177 Children - Is That A Lot!

[Jimbo in Ma.]

I am on the Cribbean Princess cruise 10/22/05 and just called to see how many children. There are 177 different ages the most in the 4-12 yrs.(116), Is that a large number compared to others who have cruised the caribbean?

[cruiserforlife]

I don't think that number is excessive and seems about average...remember,Princess does limit the number of children.

It's a big ship,you'll be fine...

[LARGIN]

Looks like it is on the low side which is good for you. During holidays and spring break it could be close to a thousand.

[Dreamer333]

No, thats not a lot at all... thats only about 6% of the passangers being children.

[MSN-Travelers]

Had 206 on Golden this April and really didn't know they were there.

[Casshew]

I am on the Cribbean Princess cruise 10/22/05 and just called to see how many children.

 

Hi Jimbo... don't you like kids? :D

[Jimbo in Ma.]

Yes we like kids! We are bringing our 3 children with us. I thought it seemed high seemed high, but I guess not! Thanks

[catdancers]

They reported 900+ on our Diamond cruise last year!

[Toto2Kansas]

177 is a very low number, especially in the summer months for a ship the size of the Caribbean Princess. You got very lucky! ;)

[Jimbo in Ma.]

Of course the cruise is not sold out yet for the October 22, 2005. I think because it's not a school vacation week the number will be low!

[joanne1]

We were on the Star, at the height of Spring Break, and there were over 840 on the ship for the week of March 27th. Although they used to . . . Princess does not limit the number of kids any more. I do like kids (I teach) but that was a few too many for me.

 

Remember that there is still sometime for families to plan their trips but being that it is during school my guess is that it will be a healthy number for everyone.

[spongerob]

I'm surprised the number is as large as it is for an October cruise. Must be fall break week somewhere.

[Cruiser_Guy]

We had somewhere around 1000 children on our Enchantment cruise according to Matt Baker! They were all over the place but never caused a single problem!

[Tania]

That's a lot of children being pulled out of school.

 

Do you consider a Caribbean cruise an educational vacation? Those being allowed to run wild around the pool without supervision certainly aren't getting one. It all depends on what you do with your children.

 

The teacher in me had to say it...

[Jimbo in Ma.]

This was a real struggle for my wife and I. Our kids are 16-13-9 and have travelled before, though this will be there 1st cruise. We decided to take them out of school because yes it will be educational. We will be snorkeling in St. John, Getting a personal tour with Joyce Prince in St. Martin, so the kids will learn a lot about the different cultures. And they will be doing the homework in the cabin that they are missing!(they don't like that idea)!

[kendon]

It so depends on the behavior of the kids. We had around 25 kids on the Coral/Panama Canal cruise in February (winter break). Two of those kids were absolute terrors so it felt like 2 too many! The whole ship was talking about them. Our young teens were great as were most of the kids on the ship.

[deerby27]

This was a real struggle for my wife and I. Our kids are 16-13-9 and have traveled before, though this will be there 1st cruise. We decided to take them out of school because yes it will be educational. We will be snorkeling in St. John, Getting a personal tour with Joyce Prince in St. Martin, so the kids will learn a lot about the different cultures. And they will be doing the homework in the cabin that they are missing!(they don't like that idea)!

 

I know I will be flamed for what I think, but who cares.

 

When you take your kids out of school for a vacation, they are truant, end of story. You think you can justify it by thinking it is educational. You must be delusional. You are not taking your kids on vacation for them, you are taking them for YOU. I have two children and I would have never entertained the thought of taking them out of school for a vacation.

 

Thats my opinion and I am sticking to it.

[AliceJ]

I know I will be flamed for what I think, but who cares.

 

When you take your kids out of school for a vacation, they are truant, end of story. You think you can justify it by thinking it is educational. You must be delusional. You are not taking your kids on vacation for them, you are taking them for YOU. I have two children and I would have never entertained the thought of taking them out of school for a vacation.

 

Thats my opinion and I am sticking to it.

 

Everyone has different parenting styles, what works for you and your family may not work for other families.

[AliceJ]

We were on the Caribbean Princess this past April with approximately the same number of kids onboard. There were enough kids that our 5 y.o. daughter had others her own age to play with, but not so many that you really noticed any kids onboard.

 

Enjoy!!

 

Alice

[taxatty]

There were about 1000 kids/teens (really!) on our CB trip last spring break--even that amount was managed well, although the MUTS pool was engulfed with kids--the spa and aft adult-only pools were peaceful.

 

Les

[sunprincess]

I am on the Cribbean Princess cruise 10/22/05 and just called to see how many children. There are 177 different ages the most in the 4-12 yrs.(116), Is that a large number compared to others who have cruised the caribbean?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For that time of year I think that is a high number as most are just returning to school. Guess cruises are getting like Disney, no matter when you go there are children!! During school vacations/holidays there are loads more kids on board.

[AliceJ]

It would be interesting to see what percentage of kids who are travelling during non-school holiday times are homeschooled.

 

We have friends who homeschool their daughters and time their vacations specifically to miss school holiday travel.

[Dreamer333]

I agree with the poster who stated that travel (for children) is definitely an education!!!!!

 

In many ways, the kids will be gaining more on their cruise than what they are missing from a week in school.

 

Even something as simple as geography... A child looking at a map can only really see it as one-dimensional, UNTIL he/she travels to those places on that piece of paper... then it really becomes a "map".

 

That is just one little example... But don't forget the value of meeting and interacting with people from different cultures... experiencing the different ports...

 

I can go on-and-on, but I'll stop now. :)

Anyway, enjoy your cruise!! I'm sure you and your children will have a wonderful time, and will make memories of a lifetime!!!

[margu1241]

Just a thought, but instead of assuming that people are pulling their kids out of school, some places now have year round school. In this system, the vacation is not during the traditional summer months for all students (some will have July/Aug, but the students are divided up and some will be off in October).

 

That said, I would be interested to know the breakdown of the kids on board between homeschoolers/year-round on break/and truant.

 

Patty

[Jimbo in Ma.]

There is one more reason why we are pulling our kids out of school besides the education on different cultures. We are renewing our vows after 20 years of marriage, so for our kids to witness our love for each other to me is PRICELESS!