15 night Caribbean cruise over the holidays

[zelker]

I'm not even sure this cruise existed in 2008 but there must have been something similar. I'm looking at a 15 night Southern Carib cruise on the Millie that leaves SJ on Dec 18th and returns Jan 2nd. We aren't interested in doing the cruise if it is full of kids (sorry, families.... nothing personal, we just like a more laid-back atmosphere). If anyone's done something similar (14-15 night, on an X ship, in the Carib, at the time of year that left a full week prior to Xmas), can you tell me if there were a lot of kids onboard?

 

Many thanks!

 

Barb

[ccletzgo]

Kind of hard to say. I am also looking at a 12 day out of San Diego in hopes that the length of the cruise will cut down on the amount of children. I am expecting it wont much.

 

If you could do a search and find out what the school holiday break dates are in SJ that might answer your question, but I really think the length of the cruise will work in your favor.

 

I have done my share of Christmas cruises and true, they are plum full of children.

 

I have always thought if each cruise line offered just one adult only cruise for the holiday they wouldnt have a problem filling it. Just one! :)

[zelker]

The Puerto Rico schools' last day is Dec 17th, the day before the cruise. Obviously though not everyone that's going on the cruise will be from PR although on our last cruise out of SJ, there was a huge contingency of Puerto Ricans who obviously got a really good deal on the cruise (and their kids) and it was fairly obnoxious! The kids (and some adults) were loud, unruly, and just plain RUDE! That was an 8 night, over Thanksgiving. We do NOT want to end up in that situation again so with that said, perhaps this is not the right cruise for us. :( PS - do not mean to suggest that all Puerto Ricans are rude or loud, it was just that it was very obvious by the demographics on that particular cruise.

[Cote d'or]

Count on around 400 children. On our first Holiday cruise (including Xmas and New Year), leaving out of San Juan, we feared the worst, hearing about the number of children, but they never bothered us. They take extra crew on board for the youth porgram and they always do a good job.

[zelker]

Count on around 400 children. On our first Holiday cruise (including Xmas and New Year)' date=' leaving out of San Juan, we feared the worst, hearing about the number of children, but they never bothered us. They take extra crew on board for the youth porgram and they always do a good job.[/quote']

 

By any chance do you remember how many days before Xmas you sailed? And many nights total was the cruise?

 

Thanks.

[Cote d'or]

By any chance do you remember how many days before Xmas you sailed? And many nights total was the cruise?

 

Thanks.

 

Mostly 3 to 4 days before Christmas, itineraries with an average of 14 nights.

[zelker]

Mostly 3 to 4 days before Christmas' date=' itineraries with an average of 14 nights.[/quote']

 

So I wonder if it would make any difference for a cruise that leaves a full week before. Would you say most of the kids were from Puerto Rico?

 

BTW, I'm sure the kids programs are fine. It's mostly at night, when there IS no kids program and the parents just let the kids run wild throughout the ship that was THE worst! We could not believe that X didn't do anything about it.... but alas, they did nothing. It was our first cruise on X and was our last for several years because of it, so that should give you some indication of how bad it was.

[Cote d'or]

So I wonder if it would make any difference for a cruise that leaves a full week before. Would you say most of the kids were from Puerto Rico?

 

BTW, I'm sure the kids programs are fine. It's mostly at night, when there IS no kids program and the parents just let the kids run wild throughout the ship that was THE worst! We could not believe that X didn't do anything about it.... but alas, they did nothing. It was our first cruise on X and was our last for several years because of it, so that should give you some indication of how bad it was.

 

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience on your first X cruise.

I think the most important rule is : the shorter the cruise, the more children. And of course the start and ending of the school holidays. No matter how many days before Christmas the cruise leaves, if school's out, you will have more children on it. I really can't tell you how many kids were fom Puerto Rico, the only thing I can say is that there was no difference in atmosphere between the Holiday cruises leaving in Puerto Rico and Florida.

[eandj]

To the OP, why not just plan a cruise for Mid Jan? You won't pay holiday prices and the number of kids will drop dramatically. We love the longer cruises and wouldn't think to do one anywhere near school vacation time. As a retired teacher, obviously I love children, but don't want to spend the next chapters of my life surrounded by other peoples' kids any more.:)

[zelker]

To the OP, why not just plan a cruise for Mid Jan? You won't pay holiday prices and the number of kids will drop dramatically. We love the longer cruises and wouldn't think to do one anywhere near school vacation time. As a retired teacher, obviously I love children, but don't want to spend the next chapters of my life surrounded by other peoples' kids any more.:)

 

Of course that's the obvious solution BUT we are forced to take vacations around my husband's company mandatory shut-down weeks and this is the only one that's 2 weeks. I think we will wind up passing on this one. It's just too much of a risk to have our vacation spoiled.

[Smoke Fan]

Kind of hard to say. I am also looking at a 12 day out of San Diego in hopes that the length of the cruise will cut down on the amount of children. I am expecting it wont much.

 

If you could do a search and find out what the school holiday break dates are in SJ that might answer your question, but I really think the length of the cruise will work in your favor.

 

I have done my share of Christmas cruises and true, they are plum full of children.

 

I have always thought if each cruise line offered just one adult only cruise for the holiday they wouldnt have a problem filling it. Just one! :)

Now that's a holiday cruise I would love to go on! And I agree, there wouldn't be any problem filling the ship.

Patty