Thinking of changing cruise date to avoid kids.

[Tigress974]

I booked the Jan 13, 2013 cruise on Explorer, then I realized that MLK day falls on the following week 1/21. The cruise ends on 1/22. Should I be concerned that there will be a alot of kids on my cruise or are they more likely to be on the 1/22 cruise.

[golfer1966]

I think more kids travel during spring breaks and big holidays like Christmas. Keep in mind that RCI always has kids on board because RCI is a family friendly cruise line so you will always have kids. If your not into the whole kid thing, maybe try Celebrity as I think there are less kids on them. ( just my opinion tho )

[Mark_K]

The longer the cruise, the less likely it is that it's going to be overrun with kids, regardless.

[funNsun4me]

I booked the Jan 13, 2013 cruise on Explorer, then I realized that MLK day falls on the following week 1/21. The cruise ends on 1/22. Should I be concerned that there will be a alot of kids on my cruise or are they more likely to be on the 1/22 cruise.

 

 

Cruised Explorer Jan 16, 2011 on a 12-day and don't remember see any kids. I think the mediem age on this cruise was late 60's early 70's (we are mid to late 40's) and they changed the dining to 5:30 and 8pm to accomodate. We had early dining and missed every sail away and sunset but that was the only negative of the cruise.

[bus man]

I don't know the school schedules in New York or New Jersey, but here in my district, the high school end-of-semester exams take place the week before MLK Day. So I think it highly unlikely that families of high-schoolers would pull their kids out and have them miss their exams just for a cruise.

 

Maybe families with younger kids might cruise then, but even so, your cruise is long enough that few families would be willing to have their kids miss that much school. I wouldn't worry about it if I were you.

[kandpsmom]

I would agree that you should look into Celebrity as you will definitely find less kids on board. Celebrity is our favorite line although we haven't cruised on it since we had our kids.

[voyager70]

I don't think a one-day break like MLK day would cause many people to pull the kids out of school for a week or more.

[Tigress974]

I should have made it clear. I'm not trying to avoid ALL kids . I just would like to avoid an extreme amount of kids.

 

Thanks guys for answering and easing my fears. :D

[kruzerci]

I wouldn't worry about kids on a long cruise in January... actually I don't mind a lot of kids period, but I can't imagine there being many on your sailing.

[hsmcruise]

friends of ours were on a 9 day cruise first week in January and there were plenty of kids on board, many from canada. Last year we cruised after MLK birthday and again there were plenty of kids. the best cruise

without kids (there ws a total of 7 on board) was the beginning to Dec.

partial panama canal cruise.

[DonnaK]

I don't know the school schedules in New York or New Jersey, but here in my district, the high school end-of-semester exams take place the week before MLK Day. So I think it highly unlikely that families of high-schoolers would pull their kids out and have them miss their exams just for a cruise.

 

Maybe families with younger kids might cruise then, but even so, your cruise is long enough that few families would be willing to have their kids miss that much school. I wouldn't worry about it if I were you.

 

 

This is the way it is in NY too. Parents wouldn't be so inclined to pull kid's out of school for so many days during the end of semester exam period.

 

We cruised on Explorer this past January, and there were very few kids onboard. My "kids" are 20 and 18, and luckily they have each other because they hardly made any friends.

 

BTW - we are also looking at the Jan 13 cruise!

[Sequim88]

#1 thing in favor is not being Oasis/Allure or Freedom class. Those have more kid attractions.

 

#2 thing in favor is it being MLK birthday which, although school may be out, many parents outside government, education or banking do not get it off. It is not a "core" holiday for most employers.

 

#3 families tend not to do itineraries with a lot of sea days (4 in this case) as well as routes without private beach option or family friendly port calls.

[Artemis908]

I don't think one day is going to affect you. A lot of parents don't have that day off too, you'd be seeing more kids on President's Day. And going out of NJ, I'd be more concerned about the Teacher's Convention. Growing up we took vacations during that time a lot and you'd always see a bunch of people from NJ going on vacation at that time! It's in November.

[dln929]

I should have made it clear. I'm not trying to avoid ALL kids . I just would like to avoid an extreme amount of kids.

 

Thanks guys for answering and easing my fears. :D

 

We're just off the Indy and there were over 400 kids on board. After reading so many posts about kids running in halls, kids in adult's hot tubs, etc. etc., I was wondering what my cruise vacation would be like. Surprise surprise in the most pleasant way! No troubles at all, not one. We didn't witness any bad behavior or any out-of-control kids. In fact, it was really nice to see kids on board with their parents and grandmas and grandpas, all the generations enjoying themselves together. It was a nice family atmosphere, even for those of us who weren't traveling with any little ones.

[uncleboo]

hi

depending on where you live in the world schools all have different vacation schedules

 

i had that misfortune when i booked a ncl cruise and it was a nickelon sailing

 

kids galore running around parents did not supervise at all especially in food areas

 

lots of food got spilled and i meet a few peopel who got burned by kids runnnig around and bumped into them and spilled coffee on them

 

i do my best to cruise when kids will not be the majority

 

like kids but like a quiet vacation

[alohanails]

I cruised over Martin Luther King's birthday and didn't find any over amounts of children on board. Didn't notice them at all really.

[hollon]

I wouldn't worry about kids, we went on a Christmas cruise and yes there were tons of kids, but really didn't bother us, the hot tubs can get filled with kids, but you can go to the adult only tubs, we never really ran into too many kids. Plus mlk day is only one day off from school, I doubt too many parents will use that wk

[onefishtwofish]

I have 2 kids myself (12 & 9) and we live in south Florida. We won't go back to school until Jan. 7th so doubtful many parents from around here would pull kids out after just being out for just over 2 weeks.....I agree with the others that a 1 day holiday won't make for tons of kids. Also the ship is laid out so well that the last 2 times we sailed (in June after school got out ) that even with having our own kids, we never felt like there were tons on board ( and know there were quite a large amount of kids onboard)! Celebrity is a nice "less kids" alternative but know they don't have all the cool stuff!! :rolleyes:B

[critterchick]

I wouldn't worry about it. A ship the size of Explorer can absorb a lot of kids before you really even notice that they're onboard. As others have said, it's not likely that many American parents will yank their kids out of school 3 weeks after the Christmas/New Year's holiday.

[molly361]

I would think that would be a less kid week if anything. Better than going starting Presidentw week and on through Easter week.

[Zach1213]

I personally think mid-January to mid-March is probably THE BEST time to cruise if you're not keen on bumping elbows with at on of kids. You're in between two long breaks (Christmas and Spring), so the parents probably won't pull the kids out. We were on a relatively short (5-night) cruise in mid-February on Liberty and I was happy to see a relatively low number of kids on board. It was also a Monday to Saturday cruise, which helped...

[niksmom630]

We did a 5 night on Jewel over the Presidents Day holiday. There obviously kids on board, but not nearly as many as you will find during the summer months, or longer school break times. Watch for college breaks in early March--they typically happen earlier than the elementary and high school breaks. Took a 5 day over college "spring" break once on Navigator--an interesting experience to say the least.