Caribbean cruise during spring break- what's it like?

[Ourusualbeach]

My opinion differs a lot from most of the posters above. As you can see from my cruises listed below, we always cruise every year in peek Break season. This is the only week my DW and myself can get off working in the school system, and it is the week our kids are off for March break.

 

My thoughts...will it be busy?...Yes. Will it be like a frat house?...No. The cheaper cruise you go on the more likely you will get the college crowd. I assume most will board in Florida since they do not have to pay for flights where they would have to fly to San Juan. (Just check to see when universities in San Juan are off for the week first to see that it is not your week - very doubtful that late).

 

We took the Summit out of San Juan over New Year's 2 years ago and it was not a party atmosphere at all. Not sure if your kids would like that ship as much as the Adventure. The Adventure goes into drydock in November and is supposed to get a flowrider added. That they would love.

 

As for the quinceanara (sp?) you mentioned. I have read that is usually in late January/early February, so you should be fine in April if that is true.

 

I would have booked the Adventure for March for our family for 2017 but have the Freedom already booked. The Adventure for March 2018 is what I plan to book however if pricing is reasonable.

 

Worst cruise we ever had in March was out of Miami on the NCL Spirit for the college crowd (very cheap cruise). Carnival actually had less partying on it when we took it on a 7 day cruise over the March break. Liberty of the Seas was pretty crazy however, but that was only 5 days and out of Florida. Like I said, I think most college age kids will be looking for the cheaper 3-5 day booze cruises.

 

Being another family that cruise at March break and Christmas because that is when we can cruise I absolutely agree with what Russ has said.

 

On the 3-5 day cruises you will find the. College age kids travelling by themselves. On the longer cruises it will be families travelling with younger (high school and younger) kids.

 

Russ, depending on the prices for Adventure we may be on that 2018 sailing at March break. Enough Aerplan miles to fly for free. Time for something other than the Eastern and Western routes.

[kevink]

From your post I'm not sure which spring break issue you're concerned about. I've found drunken college kids to be almost nonexistent on 7-day Royal cruises during spring break. Definitely during spring break there will be a lot more families with kids on the cruises. When school's out, families travel.

 

We did Adventure out of San Juan last labor day week and are doing Jewel Easter week in March, and have done a few other cruises out of San Juan. The itineraries are great because they hit a lot of islands you don't get to see on the traditional eastern/western itineraries.

 

If you do Jewel or Adventure out of San Juan, you're going for the ports rather than the ship. With a couple of teens, they'd have more things to do onboard on an Oasis class ship. That and price are the main tradeoffs I see in your decision.

 

Before you decide, check the air fares to San Juan versus FLL and factor that into your decision, because especially around Easter the fares to San Juan spike higher.

Edited January 17, 2016 by kevink

[texasweather]

OP here. Yikes...that's exactly what I was afraid of.

 

So, spring break for our school in 2017 is really late: Easter falls on April 16, so the cruise would be the week of April 8th.

 

Looking at Adventure out of San Juan.

 

Also looking at Celebrity Summit out of San Juan (oddly, that cruise is $1,000 cheaper for the four of us).

 

I wonder if college breaks occur in Feb/Mar or if they precede or follow Easter sunday?

 

That is a very late spring break. I can't imagine you'd have much of a problem, no matter what itinerary you want to book. I don't know what the "rules" are here for providing links, but if you search in any search engine "when is my spring break" you can find a website that you can give it your dates and search by state (if you wish) and it will tell you all the colleges that have spring break that week. That week is so late, this website I'm using doesn't even list that as an option. I think spring break is pretty well over by April 8.

 

That being said, if Celebrity is $1,000 cheaper I'd be all over that! Maybe it's just because my first cruises were on Celebrity as a college student (with my parents.. I'm NOT a partier), but I just love Celebrity. I definitely prefer it to Royal Caribbean, but I view them as "equal" enough that I go with whoever has the best prices. But on those Celebrity spring break cruises I went on, I never felt or saw any of that party atmosphere. This year will be our first Royal Caribbean spring break cruise.. Taking our preschool and elementary age daughters. Will be interesting to see!

Edited January 17, 2016 by texasweather

[sunset785]

My experiences on the enchantment and freedom were very different over spring break. Freedom was very much families and enchantment was very much college students on spring break. However, no issues with the college kids whatsoever.

[lglancy]

We cruised on Voyager over Spring Break a few years ago, and had a good experience. Honestly the only difference we saw was that my husband had a hard time getting on the basketball court. He usually has it pretty much to himself, but it was full of kids during that cruise. We just waited a few hours to get off the ship in port, and used that time to enjoy the empty court. Another interesting thing, we noticed some fun foods at the buffet, like donuts with pink icing and jelly beans on them, that seemed to be aimed at kids. We didn't notice any particular problems with teens or terrible overcrowding. We are actually booked on Vision for this years' spring break. The only down side is the higher prices and hugely expensive airfare during this time period.

[papcx]

Enchantment of the Seas Spring Break 2015

 

Just a sample of what to expect

 

 

 

 

 

20 years ago, maybe. Now? No chance (even if I wanted too)