A Thanksgiving Cruise . . . Never Again

[Ocean Boy]

Strike 1: Thanksgiving cruise. Strike 2: Cruise of less than 7 days. Strike 3: A ship already converted to the Dreamworks experience.

 

Right, three strikes. I have never done a Thanksgiving cruise and could have offered better advice than the loyalty ambassador.

[momphoto]

We were on the Mariner a few years ago during Thanksgiving week......being Canadian we did know this but it was part business so had no choice. There were over 800 kids on board and I have to say we were surprised when we found out. Only time we saw many kids was during the parade. We enjoyed the pool in the solarium....saw no kids at all during our late dining time except for one night they had the kids parade through on a pirate dress up night...it was too cute!! Even in the buffet it was not bad. We saw more kids on a regular Carnival cruise running around amok then on our RCCL cruise.

[Happy ks]

Our school districts in the area are all having to take furlough days. Taking those 3 days the week of Thanksgiving gives everyone a week off, so it's kind of a no-brainer that everything out there will be busier.

 

The information the OP got was innacurate. We've even done weekend cruises that started the day after Thanksgiving and those were crowded with kids.

 

Since this has been going on for a couple years now, I know not to take a vacation that week of the year. If you can wait a week or two, you not only have fewer children onboard but cruise fares plummet.

[mommabean]

Further evidence that the worst place to get info about a cruise line is from the cruise line.

 

Best place to get good info is on CC.

 

I've read a whole lot of bad info here, too. :eek: A lot of it is personal opinion. ;)

 

The best info is a combination of common sense and personal experience. The OP may not have had the former but she now has the latter. :D

 

Gina

[mommabean]

That many kids at one time would test anyone.

I cruise Azamara - more money, but no kids (once there was a family with 2 todlers), and still earn the same points/recognition as Royal Carribean because they are the owner. And, the service is wonderful!

If I want to cruise family, I go Disney, and expect kids, so I put up with the noise.

Find kids becoming ruder, with few manors or I am getting old and grumpy!

Grandma

 

It's my understanding from reading the Azamara website that you won't earn the points on your Royal Caribbean account but you will get the level recognition on board. What surprised me is that it sounds as if you DO earn Celebrity credit on your Celebrity Captain's Club account. It would be nice if they did the same thing with Royal. Or maybe I have misunderstood.

 

Gina

[Debde]

:eek: We just got off of Liberty of the Seas for Thanksgiving. Let me give you some background: We are Diamond members . . . . I'm in my late 50s and my other half is in his early 60s. We aren't particularly kid friendly . . . unless they are our grandkids and then my DH can only tolerate limited quantities. We were on Liberty last March and booked this cruise on board. I specifically asked about kids and was assured that there are rarely families on board for Thanksgiving as they prefer Spring Break or Christmas . . . . . .I bought that line. You can imagine our abject horror when we got on board and found out there were 1200 kids on board!! The whole cruise was geared towards families . . . .even the the daily activities were altered! The kids were EVERYWHERE . . . .and for those of you who are about to flame me and say your children are well behaved . . . . they're NOT. They were even allowed in the specialty restaurants at all times. The only place we were safe was the Solarium though I heard they were in there later in the week. My poor other half . . . .I fully expected to find him in the fetal position in our cabin . . . refusing to come out!!

 

OK . . . . here are the good things . . .the weather was perfect! We thoroughly enjoyed the ports of call . . . .we were able to get a cabanette on Coco Cay and that was in a private area so we were protected from the little darlings! We loved Falmouth!. The food on board was good especially Portofinos. The staff was very friendly but frazzled! Lastly there were very few smokers so I didn't have to deal with smelling smoke on the balcony.

 

Bottom line . . . If you are a family considering sailing at Thanksgiving, Go . . . you'll be totally catered to. If you don't care for kids . . . .avoid this one like the plague!!

 

Please don't tell me to try Celebrity . . . we did and didn't care for it.

 

I don't keep compasses but will try to answer any questions I can.

 

I'm sorry but as a diamond member-I would think you would already know the line. I know you got bad advice from an employee but still. the holiday and a dreamworks ship had to be telling yourself something-yes, no:confused:

Didn't like the kids.

Saved from smoke on the balcony

but do not want to try another line-at least if you are going to sail during the holidays, I do have to question why not?

[love-to-cruise2]

We just got off the Oasis. It was very family orientated. Had a great time on a great ship!!

[meab]

i'm still trying to figure out how 2000+ kids can even be accommodated on the Oasis or Allure. The rooms in Adventure Ocean certainly aren't big enough to entertain HUNDREDS of kids at a time?!

[cruisinp]

Sorry to condense your comment but I will cut to the chase. You are not particularly kid friendly and your husband can only tolerate the grandkids in limited quantities? Hmmmmmm.....why in the world would you take a HOLIDAY cruise on a FAMILY CRUISE line??? You say you are not

particularly kid friendly. Why impose yourself on a kid friendly line?

 

There are so many Lines where kids are no where to be found. You should book those lines. But then be prepared to spend more to cruise. And be prepared for a completely different kind of on board cruise experience.

 

Seems like so many want the Royal Caribbean experience but only on their own term, no kids or limited access to kids. Well hate to burst your bubble but during ANY holiday and during the summer expect LOTS of kids, LOTS of Kids on Royal Caribbean. Oh and even if you are D+, Pinnacle or even Cryptonite, the kids are welcome because they are the future for RCI and you are the past and only the present....sorry if the truth hurts.

 

I understand how the OP feels. I love RCCL and never experienced an abundance of kids until this past year on the FOS. I think the new Dreamworks program has really added to the desire of families to cruise on these ships. Don't get me wrong, kids are okay in my book, but that last cruise had a ton of kids running wild on the ship. DH and I don't do a lot of the activities; we spend a lot of time on our balcony chilling. I only saw 1 character the entire cruise. (That's one character in costume! LOL) We will be sailing, for the third time, on the FOS in a couple of weeks and I am looking forward to it. If there are too many kids for my taste I will change to a different class of ship or begin cruising on Celebrity. I hate to give up the Freedom class but, as others have said, RCCL has become even more family friendly -- that is their future and I totally understand. It just may no longer be the ship for me.

 

As a side note: It never ceases to amaze me how many comments are made on these boards that are truly unnecessary. And I am not talking about just the post that I quoted. Why do people have such strong feelings, and feel the need to verbalize, about simple things like: kids, smoking, dress? There is no need to comment on a subject if it is not on-point. I don't believe that most of us care about negative comments. This board is a wealth of information, however, some days the comments become such a downer. Can't we all just get along? I know, that's not life!

 

Happy cruising to all!

[reallyitsmema]

I understand how the OP feels. I love RCCL and never experienced an abundance of kids until this past year on the FOS. I think the new Dreamworks program has really added to the desire of families to cruise on these ships. Don't get me wrong, kids are okay in my book, but that last cruise had a ton of kids running wild on the ship. DH and I don't do a lot of the activities; we spend a lot of time on our balcony chilling. I only saw 1 character the entire cruise. (That's one character in costume! LOL) We will be sailing, for the third time, on the FOS in a couple of weeks and I am looking forward to it. If there are too many kids for my taste I will change to a different class of ship or begin cruising on Celebrity. I hate to give up the Freedom class but, as others have said, RCCL has become even more family friendly -- that is their future and I totally understand. It just may no longer be the ship for me.

 

As a side note: It never ceases to amaze me how many comments are made on these boards that are truly unnecessary. And I am not talking about just the post that I quoted. Why do people have such strong feelings, and feel the need to verbalize, about simple things like: kids, smoking, dress? There is no need to comment on a subject if it is not on-point. I don't believe that most of us care about negative comments. This board is a wealth of information, however, some days the comments become such a downer. Can't we all just get along? I know, that's not life!

 

Happy cruising to all!

If you are sailing on the 11th, then you shouldn't have a lot of kids. If you are going on the 18th, I would expect over a thousand since a lot of schools are done for the holidays at end of school on December 16th.

[RareBird]

we cruise mid-May, mid-September and mid-December [2nd or 3rd week, NOT last week] to avoid the kids. Very happy so far.

 

Try Holland America. My parents did and loved it. very few kids, all adult activities - they even have a culinary institute onboard.

[johneeo]

 

As a side note: It never ceases to amaze me how many comments are made on these boards that are truly unnecessary. And I am not talking about just the post that I quoted. Why do people have such strong feelings, and feel the need to verbalize,

 

That is the nature of on line message boards.

 

Discussion, opinions, and disagreements happen.

 

It never ceases to amaze me that many folks take things too personally.

[cruisinp]

If you are sailing on the 11th, then you shouldn't have a lot of kids. If you are going on the 18th, I would expect over a thousand since a lot of schools are done for the holidays at end of school on December 16th.

 

Yup, the 11th is the date. The last time was the end of August. The kids in our area started back to school and I didn't realize that there were tons of kids that had not gone back. We typically plan our cruise when the kids are in school. It's a luxury that we have now that we are grandparents and don't have little ones to worry about. Well, unless we take the grandkids!

[cruisinp]

That is the nature of on line message boards.

 

Discussion, opinions, and disagreements happen.

 

It never ceases to amaze me that many folks take things too personally.

 

The disagreements don't bother me. What bothers me are those who must make negative comments as their norm. I frequent other message boards that do not allow the type of things that happen on this board. I believe it is that different boards have different tones and this board, to me, has had lots of negative tones since I have been visiting it (which has been a long time). I had to change my name as I couldn't remember my password. Anyway, I get lots of information here. I just don't like the nastiness that happens. Just my opinion.

 

I don't take things personally. If I did I wouldn't hang around.

[alohanails]

We too prefer to travel when there aren't as many kids....we did the Med in mid-Sept a couple of years ago....it was heavenly....just 17 kids onboard...I did feel a bit sorry for them though....they seemed bored. We however loved it....booked the Venice Itinerary for Sept 2012!

In January we are doing a 4 nighter on the Jewel....we fully expect a decent amount of Kids....especially since we get back on MLK day....kids only miss 2 days of school instead of 3.

[Cruzaholic41]

. .and for those of you who are about to flame me and say your children are well behaved . . . . they're NOT.

 

No one on Cruise Critic has ill-behaved kids. Just ask them! ;)

[cruisinp]

no one on cruise critic has ill-behaved kids. Just ask them! ;)

 

lol!

[mikedoes]

What is there about Falmouth to "love"?

[LESLIEKURZ]

What is there about Falmouth to "love"?

 

I was wondering the same thing since I'm going there for the 1st time in May 2012. Also if Irish has any pics of Dr. Cave's I'd love to see them.

[teajak]

Yup, the 11th is the date. The last time was the end of August. The kids in our area started back to school and I didn't realize that there were tons of kids that had not gone back. We typically plan our cruise when the kids are in school. It's a luxury that we have now that we are grandparents and don't have little ones to worry about. Well, unless we take the grandkids!

This set of grandparents will be with you on the Freedom 12/11. We can always hide on our balcony or the DL,no worries.;)

[north29]

That is the size of many elementary schools, as an ex educator, I feel for you, but, that is why we travel only in the off months. To voice with another poster, it is not the kids, it is the parents(not all), who have never trained their children, to behave, properly in public places and respect others, heck that is true of every where, families gather. Also, I hope that others will appreciate what, again was said above, what teachers go through, in the classroom, and many times the behavior of some or many students, keeps your kids and grand kids and other well behaved students from getting all they can get from their time in school.

It would be virtually impossible for RC to keep peace for all cruisers.

Also responding to above post, that RC wants to build a strong, younger base of cruisers, fine, but they will old cruisers sooner than they think and most likely complaining about the same issues LOL.

[Loves_Dogs]

Yup, the 11th is the date. The last time was the end of August. The kids in our area started back to school and I didn't realize that there were tons of kids that had not gone back. We typically plan our cruise when the kids are in school. It's a luxury that we have now that we are grandparents and don't have little ones to worry about. Well, unless we take the grandkids!

 

We are also on FOS on the 11th. Here is hoping for a calm peaceful cruise.

[cruisinp]

This set of grandparents will be with you on the Freedom 12/11. We can always hide on our balcony or the DL,no worries.;)

 

Sounds like a plan! See you in the DL.

[believer33323]

How do you find out how many kids or adults are onboard a ship??

[cruzincurt]

We sailed one Thanksgiving, learned our lesson.:eek: It's not the cruise line, it's the particular weeks to watch out for if you are not kiddo tolerant, as we are not as well. That's why we are sailing next week.