Average Age

[DrivesLikeMario]

In the Washington DC area (Maryland, Virginia and DC) public school get out right before Christmas depending on the day Christmas falls. There were many times when DS's first day of vacation would be 12/24 and in this area they go back on January 2nd or the following Monday if January 2nd is on a weekend.

 

Since travelling on 12/24 is just awful we would normally just take him out of school a few days early since they never seemed to be doing any real school work that close to Christmas. Years we didn't travel I would ask what did you learn today and mostly got we watched movies all day. :eek:

 

When I was a child growing up in Florda we would get a nice long Christmas vacation of at least 2 full weeks - we did not get a Winter or Spring Break only Good Friday and Easter Monday.

 

Wow, that's late to get out of public school! :eek: I think most public schools get at least 2 weeks off during Christmas break. I think it varies greatly when that vacation starts. Some schools it's early, some later. Almost all colleges get 2-6 weeks of vacation during that time.

 

Like you said, many families pull their kids out of school early too. It's been our luck that my sons have always had multiple major tests on the last day before vacation starts and they'd have a heart attack if I took them out of school early. :rolleyes:

 

During the time period that the OP is cruising, many families DO cruise then.

[Sunshinecrew]

Did some quick searching and didn't really find my answer, so apologies in advance if this has been asked before.

 

The wife and I have cruised 3 times (all Carnival), twice while in our 20's and once 3 years ago with our 2 girls (14 and 17). Those cruises were all great and perfect for our age, or our average family age.

 

Now we want to go by ourselves, to celebrate our anniversary, and have been looking at HAL. Specifically, the Westerdam to southern Caribbean. We are now both in our mid 40's and I for one am worried that we will be too young for this crowd. I'm assuming of course that the entertainment, food, etc. is all focused around the average age.

 

Please, don't take offense, I like an older crowd. Heck, I'm old myself, I just don't want to go too far from one extreme to another (i.e. Carnival to Holland).

 

What is the average age for this cruise? Will we fit in with the crowd on this cruise line?

 

I would say that most were pushing 70 and up on our recent 12 med cruise on the Zuiderdam. I think it would depend upon the time of year, area and length of cruise.

[fun*n*sun]

From what I've read the time between Thanksgiving week and Christmas vacation are among the slowest times for travel industry. I'm not sure how that would effect the average age, other than there will probably be very few children.

 

It used to be the case that schools had two weeks off for Christmas, but that is not true any longer. There are "year round" schools that have more time off in December, but the average school in the United States now gets out 2 days before Christmas and returns to school on January 2nd, depending on the days of the week the holidays fall on.

[skwidstir]

Skwidster, I have some "insider" knowledge about your sailing. I was scheduled to sail with you, but canceled.

 

A 600 passenger group, sponsored by "The Nation" will be aboard. Reverend Jesse Jackson and musical guest Jackson Browne will cruise with you.

 

 

fann1sh,

 

Thanks for the heads up. The wife and I talked about this last night and we've decided to make a go of it, regardless of the large group. Our thoughts were that this is our anniversary trip and we really want this trip to be laid back. In the past we've spent too much effort trying to experience it all. Grabbing the the schedule when it comes out and planning the day events. This time, we are just going to relax. The big group can have the ship, as long as they aren't rude, I'm OK. From what I've read from others who've sailed with large groups, they can and do take over large areas (the pool), but generally spend a lot of their time in meetings. I'm hoping for the later. Thanks for the info tho!