scorpiomum Posted October 2, 2007 #1 Share Posted October 2, 2007 we are going on Brilliance of the Seas 9 night med cruise and i know its out of school holiday time but it was really the only one we could afford. so my question is, what is the chance of my 2 boys 5 & 9 being the only children on board? surely some other parents have seen how much cheaper it is at this time of year and are prepared to take their kids out of school? payment date has just gone and i noticed today all the family oceanviews that were booked before are now available. does that meant there are no other kids? and if there isnt, will my boys still enjoy the AO programme and will the people in charge make a fuss over them so they still have a great time? (Mum needs some rest time). Just hoping someone else has been in this situation and can give me some advice. thanks :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scorpiomum Posted October 2, 2007 Author #2 Share Posted October 2, 2007 sorry...meant to say cruise is 23 November 2007...so therefore during school term. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitty9 Posted October 2, 2007 #3 Share Posted October 2, 2007 You will probably find other EU kids on board, but probably not many, if any, Americans. It's really difficult to take kids out for that amount of time for a Med cruise plus there's the issue of the cost of flights. While that time period is the US Thanksgiving week, parents tend to go on Caribbean cruises rather than going so far to the Med. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scorpiomum Posted October 3, 2007 Author #4 Share Posted October 3, 2007 thanks for the reply kitty9. i guess i figured that but was hoping that they would still be entertained anyway and have a good time. fingers crossed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lssg Posted October 3, 2007 #5 Share Posted October 3, 2007 My son has a week off Nov 19th to the 23th, for thanksgiving, we are leaving on our cruise on Nov 16, 2007 I believe you will have a number of kids on this cruise because it is so close to thanksgiving...we have cruised at the end of september and in May with our son who is now 10 and there have always been children at the pool and kids club.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scorpiomum Posted October 3, 2007 Author #6 Share Posted October 3, 2007 Issg thanks for the response...its eased my mind. i think as long as there was even 1 or 2 other children they would have a great time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onessa Posted October 3, 2007 #7 Share Posted October 3, 2007 Our DD is 12YO and has only 2 days of school from 11/16 trhough 11/25 for Thanksgiving holiday (and local deer hunting season!). So we are doing a 7-day Mediterranean cruise out of Venice that week. I've checked on the Roll-call for that cruise and have had several responses of people with kids (US and an ex-pat living in Bussels). I would think that you would have at least some kids on your cruise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crusinmama06 Posted October 3, 2007 #8 Share Posted October 3, 2007 On a cruiseline like RCCL, I think you would be hard pressed to find a cruise with absolutly no children. :) We cruise during the school year and have always had tons of kids joining us. My oldest even met some friends who were homeschooled. I know it's a long cruise and an expensive flight, which usually leads to less kids but I wouldn't say no kids. Like Onessa said, check the roll call. See who's cruising with you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
celtic_beauty Posted October 3, 2007 #9 Share Posted October 3, 2007 There will be other kids....there are a lot of families that homeschool or take their kids out of school for vacation...We have done both :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scorpiomum Posted October 3, 2007 Author #10 Share Posted October 3, 2007 thanks everyone....had already checked roll call and no kids which is why i was worried. but the kids are excited and parents excited so i am not going to worry anymore. thanks again for your responses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitty9 Posted October 3, 2007 #11 Share Posted October 3, 2007 Like I said, IF this were a Caribbean cruise the OP was asking about, then there would be more kids on board, but the OP's cruise is MED cruise in November, so that greatly limits the number of US families going all that way during Thanksgiving week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onessa Posted October 4, 2007 #12 Share Posted October 4, 2007 Like I said, IF this were a Caribbean cruise the OP was asking about, then there would be more kids on board, but the OP's cruise is MED cruise in November, so that greatly limits the number of US families going all that way during Thanksgiving week. My cruise is a Med cruise on Thanksgiving week. thanks everyone....had already checked roll call and no kids which is why i was worried. but the kids are excited and parents excited so i am not going to worry anymore. thanks again for your responses. I specifically posted on the Roll Call asking about kids, and got responses. Prior to asking, I did not see anything on the roll call about kids. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tricialee Posted October 5, 2007 #13 Share Posted October 5, 2007 I've been a bit concerned too. We are travelling on the Legends 12 night Med cruise in April of 2008. We have a great roll call going, but there seems to be only 1 other child involved, a 14 yr old girl. We are travelling with another family, so my boys aged 6 and 10 will have some company, but they are both girls (aged 11 and 13). Although this will give them someone to play with they would much prefer other boys too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perthgirl Posted October 27, 2007 #14 Share Posted October 27, 2007 We just returned from 12 day Carnival cruise of the Med and there were a total of 39 people aged under 18 (out of 3000) - I would hazzard a guess there were probably only 100 under 50! Having said that it wasn't a problem. Our 10 year old daughter was treated like a princess especially at dinner since she was the only child on late seating. And the kids club did operate (on a limited programme) which was enough to give her a chance to meet some other kids. Remember Europe is really port intensive. On our 12 day cruise we only had 3 sea days and she came with us everywhere at port. So not only is the kids club less important, but she was also tired from 10 hour days of touring and was happy to relax by the pool (it was warm our days there) or watching a movie in the cabin a little. Consider an opportunity for your kids to act as 'grown ups' (dress for dinner, pre show drinks etc) and they will have a marvellous time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abitaturbodog Posted October 28, 2007 #15 Share Posted October 28, 2007 Don't get worried about the lack of people/kids on your Roll Call. Most ships sail full, so the other people are out there...they just don't know about Cruise Critic. So far on my Costa Roll Call in December there is only 1 other family going with us! The ship's just about full, so I know there are probably 2,985 other people that will be joining us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SelectSys Posted October 28, 2007 #16 Share Posted October 28, 2007 ... what is the chance of my 2 boys 5 & 9 being the only children on board? ... i noticed today all the family oceanviews that were booked before are now available ... thanks I would say the chances are almost non-existent that your kids will be the only ones on board. Clearly there won't be all that many relative to summer, but some will be on board. For example, I was on Navigator out of Southampton this summer and there must have been 700+ kids on board. Family ocean view cabins are relatively expensive. I wouldn't read too much into their availability. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginger11 Posted October 28, 2007 #17 Share Posted October 28, 2007 Hi I am taking the Queen Mary to the Carribean a couple of days before Thanksgiving. I called the line to ask something about the daycare center and they told me there will be 44 kids aboard (30 between 3-12). I figure that's enough that there should be someone for my son to play with!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rebeccalouise Posted October 28, 2007 #18 Share Posted October 28, 2007 I did a 14 night cruise on Celebrity Millenium in May of 2005 and there were about 40 kids on board. Most were pre-school age but there were one or two that were older. In any event, it was nice because they combined the age groups and siblings were with each other. Have fun- don't worry there will be kids. Celebrity, by the way, would not give me any information over the phone. We boarded early the day of embarkation and I then asked how many kids there were on board and the woman told me "one". I thought that meant Marc was the only kid that was going to be onboard for 14 days. But that wasn't the case. She was confused and he was the first kid to board but others followed. You can imagine what was going on in my mind- 6 sea days and an empty fun factory with just Marc. About 12 kids showed up that day for orientation- what a relief! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VikkiGarcia Posted October 28, 2007 #19 Share Posted October 28, 2007 Do not let your roll call indicate how many kids will be on board. We have sailed many times with our kids (off times of the year, no official holiday) and this is the results.Numbers of children other than ours that responded to roll call vs. how many on the sailing. Rhapsody of the Seas Sept. 2002....roll call 0 / 53 aboard. Legend of the Seas Panama Canal 2003...roll call 0 / 23 aboard Navigator of the Seas Sept 2004.....roll call 0 / 222 aboard Navigator of the Seas B2B very next week...roll call 6 / 498 aboard Radiance of the Seas 14 day Hawaii Sept. 2005....roll call 0 / 60 aboard Norweign Sun March 2007...roll call 2 / 147 aboard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erwin Family @ Sea Posted October 28, 2007 #20 Share Posted October 28, 2007 Every cruise is different so who knows. But, for what it is worth we cruise almost exclusively on transatlantics or European cruises on Mass market carriers, the fewest number of children that I remember was a march transatlantic in which there were 60. With regards to the number of children mentioned on mix and mingle post, I would guess that the overwhelming majority of posters are with out school age children. As has been mentioned, the m/m threads are clearly no indicator of the diversity that will be present on any given cruise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alessandrina Posted October 30, 2007 #21 Share Posted October 30, 2007 You may want to ring the cruiseline and inquire how many kids will be onboard in the age range of yours. I'm sure they will still have a great time in the kid's club even if there are not many children. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eclipsepearl Posted October 30, 2007 #22 Share Posted October 30, 2007 We did a med cruise on Celebrity in August and of course there were a lot of children. The roll call only mentioned a couple of teenagers but once we boarded, we easily could see how many there were. Don't go by the roll call! The Brillance was parked next to us a couple of times and it's a big ship. I can't imagine there wouldn't be at least a few kids onboard. I live in France and I know of an expat family who are pulling theirs' out of school to do a Med cruise with RCCL in November too, albeit slightly earlier one than you will be doing. This is their last year here and the school is private so they figured they might as well take advantage while they're on this side of the Atlantic. Between homeschooled children, which there are here in Europe too (albeit fewer), kids in private schools, which tend to be more flexible and expat families who are also taking advantage of the off-season while they're living in this part of the world, the kids' club wont be empty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cruisin' Chick Posted October 31, 2007 #23 Share Posted October 31, 2007 Unfortunately, U.S. schools have really tightened up on kids taking off school for vacations during non-breaks. The state of California pays the schools per student per day so it's a big deal for them. We had a fantastic deal on a cruise during Valentine's Week so we grabbed it. We took our five year old out of school (got her week's worth of homework from her teacher). She was one of only three five-year-olds onboard the ship. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rebeccalouise Posted October 31, 2007 #24 Share Posted October 31, 2007 Cruising has become much more of a family thing- especially the European cruise- so don't sweat it. It will be great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gennadi Posted November 1, 2007 #25 Share Posted November 1, 2007 I will be on the Celebrity Galaxy on Nov 24, 2007 to the Med with my 2 boys, 10 & 11. I have been having the same concerns. If there aren't many children, does the FunFactory still operate? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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