Sounding like a prude...

My wife and I just returned from the 4 day trip out of Galveston on the Carnival Ecstasy. While it was fun and we enjoyed Cozumel, are all cruises that out of control with regard to drinking and inappropriate behavior? There where some scenes in the pool area that if my 10 year old son had been with me I would have been mortified. I guess I'm just wondering if cruising can still be for us but maybe on another line or ship.

Thanks for any advice you can give.

Rick

Four day Caribbean cruises attract the "wrong" crowd. Unfortuneately. Many of these cruisers are new to cruising and don't know the etiquette. Many are young and or partiers. Many adults are doing a long weekend without the kids and making up for lost time... ie. getting hammered.

It is hit and miss- sometimes a cruise coincides with college breaks and so you get some real idiots onboard.

Don't give up on cruising. Longer and more expensive cruises tend to attack better clientelle. Avoid March because this tends to be college break. Easter attracts more families and they aren't "party" cruises.

I am about to embark on my 36th cruise and I've done all the major lines. I have personally never experienced roudy behavior. I travel with my son and would never want him to be exposed to drunks and I haven't found this to be the case on most cruises.

I am not suggesting you swear off Carnival because most people on these boards have had good experiences.

Again- no 4 day Caribbean and no March cruises would be my advice.

Short cruises attract a party crowd. Cruises during spring break (broadly, mid-February to mid-April, it seems) are more likely to have college kids and partiers. Carnival tends to have the lowest fares, so it likewise tends to attract rowdier passengers.

That said, we've cruised Carnival before and will again, but not on short cruises during spring break.

Carnival has a reputation as a party cruise line, and those shorter cruises aren't known as "party cruises" for no reason. Agree, to avoid, don't book short cruises, especially during college breaks (avoid Feb-Apr).

My wife and I just returned from the 4 day trip out of Galveston on the Carnival Ecstasy. While it was fun and we enjoyed Cozumel, are all cruises that out of control with regard to drinking and inappropriate behavior? There where some scenes in the pool area that if my 10 year old son had been with me I would have been mortified. I guess I'm just wondering if cruising can still be for us but maybe on another line or ship.

 

Thanks for any advice you can give.

 

Rick

Short cruises tend to draw the kind of a crowd you witnessed. Longer cruises (one week or more) don't attract the "party hardy" kind of people as much.

I am going to say that a 4 day Carnival cruise during Spring Break was your first mistake. ;)

I am not the biggest Carnival fan (I know I know, start throwing darts if you want). But if I were to take another Carnival cruise, it would not be during Spring Break OR Summer.

I can tell you there was a HUGE difference between the type of people we cruised with on the 4 night Sensation - August cruise verses the 4 night Elation - JANUARY. It was HUGE.

Elation was our first Carnival experience. And I liked it enough to want to go again. The people were different by a mile from those we experienced on the August (Summer) Sensation cruise.

They were rude, trashy (literally -- threw garbage in the stairs), loud, obnoxious, broke into fights with the crew members. Yep, I swore off Summer cruises for good after that one.

We had a better experience on Triumph, but not that much better. ;)

So I am staying off the Carnival ships, for now. Yes, the prices are good, but I am not willing to sacrifice the quality of our experience.

Thanks for your responses. This information is about what I had concluded myself. I'm on a school trip on this one (our kids were perfect ;)). Summers are about my only option with my job. Guess I'll focus on week long trips out of Galveston or New Orleans. I'm trying to avoid airfare.

Thanks again!

Yes and do read the reviews for the ship you select and make sure to look for reviews from the previous year around the time that you want to travel. This will give you a good idea of what to expect.

Summer is a terrific time to travel. There will be kids of course but this means lots of families and family cruises are just that- family type cruises.

You will get a much better crowd on a week long cruise, even during the summer months. College spring break time is just the rowdiest time to go.

I wont sail anything less than 5 days if I have to just for that reason. We just got back from the 5 day Inspiration and saw absolutely no inappropriate behavior, wildness, excessive intoxication etc etc etc. It was a wonderful cruise during sprink break. There were lots of kids onboard and some college aged too but all were very well behaved.

My wife and I have been on Carnival 5 times and always enjoyed ourselves. We decided to leave the kids at home and go on a short three-night cruise. It was this past July and was absolutely crazy! I had never seen anything like it before or since. I'm talking more people in a hot tub than water, beer bongs in the pool hosted by passengers in Mexican wrestling masks. Men without shirts in the main dining room. It was nuts! We still had fun, but we're sure glad the kiddos weren't with us. Anyway, thats the last 3 nighter for us.

Ah the fun ship :D Every cruise line has its style/reputation or some call it the theme.

Sorry to hear of your suprise, but I'm not suprised.

My wife and I just returned from the 4 day trip out of Galveston on the Carnival Ecstasy. While it was fun and we enjoyed Cozumel, are all cruises that out of control with regard to drinking and inappropriate behavior? There where some scenes in the pool area that if my 10 year old son had been with me I would have been mortified. I guess I'm just wondering if cruising can still be for us but maybe on another line or ship.

 

Thanks for any advice you can give.

 

Rick

The most out of control cruise we have ever taken was a three day one. And that was on Princess. Would not use that to base any other cruise on. People were just in a party mood. Both adults and children. We just kind of hung out in our cabin.

Carnival has a reputation as a party cruise line, and those shorter cruises aren't known as "party cruises" for no reason. Agree, to avoid, don't book short cruises, especially during college breaks (avoid Feb-Apr).

Carnival is trying to get away from their reputation as "Party Cruise" central... but they have a formula that attracts that kind of behavior.

It's not that Carnival's ships encourage the party atmosphere... it's just that they have the right price. Cheap cruises (especially Spring Break time) WILL attract poor college students who want to party like rock stars.

The right price also may attract people who don't own shoes, or wear their cabin robes to breakfast and lunch.... seen that, too!

We have done 4 day, 7 day and 10 day cruises. In our experience there are more partiers and a lower class of people often on the shorter cruises. Also, spring break often is more out of control. We however like shorter cruises for the kids b/c it feels like the perfect amount of time. So to avoid the craziness we stick to the cruises that have waterworks/splash pads and spend most of our time in that area as we tend to find mostly families w/ young kids in these areas. We also talk to our kids about any behaviour they witness that's not appropriate and try to use it as a teachable moment.