how many children?

[wezie]

Is there any way to find out how many children will be on your sailing?

[shof515]

nope, no one knows except for ncl

[tunseeker1]

Is there a reason it is important?

[jorapp]

Somehow I don't think the cruise lines would give out that information, but a good rule of thumb is that there will be more children onboard when school is out and fewer during the school year.

 

If you are wondering if your children will have playmates, it would be better to plan a cruise during holiday or summer breaks.

 

If, however, you are worried about munchkins underfoot, you should avoid those times and cruise when they are safely tucked in classrooms. Even if a few escape the truancy officer and sneak aboard, you probably won't notice them unless you go to the kiddie pool, water slide or video arcade.

 

Happy cruise!

[Barb Nahoumi]

Here in the Northeast (New England), we had so many snow days. Kids will be in class through late June, to make up time.

 

We're cruising on June 11, so I don't expect to have a shipfull. Unless families are flying to New York from other regions, kiddies should be at a mimimum. MAYBE.

[Husney]

We have a huge group on the roll call boards for June 11. Although I don't think there will be a lot of little ones, there are large groups celebrating high school graduation with parents and graduation seniors. We are planning a meet and greet. Check it out! Should be fun.

[WinterSky]

If you want a quieter cruise with less middle of the night , running, laughing and screaming in the hallway outside your cabin, you may not want to cruise when school is out or graduates are celebrating. It makes a TREMENDOUS difference in the whole experience. We have cruised both with the graduates and without the graduates, and for us, the two experiences were worlds apart.

[Wingtips56]

This is something we've been wondering about since we were on a B2B cruise (Valparaiso-Acapulco-San Francisco) that filled up at the break in Acapulco with 350 unmanaged children and their families. We'd not heard of Cruise Critic at that point but met some members on-board; many of them knew the kids were coming, with a number of them having canceled the second portion of the trip to avoid such a family cruise. How did they know?

 

We have no problem sharing a cruise with kids and their families (it's nice to have some folks onboard younger than Moses), but this was beyond the usual spring break/summer season situation.

 

I'm trying to put this objectively .....

While it was a wonderful opportunity for those families (Princess Cruises marketed the undersold ACA-SFO segment locally), they were not prepared with any concept of cruise etiquette, what fixed dinner times meant, sanitation, adults-only pools and hours, quiet hours and quiet hallways, don't run over the little old ladies, etc., which meant it was a whole different experience than was the first cruise segment. We were on the deck below the pool deck, and had to deal with all-night foot races, dragging/dropping deck chairs and tables, etc. overhead, never-mind the races in the hallways at 2:00am. Kids were in all 5 pools all day and night, without parents to be seen. Little bitty kids wandering alone to big kids wrestling. Things got so bad that the ship ended up with illness outbreaks and we arrived in San Francisco under a quarantine order, delaying disembarkation of our cruise and departure delay of the next.

 

So another time, we would opt out of a cruise expecting a group of 350 children, letting them have a great time, but without us. But how do you know?

 

We did learn from that cruise to always in the future book staterooms on a deck sandwiched between other stateroom-only decks ... never under or over entertainment areas.

[wezie]

Is there a reason it is important?

 

It just is. Why does it matter to you?

[WinterSky]

It just is. Why does it matter to you?

 

Wow!!!

[Ms belp]

It just is. Why does it matter to you?

 

Maybe they were trying to help. You posted first asking the question. They asked why.

[Anginette]

It just is. Why does it matter to you?

 

Wow. That nasty response says it all. No cruise is going to be good enough for your "childfree" taste :rolleyes:

[wezie]

It wasn't meant as nasty. Why would someone need to know the importance of a question merely because it was asked? What is important to one is not necessarily important to another. I have seen many responses on this board where people reply with biased answers just because it is not important to them. I appreciate these boards and I find it to be very informative. I just haven't appreciated some snide responses that I've received in the past when I've posed questions that were imporant to me but not important to the responder.

[wezie]

Somehow I don't think the cruise lines would give out that information, but a good rule of thumb is that there will be more children onboard when school is out and fewer during the school year.

 

If you are wondering if your children will have playmates, it would be better to plan a cruise during holiday or summer breaks.

 

If, however, you are worried about munchkins underfoot, you should avoid those times and cruise when they are safely tucked in classrooms. Even if a few escape the truancy officer and sneak aboard, you probably won't notice them unless you go to the kiddie pool, water slide or video arcade.

 

Happy cruise!

 

 

Thank you so much for your response. It was quite helpful!

[WinterSky]

It wasn't meant as nasty. Why would someone need to know the importance of a question merely because it was asked? What is important to one is not necessarily important to another. I have seen many responses on this board where people reply with biased answers just because it is not important to them. I appreciate these boards and I find it to be very informative. I just haven't appreciated some snide responses that I've received in the past when I've posed questions that were imporant to me but not important to the responder.

 

Again, Wow!!!

[tunseeker1]

It just is. Why does it matter to you?

 

I have seen questions about children regarding number of things such as children's lifejackets and high chairs, and people wanting to know what things to do with children. I have also seen people trying to avoid children on a cruise.

 

These are two very different questions and would be answered in different ways.

 

If you want information about your children you might be better served on the family board.

 

If you want to avoid children you would get advice on the best trips to plan.

 

Another reason to ask why it is important is because your idea of children may be different then mine. When I think children I think strollers and high chairs. Others think children are anyone under 25 years old.

 

 

Asking a broad open ended question is usually not very helpful, trying to narrow it down is usually considered helpful not hostile.

[wezie]

I apologize for misinterpreting your response, Tuneseeker. Thank you for setting me straight. I may have been defensive because I recently asked a question about another topic and was given a very sarcastic answer.

 

 

I have seen questions about children regarding number of things such as children's lifejackets and high chairs, and people wanting to know what things to do with children. I have also seen people trying to avoid children on a cruise.

 

These are two very different questions and would be answered in different ways.

 

If you want information about your children you might be better served on the family board.

 

If you want to avoid children you would get advice on the best trips to plan.

 

Another reason to ask why it is important is because your idea of children may be different then mine. When I think children I think strollers and high chairs. Others think children are anyone under 25 years old.

 

 

Asking a broad open ended question is usually not very helpful, trying to narrow it down is usually considered helpful not hostile.

[Barb Nahoumi]

We have a huge group on the roll call boards for June 11. Although I don't think there will be a lot of little ones, there are large groups celebrating high school graduation with parents and graduation seniors. We are planning a meet and greet. Check it out! Should be fun.

 

We're planning on it-------can't wait.

[garycarla]

It wasn't meant as nasty. Why would someone need to know the importance of a question merely because it was asked?...

 

Maybe they were trying to be helpful. You could have been asking about how many kids because:

 

- you do not like kids

- you wanted to make sure there were enough kids for your kids to meet

- you were worried if the kids club would be open

- you were concerned if there would be activities

- you were concerend there were too many kids

- you wanted to know if there was a kids area in the buffet

- you wanted to know if the kids pool would be open

- etc, etc, etc. etc

- none of the above

 

I don't know.. but there are tons of reason someone might ask such an open ended question. People here generally want to help, but sometimes those asking do themselves a disservice by not asking the real question.

 

And by the way, there is no way anyone would or could answer the specific question. NCL is not about to post a number, which of course is not accurate until a few days before the cruise anyways.

[katyjeka]

Wanting to cruise without children does not mean they dislike children. As a mother of 4, youngest is only 11 months, I obviously love kids and enjoy vacationing with them. I, however, would love to celebrate an anniversary, kids free, on a cruise geared towards adults only. I believe its a fair question on a subject that is debated time and time again. NCL caters to families, and for this reason, children will always be found on their cruises, regardless of the time of year. School is year round for many districts and vacations are now scattered throughout the year. If we ever get the chance to cruise alone, we will look for a smaller ship, in a more expensive line. As much as we LOVE NCL, a quiet ship, minus slides, rock climbing walls, and all the "bells and whistles" will be what we search for.

[willysgrandma]

Well, we sailed around that week years ago thinking the same thing. What we were surprised to learn was that even though the NY kids were still in school, in New Jersey and PA, the kids were out of school already - and we swore we will never ever sail in June again.

 

 

Here in the Northeast (New England), we had so many snow days. Kids will be in class through late June, to make up time.

 

We're cruising on June 11, so I don't expect to have a shipfull. Unless families are flying to New York from other regions, kiddies should be at a mimimum. MAYBE.

[jackinthebox422]

As someone who has cruised, over 10 times, and traveled over 3 continents, I can tell you that kids may be an issue, but so are adults, they both can affect your exprence.Kids - Yes, teens and 20 somethings can get a whole lot of stuff going, but at mnight they will congregate in the casino, dance clubs are high energy bars. Will they make noise - yes, and they can, it is there trip as well. There is no quarantee to a perfect quiet night, or adult use of pools, if you want these quaranteed, get a higher priced cruise. period.Adults - I am sorry but I have had more fights with the 65 and over crowd then the 25 and under. The righeous indignation of service that is expected and demanded, no matter how out of whack your standrds are, the removal of tips from your account, due it is too epxensive, the fights at the MDR at 4:30, its a cruise, they won;t run out of food, i promise.NCL has free style cruising, which is a quiet way of saying segregation - if you want to have an inside cabin, eat at the MDR and shuffle along, it is rather inexpensive to do so, and you get what you pay for. I prefer outside balcony - suite, and I DO eat at the fee restaurants, why...I want a better meal and am WILLING to pay for it. I drink in he piano lounge and have a great trip. I am expecting to spend aditioonal money on the cruise - I epxpect my cabin to bill to be a couple 1,000's after a family of 5, dinner,s excursions, classes, drinks, merchandise etc. You have the ability to do as you wish and have the experience you wish - it all depends on what you want to do, you want to go on the cheap, you get noise and the like - spend money - more secluded cabins, better dining experiences etc.The choice is yours, but I will tell you one last thing - those families with the little kids - have spent oh a couple grand to get on the cruise and have prepared to have a great trip, those kids will be better behaved, more prepared and will insure their kids do not interfere with anyones elses cruise, unfortionately the "silvers" do not remember this or do so.

[barb-ottawa]

Just got off the Jewel yesterday and I sure wish I would have known that there were going to be so many kids on board. I swear it felt like half the passengers were under 8. The pool deck was absolute chaos all the time with kids filling the pools and hot tubs. Very hard to find a quiet place to sit and read. Could not even enjoy peace and quiet on our balcony because the family with 3 kids next door only spoke in screams and insisted on having their balcony door open all the time. Very annoying that parents let their children run around the restaurants, down the hallways, during the shows, and even brought them into the smoke-filled casino. Had I known beforehand, I would not have booked this cruise. I will certainly know better next time and will stick to Miami departures.

[Got2Cruise]

It is Easter/Passover vacation in the tri-state area.Traditionally, public schools are closed in the days surrounding Easter/Passover religious holidays. The dates vary year to year. I imagine if you left from Miami, there still would be plenty of kids. There has to be dozens of threads on Cruise Critic asking "when is spring break?". If you don't want many kids on board, then one needs to take heed. :D Also, I would check to see if the cruise I was on was a Nickelodeon cruise. Dora the Explorer and Sponge Bob attracts the little ones like moths to the light.

 

Just got off the Jewel yesterday and I sure wish I would have known that there were going to be so many kids on board. I swear it felt like half the passengers were under 8. The pool deck was absolute chaos all the time with kids filling the pools and hot tubs. Very hard to find a quiet place to sit and read. Could not even enjoy peace and quiet on our balcony because the family with 3 kids next door only spoke in screams and insisted on having their balcony door open all the time. Very annoying that parents let their children run around the restaurants, down the hallways, during the shows, and even brought them into the smoke-filled casino. Had I known beforehand, I would not have booked this cruise. I will certainly know better next time and will stick to Miami departures.

[barb-ottawa]

Yeah, I did check the spring break dates and most seemed to be in March so I thought we would be okay the week of April 10th. No such luck unfortunately. Usually the kids congregate in the children's area, but in this case they were just everywhere.