Who has sailed over Thanksgiving?

[cruislovin]

We are considering a (USA) Thanksgiving week cruise for November 2005. Who has sailed that week in the past? What are the pros/cons to a holiday week? What special things does RCCL do for the holiday on Thursday?

 

We are looking at one of the Voyager class ships. Anyone been on those for Thanksgiving week? Are they overrun with children? Are they exceptionally crowded?

 

How was travel to get backhome on the weekend after Thanksgiving? Was it more difficult that normal travel these days?

 

Any info that you can provide would be appreciated! :)

[davidaperryman]

We did a 10 day on the Elation over Thanksgiving. We had a turkey and dressing dinner when we left Roatan. It was fun since we didn't have to cook the turkey or do the dishes. Our daughter and son-in-law sailed with us and we had dinner together that night.

[Ericknow32]

i cruised over thanksgiving on the voyager of the seas. they served turky and that sort of stuff. the travaling to get to the ship was a nightmare. it is hard to fly around the holidays

[ha1024]

i cruised over thanksgiving on the voyager of the seas. they served turky and that sort of stuff. the travaling to get to the ship was a nightmare. it is hard to fly around the holidays

We cruised over Thanksgiving to the Western Caribbean and the weather was horrible and I have heard from others with the same experience.

[CAPinBoynton]

We were on the Navigator for Thanksgiving, and made comments in our review about the very things you have asked about. If you would care to read the review, go to www.thepreismans.com and click on Eastern Caribbean / Navigator of the Seas.

 

Enjoy,

Carol

[jwlane]

pros/cons to a holiday week?

 

Lots of kids.

[estj]

have sailed over Thanksgiving (but on HAL)...and will be sailing over Thanksgiving on The Legend of the Seas this year. Have found it to be just about the same as any other time we have sailed. Others are correct...the only issue is the airflight (but since we live in Flordia now, that's NOT a problem!). I'd select a sailing that is Sat-Sat. Having traveled frequently over the Thanksgiving weekend...Saturday afternoons are a GREAT time to book a flight! Most people are already where they want to be for the weekend...so the flights generally aren't bad. Rates are better then too. There's a nice Royal Caribbean cruise out of Tampa over Thanksgiving (11/19-11/26). And you have numerous airports to select from to get the best rate. Of course there's Tampa (TPA)...but also check out St. Petersburg airport, and Sarasota/Bradenton (SRQ), and also Orlando. All within an easy drive to the port.

[sailor moon]

We did the Rhapsody over Thanksgiving last year and the weather was rainey most of the time. Made it very hard to do excursions in the Western Carribbean.

[cindy58]

We were on the Carnival Miracle Thanksgiving 2004, and while we liked the cruise, we weren't too fond of the Thanksgiving dinner -- a nontraditional turkey dish.

[estj]

have not had any bad weather during November...and we usually cruise in Oct-Nov and in the Spring. (prefer late fall...water is warmer). Cruised last November and weather was perfect. Luck of the draw!

[sports family]

We have sailed over Thanksgiving twice and had nice weather both times. Lot's of kids, but we have 4 of them, so that's a good thing for us. We travel with both sets of parents, and it's a great way to celebrate Thanksgiving. The best part...no dishes. The worst part...no leftovers!!

[cruislovin]

Thanks to all of you who have responded with your feedback!

 

I am surprised to hear about the weather in late November. For those of you who did Eastern Caribbean, were the seas rough? Was it rainy all day or just showers? How were the daytime high temperatures? Was it very humid?

 

I realize that the 4th Thu in Nov is the USA holiday for Thanksgiving and other countries celebrate this holiday at other times of the year. If you were in port on Thu did you find that any of the islands also celebrated Thanksgiving then? Were stores closed? Any problems with availability of services?

[CAPinBoynton]

I live in SE Florida. Our hurricane season ends right before Thanksgiving. We seldom have one in November; but we have in the past, so the possibility is always there. During the first half of the season, our hurricanes form off the African coast; and the Eastern Caribbean is more likely the recipient. During the last part of the season (Nov.), they form in the area around the Yucatan / So. America; and the Western Caribbean is more effected. Of course, hurricane prediction is not an exact science by any means.

 

I guess that the point I am trying to make is that you will more than likely be fine in the Eastern Caribbean in Nov. It is always the luck of the draw. Go, enjoy; and don't worry.

[Fetzer_94]

We have done about 8 RCCL cruises and will never do Thanksgiving again. We did it on Navigator (I think) and the KIDS were out of control. Parents let them run all over the place, and they ruined the cruise for our family. The Captain had to come over the loudspeaker more than once to address the problem and implore the parents to control their kids. I'm talking mostly the 14-18 year olds - who were quite openly drinking beer and liquor and getting drunk. We now cruise the week before Thanksgiving, as most parents won't take their kids out of school that week so the ship is not so out of control. This cruise was (I think) 2 years ago and we were in our late 20s, in a group of 6 people.

Good luck either way!

[Vacation Boy]

Kids, Kids everywhere. I like kids and think it's great that a family can go a cruise together but at all hours of the day and night there were crowds of kids all over. They would press every button on an elevator and then get off. They were laying (that's right laying) on the stairs and forced you to step over them to go up and down. RCCL tried to do what they could but literally half the ship seemed to be kids.

 

We still had a great time as you get out of a vacation what you put into it, and cruise is always a great vacation.

[herbnjod]

Sailed the Celeb. Mille. this past Thanksgiving. As we usually cruise w/o the kids, this one was way different 'cause we took both. Our TA got us wonderful adjoining Balcony rooms, though the balcony was sort of lost on out kids 14 and 11. That was a great set up as we had two bathrooms, and plenty of room. That being said there are a lot of families traveling together that week, and we went with friends and some of their family. While we did have a great time, the ports were noticeably more crowded(we usually sail in july). It was scary being in St. Thomas, with the crowds, and trying to keep everyone together. And yes there are lots of kids. Most ppl don't bother to keep tabs on their kids though, and there were a lot of them all over the place. As far as the holiday goes Thanksgiving was nice, and I was happy not to have turkey. The trip home was HORRIBLE....what should have taken us 11 hours turned into 15! I95 was stop and go till we cleared Daytona, then after J-ville, stop-n-go again. Just horrible.

I dont think we'll be doing that anytime soon, though it was fun to spend Thanksgiving on a ship! I will say the weather wasn't as nice as I'd like it, a bit cool --espec. the 1st sea day, and in Nov. the sun sets earlier than it does in July. I think I'll stick to summer cruises from now on...

[cruislovin]

We do have a concern about kids running wild and out of control on a holiday sailing. We sail with our teen children but they are the innocent ones, also getting upset with the out of control kids that ruin the trip for others. The worst we saw was on our Alaska cruise on Radiance in August 2003 - kids running rampant with no parents anywhere to be seen. My son even saw some kids knock down some older adults. Pathetic! The elevators and steps can also become quite a problem...

 

From what I read on these boards, this problem of children running about unattended seems to be getting worse on RCCL, not better. Our summer 2004 cruise on Mariner had many kids - but it did not seem to be as bad for whatever reason. Maybe it was because the Voayger class ships are bigger than the Radiance class ships. I am wondering if a holiday sailing would be comparable to a summer sailing, from the "kids" perspective?

 

I guess the potential problem of kids is like the weather - unpredictable from cruise to cruise. But timing of the sailing could definitely have an impact!

 

I appreciate everyone's honest input!