Crusing during Thanksgiving Week

[l2f]

The only cruises we have been on have cruised in the spring time and decided to try Thanksgiving week this year. It is a 8 day cruise departing the Friday before Thanksgiving. So we thought there wouldn't be any more kids than a typical November cruise.

 

For those who have cruised the 7+ day cruises during Thanksgiving week, what can we expect? More, less, or about the same amount of kids?

[mit01]

The only cruises we have been on have cruised in the spring time and decided to try Thanksgiving week this year. It is a 8 day cruise departing the Friday before Thanksgiving. So we thought there wouldn't be any more kids than a typical November cruise.

 

For those who have cruised the 7+ day cruises during Thanksgiving week, what can we expect? More, less, or about the same amount of kids?

 

Most likely there will be more kids. We're coming up on our fourth Thanksgiving cruise, and in our experiences, many families cruise over Thanksgiving.

[Anung Un Rama]

My first cruise was over Thanksgiving. LOTS of kids. It's both good and bad. Fewer people out late, fewer people in the casino, fewer people at the R-Rated comedy shows.

 

The bad- lots of kids

 

Seriously, easily 25% of the cruisers were under 18 during that cruise where as maybe 10% on our cruise in October last year.

[gogetter]

Lots of kids.....sorry.....

[billieholiday]

is nice we were on board of the carnival sensation it was here first cruise ever we had a lot of fun and never forget that cruise it is in my mind and stay allways there thanks giving day was nice but not special

[GHarkness]

People won't hesitate for one second to pull their kids out of school if it is to their advantage (i.e. that's the cruise they want to go on.) I was on the Voyager OTS last Thanksgiving, and there were 837 kids. 830 of them were fairly well-behaved, and we were mostly able to ignore the rest. I'm not complaining, just trying to set your expectations. :D

 

We'll be cruising again this Thanksgiving. It works for us because we only have to take three days of vacation, and get a whole week's trip out of it. Just don't go into it thinking there won't be very many kids, though. There will be.

[sunkey1]

We've cruised for many years now during this time frame and love it. While there will be more kids onboard than on a non-holiday week, I still don't think it's anything as bad as during spring break. OMG, we did that this past April (with our kids) and both my husband and I said "never again!" It seemed that there were a lot more very young kids and for some reason it seemed like more were running freely at all hours than when we cruise at Thanksgiving. That was also the first cruise in 37 that we could NOT get a deck chair anywhere except along the outside/very front or very back of the ship. We saw people laying on towels on the bare deck because they could not find chairs and I have never seen this before. I will also say that it was possibly the ship itself and that they had not planned it out well as I had not been on that class of ship before. Regardless, we have never had an issue with too many kids on a Thanksgiving cruise and have one booked for this year!

[l2f]

We'll be cruising again this Thanksgiving. It works for us because we only have to take three days of vacation, and get a whole week's trip out of it. Just don't go into it thinking there won't be very many kids, though. There will be.

 

This is the reason we are trying it. We really like the spring time (non spring break) but this is an opportunity to possibly get a 2nd cruise in some years with only 3 days vacation.

 

Hopefully all goes well. I also thought perhaps itinerary may play a role as some are definitely more costly than others.

[joeyancho]

Kids, kids and more kids. The little crumb crunchers will be everywhere. Try not to step on them no matter how tempting it is. Bon Voyage.

[ihibernate]

We went over Thanksgiving twice. One time they announced how many kids were on board and it was A LOT! That said, we never saw mass groups or too many kids. It is a great time to cruise. We remarked several times that we couldn't believe how many kids there were because we never saw them except for a parade throught the MDR one night. It was cute and very quick. I say go for it!

[PatrickZJD]

There were definitely more children on the first week (encompassing Thanksgiving) of our B2B honeymoon cruises on the Miracle in 2009 than the second week. Malcolm Burn even joked with us that the second week would more resemble a Holland America cruise -- except that he was right! :p

[SteelCruisin]

We did the 8 day western on the Carnival freedom 2 years back on Thanksgiving week and thought that while there may have been alot of kids aboard it never seemed like it.The 8 day was actually cheaper than the 7 day cruises. I also think most people shy away from 8 day cruises because of trying to get time off from work.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Same amount of kids

[tiger belle]

:)we went on a Thanksgiving cruise on Glory in 2008...definitely more kids, but a lot of multi-generational families cruising--grandparents, parents, kids...I liked the atmosphere and found the kids well-behaved during the week...maybe it was having the grandparents on board with them!

[loveJake]

We took our grandkids last year, except for our Disney cruises it was the most kids on board any shp we were on.

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

We have sailed over Thanksgiving 3-4 times. Owing to the higher number of families onboard we have also noticed (in addition to more kids) a higher number of older people. They are, after all, part of the family as well! Thus you may encounter a few more scooters/canes/walkers.

 

MOST kids are well behaved, it's the few that aren't that give the others a bad name. Frankly, the same can be said for older people (75/80+) as well - the rude/cranky ones are a minority, but they are the "vocal" minority.

 

Heck, I guess it's just people in general! :eek:

 

This Thanksgiving we are not cruising - but we are the NEXT week! :)

 

Tom