Level with me - cruising on Spring Break

[tex_toby]

We will be cruising out of New Orleans this year Spring Break and it will be our third spring break cruise. The cruise itself is no different than summertime and we have never experienced drunk college kids. That said, we are forced to cruise when school is out with our 7yo which is why we choose spring break. If we weren't dependent on our sons school schedule, we would definitely cruise while the kids are in school simply because prices are much lower.

[Shipbound]

We cruised during spring break March of 2007. Royal Caribbean on a 8 day cruise. We didn't have any issues and it was quite lovely. I had the same fear but was told what attracts some spring breakers are shorter day cruises that might not cost as much. We usually try and pick times of the year where it is not spring break, lots of kids, etc. I do know people who have gone and had terrible experiences.

 

You are correct the shorter the cruise the more spring breakers due to the cost. Spring break in March has changed over the years they seem to be going to all inclusive spots where they can drink , drink, and drink ,besides CCL took away all the fun things that college kids like to do.

[KansasTexan]

My husband and I (35 and 33) are thinking of taking a 5 day cruise out of New Orleans during Spring Break. We have never been on Carnival and are a bit concerned that it's going to be a lot of drunk college kids all the time. I know, I'm judging based only on things I've heard, but I know that I've actually never taken the time to look in to it either. So, please, don't bash me for the question, lol.

 

We normally cruise Royal Caribbean and have been on one Holland America (just to give you a point of reference as to what we normally see on the cruises). Fun, but laid back if you want it to be, etc.

 

Can someone tell me what it's like on Carnival during spring break? Are there places to find quiet, smaller bars, etc.? What is the atmosphere like?

 

I cruised out of Galveston on the Magic right before Easter in 2012. I didn't notice a lot of college kids but there were many, MANY young kids (grade school and middle school). You asked about quiet, smaller bars, etc. I was surprised at how many kids were in the bars with their parents, running in and out...sitting at bar stools, sitting on the floors. The walkways and just about every common area you can name were the same, kids running all over the ship and also sitting on the stairs. LOTs of kids. :rolleyes: Kids are cool but wow, there were a lot of them.

 

I'm cruising Carnival again but I'm trying to be more careful about the timing of my cruises.

[Laurin612]

We cruised on the Magic last spring break. It was about 1/3 kids under 21, but we had no issues. In fact, we are cruising on the Freedom this spring break. :D

 

Surprisingly, we did not run into too many misbehaving kids. The only thing we encountered was one time the 7-10 set wastaking over the hot tubs, splashing and swimming underwater in them. So then we went to the adults only hot tub. Problem solved!;)

[Ellusionz]

We're cruising out mid March for my friends spring break on Paradise. My only annoyance is they've locked the rooms down for max capacity. Third friend wants to go but won't have money til tax return comes in. And they won't let us move rooms to make sure we have one to accommodate her for that time! Wish I had known that would happen or we would have booked the room in the first place. But yea, sounds like my ship will be hoppin one way or another ;)

[terri910]

We didn't check the calendar one year and booked in March....and only realized it was college Spring Break when we were boarding.

 

Probably our least favorite cruise. We always enjoy cruising, but this one was NOT as enjoyable as most. IMO, there were more obnoxious drunks that dominated any ship venue (piano bar, karaoke, dicso) than usual. And I saw girls doing things I have never seen done in the public areas of a cruise ship before or since.

 

Spring Break cruises are not for us!

[Athankfulheart]

We cruised during spring break on the Dream last year. It was just my husband and I and we rely on our college kids to watch our younger ones, so spring break it is. We went to relax and nobody got in our way. Never encountered drunk problems. We did encounter a memorable family but it was because the parents thought they were the royalty of the ship and sent their children ahead to reserve seats in every venue. Funny, the kids looked very uncomfortable with what they were doing and knew it was wrong. It was annoying and entertaining all in one. It certainly didn't affect our trip in a negative way. As far as kids went we had 1400 of them on board but rarely noticed them.

[coasterjan]

I've never cruised during spring break, but went in mid to late May 2010, and it was the worst cruise I've been on. It was a 7-day out of Miami, and I hadn't really considered that college kids would be out in full force, but they were (I wish I would have had that kind of money at their age!). There was a LOT of drunk young people (and a lot of puke in public areas, including the hot tubs being shut down regularly so they could clean up after someone...). Needless to say, I pretty much avoided the hot tubs, and tried to stay as far away from the pools and such as I could, too.

I now try my very best to only cruise while schools and colleges are still in session.

Janis

[carnivalgirl51]

My experience with Spring Break was last year on the Dream. There were pre-teen to early teams DRUNK on the Lido deck at night. One night I actually saw them with a bottle of booze. It must have come from one of their parents state rooms.

 

The worst part was the kids playing Haki Sak in the hall ways. It wouldn't have been bad if the would have stopped to let people walk past them, but they woundn't. One night one of my friends was hit int the head as he and his girlfriend walked to their room. "Jimmy" said "Do you mind not doing that while we walk past" at which time one of their mothers came storming out of a state room to inform us that "the kids were on vacation". I guess she didn't realize so were we!!!

 

I'm more worried about the lack of parental guidance than the kids. Where were the parents of the drunken kids??? If the parents can't be courtious, then how will the kids ever learn to respect others?

 

This year we are going the week after Easter. Hope the kids are back in school and their parents are back a work.

[kjunea]

4 day Bahamas cruise, Spring Break, guy threw up on my shoes. Never again. :eek:

 

Sorry that happened, but that has happened to me at Epcot and at a Major League Baseball game. I've been back to both since then without too much problems.

[MissMeggieMurphy]

it is a well known fact that kids on spring break only booze on cruises. never at the lake while riding around on their wave runners, or snowboarding down the slopes, or out on the west desert with their four wheelers, or at the dunes with their buggies, or cruising back roads on their motorcycles. wonder why that is?

[terri910]

it is a well known fact that kids on spring break only booze on cruises. never at the lake while riding around on their wave runners, or snowboarding down the slopes, or out on the west desert with their four wheelers, or at the dunes with their buggies, or cruising back roads on their motorcycles. wonder why that is?

I don't believe anyone has said anything like that. (You must stay in great shape, what with all that jumping to conclusions, and stretching to make an argument)

 

I, personally, would avoid any place that appeals greatly to high school and college-age kids during Spring Break.

 

I would also avoid New Orleans or Rio de Janeiro during Carnival for many of the same reasons.

 

The person asked for people to level with them, and people did. Some didn't have bad experiences; some did. It's a personal decision based on personal likes and dislikes and comfort levels. No need to try and marginalize the peoples' opinions, just because you don't share them.

[dj80colo]

Here's a spring break calender for 2013:

 

http://www.tripsmarter.com/travelinfo/panama-city-beach/spring-break-college-university-dates

[t1adams]

I don't believe anyone has said anything like that. (You must stay in great shape, what with all that jumping to conclusions, and stretching to make an argument)

 

I, personally, would avoid any place that appeals greatly to high school and college-age kids during Spring Break.

 

I would also avoid New Orleans or Rio de Janeiro during Carnival for many of the same reasons.

 

The person asked for people to level with them, and people did. Some didn't have bad experiences; some did. It's a personal decision based on personal likes and dislikes and comfort levels. No need to try and marginalize the peoples' opinions, just because you don't share them.

 

I understand what you are saying but my point was, I DON'T like riff-raff, or kids being disrespectful, or a bunch of drunks AT ALL. Some would say I am a very non-tolerant conservative. HOWEVER, I didn't encounter ANY of that on my spring break cruises....none of the three I have been on. So my point is, it's not necessarily the fact I have a "different comfort level" because I don't. I have a very SMALL comfort level and I still had NO ISSUES. My kids are 10 and 14 and are very very respectful. I expect the same from other kids as well. So if someone has an honest opinion that there wasn't any kid issues or out of hand kids on deck, then....they probably mean it...not that "they "like it" (wild kids) or "easy comfort level." :rolleyes:

[CruiseHealing]

We did a spring break cruise a few years ago. Most of the Florida's High Schools and colleges were off too. I remember a lot of drinking, dancing and grinding during the whole cruise. My wife and I hope we didn't embarrass ourselves too much.

[gail8]

We went spring break (mid march) last year on the Pride out of Baltimore. It was a floating frat party. No problems but the serenity area was packed with drinking university kids and they were kids having fun. If you rolled with it, it was really fun to watch!!! If you are looking for a quiet peaceful trip it wasn't. One day I went up to the deck to get a coffee and it was wall to wall comforters off the beds.....slumber party on the deck. One day a couple of kids put soap in their pockets and the hot tubs overflowed with tons of bubbles . Kids in line for dinner slugging back full bottles of booze as they passed them down the line. There were also tons of younger kids on board (they said 400 eligible for the kids clubs).

Oh yah I also should add we loved it .....reminded me of college days.

Gail

[terri910]

I understand what you are saying but my point was, I DON'T like riff-raff, or kids being disrespectful, or a bunch of drunks AT ALL. Some would say I am a very non-tolerant conservative. HOWEVER, I didn't encounter ANY of that on my spring break cruises....none of the three I have been on. So my point is, it's not necessarily the fact I have a "different comfort level" because I don't. I have a very SMALL comfort level and I still had NO ISSUES. My kids are 10 and 14 and are very very respectful. I expect the same from other kids as well. So if someone has an honest opinion that there wasn't any kid issues or out of hand kids on deck, then....they probably mean it...not that "they "like it" (wild kids) or "easy comfort level." :rolleyes:

I don't disagree with you at all. I believe every person here that said they did not experience any issues during a Spring Break cruise. I also believe every person here that said they DID experience issues during a Spring Break cruise.

 

What I DO disagree with is someone implying that those who DID experience "issues" (as we did) and express an opinion that it made for a less-enjoyable-than-normal cruise experience are somehow saying that such issues don't happen elsewhere. Of course they do. And each person must decide for themselves, based on their own likes, dislikes, comfort levels, or whatever criteria is important to them, whether or not to cruise, or go or do ANYthing during certain "times"....

[blessedwith12]

I would consider myself at the very conservative end of the spectrum. I have taken 2 cruises during Spring Break. Both were 5 days on Carnival. (Holiday and Inspiration) I was a little hesitant after hearing about the crazy drunks on Carnival and I was pleasantly surprised. Between both cruises, there was only 1 night were the college age crowd was a little wild - and it still wasn't very bad. Honestly, I've seen worse on my November cruises (7 and 8 days long) from a much more "mature" crowd. I think every cruise almost has a life and personality of its own and a few individuals could ruin the atmosphere of almost any cruise.

[lcgvol]

We have cruised on 4 7-day spring break cruises and will be on another one in March. It's the best time for us with a school aged child. The first was in 2008 and we did see quite a few college students and boy did they know how to have a good time! We enjoyed watching them and never had any problems. They wanted everyone to join in their fun.

On the next one in 2009, there was a large group of Jimmy Buffet fans on board and I did not enjoy them at all. They were rude, took over the aft pool every day, and were really just obnoxious. They were a much older group and acted like they were the only ones on the ship.

The next two were on the Dream and we saw very few college aged kids. As others have posted, they seem to stick with the shorter cruises now since they are more affordable.

There are always a lot of younger kids who seem to be unsupervised but I don't let it bother me.

[t1adams]

I would consider myself at the very conservative end of the spectrum. I have taken 2 cruises during Spring Break. Both were 5 days on Carnival. (Holiday and Inspiration) I was a little hesitant after hearing about the crazy drunks on Carnival and I was pleasantly surprised. Between both cruises, there was only 1 night were the college age crowd was a little wild - and it still wasn't very bad. Honestly, I've seen worse on my November cruises (7 and 8 days long) from a much more "mature" crowd. I think every cruise almost has a life and personality of its own and a few individuals could ruin the atmosphere of almost any cruise.

 

You sound like you had the same type of experience I have had....and also have the same tolerance level. ;) Sooo NOT a big deal.

[Shipbound]

We did a spring break cruise a few years ago. Most of the Florida's High Schools and colleges were off too. I remember a lot of drinking, dancing and grinding during the whole cruise. My wife and I hope we didn't embarrass ourselves too much.

 

Now that is Funny!!!!!!!

[Shipbound]

My husband and I (35 and 33) are thinking of taking a 5 day cruise out of New Orleans during Spring Break. We have never been on Carnival and are a bit concerned that it's going to be a lot of drunk college kids all the time. I know, I'm judging based only on things I've heard, but I know that I've actually never taken the time to look in to it either. So, please, don't bash me for the question, lol.

 

We normally cruise Royal Caribbean and have been on one Holland America (just to give you a point of reference as to what we normally see on the cruises). Fun, but laid back if you want it to be, etc.

 

Can someone tell me what it's like on Carnival during spring break? Are there places to find quiet, smaller bars, etc.? What is the atmosphere like?

 

You can bet there will be tons of spring breakers on that cruise!!!!!