How nervous should I be about spring break?

[letsgosomewhere]

Was about to put a deposit on a cruise last night when my DD, age 26 sent me an email asking if I remembered spring break is in March? So, I still have rooms holding on Serenade and Constellation for March 4th. Any opinions about the week being safe from drunken college kids? Not worried so much about either ship, just worried about the ports, Aruba, St Martin, etc. .......... I can go anytime and just thought March might be better with the weather , never gave a thought to spring break. February is more booked, and April, well, isn't that more Spring Break for families, Easter is April 16. Now I'm confused. Any opinions??? Looking for a good time, we are in our early 50's young at heart. (Did Princess to Alaska, and we felt we were among the youngest on the ship, which rolled up the carpets at 9pm each night) regards, Nancy

[ahoymatey3]

I can't speak to X specifically, but I cruised 3/31/05 - 4/10/05 on HAL's Maasdam. There were very few families aboard (the few kids I did see were VERY well behaved) and no rowdy springbreakers. I think I hit the shoulder between spring break and Easter.

[QQRZZA]

Spring break goes from late February well into April. Cruises of 7 days or less to the tropics will be loaded with spring-breakers. If that bothers you, avoid the problem. It could make for a miserable vacation. It's an easy problem to solve, just chose a cruise that is longer or at a different time.

[Mysteryreader]

Dh and I vacationed in Cancun over Superbowl Sunday a number of yrs ago and had a terrific time. One evening returning to our hotel from town via bus (an experience not to be missed! <g>) there were a number of "merry" people but the fun was clean with a lot of laughing. Age range was 20-somethings all the way up; a number of families from South America b/c it was summer vacation for them.

 

A friend vacationed there two mos later during spring break. He said it was gosh-awful--drunken college kids everywhere and all the attendant problems 24 hrs a day. He said he would never return to Cancun b/c of the experience.

 

Look at your itinerary carefully. If the ports are likely to attract large numbers of the drunken h.s. and college crowd, it won't matter if the cruise pax are all geriatric. You might want to consider another time.

 

M/R

[chessbriar]

For RCCL and X at least one person in a cabin has to be 25. So the huge influx of college kids you would expect will have to come with parents. What you tend to get is a lot more high school and younger kids as parents suddenly can go on vacation.

[Airb330]

Usually Spring Break is early in March. If you are going later, you'll probably be OK. U of Delaware has ours at the end of march, and if I go anywhere (even Cancun last year)....it's never too bad. As Chessbriar said, maybe the under 21 having a 25 y/o with them policy will help. Good luck....drunk college students are very annoying...I deal with it all the time at school!

[bikeman688]

You might want to consider May. I always book either May or Sept & there anr very few kids in the ships.

[CaribbeanBound]

Different schools and different states have different spring breaks (wide time range, but the bulk should be the week before or after Easter) and get out for summer anywhere from the 2nd week in May to the 3rd week in June.

 

The college kids I wouldn't worry about. I'ld be more concerned about the grade schools kids.

 

In general:

 

If you want to avoid kids, book a cruise that...

1. leaves out of a non-USA port (ie. San Juan)

2. is longer than 7 days

3. does not occur over any holiday or the summer

4. is an expensive cruise

 

If you want to increase the chances of kids onboard, book a cruise that...

1. Is 7 days or less

2. Is during a holiday (especially Christmas) or the Summer

3. Is a Disney cruise

4. Does the Western Carribean

5. Is on a less expensive cruise line

6. Leaves from a US port

[DarrellSTL]

My children (age 14 & 17) and I were on the Serenade this past spring during a 'spring break' cruise. Personally, I'd never do it again. I'm sure the Serenade was a great ship, but our experience wasn't good. There were 375 children on board in the 14-17 age group. I'm not sure how many there were in the other age groups, but there were kids everywhere. And, being that children are typically third and fourth people in a cabin, the ship was packed. In general, they were mostly well behaved. My children came back with reports of fights, drunk underage kids (15-17 year olds, not the college students!) and other problems. One day, we watched some kids throw the chess pieces overboard and then enjoyed watching the poor RCL employee who had to retrieve them. Thankfully, we were in port! But, everywhere you turned, there were kids - elevators, adult swimming pool, gym, hallways, etc. Now, I knew going in that this was a spring break cruise and that this would probably be the case. I just wasn't prepared for that many kids. This was my children's third cruise and definitely their least favorite. When they're back in the cabin at 10:30PM, it's a sign that they're not having a really good time. The organized activities never occured ("not enough kids showed up") so the kids were left to fend for themselves. And, I'm so glad I booked a balcony cabin since it gave us someplace to go that was quiet and private.

 

Not to sound to negative, the time together as a family was great, we had a blast on our shore excursions, the ship is beautiful and lots of activities and things to do to keep the kids and adults busy. Had we sailed a different time of the year, we'd probably have a very different opinion.

[Spender Nui]

Stay home then ... go either sooner or later. If you're not comfortable why take a chance???????

[Texed]

We are going March 4th on Constellation. We have never encountered a bad group of kids and/or college students.

[Host Anne]

We have cruised Spring break for years because that's when our daughter (now 19) could go. We never had a problem with rowdy college kids or being over-run with younger kids. But then we tend to sail Celebrity and I think families/college kids tend to gravitate more to the Royal Caribbean mega-ships (Voyager class) or Carnival. We just booked a spring break cruise on Zenith (I know we won't have a problem on her) but wouldn't hestitate to book any Celebrity ship for spring break. Christmas/New Year's is a different story ;)

 

Enjoy whatever you decide!

[safein]

We booked a cruise during spring break unintentionally. Had a great special and had until March 31 to book the cruise. We weren't aware of the college spring breakers onboard except for the nights Karaoke was offered. Then we saw them. I remember that they made the Rendezvous Lounge available to the teens until 1PM. We must have been lucky because we had a group of kids that were well behaved.

 

The only thing that I might be leary of taking a cruise in Spring 2006 is that with Cancun & Cozumel suffering major damage from Wilma, more college kids might try to head for the cruiseships.

 

Anita

[safein]

OOOOOOPPPPPPPPPSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!

 

I meant 1AM! Not 1PM!

 

Anita

[SANDY BEACH]

We sailed on a 4 night cruise over Spring break one year. Don't worry, your days will be quiet. They don't get up until 5pm. The group we sailed with were quite well mannered. Just having a good time.

[dogsrule]

;) We make it a policy to never cruise in March because of spring break. I would not recommend it - take it from a seasoned cruiser. Also, February is great for cruising the Caribbean....

[SANDY BEACH]

We have a 10 day cruise scheduled for March 2nd. I thought in booking a 10 day it should limit the amount of kids, college kids on the ship. What is everyone's thought on this?

[Ma Bell]

Try this link. Hope it helps.

http://updates.destin-fwb.com/COLLEGESPRING%20BREAKS2006.pdf.

[poetic license]

That was a great list, Ma Bell, and can be really useful when you consider that several universities SPONSOR spring break cruises. I know UT, Texas A&M, and Pitt are a few of those schools. They pick a western carribean itinerary of 7 days. However, I wonder how many plans will change due to Wilma's destruction to many of the ports on that itinerary.

 

For my own part, we have taken a 7 day cruise the first week of February and there were no children or teens aboard to speak of. Also took one the first week and one the last week of March, and kids had a negligible impact,too. The spring break heavy weeks are the middle two in March, and the weeks that Florida colleges are on break. Most colleges do not tie their spring break to Easter anymore, but many private and parochial elementary and high schools do.

 

The advice you have received thus far is right on target: Stick with longer itineraries of 10 nights or more, and it won't matter when you travel, so long as you steer clear of the western carribean route to avoid problems in the ports. (This WOULD be a great time for a Panama Canal cruise!) I would only add that it would be good investment of time to call the cruise line to check if any schools are sponsoring group cruises on the ship and dates you are considering.

 

I wish you good luck and great sailing; any day on a cruise is better than the best ones day-to-day.

[dcwlopez]

I'll be cruising on Century on March 9th on a 9 night cruise. I teach at a university so for me Spring Break worked out nicely. I'm giving my students the last class before Spring Break off (so I can leave town). Our anniversary is March 17th so having the time to leave during Spring Break worked out the best for us. I'd never really thought too much about the Spring Break crowds in ports though. Being in Arizona, a lot of students drive down to Rocky Point or even a little farther south.

 

Do many college kids have that much money to go to a carribean island during spring break? I was broke during college and we only went as far as we had gas money for.

 

We'll be in Grand Cayman, Jamaica, Aruba, and Curacao. How much "more crowded" do people think it will be then? I'm not planning on changing my cruise time, but I may rearrange plans to do shore excursions differently if there are going to be huge crowds.