thanksgiving 2005, too many kids?

[dewla]

My husband and I are going to sail on one of the SD ships this winter. We are considering the week of Thanksgiving. However, is it likely there will be many children? If so we would go the following week.

Also are any of the Carribean itineraries better than others (in your experience/opinion)?

Thanks!

[wulicny]

We are sailing on the SD II the week before Thanksgiving. We choose our vacation times to coincide with minimum numbers of "family" travel, so the Thanksgiving week sailing would be suspect for us.

 

As to the itinerary, any island that we have not been to before is a plus for us, and SD takes us to 5 new islands on this trip: St. Thomas (been there), St. Martin (been there, too), Guadeloupe, St. Barts, Antigua, Jost Van Dyke, and Virgin Gorda.

 

Also, we can better appreciate a St. Thomas departure than a San Juan departure ... just a preference for us.

 

Bill

[frequent traveler]

On the Easter nightmare cruise, all but two of the children under 18 were with non-US based families. I can't imagine families from the UK, Mexico, Germany and Norway coming over for US Thanksgiving (Christmas is a different story when many international travelers take two week holidays - oh, we dreary Americans.)

 

Of course the two US children were not supervised by their feuding parents. . . . :rolleyes: I don't know what its like in other regions in the country but here in the Southeast we only have Thursday and Friday off from school . . . I would still go the week before or the week after just to avoid the holiday crunch at the airport. St. Thomas was a nightmare.

 

If you take the newer Southern Caribbean cruise on SD -- -please do a review - we are considering ourselves and would love a review of the ports.

 

Have fun. :)

 

FT

[dewla]

Thank you. I think we are leaning towards the week after Thanksgiving. Still debating on this trip as the airfare is so expensive. But it looks like such a great time. Also I have been on five cruises in the past and all with balconies. Will we miss them?

 

THANKS!

[frequent traveler]

Hi Dewla --

 

Wish we could join you the week after Thanksgiving, but work schedules don't permit.

 

Sea Dream's public spaces are so great -- we didn't miss a balcony at all. You can get all the privacy you need (while we didn't experience) -- we've heard some lovebirds on other SD cruises have taken it a little too far in the Balinese sun beds.

 

Typically, the only crunch seems to be at breakfast when a large group of people need to eat in a short period of time to make an excursion deadline, but even then there are little nooks with booth settings tucked in on the outside of the open dining deck.

 

On various deck levels -- 2-5 there is more than enough seating spaced out so you can choose to have company or sit by yourself. I absolutely hate crowds and except for an afternoon by the pool or occasionally in the bar - -never ever felt "croweded".

 

Truly, except for the children issue on the holiday weeks, this was the best vacation my husband and I have ever taken (2nd place is now the Four Seasons).

 

Have fun

FT

[DisneyJen]

Hi Dewla:

 

We are sailing the second weekend in November this year on the repositioning cruise from West Palm to St. Thomas. Last year we sailed the first weekend of December on the St. Thomas to St. Thomas voyage. While there were no school-aged children we did have an infant celebrating its first birthday, and a couple of toddlers.

 

One of the reasons we picked the repo cruise is that we expect that there won't be many children as air is expensive when you have a multi-city ticket. We shall see.

 

As Bill mentioned, there are some great islands that SD visits. On our trip last year new islands for us included Angullia, Nevis and St. Kitts, and St. Barts. We have done St. John. Virgin Gorda and Jost Van Dyke many times. Actually they are three of our favorite places in the world.

 

As for the balconies ... that was one of my concerns before we sailed SD as we were used to suites on mainstream lines. The only time I really missed the balcony was in morning at breakfast. And that was more from a vanity standpoint as I love to eat breakfast in my jammies on the balcony.

 

As FT mentioned there are loads of places to enjoy ... our favorite spot was a Balinese sun bed ... actually it sort of became a running joke that one sun bed was "ours" since most days from morning until cocktail hour that is where you could find us.

 

DH and I are really looking forward to those two sea days we have this trip and reading up on deck.

 

Hope that helps!

[dewla]

Wow! thanks for the feedback! I wish some of you could come with us! Our itinerary has us embarking in St. Thomas and overnighting there until the next am and then going to St. John's. Will also be going to St. Bart's (with an overnight), VIrgin Gorda, and Jost Van Dyke and Saba and Anguilla! We end in St. Martin. I like the itinerary.

Getting air and booking soon!!