Best time to cruise for the least amount of children on the boat

[gertiesmom]

Very end of August or very beginning of September. Nobody takes their kids out of school the first couple weeks of school for a vacation. On one of our cruises there was 28 children on board with 3200 adults... Never even saw any kids on that cruise.

[MJC]

Both our Windstar cruises had no children, so the adults got to play with the toys.:) We like to kayak and snorkel, so WS is perfect for us. Definitely not a big ship experience, however. Loads of active 40- and 50-somethings though.

 

I agree with early November - we once went to Disneyworld the first weekend in November and got to walk onto any ride, no line at all, for at least the first two hours we were there. People seem to be saving up their vacation days for Thanksgiving and Christmas at that time of year, unlike spring when any time can be crazy spring break time.

[DanJ]

I have to agree that I do not understand why children need to be taken out of school to cruise. It is definitely an education -- but one that can be enjoyed during school breaks and the summer when they do not have to be burdened with homework and can fully enjoy the adventure. Part of this enjoyment is meeting children from other parts of the country/world onboard and learning the differences between where they each live.

 

 

I can say from our standpoint, I can't get holidays when the kids are out of school at Christmas. And because the way our company does the vacation schedule, which is from March 1 to Feb 28, I wouldn't find out until late February whether I could get school break week in March, which leaves 2 weeks and slim pickings, especially when looking for cabins for 4. Did a summer cruise in 2009, and not likely going to do that again unless we go to Alaska or can find a suitable Canada/New England cruise. Being Canadian, we naturally like to go south in winter, not summer.

 

We took our kids out of school the 2nd week of Jan 2011 (a week that only had 4 school days anyway) and went on the Navigator of the Seas. Out of 3100 passengers, there were 170 or so kids, which is a very light load for a ship like that (on the Carnival Pride in Aug 2009, we had almost 900 kids, and the ship was at 129% of double occupancy).

[printingchick]

LOL -- Easier said than done, my friend! ;)

DH and I usually try to sail sometime between New Years and Spring Break -- but we've found that many eastern school districts have something known as "winter break", which can apparently strike anywhere without warning. :eek:

Of all the cruises we've taken, the one with the fewest kids was our Panama Canal transit -- 2 weeks in late April, on Radiance of the Seas.

 

Winter break in the northeast is typically tied to President's Day. Spring Break...that's different...and grade school/high school breaks are typically VERY different from the college break. The younger kids' break is often tied to the Easter holiday (but not always), while college break is typically sometime in mid-March (but not always).

 

I've had pretty good luck with the first week of March.

[Chilliwack Chick]

My husband and I are looking at booking a 7 day Eastern Caribbean cruise in late February, early March.

 

I have concerns about how many young kids will be on the cruise at this time of year. Also, I’ve been reading many reviews about cruises nickle and diming ppl. Is this true with all cruise lines? Also, looking at purchasing a beverage pkg. is it worth it?

 

Thanks for your feedback.

 

Barb

[mom says]

Depends on the cruise line. Some attract more families with kids than others do. Cruises of a week or less will attract the same. Less expensive mass market lines will attract the same compared to the premium or luxury lines.

 

As for nickel and diming- you get what you pay for. The cruise lines with the cheapest prices do it more than the premium lines. Little to none of that on luxury lines.

 

Booze package worth depends on how much you drink. I think the average is 5-7 alcohol drinks per day to break even.

[GottaKnowWhen]

Concerning the “solution” of avoiding school holidays, do note that there are people living in the Southern portion of the world and that they quite unreasonably insist on setting their school schedules according to their upside down notion of when summer and winter occur. So keep your destination in mind. An Australian or New Zealand or South American cruise in “winter time, during the school year”, is going to fall within the school holidays for the antipodians and therefore runs the risk of encounters with age challenged youth.

[wowzz]

Wow! Resurrecting a 6 year old thread. Is this a record?

Isn't it about time threads were locked after a certain period of inactivity?

 

Sent from my SM-T580 using Forums mobile app

[leaveitallbehind]

My husband and I are looking at booking a 7 day Eastern Caribbean cruise in late February, early March.

 

I have concerns about how many young kids will be on the cruise at this time of year. Also, I’ve been reading many reviews about cruises nickle and diming ppl. Is this true with all cruise lines? Also, looking at purchasing a beverage pkg. is it worth it?

 

Thanks for your feedback.

 

Barb

 

As provided with the thread you resurrected, Spring Break is one of the busiest times of the year for family cruising, which means a lot of kids. While your specific time frame indicated may be ahead of this and likely OK with kids still in school, there will likely be some kids on any Caribbean itinerary on any sailing date.

 

Rather than trying to predict a sailing date with less kids, you would be better to pick a cruise line whose demographics are not as oriented to family cruising to reduce that mix. Crystal, HAL, and Celebrity are three that come to mind. Crystal and HAL will tend to be an older demographic of the three. I would talk with a travel agent who specializes in cruising and let them guide your options.

 

As to nickle and diming, that really is up to you. All cruise lines try to promote their specialty dining packages, drink packages, on board photographs, spa services, etc., etc. They are all optional and your choice if you wish to spend your money in that way or not. Nothing is forced upon you.

 

Lastly, the value of a drink package is very subjective and can only be determined by you and your intent in consuming the beverages offered. But in general there are a few guidelines to consider. First, it is in place and paid for each day of the cruise beginning with day 1, which naturally includes port days when you would be off the ship most of the day. Unless you are at a cruise line's private destination as a port of call, the packages are only valid on board. And, with that in mind, an approximate rule of thumb that would apply to most is consumption of 6-7 drinks per day per person as a general break even. Also you need to check with your cruise line but you may need to have all people in your stateroom of legal age purchase it if one wants it.

Edited May 5, 2018 by leaveitallbehind

[taglovestocruise]

Transatlantics, even the mega Oasis class has very few kids. Did a 12 night on Allure and there were 7 kids under 16.

[Z'Loth]

FWIW... I did a Alaska Cruise on the last week of August on Celebrity. There were, at most, around two dozen young kids on board ship. Of those, most were Chinese because there was a sizable Chinese tour group on board ship. Don't ask me how many. All I could say that it was sizable enough that, during the muster drill, the announcement was in both English and Chinese, and there were some interesting asian menu choices at the buffet.