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When to cruise with teens


SL HomeschoolMom

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I'm trying to decide when to take a cruise with my teen boys (age 16 and 14) next winter... We were on the Carnival Spirit this past Feb. 3 and there were maybe a dozen kids 12+. They would like there to be more teens on board, just not 1000 of them :)

 

We'd like to go on the Carnival Miracle out of Ft. Lauderdale this time. We're considering leaving the day after Thanksgiving in November. We do not want to go over Xmas break, but sometime between mid-November to mid-April.

 

Any recommendations...are there common breaks for private schools or year-round schools when there might be more teens?

 

Thanks,

Shari

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We sailed on Carnival Liberty out of FLL last February during President's Week. Here in New York, most schools are closed that week, so there were a number of New York kids aboard. There were also kids from Michigan and Pennsylvania. My then-15 YO had plenty of friends in Club O2, but the ship wasn't overrun. The CD announced that there were 300 kids aboard - when we sailed Carnival Conquest in July 2005, there were 900 aboard.

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I don't think you will see many children if you go right after Thanksgiving as the children who are off would be off for all or part of Thanksgiving. If you went Thanksgiving week you would have some children on the cruise.

 

Keith

 

I agree with Keith. We've sailed the week after Thanksgiving for 3 years because we liked have very few kids on board. There were usually about 100 or so,.

 

We just came back from a week before Christmas cruise and there were probably 400 kids on board.

 

Don't go the week before or after Easter....THere will be a bizillon kids!!!!

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We were surprised by the number of teens on our Explorer of the Seas Caribbean cruise in early November 2002 (our son had a blast!). It turned out the reason was there were lots of families from New Jersey on board taking advantage of the fact that schools were closed there for a few days because of New Jersey Education Association's annual convention, which is held around the beginning of November. I looked it up for you and in 2008 it will be on 6th and 7th of November, so that might be a good time for you to choose for your cruise. As it's not a normal holiday week you shouldn't be overwhelmed but your boys will probably have company to hang out with.

 

Hope this helps.

Fiona.

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If you are looking to maximize the kids on the cruise, can you put it off till mid-June? Prices will be lower and right after school is out, a lot of folks will cruise.

 

Also, check to see when spring break falls for your public schools.

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Hi

We are cruising on the Miracle 12-7-08. We will have two 16 dds and one 14 dd cruising. We have cruised before. My girls love to cruise and love carnival. We have never cruised during a school break and it's never been a problem. The girls have always met someone to hang out with. Ya there is not a lot of kids but we are fine with that. If they want to talk or ask them cruise question ask away.:)

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To find out when kids are out on break check out Feb and April. Public schools always have one in each month. Scan the cruise costs and 9 out of 10 times the more expensive week is the time the kiddos will be out!!! My parents always took me out of school for Thanksgiving break, we always had fun, but not too many kids.....

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You can also cruise in Sept on the second weekend of the month. In Georgia our new calender (3 years now) we have a fall break around the 13th. A handful of counties now have this break. We were on The Mariner last Sept and had a nice amount of kids on board all from Georgia. I know other families that also went on cruises that week on other lines. It was an easy to drive to Florida and the rates are great. We will be cruising again this Sept and I do know other families planning cruises as well. My kids can not wait to go again.

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