Spring Break 2019 on Independence OTS with Young Kids

We just booked a panoramic room on deck 12 for our family (kids are 5 and 3 yr old) for the April 1, 2019 trip to Western Caribbean. Given it’ll be spring break, I’m little concerned about being able to use Kids club. I heard there are only 30 spots per age group. Tips on how to get them in would great. Also, curious about some possible shore excursions to Costa Maya and Cozumel with a 3 and 5 year old. Lastly, any feedback about Indy for a young family would be much appreciated!

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Shore excursion info in the port of call forums:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=169

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=210

Possible. Show up early to Kids Club, show up first nite also...

The good thing is that "Spring Break" covers multiple weeks. We are cruising on Liberty on "Spring Break" next year, which for us is March 10-17, and I'm going to assume it will be about as crowded and full of kids as summer.

Kids Club is first come, first served. Sign them up on the first day, and the staff will be able to tell you how many kids are on board and give advice on times of day it will be easiest to make sure they can get in.

When I cruised with kids that age, we didn't really do shore excursions. We found a beach for them to play. It was relaxing and everyone had fun.

We are going Xmas week with our 3year old. I am looking for advice also for Cozumel and just onboard.

I'd skip Cozumel and stay onboard that day.

We just booked a panoramic room on deck 12 for our family (kids are 5 and 3 yr old) for the April 1, 2019 trip to Western Caribbean. Given it’ll be spring break, I’m little concerned about being able to use Kids club. I heard there are only 30 spots per age group. Tips on how to get them in would great. Also, curious about some possible shore excursions to Costa Maya and Cozumel with a 3 and 5 year old. Lastly, any feedback about Indy for a young family would be much appreciated!

 

 

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We love Maya Chan in Costa Maya. You book this yourself. Check out Playa Mia in Cozumel since you have younger children. It is booked thru Royal Caribbean. Our kids loved this place. :)

The ships seem to be prepared fo the extra kids during spring break weeks. But, if you have your heart set on certain night, I would get there early.

I'd skip Cozumel and stay onboard that day.

Why would you recommend someone to stay on the ship at the port?

A huge part of the trip is the stops......

I would not stay on the ship in Cozumel....love that stop! We always go to Paradise beach! Always a lot of fun! We cruise every year for spring break and have another cruise booked for 2019 on the Indy! Can't wait!!

Why would you recommend someone to stay on the ship at the port?

 

A huge part of the trip is the stops......

Stops? I think they are ports of call and whatever, they may be a huge part for you, maybe not so much for someone else. You know variety is the spice.....and all that.:)

We are going Xmas week with our 3year old. I am looking for advice also for Cozumel and just onboard.

We did mr sanchos with our 3 and 7 year olds. We are headed back there again this year. They take reservations so you know it won’t be too crowded. Don’t have to pay until the kid is 4 so cheaper too!

The good thing is that "Spring Break" covers multiple weeks. We are cruising on Liberty on "Spring Break" next year, which for us is March 10-17, and I'm going to assume it will be about as crowded and full of kids as summer.

 

Kids Club is first come, first served. Sign them up on the first day, and the staff will be able to tell you how many kids are on board and give advice on times of day it will be easiest to make sure they can get in.

 

When I cruised with kids that age, we didn't really do shore excursions. We found a beach for them to play. It was relaxing and everyone had fun.

We did the exact same itinerary this past March on the Navigator (5 days with stops in Cozumel and Costa Maya) that you will be doing on the Independence. We were shocked at how few small children there were on the ship. We cruise Spring Break every March Break and this was by far the fewest children on board. We usually choose 7 day cruises.

There were LOTS more college aged kids on board the week we were on in mid-March. More than we have seen in previous years. They all had the alcohol package and line-ups at the bars were always 5 people deep. I think a lot of the college crowd pick these shorter cheaper cruises since they only have to pay for the beverage package for 5 days, then can detox for 2 days before going back to school.

The reason I mention this is that we found the kids camp to be relatively dead the time we were on board, so much so that they ended up combining three of the age groups for much of the cruise since there were only a few kids in each group. Not saying that this will be the case for your cruise, but it definitely was on a very similar cruise last year for us at the same time of year. I would not worry too much about having only limited spots in the program for your children.

As a side note, if there are this many college cruisers aboard, the later dinner times (we did MTD) were PACKED. We always eat early around 5:45 and most days there were at most one-third of the tables occupied, but when we left around 7:30 after finishing dinner, the line up to get in stretched more than halfway down the promenade.

Another vote for Playa Mia in Cozumel! Our (then) almost 5 year old had an absolute blast!

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