Best time to cruise for the least amount of children on the boat

[scubaJen]

Hey all. I realize that cruising is a very popular family vacation choice. I love to cruise but am not exactly "kid friendly". My question is when and with which cruise line would be my best option to maximize the amount of adult guests and minimize the number of child guests. Every time I cruise there are a gazillion kids on board - even in the adults only areas of the ship which is annoying.

 

Any help would be apppreciated.

 

BTW - I am not a mean person, I just prefer my vacations to be quiet and relaxing without unsupervised children being allowed to galavant all over the ship.

[cruzeluver]

For the Caribbean: The week after Thanksgiving is good,as kids are in school and parents are less likely to pull them. We've cruised that week twice an there were minimal kids on board. Late April and May are good as well. Also, the longer the cruise, the fewer the children.

[luvs2travl]

Hey all. I realize that cruising is a very popular family vacation choice. I love to cruise but am not exactly "kid friendly". My question is when and with which cruise line would be my best option to maximize the amount of adult guests and minimize the number of child guests. Every time I cruise there are a gazillion kids on board - even in the adults only areas of the ship which is annoying.

 

Any help would be apppreciated.

 

BTW - I am not a mean person, I just prefer my vacations to be quiet and relaxing without unsupervised children being allowed to galavant all over the ship.

 

Carnival, Disney, NCL and RCCL are the most "kid friendly" and you will have the greatest chance of having the most kids on board these lines. Also - during holidays (Easter, Spring Break, Thanksgiving, Christmas) and of course, the summer months will also be peak times for kids.

 

Generally, the 7-day cruises will have more children as well. Longer cruises tend to be less cost-effective for families. There will always be a few kids on board any cruise. But, if you try to limit your sailings to "off-peak" family months & holidays, you increase your chances of having fewer children on board.

 

We had a wonderfully relaxing cruise on HAL's Oosterdam in November of 2009. We took a 19-day repositioning cruise from FLL to San Diego through the Panama Canal. We saw maybe 10 to 12 children on board.

 

However, by contrast, our annual "Family Cruise" was on NCL during the Christmas holidays where well over half the passengers were children. Even our family (which had 3 kids under 10 along) said they would NEVER do NCL again - ever!! It was pure bedlam, believe me! "Gallivanting" doesn't even begin to describe what many of the kids on board were doing!! :eek:

 

HAL, Princess, Celebrity & Cunard would probably be to your liking. Of course, you can always call the cruise line & find out how many children (and the age groups) are booked on your cruise.

[PrincessE]

I don't think you sound mean at all. I love kids, but my husband and I don't have any and I prefer to travel with as few children around as possible. Just personal choice. No one can fault you for that!

 

Personally, we cruise with Princess. I've been on a lot of Princess cruises and there are always very few children on board. That isn't to say there aren't children there, but typically not many.

 

Princess has an okay kids program, but it doesn't compete with RCCL, Carnival, etc. So that works out for me! I've traveled over spring break on PCL and never had a problem with too many kids.

 

Also, I've found on the Panama Canal cruises and the longer voyages, typically families are looking for a more budget friendly itinerary and Panama Canal and longer cruises can be budget busters - so less kids.

 

On one Panama Canal cruise my sister and I were the only young people on board. We had our pick of deck chairs. It was awesome!

[djmutters]

Here in the UK we always book around a time when we know children have just had a holiday and parents are less likely to extend there time off school to take another holiday on our holiday we are sailing on June 5th 2010 and I know 99% of children go back around the 7th June :)

 

You can also look at adult only cruises so there are no children at all :)

 

Have fun whatever you decide.

[matj2000]

It's pretty much a no brainer. Go whenever school is in..

[djmutters]

:):):)

 

It's pretty much a no brainer. Go whenever school is in..

[Micchi]

I don't think you sound mean. I love kids but don't always enjoy the way parents handle them ;)

 

I think there are fewer children in general on HAL, Princess, Cunard, etc.

[paul929207]

To reduce the number of kids on cruises, cruise:

 

When school is in session

More expensive cruise lines

longer cruises

Far away from the US

[jocap]

There are a few European lines which are adult only.

P&O has ships in the Caribbean over winter, but you would have to fly to somewhere like Barbados to board.

Saga has 2 ships for over 50s, and one for over 21s.

Some Thomson cruises are adult only.

Next year, Royal Princess goes to her sister line P&O, as an adult only ship.

Jo.

[Marie51]

Crystal has very few if any kids.

[BalconyGal]

Princess 10 days or longer.

[Texas Tillie]

Crystal has very few if any kids.

 

Except the 7 day Mexican Riviera on the Symphony over Thanksgiving - we had almost 100 under 18 year olds in 2008!:D

[STARFISH*4]

we did the Panama Canal cruise last dec on NCL Star--25 kids and the average age of passenger was 65.....did NCL Star the year before 2nd week dec to Mexican Riviera 1,000 kids:eek:was CRAZY!!!...to many for me...unfortunately dec is the best time for us to cruise so we will just have to take LONGER ones:)

[vacation luvver]

I've gone on cruises in May and September, when you figure the kids would be in school, and in 2006, I took an 11-night cruise on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, when you figure the kids would be in school, but the cruises were always full of kids. I eventually found out that kids go on cruises at any time of the year if they're home-schooled.

[kitty9]

The general rules for less kids:

 

1. Take a cruise longer than 10 days. Parents seem to take kids out of school nowadays even for the 10 day cruises.

 

2. Stay away from NCL, Carnival and Royal Caribbean. Of course, it goes without saying, no Disney either.

 

3. Book your cruise the first two weeks of November, the two weeks following Thanksgiving, anytime between the second week of January and the first week of February, the last week of April through the second week of May.

 

4. Cruise outside the usual and customary itineraries like the Caribbean and Mexico. Take a Tahiti cruise or something to South America.

 

5. Go with a luxury line or one of the premium lines like Oceania or Azamara.

[Marie51]

Except the 7 day Mexican Riviera on the Symphony over Thanksgiving - we had almost 100 under 18 year olds in 2008!:D

 

Yikes!

[ShipsandDipper]

We had only a few kids (fewer than two dozen, I would guess) on an October 2008 Canada/New England cruise, even though it was only 7 days. The timing and the itinerary were probably key.

[luddite]

Seven day or longer cruise.

First two weeks of November and December, last two weeks of January.

The end of February can be a good bet depending on the home port.

[mollymoo12]

I love children but I could not eat a whole one:D

 

There were very few on the transatlantic I did on the QM2

[chj]

1) Avoid Carnival, Princess, RCCL and all the mainstream lines. Reason, many of the folk that cruise these come from a level that these days give little regard to education and think nothing about pulling their kids out of school for cheaper and convenience of crusing during school time.

 

2) Go very high end during school seaon, the people that go here are generally well heeled and thus value eduction and won't pull their kids out. Also are generally older and their kids won't be the ones that run around like crazy drunk adults.

 

 

 

Hey all. I realize that cruising is a very popular family vacation choice. I love to cruise but am not exactly "kid friendly". My question is when and with which cruise line would be my best option to maximize the amount of adult guests and minimize the number of child guests. Every time I cruise there are a gazillion kids on board - even in the adults only areas of the ship which is annoying.

 

Any help would be apppreciated.

 

BTW - I am not a mean person, I just prefer my vacations to be quiet and relaxing without unsupervised children being allowed to galavant all over the ship.

[mimi217]

We planned a cruise the last week of Feb/first week of March. We figured we were in between the kids' school vacations and spring breakers. What a surprise when we found out there were 700 kids on board - it was school vacation week in Canada. It was fine. You just never know. :)

[sullaRaffaello]

I was on Seabourn in November and happily the youngest people on board were a honeymoon couple. 48 and 33.

[Hlitner]

If you are going to the Caribbean you will find almost no children on the early December cruises...especially if you take something longer then a week. Parents are real hesitant to pull school aged kids out of school a few weeks before Christmas vacation. On the other hand, you should be prepared to be on a cruise with many retirees (we are in that group). Last winter we did an early December Princess cruise and we were among the youngest on-board.....and we are in our early 60s.

 

Hank

[printingchick]

In addition to time of year, you should consider the ship. My adult daughter and I recently cruised on Serenade of the Seas out of San Juan. We probably had fewer than a dozen young children on the ship. I understand that is pretty typical of that ship. I don't believe it's just because it goes out of San Juan, although that might discourage some families. I've heard that Adventure of the Seas, out of the same port, gets a lot more kids. I believe if you consider some of the older, smaller ships - the ones with fewer kid-friendly perks like the H2O Zone, ice skating, in-line skating and FlowRider - you'll see FAR fewer kids. I worried I'd miss all those bells and whistles, but I found the smaller, more intimate ship with fewer kid on board was FABULOUS! I can't wait to cruise on Serenade again!