Crowds on ships in the off-season

Hello,

We took our first non-Summer cruise

(10/31/17, 12 days) on the GEM last year. There were very few children, no lines or crowds anywhere (including the pool and places to eat). We got hooked and were wondering if this was typical during longer cruises (10 days or more) on all ships during October and November? I know the GEM is a smaller ship but was also wondering if the crowds are smaller on ships like the Breakaway and Escape? The four cruises we are looking at are:

10/16/18 (11 nights) Breakaway out of NY

10/26/18 (14 nights) Dawn out of Boston

11/25/18 (14 nights) Escape out of NY

11/26/18 (12 nights) GEM out of NY

Thanks

You have two things in your favor. First you are looking at longer cruises, and second schools are in session. While any of those ships will likely sail full, they should not be packed with children. Keep in mind that the November sailings are are around Thanksgiving, which might make a difference.

Some folks try to avoid hurricane season

As a previous poster mentioned, any longer cruise (10-14+ days) will not have the number of kids you will experience on a 7 day cruise. Also, school must be in. We only book longer cruises for this reason. As far as larger ships, you will experience the crowds. We took our first cruise on a "mega" ship, and we don't see ourselves going on another, unless the itinerary is exceptional.

I just checked your choices..…the Dawn out of Boston looks really nice IMHO.:D

Hello,

We took our first non-Summer cruise

(10/31/17, 12 days) on the GEM last year. There were very few children, no lines or crowds anywhere (including the pool and places to eat). We got hooked and were wondering if this was typical during longer cruises (10 days or more) on all ships during October and November? I know the GEM is a smaller ship but was also wondering if the crowds are smaller on ships like the Breakaway and Escape? The four cruises we are looking at are:

 

10/16/18 (11 nights) Breakaway out of NY

10/26/18 (14 nights) Dawn out of Boston

11/25/18 (14 nights) Escape out of NY

11/26/18 (12 nights) GEM out of NY

 

Thanks

So,,, NCL can not profitably run cruises unless the ship are relatively full. So, while the ship is full from a passenger count perspective, you have a [much] older demographic which results in a different behavior. Our New England/Canada cruise had a mean age of 68 with very few children. Compared to our Mexican Riviera cruise with a mean age of 42 with nearly 1/3 of the passengers 18 years old and younger.

We would take the longer Escape cruise out of NY for the ship and duration.

We only cruise outside of school holidays so there tend to be very few kids. We love it. While I’m sure every room is still sold out, there are probably fewer 3rd and 4th person rooms so therefore fewer people on the ship. I think you’ll enjoy any of the sailings you mentioned. Personally I would pick the November ones to get clear of hurricane season.

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Hello,

We took our first non-Summer cruise

(10/31/17, 12 days) on the GEM last year. There were very few children, no lines or crowds anywhere (including the pool and places to eat). We got hooked and were wondering if this was typical during longer cruises (10 days or more) on all ships during October and November? I know the GEM is a smaller ship but was also wondering if the crowds are smaller on ships like the Breakaway and Escape? The four cruises we are looking at are:

 

10/16/18 (11 nights) Breakaway out of NY

10/26/18 (14 nights) Dawn out of Boston

11/25/18 (14 nights) Escape out of NY

11/26/18 (12 nights) GEM out of NY

 

Thanks

My opinion for what it is worth: the 2 you are picked in Oct should be similar to what you have already experienced when it comes to crowds and kids. I will add, the larger ships, believe it of not often seem more crowded. The 2 you are thinking about in Nov, even though they are longer itineraries are close enough to Thanksgiving they may have more kids on them. If it were me, I think I would go with the Dawn in Oct. I have not checked but imagine the Dawn cruise in Oct is to New England. New England/Canada are among our favorite cruise itineraries. As for everyone saying kids will be in school, yes, this is true but many do not realize a couple of things: more kids are home schooled today than ever before and school holidays now run all over the place. Some districts do get a week off in mid Oct (not many) and Thanksgiving holiday can take in the entire week or just 2 days.

Some folks try to avoid hurricane season

Though officially still hurricane season, it is rare to have a really intense hurricane after the first 1/2 of Oct. You are right though some people do consider that when planning a cruise. I would if it were Aug to Sept, not too much after that.

We cruised on a TA where there were many singles. Most traveled by themselves result in a a fully booked ship but below capacity. Very unusual.

The secret of a less crowded ship is not necessarily thinking of school vacations but longer cruises. Many of today's parents think nothing of taking their kids out of school for a cheaper vacation. Then there are homeschooled kids, families from South American countries, etc.

Also keep an eye on the Kids Sail free offers. That will also produce more kids and overcrowding.

Those mega ships sometimes double the number of passengers but the public areas, especially the pool deck aren't proportionately larger.

There won't be much of pool crowd, if any, in october/november coming out of Boston or New York! At least not for the first few days. Too many colder embarkation/first sea days and last couple on those cruises as well as hurricane season like others said. I'd never leave out of those ports in the later season into the Atlantic. Many people will sail them but the weather and hurricane risk is too high for most.

Good times to travel when prices are down and kids aren't around:

First couple of weeks in Sept....schools just opened and few parents take their kids out in those early days

Right after Thanksgiving....people had a long holiday weekend and are back to work

Right before Christmas....people getting ready for holidays and aren't taking time off

Right after New Year's.....people recovering from holidays and already took their time off

If you check the current prices of those weeks, you'll see they're low.

We did the BA last November....no crowds....no kids....and it was "almost for free".

All year long, the Gem is going to feel a lot less crowded than the Escape, Breakaway, Epic....bigger ships.

NCL really packs em in tight on the bigger, newer ships. Even if the bigger ships were cruising with a bunch of empty rooms I think you'd still feel like those ships are more crowded. They've maximized cabin space at the expense of public areas making way, way more people per public square foot. Those bigger ships feel crowded all year long!

If you like that uncrowded feeling, stick with the smaller ships. Especially if you value sundeck space, open space for public ocean viewing. On the newer ships, that area is cabins......more cruisers, more revenue.

I just checked your choices..…the Dawn out of Boston looks really nice IMHO.:D

r

We are booked on that one------looking forward to it and praying for good weather.

To answer your question, yes, there is an older passenger demographic and fewer school age kids on the longer off season cruises. That is one reason that we choose them.

One exception for us is Bermuda, which are only 7 days in June.

We love fall cruises! Most of ours are in the fall to avoid children. The older demographic is fun to cruise with...just different. On our 14-day on The Dawn, Jose and Patti had tons of followers. We did not get the hype. What we loved was that the bars weren't crowded and there weren't unsupervised kids running wild - which we had on The Sun on an April cruise. On both our previous cruises out of NY in November, there also were less than 100 kids, and it was great. We work with kids and enjoy them, but prefer not to have them all over on vacation. Late fall is where it's at IMO. Great prices, past the peak of hurricane season, and nice older people to travel with.

Hello,

We took our first non-Summer cruise

(10/31/17, 12 days) on the GEM last year. There were very few children, no lines or crowds anywhere (including the pool and places to eat). We got hooked and were wondering if this was typical during longer cruises (10 days or more) on all ships during October and November? I know the GEM is a smaller ship but was also wondering if the crowds are smaller on ships like the Breakaway and Escape? The four cruises we are looking at are:

 

10/16/18 (11 nights) Breakaway out of NY

10/26/18 (14 nights) Dawn out of Boston

11/25/18 (14 nights) Escape out of NY

11/26/18 (12 nights) GEM out of NY

 

Thanks

I absolutely loved the Escape and it is IMHO an appealing itinerary but then again GSC is never guaranteed, however, the 11 Night on the Gem is quite good also. I like the fact that the Gem is in San Juan on a Sunday and leaves at 9:00pm A lot of local bars and restaurants have live music on Sundays and my wife and I always enjoy this. BTW, the Gem had been our hands down favorite ship until we sailed the Escape in 2017

When our daughter was 2 we took a 10-Day New England & Canada cruise in mid-October. At the kids club we were told that there were only 19 "children" aboard; NCL counted all under-18's as children. I think there may have been more kids club attendants than children; there was certainly better than a 1:1 ratio in the club itself.

The attendants also told us they had the same staffing on that cruise as on the Christmas cruise - when they were expecting more than 600 "children".

Hello,

As a followup to my original question:

We had no waits for restaurants and shows on the GEM. We could walk into the theater right before the show and there were plenty of seats. I know that you have to reserve some shows and activities on the Escape and Breakaway. Does this hold true for the sailing I mentioned in the Fall? What

shows/activities tend to be crowded in the Fall sailing?

thanks

the only cruise we experience intolerable crowds was our July Star cruise. youll see from my siggy that we never sail summers or school breaks (we learned our lesson after hte july sail).