Cruising Alaska with Kids on the NCL Bliss
When choosing to explore Alaska, cruising is seemingly the simpliest way to do so. We recently sailed with all three of our children on the NCL Bliss. (NCL-Norwegian Cruise Lines) Read on for info on our stateroom and the kids clubs on this huge ship.
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All aboard the NCL Bliss
The Bliss is currently the largest ship of NCL’s fleet at 168,028 gross tonnage. It carries up to 3,958 guests at double occupancy and 1,716 crew. Last refurbished in 2021, it has 20 decks to explore while you’re sailing Alaska or the Caribbean.
This was my first time sailing with NCL. Prior, I’ve sailed several times on both Carnival and Royal Caribbean cruiselines, but on smaller ships. The NCL Bliss is huge and can be overwhelming at first. Due to the sheer volume of people on board, the elevators were a long wait and quite crowded at all times. Be prepared to take the stairs and/or leave far ahead of time to get to where you’d like to go.
When in port, the elevators are taken out of service other than for disability access, up to deck 5. Luckily, our stateroom was located on the 5th deck, making for easy disembarking/embarking.
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Family Oceanview Stateroom
Traveling with more than two children has its challenges due to hotel room sizes. Something we loved about our trip aboard the NCL Bliss was our stateroom! We actually wound up spending a decent amount of time in our room and it was an excellent set up.
Of note for NCL cabins, the lights are activated by putting your key card into a slot on the wall. We prefer to keep our key cards in a lanyard to make it easy to walk around the ship. Instead of using the key card for the lights, I brought an old gift card. We also brought flameless tea light candles to use as nightlights.
Family Bathroom
Upon entry, the bathroom was the best I’ve ever seen on a cruise ship. Featuring a tub/shower combo and a DOUBLE SINK! We actually had so much storage space in this room that we didn’t even use all of the drawers available in the bathroom. I also never needed my over the door shoe organizer that I bring on all of our travels.
Room Tour
Across from the restroom is a flatscreen TV. The TV swivels to easily be watched from the bed. Moving further into the room is a queen sized bed. A closet with sliding doors is next to the bed. The room safe is located in this closet. The under bed area is open and our suitcases fit great underneath.
Behind a dividing curtain (adjustable), is MORE CLOSET SPACE!! I feel like this is unheard of on a cruiseship. Two kids slept on the pull out sofabed and our third child braved the upper berth, which pulls down from the ceiling.
The ladder disconnects quite easily and was an annoying issue between the siblings. We found it fit nicely between the beds and the window when not needed. The beds were set up when we entered our stateroom and remained so during our stay. It would’ve been nice if they had made up the couch during the day for more room. We are not big fans of being in bed in the clothes you’ve worn around all day, so the couch would’ve been great. Unfortunately in our post-pandemic world, stateroom attendents no longer provide turn-down service and rooms are cleaned once per day.
Across the room from the kids’ beds was a long counter with a great little shelf. There was a small seat in front of the mirrored area. There is also an additional TV in the kids area! They enjoyed watching movies here while we rested after our early mornings in port.
Oceanview vs. Balcony
Obviously having a balcony on a cruise is amazing. It adds square footage to your stateroom and allows for you to enjoy the view without the crowds. However, they can be quite cost-prohibitive. In order to budget better for this huge trip for our family of five, we decided to go with an oceanview room.
I was quite apprehensive about this and hoped it would not be a huge regret. And…it wasn’t!!!
We actually loved our oceanview room. This is not some dinky porthole, as you can see in the photo above, we had a decent sized window. The window also had a great sill, allowing for the kids to sit in the window. It was a most-coveted space during the week.
To combat the long hours of daylight that Alaska receives, we did bring some lightweight black material. Using magnets, we were able to hang it above the window as a room-darkening curtain.
NCL Bliss Deck 5
I generally don’t like to be on the lower decks, but we did not have many choices with this room category. For reference, we were in cabin 5158. As I mentioned, this deck was convenient for embarking/disembarking on port days. It was also extremely close to the kids clubs. This turned out to be great since we would often walk down to collect our youngest just to be told he wasn’t ready to leave yet!
Deck 5 is quite far from any food choices and given the crowded elevators, it was difficult to bring food down to the room from other locations. Room service is available for a charge.
As you continue reading, you will find that we overall weren’t the biggest fans of this ship and the service we received. However, I would give NCL another try for the right price based on the stateroom alone.
Kids Clubs on the NCL Bliss
As on most cruiselines, the NCL Bliss has areas onboard just for kids. Only on embarkation day are adults allowed inside of these spaces! Our youngest was 5 years old, so we did not have a chance to see the Guppies space which is for children aged 4 and under with a parent. We did however frequent the other two kids areas.
Splash Academy-Ages 3-12
How it works
Registration
Splash Academy requires children to be independent in the bathroom. They must also be able to be dropped off and enter the space without their parent walking them all the way in. On embarkation day there is time to tour the spaces and register your child. Your child must be present as they will give them a bracelet to wear for the length of the cruise. They will also take your child’s photo for their file and you will choose a password that day. The password must be given when picking up your child. It doesn’t have to be complicated, just a unique random word.
Hours
You will receive the schedule for the week when you register. Splash Academy is only open at certain times throughout the week. They are closed during port times. We found the times to be very random and wound up needing to change a few reservations we had made to accomodate the child care hours. The Splash Academy hours also did not line up with the hours that the teen club, Entourage (ages 13-17) was open. This can make it pretty tricky to make a grown-ups only dinner or spa appointment if you don’t want your older kids wandering the ship on their own.
Drop off/Pick up
When dropping your child off, it is first come, first served. On our May Alaskan cruise, we never had an issue with being refused. I have heard this is most often an issue on Spring Break or Caribbean cruises which usually have more children on board.
You will be greeted at a desk, where the staff will sign your child in. Your child will then go through a gate where they will be asked to use hand sanitizer. They will be walked into the Splash Academy and you are free to go!
Upon pick up, you will ask for your child and give the password. The staff will page your child over the PA and they will come to the front to be signed out.
NCL Bliss Splash Academy Reviews
Our 5 year old LOVED Splash Academy. He spent every evening there on his own accord. We literally didn’t have any plans or the need for child care, he just wanted to go that badly. Bring magnets for your room to display all of the art projects your little one will bring back to the cabin during the week!
Our 12 year old….was not a fan. The programming is definitely geared toward the younger kids. The kids were pretty much required to participate in the planned activity. My daughter would’ve been thrilled to read in a corner or enjoy some of the video games that were advertised and instead had to play with the much younger children. With parent permission, 10-12 year olds are able to sign themselves out of Splash Academy after they’ve been there for at least two hours. Most sessions only run three hours. She would’ve loved to have been able to move up to the teen club, but this was not allowed.
Entourage Teen Club -Ages 13-17
Entourage is only availabe for teens ages 13-17. They are quite strict on this because this kids’ club doesn’t require parent sign in or sign out. Teens are able to come and go as they’d like during the club’s hours (as shown on the schedule you will receive). This club does still require registration on day one. As you can see in the above photos, the club has several screens for gaming and an air hockey table. The hours for the teen club were extremely varied. Each night activities didn’t start until 9 or 10:00 PM. Given the early port times for our Alaska sailing, my oldest didn’t attend any of these nights. We weren’t excited about our entire room being woken up at midnight when we all needed to be off the ship at 6 AM the next morning.
Final take away on NCL Bliss’ kids clubs: 6/10, would be a vastly improved score if the hours were better and more coordinated between age groups.
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