Impact of President's Day and MLK Day on Cruising Crowds

[WorkerBee74]

Canadian here.  I know those are holidays but it seems like they are not really a national 'everyone gets the day off or gets paid extra time' type days like our Statutory Holidays are here in Canada.

 

So I'm wondering, do cruises really get busier those weeks?  Or are there not really enough people off on vacation those weeks to matter?

[pinto18]

Usually those are three day weekends for people with Monday being the "holiday". I don't think it makes a huge difference in Cruise crowds. Presidents day could coincide with some sort of winter holiday for kids/college students but thats not universal.

[sanger727]

It's a 3 day weekend. Outside of maybe a 3 or 4 day cruise I can't see anyone choosing a week cruise then for one of those holidays. It's usually more around school holidays that cruising becomes crowded. 

[MCC retired]

In the past , many US schools scheduled a week off  Presidents Day week.

Family cruises were popular that week.

Not sure if that will continue for 2022 and beyond but why not ?

[Saint Greg]

I know some Louisiana universities get a week off for Mardi Gras which may coincide with Presidents day depending on the year. That would probably only impact New Orleans...maybe Galveston and Mobile.

[FTLCruiseGal]

I have taken a few cruises on MLK weekend as I got some pretty good deals.  No busier than any other extended weekend cruise.

[navybankerteacher]

A loot of school districts in a number of states have February vacations involving Presidents Day (which IS a national holiday) -- those few school districts being "off" certainly does add to the number of families likely to cruise - with resulting surges of young children on cruises at that time - as well as higher prices, which reflect the increased demand.

[pris993]

some employers do not recognize MLK at all, neither holiday would impact cruising in my view. 

[clo]

16 minutes ago, pris993 said:

some employers do not recognize MLK at all, neither holiday would impact cruising in my view. 

I'm surprised by that. It's a federal holiday and I've only heard of stores and restaurants being open then.

[TheOldBear]

21 minutes ago, clo said:

I'm surprised by that. It's a federal holiday and I've only heard of stores and restaurants being open then.

My current employer [a software services company] does not have these days off, but our Customer does. My compromise is checking emails a couple of times during the day.

[XBGuy]

In my working days we did not get either Presidents Day or MLK Birthday off, either.  Hilariously, in the niche where I worked most of our customers were financial institutions or government offices--both of which were closed on those days.  We could look forward to very quiet telephones on those days;

 

OP, FTLCruiseGal seems to have the best knowledge as she reported in Post #6.  The one thing I might add is that since these holidays are 3-day weekends, there might be an uptick in 3-4 day cruises.  That is just a guess, though.  Regardless, I doubt if you are going to travel from Canada fir a 3-day booze cruise,

[Hooked Already]

Cost for cruises out of Long Beach are always higher on those weeks. 

[cruizergal70]

Does it matter for 2021? Generally speaking,  holiday cruises cost a bit more and/or sell out a bit faster. 

[pris993]

9 hours ago, clo said:

I'm surprised by that. It's a federal holiday and I've only heard of stores and restaurants being open then.

Yes, a federal holiday for govt offices, schools.  Private sector business decides what holidays they take... I worked in a private sector doctor's office for the past 20 years, never got this holiday because the hospital where the doctors worked doing surgery did not get this holiday... this in SF Bay Area.   Likewise, never got Veteran's Day, Columbus Day... so not uncommon. 

[navybankerteacher]

4 hours ago, cruizergal70 said:

Does it matter for 2021? Generally speaking,  holiday cruises cost a bit more and/or sell out a bit faster. 

2021 is still up in the air -- I think the point is academic as there will be precious few (if any) February 2021 cruises whose prices might be impacted.  We will still be trying to recover from the surge of Christmas-travel related travel infections suffered by the idiots who failed to learn from the results of the Thanksgiving travel.

 

But, yes:  holiday periods always see higher demand and resulting prices - and holidays such as MLK and Presidents Day contribute to such demand.

[clo]

41 minutes ago, navybankerteacher said:

  We will still be trying to recover from the surge of Christmas-travel related travel infections suffered by the idiots who failed to learn from the results of the Thanksgiving travel.

This.^

[ldubs]

9 hours ago, XBGuy said:

In my working days we did not get either Presidents Day or MLK Birthday off, either.  Hilariously, in the niche where I worked most of our customers were financial institutions or government offices--both of which were closed on those days.  We could look forward to very quiet telephones on those days;

 

OP, FTLCruiseGal seems to have the best knowledge as she reported in Post #6.  The one thing I might add is that since these holidays are 3-day weekends, there might be an uptick in 3-4 day cruises.  That is just a guess, though.  Regardless, I doubt if you are going to travel from Canada fir a 3-day booze cruise,

 

These were not holidays at my company either. 

 

For those that do get those days off, there may be a incentive to take the whole week by tacking on 4 days of vacation -- get 5 for 4 so to speak.   I guess I could see that pushing up cruise occupancy around three day weekends.  

[Markanddonna]

A tale of two B2B cruises: We sailed on an eastern and western Caribbean cruises- both B2B in February of 2020. Back then, we thought COVID was not going to affect the Caribbean- just China and Italy. 🙄 The first week was very pleasant and not overcrowded, but the second week was LOADED with school age children. We then made the connection- these kids had time off for President's Day.  The parents may have also taken them out of school for the extra four days, who knows?

 

The end result for week two was a horribly crowded ship and the pools and hot tubs were loaded with kids.  The pool looked like people stew.  The crowding during the evening was shoulder to shoulder. Then, as the week progressed, the ship became VERY sick with so many sneezing and coughing into the air.  I wanted to wrap myself in a plastic bubble and go home a day early- it was that bad. 

 

Moral of the story:  people will justify their kids missing four days of school for a cruise even if they have just one day off.  Not really criticizing, but this is reality. Lots of kids on a ship doesn't just happen over spring or Christmas break.

[capriccio]

18 hours ago, Hooked Already said:

Cost for cruises out of Long Beach are always higher on those weeks. 

 

That is the case for cruises out of Fort Lauderdale especially Presidents' Birthday week because of the already noted winter school vacations in many New England and other northern states.  Hotel prices are also higher than other weeks in February for the same reason.

Edited December 12, 2020 by capriccio

[hallux]

On 12/11/2020 at 9:40 PM, navybankerteacher said:

2021 is still up in the air -- I think the point is academic as there will be precious few (if any) February 2021 cruises whose prices might be impacted

I live in one of the regions where President's week is often "winter break" for public schools.  This year will be different - with the prevalence of at-home learning many schools are cancelling or shortening some of these breaks and also reducing their "emergency days" (extra days built into the calendar in case they have to call off school due to inclement weather) since they could just shift to home-based learning in the case of inclement weather.  With the reduced breaks, fewer people will be able to take those trips, even if they were to sail.  This also ends up shortening the school year (state mandate of minimum 120 days of instruction for the school year) so school is ending 1-2 weeks earlier this year.

[lenquixote66]

27 minutes ago, hallux said:

I live in one of the regions where President's week is often "winter break" for public schools.  This year will be different - with the prevalence of at-home learning many schools are cancelling or shortening some of these breaks and also reducing their "emergency days" (extra days built into the calendar in case they have to call off school due to inclement weather) since they could just shift to home-based learning in the case of inclement weather.  With the reduced breaks, fewer people will be able to take those trips, even if they were to sail.  This also ends up shortening the school year (state mandate of minimum 120 days of instruction for the school year) so school is ending 1-2 weeks earlier this year.

NYC schools that re-opened last week will likely close again.Nobody knows what the school system will be like this year.

[hallux]

15 minutes ago, lenquixote66 said:

NYC schools that re-opened last week will likely close again.Nobody knows what the school system will be like this year.

Yeah, I'm upstate, near Albany.  The schools in my region are a mix of at-home only, hybrid and in-person.  The hybrid and in-person are adjusting on the fly and calling at-home days as needed based on positive tests.  One district even had to call at-home days because their transportation system (most run their own here) had an outbreak and they couldn't find enough drivers for their busses.  

[WorkerBee74]

On 12/11/2020 at 8:40 PM, navybankerteacher said:

2021 is still up in the air -- I think the point is academic as there will be precious few (if any) February 2021 cruises whose prices might be impacted.  We will still be trying to recover from the surge of Christmas-travel related travel infections suffered by the idiots who failed to learn from the results of the Thanksgiving travel.

 

But, yes:  holiday periods always see higher demand and resulting prices - and holidays such as MLK and Presidents Day contribute to such demand.

 

This would be 2022 for us.  Thank you so much to everyone for your replies.  We have decided to 'attach' a trip to the Florida Keys to the end of the cruise, so we have decided to book the first sailing in April and will be home just before Easter weekend.

 

Thanks as always for your advice 🙂

[lenquixote66]

2 hours ago, hallux said:

Yeah, I'm upstate, near Albany.  The schools in my region are a mix of at-home only, hybrid and in-person.  The hybrid and in-person are adjusting on the fly and calling at-home days as needed based on positive tests.  One district even had to call at-home days because their transportation system (most run their own here) had an outbreak and they couldn't find enough drivers for their busses.  

The same where I am in Long Island.

[XBGuy]

47 minutes ago, WorkerBee74 said:

 

This would be 2022 for us.  Thank you so much to everyone for your replies.  We have decided to 'attach' a trip to the Florida Keys to the end of the cruise, so we have decided to book the first sailing in April and will be home just before Easter weekend.

 

Thanks as always for your advice 🙂

 

👍👍👍

 

Bon Voyage