Carnival on Spring Break for Families

[projectx]

Planning way ahead, but I'm looking at a 7-night family cruise for the last week of March, 2018 (kids will be 8, 5, and 5 so we're stuck with those dates since we like to cruise in the spring). What I'm finding is the most favorable itineraries for us are on Carnival or Royal Caribbean. Carnival being the preferred itineraries.

 

But I've never cruised with Carnival. I've sailed only Princess and Royal Caribbean, and trying to get over my (right or wrong) preconceived notion of Carnival being the red headed stepchild of the cruise industry: Tacky ships full of young rowdy party goers puking in the hallways in between meals of bad food. However the more I read about them, the more I realize that perception may be very dated. After all, 4/5 stars on Cruise Critic isn't too shabby. I like things to be nice, but don't need luxury. Clean, comfortable, and well done is is fine by me.

 

My concern though is that we will be traveling on spring break with young kids, so I am hoping that negative perception is off base and the ship isn't overran with the college spring break crowd.

 

Anyway, what has been your experience? We are looking at trips on either the Glory or Magic if that helps. Would you take a young family on Carnival over spring break?

Edited July 12, 2016 by projectx

[riffatsea]

<sigh> Your stereotype of the party cruiser on Carnival is not accurate at all!

We are senior citizens who have traveled on many 7day Carnival cruises during the spring break season.

You will find tons of families with children enjoying themselves! Even we who do not travel with children have also enjoyed ourselves without running into the type of drunken behavior you describe! Are there occasionally folks who drink too much?? Yes, but they are more likely to be adults and not college kids. I believe Carnival actually has rules against under 21 year olds sailing on the ship and they certainly canNOT get alcohol on board at that age either!

I am not sure which reviews you have been reading?

Perhaps the 3 day booze cruises are the ones you are thinking about??

Edited July 12, 2016 by riffatsea

[DashOhQ]

I've sailed over spring break and at other times of the year with Carnival and have seen no difference. People are having fun but I have not witnessed any hard partiers or things getting out of hand AT ALL. I think it would be perfectly fine to sail with Carnival over spring break. When my kids were younger they loved going to the kids clubs. Either one you decide on, enjoy your cruise!

[bamagirl16]

This past Spring Break my family and I sailed the on the Dream. We had 4 kids, my parents, my aunt and uncle, and myself. We had a great time!! I would not hesitate to book a family cruise with Carnival for Spring Break. In fact, we are booked again for next year at the same time.

[memoak]

As long as you are talking about a 7 day or longer cruise I would not anticipate a whole lot of issues. Most you party types are found on the shorter 3-5 day cruises

[PAPERBKWRITER]

Princess and Celebrity are a little better and RCCL and Carnival are very similar. Years ago we heard all the negatives about Carnival and eventually tried them. We have out 18th Carnival cruise upcoming. Only ingestion on all lines, avoid the 2 and 3 day cruises.Those are the party hardy crowd.

[Kd_chocolate]

We took a 5 day spring break cruise with my son only being about 2 and niece 7 with the parents and sisters and had a great time! I would definitely recommend it and do it again.

Edited July 12, 2016 by Kd_chocolate
added days of cruise

[projectx]

Princess and Celebrity are a little better and RCCL and Carnival are very similar.

 

Interesting that you would mention that. Our last cruise was on Princess, and everything was fantastic... except the food. Normally on a cruise we look forward to meals. On that cruise it was just something we had to do. Granted, this wasn't the case on the previous two cruises with Princess, but I still hestitate to rebook with Princess based on that experience.

 

So any idea why Carnival is looked down upon? Outdated perceptions like mine? Or do the 3-4 night booze cruise reputations have a ripple effect to the 7 night trips?

[Sweet Dutch Girl]

Interesting that you would mention that. Our last cruise was on Princess, and everything was fantastic... except the food. Normally on a cruise we look forward to meals. On that cruise it was just something we had to do. Granted, this wasn't the case on the previous two cruises with Princess, but I still hestitate to rebook with Princess based on that experience.

 

So any idea why Carnival is looked down upon? Outdated perceptions like mine? Or do the 3-4 night booze cruise reputations have a ripple effect to the 7 night trips?

 

Since you need to be 21 to drink lets put the drinking to excess meme in the hands of adults not the spring break crowd who are getting time off from school at ages to young to "party". Most spring break cruises are full of children accompanied by adults who, more often than not, tend to be a bit more conservative when they are traveling with their families. The last spring break cruise we took the ship was chock-a-block full of families. In fact my sister and I were among the oldest on board in our mid 60s. And it was heaven.

 

If you don't like kids and families then spring break may not be right for some...for those of us that like to travel with our extended families it is great. The young ones make friends quickly, activities are often geared toward their interests. And the price is nice.

 

And yes, three day weekend cruises (on all lines) tend to be full of individuals (those over 21 and are considered responsible adults) who are breaking free from their jobs and their, oftentimes, stressful lives and who may enjoy "letting their hair down" in a nice controlled environment where they don't have to drive to their favorite watering hole.

 

Spring break and weekend cruises have very little in common.

[Hoosierpop]

I've been on cruises over spring break, summer, thanksgiving....all times when kids are out of school. I have never felt like the cruise was a party cruise in the negative sense. My advice is take the itinerary that you want, and have a great time.

[sme]

Spring break = lots of families, which in my two spring break trip experiences meant less partiers. My kids, 8 and 18, 12 and 20 when they went, loved it. Lots of other people their ages and both fully utilized Camp Carnival/Club 02. The 20 yr old didn't have those choices on our second cruise.

 

Book with confidence and enjoy!

[TravelE]

As long as your Spring Break is not in early to mid-March, you won't see many college kids. However, there will be a ton of kids and not all of them will be supervised. We had fun on our Spring Break cruise but I won't book one again. When 50% of the passengers are under the age of 18, it changes the dynamic of the vacation. They tend to hog the hot tubs, elevators, ice cream, pools, etc. Just my 2 cents!

[angiem0217]

We went on the dream for spring break this past year. My son is 9 and daughter is 18 and we had a wonderful trip. It was not a party atmosphere and my son loved the waterslide and camp carnival. We are booked on the magic this August and it is similar to the dream. I would go with the magic since it has the waterpark and ropes course for the kids. You will have a great time

 

 

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[asalligo]

I have always cruised Carnival and also always with my young daughters during spring break since this is the only time outside of the expensive hot summer months that they can cruise.

 

I have never experienced this kind of behavior on a seven day cruise. Now the one three day spring break cruise we did, I would never do again, but the seven day cruises are fine. We also cruise the 2nd week of March normally. I have to add that even the short cruise, the drunks did not appear to be college age kids, but adults.

Edited July 12, 2016 by asalligo

[projectx]

We went on the dream for spring break this past year. My son is 9 and daughter is 18 and we had a wonderful trip. It was not a party atmosphere and my son loved the waterslide and camp carnival. We are booked on the magic this August and it is similar to the dream. I would go with the magic since it has the waterpark and ropes course for the kids. You will have a great time

 

 

Funny you mention that... Probably the biggest pull to the Carnival ship over Royal and Princess is the water park. The kids will LOVE the waterslides. Ok... so will their parents. :)

 

Just curious since you were cruising during a busy time of the year... were there long lines for the slides or no?

[amyh13]

Funny you mention that... Probably the biggest pull to the Carnival ship over Royal and Princess is the water park. The kids will LOVE the waterslides. Ok... so will their parents. :)

 

Just curious since you were cruising during a busy time of the year... were there long lines for the slides or no?

 

We have done several spring break cruises with Carnival starting when my DD was was 3 and DS was 7. They look at every ship they see and judge it by the waterslides. I can't imagine going on a ship for a while without one. And hey, I like them too! They even preferred the Dream water park over Disney.

 

And I find that with smallish kids, for the most part we were back in our cabin after 10 when Camp Carnival closed. We don't necessarily go to bed as we book balcony cabins. Maybe I have missed some drunkenness by going to bed early but otherwise, I didn't see anything crazy.

[angiem0217]

Funny you mention that... Probably the biggest pull to the Carnival ship over Royal and Princess is the water park. The kids will LOVE the waterslides. Ok... so will their parents. :)

 

Just curious since you were cruising during a busy time of the year... were there long lines for the slides or no?

 

 

In midday the lines were longer but they were not near as long as the ships with only 1 slide. Early in the morning and later in the evening there were hardly any lines. I did a review of the cruise if you want to check it out. You can search for my posts and find it. I would attach it but do not know how.

 

 

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Edited July 12, 2016 by angiem0217

[Rock_ON!!]

I have cruised many spring breaks in April with the family. It's mostly other families like ours, with their kids on vacation. Not many single people or couples only , they know theses cruise weeks are filled with families and younger kids. Never seen anything that was too rowdy. People are on vacation and tend to relax a little more, even the parents with the kids. You'll see silliness, not rowdiness.

[mfs2k]

Most of my 11 Carnival Cruises have been during spring break. I would use the term "vibrant" poolside and not rowdy. Lots of kids too having a great time. It's a fun atmosphere and not boring and dead quiet. I love it. (I'm 57)

 

 

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[evandbob]

Just returned from the week long Conquest 6/25 sailing, not spring break, but schools out.

 

Lots of families, lots of kids.

 

I happened to be lucky enough (?) to be using a Carnival shuttle bus with two totally wacked and intoxed women who filled up their barf bags on the ride back to the ship.

 

At the pier, one of the women nearly went into the water as she leaned over to retch again......Carnival security were called and finally strapped her into a wheelchair to get this woman back onto the ship.

 

It can happen on any ship at any time....you tube has many many examples of cruisers acting like drunks.

[flips7]

We have gone on a spring break cruise for the last 5 years. My kids are getting older now DD 14 and DS 20, but there was never a cruise that we saw a bunch of drunk kids or adults. If you think that kids under 21 do not drink on the ship then you are kidding yourself. There are way more kids on these sailings, which means your kids will be able to make lots of friends. Mine still text or snap chat with a lot of the friends they have made over the years.

[louanne93]

We went on a 3 day on the Inspiration (The Booze Cruise) during Spring Break with 3 seventeen year olds and I was worried, but it was mostly the adults in the Serenity area (over 35!) It was pretty gross. The college age kids and younger families with kids and teens were great! Very well behaved!

[CeleBrat]

No, no, no. A thousand times no! Don't buy into the stereotype that non-Carnival cruisers continue to spout about Carnival. Simply not true.

 

And, feel free to look at my Carnival Spring Break reviews (in signature below) to see exactly how fun it is to take the kids on a Carnival ship for Spring Break. We have done it many, many times.

 

CeleBrat

[bikecop129]

We just sailed over spring break, 7 Day Cruise, March 27th, 2016 on The NCL Breakaway. It was a great cruise! We sailed...husband and myself, 5 of our 10 kids who could make it...ages ranging from 19yrs to 11yrs old and our 80 yr old mom...we all had a great time...we wouldn't hesitate to sail over spring break again! Check out NCL, they have great itineraries also.

 

 

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[riclop]

Planning way ahead, but I'm looking at a 7-night family cruise for the last week of March, 2018 (kids will be 8, 5, and 5 so we're stuck with those dates since we like to cruise in the spring). What I'm finding is the most favorable itineraries for us are on Carnival or Royal Caribbean. Carnival being the preferred itineraries.

 

But I've never cruised with Carnival. I've sailed only Princess and Royal Caribbean, and trying to get over my (right or wrong) preconceived notion of Carnival being the red headed stepchild of the cruise industry: Tacky ships full of young rowdy party goers puking in the hallways in between meals of bad food. However the more I read about them, the more I realize that perception may be very dated. After all, 4/5 stars on Cruise Critic isn't too shabby. I like things to be nice, but don't need luxury. Clean, comfortable, and well done is is fine by me.

 

My concern though is that we will be traveling on spring break with young kids, so I am hoping that negative perception is off base and the ship isn't overran with the college spring break crowd.

 

Anyway, what has been your experience? We are looking at trips on either the Glory or Magic if that helps. Would you take a young family on Carnival over spring break?

 

Lots of kids and drinking.