scheduling a cruise around school?

[Forensicmom]

I'm sure that has been brought up before but I need some advice. We were planning to take a cruise in January when the kids have off school a few days but our oldest will be a senior and will have exams he wouldn't be able to miss. Now we're wondering if the price is too high to go during THanksgiving or Easter break.

 

Does anyone else have any experience with trying to schedule around school?

 

The younger girls will be 7, 10 and 13 and it won't be as difficult for them to miss 2-3 days of school, if needed.

[Cru1s1ng2009]

of school for a few days (i know, bad mom...) but with him being a senior, that isnt going to work for you. I think the spring break ones are a little cheaper because not everyones spring break is at the same time.

[kasil]

I'm in the same situation; my daughter will be a senior and can't afford to miss a day. From what I've found, college spring break in March seems to cost more. High school break in April is a little more reasonable.

[venusjems]

I am one of those bad mothers, i let my (at the time) 4th, 6th, 9th graders take off a week of school. Sent in 'sick' notes, the craziest thing was the 6th and 9th grader were ok, they got 2 approved and 3 unexcused days off. The 4th they unexcused the entire 5 days and we ended up having to go to trauncy court. :eek:

 

This year im just going to suck it up and do our vacation during school holiday and pay extra.

[Mack2]

We've been going the first week of November because of the school schedules in New Jersey.

Prices in November are cheaper than the spring break (post-President's Day Weekend) prices, but there's a risk of hurricane activity (lower risk, but present)

 

The first week of November is the week of the NJEA Teacher's Convention... so all public schools are closed the Thursday and Friday of that week so the teachers can go to Atlantic City. Additionally, Tuesday of that week is Election Day.

 

Some school districts in the southern half of the state close school for that week.

Where I am, the kids have a 1/2 day Monday and Wednesday.... and the teachers use those half-days for Teacher/Parent conferences.

 

That being said, when we've gone on cruises that week... there are a LOT of people from New Jersey with us... Last year, we did DisneyWorld... it's "New Jersey Week" there, too!

 

Fortunately, though... we're not ALL like the Real Housewives or those guys from Staten Island who hang out at the Jersey Shore. :cool:

[mjkacmom]

We've been going the first week of November because of the school schedules in New Jersey.

Prices in November are cheaper than the spring break (post-President's Day Weekend) prices, but there's a risk of hurricane activity (lower risk, but present)

 

The first week of November is the week of the NJEA Teacher's Convention... so all public schools are closed the Thursday and Friday of that week so the teachers can go to Atlantic City. Additionally, Tuesday of that week is Election Day.

 

Some school districts in the southern half of the state close school for that week.

Where I am, the kids have a 1/2 day Monday and Wednesday.... and the teachers use those half-days for Teacher/Parent conferences.

 

That being said, when we've gone on cruises that week... there are a LOT of people from New Jersey with us... Last year, we did DisneyWorld... it's "New Jersey Week" there, too!

 

Fortunately, though... we're not ALL like the Real Housewives or those guys from Staten Island who hang out at the Jersey Shore. :cool:

 

We've done this, too - just a FYI, it's the second week this year.

[sopranos]

We've done this, too - just a FYI, it's the second week this year.

 

 

We also have been cruising this week as well, the prices are better too.

[kitty9]

I am one of those bad mothers, i let my (at the time) 4th, 6th, 9th graders take off a week of school. Sent in 'sick' notes, the craziest thing was the 6th and 9th grader were ok, they got 2 approved and 3 unexcused days off. The 4th they unexcused the entire 5 days and we ended up having to go to trauncy court. :eek:

 

This year im just going to suck it up and do our vacation during school holiday and pay extra.

 

Truancy Court???? OMG, that's nasty. But I have heard more and more school districts doing that so they don't lose federal funding. What's the penalty from a Truancy Court???

[Forensicmom]

We don't know anything about truancy court, thankfully. Our schools in central Maryland close the week of Thanksgiving. They have parent/teacher conferences the first two days of the week and then off for Thanksgiving and Friday.

 

I asked my kids over and over if they wanted to do Disney or a Disney cruise and the 3 oldest said NO WAY. THey want to go to the Caribbean instead and definately on a cruise.

[venusjems]

Truancy Court???? OMG, that's nasty. But I have heard more and more school districts doing that so they don't lose federal funding. What's the penalty from a Truancy Court???

 

Just sit thru a presentation by the DA and state your case as to why your child missed so many days. We explained that we gave the school advance notice, but they marked it as unexcused, they even agreed that it should have been approved. She was only in 4th grade!

 

Repeated truancy and you can go to jail.

[RoadTripFanatic]

Since it's his Senior Year and exam time I would definately just pay the extra $$ for the cruise during a time it won't mess up his schooling. This is coming from a parent who has had no problems pulling her child out of school to go on vacations.

Our former principal (not the one who let us go for 8 school days!) used to cringe when I told her that my DD was going to be on vacation for a few school days. She knew that so many unexcused absenses would affect the schools funding!

[Forensicmom]

OMG! Luckily I'm close with the Principal at the elementary school so I'll make sure to get it approved with her first.

[Keith1010]

I'm sure that has been brought up before but I need some advice. We were planning to take a cruise in January when the kids have off school a few days but our oldest will be a senior and will have exams he wouldn't be able to miss. Now we're wondering if the price is too high to go during THanksgiving or Easter break.

 

Does anyone else have any experience with trying to schedule around school?

 

The younger girls will be 7, 10 and 13 and it won't be as difficult for them to miss 2-3 days of school, if needed.

 

Often you can find good prices to cruise over Thanksgiving week so I would take a look at that one. The challenge might be airfares as they tend to be higher then but take a look at that.

 

Easter break may have higher prices for cruises but with so many ships I wouldn't rule out anything.

 

It's very understandable that you can't take your eldest out of school.

 

I fully understand why the schools have to take the approach that they do. They lose federal funding and just as importantly if they made it easy for people to take their kids out some would take advantage of the situation and kids would miss a lot of school. In the end, it hurts the entire program.

 

I would take a look at Thanksgiving as that is a nice time to have the kids family together on a cruise.

 

Good luck with all of this.

 

Keith

[Forensicmom]

THanks. I actually found some nice ones for the week of Thanksgiving as well as Easter week. We could cruise for 7 nights and still be home the day before Easter. I run our Sunday School and need to be there for Easter Sunday!

 

One I found was the RC Enchantment of the Seas out of Baltimore. We live 20 minutes from the port. I wanted to fly to Florida but the airfare is pretty costly and this cruise was lots cheaper with no airfare. That's for the spring week.

 

Also, I was originally looking at balcony's or at least oceanview but things are much more costly then I expected so I might have to look for inside cabins as well.

 

I'm finding it VERY difficult to find available connecting cabins (in any category)on the web (even RC website, etc). Is that something that the travel agent will have better luck with? She's away this weekend, so I have to wait until next week when she gets back.

[mjkacmom]

THanks. I actually found some nice ones for the week of Thanksgiving as well as Easter week. We could cruise for 7 nights and still be home the day before Easter. I run our Sunday School and need to be there for Easter Sunday!

 

One I found was the RC Enchantment of the Seas out of Baltimore. We live 20 minutes from the port. I wanted to fly to Florida but the airfare is pretty costly and this cruise was lots cheaper with no airfare. That's for the spring week.

 

Also, I was originally looking at balcony's or at least oceanview but things are much more costly then I expected so I might have to look for inside cabins as well.

 

I'm finding it VERY difficult to find available connecting cabins (in any category)on the web (even RC website, etc). Is that something that the travel agent will have better luck with? She's away this weekend, so I have to wait until next week when she gets back.

 

Lots book very far out - 2 years even, and connecting cabins are very popular with families.

[RoadTripFanatic]

OMG! Luckily I'm close with the Principal at the elementary school so I'll make sure to get it approved with her first.

 

That is lucky that your school approves vacations and excuses them. Our district counts it as an unexcused absense.

[newbiecruiser09]

 

I'm finding it VERY difficult to find available connecting cabins (in any category)on the web (even RC website, etc). Is that something that the travel agent will have better luck with? She's away this weekend, so I have to wait until next week when she gets back.

 

We booked our cruise for next spring break before this year's spring break because we wanted a balcony and connecting interior (and saw it was all of a sudden available). I would call RCI directly and see if they can get you connecting rooms. You can then transfer the booking to a travel agent if you really want to (I prefer to have control over my booking but to each his own)

[cyntil8ing]

Our schools in central Maryland close the week of Thanksgiving. They have parent/teacher conferences the first two days of the week and then off for Thanksgiving and Friday.

 

I'm guessing you might be in Carroll County because that's the only one I know of nearby that closes the whole week rather than early dismissals. Are you aware that they will not be closing that week this year? They've switched to a longer spring break. If you're in Carroll, you might want to double-check the 2011/12 calendar before booking.

 

We're going to miss having that week off. Last year, we drove to Charleston and spent the week on the Carnival Fantasy.

[cantwait2cruize]

WTH! Go to jail for taking your kids out of school for vacation:eek:....because of funding? How much does it cost to keep someone in jail?:confused:

[Forensicmom]

I'm guessing you might be in Carroll County because that's the only one I know of nearby that closes the whole week rather than early dismissals. Are you aware that they will not be closing that week this year? They've switched to a longer spring break. If you're in Carroll, you might want to double-check the 2011/12 calendar before booking.

 

We're going to miss having that week off. Last year, we drove to Charleston and spent the week on the Carnival Fantasy.

 

 

No, we're in Anne Arundel and it's already approved for next years school calendar. They close the whole week of Thanksgiving and have Parent-Teacher conferences the first two days.

[ourfamilylovescruising]

we go almost every year at Thanksgiving because in Fl they only have school Monday and Tuesday so missing 2 days compare to a week is great. and prices are cheaper than spring break most times. good luck

[Onessa]

We live in Wisconsin and DD attends a relatively "rural" high school - we traditionally cruise the week of T-Giving. Her school does an Early-release the Friday before Tgiving week and only has classes Mon and Tues week of Tgiving. Since that week is the "gun deer hunting" season in Wisconsin - and since many of her classmates families consider deer hunting to be a near religious act, there are many absences that week and the school has a pretty standard routine to make up assignments (and NEVER bother to schedule exams!).

 

Now if we knew that the Packers were going to win the Super Bowl last season we would have booked a 12-day cruise around Super Bowl weekend -- pretty much everything was at a standstill!:D

 

We've done primarily Med cruises but did a HI and Panama Canal cruise. This year no cruise that week, the band is marching in the Tournament of Roses parade and they have manditory practice Wed, Fri and Sat that weekend.

[mary_228]

Now that my kids are older (15 and 13), they refuse to let me plan a trip that will cause them to miss school. They hate the ton of work that awaits them when they return. It's pretty hard to convince anyone that a cruise is an educational experience, esp the Caribbean itineraries. I loved the Thanksgiving cruise we took one year, but the best memories have come from our longer European cruise that we took once school was out. It's hard having to pay the high prices to travel at Spring Break :( but it sends a good message to the kids about how we value education.

[williamson_ja]

I schedule my cruises around times that I know will be pretty slow for school work. I've taken my oldest daughter (11th grade) out of school for vacation for the last 3 years. I find the slowest times for school work tend to be near the beginning of the semester. They don't hand out the heavy work until later in the term. We've done labor day for all our previous trips. This time, we are trying the beginning of the second term. Last year, my daughter missed 5 days of school and didn't even have homework to catch up when we got back. She gets straight A's, so I'm not concerned with her grades. I homeschool my younger kids, so I don't have to worry about them missing school.

 

I find the caribbean to be highly educational. If we want our kids to care about polluting the ocean, how about bringing them to a beautiful beach so that they can see what a CLEAN beach/water even looks like. Want to learn about marine biology? Go snorkeling and see what their natural environment looks like. It's a lot more fun to learn it that way than in a book. Last year, I learned a whole lot about governments by visiting St. Maarten/Martin. Two nations claim this tiny island and have differing laws, taxation, etc. There is a visible difference between the two sides. Which side had laws that worked better for the people? It was very apparent when we traveled through the island with our guide.

 

This year on our cruise, my kids will be learning about: stingrays, the mayan people and culture, marine biology, rainforest habitat and preservation, money management, and many other things. Traveling is a great way to learn about the world around us. I love it!

[bus man]

Last year, I learned a whole lot about governments by visiting St. Maarten/Martin. Two nations claim this tiny island and have differing laws, taxation, etc. There is a visible difference between the two sides. Which side had laws that worked better for the people? It was very apparent when we traveled through the island with our guide.

 

Which side do you feel had the better government?