School holiday in January?

[Lv2sail_18]

There are many more elementary school aged children on the Oasis this week than I’ve seen before in mid-January. Is there an American school holiday I don’t know about? Asking as a Canadian who can’t find the answer in google!

[Cruiser_1977]

My nephews, here in VA, were out Monday (Lunar New Year) and Tuesday (Teacher Planning) this week. So, they left Friday for a ski trip and came home yesterday...

[pajara2]

I can't imagine there is a major school system closed all week....this particular week.  Most all schools have gone back and it's just their 1st or 2nd week back from holiday.  Unless it's some private school event.

We are pulling our school-aged kids next week for our cruise.  Maybe just a lot of parents did what I did and assumed it would be less crowded once school was in and don't care if their kids miss school.

[dateacher]

My grandsons are out 1/2 day today and tomorrow and Friday.  Not sure why.

[mjkacmom]

Welcome to yeshiva week (9 days I believe), think of it like spring break for some Jewish kids looking to blow off some steam on vacation. 

[lovesthebeach2]

34 minutes ago, mjkacmom said:

Welcome to yeshiva week (9 days I believe), think of it like spring break for some Jewish kids looking to blow off some steam on vacation. 

What week is that?

[mjkacmom]

4 hours ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

What week is that?

I believe 1/19 - 1/29.

[robmtx]

On point to this subject, for those who sail (or consider sailing) out of Bayonne, this can be a surprise if you board, let's say Anthem, during a week where either NY or NJ schools are closed and the cruise line had previously run a kids-sail-free promo.

 

When Royal does the kids-sail-free they block out Summertime, usually March and/or April (for Spring Break) and the major holidays in Nov/Dec. 

 

But - one year we took a nice little cruise out of NJ the week that NJ schools happened to be closed 3 out of the 5 days. Since this was during non-peak family time, the kids-sail-free promo filled that ship up with over 2,000 kids! It wasn't a deal breaker for us, but just an unwelcomed surprise. We sail in the summer with our kids, and thousands of other kids... but we like to sail in the winter too, when all the little ones are learning.

 

So therefore if you want Bayonne during the school year, you can check the NJ and NY school calendars for their states and a couple of major city calendars (NYC, etc.) and see if they have a school holiday week anywhere in there. The NYC one is a good source because of Yeshiva being popular there.

 

[Ret MP]

One other consideration, are the kids speaking English?  If not, it may be south American kid.  It's summer, or at least no school down there in many countries.  

[mjkacmom]

58 minutes ago, robmtx said:

On point to this subject, for those who sail (or consider sailing) out of Bayonne, this can be a surprise if you board, let's say Anthem, during a week where either NY or NJ schools are closed and the cruise line had previously run a kids-sail-free promo.

 

When Royal does the kids-sail-free they block out Summertime, usually March and/or April (for Spring Break) and the major holidays in Nov/Dec. 

 

But - one year we took a nice little cruise out of NJ the week that NJ schools happened to be closed 3 out of the 5 days. Since this was during non-peak family time, the kids-sail-free promo filled that ship up with over 2,000 kids! It wasn't a deal breaker for us, but just an unwelcomed surprise. We sail in the summer with our kids, and thousands of other kids... but we like to sail in the winter too, when all the little ones are learning.

 

So therefore if you want Bayonne during the school year, you can check the NJ and NY school calendars for their states and a couple of major city calendars (NYC, etc.) and see if they have a school holiday week anywhere in there. The NYC one is a good source because of Yeshiva being popular there.

 

We are in NJ and have taken several cruises during nj teacher’s convention week, always a lot of surprised cruisers wondering about all of the kids. I’ve just read about yeshiva here.

[Lv2sail_18]

Thank you everyone for your input! Sounds like a perfect storm of school days off, kids sale free, and yeshiva. Googled Yeshiva + Oasis and found that Oasis is having a yeshiva special. Explains why the Solarium Bistro is set aside for “private function” at mealtimes. But the kids seem to be from a wide variety of backgrounds, predominantly North American I would say based on accents, so the first 2 are probably biggest contributors. Great cruise nonetheless!

[malba2366]

I think people are a lot more willing to pull kids out of school for vacations these days.  Especially during the younger grades, where the material is so basic and repetitive that if the children are somewhat intelligent they don't lose much from missing a week of school.

[Ret MP]

10 minutes ago, malba2366 said:

I think people are a lot more willing to pull kids out of school for vacations these days.  Especially during the younger grades, where the material is so basic and repetitive that if the children are somewhat intelligent they don't lose much from missing a week of school.

Depending on the school system, some schools, in the U.S.A., will give the student excused absences and credit for many classes like world geography, which I totally support.  Unfortunately, my grandson's school isn't one of them.  And that's a whole other conversation for a whole other board.  My granddaughter's school will give certain credits but not excused absences and she refuses to miss a day of school.  I'd like to know how a school can give credits for certain things but not excused absence. 

[ONECRUISER]

23 minutes ago, malba2366 said:

I think people are a lot more willing to pull kids out of school for vacations these days.  Especially during the younger grades, where the material is so basic and repetitive that if the children are somewhat intelligent they don't lose much from missing a week of school.

Yup over 10% Home Schooled, then my Kids and Grand Daughters attend year round School. Get 5+ weeks for Xmas Break, 2+ each for Spring and Fall.  My Niece doesn't go back until this week. Then anytime around Holiday MLK, ect. Over Presidents Day my Kids also always had mid winter Break week... Then anyone been on Cruise Critic for years knows the Jan Kosher Holiday along with another young group of girls traveling Celebrating on Cruises this time of year is nothing new 

Edited January 26, 2023 by ONECRUISER

[toad455]

Sailed during Yeshiva week on the Anthem years ago and it was chaos. We're now aware of when this week is every January and avoid sailing then. If I wanted to sail with 2,000 kids, I'd go in the summer. I'm used to the January cruises being very light on children.

[melbur]

Yes I am on Oasis also right now and it's yeshiva. Solarium is the designated kosher kitchen. And tons of kids which shocked me as well so soon after the holidays. 

Note to self.... never again. It feels so over crowded.

[Stick93]

You really don't know who will be on any cruise - there are always suprises!

Just like you don't know who will be next to you, across from you or on top of you. 

[long4acruise]

28 minutes ago, melbur said:

Yes I am on Oasis also right now and it's yeshiva. Solarium is the designated kosher kitchen. And tons of kids which shocked me as well so soon after the holidays. 

Note to self.... never again. It feels so over crowded.

Ditto for last week (Jan 15-22) on Oasis. Solarium closed a few days and saw large tables set aside in Main DR where passengers were served dinner using disposable containers and utensils.

 

It didn't feel too crowded as the announced passenger count was just 5700+

[goldfish65]

2 hours ago, melbur said:

 

Seems like early January is a safe bet. 

 

[mandyleighflies]

We are in Virginia and YES!! We had a school holiday this week due to "teacher in service" days. My kids had the option of being out starting with an option half day on Wednesday. In theory, we could have left on a vacation on Tuesday evening. It's my sons 16th birthday on Monday and we were going to celebrate with a last minute surprise cruise but he had no interest in going on a trip. 😒

[MKESail]

17 hours ago, melbur said:

Yes I am on Oasis also right now and it's yeshiva. Solarium is the designated kosher kitchen. And tons of kids which shocked me as well so soon after the holidays. 

Note to self.... never again. It feels so over crowded.

We are here on Oasis as well right now. A lot of unhappy people because of Solarium Bistro and yes, it does feel like spring break all over again, someone said anywhere between 1300 and 1500 kids on board right now. Would be nice to know about all this ahead of time when booking, especially Solarium Bistro not being available for the entirety of the cruise. 

[Ret MP]

31 minutes ago, MKESail said:

 Would be nice to know about all this ahead of time when booking, especially Solarium Bistro not being available for the entirety of the cruise. 

Totally agree.  But, you know it ain't gonna happen.  RCCL, et al, are in the business of selling cruises, not giving people excuses not to cruise.

 

The only answer is "live and learn".  For the amount of years I've cruised, I didn't now about this special holiday period and how it effected cruising, until now.  Now, I know and I won't book during that time frame and locations.  One of many reasons to be a member of board(s) like this.  I'm only surprised I didn't know or hear about this until now, this thread.

[Merion_Mom]

19 hours ago, toad455 said:

Sailed during Yeshiva week on the Anthem years ago and it was chaos. We're now aware of when this week is every January and avoid sailing then. If I wanted to sail with 2,000 kids, I'd go in the summer. I'm used to the January cruises being very light on children.

 

Anthem now does 11 night cruises for all of January, so that has changed the equation.  That's the reason that it is now Oasis advertising the Kosher yeshiva week cruise.  (see post #11)

[malba2366]

On 1/26/2023 at 4:19 PM, Lv2sail_18 said:

Thank you everyone for your input! Sounds like a perfect storm of school days off, kids sale free, and yeshiva. Googled Yeshiva + Oasis and found that Oasis is having a yeshiva special. Explains why the Solarium Bistro is set aside for “private function” at mealtimes. But the kids seem to be from a wide variety of backgrounds, predominantly North American I would say based on accents, so the first 2 are probably biggest contributors. Great cruise nonetheless!

 

The United States has the largest Jewish population in the world, so most of the people on these Yeshiva week cruises will be Americans.

[FlatFooted Freda]

4 hours ago, MKESail said:

We are here on Oasis as well right now. A lot of unhappy people because of Solarium Bistro and yes, it does feel like spring break all over again, someone said anywhere between 1300 and 1500 kids on board right now. Would be nice to know about all this ahead of time when booking, especially Solarium Bistro not being available for the entirety of the cruise. 

On the Wonder, where Solarium Bistró is also booked. But doesn’t seem to be that many kids. And they also seem to me to be very well behaved ( ie, fairly quiet). But we too will try to remember this in future bookings - just for sheer numbers ( and getting into the bistro😉)