Spring Break Lesson Learned

We foolishly decided to book a Caribbean cruise while we were freezing during a really cold, snowy spell one day in November. I particularly wanted to go to Grand Cayman to stock up on Tortuga Rum which is the reason we booked the Vision leaving Tampa 3/14/15. Whoa, I didn't realize there would be a bunch of college kids on spring break (our kids our 37 and 39 and we have no grandkids so haven't paid attention to school in years). After discussion with the cabin stewards on our deck I learned that they hated March and April because of spring break. There are 4 kids to a room and I guess the rooms are just nasty when they leave. Deck 10 had to be washed off every evening because they spilled so many drinks on the walking track it was almost impossible to use without your shoes sticking to the deck.

One of our stops was in Belize. That's a 40+ minute tender ride. Coming back to the ship at the end of the day, we were on a tender with a group of college boys that had been drinking heavily during the day and decided their fight song needed to be sung at the top of their lungs. They were asked to please quiet down since there were elderly and small children on the boat - they didn't listen. The crew then asked them to quiet down - they got louder. They were screaming the "f" word and there were small children sitting back to back to them. I have never seen so many rude and disrespectful young people.

Fortunately we were mostly able to stay away from them (since they said the Solarium was for old people and wouldn't go in there!!!) and did have a good time on the cruise! And I was able to get my Tortuga rum home in my checked luggage (with a little help from bubble wrap, tape, and two gallon zip lock bags) fully intact!

That is why we always do a May Cruise to the Caribbean and a TA in November.....Always the BEST People cruise at those times and the weather is always Great Also.

I wish there were some adult only cruises, we sometimes do Sandals and one of the reasons is it is adult only. But we love to cruise this year we are doing last week of April and week after Thanksgiving, very few children on these dates

Glad you got your rum. I started reading your story thinking that after all you went through, you all had to miss Grand Cayman.

You never really know what kind of crowd you are going to get during Spring Break.

Glad you got your rum. I started reading your story thinking that after all you went through, you all had to miss Grand Cayman.

 

You never really know what kind of crowd you are going to get during Spring Break.

I always try to find the good in a situation no matter how it turns out. We were able to stay away from the college kids so it all turned out great in the end! Captain Marek said the seas that week were the best he'd had all winter long - the highest was only 5' and that was only one evening. Most of the days were calm. It was lovely! And I got my rum which was the most important thing! :D

I have to admit, I have booked a last minute seven night on the allure leaving on march 29th. I am a little worried about the crazy crazy people.. but I am hoping they mostly do the four or five nighters, and my seven nighter will be relatively peaceful.

I feel your pain. DD & I went on a 4 night spring break cruise right after she graduated from college. We went at that time knowing what we would be getting, but we were in Florida already for a family wedding. We had a nice time, but we worked hard to avoid the drunken hoards.

If I feel a need to take a cruise at that time of year again, I will opt for flying to San Juan.

I have to admit, I have booked a last minute seven night on the allure leaving on march 29th. I am a little worried about the crazy crazy people.. but I am hoping they mostly do the four or five nighters, and my seven nighter will be relatively peaceful.

We always Cruise the Caribbean during the March/April time frame. We have never experienced anything like the OP experienced. Not all Spring Break Cruises are wild out of control spring breakers. I guess some can be and hopefully we never end up on one like the OP did. That would be a bummer! We're doing a B2B Cruise on the Adventure on 29 March/5 April 2015 and not worried. Enjoy your Cruise, Bon Voyage.

I wish there were some adult only cruises, we sometimes do Sandals and one of the reasons is it is adult only. But we love to cruise this year we are doing last week of April and week after Thanksgiving, very few children on these dates

Hate to say it, but aren't college kids "adults"?

DH booked a surprise cruise for my birthday on Serenade out of NOLA, leaving one day before Easter (BD on 8th). We sailed the same ship last year and loved it--one of our favorites! It only dawned on me a couple of weeks ago that it would be Easter week and still Spring Break when we sail this time. Fortunately, I don't think Serenade is one of the "in demand" ships for spring breakers (We are in our late 50s--"Old"), EXCEPT Serenade is currently in NOLA until 4/11/15 (sadly leaving), AND in checking Spring Break schedules, looks like LSU will be on Spring Break the week we sail. Hopefully most will opt for Carnival or NCL since they are in NOLA as well (or opt for Galveston)....Not to mention, we and the couple sailing with us are die-hard Bama fans and LSU is one of our TOP rivals! (just kidding, we like them....except when we are playing them, lol). We are hopeful for a fairly calm, relaxing cruise. I have no problem, however, with WELL BEHAVED childen--unlike the ones I read about the other day who were on Serenade running around, playing hide and seek at 2-3am.

I have to admit, I have booked a last minute seven night on the allure leaving on march 29th. I am a little worried about the crazy crazy people.. but I am hoping they mostly do the four or five nighters, and my seven nighter will be relatively peaceful.

I'm expecting more high school than college that week; I'm on the Quantum same week and I know most of the colleges in NJ are off this week and last; most high schools are off next week and the following.

Keeping fingers crossed. LOL I have two high schoolers but luckily they are quiet kids, as as the kids our friends are bringing. They will avoid the crazies.

W've never done a short cruise during that time frame, but that is our preferred cruising time....have never been bothered with rowdy spring breakers...I guess the 7 nighter is the way to go!

If they were bar hopping in Belize City they are either dumb or brave.;)

Glad you had a good time and were able to keep your composure - I think I might have lost it on the tender if I had my grand kids with me with the F word being used. Im not a prude but that's just uncalled for. I think I could have put up with the singing but not that. :(

I wonder if anyone here realizes that these young people having fun are say, 1. What a bunch of old fuddy duddys on this ship, or two they dont even notice you because they are doing what on vacation, having fun....

It's quite possible to have fun without being obnoxious like not quieting down when asked and not throwing out the f bomb. 1. it has nothing to do with being a fuddy duddy, 2. it's about a little decorum and respect for others and 3. they were probably too trashed to care.:(

I guess you were never a kid or had a fun childhood.

You are half right we do not have children and rather not see them on a cruise, dislike getting on a elevator and seeing that someone pressed all the buttons, but in general most children seem well behaved on the cruises we have been on.

I wonder if anyone here realizes that these young people having fun are say, 1. What a bunch of old fuddy duddys on this ship, or two they dont even notice you because they are doing what on vacation, having fun....

Fun is a relative term. I worked for a university public safety department for a couple of years after retiring as a career police officer. It was then I decided I would avoid sailing short Spring break cruises. I'd never seen the volume of conduct so detrimental to oneself in all my years as a police officer. Granted, not all Spring breakers are alike but sometimes their fun can be extreme. Fuddy duddy or not, it can still ruin your cruise.

We just got off a 5 day WC aboard Liberty of the Seas 3-19, should have been prime spring time...and they were on board but we hardly noticed them. No out of control behavior, no F-bombs, no taking over bars or pool deck. I think a spring break cruise can be hit or miss.

That said, let's not limit our disdain for disregarding ship/staff rules and the respect of others to simply one group (in this case spring breakers). While I didn't notice any bad spring breaker behavior, I did notice some overly drunk and obnoxious 30-40 year olds. I also noticed a TON of chair hogging done by mostly the 35-70 year old group who is up at 7:30 am with a bottle of suntan oil, a book and a towel as if that's not clearly posted as being against the rules and they are completely disregarding ship/staff orders. The breakers don't chair hog, they are still asleep! I'm simply suggesting every category (if you want to stereotype, which is exactly what we are doing here with college spring breakers) has their fair share of disrespectful behaving passengers in said category as well as exceptions to the stereotype who are very respectful (that includes the spring breaker category). At least spring break lasts only a few weeks, the other categories of disrespectful passengers are on board all year! LOL.

If you go on a cruise anywhere around March, it's going to be hit or miss for inappropriate college spring break (and HS Spring Breaker) behavior. But their bad behavior is not the only bad behavior that's rampant on cruise ships. We can only hope that those complaining about spring breakers aren't doing anything themselves that might disrespect others on board the same cruise. Our cruise was far more negatively impacted by smokers ruining the environment and fresh air around us on our balcony than it was by spring breakers, but just like being a drunk spring breaker dropping F-bombs isn't illegal, neither is smoking (yet) so there really isn't much point to complaining about it I guess in my opinion.

We just got off a 5 day WC aboard Liberty of the Seas 3-19, should have been prime spring time...and they were on board but we hardly noticed them. No out of control behavior, no F-bombs, no taking over bars or pool deck. I think a spring break cruise can be hit or miss.

 

That said, let's not limit our disdain for disregarding ship/staff rules and the respect of others to simply one group (in this case spring breakers). While I didn't notice any bad spring breaker behavior, I did notice some overly drunk and obnoxious 30-40 year olds. I also noticed a TON of chair hogging done by mostly the 35-70 year old group who is up at 7:30 am with a bottle of suntan oil, a book and a towel as if that's not clearly posted as being against the rules and they are completely disregarding ship/staff orders. The breakers don't chair hog, they are still asleep! I'm simply suggesting every category (if you want to stereotype, which is exactly what we are doing here with college spring breakers) has their fair share of disrespectful behaving passengers in said category as well as exceptions to the stereotype who are very respectful (that includes the spring breaker category). At least spring break lasts only a few weeks, the other categories of disrespectful passengers are on board all year! LOL.

 

If you go on a cruise anywhere around March, it's going to be hit or miss for inappropriate college spring break (and HS Spring Breaker) behavior. But their bad behavior is not the only bad behavior that's rampant on cruise ships. We can only hope that those complaining about spring breakers aren't doing anything themselves that might disrespect others on board the same cruise. Our cruise was far more negatively impacted by smokers ruining the environment and fresh air around us on our balcony than it was by spring breakers, but just like being a drunk spring breaker dropping F-bombs isn't illegal, neither is smoking (yet) so there really isn't much point to complaining about it I guess in my opinion.

Agree. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't smoking on RCCL ships balconies illegal? I'd bitch about that.

I was on the Independence March 8th out of Ft. Lauderdale, quite a few Virginia Tech kids on. They weren't really bothersome except for when my mom went to get a drink at the bar, they would hover around the main bar. Other than that, I guess you could say my mom and I lucked out in terms of not-so-crazy people hahaha!

My 15 year old daughter's Spring Break was early in the month and she wanted a "warm trip" after a cold winter at her school. I thought about it being spring break for college students because I have a 22 year old that was on his spring break the week before. What I wasn't aware of was that our cruise was an advertised party cruise for college students by a third party travel group. There were over 1,200 college students (I think that was the number just from one school) on the ship.

Bars were five or six people deep most of the time. We witnessed multiple incidents of young people getting sick, disrespectful behaviors and loud (very loud) conversations with cursing and filthy language. I was awakened at least once each night by late partiers on the hall. Did I complain? No I didn't need to do that. There were many in line daily handling that for the rest of us. I understand 10 of the students were escorted off the ship in Cozumel.

Fortunately neither my daughter or I are big sun worshippers so we never tried to hang out on the pool deck. And I am not a big drinker so pretty much just ordered a drink at dinner or in the theatre. But there were families with young children that wanted to you use the pool now and then. One young father with about a 1 year old told us about prank calls in the middle of the night to his cabin and banging on their cabin door, again in the middle of the night. That would have made me mad back in the day when I had young children! And we were warned early on not to even try to use the gym.

I did feel sorry for the adults with drink packages that couldn't get to the bars to get the drinks they wanted. One college student told us that one person would get drinks for three or four people and then one of them would get in line again right away. Yes, most of them had drink packages. And yes, there were issues with people trying to get drinks for underage students. I heard that they had to start requiring a picture ID with the Seapass card to get drinks.

One good thing was that my 15 year old daughter was not impressed by a good deal of the behaviors of the intoxicated students. We had a few very good conversations about the effect of alcohol on decision making, etc. And there were a number of students that apologized for the behaviors of the others. But I will never book another cruise, spring break or not, without searching the web for cruise tours that may be on the ship at the same time.

Agree. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't smoking on RCCL ships balconies illegal? I'd bitch about that.

Rules without enforcement consequences are merely suggestions.

Good point DaveKathy...Smoking on balconies might be against the rules, so is chair hogging, line cutting, saving seats in the theater, heck I think even profanity is illegal in some states and cities and likely against the rules on CC forums but I see plenty of it. That's my entire point, just like drunken disorderly spring breaker behavior is against the rules, if the ship staff won't enforce certain rules, then complaining is a worthless waste of precious vacation time I guess.

We had two side by side balconies with the divider open so a lot of space on deck 8 forward and I really couldn't tell where the smoke was coming from but seemed multiple directions on different days. It would be hard for me to even suggest to crew where to look for the offender. I wonder if anybody has successfully had that complaint (I smell smoke on my balcony) addressed if you couldn't look right at the person on the balcony next to you and see them smoking??? My guess is the complaint to ship crew would likely get only lip-service just like the OP's complaint of the obnoxious behavior on the tender from Belize got nothing but lip-service.

We have been on 4 spring break cruises including the vision on the 14th. Yes there were more breakers on this one than others we have been on probably because it left from Tampa. Its to bad a few behaved badly on your tender. We spent alot of time on or near the pool deck (DD almost grew gills) and were not bothered by any behavior we saw. Once in a while someone might yell about their school but many other adults joined in as college kids. Never heard any swearing and had no problems walking around on the track. of course we like to people watch and think of some of it as free entertainment. Maybe its just the way you look at things. We would have no problem (and probably will) book a spring break cruise again.

This should be the very tail end of the college spring break season. A lot of elementary and high schools around here have break the week before Easter, but I would the teenagers and tweens are just loud and annoying, rather than drunk, loud and annoying.

Looking back on my college years (not THAT long ago!) I would think if you picked a longer itinerary, a more pricey route or ship, perhaps Eastern vs. Western Caribbean or a port that wasn't as accessible by car...the cruise wouldn't seem so much like Greek Row at 1am on a Saturday.

Yup, there can be some nasty behavior by young people. But the worst behavior by a group I've experienced was by a group of about 20-25 ex-US Navy submariners who had all come on for a "boys" weekend. They were in their late 50's or early 60's. Drunk all the time, sick all over, loud, smoked cigars where ever they pleased, pounding on doors, swearing, other things that I would prefer not to try to describe.

This was a short cruise but not near any holidays or school breaks. No telling what "heck" you

Fortunately for us, it was pre-kid. But the the families on board were disgusted, the staff was fed up, and eventually several of them were kicked off.

We have not had a bad experience since then -- keeping my fingers crossed for all of you with upcoming cruises.