Cruising at Spring break

We have booked the March 5th sailing of Caribbean Princess but are now wondering what the chances are of the ship being heavily populated with college students on spring break. Anyone have any such experience on a Princess cruise?

I did not look at your cruise, but if it's a 7-day one, the likelihood is slim that it would attract a ton of college spring breakers. Even when we have sailed later in the month, there were not that many on Princess. DH taught at a community college until his retirement this summer, and we took quite a few cruises during his spring breaks. Princess and HAL ones were sedate. Carnival was the place for college age spring breakers. His spring break week was generally later in March, usually the third week of the month.

We always avoid March due to the kids. It probably won't be to bad at the beginning as compared to Carnival but there will still be some aboard which we don't need on vacation. Princess isn't noted for a spring break destination as some of the other cruise lines.

There were reports last spring of lots of college aged kids on Princess getting their money's worth and more out of the all inclusive beverage package!

Just looked and March 5 is a very reasonably priced 6 night sailing, my bet is that you do see a fair amount of spring breakers.

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i agree with most of the above responses....i googled spring break schedules 2017...it appears many of the colleges in the southeast U.S. (all an easy one day drive to port everglades) are on break during the your dates...As others have said ,it probably won't be as "festive" as a carnival l cruise....but your your odds of having frequent "fraternity house" episodes certainly are increased during the first 3 weeks of the month....

also you might check CC member cruise reviews from last March (2016)...they may be informative and help you in your decision making.

PS: i realize some cruisers like and enjoy the high energy level college students bring to a cruise....I used to.... but as i am aging, my tolerance level seems to be declining....EXCEPT in those situations where the college passengers are from the University of Florida.

have a great cruise!

Being a 6 night Sunday to Saturday sailing there is a chance that you could run into college students. You might also run into families with school age students. General rule, the longer the cruise the less of a chance of running into college students. You might wish to change to a 10 day cruise around the same time.

We swore we would never cruise again in March due to the high number of spring breakers present, more so on a short cruise. Just wasn't for us.

You might wish to change to a 10 day cruise around the same time.

The longer the better of not having any kids on board.

We have booked the March 5th sailing of Caribbean Princess but are now wondering what the chances are of the ship being heavily populated with college students on spring break. Anyone have any such experience on a Princess cruise?

OH NO! March is not for the faint of heart! Unless you want to see 2/3 or more of those on board drunk at all times of the day! You might be safe if the cruise is longer than 7 days, but then watch out for families with small kids. ;)

We booked a late March - early April 14 day cruise out of LA and found it loaded with young children. California had a 2 week spring break at that time. So beware of Spring Break! :eek: :D

Just Mike

March fifth. From my experience, I see no problem. The week after is another story. We sail every year about the first week of March. On Regal- 3/8/15, 3/6/16, Ruby 3/4/12. Not trouble at all. Just had handful of nice children and young adults. But the week after on Regal I was told there would be 700 children.

It's impossible to say if that date will have many kids of not since they stagger the school breaks so much these days.

Since we can go anytime we want, why take any chances...but if you had to go March 5 would be the safest date to try.

I've got my own rule- no cruising in March- period.

It's impossible to say if that date will have many kids of not since they stagger the school breaks so much these days.

This is true for K-12, but a little less so for college Spring Breaks. They are far more consistently tucked into March. I guess it all depends on what the OP is most concerned about. If it is little kids running around, I would think that March 5 wouldn't be too bad, especially with Easter being so much later this year. If the OP is concerned with binge drinking college students, March 5 presents a bit more of an issue, calendar-wise. Still, it is a bit on the early side for many schools, but definitely in the potential range. That said, Princess doesn't market heavily to that crowd the way Carnival and NCL do.

This is true for K-12, but a little less so for college Spring Breaks. They are far more consistently tucked into March. I guess it all depends on what the OP is most concerned about. If it is little kids running around, I would think that March 5 wouldn't be too bad, especially with Easter being so much later this year. If the OP is concerned with binge drinking college students, March 5 presents a bit more of an issue, calendar-wise. Still, it is a bit on the early side for many schools, but definitely in the potential range. That said, Princess doesn't market heavily to that crowd the way Carnival and NCL do.

Our grade schools here in SW Florida are scheduled for April 10-17 this year.

Friends took one (and only one) cruise during spring break in the Caribbean. They sailed on Carnival. They will never cruise again. They hated it. Totally overrun with loud, foul-mouthed, drunken college kids.

Yes, this was Carnival rather than Princess but, even with less likelihood of this scenario on a Princess cruise there is no way I would want to take a short cruise at that time.

Disclaimer: We are booked for a March 2018 cruise but it's a 14 day (a true 14 day - not a B2B) circle Caribbean cruise and far less likely to be full of misbehaving "young adults". It also doesn't sail until March 18 so I felt safe booking it.

Friends took one (and only one) cruise during spring break in the Caribbean. They sailed on Carnival. They will never cruise again. They hated it. Totally overrun with loud, foul-mouthed, drunken college kids.

 

Yes, this was Carnival rather than Princess but, even with less likelihood of this scenario on a Princess cruise there is no way I would want to take a short cruise at that time.

 

Disclaimer: We are booked for a March 2018 cruise but it's a 14 day (a true 14 day - not a B2B) circle Caribbean cruise and far less likely to be full of misbehaving "young adults". It also doesn't sail until March 18 so I felt safe booking it.

The college kids can't really afford the time or money for a 14 day trip -

You're safe.;)

OP-School breaks nationwide are such that the weeks of 3/5 and 4/22 should be OK, but anywhere in between will be higher than normal crowds. Since Princess has already left the Caribbean by 4/22, your best option would be to stick with the 3/5 sailing. Or do as others have and book a longer sailing that won't be subject to those limited to one week or less breaks.

This is true for K-12, but a little less so for college Spring Breaks. They are far more consistently tucked into March. I guess it all depends on what the OP is most concerned about. If it is little kids running around, I would think that March 5 wouldn't be too bad, especially with Easter being so much later this year. If the OP is concerned with binge drinking college students, March 5 presents a bit more of an issue, calendar-wise. Still, it is a bit on the early side for many schools, but definitely in the potential range. That said, Princess doesn't market heavily to that crowd the way Carnival and NCL do.

I would qualify this by saying that there are breaks as early February at some colleges, and in fact mine has two breaks. One for degree students in April, and one for our huge adult ed program which encompasses all the two year health degrees and various licenses (nursing, paramedics, dieticians, etc.) which is mid-March.

We have taken two Princess 7 days cruises in March to the Western Caribbean. I monitored the spring cruises for a year in advance and it was clear that there was a particular cruise in February and one in March that sold out the quickest. They also had the highest prices. A bit of homework like that can give you a lot of information. We had two very civilized cruises with some children and some college students, but not the kind of craziness others have written about.

Other than timing, location and line will have an effect too, I think.

Just did a little research and it appears the the big weeks for college spring breaks are the week of March 6 and 13.

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We once booked a last minute cruise in March on Royal Caribbean cruise line. Since our kids were long past school age, we totally forgot about spring break.

On that cruise the majority of the troubles were with the middle school aged kids. I guess their parents felt no responsibility for controlling them. Those kids took over many of the elevators and stairs and made it difficult for everyone to get around. One entire family got kicked off the ship at our first port because of the behavior of the kids.

Since that experience I always stay home in March and do something much less stressful-----work on income taxes.

My first ever cruise was March 2, 2008 on the Caribbean Princess! It was an Eastern Carib itinerary. Under 50 kids 17 & under onboard & I don't think there were huge groups of college aged individuals. I was amazed with the number of pools on board & weren't crowded.

How can I remember all this? I Never forget a first cruise, seems like yesterday!

Our grade schools here in SW Florida are scheduled for April 10-17 this year.

The grade schoolers are not usually such big drinkers.

Now, I'm sure some irate parents will correct me about THEIR kids.

I would qualify this by saying that there are breaks as early February at some colleges, and in fact mine has two breaks.

It shouldn't need qualifying, since it is already qualified. I said "more consistently" and not "exclusively". There are always going to be exceptions.

Some colleges do trimesters. Some do semesters. Some do quarters. But in the end, the majority of collegiate Spring Breaks take place in March. K-12 is far more varied, and with Easter being in mid-April this year, early March is going to be an outlier for K-12 vacations. (And that doesn't meant that there won't be any, so there is no need for anyone to jump in with: "But our school...")

I would definitely avoid March on a shorter cruise. I went on a 10 night cruise in March once thinking it would be ok ... not only did the cruise ship have a lot of spring breakers (obviously willing to stretch that spring break out a couple days on one end) but the ports of call were just packed with spring breakers! YIKES .... it was a 'never again' moment.

The children/college kids on Spring Break were never a problem for us. :)

This is just my 2 cents but if the sailing starts mid week and ends mid week then there is minimal chance of lots of families and spring breakers. When a cruise starts and ends on a weekend day the level of spring breakers goes up considerably.

Because schools usually run breaks weekend to weekend (start Sat end on Sun) you'll see a rise in travel but midweek is much less.