Thumbs DOWN on NCL Kids Club (NCL Star!)

[Kayla's Mom]

Just wanted to tell folks trying to decide between cruise lines about my experience earlier this month on the NCL STar. Although we had a truly wonderful cruise, I really REALLY didn't like the kids club. I recommend this cruise 100% to those without kids, but think twice if you have them.

 

It was the pits. Let me start by saying that I really am not the kind of person who pushes her kid off to the club -- we just have one daughter age 8 and we prefer it if she is with us -- we have so much fun together. But a couple years ago we took our first cruise on RCCI to Alaska and she begged to go to kids' club and did on the 2nd day and, well, we never saw her again... she LOVED that club so much. The had a variety of opening hours and I even gave in once while we were in port and let her get back on the ship after lunch for a couple hours while we went to a glacier. The RCCI ship just seemed great for kids -- they tagged each one of them with a wristband for the entire cruise in case of emergencies, we got a different towel animal everynight, the kids club staff all knew her name, and life was good. She came home with a huge pile of stuff she had made in arts and crafts, plus they had a deal where every time one attended club, they got a ticket and at the end of the week the kids used the tickets to "buy" hats, t-shirts, etc. They has a kids talent show and a carneval the older kids and teens put on for the little ones. She made such good friends with other kids, she still has pen-pals. She has be begging to go on another cruise....

 

So when I read the brochure for NCL Star, I was really excited for all of us....especially her. I read somewhere about circus camp, etc.

 

Now, partially our experience was different because we had a last minute itinerary change that meant we only had one sea day, but that didn't make any difference to the biggest problem - the staff attitude.

 

I should say my daughter was in the 6-9 age group. To be honest, the bigger kids seemed to be having more fun -- they had two very nice and energetic counselors.

 

Basically, kids' club was open 7 pm - 10 pm only. On the sea day, they were open for a couple hours in the morning (they watched cartoons) and afternoon, too. To be fair, my daughter enjoyed the club on the sea day, but still said it wasn't as fun as the RCCI one.

 

Here's exactly the rest of the program -

 

Boarding night - the staff hosted an orientation which consisted of them handing you a sheet to fill out and then sending parents and kids off to do a ship-wide treasure hunt. Fun. But when we raced around and got back, they had closed. NO excitement, no prizes - just a clever way to get us out of their hair.

 

Of the six remaining nights, two consisted of taking kids to the shows (which aren't really exciting enough for kids) and three nights they plunked them in front of videos. Two nights ina row, they showed THE SAME VIDEO! So that's five-six nights taken care of without having to learn a single kid's name or get off their behinds.

 

The final night, they did host a very nice pj party and have the kids color in t-shirts. But what a farce! The kids were supposed to go around getting their new "friends" to sign their shirts -- but they hadn't met anyone! It's not like you make friends when zombied out in front of a video! The staff all turned up and very flagrantly passed the tip envelope. Give me a break! (On RCCI, there wasn't even a way to tip the counselors unless you stuck money into their hands and then they protested!) They hadn't spoken to me or my kid all week but now they wanted a tip!

 

My daughter just hated the club and didn't want to go after the second movie night. She's a good kid and really easy to please and she wanted to like it so she kept going back to see if it got better...

 

They did have one dinner the kids could attend, but sign up was noon the previous day. We just weren't organized by the second day enough to know to sign up so she missed that, too.

 

A couple we met with no kids was telling us that they watched the counselors take the kids to one show. They said the two counselors at the back rolled their eyes and complianed about their job to some passengers.... again, give me a break - three hours work per day and nine counselors for not that many kids???

 

After we got home, my daughter told me about the "quiet game." It seems the counselors would play the "can everyone saty completely silent for a long time game" and if anyone made noise, they added five minutes onto the time everyone had to be silent. Kayla tells me it last 20 minutes. I am not kidding!

 

I noticed one formal night that four of the counselors were off in their sequinned dresses wandering around the ship...first time I saw them smile.

 

No towel animals, no kids life jacket in our cabin after three requests, no safety wristbands...hhmmmmm. I think NCL pays lip service to being a family ship. RCCI was the real deal.

 

Oh, and although the kids' pool should have been a hit, on port days the crew are allowed to have guests on and the two days we tried to use the pool in the afternoon, it was overrun with loud pushy crew members' kids. They had also taken over the two ping pong tables.

 

I LOVED this cruise and had a really good time. Like I said, I loved the food and the itinerary and the beautiful ship and especially the captain....I think the shore excursion situation was a complete MESS -- we just cancelled everything and rented cars in each port and had a ball.

 

But the biggest disappointment was the kids club, just because Kayla was looking so forward to it. We won't take her on another NCL cruise, I'm very sorry to say.

 

Legend of the Seas 8/02

NCL Star to Hawaii 04/04

[hilltopfamily]

Oh my! Sounds like I will not be considering NCL in the near future, as we only cruise with our 3 kids, and their enjoyment on board is as important as ours! Their kids club sounds like a farce. The "quiet game"!!!! That is just awful. Thanks for letting us know what your family experienced.

 

Penny

Disney Magic~~Eastern 7/03

Carnival Celebration~~Western 3/04

Aug 1, 2004 Carnival Elation--Yippee, Our 3rd Cruise!!!

[LogansDad]

VERY VERY similar story here. Did the NCL Dawn last October. Terrible staff at the kids club. Neither of my kids wanted to go back after the first day. The rest of the cruise was good.

 

Booked on RCL Voyager this Fall. I hope the kids club will be better. Can't be much worse!

 

logansdad

 

 

[/img]

9/24/04 RCL Voyager NY<-->Carib

9/03 NCL Dawn NY<-->Bahamas

1967 Oceanic NY<-->Bahamas

 

[HOSKI]

Wow what a different experience from what my daughter had on the Norway and that is suppose to be their worst camp since the ship is so old. Our daughter had the best time and also all the other kids said they were having a great time.

 

Fascination 1997 Destiny 2000

Victory 2000 Sensation 2001

Norway 2002 Legend 2002

NCL Dawn 2003 Inspiration 2003

Victory 2004 Holiday 2004

[Kayla's Mom]

I am hoping that the problems we had had a lot to do with the Star wrapping up their Hawaii itinerary. I have seen a lot of posts on the NCL board that show that the crew, particularly the dining room staff, basically gave up even pretending they gave a rats by the final cruise.

But I am glad to know it wasn't just me!

 

Still, like you guys said, my daughter enjoying her vacation -- the one she waits all year for -- is too important to leave it to chance. I loved RCCI kids program and would sail with them again anytime or place. I think we are going to try Princess next summer, just because we don't want to do the exat same RCCI itinerary again.

 

RCCI Legend of the Seas to Alaska 8/02

NCL Star to Hawaii 04/04

[orcatek]

Sounds like it was worse than when we went by a long shot. Of course the best kids club I've seen is on Disney, but of course one one expect that.

 

Luckily my kids are out growing of the clubs and want to spend more time with us doing the arts and crafts, dance lessons etc. Then they'll be teens soon and we will have start looking for good teen clubs as they sure won't want to hang with us uncool parents. Oh well.

[mommiemudd]

To bad about the Star's club! My daughter-3 years old-loved Kid's Crew on the Spirit! She begged to go play with her friends. I stopped in at various times to pick her up and they were always doing some sort of activity and she would not want to leave! Maybe they will change counselors soon and things will get better.

[4 cruisers]

From our experiences (NCL,HAL,Cunnard, Celebrity, RCI), I have to say that the counselors make or break the program! We saw time and again a counselor who's shift would have all the kids in attendence and one who was so unpleasant to be around that no one would show up! I truly wouldn't pick a line or eliminate a line because of the kid's program. It's just too random as to which counselors are on board when.

[cruisinqt]

I disagree 4 cruisers, I think you can pick a cruise line based on excellent kids programs. We have been on RCI and Carnival numerous times and our kids have ADORED the kids programs.:D Cruise lines like RCI and Carnival try really hard to appeal to families. Just look at RCI for instance, they put in stuff like rock climbing walls and ice skating rinks just to attract families and youngsters. And Carnival has the 214 ft. spiral waterslide and even has playgrounds and kiddie pools in their kids program area. These cruise lines pride themselves on being kid friendly and have above par service in the kids areas. I have NEVER seen a tipping envelope passed around in the kids program area on RCI or Carnival. And after all of our cruises, we have always had EXCELLENT counselors EVERY time with both of these cruise lines. It just can't be coincidence. We have been on too many cruises for it to be coincidental. I think both of these cruise lines stresss VERY strongly to their kids program counselors how important it is to be very friendly and make these kids very happy. These cruise lines rely on families heavily. Other cruise lines are not as geared towards kids or families and don't cater to them as much. So IMHO some cruise lines are definitely going to be much better for kids.

 

On Carnival and RCI, our kids have made jewelry, painted t-shirts, had scavenger hunts, gotten thier picture taken with the captain, had ice cream parties and pizza parties, built their own volcanoes and made them explode, made their own rubber balls, and many, many, more things. I think these two cruise lines along with Disney definitely do cater to kids and families and would be the upper most choice for me when I'm cruising with my kids. Sorry this is so long, but I felt compelled to give my honest opinion.:)

[chrystine]

I agree with 4 cruisers- it really does depend on the counselors. A ship can have a state of the art kids area that looks wonderful but then the counselors are not so great. We are going on the Dawn next month and have our fingers crossed that my 4 y.o. son likes their program. We cruised on Carnival in '02 and '03 and my son loved their program- never wanted to leave. We had the complete opposite happen on Royal Caribbean last year though. The kids area was beautiful but the kids in his age group (3-5) were not happy campers. It must have been the counselors- they did not seem too pleasant. He did not want to return after the 1st night. Certainly, this experience left a bad taste in my mouth but we aren't writing RCI off completely because of it. Obviously, by reading the posts on these boards, lots of people had great experiences with RCI's kids program. Clearly, it has to do with luck of draw- sometimes you can get unmotivated counselors who do not like their jobs.

[smiggy]

Counselors to make or break the program. We cruised Alaska on the Sun last summer and our 8 year old daughter adored the kids club program. The counselors were attentive. We would stop by unexpected and peak into the kids room to see what was going on to find the counelors jumping around singing and laughing with the kids. We wanted to take our daughter to dinner one evening and she begged us to drop her off at the kids club because she didn't want to miss out on the activity that was planned. We later met our daughter with a group of kids and counselors on a scavenger hunt. We had a similiar experience on the Wind the previous year.

[Lib0007]

Sorry your daughter had a bad experience on NCL - I know it must have been very disappointing for her.

 

Since our son has been old enough to go to the kids camp, we have only cruised on Carnival and had a WONDERFUL experience (he was 3). In November, we will be sailing on NCL Spirit, our first NCL cruise, so I am hoping that it is just as good for him. From the past cruisers on the Spirit that have posted reviews, it seems like everyone has been impressed with their Kids club. I have only heard good things . . .

 

I definitely took the whole kids camp thing into serious consideration in shopping for a cruise/cruiseline. I do think it varies from ship to ship within a cruiseline and also agree that the counselors contribute alot to the kids enjoyment. If I were you, Kayla's Mom, I would write NCL about your experiences . . . it sounds like some personnel changes are in order.

[Nliedel]

When we take our oldest cruising (next spring, he is 7) the kids club is going to make the decision which cruise we take.. end of story. This is his vacation too and I want him to have a great one. I also will not take the second oldest (5 years) to a kids club without taking a "test cruise" with the oldest one. Steven (number two son) is autistic.. and while VERY high functioning a kids club with counselors that do not interact with the kids would be right out for him.. he is great, as long as he feels he is being listened too and supervised (yes a child who loves supervision.. I really do enjoy him : ) He also tells me when he is tired.. Gotta love it).

[karenh1127]

I too hope the kids program is great for my boys. We sail the Ecstasy out of Galveston for spring break and I hope those just off the ship when we sail will post their experiences. If I have a bad experience with camp or counselors, I will be submitting complaints to all. Seems that if cruisers complained more about the camps then these inattentive, grouchy counselors would be finding new jobs. Atleast they would if I was captain. The "quiet game"??? That is what we play at home, not on vacation!