Europe 2019: NCL Getaway - Splash Academy

Europe 2019

NCL Getaway

Splash Academy

One of the main reasons we chose this particular cruise was that the Getaway had a very highly rated kids club. Yes, I know, a Disney cruise seems like the obvious choice for this. But the problem with a Disney cruise (I imagine) is that it's going to be stuffed full of kids! Our previous fall European cruises have been basically kid free. I don't mean our kids, I mean ALL kids. Finding a child on one of our September or October Euro ships would have been like finding a unicorn. It was kind of the same thing on this cruise, but one of those unicorns happened to be our plus one.

If we asked Samantha to rate Splash Academy on a scale of 1-10, she would give it an 11. She absolutely loved it! I thought it was great too. She wasn't just okay with going, she really wanted to go. That made me happy because I was concerned she wouldn't want to leave my side on the trip - I'm pretty awesome. 

I get why she liked it so much though:

• It's full of fun, young people who are paid to play with her all day or night.
• The facility has lots of fun little things to play with and do. It's on two levels with lots of space. They're clearly set up for exponentially more children than they had this time.
• There were very few kids. Sometimes it seemed like there were more youth staff than little people. 
• They had theme nights and activities. Samantha loves a good party, and if it's a Princess Party or a Jungle Party or a whatever kind of party, all the better.
• The staff all had fun names like Sparkles and Yo Yo. They seemed to really enjoy their jobs (I don't know it that was truly the case, but they at least appeared to). 

When we got to the ship we checked her in first thing. They have wrist bands for the kids and they are divided into three age groups. There were so few kids on this cruise though that I'm guessing they just kept most of them together. They gave us a list of the activities and themes for the entire cruise and Sammy started planning her social calendar. 

On Prince & Princess night, or whatever they called it, they took the kids on a ship wide parade. We caught them in one of the lounges.

Splash Academy closed at 10:30 and we never knew what Sam was going to look like when we picked her up. Clearly members of the staff were adept at face painting and balloon art. They would watch your child much later if you wanted but it was in a baby sitter role that you paid for. We never did it because Samantha wasn't going to make it past 10:30 anyway before crashing and we also had Nana who could take her to her cabin if needed. 

Towards the end of the cruise they had a talent show. None of our passengers were going to be a contender on America's Got Talent, but they seemed to enjoy themselves. 

Splash Academy was one of the real bright spots of our cruise and it exceeded my expectations going in. Samantha frequently asks when we're going to take another cruise and I imagine this is the main reason. My cruise preference is still No Kids, but if you have to take them the NCL Getaway would be a good option.