Year Round School & Camp Carnival

[IMKTDQT810]

Hello all,

 

I just posted this on the Carnival thread...then realized I should post it here also. We JUST found out last night that our county is going to be a year round school next year (2014-2015). This year is a normal year and he starts on Aug 9th. Our goal was a 40th birthday cruise for DH in July 2014. Looking at the past few years of the year round school (we had a few as pilots) would be starting the week we wanted to cruise. If I back it up a week I think it would be too crazy with return from a cruise the day before school starts. We are still in between the Pride and Fantasy but it just dawned on me a little bit ago. If we go during his first break (he gets 2 weeks at the end of Sept and 1st week in October off) how many other kids will be in camp carnival? I got a few responses that others have sailed in that time frame and even though not a lot of kids..their ARE kids. I will admit, I like the prices for that time of year =-) Have you ever cruised around Sept 20th or so? Were there enough kids to have a good time?

[RSLeesburg]

We are sailing on Grandeur on the 27th this year. I will let you know how many on our cruise - that should be somewhat representative as to how many you would find on pride at the same time. One note - I thought I read that Carnival was pulling Pride out of Baltimore in 2014, so you may want to check that she will still be there in Sept.

 

Another option would be to reconsider Grandeur in July - she sails (typically) on Friday and arrives back on the following Friday morning, so you would have a few days before school started on Monday :)

[NCarolinaCruiser]

We're on year round calendar in Raleigh. We left for a Carnival Cruise out of Jacksonville on 10/1. I was surprised at how many school aged kids there were. My kids had plenty of other children to see in Camp Carnival. Some of this might be because it was only a 5 night cruise and people were willing to pull kids out of school.

[RSLeesburg]

Hmmm... That is good to know. I have heard that ships leaving out of Baltimore in fall have few kids. On our roll call, we are the only ones with a child. I am hoping for a few. But, you are right, maybe a shorter trip does at track more children. :)

[WAHMto5]

We always cruise that last week September, first week of October. Our schools have there Fall break that week so works out great for us. Never have had bad weather and not overly crowded. There are still plenty of kids as many from the South are on their Fall break;)

[crusinmama06]

We have taken lots of fall cruises. We prefer to cruise that time of year. The kid population is less so that it is not totally overrun (my girls prefer it) but staying on the major cruise lines keep it full enough to have plenty of friends to play with.

[IMKTDQT810]

Thank you for letting me know about the fact that you have seen a decent amount of kids.

@RSLeesburg- My original goal was RCCL since that is who I normally sail on and this would be our first Carnival. But with the water slides I think DS would enjoy it better. If it was just DH and I, I think we would do RCCL again....but we figured as our first family cruise we would try something different.

[RSLeesburg]

Thank you for letting me know about the fact that you have seen a decent amount of kids.

@RSLeesburg- My original goal was RCCL since that is who I normally sail on and this would be our first Carnival. But with the water slides I think DS would enjoy it better. If it was just DH and I, I think we would do RCCL again....but we figured as our first family cruise we would try something different.

 

I didn't know that Pride had water slides :). I would opt for that too.

[OCruisers]

Now that lots more places are doing "year around school" as well as those doing the "home school" option ... more children will be cruising at times when they once did not.

 

LuLu

~~~~

[Cruisin' Chick]

When we went on our Alaskan cruise, with staying in Seattle post-cruise, a 40-hr train trip, another night in the town where we got off the train, we were back home on a Saturday when school started up on the next Tuesday (the day after Labor Day). But then my daughter was starting second grade, so not as hectic as nowadays when she's in high school.

 

The Los Angeles school district made things really tough on summer planning a few years ago when they decided to switch over to a mid-August start from early September. First the high schools in the San Fernando Valley would switch (and that's the hottest part of LA when it's summer, so parents weren't too happy) and it was also hard on families that had kids in high school and in lower grades when they had a different different school year. Supposedly all schools in the district would make the change the next year -- and then it was decided to postpone the change for a year because of the budget crunch. So if you had made plans for a vacation based on the schedule, suddenly you had to cancel.

[Cruisin' Chick]

One thing to think about is that if you book a cruise when many schools are in session (which I imagine would be the case in mid-September), you'll be hoping that there will be some home-schooled kids onboard.

[luvsviola]

My district is on fall break the 2nd and 3rd weeks of October. :)

 

I would bet that there will be some kids then, but not as many as later in October.

[lrowe70]

Haven't been in fall, but we usually cruise in Jan/Feb and there are very few kids on board.

The last cruise we did on Carnival they said there were 80 people under the age 18 and half of those were under age 3.

I didn't notice any elementary kids on board, and the kids in the middle school aged room looked bored. We met one of the high school aged kids and she said it was boring there so was just hanging out with her parents.

 

It all depends on you, your family and your beliefs but personally I'd go on with the 40th birthday celebration as you'd already planned. School is important, but nothing is more important than family imho.

[Carnival_Brides]

I sail at off times of the year and there are always children on board--a lot less than the busy summer and winter break, but my younger sister and 5 year old niece usually end up making friends. The only time we've not had that was on our first cruise when my sister was 17. She was one of 2 teenaged children on the entire ship according to the ClubO2 staff. We were conveniently sat together for dinner and it worked out.

[Onessa]

We have found a decent number of kids pretty much any time of year we have cruised. Late August seems to have had the fewest (although we do not cruise the Caribbean).

 

2012-13 school year DD had a long,long weekend scheduled in Late September - we opted for a land trip, but there were no shortage of kids even then.

 

May not be record setting number of kids, but there are usually a good cross section (age/gender) on just about any cruise, particularly with the under 12YO set. What with more schools going to year round, more states with weird laws about manditory start and stop dates, more kids being home schooled or other alternative schooling, more families willing to pull kids out of school for a family vacation, etc. it seems like anytime is a good time to cruise!

[cjnwildfire]

Hello all,

 

I just posted this on the Carnival thread...then realized I should post it here also. We JUST found out last night that our county is going to be a year round school next year (2014-2015). This year is a normal year and he starts on Aug 9th. Our goal was a 40th birthday cruise for DH in July 2014. Looking at the past few years of the year round school (we had a few as pilots) would be starting the week we wanted to cruise. If I back it up a week I think it would be too crazy with return from a cruise the day before school starts. We are still in between the Pride and Fantasy but it just dawned on me a little bit ago. If we go during his first break (he gets 2 weeks at the end of Sept and 1st week in October off) how many other kids will be in camp carnival? I got a few responses that others have sailed in that time frame and even though not a lot of kids..their ARE kids. I will admit, I like the prices for that time of year =-) Have you ever cruised around Sept 20th or so? Were there enough kids to have a good time?

We almost always go around the 1st week of october and there are quite a few kids, we will be going at Halloween this year so I don't think the numbers will be the same.

[IMKTDQT810]

I'm really on edge now because there is a dispute between the school board and parents with the "All year Round" school. Personally, I would prefer it for my son. He is 8 and just started back to school last Friday. He has ADHD and trying to get him back into the "homework routine" is tough. I would like them to figure it out so by the time I'm ready to book....I know WHEN to book.

[ata1976]

We cruise during my son's fall break. It was mid-september but has been pushed back to the beginning of October. We love the prices and have luckily never had bad weather, since it is hurricane season. :)

 

There has always been plenty kids on board and he has always made friends.