Did I make a BIG mistake?

[TropicalIslandGirl1981]

I thought I did lots of homework when it came down to making sure I DIDN'T book my cruise at the peak of spring break. I live here in New England and looked through all of the winter breaks and spring break vacation dates. I found that the last two weeks of February are for the little kids through HS winter breaks and college kids are from March 1-15th. So I based my dates off of when there would be less children aboard. So I booked March 15-22nd 2015.

I figured I was going to be "safe"

anyone have any thoughts?

 

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[Abercram]

Where are you sailing out of? That'd probably be a better indicator since there would (probably) be more local kids if you were sailing from up north than the south, which seems to be quite popular (I'm new to cc). I am in college in the south and our spring break was march 9th through 15th... Most colleges around here (South Carolina) have it the week before or after as well.

[TropicalIslandGirl1981]

Cruising out of port Canaveral Florida

I don't mind the college students. It's the little guys who run rampid around the ship and being rude that I'm trying to avoid.

 

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[Abercram]

Ah well you should be ok then! I will be sailing out of the same port in a month and a few days! :)

[TropicalIslandGirl1981]

That's exciting. I have another year to go!

 

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[Lerin]

That is spring break for many schools around the nation, including Orange County.

If little guys is what you are trying to avoid, then you'd be best to re-schedule.

[swoonx]

Hi,

 

last year we cruised at the same time, but departing in San Juan.

 

San Juan was full of students, even our more expensive hotel was full of them - but those students were quiet and did disturb anyone, the hotel was just crowded.

 

But: On our cruise I could not notice a difference to our other Caribbean cruises. Everything was fine and we really enjoyed it!

 

Probably you should avoid short cruises (3-4 days) and cruises departing in Florida.

[fishywood]

In Florida the kids get their spring break much later than in the cold weather regions.

Miami-Dade and Broward counties--two of the largest school districts in the nation--just resumed on Monday after last week (and the Friday before) off.

Conversely, state colleges in Florida usually take the last week of February or first week of March off, a bit earlier than many others.

I am afraid you have booked during the peak of grade-school family time; you need to avoid mid-March through Easter. In 2011 I embarked a Princess cruise on Easter weekend and heard tales from the crew about the over 400 kids onboard the week before (and Princess tends to draw fewer kids than most others).

[PhillyFinest27]

Well I live in Maryland and I am from Philadelphia and the kids spring break up here is not until another few weeks in April so if you don't want kids then you don't want to cruise from March to August. You might try the beginning of May but if you want less children the fall and winter months are the best. From personal experience.

 

 

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[5326jan]

Depends on where you're going and how long the cruise is. We sailed through the Panama Canal in March and there were only a handful of children. It was a 15 day cruise. If you're going to the Caribbean for 7 days there will be a ton of kids.

[Aquahound]

I thought I did lots of homework when it came down to making sure I DIDN'T book my cruise at the peak of spring break. I live here in New England and looked through all of the winter breaks and spring break vacation dates. I found that the last two weeks of February are for the little kids through HS winter breaks and college kids are from March 1-15th. So I based my dates off of when there would be less children aboard. So I booked March 15-22nd 2015.

I figured I was going to be "safe"

anyone have any thoughts?

 

I hate to tell you this, but mid March is still college Spring Break time and starting in late March is grade school Spring Break time down here. You are likely to have a lot of Spring Breakers on board and during that particular week, it could be a mix of both.

 

Late February is actually a better time to cruise. I wasn't aware Spring Break started that early up north, but that's unheard of down here.

[kitty9]

If you just checked the New England area for their spring break, you've still got 90% of the rest of the country to check. Many school districts don't use the traditional Easter week for their break, especially if it's in April, which it is in 2015. March is a very busy time for spring break, and seeing you're on Royal Caribbean, which generally attracts lots of families year round, you can count on having lots of young kids on board.

[mickiemac]

We just returned from a Carnival Freedom cruise out of Ft Lauderdale this past Sunday. After booking I was worried about spring breakers, but we had no issue at all. There were lots of families, but never had an issue with ill behaving children. Ours was an 8 day cruise. Maybe spring breakers take shorter cruises.

[leaveitallbehind]

As others have said, the spring break times vary around the country by college and school district. Typically anytime from early March to as late as mid April would be considered spring break times. Your cruise date is right in the middle of that and the likelihood is you will have an increased number of both age groups.

 

And if it matters, you will also have increased check in security for non-allowed beverages as a result. On our 8-night 3/1/14 Independence cruise they were closely checking all carry on's and listing wine bottles by cruise documents and stateroom numbers, even though there were very few college age passengers on board. They also x-ray all checked in luggage anyway but my understanding is they increase their scrutiny during spring break periods.

Edited April 2, 2014 by leaveitallbehind

[lkj1301]

We usually try to cruise in Feb the week before Presidents wk. We've never had a problem. I think I could count the number of kids on 1 hand and they were under 5 yrs old.

 

This year we were on NCL Epic 3/2 out of Miami - it wasn't too bad. A few college kids & yes some younger ones, but NCL Epic is geared for families - we knew that when we booked. Ship is so big never had a problem.

[TropicalIslandGirl1981]

So basically I should be looking to cruise the first two weeks of February and avoid all those other months. I don't mind the college students. New england has two breaks one for winter and another in spring. So even April won't work for up here....

Looks like I may have to change my departing dates.

Thanks everyone for your input.

 

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[swoonx]

So basically I should be looking to cruise the first two weeks of February and avoid all those other months. I don't mind the college students. New england has two breaks one for winter and another in spring. So even April won't work for up here....

Looks like I may have to change my departing dates.

Thanks everyone for your input.

 

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Or switch the departure port or switch to a longer (10days+) cruise :)

[TropicalIslandGirl1981]

I wish I could afford to. I'm paying for the cruise and flights for my friend and I. Otherwise I'd love to fly into San Juan.

 

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[Kit1972]

If you just checked the New England area for their spring break, you've still got 90% of the rest of the country to check. Many school districts don't use the traditional Easter week for their break, especially if it's in April, which it is in 2015. March is a very busy time for spring break, and seeing you're on Royal Caribbean, which generally attracts lots of families year round, you can count on having lots of young kids on board.

 

...and Canada too! :) Many Spring breaks are the the latter three weeks of the month.

[TropicalIslandGirl1981]

Just spoke to my friends and looks like we're going to be changing our dates to January. Just waiting to hear back from my TA to confirm

Thanks everyone for helping me out. Greatly appreciated.

 

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[Langley Cruisers]

...I don't mind the college students. It's the little guys who run rampid around the ship and being rude that I'm trying to avoid....

 

Just spoke to my friends and looks like we're going to be changing our dates to January....

 

Just wanted to say that there is absolutely no guarantee on any ship that there will be no kids. There are children on every cruise. Whether they run rampant or are rude is another issue altogether. We just returned from a back-to-back cruise and the second leg had almost 400 kids onboard. They were well behaved and having a great time. There can be 20 children on a cruise or 500 - no guarantee of how they will behave.

.

[TropicalIslandGirl1981]

I don't mind some kids, but at the height of spring break, I'd rather not deal with it.

 

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[dolita22]

Just spoke to my friends and looks like we're going to be changing our dates to January. Just waiting to hear back from my TA to confirm

Thanks everyone for helping me out. Greatly appreciated.

 

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I was going to say to check January! My husband and I (early 30s) have cruised in late January/early February the past couple years and ships have not been over-run with kids at that time. There are a few, but not nearly the number there are during spring break. Plus, January/early February are nice times to escape the cold.

 

Have fun planning!

[TropicalIslandGirl1981]

Thank you! I'm looking into end of January and its $320 cheaper too. I imagine that the airlines will be cheaper too.

 

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[Flatbush Flyer]

Any colleges on a 4-1-4 semester system will have the "1" month off. Some el-hi schools also have extended vacations during January. For future reference, many colleges use the exact middle week of their spring semester (start and end of which may vary significantly from place to place) as "spring break."

 

 

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