cruising during spring break??

[cthrn27]

Hello.  I have only ever cruised on Carnival, and only during the busy summer months.  I now have an opportunity to possibly cruise in the spring.  I'm curious if it will be as busy as summer due to spring break??  AND, would spring break pretty much be mid March through end of April?  AND, would a line without a kids program be less crowded during break time?

Thanks in advance.

[mz-s]

During spring break on Carnival you'll have to worry more about the college crowd than the family crowd.

[lazydayz]

In my experience, spring break is very crowded (only sailed Carnival and Royal for that), and lends itself to a lot of rowdy behavior.  And I think your time reference is correct.  Our public school spring break is the week of March 11th. 

[WhiteOptima]

We went on Celebration last year leaving on Easter Sunday.  NEVER AGAIN!  Too many packs of teenagers.  We stayed on the next week and there were 1200 less passengers.  It is hard to determine when schools are out because we also went in February and there were families and their kids were on a winter break.

[Pika8347]

Totally disagree. I've done three (prior Covid) spring break cruises with my boys (11 & 13) and we never noticed rowdier or bad behavior. Yes, there were definitely more kids, and yes, they pushed every elevator button before they got off on their floor, but I say that's par for the course and I just rolled my eyes as we stopped on every floor. 

[scpirate]

I doubt An adults only cruise line like VV would be exempt from spring break rowdiness. We did Celebrity out of San Juan second week of April some years back that was peaceful. I unwittingly have a cruise booked for the second week of April myself .I never thought about spring break out of Miami.

[clackey]

3 minutes ago, scpirate said:

I never thought about spring break out of Miami.

I never thought about it out of Tampa either.  We have a Celebrity cruise in April of 25.

[Elaine5715]

College age rowdiness is rarely an issue but like any holiday, there will be many families with kids.  Not that there is any time without kids.  

[hurricane0226]

We have a spring break cruise coming up in March, on the 17th, some colleges don't start spring break that early, were on one last year, and had not problems, this is our grandkids spring break,

[dabomb6608]

My first two cruises 2019 & 2020 were during spring break for our area. Traveled with a group of 2 other families that are all teachers. We always had a blast. Definitely busier, more kids and more young adults. Only real issue I had was the college group across the hall from us being loud when they returned to their room late at night. Besides that, nothing else stands out in my memory as being unpleasant on those cruises. 
 

If you go into something only thinking/worrying about the negatives, the negatives will be the only thing you see. It’s a cruise with thousands of randoms. Statistically you are bound to see rude, obnoxious or unpleasant people. I’m not going to let someone else’s poor choices ruin my vacation for me.

 

Obviously there comes a time when intervention is needed. Lord knows I was close to my limit with the group across the hall from us by the 3rd late night wake up. But for the most part people just need to carry on with their cruise. It’s not worth the frustration a majority of the time. 

[silversneakers]

13 hours ago, scpirate said:

I doubt An adults only cruise line like VV would be exempt from spring break rowdiness. We did Celebrity out of San Juan second week of April some years back that was peaceful. I unwittingly have a cruise booked for the second week of April myself .I never thought about spring break out of Miami.

Don't forget that Easter is early this year, March 31 so that will be a big cruise week. I find mostly the 3-4 day cruises are attractive to young people because of the cost and Carnival is less expensive than say RCL.

[UGACamper]

We are also new to cruising in the Spring and depart 3/2 from Mobile.  Kids will be kids, as they say.  The worst behavior I've seen on ships is always from adults...  Not gonna let their choices steal my joy.  My biggest concern is the weather!  Praying for warm water and sunny skies!

[mjkacmom]

11 hours ago, hurricane0226 said:

We have a spring break cruise coming up in March, on the 17th, some colleges don't start spring break that early, were on one last year, and had not problems, this is our grandkids spring break,

I’ve had 5 in different colleges, all spring breaks were in march, our public schools have spring break in April. Here’s a table https://www.ststravel.com/college-spring-break-dates?gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI4cSN5aL2gwMVC1lHAR17lwHxEAAYASAAEgIT4fD_BwE

[silversneakers]

1 hour ago, mjkacmom said:

I’ve had 5 in different colleges, all spring breaks were in march, our public schools have spring break in April. Here’s a table https://www.ststravel.com/college-spring-break-dates?gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI4cSN5aL2gwMVC1lHAR17lwHxEAAYASAAEgIT4fD_BwE

That is a great and helpful post.  Thank you.

[seaman11]

17 hours ago, mz-s said:

During spring break on Carnival you'll have to worry more about the college crowd than the family crowd.

I went once 0 sleep, screaming noisy ect. 

[cthrn27]

Thank you all for your most helpful insights.  Much appreciated!!

[Hoosierpop]

18 hours ago, Pika8347 said:

Totally disagree. I've done three (prior Covid) spring break cruises with my boys (11 & 13) and we never noticed rowdier or bad behavior. Yes, there were definitely more kids, and yes, they pushed every elevator button before they got off on their floor, but I say that's par for the course and I just rolled my eyes as we stopped on every floor. 

I agree with this. We have gone on many spring break cruises and I don’t think the crowds are than other cruises. Of course, the worst behavior I’ve seen on cruises is from adults, so I don’t really worry about kids. 

 

[Butterbean1000]

I agree with all the above comments. If you do decide to cruise during this time, don't do a 4 to 5 day "booze cruze".  The longer cruises will still be crowed with college breakers and kids, but just a bit less chaotic.  Just be prepared. 🙂

[aggie182]

We were on the Vista for Spring Break 2022 and we swore we wouldn't cruise over Spring Break again (but we are this year, go figure!).  It was the first full capacity cruise after covid and it seemed like a lot of the kids didn't remember how to act in public.  We had a room near the arcade and it was a wild scene at times with the gatherings and behaviors of the kids.  We didn't let our kids venture out without us much at all on the cruise in an effort to not let them get mixed up in the chaos.  Kids were climbing on the video games, pushing each other down the 1/2 flights of stairs by the arcade, and all kinds of other stuff.  We still had a great time but will attempt to avoid Spring Break cruises in the future.

[pinklucky61]

19 hours ago, Pika8347 said:

Totally disagree. I've done three (prior Covid) spring break cruises with my boys (11 & 13) and we never noticed rowdier or bad behavior. Yes, there were definitely more kids, and yes, they pushed every elevator button before they got off on their floor, but I say that's par for the course and I just rolled my eyes as we stopped on every floor. 

I've never really noticed a difference either.

[tonyhb12]

I think the clarity needs to be in the difference between college spring break and Easter Spring Break (K-12).

 

This year, these 2 breaks are very close because of how early Easter is.  However, there is no overlap here.

 

College Spring Break will yearly follow the relative dates in the link provided (early march through late march).

 

Easter Break Varies with.....Easter.

 

The booze cruise concern should come with the college spring break, in my opinion.

 

The rowdy kids (teens) will happen on the Easter Break Cruises.

 

The overcrowding will happen on both, but more likely on Easter Break (since families travel more than college kids - on cruises that is).

[TN Roz]

We did a Spring Break (mid March) several years ago and said never again. We were on a 7 day on a new ship and it was very crowded and very rowdy. Not just on the ship, but in port, also. We always go to Mr. Sanchos while in Cozumel and it was almost impossible to get a drink due to the servers being so busy with the teens and young adult Spring Breakers. 

[Elaine5715]

6 hours ago, Butterbean1000 said:

I agree with all the above comments. If you do decide to cruise during this time, don't do a 4 to 5 day "booze cruze".  The longer cruises will still be crowed with college breakers and kids, but just a bit less chaotic.  Just be prepared. 🙂

Most College breakers need to be traveling with responsible adults.  It isn't like 8 20 yrs old can book a cheap interior and drink til they puke onboard but they can do that on land.  

[Butterbean1000]

16 minutes ago, Elaine5715 said:

Most College breakers need to be traveling with responsible adults.  It isn't like 8 20 yrs old can book a cheap interior and drink til they puke onboard but they can do that on land.  

Absolutely.  All it takes is for a partying 20something to book the rooms.  Chaperones can only do so much to control drunk 20 year olds.  Heck, some parents can't control their kids or chose not to.

Edited January 25 by Butterbean1000

[silverturtle]

I think we've cruised spring break more than during the summer b/c I work for the schools. We've seen only a handful of rowdy/fighting kids or young adults. We figure it's all part of the cruise, they start acting up and we're there to watch!! Just part of the entertainment package!!