kids on Constellation Mid March out of Tampa?

[rodndonna]

We recently had an April 2025 Summit cruise out of San Juan cancelled for and are looking at rebooking options.

 

We are now looking at a cruise out of Tampa on the Constellation March 9th. My main concern is that perhaps it would be overrun with kids on spring break holidays.

 

We have only sailed Celebrity once - it was on the Summit of out San Juan in April this year, and kids were not a problem (not many and generally well behaved). It's the March timeframe and being out of Florida that has me concerned in terms of being overrun with kids for the March cruise. Should we avoid that cruise option?

[Shiba_Lover]

March + April is spring break timeframe for many in the US, and a cruise out of Florida is highly likely to have kids on board.  If you are looking to avoid kids or younger crowd - then best to avoid sailing when they are more likely to be sailing as well.  Less likely than on RCCL/Carnival, but also more likely than in months where kids are not out of school.

[mahdnc]

You will have spring break kids on board for sure.  I don't know if you will be overrun with them.

[BettyCruiser]

Celebrity specifically cited the goal of more families on board when they redeployed the Constellation for 2025. Quoted from my notification below.

 

At Celebrity Cruises, we are passionate about providing award-winning vacation experiences. As we position our brand for continued success, we constantly seek opportunities to elevate our already incredible offerings. With this goal in mind, Celebrity Cruises will be redeploying Celebrity Constellation in January 2025, with shorter itineraries to better serve family travelers out of Tampa, Florida. As a result, your clients' Celebrity Constellation Mardi Gras sailing, embarking on March 1, 2025 will be necessarily adjusted, as reflected below.

 

[rodndonna]

2 minutes ago, BettyCruiser said:

Celebrity specifically cited the goal of more families on board when they redeployed the Constellation for 2025. Quoted from my notification below.

 

At Celebrity Cruises, we are passionate about providing award-winning vacation experiences. As we position our brand for continued success, we constantly seek opportunities to elevate our already incredible offerings. With this goal in mind, Celebrity Cruises will be redeploying Celebrity Constellation in January 2025, with shorter itineraries to better serve family travelers out of Tampa, Florida. As a result, your clients' Celebrity Constellation Mardi Gras sailing, embarking on March 1, 2025 will be necessarily adjusted, as reflected below.

 

 

Thanks .. (bummer!)

 

I had some thought of why would someone pick an older Celebrity ship over an absolute plethora of what I would consider more kid-friendly options from Florida... but I guess we would still have to expect a lot of kids.

 

 

[peanut head]

Also, bear in mind that the shorter duration of a cruise enhances the possibility of more kids cruising. 

[Shiba_Lover]

1 hour ago, rodndonna said:

 

Thanks .. (bummer!)

 

I had some thought of why would someone pick an older Celebrity ship over an absolute plethora of what I would consider more kid-friendly options from Florida... but I guess we would still have to expect a lot of kids.

 

 

Completely agree.  There are so many ships with lots of kid based activities like water parks, roller coaster type things, mini golf.  Not sure why anyone would pick a Celebrity ship when these other ships are an option.

[RedIguana]

3 hours ago, rodndonna said:

We are now looking at a cruise out of Tampa on the Constellation March 9th. My main concern is that perhaps it would be overrun with kids on spring break holidays.

From what I have seen the Florida schools spring breaks are in the latter half of March in 2025, both college and K-12. So any spring breakers will be from out of state, and Celebrity is not the line of choice for college age. There might be a few extra families onboard, but would not expect many that early in March. I was on a mid-March Hal cruise in 2022 and saw very few kids or college students. Later end of March and first few weeks of April , especially on 3-4 nighters vs week or longer, sees the biggest spring break/families increase.

[rodndonna]

1 minute ago, RedIguana said:

From what I have seen the Florida schools spring breaks are in the latter half of March in 2025, both college and K-12. So any spring breakers will be from out of state, and Celebrity is not the line of choice for college age. There might be a few extra families onboard, but would not expect many that early in March. I was on a mid-March Hal cruise in 2022 and saw very few kids or college students. Later end of March and first few weeks of April , especially on 3-4 nighters vs week or longer, sees the biggest spring break/families increase.

 

Thanks. We have sailed on HAL a few times, and  was thinking the number of kids/families would be similar (at least on the small Celebrity ships) as they both offer about the same level of kid activities (not much).

 

It looks like we can get the same itinerary late January so may go with that date over March. Just have to move another planned holiday out of that January timeslot 😉

Good thing I'm retired for all this planning!

[RedIguana]

5 minutes ago, rodndonna said:

It looks like we can get the same itinerary late January so may go with that date over March.

I think that date is still a week or so before most if not all spring break dates for 2025. Not sure I would change plans because of spring break/families for that cruise.

[mrgabriel]

We sailed on Constellation once at Christmas and there were about 900 kids on board. Maybe it was great parenting, or maybe it was a really good Kids' Club staff, but we barely noticed them. Just some perspective. 

[rodndonna]

22 minutes ago, mrgabriel said:

We sailed on Constellation once at Christmas and there were about 900 kids on board. Maybe it was great parenting, or maybe it was a really good Kids' Club staff, but we barely noticed them. Just some perspective. 

 

Thanks for the point of reference (very encouraging). As it turns out, I checked and the week of March 9 is the March Break week for our schools "here" in Ontario - I don't think it would matter for our cruise, but flying that week could be pretty crazy so we have settled on going in late January instead. 

 

[Gaynors]

21 hours ago, Shiba_Lover said:

Completely agree.  There are so many ships with lots of kid based activities like water parks, roller coaster type things, mini golf.  Not sure why anyone would pick a Celebrity ship when these other ships are an option.

My kids are older now but always preferred Celebrity to other lines when we went for spring break.   Not all kids wants/needs are the same.  If you don't want to sail with kids on board don't sail in March/April and go on cruises longer than 10 days.

 

In fact my 20 year old choose to go on the Reflection with me for her spring break next year rather than the Odyssey of the Seas (same length and itinerary) or the Symphony of the Seas.