Christmas/New Year, Spring Break, or Summer for family cruise?

My husband and I just returned from a FABULOUS cruise on Carnival Fantasy (JUST US!) and we would now like to book a cruise to take with our family. We have four kids ages 15, 8, 6, and almost 2. By the time we cruise next year that will be 16, 9, 7, and 3. We want to use Carnival again because they seem to have such great kids programs. My husband and I are both teachers, we have very little choice over when we go (have to work around school breaks...no personal leave). I would like to do a cruise during the first week of April next year (our Spring Break). My husband thinks the boats will be full of boozing college kids. I'm not sure about this since all of the boats have a 21 and up drinking age. I have read the resorts in the Bahamas are bad in March, but I figure by April the colleges will be back in, plus they may not be on board anyway. He thinks we should go during the summer, but the fares are more. SO....which is best:

Christmas (right after) - I'm worried about cold water

Spring Break - First week in April

Summer

Thanks for the help!!!

We usually cruise every Spring Break, as that is when we find the best deals to go during a "peak" season. We've never had trouble with any heavy-drinking Spring Breakers.

We've also done a summer cruise, and have found the best rates are the very first or last weeks of summer.

Your best bet is just to start browsing the cruise websites and tracking prices. You might find a good deal, which will help you make your decision.

CeleBrat

My husband and I just returned from a FABULOUS cruise on Carnival Fantasy (JUST US!) and we would now like to book a cruise to take with our family. We have four kids ages 15, 8, 6, and almost 2. By the time we cruise next year that will be 16, 9, 7, and 3. We want to use Carnival again because they seem to have such great kids programs. My husband and I are both teachers, we have very little choice over when we go (have to work around school breaks...no personal leave). I would like to do a cruise during the first week of April next year (our Spring Break). My husband thinks the boats will be full of boozing college kids. I'm not sure about this since all of the boats have a 21 and up drinking age. I have read the resorts in the Bahamas are bad in March, but I figure by April the colleges will be back in, plus they may not be on board anyway. He thinks we should go during the summer, but the fares are more. SO....which is best:

Christmas (right after) - I'm worried about cold water

Spring Break - First week in April

Summer

 

Thanks for the help!!!

We have sailed in all three of these seasons. Our favorite, to be truthful is the christmas into New Years sailings, but they are quite costly. They remain to be our most memorable, for us and our kids (now 23 and 19 and have been on 3 holiday cruises)- granted 2 of them were 14 nighters. The first week in April the Ship really shouldn't be riddled with boozing college kids at all (21 and over to drink anyway). We did go on one Spring break cruise, there were close to 1100 kids on Voyager of the Seas (an RCI Ship), it was okay and we dont recall it being rowdy or out of the ordinary on that cruise. Having kids, the only time we have been able to cruise to date is summer, christmas and spring break- I can relate to you.

I admit, we do like summer cruising as second choice to December. It is greatly (& wonderful) to have the anticipation and excitement of cruising in your near future when the school year is winding down and coming to an end!! LOVE IT! As you know though, you will probably pay more since you can not go early summer, like early June if you are both still teaching. If you live where school ends in May, you might (?) find better fares the first week of June.

Enjoy the excitement of planning!

DH is a teacher so we understand your situation well :)

We have chosen to cruise over Christmas/New Years break for the past two years, which has worked really well for us. Yes there is the chance Florida will be cold, but the weather gets warmer rather quickly as you sail south.

I'm not very interested in an April cruise, as the weather here is starting to warm up and the winter blues are over. I want something to break up the cold :) We've never considered a summer cruise for the same reason: we spend most of our vacation budget getting away from the cold.

Depending on how your school break falls, you can find good prices for the week after Christmas. We have left twice on Jan 1, and prices were much less than the week before. This particular quirk is over for us as of this year, but it was fun while it lasted! We're now looking at our March Break, which honestly is late for me but something is better than nothing.

In general, we travel over spring break and as soon as school gets out in June. My preference is spring break.

The problem with June is that is that it is hard to plan for snow days. Last year we had a record 6 snow days and nearly had to cancel our June trip because my high school son couldn't miss finals. This year however, my oldest is graduating from high school and seniors have a "fixed" last day of school before graduation, and we'll just let the youngest miss the last day and any make up snow days - no cancelling for school - we are headed to Europe! But most years, June is a real headache. Ideally, I'd leave the afternoon of the last day of school to get ahead of the crowds and the heat but I always plan a few "buffer" days to account for those inevitable snow days!

I dread traveling over the winter holidays, the cost is high, the crowds are worse, and there is always the worry of weather related travel delays.

I would like to do a cruise during the first week of April next year (our Spring Break).

Not unlike the variance in school district spring breaks, college spring breaks occur at different times as well. (There is a/are website/s - google "When is my spring break") So I would not make plans based on that. Also while some will cruise, others will work, some will study, & some will go on land based adventures.

You don't say where you are from, but since you sailed from Charleston, I suspect you are limiting yourself to ports you can drive to, which therefore limits you to the Bahamas. so yes, in Dec. the water temps will be cooler than you hope for. But it may not have warmed up that much by April, although the air temps will be warmer. If you can sail from south Florida, you will have warmer water temps in Dec. EM