Cruising during Easter/Spring break

[Herfnerd]

Considering cruising for the first time on Princess during Easter week/Spring break and just wondered how"bad" it will be with families and spring breakers. Regular Carnival cruisers looking for a change of pace.

 

Thanx!

 

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[Coral]

Honestly, I would avoid it. Unless it is longer than 7 nights, there will be a ton of kids. Mostly K-12, not college kids. It is a gamble if they will be a behaved group or not. I have seen both. I personally don't like to cruise when kids sit on the elevator floor eating and they run and scream through out the hallways. I have seen food fights in the dining room. Just not worth it to me.

[2wheelin]

Went on a 5 day RCCL out of Tampa once in March. Majority of passengers were college age. Didn't notice little kids. Lots of booze. Most were fairly well behaved and even interesting to talk to (maybe they thought they should humor the old folks asking questions) but we saw some needing wheelchairs to return to the ship.

Last morning line at guest services packed cause they couldn't believe a mistake hadn't been made on their (daddies) alcohol bill.

[bulldog on water]

FYI, "spring break" is not a definitive term!

College spring break varies by school and is basically from beginning of March to end of April. Elementary spring breaks also vary by state.

Example Mass. Ny. Mich and several other states use Presidents' Day week in Feb. for ONE of their 2 spring breaks. Mass 2nd one is 3rd week in April, has nothing to do with Easter!

So you will probably run into kids of various ages no matter when you go.

On Princess you can find areas where kids are no prevalent, even in spring, but just relax and enjoy the sea, have fun!

Good luck

[skynight]

We have experienced these weeks as 7 and 11 night cruises on Princess as well as RCI, HAL. We were surprised how many children were on board the HAL cruise, which we selected to avoid this. The week before and week after Easter are loaded with large family groups and their children. 7 day or shorter cruises have many more families and children than longer cruises, but 10/11 nighters can also have their share of families. The youth & their families tend to take control of the pool areas. The passenger load is also increased as many more cabins than usual have a third and forth occupant. I have not seen large groups of college students on the 7 and 11 night cruises. I would suppose that most college students can only afford the shorter cruises.

 

If possible I would avoid these times.

[Coral]

As stated, most spring breaks start around Presidents day and go until the 3rd week of April (Massachusetts has a state holiday then). Those MA students are lucky to get 2 spring breaks :)

 

Some schools go when Easter is, regardless when it is. Others go at a set time (mid semester as an example). Our schools always go in March.

 

Mid January to before President's Day is a good time to avoid kids.

 

I would avoid Easter. Again, some schools go whenever Easter falls and the NW seems to go the first of April which is when Easter is this year.

Edited December 24, 2014 by Coral

[Crystabel]

Considering cruising for the first time on Princess during Easter week/Spring break and just wondered how"bad" it will be with families and spring breakers. Regular Carnival cruisers looking for a change of pace.

 

Thanx!

 

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Forums mobile app

 

A lot depends on your itinerary and length of cruise. If you're looking for a more "adult" atmosphere, I'd avoid 7 day cruises and the warm weather itineraries, such as the Caribbean. This is a generalization of course.

[geoherb]

DH teaches at a community college, so we have taken several spring break cruises. His break is generally around the third week of March. Our cruises have never coincided with Easter but have been close. The only one that we had any problems from unruly kids was a short Carnival one.

[cactus_baby]

DH teaches at a community college, so we have taken several spring break cruises. His break is generally around the third week of March. Our cruises have never coincided with Easter but have been close. The only one that we had any problems from unruly kids was a short Carnival one.

 

Good to know. I am a teacher and this will be the first time we are cruising during spring break, always in the summer. I expect to have kids and young families around.:D

[cb at sea]

I don't notice that much difference during "spring break"...the ships sail full each sailing...so there's no difference in number of passengers!

[Cruisin' Chick]

We've been on an Easter weekend cruise -- jammed pack with college students. In Ensenada, our one stop, the students staggered back to the ship after hitting the bars. Very quiet the next morning.

 

We have been on cruises with a lot of younger kids on board, but whether they're a bother or not depends on their parents -- if the kids are busy with the kids' program or being supervised by their parents, it's not a problem.

 

The Los Angeles Unified School district always (even when I was a kid) takes off the week leading up to Easter. So if you are thinking about a Mexican Rivera or Baja cruise around Easter, you'll get a lot of kids on board.

[lovevacadays]

I cruised to the Mexican Riviera once during Spring Break. I had a good time but I would never do it again. Not only did the ship have more kids and spring breakers, so did the ports in Mexico. People from inland Mexico came over to the ports to hang out. Both the beaches and in town were so crowded.:eek::eek::eek:

[JayRich65]

Last year we our spring break was the week before Easter and we did a five day out of fll, yes there were a lot of kids but nothing to get upset about. This year spring break is week after Easter we are looking into another cruise out of fll just looking for a good last minute deal I. The upcoming months.

 

 

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[JimmyVWine]

FYI, "spring break" is not a definitive term!

College spring break varies by school and is basically from beginning of March to end of April. Elementary spring breaks also vary by state.

Example Mass. Ny. Mich and several other states use Presidents' Day week in Feb. for ONE of their 2 spring breaks. Mass 2nd one is 3rd week in April, has nothing to do with Easter!

 

Interesting that a couple of people have referred to the President's Day break (ours is a 4 day weekend) as a "Spring Break". Around here, it is always referred to as a Winter Break. For what it's worth, much of the Northeast uses the "third week of April" break which as noted above has nothing to do with Easter. And that's a very big slice of the population. So in years when Easter is not in the April 10-20 range, (like this year) if you travel during Easter you will avoid a rather large percentage of the country's population.

[Cruisin' Chick]

Around here (and the main school district here is the second largest school district in the country...but there's several smaller ones too), President's Day (combining Washington's and Lincoln's birthday, which were separate holidays when I was a kid) is on a Monday, so it's a holiday weekend. But that's it for days off from school in February for probably most of Southern California as far as I know. But the kids now get off three weeks in late December/early January for winter break.

[satxdiver]

It all depends on what port you are sailing out. The TX ports, Houston and Galveston, are susceptible to the TX schools and the surrounding states. Most K-12 have spring break the second week of march and the universities etc use the third week. This is a generalization of course as there are exceptions. I have noticed though that Carnival attracts the most with RCCL next and Princess last. We do not get on a cruise ship those two weeks out of these ports. Other ports like the west coast or east coast will be different.

 

We were on a Carnival cruise the first week of December right after Thanksgiving and thought it would not be that bad. We had 260+ kids aboard according to the CD. They were all fairly well mannered but still kids will be kids. It was not a problem for us but certainly not like 1000+ aboard. You take your chances with the best guess.

[latunxitom]

The passenger load is also increased as many more cabins than usual have a third and forth occupant.

[Lovetocruiseprincess]

A lot depends on your itinerary and length of cruise. If you're looking for a more "adult" atmosphere, I'd avoid 7 day cruises and the warm weather itineraries, such as the Caribbean. This is a generalization of course.

 

That's pretty much true....the shorter the cruise, the more kids will be sailing. We took a 11 day Panama trip the end of March/April & had more than we normally experience in the fall or spring trips. There were not to annoying but you knew they were on board. We normally try to avoid them and the longer trips help considerably, especially in the Caribbean.

[4cats4me]

Considering cruising for the first time on Princess during Easter week/Spring break and just wondered how"bad" it will be with families and spring breakers. Regular Carnival cruisers looking for a change of pace.

 

Thanx!

 

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Forums mobile app

 

maybe 900-1,200 kids if it is a 7-day

Numbers could also be as low as 700 kids

[philv]

We cruise in March often. Never had any problems with spring break crowd on Princess. Go and enjoy! Maybe more energy on ship. ;)

[Herfnerd]

Thanx for the replies to date.

 

We are actually looking at a 5 nite caribbean cruise that embarks in Ft Lauderdale. One of the dates we are interested in departs March 30 and returns the Saturday before Easter.

 

Just don't know what to expect with Princess at that time. We know what to expect with Carnival.......

 

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[latebloomer56]

We always have some children regardless of when we sail. Some folks pull their kids out for a week hoping to avoid up to 700 other kids. We only had a few minor issues (nothing to spoil my vacation only I can do that). Both on Carnival, on the Caribbean trip with our sons we had older kids banging on everyone's doors between 1-3 repeatedly. My own issue was more of a parent at an Adult only spa. After being jumped on a second time I spoke to the mom and she did tell me what I could do to myself and if I didn't shut XXXX up she would have hubby drop by my sons cabin later.

I took care of her quietly but it was just the idea a staff member was right next to her when she did it and this was on our Carnival New England trip. Oh well trash is trash you just can't let them spoil you own good time.

Edited December 27, 2014 by latebloomer56

[pcsunlover]

Spring break for the Michigan school districts is always the first full week in April. I believe this is statewide. So that would be the week of April 6, 2015. The colleges and universities stagger their spring breaks. In 2015 a few start as early as the week of Feb. 20th and a few as late as the week of Mar. 20th. The rest take place in the first 2 weeks of March.

[lmgouglas]

My husband is an HS Assistant Principal, we have cruised Spring Break on several occasions on Princess...never a problem. I notice kids around having a good time, but are usually well behaved and having fun. They are kids - never a problem Enjoy!!!

[Hawaiidan]

No way.... anything Mexico or Caribe will be crazy.

If you must..GO to Hawaii, Tahiti or Asia at those times.... and 15 day cruise avg its a hedge bet