Tempted!! Oh So Tempted by "Kids Sale Free"

[Ourusualbeach]

1 hour ago, RCCL Fan said:

Thanks for all the feedback.

 

As some of you have mentioned some schools are super strict.  Our last district, expressly told us at the beginning of the school year, that pulling kids out of school for vacations was unexcused and after 7 unexcused days a school year, your child faced being held back...  despite achievement.   Told us that in Kindergarten!

 

So that's kinda been in our heads from the beginning. 

We moved out of state --- and are in a new district now,  kids will be in K and 5th grade then, and this district discourages it, but isn't as strict as our last.

 

So it's all just top of mind.  We're driving distance to the port now (a first for us), the cruise is less than 2K for all four of us ---  we're leaning toward it.

 

I just can't figure out when the sale ends.   In one ad is says KSF ends this week, another says at the end of the month.

 

 

KSF is on until at least Feb 28th.  It is the WOW sale with the extra OBC that ends this week.

[HOSKI]

When on the RCCL website I cannot find the KSF sale, only the WOW sale shows.  Does anyone have a link to the KSF sale or do you just search and see if your kids are free?

[Ourusualbeach]

35 minutes ago, HOSKI said:

When on the RCCL website I cannot find the KSF sale, only the WOW sale shows.  Does anyone have a link to the KSF sale or do you just search and see if your kids are free?

 

 Sail Free: provides free cruise fare for 3rd guests and higher who are 12 years old or younger on select 4-night or longer Alaska, Bahamas, Bermuda, Canada, Caribbean, CaribNE, Coastal, Cuba, Europe and Hawaii sailings departing between March 1 – December 15, 2019. Offer excludes Spring Break sailings (Sailings between March 16 – 30, 2019), Holy Week/Easter sailings (Sailings between April 13 – 22, 2019) Summer sailings (Sailings between May 15 – August 31, 2019) and 2019 Thanksgiving sailings (Sailings between November 23 - 30, 2019). 

[papaflamingo]

21 hours ago, ramja96 said:

 

I find it hard to believe a 7 day vacation would be considered "too many absences". 

Believe it.  In our state, 10 days total absence during the YEAR leads to very specific consequences.  For example, if a Senior misses over10 days of school for an unexcused reason (a vacation is unexcused), he or she is unable to participate in Graduation.  So yeah..... a 7 day vacation could be "too many absences," and yes, the consequences are severe. 

[LuCruise]

What grades are your kids in?  Obviously one or more are 12 or under.

 

It's a personal decision.  Last time we took our kids out was in 2016 when our older one was 10 years, in grade 5.  

It's a personal decision that only the parents can make.  For us, 2016 was our last time.  Our son is an excellent student but he did comment that he doesn't like missing school.  Even for our cruise coming up, he'll miss 1 day, but it's the day before March break so should be a slower day. But of course, we have to compromise on more pricey cruise, hotel, and flights are the killer...and not to mention long lines at activities as the ship will be packed with kids.  We also travel end of summer and then we are taking our chances with hot weather, rain and hurricanes.

So I totally get taking them out (and good you moved and are out of that strict school...that's a little extreme with their rules!)

Let us know what you decide.

[Slickdaddy96]

My wife is a teacher in a different district than where my kids go to school.  For the first time ever my wife's district decided to make their spring break a different week than the majority of the neighboring districts.  So that messed up our spring break plans.  

 

Turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I was pricing cruises for my kid's spring break week and it was crazy expensive.  So I priced out the week my wife was out on spring break and saw the KSF offer last year for this April on Allure.  It was almost half the price of the week before for a balcony.  So after discussing it we decided to pull the trigger.  So we are doing the Allure 4/7-4/14 for $2100 total for 4 kids outside balcony.  I have never seen anything that low on Royal ever.  

 

My kids are in 7th and 3rd grade.  It seems that the state testing may be the week we are gone and if that is the case they aren't really even going to be missing much since they have make-up days for the state testing anyway.

 

Only issue now is my 7th grader has been out with the Flu all week, so he will have about 11-12 days of absences this year.  Now 7 of which will be excused for sickness but 5 will not be.  I don't think they will say much to us though.

[SimplyMarvie]

We do it, but we're in International schools where it's kind of the norm -- the school doesn't close to accommodate everyone's holidays, people have guests in from out of town, etc. Plus, our school is only K-8 and there's so many different calendars that it's really hard for a family here to find a single long weekend (never mind a whole week) when all the kids are out at the same time.  

 

Our last school had mid-term breaks in October and February, which were perfect so we seldom had to pull the kids out. This school doesn't, so I feel like we're pulling them out more. 😞

[Iamcruzin]

9 hours ago, papaflamingo said:

Believe it.  In our state, 10 days total absence during the YEAR leads to very specific consequences.  For example, if a Senior misses over10 days of school for an unexcused reason (a vacation is unexcused), he or she is unable to participate in Graduation.  So yeah..... a 7 day vacation could be "too many absences," and yes, the consequences are severe. 

What’s going on in the State of Georgia that they are so strict? Was there an epidemic of parents taking kids out of school or perhaps it has to do with state funding tied in with student attendance?  They have become so lenient her in our district. When I was going to school you were required to bring in a note from your parents stating that you were sick. When I sent my kids to the same school they only required that you call the school to let them know why your child wouldn’t be in school. You can imagine how many kids pretended to be their parents and called out sick.  I know my son did becaues we had gps on his cell phone and we saw that he wasn’t anywhere near the school when he should have been.

[papaflamingo]

15 minutes ago, Iamcruzin said:

What’s going on in the State of Georgia that they are so strict? Was there an epidemic of parents taking kids out of school or perhaps it has to do with state funding tied in with student attendance?  They have become so lenient her in our district. When I was going to school you were required to bring in a note from your parents stating that you were sick. When I sent my kids to the same school they only required that you call the school to let them know why your child wouldn’t be in school. You can imagine how many kids pretended to be their parents and called out sick.  I know my son did becaues we had gps on his cell phone and we saw that he wasn’t anywhere near the school when he should have been.

Yeah.... I grew up in Southern California and it was the same for us.  Of course that was "so last Century." 😜  But can't really say.  But here's the guidelines from the Ga. Dept. of Education.

http://www.gadoe.org/External-Affairs-and-Policy/Policy/Lists/Attendance/Attachments/55/660_StdAttnProt.pdf

 

Edited February 8, 2019 by papaflamingo

[moesyk4]

On 2/7/2019 at 2:45 PM, Itchy&Scratchy said:

oh, you'd be surprised. After 10 absences you get a social worker visit... And then you can go to jail.

My kid goes to a public school, and our school district is very strict. My friend kept pulling her elementary school aged kids out for a cruise, and she got a very stern warning after her 3rd time. She doesn't do it anymore.

I can't believe that schools have this much say over how people raise their kids...that is crazy!

[Itchy&Scratchy]

9 minutes ago, moesyk4 said:

I can't believe that schools have this much say over how people raise their kids...that is crazy!

why? If your kid has too many unexcused absences, wouldn't one be glad that someone cares enough to ask why? It could be something a lot worse than taking them on vacations....

[Itchy&Scratchy]

11 hours ago, Slickdaddy96 said:

Turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I was pricing cruises for my kid's spring break week and it was crazy expensive.  So I priced out the week my wife was out on spring break and saw the KSF offer last year for this April on Allure.  It was almost half the price of the week before for a balcony.  So after discussing it we decided to pull the trigger.  So we are doing the Allure 4/7-4/14 for $2100 total for 4 kids outside balcony.  I have never seen anything that low on Royal ever.  

interesting, because I got the KSF for March 31 sailing on the Allure, and that's the spring break in our county. The price was unbelievable, and I kept checking it after I booked the cruise on a weekly basis - it doubled and never came down, even with the KSF...

[moesyk4]

56 minutes ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

why? If your kid has too many unexcused absences, wouldn't one be glad that someone cares enough to ask why? It could be something a lot worse than taking them on vacations....

Of course ask the questions...but never should a school punish a parent for choosing to spend time together in a positive and quality way. Surely they can have enough discretion to figure that out.

[Chicky2181]

23 hours ago, RCCL Fan said:

Thanks for all the feedback.

 

As some of you have mentioned some schools are super strict.  Our last district, expressly told us at the beginning of the school year, that pulling kids out of school for vacations was unexcused and after 7 unexcused days a school year, your child faced being held back...  despite achievement.   Told us that in Kindergarten!

 

So that's kinda been in our heads from the beginning. 

We moved out of state --- and are in a new district now,  kids will be in K and 5th grade then, and this district discourages it, but isn't as strict as our last.

 

So it's all just top of mind.  We're driving distance to the port now (a first for us), the cruise is less than 2K for all four of us ---  we're leaning toward it.

 

I just can't figure out when the sale ends.   In one ad is says KSF ends this week, another says at the end of the month.

 

 

Just keep an eye on the price.  I booked our KSF cruise on Monday.  The total for the week for 4 came to $1823 (with a $50 OBC).  

I just checked a few min ago and the same sailing/same room class is now up to $2309 (with a $125 OBC). 

[Danswife12]

We do the KSF twice a year, but in different school years. The kids get their work in advance and we always make time to do it on sea days. We haven’t had any issues and the kids still make the honor roll. 

[Itchy&Scratchy]

13 hours ago, moesyk4 said:

Of course ask the questions...but never should a school punish a parent for choosing to spend time together in a positive and quality way. Surely they can have enough discretion to figure that out.

I don't know. Perhaps, because it's a public school and the "no child left behind" concept. Because it's a govt provided service to our children. Maybe, because they really care that the kids don't miss schools? Maybe, because I personally will not be able to teach my child whatever he is missing in a week because I have no patience or the skill required, and my child doesn't want to learn at home. So, we go during school breaks, with a very notable exception last year when our cruise broke down and we could only do the make up cruise a month later during the last week of school.

Perhaps, the parents can choose to spend time together in a positive and quality way during NON-SCHOOL times? They could always home school and spend holidays whenever they want to.

Edited February 9, 2019 by Itchy&Scratchy

[RCCL Fan]

Yes many districts have rules like that.  The Georgia rule is NOT uncommon at all.  10 days meant a visit from social services for us.   So. yes a 7 day cruise and a sickness could do you in.

 

New district now --- so we don't have those rules anymore.  They discourage it, but there's no strict consequence... and they will work with you on make up work.

 

We're going to do it.

 

Our --kids will be in kindergarten and in 5th grade.   Our oldest daughter is advanced and is an A/B student, I'm not worried about her falling behind.  Just never considered it before,  based on the  school rules.  

 

Funny thing is, we just discussed the cruise as a family and my oldest daughter asked, " Can we just do a 3 or 4 -day so I don't have to miss as much school?"

 

Now  --- who feels like the parent and who feels like the kid?

 

HAHAHA!

 

Oh --- and someone mentioned fare increases...  trust me I'm on it.

 

  I called my TA and she put both 7-day on Liberty and 5-day on Enchantment on hold for us until we make a final decision. 

 

I'm looking at a 7-night on Liberty balcony guarantee for $1800 with $400 obc

 

or  5-night on Enchantment JS  aft /corner  for $1700 with $175 obc

 

We're super close to our next tier in C&A  so the double cruise points are a plus for us.    I still think Liberty but my missing school minded wife and oldest daughter want Enchantment.   lol

[BrandFam4]

19 minutes ago, RCCL Fan said:

I'm looking at a 7-night on Liberty balcony guarantee for $1800 with $400 obc

 

or  5-night on Enchantment JS  aft /corner  for $1700 with $175 obc

 

We're super close to our next tier in C&A  so the double cruise points are a plus for us.    I still think Liberty but my missing school minded wife and oldest daughter want Enchantment.   lol

Are the cruises that different in reference to missed school days. For example: The 7 day is Saturday through Saturday and the 5 day is M-F. It’s the same amount of missed days in that case. I would go with the longer one than, of course!

 

Also, which boat do you like better and/or have you compared the ports to see which ones you like better?

Edited February 9, 2019 by BrandFam4

[Holmie]

As a teacher, my two cents are as follows:

if your kids are decent students, have good attendance normally, and are motivated enough to get the work and get caught up upon returning, go for it. (As long as you give the school/teachers ample warning if expecting work before leaving) 

 

If their attendance is not good already, you don’t want to risk truancy for pulling them out for vacation.

 

If they struggle in school and won’t be able to catch up quickly and easily, don’t do it. I had one my seniors’ parents pull him for a week for a cruise this past October. They told us on the Friday before they left and expected work before school ended that day. Of course, that didn’t happen, as I don’t have the whole next week of copies ready that early. This student is also not a very good student. He lacks motivation and didn’t make up any of the work when he returned. His C- dropped to a D- from the lack of makeup work and being behind when he returned. He almost failed the semester, which would have meant he couldn’t graduate.

 

Unless it’s a situation like that, no harm in pulling your kids. My parents did that when my siblings and I were in middle and high school and we all got caught up easily because we gave advance notice and got the work before we left, enabling us to stay up to date on assignments.