Are Spring Breakers a Problem in March?

[NYC123]

I am considering a cruise in March (March 18 RCI Bahamas) but don't want to step into a nightmare of college spring break morons. Has anyone cruised this time of year, and if so, any problems? Thanks.

[zqvol]

I am considering a cruise in March (March 18 RCI Bahamas) but don't want to step into a nightmare of college spring break morons. Has anyone cruised this time of year, and if so, any problems? Thanks.

 

 

I would be much more concerned about the K-12 morons that you are signing up to cruise with instead of a few college kids, who really don't cause many problems.

[fishywood]

A three or four night Bahamas cruise from late February through Easter will skew much younger than even RCI's norm. To avoid the college crowds take a seven night or longer cruise; the partiers usually book the shortest and cheapest cruise they can find that offers an unlimited beverage package. But I agree completely that unsupervised tweens and teens wreak way more havoc than a few drunken fratboys.

[cb at sea]

"Spring breakers" aren't really a "problem" any time. It's not a frat party! All thru March to May, you'll have lots of FAMILIES....but you will have full ships anytime. No worries!

[CPT Trips]

If I were OP, I would not count on PP's accuracy. There are millions of college students on break each of those weeks. Based on tales told by several friends, seven, or fewer, day cruises out of warm weather US ports will be frat/sorority city. Our one experience mirrored these tales . . . why didn't I trust my friends?

Edited January 8, 2016 by CPT Trips

[jelayne]

in a word YES

[kitty9]

"Spring breakers" aren't really a "problem" any time. It's not a frat party! All thru March to May, you'll have lots of FAMILIES....but you will have full ships anytime. No worries!

 

Florida colleges are now doing partial charters of ships during spring break. Ask those who shared the ship with hundreds of college kids last March. It was NOT fun.

[YubaSutter]

"Spring breakers" aren't really a "problem" any time. It's not a frat party! All thru March to May, you'll have lots of FAMILIES....but you will have full ships anytime. No worries!

 

They are on the 3 and 4 day cruises out of So Cal.

[nat9511]

We went on a 7 day cruise on March 26th one year and it was packed with college kids. This was before beverage packages and wondered how they would ever be able to afford their bar bills. You couldn't even get near the bars, pools, hot tubs etc.

 

It was not a pleasant cruise.

[Karysa]

Do any of the main stream lines change their drink packages during spring break cruises?

[Krazy Kruizers]

The short cruises -- like 3 and 4 day cruises -- do attract a lot of the college students.

Seven day cruises attract a lot of families.

We have cruised in March many times -- but we do 21 day cruises -- mostly repositioning cruises and there are only a handful of families and no college students.

[LHT28]

Do any of the main stream lines change their drink packages during spring break cruises?

I saw some people complain last yr that there were no beverage pacakage on the cruise during Spring break

I think RCCL & Carnival took them off for that time frame

Not really sure

[navybankerteacher]

OP referred to a March 18 RCI cruise to the Bahamas - that is a three day itinerary costing less than $400 per, in the middle of Spring break season --- what demographic does he expect?

[cruiseapril]

We were on the Enchantment 4 day last March and had a fine cruise. There was quite a mix of ages.

[Karysa]

I saw some people complain last yr that there were no beverage pacakage on the cruise during Spring break

I think RCCL & Carnival took them off for that time frame

Not really sure

 

Thanks. I thought that NCL did that when we did spring break cruises a few years ago as well.

[6rugrats]

OP referred to a March 18 RCI cruise to the Bahamas - that is a three day itinerary costing less than $400 per, in the middle of Spring break season --- what demographic does he expect?

 

Well, CB told him it would be o.k. :).

 

I wouldn't take this cruise.

[klfrodo]

Well, CB told him it would be o.k. :).

 

I wouldn't take this cruise.

 

LOL

CB is a one hit wonder.

13.5 posts per day on average.

Never reads an entire thread to see if the posters question has been answered. When called out on giving old and outdated information, CB will never come back and respond.

 

I will say that I've been on one spring break cruise. It was a 7 day cruise and I had a blast. The kids were fun and lively. Did they party? Yes. Were they obnoxious? No

They were kids blowing off steam.

Of course they were all broke by the last evening. I was the hero when I handed out about 20 drink coupons that I had left over in the Piano bar on the last night.

Edited January 8, 2016 by klfrodo

[K&RCurt]

We went on a 7 day cruise on March 26th one year and it was packed with college kids. This was before beverage packages and wondered how they would ever be able to afford their bar bills. You couldn't even get near the bars, pools, hot tubs etc.

 

It was not a pleasant cruise.

 

The son of some friends of ours went on a spring break cruise. His parents got a phone call at 6:00am on the day of debarkation. It seems he exceeded his credit card limit by about $800.00 in alcohol purchases and was at the front desk trying to figure out what to do. His parents had to give their credit card information to the front desk staff to pay off his account. They were none too pleased and it totally blew his younger brothers chances of ever going on a Spring Break trip!

 

So..How do they afford it. "Mom & Dad"

 

(If that had been one of my kids they would probably still be working on the ship paying off the debt! Unless, of course, their Mom answered the phone, then I would likely never hear about it )

[KKB]

1/2-2/3 college students. Very controlled in 2014; not as much last year.

 

We encountered nothing more than loud music from our college neighbors twice--5PM was fine, 4AM, not so much (turned down in 10 min. after call to security).

 

There were a number of posts from others on the 2015 cruise that were NOT good...

 

SO, YES, more than likely there WILL be a significant number of college students on your cruise. Will it be "overrun"? Hard to say. And if it is, it is really dependent on how the line/ships/staff choose to handle them.

[NYC123]

Many thanks to all.

[luddite]

Well, Spring breakers are not a problem in Winter.

Or Autumn for that matter.

[Host Anne]

Sailed a five night spring break cruise a few years back and had no idea that the ship was 75% college kids from several Florida universities. They DEFINITELY were a problem! Throwing kids on a lounge chairs into the pool, chair and all. Beyond over the top drinking and foul language. Had a nice visit with the Hotel Director who told us they didn't have enough places to lock up all the kids causing the problems so there was nothing they could do. This was on a Celebrity ship.

 

I wondered whatever happened to the rule that someone in the cabin had to be 25. We'd never do a short cruise in the spring break time frame again.

[wwcruisers]

Sailed a five night spring break cruise a few years back and had no idea that the ship was 75% college kids from several Florida universities. They DEFINITELY were a problem! Throwing kids on a lounge chairs into the pool, chair and all. Beyond over the top drinking and foul language. Had a nice visit with the Hotel Director who told us they didn't have enough places to lock up all the kids causing the problems so there was nothing they could do. This was on a Celebrity ship.

 

I wondered whatever happened to the rule that someone in the cabin had to be 25. We'd never do a short cruise in the spring break time frame again.

 

Host Anne -- You just described (to a tee) the experience my CruiseCritic friends had on Celebrity Constellation, last spring. It was a 5-niter out of Florida, the first week of spring break. One local college had a large contingent onboard, who wreaked havoc for the whole cruise. Even putting the worst offenders off on the pier at Key West didn't stop the mayhem, according to these posters. The MDR was such a zoo that the Captain moved his "table" to a specialty restaurant. The whole thing sounded like something out of the movie, Animal House.:eek:

[KKB]

Host Anne -- You just described (to a tee) the experience my CruiseCritic friends had on Celebrity Constellation, last spring. It was a 5-niter out of Florida, the first week of spring break. One local college had a large contingent onboard, who wreaked havoc for the whole cruise. Even putting the worst offenders off on the pier at Key West didn't stop the mayhem, according to these posters. The MDR was such a zoo that the Captain moved his "table" to a specialty restaurant. The whole thing sounded like something out of the movie, Animal House.:eek:

 

We were on that cruise & did not experience any of this...I am NOT saying these things didn't happen. Large ship, perhaps got lucky that we were in the "right" places at the right time.

 

We ate MDR early dining every night and never once experienced any college students being anything but appropriate. Actually, they were typically dressed very nicely--not what I can say for all we saw in MDR!

 

2 had to get off at Key West for sure (we visited with a couple young men that were on the cruise with us in 2014 & we ran into again in 2015--they knew they young men who had to get off). A drunk underage young man was tossed in jail in Key West & his 21YO "adult in charge" friend had to get off the ship since they cannot leave a minor. I figured thank goodness it was Key West & not Cozumel!

 

Again, I read the stories of inappropriate behavior on these threads & have no doubt they were true...and hoping Celebrity read these threads & made adjustments (sounded much worse in 2015 than 2014)

 

It hasn't stopped us from booking another Celebrity Spring Break cruise...tho I'm sure it has stopped others!

[geoherb]

We've done several spring break cruises since DH teaches at a community college and that's one of the times we can go. We did not have any problems on Princess or Holland America. The only time we had problems with unruly kids was on a 5-night Carnival cruise out of Charleston. It was more the high school age kids rather than college age ones that were the problem--waking us up two nights after midnight.