When is Spring BReak generally?

[Busygirl100]

I have booked a 9 night Southern Caribbean for March 20, 2009. I know this is spring break for many colleges as DS spring break always coincides with Ohio State. I am not concerned about a boat of young people or a full boat. I am concerned about a party boat. We cruised spring break 2007 on Disney and kept hearing horror stories at the ports from other cruisers (with elementary and high school aged children) about boats being full (more than half) of college kids on spring break, loud obnoxious behavior, inappropriate behavior in public areas, etc. I had hoped the longer cruises on NCL would not have these issues.

 

I am ready to have a good time, deal with a full boat and lots of kids but I don't want to deal with a thousand drunken young adults behaving badly. Can anyone who has cruised this time of year give me an idea of what to expect on the boat? I had read on earlier posts about a group of younger kids misbehaving during MLK break. Is this typical?? I love the idea of freestyle and the itinerary and this is the week we can go due to school schedules.

[CarRex]

Just got off a 14 day back to back on the Jewel 2/29, nine day & 3/9 five day. The nine day was fine, but 800 college spring breakers got on for the five day cruise to Cozumel and Grand Cayman.

 

They basically took over the pool deck. They stuffed the hot tubs with as many bodies as they could. I counted 17 at one time. And they sat all around the sides of the pools pretty much blocking access. All of this while drinking of course.

 

They partied all night keeping many people awake to 4 am. They caused the Jewel gangway to be left out 35 minutes later than it was supposed to be because they were still staggering back to the ship. A Carnival ship was docked next to us in Cozumel and she appeared to have just as many breakers on her as well.

 

We saw multiple objects zip past our balcony. They were usually to fast to see what was being tossed overboard. Some breakers were loud, obnoxious and trowing up in public places. The worst part was that they were boasting about their bad behavior.

 

After ten NCL cruises, I know I well never book a cruise in March or April again.

[riddle]

We are on the 9 day Jewel beginning April 11. I though with Easter being early this year and college spring breaks usually early also that we would not have a problem with spring break crowds at this time. Does anyone have any inside information on this?

[Diana68]

Hi Carol and Rex!

WOW! :eek: Sorry to hear about your cruise. I wish that you could have been on our Feb 15th sailing. It would have been great to sail with you again. We had a great time on the Jewel.

[CarRex]

Hi Carol and Rex!

WOW! :eek: Sorry to hear about your cruise. I wish that you could have been on our Feb 15th sailing. It would have been great to sail with you again. We had a great time on the Jewel.

 

Hi Diana:

 

Looks like we missed you by a few days.

 

Overall the cruise was great. Just a little tough on the last five days. On the bright side. The dining rooms were empty with no lines at anytime of evening because the breakers were just eating the burgers and dogs on the pool deck.

 

Also with our move up to Latitudes Gold, we enjoyed a lot more perks, especially the services of Alex.

 

Carole

[debsite]

It depends a bunch on whether you are worrying about the younger variety of children or the college age variety. From the website above it looks like most college spring breaks are done by 3/31.

The majority of PUBLIC elementary, middle, high school kids in Florida are out from 3/29 to 4/6. We live in Bradenton, and the Manatee county schools are out 3/28-4/7 making it just perfect for our 9 day Jewel cruise. Hope you enjoy your trip.

[Diana68]

Also with our move up to Latitudes Gold, we enjoyed a lot more perks, especially the services of Alex.

Alex is great, isn't he. I wrote a review of our trip, there is a link in my signature. :D

We are getting ready to sail in three weeks onboard the Dream from South America. I don't think that we need to worry about the spring break crowd on that sailing, :rolleyes: since it's 18 days. Rachael is actually afraid that there will be no other teens onboard. :eek: