NCL Kids Under 5

[SteveZDX]

On the Joy in early February. What are the odds NCL will open up splash academy for kids under 5? If closed, what’s the vibe on board if we have a little one with us at events and things? Thanks!

Edited August 14, 2022 by SteveZDX

[JeninIndy]

We have cruised twice this year with older kids (8 and 11) and it didn’t seem like there were any plans to resume preschool programming. They did have “family” programming shipwide and it didn’t seem like a problem to bring kids to the earlier (7:30) shows or dinner seatings. Hope it opens up for you by then!

[SteveZDX]

Thanks for the info! We have a 5 and a 3 so fingers crossed 🙂 

[kodiac]

So I'm a bit disappointed to have found the NCL website changed the kids program to a minimum age of 5 and have no services for 3 & 4 year olds.

 

I'd like to know if anyone knows when this change was made? I was on the NCL website when I booked our upcoming cruise on the Joy. I was told by a NCL rep that the change was made sometime in the May 2022 timeframe. Would've been nice for someone to reach out to us, knowing we have little ones that fall into this category. 

 

In any case, the upcoming cruise was going to be our 1st on NCL and I "was" looking forward to it. For 7 days, it is not a deal breaker. However, the longer cruise for 12 days I was looking at for next year is a 100% "no" if they don't have a kids program. Disney, Carnival Brands, and Royal brands mostly have kids programs open now starting at 3. 

 

Bummer for sure... 

[funfetti]

This thread is a good overview of how things unfolded with the Splash Academy news. It's my impression that NCL obviously didn't make any guarantees about services, but employees were actively coached to deflect, avoid answering, and use ambiguous language. IMO, "no services for under 5s" is an improvement over the "some services, some ships" non-answers from the early days of the restart.  I *hate* that consumers have to be skeptical and independently research about everything NCL customer service and personal cruise consultants say.   Most people would have no idea any services were limited if they weren't actively reading Cruise Critic forums.

[funfetti]

To clarify, I believe the announcement about no services being available to children under 5 was made in the May 2022 announcement that Splash Academy was reopening on all ships on June 1.