Your experiences on Spring Break cruises ??

[cheaptravel]

Has anybody been on a cruise that ended up being largely populated with Spring Breakers (college-aged) ?? :eek:

Share your tales, please. Thanks !:o

[retnuh281]

Has anybody been on a cruise that ended up being largely populated with Spring Breakers (college-aged) ?? :eek:

 

Share your tales, please. Thanks !:o

Well, thats the only time of year we have been. The last three years we have sailed during spring break, and yes there are tons of families and subsequently tons of kids. However, i have not witnessed the crazy college aged partiers. Generally college kids aren't wanting to hang out with their parents during spring break, they have their own agendas, and don't have the money. Me and my cohorts stay up late, hit the bars and casinos and I just haven't seen this at all. If you are looking for a romantic cruise with no kids, then you will be very disappointed, everything revolves around families and kids during spring break.

Just my dos centavos

[John Henry on CC]

I'm not thrilled about being on a spring break cruise with a lot of school-age kids and their families, but I would HATE to be on with a ship-full of college spring breakers!!! :eek:

[cheaptravel]

I know that Spring Break cruises will be largely populated with families. No problem there. I know someone that has found out that over 1/2 of her ship will be college kids, no doubt the over 21's. That's why I'm looking for opinions on how they tend to conduct themselves. :cool:

[travelntreats]

Depends on the length of cruise... 3 - 4 nighters tend to be more affordable and thus the rowdier college students seem to be onboard.

 

I have sailed various lengths of cruises at spring break and after 3 cruises... won't be doing that again !

 

I will stick to fall cruises to escape the cold temps and the excessive rowdiness I have experienced on 3 - 7 night cruises during peak season(s) ! JMHO

[silentbob007]

You will find that spring break experiences will differ with different ships, different lengths of cruises, and different weeks within "spring break." Typically the shorter cruises are filled with the most college students ... I don't think they act too bad and are contained to the pool deck and hot tubs for most of the day.

[cheaptravel]

Thanks, silentbob007, that's nice to hear. This voyage I speak of is a Monarch 4-day, and is purported to have well over 1000 college goers on board. :eek:

[Texanatheart]

I am just realizing that I have booked during spring break. I have to say I am disappointed that I will be sharing the boat with lots of families. Dont get me wrong. I love kids, but I am leaving mine at home and had hoped to not be surrounded by others.

 

Oh well, that will teach me to not check and recheck my dates before confirming.

[CruisingCaraCat]

Well I have unfortunately been on more spring break cruises than I care too. It seems like spring break lasts about 2 months these days and try as I might I always seem to catch one.

 

My opinion is that it is an issue on sea days because you are trapped on board with all the college children. Port days, especially in the Caribbean are great because the students get off in order to drink themselves stupid and by the time they get back to the ship they are too pooped to cause any trouble.

[John Henry on CC]

I know that Spring Break cruises will be largely populated with families. No problem there. I know someone that has found out that over 1/2 of her ship will be college kids, no doubt the over 21's. That's why I'm looking for opinions on how they tend to conduct themselves. :cool:

The real trouble comes when they book 4 to a cabin, and some of them are NOT 21.

 

Security is required to be out in force, and the whole atmosphere is just less amiable.

[digital_curator]

We were on the Indy last spring break (6-night) and didn't run into an overly partyish crowd. Maybe it's because the ship is large enough to diffuse it? There was a younger, slightly drunker crowd at karaoke and the sports bar (basketball), as well as in the pub on St. Patrick's day (which was fun) but these don't tend to be the bars we frequent.

 

There were 800+ children on board and we hardly saw them- I think the water park and the abundant kid's areas took care of that. We spent much of our day time in the Solarium, where it was very quiet.

 

We also stayed out of the port areas in Cozumel and Costa Maya, where we watched completely trashed college kids stumble back to the ship.

 

I was hesitant to do a spring break cruise but as a (mature) graduate student, it is one of the few times I can get away. Based on this experience, we would do it again.

[oakley2414]

The OP is referring to "college spring break" which is generally any of the 4 weeks in March since every school is different. Not to be confused with spring break for families and younger children which is normally around easter.

 

I've been on a few 7night spring break cruises while i was in college and I think for the most part they were not much different than cruises i've been on at other times. Like noted before though it definitely depends on the length with the shorter ones being more affordable.

 

Best of luck

[OrlandoD]

I've been on quite a few out of Pt. Canaveral - for the most part it wasn't the college kids who were the worst behaved!:rolleyes:

[retnuh281]

I am just realizing that I have booked during spring break. I have to say I am disappointed that I will be sharing the boat with lots of families. Dont get me wrong. I love kids, but I am leaving mine at home and had hoped to not be surrounded by others.

 

Oh well, that will teach me to not check and recheck my dates before confirming.

 

I hope it works out for you, just don't let the little things get to you. It wasn't until the last night, last year that we expeienced what is called elevator tag. I don't know how exactly it's played, I just know that every floor button on the elevator are pushed, so if you are on the 16th deck like we were (twice) it gets a little annoying stopping on EVERY deck. This is the type of thing you can expect. I have only been on the 7 day cruises, I would expect that the shorter cruises WILL attract the college aged party crowd.

May the force be with you!!!

[freddie89]

Hmm,.. hadn't thought about this. The family is going on the Monarch to the Bahamas March 22nd. I hope we don't catch too much of a college spring break crowd :mad:

[RayJacki]

Our experience was that we learned from college-age spring-breakers that the word starting with "f" that gets your mouth washed out with soap if you say it in front of your parents can be used as almost any part of speech. (They must have a class to teach these kids that):rolleyes:

 

I don't think I'm a prude, but I got tired of that word in particular on the one spring break cruise we've been on.

[AZ Karaoke Girl]

http://www.tripsmarter.com/panamacity/springbreak/sbcalendar.htm

 

This link provides college spring break schedules for 2010.

 

I was on a 3 day weekend cruise out of California over Memorial Day weekend and we had several college kids onboard. Most behaved but there were a few rowdy drunks late at night. Hallways also tended to be noisy during the night when people were yelling or running down the halls. Wasn't unbearable but if you are looking for a quiet romantic getaway without kids, you will be disappointed. Stick with a 7 day cruise and you will be much happier.

[Puffinater]

I am just realizing that I have booked during spring break. I have to say I am disappointed that I will be sharing the boat with lots of families. Dont get me wrong. I love kids, but I am leaving mine at home and had hoped to not be surrounded by others.

 

Oh well, that will teach me to not check and recheck my dates before confirming.

 

We were on the Mariner last year for the same week you are booked this year. It was not bad at all. Hopefully you will not notice.

[Jiffymom]

We have been on two spring break cruises. First was rather dull. Only a hand full of college kids. As far as lots of young kids I never found that a problem because we had the 8:30 dinning they usually eat earlier. And they are so busy with Ocean adventurer don't see them often around the ship. The second cruise was different. Lots of college kids.They sure keep the pool parties and games interesting. They were fun to watch dancing at night and karaoke was real fun as well as the Quest game. We enjoyed it. I have also been on cruises with majority all seniors ( me being one also) But I really prefer having young people around.

This year we have May 30 MOS booked. I am wondering how many graduates will be on board.

[shake24]

If your leaving out of port canaveral and want a quiet cruise, try to avoid UCF's spring break. 53,000 students 45 min, from the port...Its safe to say your ship will be rowdier than normal, especially on the 4 night cruises. Personally I like more of a party atmosphere but I do realize this is not everyone's scene. Just a thought when planning around early-mid March out of canaveral.

[Citizen Jane]

Apologies as some of this is quoted from another post of mine on Navigator of the Seas (I am plagiarizing myself...):

 

We are getting ready to do our second Spring Break (during college Spring Break as I am a college professor) cruise on Navigator. We had hardly ANY families on our ship last Spring Break on Navigator for a 5-nighter out of Ft. Lauderdale. In fact, this is one of the reasons we were so impressed with the Adventure Ocean staff. They stuck to all the scheduled activities even though there were not that many kids on board (DD was a week shy of turning 6) because it was college spring break time as opposed to school-age time.

 

The first day/night was a sea night and then to Cozumel where the Captain put 10+ people off the ship for naughty behavior (running around naked on the pool deck--they were caught on camera). So, the Captain and crew didn't let the cruise devolve into an experience which was not fun for everyone on board. Things calmed down after the expulsion, but from craziness to just fun. It didn't seem to put a damper on the fun as much as on potentially dangerous behaviors.

 

The casino was very fun. The dealers and croupiers were very professional and handled friendly players, advanced, intermediate, and beginner alike very well. They were quite good at keeping their tables happy. That is an impressive feat on a spring break cruise with a wide mix of ages (as well as abillities) skewed to the early 20s age group.

 

Because of the number of late night partiers on board EVERY NIGHT room service and the Cafe Promenade ran out of pizza by about 2:00 a.m. It was really funny. Late at night the Cafe Promenade would end up with nothing but finger sandwiches and all these kids (and my DH whom I was often with just to make sure he got back to the room ) would be in there scarfing finger sandwiches of tuna and egg salad.

 

We had a good time with the college kids. They were all VERY sweet with my daughter (as my own students are back home). Of course, since I deal with college kids on a daily basis, I'm used to some of their antics and can react appropriately (whether positively or negatively). Call me crazy, but I happen to like undergrads--it is why I teach them. I don't mind being on Spring Break with them (though I might feel different if they were my students rather than someone else's, LOL).

 

I did get the feeling that security was very vigilant (hence the tossing of the kids in Cozumel) and it made for a pleasant cruise. Our cruise was mainly UF and FSU students with a few from UCF (a tiny minority from UGA) thrown into the mix. I know that several of our Emory students were on various cruises as well.

 

If you want to know who will probably be there the most comprehensive list I have found is located here:

 

http://springbreakdude.com/2010/

[Citizen Jane]

http://www.tripsmarter.com/panamacity/springbreak/sbcalendar.htm

 

This link provides college spring break schedules for 2010.

 

I was on a 3 day weekend cruise out of California over Memorial Day weekend and we had several college kids onboard. Most behaved but there were a few rowdy drunks late at night. Hallways also tended to be noisy during the night when people were yelling or running down the halls. Wasn't unbearable but if you are looking for a quiet romantic getaway without kids, you will be disappointed. Stick with a 7 day cruise and you will be much happier.

 

Yukon, the tripsmarter link is actually missing quite a few fairly large schools. Try the one from my other post for a much more comprehensive list.

[Citizen Jane]

I am just realizing that I have booked during spring break. I have to say I am disappointed that I will be sharing the boat with lots of families. Dont get me wrong. I love kids, but I am leaving mine at home and had hoped to not be surrounded by others.

 

Oh well, that will teach me to not check and recheck my dates before confirming.

 

Several of the big California schools (UCLA and Stanford among them) don't have Spring Break until the week after your cruise. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. Be glad it isn't the week before when 3 times as many students (1.5 million) are out of school.:eek:

[FF Woman]

Last year we went during a busy spring break week and the ship had lots of college kids on board. They were all really polite to us when we had any contact with them. We enjoyed watching them for the most part. The only thing that I found a little annoying was that the hot tubs were always full of college kids who never seemed to get out.

 

The only really disgusting, unruly person I've seen on a ship was a foul mouthed drunk about 45 who was yelling and swearing at his wife in the shopping area of the Enchantment of the Seas. It was very embarassing to everybody around them. None of the staff acknowledged it was even happening.

[SamFritz]

I am just realizing that I have booked during spring break. I have to say I am disappointed that I will be sharing the boat with lots of families. Dont get me wrong. I love kids, but I am leaving mine at home and had hoped to not be surrounded by others.

 

Oh well, that will teach me to not check and recheck my dates before confirming.

 

I don't ever remember seeing tons of kids on any of my cruises. There are surely some, enough to even take over the ship on Pirate Night :D. I always cruised on Public School Break as that's my break too. Last year a student of mine went on a cruise at the same time I did. :eek: I was scared to death we would run into each other. Fortunately for me, her mom chose Carnival. ;)