Princess Spring Break - Hawaii or Caribbean?

[TheY85]

Hi!

 

This is my first post. I have learned a lot from all of you very experienced cruisers out there, so I have decided to ask this question, realizing that it’s not an easy one to answer, so I will explain my query ...

 

I have taken a 15 day cruise from Vancouver to Hawaii and then back to LA. This was a few years ago with my mom, and it was on a Carnival ship. It was in September and we had a fabulous time. Since then, my husband and I have tried cruising at Spring Break with our three children. In March 2016, we were on the Ruby Princess for a 10 day Mexican Riviera Cruise from LA. We loved it! Then, just this past March, we were on the Regal Princess for a 14 day (back-to-back 7 day cruises) to the Eastern and Western Caribbean. We absolutely loved this cruise and the Regal! We love snorkelling and had a wonderful time in the water at every port of call. We think the Regal is an absolutely stunning ship. We did find that the pool deck seemed quite crowded on sea days, compared to the Ruby, but that was minor for us, as we still managed to find lounge chairs.

 

We are considering taking this same 14 day cruise again next Spring Break on the Regal. We will just have our two teenage sons with us next March. (This will be their last high school spring break, as they will be in grade 12.) We are also considering a 15 day round trip to Hawaii from LA on the Star Princess. At this point, we are really undecided about which cruise to book.

 

We love the sun and we love the water. We enjoy both sea days and days in port, and, if given a choice, we prefer sunny and warm, or even hot days, as opposed to cloudy, cool days.

 

Things we are pondering:

 

- The cost of the 14 day Caribbean cruise has really jumped since last year (We are Canadian, so the dollar amount really climbs for us with any increase.) The Hawaii cruise is a tiny bit less, but it does include an extra day, and the flight will be considerably less as well, as we live on the West Coast.

But ...

- We’re concerned about the weather on the sea days of the Hawaiian cruise.

- We’re also concerned that there might not be as many teens on the Hawaiian cruise as on the Caribbean cruise (Our sons really enjoy meeting new friends at the teen club.) We did ask about this while we were still on the Regal, and the Future Cruise Consultant assured us there would be many teens on the Hawaiian cruise (?)

- The reviews of the Star Princess seem a bit mixed.

 

We would love to hear your thoughts! Thank-you!

[saraandnick]

My family was on the star princess last year for a short spring break cruise from LA to Vancouver with a stop in Victoria. This was our first Princess cruise. The cruise was myself (40), husband (42), daughter (10) and my in-laws (60's). Our previous experiences were on Carnival & Norwegian. None of us could have handled any more at sea days on this ship because of the minimal activities. We found that there was an overall unfriendly attitude on the ship which is something we had never experienced with cruise employees before.

 

I vote for the Caribbean because I wouldn't go on that long of a trip on the Star Princess.

 

 

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[Crazy planning mom]

Have you considered the Harmony of the Seas on RCL?

[Astro Flyer]

First of all...welcome to Cruise Critic which is a great source of cruise information to help you decide what is your best option & not solely based on what's best for anyone else. I take cruise reviews with a grain of salt otherwise I wouldn't have enjoyed dozens of cruises. Sometimes reviews take the word Critic too literally resulting in one sided angry posts which too often lack credibility to me. We sailed the Star roundtrip from LA in January and everything was great & we would happily sail on the ship again.

 

Princess provides me with my best cruise experience & we enjoy the sea days going to Hawaii. We don't like Caribbean cruises but have greatly enjoyed 6 weeks on the Regal & Royal. We're retired so we sail on longer cruises such as transatlantics or shorter cruises with only a drive to the Port of LA.

 

However you're in a much different situation & since you've already experienced Spring Break cruises you know what to expect with a younger demographic.

 

Hawaii cruises roundtrip from the West Coast have a much older demographic than to the Caribbean or Mexico. When taking multigenerational cruises with my siblings & their families it's been on RCCL because there's more activities geared towards younger passengers. Although the weather during the crossing to Hawaii is the same on all cruise lines & it's not conducive to outdoor activities for about half of the days at sea. Princess has an excellent Hawaiian Spirit program & here's a link to that information.

 

http://www.princess.com/learn/cruise-destinations/hawaii-cruises/things-to-do/

 

I understand your concerns about the sea days weather & feel there will be fewer teens on the ship despite what the Future Cruise Consultant (whose job is selling Princess cruises) told you. I haven't sailed to Hawaii during Spring Break but think that many teens is a relative term because there have been very few teens on my Hawaii cruises. I'd think that RCCL would have more teens than on Princess but also the same weather conditions.

 

I would fly to the Regal to cruise the Caribbean with 3 children because you enjoyed the Regal & like fun in the sun & water activities. If I was in your situation a Caribbean cruise would be a much better choice particularly sailing on my favorite class of Princess ship. However when our children were young we cruised the Caribbean in addition to flying to Hawaii for a land-based tour.

 

Hopefully you'll receive more thoughts about your decision to have more information to consider when deciding what's your best option. :)

 

We're eagerly awaiting for official confirmation that the Royal Princess will be deployed to the West Coast beginning in Spring 2019. We'd definitely drive to LA for Royal Princess cruises to Hawaii, CA Coastal & Mexico Riviera cruises. That'd be much easier & cheaper for us than flying to Europe, East Coast or Caribbean to sail on the Royal or Regal. ;)

Edited May 1, 2017 by Astro Flyer

[Cruisin' Chick]

We've gone on three Hawaiian RTs on Princess, but all during the holidays. Plenty of kids then. The problem with doing a two week cruise for spring break would be that at least here in the US, schools take off only one week for spring break. Good for one week or shorter cruises (if you can squeeze in whatever travel you need), but many school districts are tougher on taking off days from school. I was surprised that nowadays colleges are cracking down on absences (my daughter's syllabi for her classes mention a limit on missing class -- but then she hasn't had any classes with more than 60 kids).