Thanksgiving week cruises ?

[imae39]

On Holland America ships are there lots of children with parents/grandparents cruising the week of Thanksgiving? Has anyone experienced a HAL ship being loaded with kids during Thanksgiving week?

[jtl513]

On our one Thanksgiving cruise there were noticeably more families with kids ... but not like a normal Disney cruise! ;) Maybe 30% more.

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Edited March 23, 2016 by jtl513

[dakrewser]

"loaded" is a relative term. On any cruise line the number of chilren increases that week. But, as usual, ther'll be fewer on HAL than on some others.

[0bnxshs]

Our Thanksgiving cruise was the same; a large number of families that included children, but the ship (Westerdam) wasn't "loaded" with children.

Edited March 23, 2016 by 0bnxshs

[sail7seas]

We sailed HAL a number of times over Thanksgiving and never felt overwhelmed with children. Sure there were family groups of three and four generation with children of all ages included. We hardly saw kids during the day which likely means they were happily amused at Club HAL. I think HAL brings on more staff for Club HAL for holiday cruises.

 

We very much enjoyed all of those Thanksgiving cruises and I would not hesitate to go again.

[ithaca gal]

We have sailed on HAL for the last two Thanksgivings. We were told there were many (how many?) kids on board but we rarely saw many -- Club HAL keeps them so busy! I reluctantly admit that I am not crazy about sailing with lots of kids -- sorry! -- but I have been pleasantly surprised to not feel surrounded by kids on the Eurodam or Nieuw Amsterdam in the past two years.

[catl331]

It had a different feeling last Thanksgiving. Yes, there were teens but they were kept busy by HAL. Some small children were present but well behaved. No running around, temper tantrums and crying. The Crow's Nest was always very busy--teens played trivia with adults, children were playing games and there were about 5 jigsaw puzzles going on at the same time. I really didn't get the feeling that it was crowded with kids. Disney bothered me as there were always character signing going on with long lines in the halls. One couldn't get into the shops due to crowd but on the other hand, it was for the best!

[CowPrincess]

On Holland America ships are there lots of children with parents/grandparents cruising the week of Thanksgiving? Has anyone experienced a HAL ship being loaded with kids during Thanksgiving week?

 

Our experience was notably different than what the other posters have experienced. We will not cruise over Thanksgiving week again :eek: Our cruise was loaded with kids and extended families.

 

Unfortunately for us, we were in an OV on a lower deck, surrounded by triple and quad cabins, which were filled to capacity. The hallways became playgrounds and race tracks, kids were playing, parents were yelling .... and nearly every cabin had their doors open to the hall most of the time, so there was plenty of shouting back and forth between cabins, too.

 

Just people being people, but it was close-quarters and got annoying after a while.

[OTOW guy]

and never noticed many kids on the ship and those who were there are usually well behaved in spite of their parents.

[travelnap]

I have sailed over Thanksgiving the last couple of years and did not notice a large increase of kids aboard. I was however on a 10 day and an 11 day cruise at the time, so those longer cruises may have fewer than a 7 day cruise might.

[510picker]

For the last several years, we cruise the week before Thanksgiving. Last year on the Westerdam, our cruise had less than 20 children, but the crew told us there was going to be over 200 the next week.