Any families that have done a 14 day itinerary (Breakaway Southern from NY)

We are really considering this but then I did a search and only found 4 reviews of similar itinerary's on the ship and all of them seemed to point out a lack of "younger families" onboard. We aren't 'young' really....mid 40's with 2 teenagers and 1 nine-year old. My biggest con about switching from Escape 7day out of Miami is that we will end up on a ship that we have no other families to get to know with kids our kids ages. I know my girls (9 and 14) are both social and will want to meet new friends and attend SA and Entourage, etc.

I'd love some input. Its a large ship with a lot of people. Will we find similar age group and families with children our kids ages or will we feel out of place. The NY port appeals to me and so do those southern ports since we've already done an Eastern before. We are looking at early Feb 2018... not a school break - end of exams + first semester/ start of 2nd semester in high school (Canada)

Thoughts?

We have taken that same cruise for the last three years. We are retired and really enjoy two week cruises. I can honestly say that their was very few school age children on the cruise. There were pre-school age. Not too many parents are willing to take children out of school for that length of time. But if your children easily make friends they would probably be ok. Don't get me wrong the cruise was made up of all age groups from newlyweds to many, many, many seniors,

You are not going during any school breaks and it's a 14 day cruise that most families don't take. There aren't going to be a lot of kids on board.

But, I never give any thought to who is on board, myself. I go for MY solitude so take plenty of these cruises.

If you have to have "friends" and "people" you can hook up with, then probably this isn't going to be a good choice for your kids.

Have never been on any NCL long intineraries, but have done 9, 10 and 12 night trips on RCCL during non-school break times. Last November did RCCL Anthem out of NJ for a 12 nighter.

#1 - the longer the cruise the fewer the kids seems to be the general rule - in November (sailed the Saturday after Thanksgiving) there were like 200 kids on board (most of them seemed to be under the age of 6 or so from what I saw).

#2 - We are in our early 50's and, yes there were some younger than us, but not too many. Most 20-40 year olds don't have the ability to take that much time from work or family responsibilities (I know we didn't at that age).

#3 - Cruising from NY/NJ in winter - be prepared for the first two days to be fairly cool and the last two days as well. Not familiar with the ship you're on but hopefully it has some enclosed areas that will be useable during this time. If not that is something else to consider.

#4 - there are usually lots of sea day on a trip from NY so as noted in #3 hopefully there is plenty to do inside when necessary.

HTH - enjoy whatever you decide to do:halo:

Paging Nclkhaus! She's done that itinerary at least twice with her husband and preteen daughter. Search for her reviews, they're very informative and she takes a lot of great pictures! Her daughter always makes a lot of friends at Splash Academy. They seem like a really cool family 😉

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Paging Nclkhaus! She's done that itinerary at least twice with her husband and preteen daughter. Search for her reviews, they're very informative and she takes a lot of great pictures! Her daughter always makes a lot of friends at Splash Academy. They seem like a really cool family 😉

 

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Yes, i found and devoured her reviews. I gathered lots of great information. Didn't seem to be an abundance of kids on board. I get it, 2 weeks is a lot of school to miss. We've never pulled our kids out of school in the past 10 years but are in need of some major family time before my oldest teen heads off to university :loudcry::loudcry::loudcry: - The other itineraries out of ny don't really interest me b/c of the time of year. I want to have several WARM days of sun. With the Bermuda itinerary i think it is still very cool weather (and water) that time of year (Jan-April is the time frame we looked). Summers my kids are too busy with sports.

Thanks for the input everyone. I'm still on the fence but am leaning more towards staying with the 7 day eastern on Escape. Some day when the kids are older my husband and I will definitely need to book this cruise though. 14 days sounds heavenly.

We travel as a large family too. We are currently booked for the 14 night Southern Caribbean on the Breakaway for early January 2018. January is really the only time we can get away now. Our children will be 4, 11, 13, and 20 at time of sailing, and we are looking forward to the great itinerary (8 ports)! Plus going out of NY saves us so much money. It is actually cheaper for us to take a 14 night cruise out of NY than a 7 night cruise out of Florida for our large family! We will cope with the couple days down and then back of not great weather. We realize there probably won't be many other kids on the sailing. The lines for the waterslide and rope courses should be shorter! :)

I know you will all have a great time with whatever you decide! Family time is So important to us, and we can't wait to try something new!

We recently took a 10 day norwegian cruise in January. Hardly saw any kids. There was a group from the kids club that came to the shows a couple nights. Maybe 20 in all. If having children of a variety of ages is important for your family I would def stick w the 7 day cruise; can always add a land vacation in Florida at the beginning or end to make it a 2 week trip.

Go to Orlando and see universal studios and sea world

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