups start from 3-5, 6-9...don't know after that. I don't think they will allow your kids to be together unless there are very few children on your particular sailing. Parents were dumping their kids in splash academy all day which is why they have the 2-hour breaks at lunch and dinner time...that's what the counselor at splash academy told me.

It looks like most of your questions have already been answered. I am on your sailing with my nine year old who was in the splash academy last year year for the Christmas week cruise. It was hectic constantly picking him up for every meal time and there has to be a better way to keep the place going without breaking. There was only one time that they took all of the kids for an activity in the theater, but unfortunately no group meals. I should be at the meet and greet and will try to get my son to join also

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I was on BA recently and posted the SA daily schedule for our sailing. It was for the seals which are 6-9 I think. It's under 9/11-9/18 review-family cruise. I think they also did port day breakfast and lunch if I recall but we didn't do that either. Our daughter loved it at night but wanted to hang out with us during the day. Our teenager on the other hand we never saw. She loved Entourage. We just got our pictures printed and you can barely tell she was with us.

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when you drop off your kid, they will ask where you will be and also give you a "pager" to reach you if your kid wants to be picked up. Mine rang an hour and a half after we dropped him off and he never wanted to go back the rest of the trip...... Hopefully when we go next time, he will be older and wants to go there and play.

when you drop off your kid, they will ask where you will be and also give you a "pager" to reach you if your kid wants to be picked up. Mine rang an hour and a half after we dropped him off and he never wanted to go back the rest of the trip...... Hopefully when we go next time, he will be older and wants to go there and play.

My kids were never in the littlest group, and we never got pagers.

I don't understand that (and same thing frustrated me on RCCL). To me, that represents the opposite of "Freestyle" cruising. It's basically telling everyone that they should be eating lunch/dinner at those specific times. What if we sleep in and eat a very late breakfast? So then, after breakfast, our daughter goes to the club and they close in 30 minutes for "lunch". Well, we don't want lunch. We only just finished breakfast. And when they close for "dinner"...again what if you're not eating at that time? So they're basically trying to pigeon-hole all families with Splash Academy age children into a defined schedule. Not very "Freestyle" IMO. Kids clubs (on all cruise lines) should have continuous hours.

:confused: Why exactly do you feel the time that they close for meal breaks infringes on your freestyle experience. Nobody marches you and your family to a eating venue and force you to sit down. We were just on the BA 9/4-9/11, and various other ships utilizing the kids programs and I saw them do a lot in the closure times definitely not cutback as they were in their working very hard changing the room over for the next theme of the day. My family and I eat at unconventional times as well but we worked that around the splash schedule so if they started a program in the splash at 5 then guess what my kids didn't get there til later and it was just fine. and for the time it was closed that was time we used to do family activities because it was a family vacation. Not adults being on vacation with NCL as a full time baby sitter

:confused: Why exactly do you feel the time that they close for meal breaks infringes on your freestyle experience. Nobody marches you and your family to a eating venue and force you to sit down. We were just on the BA 9/4-9/11, and various other ships utilizing the kids programs and I saw them do a lot in the closure times definitely not cutback as they were in their working very hard changing the room over for the next theme of the day. My family and I eat at unconventional times as well but we worked that around the splash schedule so if they started a program in the splash at 5 then guess what my kids didn't get there til later and it was just fine. and for the time it was closed that was time we used to do family activities because it was a family vacation. Not adults being on vacation with NCL as a full time baby sitter

I'm going to let you in on a little known secret: kids and adults have very different ideas about having a good time during meals. Forcing your children to sit in a restaurant for 1.5-2 hours is torture for many of them. It's also not fun for the other diners when they make noise, cry, yell, you know, basically act like kids. It would be great if NCL wouldn't shut down during the prime dining times. With few exceptions, your kid doesn't want to go to get dressed in slacks and eat a hamburger at Le Bistro.

Not having to drag your kids to a restaurant isn't the only issue. NCL entertainment (first show) is usually around 7pm, which is when the Splash academy reopens. If you want to have dinner, drop your kids off, and go to the main theater for the early show, NCL makes it almost impossible.

:confused: Why exactly do you feel the time that they close for meal breaks infringes on your freestyle experience. Nobody marches you and your family to a eating venue and force you to sit down. We were just on the BA 9/4-9/11, and various other ships utilizing the kids programs and I saw them do a lot in the closure times definitely not cutback as they were in their working very hard changing the room over for the next theme of the day. My family and I eat at unconventional times as well but we worked that around the splash schedule so if they started a program in the splash at 5 then guess what my kids didn't get there til later and it was just fine. and for the time it was closed that was time we used to do family activities because it was a family vacation. Not adults being on vacation with NCL as a full time baby sitter

I guess it was inevitable that at some point a judgemental poster would come along with some kind of snarky, self-righteous remark. Our daughter loves the kids clubs - on all ships we've been on. She would love to be in there most of the day. Our son (now 14), on the other hand, didn't really care for them and would hardly go at all. We'd never leave either of them in there for a minute if they didn't want to be there.

On sea days, we prefer to sleep a little later, and take our time in the morning before going to breakfast. We probably don't normally get to breakfast until after 10am on sea days and as a result will not finish until around 11am or later. So, if our daughter wants to go to the club after breakfast (and odds are she will), it's pointless because they will be closing in less than an hour for "lunch". We just finished eating. We have no interest in lunch at this time. On all our other cruises (but I'll focus on the RCCL cruises since they employ the same operating hours at the clubs), we always chose late/second dinner seating (as two working parents, we normally eat late dinner fairly late at home, so we're used to it). The clubs would be closed during the early/main seating dinner time. It's another time that would be a prime time for us and our daughter to make use of the club as she could be in there as the rest of us prepared for dinner. Then, they re-open while we would be eating dinner.

To me, it basically, at best assumes, or at worst attempts to dictate, that families with children who would want to go to the clubs follow a very rigid schedule - that you basically have to eat your lunch and dinner at those specific times. That comes across as the antithesis of what "Freestyle" is meant to be. That is all. Does it ruin the cruise in any way? Of course not. It is a little disappointing though.

They do not eat in the club, it closes for a couple of hours around lunch and dinner. Your children will not be together (I think it's 3 - 6, 7 - 9, 10 - 12). NCL is very strict on this, need to have a birthday to move up. When you drop them off, they will ask you where you might be reached (cabin, bar, restaurant...).

I have a feeling closing for meals is because of food allergies. It's one less thing for them to worry about, which I totally understand.

when we sailed on the getaway ours were 5, 7 12. I was really worried on them being seperated but they did fine and loved it. I wanted to sleep in on sea days but mine were up and ready to go early so they could eat breakfast and get to the SA. We liked that we had to get them mid day, if they weren't interested in eating we swam, did the rock wall, ropes course or whatever they wanted. They went back for a few hours and then we grabbed them for a quick dinner, a little more swimming and back they went. It's a 2 hr break for lunch and 2 hr break for dinner. During that time they would get the room ready for the kids next adventure. Honestly the hours aren't bad at all. Mine loved the SA so much we never had a problem leaving them and we did utilize the late night pay service every night because the kids wanted to stay. It was like having a couples vaca and family vaca all wrapped into one. We never did use it on port days though, kiddos went with us to see the sights.

I like the schedule, it forces my kids to leave the club and hang out with us old fogies haha. I do wish they'd speed up the checkin / out process. OMG I think the staff in the kids club are the slowest on the ship. It should not take 3 minutes to write in a kids name. 3 minutes x 20 kids = a stupidly long line. The line is not very freestyle.

On port days, for a mere six bucks per kid, they will take your kids to O'Sheehan's and feed them. My kid has had a blast 2 times already and is going back again tomorrow for the last port day!

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I had a very nice spontaneous discussion with a NCL Hotel Director on a recent sailing. We were sitting in the Atrium having a drink and he came over to introduce himself, totally out of the blue. We discussed a lot of things just in a general sense. The topic of the kids club came up and we asked about the reason for the closing at meal times. He explained that among the reasons were; pickiness of children, distance of Splash Academy from most kitchens, food allergies and overall liability involved. He also pointed out that the kids club doesn't have anywhere to store dirty dishes or condiments that might be required by some. It made sense to us and I felt it was a good explanation.

We eat as a family most nights but choose our special adult dinners to be later in the evening since most Splash Academy hours start at 8pm.

We have been sailing mostly on Carnival and Princess the last 4 years because of the "Kids' Club" hours and age ranges. We decided to try NCL again and the kids were not happy with Splash Academy. Carnival and Princess both close for an hour for Lunch and Dinner. 12-1 and 5-6. I think those hours are much easier for us. We would be able to drop them off after they ate at the buffet and enjoy a dinner at 6:30/7:00 in the main dinning room before going to a show or relaxing at a bar or karaoke. As other posters have said, the open times are not long enough in the morning to do anything without having to leave to pick them up. We were on the Breakaway and wanted to do the ropes course. After standing in line for over an hour, we realized one of us would have to leave to pick up the kids before we even got to the front of the line.

I was on BA a month a go and the kids were at the kids club just about all of the time.

I wasn't a fan of them closing for lunch and dinner initially, but they are open for lunch and dinner on port days ($6 per child per meal, and they go to O'Sheehans). After the port days I was happy it was closed because they had to spend time with us...=)

They break the kids up into groups and they charge a fee from 10:30pm-1:30am ($6/hour for one kid $4/hour for each additional kid). They really did an amazing job and the show at the end of the week was great.

We're on the BA over NYE- im wondering if they have special hours or rates or special events for the kids in SA?

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I had a very nice spontaneous discussion with a NCL Hotel Director on a recent sailing. We were sitting in the Atrium having a drink and he came over to introduce himself, totally out of the blue. We discussed a lot of things just in a general sense. The topic of the kids club came up and we asked about the reason for the closing at meal times. He explained that among the reasons were; pickiness of children, distance of Splash Academy from most kitchens, food allergies and overall liability involved. He also pointed out that the kids club doesn't have anywhere to store dirty dishes or condiments that might be required by some. It made sense to us and I felt it was a good explanation.

 

We eat as a family most nights but choose our special adult dinners to be later in the evening since most Splash Academy hours start at 8pm.

I'm not sure I buy that explanation completely. First off, I don't think it should be the responsibility of the kids club to feed the kids at those times. It's still the parents responsibility to ensure their children eat. Most of time, parents drop children off shortly after eating anyway. I still believe the closures are primarily about cost cutting/saving.