Pacific Coastal cruises - Kids over 5 on board?

[Angela4cruiser]

I have looked on some posts, but could not find out if there have been any posts re the pacific coastal cruises that go down south in September/October. I mean the 3 or 4 day ones. The prices are so low and I am tempted to take my child on one of them, but he would miss two days of school. If I figured the kids camps would be empty, or course I would not take him. What does anyone think about this? I was thinking about the Princess ships.

[bruce-r]

I wouldn't expect many kids on those cruises since they are during school times.

[sultan_sfo]

We have taken quite a few coastals. There were always a lot of kids -- more than what we normally see on cruises. Most of the parents had got permissions from their school. Public Schools lose money because their budget is based on attendance -- except for kid's illness or doctor appts! May be a whole bunch of the kids came down with flu!

[kenish]

Most of the parents had got permissions from their school. Public Schools lose money because their budget is based on attendance -- except for kid's illness or doctor appts!

 

Totally true, but my son's school district in So Cal has a good policy. If They can put the student on a study program for absences more than 3 days. The district does not lose money and the student does not fall behind.

 

I took my son out of school for 4 days last year for a trip to Japan. Our vacations are always planned to have a lot of educational value, we don't lay on the beach all week. The comments of individual teachers was interesting. Some were put out and irate that I would even think of taking my son away from school. Others were supportive and said he would learn way more traveling than he ever would in their classroom. (Of course that came from teachers who were more worldly and well-traveled).

[Cruisin' Chick]

Unfortunately the Los Angeles school district isn't so understanding. And probably less so this year with all the budget cuts, every day a kid is in school, means money for the district. They really discourage kids taking vacation days during school. I just wish the teachers would honor the breaks by not assigning work during those times.

[neecee23]

We did a four day last October. My DS missed a week of school. We took his homework along. His teacher felt that family time on a cruise would be a great experience. There were quite a few children on board, although not Princess, it was RCL. DS did not want to go to the kids program, he had fun with us playing bingo, rock wall climbing and exploring the ports. When we returned home, San Diego county exploded with fire and school was cancelled for the next week! So he missed two weeks of school!:eek: We were evacuated from our home and spent a week living at a relatives house. Anyway, regardless of whether or not there are a lot of other kids on board the ship, your child should have a good time. The kids clubs on Princess have Playstation 2 and have lots of activities appropriate for each age group. They also seem to show a lot of recent movies, and of course there is always the pool.

[kenish]

My son's high school closed too for a few days in October during the wildfires in South OC. They weren't a direct threat to the school, but many families had to evacuate so attendance was poor. Also the school was an evac center and they wanted the campus clear in case it was needed. Athletics were cancelled for 1+ weeks due to bad air quality.

 

I have friends in Fallbrook; the Rice Canyon fire jumped I-15 and burned everything across the road from their house. It miraculously veered in another direction and their house was spared. Hope you and your neighbors in Pauma were OK.

[neecee23]

Thanks, Kenish, down here in the valley everyone was ok but all of Palomar Mountain behind us burned and many homes on a local indian res were lost. Hope we all get through this October unscathed!

[kenish]

Thanks, Kenish, down here in the valley everyone was ok but all of Palomar Mountain behind us burned and many homes on a local indian res were lost. Hope we all get through this October unscathed!

 

I go motorcycle riding up Palomar fairly oftent and the aftermath of the fire was pretty sad. (No I'm not among the crazies that speed up South Grade on motorcycles and get into bad accidents).

[CanadaFour]

We are taking our kids on NCL's Vanc-LA repositioning (6 days) and also hope to see other kids. In Canada, our funding isn't based on days of attendance, although some teachers frown on vacation-taking on philosophical grounds (teaching children that school is optional). Not our take on it and we routinely travel with our kids......

[yogi2929]

Go and enjoy! The best learning is travel. We took out DD's, 9 & 11, on a HAL repositioning from LA to Vancouver then took Amtrak down the coast. There were twelve kids on board ship. Three on the train. None were high school age though. It was one of the best trips we have ever taken!

 

Our school district will only give Independent Study make up work if they will be out for 5 days or more. DD's would have had tons of HW to do if we didn't 'play the game'. DD's did their work and the district still got paid their ADA. Your district should have something like this available. They will not offer this info, you need to be very specific when asking for it.