Crowds when cruising in August

My husband and I are taking our first cruise on August 31st. We are going to Cozumel and Progreso. I know August tends to be a low crowd time for cruises because of hurricane season and because school has just started back up. I was just wondering if anyone has been on a cruise during high crowd time such as spring break or summer vacation and also during low crowd time and how big of a difference crowd wise there was.

Just wondering because I have been to Disney World during Christmas when the crowds were crazy and we have also been during September when there was hardly anyone there. Wondering if cruising is the same depending on when you go.

Crowds are much less on the ship during "off or low" season but as for the ports it depends on how many other ships are in port. Cozumel this past February was jam pack with people and 5 or 6 ships in port.

Ships sail full 99% of the time....you really don't notice any differences in the number of folks aboard!

Ships sail full 99% of the time....you really don't notice any differences in the number of folks aboard!

It is possible for slightly smaller crowds during low season on each sailing because all of the cabins may not be booked at full capacity (i.e. 4 pax/cabin instead of maybe just 2). You will also notice during low season and I'd say even during hurricane season that there will be less kids sailing.

Ships sail full 99% of the time....you really don't notice any differences in the number of folks aboard!

Actually you kind of do notice a difference when there are a lot of families/kids. Sailing full means full at double occupancy. When there are kids, a lot of the times they are the 3rd and 4th person in the room which adds to the ship population from "full sailing". We were on the Carnival Splendor on April 12th. This was just after the Spring Break Rush and I heard there were about a 1000 kids the week before. We didn't see many kids, maybe a couple hundred tops, and the lines were not that bad anywhere. I can't imagine what it looked like the week before. We have sailed in June, July, August, and over Thanks giving and Christmas breaks when the kids were more abundant and the lines were much longer.

Thanks for the replies. We were hoping that with school being in, there would be less activity of children everywhere. Don't get me wrong, we love kids (we have 6 between us) but this is a late honeymoon/anniversary trip and we were hoping to not have as much of the hectic pace of say spring break or summer vacation.

If we enjoy our first cruise, we do plan on taking my/our children on a cruise in 2017. We fully expect there to be plenty children at that time because it will most likely be during a school holiday or summer break.

Actually you kind of do notice a difference when there are a lot of families/kids. Sailing full means full at double occupancy. When there are kids, a lot of the times they are the 3rd and 4th person in the room which adds to the ship population from "full sailing". We were on the Carnival Splendor on April 12th. This was just after the Spring Break Rush and I heard there were about a 1000 kids the week before. We didn't see many kids, maybe a couple hundred tops, and the lines were not that bad anywhere. I can't imagine what it looked like the week before. We have sailed in June, July, August, and over Thanks giving and Christmas breaks when the kids were more abundant and the lines were much longer.

Our Dream cruise in June 2013 was the most crowded of our Carnival cruises so far. The cruise loyalty desk person told us at the future cruise talk that they usually sail full with 3,400 passengers but because it was summer and there were 1,200 kids on board, the total pax count on our sailing was pushing 4,600 people. And you could definitely tell! Food lines were always long and the pools and hot tubs were pretty much unusable all week because they were always jammed full.

Our Dream cruise in June 2013 was the most crowded of our Carnival cruises so far. The cruise loyalty desk person told us at the future cruise talk that they usually sail full with 3,400 passengers but because it was summer and there were 1,200 kids on board, the total pax count on our sailing was pushing 4,600 people. And you could definitely tell! Food lines were always long and the pools and hot tubs were pretty much unusable all week because they were always jammed full.

Oh, great! I am sailing this June on the Dream. I mean, I know it is summer and expect a ton of people but I just went on a Spring Break cruise. I assumed the Spring Break cruise would be the worst but now I wonder if summer is even worse? To be fair, I spend so much time in the casino that all the children running around hardly fazed me. I just got annoyed during lunch with the never ending lines.

My husband and I are taking our first cruise on August 31st. We are going to Cozumel and Progreso. I know August tends to be a low crowd time for cruises because of hurricane season and because school has just started back up. I was just wondering if anyone has been on a cruise during high crowd time such as spring break or summer vacation and also during low crowd time and how big of a difference crowd wise there was.

 

Just wondering because I have been to Disney World during Christmas when the crowds were crazy and we have also been during September when there was hardly anyone there. Wondering if cruising is the same depending on when you go.

We start school September 8. I wonder if other schools start late this year too because Labor Day is so late so families will still travel.

My first cruise ever was on the Carnival Liberty 8/3/13-8/10/13 was crowded, Second cruise on the Carnival Dream 8/3/14-8/10/14 was crowded also and my spring break cruise on the Carnival Magic 3/29/15-4/5/15 was crowded as well but that didn't stop me from having fun.

I was on the Epic April 12-19 and there were hardly any kids on our sailing. I think February/March and Easter are the busiest during the winter due to varying spring breaks.

In peak school vacation times there my well be a couple of hundred more people than on a "sold out" off season cruise. The difference comes from the third and fourth person (read "child") in many cabins which will only have two adults in the off season. Additionally, the average age of the adults will be much higher in the off season - more people of retirement age and fewer parents of young, school age children. Given the vastly different demographics, the cruise experience has to be different.

Thanks for the replies. We were hoping that with school being in, there would be less activity of children everywhere. Don't get me wrong, we love kids (we have 6 between us) but this is a late honeymoon/anniversary trip and we were hoping to not have as much of the hectic pace of say spring break or summer vacation.

 

If we enjoy our first cruise, we do plan on taking my/our children on a cruise in 2017. We fully expect there to be plenty children at that time because it will most likely be during a school holiday or summer break.

You are sailing the week before labor day - a lot of schools don't start until after Labor Day, so don't expect things to slow down that week.

We start school September 8. I wonder if other schools start late this year too because Labor Day is so late so families will still travel.

We always traveled the week before Labor day when our son was in school. There were still crowds--not as many as there would have been over July 4th but still crowds. Our first cruise was taken the week before Labor Day and the ship was full. We didn't notice it as much on board, but in the ports it was crazy packed.

My husband and I are taking our first cruise on August 31st. We are going to Cozumel and Progreso. I know August tends to be a low crowd time for cruises because of hurricane season and because school has just started back up. I was just wondering if anyone has been on a cruise during high crowd time such as spring break or summer vacation and also during low crowd time and how big of a difference crowd wise there was.

 

Just wondering because I have been to Disney World during Christmas when the crowds were crazy and we have also been during September when there was hardly anyone there. Wondering if cruising is the same depending on when you go.

We have sailed spring break twice, in October and during the summer. We are going again in June and to be honest, we haven't really noticed a big difference. The ships sail full pretty much year round.

My husband and I are taking our first cruise on August 31st. We are going to Cozumel and Progreso. I know August tends to be a low crowd time for cruises because of hurricane season and because school has just started back up. I was just wondering if anyone has been on a cruise during high crowd time such as spring break or summer vacation and also during low crowd time and how big of a difference crowd wise there was.

 

 

 

Just wondering because I have been to Disney World during Christmas when the crowds were crazy and we have also been during September when there was hardly anyone there. Wondering if cruising is the same depending on when you go.

Most ships sail full regardless of the time of year. Many schools don't return until after Labor Day. Also, there are many international travelers, home-schooled kids, etc. It might not be as busy as July, but I would not count on it. Hurricane season runs approximately June to November so I don't think that makes any difference. The only time I have noticed less kids/families is on cruises of 10 days or longer.

It may depend where you are sailing from - prices for cruises from our local port of Galveston are significantly lower for that last week of August, I presume because school will be well underway by that point (we tend to finish earlier to avoid the heat which means an earlier return in the fall).

It is possible for slightly smaller crowds during low season on each sailing because all of the cabins may not be booked at full capacity (i.e. 4 pax/cabin instead of maybe just 2). You will also notice during low season and I'd say even during hurricane season that there will be less kids sailing.

Even when there's a high demand (during school breaks, for instance), there is always a maximum number of passengers allowed on the ship. It's based on lifeboat capacity, not on total number of berths on the ship. Even during holidays, not every berth will be filled so as not to exceed the total capacity.

As for when school starts up, the Los Angeles Unified School District (second largest in the country) used to always start a day or two after Labor Day. This was changed a few years ago to start the school year in mid-August. Where I live, this decision was not popular as we get temperatures in the three-digit range throughout August, and even though much of September. Kids are not to be outside in the high heat index conditions (hopefully) as it's in the dangerous range. There were some air conditioning problems at some schools too the first year the change was made.

I have sailed ever month of the year and often during holidays, school vacations, summers, New Year's Easter....... you name it. Sure sometimes the islands are more crowded than other times but we always managed just fine. I had shoulder to shoulder crowds and avoid stadiums and crowded concerts and the like but have never been unduly disturbed by any of the Caribbean cruise ports being too crowded.

We start school September 8. I wonder if other schools start late this year too because Labor Day is so late so families will still travel.

We are in Michigan and schools here don't start until after Labor Day as well.

We are sailing out of New Orleans. We live about an hour away from there. Schools start the second week of August here.

Most of our schools (GA) begin the first week of August.I don't believe any of our schools wait until Labor Day to begin. Our teachers return the last week in July. Many schools now operate on a modified year round schedule. While they still have a designated summer vacation, they have breaks during the school year that allow both students and faculty to cruise at times other than the shortened summer vacation time.