Well behaved college girls seeking advice

[badissa]

The boards have not let me down yet so I am seeking a little adive about our spring break trip.

 

The Spirit sails out of NY on the week of March 18th and my three friends and I with a limited budget feel like this cruise will be a good fit. My question is: we really want to book this sailing but I would like to hear from some other travelers what it is like to be on a spring break cruise. We will party and have a good time but not to any extream like the typical spring breakers.

Please tell me about your experiences during spring break!

 

Thanks in advance.............the over-worked nursing students

[tomluvsaida]

I would invite you to join us but my fiance' might object.......we'll be on our Honeymoon!!!!!!!!:D

[JerseyGem]

Our daughter and her college friends, all 21 at the time, did go on a cruise this past spring break on the Majesty (out of Charleston). First, they did enjoy themselves and had a great time. The passengers on their cruise were mostly college students (or that age range). Although the girls do drink and party (way too much for this Mom!), they were shocked by some of the excessive drinking and rowdy behavior. Not everyone, of course, but if you are at all "sensitive" about such issues, you may want to reconsider being committed to seven days on a cruise ship in March. DD tried to keep a postive attitude by laughing at the more outrageous behaviors.

 

If you're still interested, two suggestions come to mind right away. First, DD and her 3 friends upgraded to a cabin on an upper deck. They had more space (which was certainly needed with 4 girls and all their clothes and shoes!) and their hallway was quiet- very few college students- mostly families or older couples. They did visit friends on the lower decks; my DD likened them to the Freshman dorm on a Saturday night- people yelling & running in the hallway or passed out, etc. So a little extra cost might make the trip more enjoyable.

 

Secondly, don't expect to study on the cruise. My DD and her friends are all Pharmacy students and had a major test as soon as they returned from break. They brought textbooks, notes, etc, to set up study sessions out on deck while they were sunning, but the overall noise level wasn't helping them. Now I realize that most college students don't intend to study on Spring Break, but you did mention that you are nursing students, so your course requirements may be similar to my DD's.

 

I hope that you and your friends have cruised before so you know the "ins & outs" of tendering, shipboard accounts, seasickness meds, etc. (If not, keep reading these boards!) And do buy trip insurance, especially if you intend to rent mopeds, para-sail, etc or go off on your own at a port. It's cheap at your age (can I recommend another site?- Insuremytrip). Hopefully you won't need to use it, but two girls on DD's ship did have a moped accident in Cozumel- requiring an overnight stay in the hospital, missing the ship, flying home, etc. One little mis-step can make it an expensive cruise.

 

FInally, my DD did have a wonderful time, and I'm sure she would tell you to go for it! (And when she returns from her weekend in Atlantic City, I'll ask her if she has any advice for you!). Have fun!

[bigfoot88]

...and 21 years old is the key word. Ladies, if any of you are under 21, I would check with NCL customer service to make sure your arangements, the four of you together and is any of you are under 21, will work.

[newmexicoNita]

Right about the age: 21 is it. what a great way to spend your spring break, but yes, there will be lots of college kids and party goers. How much you participate is up to you. We all know about some pretty sad things that have happened when young people have mixed booze with poor judgement. My big lecture: stay in groups at all times and don't let your friends wander off by themselves, especially if they have been indudging a little too much. My granddaughters got so tired of listening to me lecture on the subject. NMNita

[badissa]

yes, we are all over 21 (I will be 26!!!!!!! in JAN) and we are actually getting ready to start our grad work to be MSN-RNP in the fall so we are gonna be ready for a break in March. All of us has traveled (cruised) internationally and know the ins and outs. NCL seems to be a terrific value for the money for a quick gettaway and the bonus is NO FLYING!!!!!!!!! We are all from the regional NE area-----Greenwich CT, Newport RI, Watch Hill RI. I feel like being in New England can be so isolating!!!!!!!!

 

Thanks for all the advice so far but what I am really looking for is particular experiences with this ship and experiences with the whole spring break period

 

Thanks again

Miss Badissa

 

:eek:BTW-I can't believe that 400+ people have viewed this post and only 4 responded!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks to those who did!

[Froggitt]

:eek:BTW-I can't believe that 400+ people have viewed this post and only 4 responded!!!!!!!!!!!

I suspect the other 396 like myself were wondering what kind of advice the "Well behaved college girls" were after ;) ;) ;)

[Debbie in Orlando]

Well, we were on the Spirit last year from Miami during a very early Spring Break. The sailing was nicknamed "Animal House at Sea". You can enter those words in a search and read all about it. LOL The Spirit is a beautiful ship and we loved her. We were sorry when she moved up to New York as we live in Florida.

[IWORK2CRUISE]

The boards have not let me down yet so I am seeking a little adive about our spring break trip.

 

The Spirit sails out of NY on the week of March 18th and my three friends and I with a limited budget feel like this cruise will be a good fit. My question is: we really want to book this sailing but I would like to hear from some other travelers what it is like to be on a spring break cruise. We will party and have a good time but not to any extream like the typical spring breakers.

Please tell me about your experiences during spring break!

 

Thanks in advance.............the over-worked nursing students

Dear well behaved college girls,

This past March my husband and I (45 and 50) inadvertently went on the spring break cruise!

This was our second cruise on the NCL Spirit which is a wonderful ship. For us, leaving from NY was terrific.

We were taken by surprise as we began to notice the large number college students boarding as it really had not occurred to us that this was spring break. The first night there were many who had seriously over-indulged. By that I mean falling down in the hallway etc.

NCL had extra security on board as well as three "off duty" policemen who were stationed just outside of the casino at night. You need to pass through the casino in order to get to Maharajah's nightclub.

I have to say that as the week progressed we saw quite a few out of control groups.

Most of the time at sea the pool and hot tubs were taken over by partiers (and there were a lot off them) but we tried to tune a lot of them out and just enjoy ourselves on the upper deck.

I must also say that we saw groups who seemed just as you describe yourselves. At our CC gathering we met a couple of graduate students who were quite lovely. I went to the murder mystery dinner and was partnered with three lovely girls who were college seniors. One of the first things they said was "Please don't think we are like so many of the other spring breakers." I kept running into them for the rest of the cruise and saw that they were clearly having their own wonderful time.

NCL did have a few special college parties in Maharajah's and on the back deck behind Raffles buffet.

Here and there we saw a few LSAT and MCAT books but I don't really know how frequently they were opened.

Once again, the ship is beautiful, and large. There are many spots that you can find to be off on your own and still enjoy.

So, your group can go and have a good time too.

[lambs2]

A number of years ago when my DH and I were celebating our 10th wedding anniversary we found ourselves on a caribbean cruise with a bunch of spring breakers from a certain fraternity. On my...they were a rowdy lot!! Very drunk, loud and obnoxious. Constantly drinking beer in bottles all over the ship. The vast majority of the rest of the cruisers I would say were in the over 50 age group. We were still young, but definitely not into the "falling-down-sloppy-drunk" behavior of these fraternity members, who also liked to just wear bedsheets (draped like togas..maybe with a tie and belt for formal night:eek: ) all over the ship (even in the dining room on occasion) and sing silly drinking songs..constantly.

 

Well...on the last night there was a costume contest and I had a brilliant idea for my DH's costume! We knew in advance that this ship had a costume contest, so had brought a grotesque old man's mask in our luggage (not sure what we had in mind at the time we packed!) and I dressed him in a bedsheet toga with a belt and a pillow with a belt holding it up like a beer belly, also a tie around his neck, plus that mask with a kid's party hat and ofcourse a bottle of beer that he slopped all over the stage when his turn came in the contest to stagger up there for the judging. I had made a large hand-lettered sign he wore around his neck that said: " (greek letter fraternity name) after a week partying on the SS.xxxx. ."

I dressed as a witch that night (mainly because we did not want to take the chance that any of the frat boys would recognize us!) They had some entries in the costume contest too, but when they saw my DH in the costume mocking their week's behavior a couple of the frat members were fit-to-be-tied! They tried to find out who we were because they were livid with rage, but we got out of the room quickly and safely back to our stateroom! (By the way...my DH Won the costume contest that night!) The Cruise director thought his costume was a HOOT! He couldn't stop laughing at the imagery!