Easter on the Grandeur

[CaroleSP]

I'm about to book an Easter cruise on the Explorer in 2008 and just heard a horror story about the Easter cruise on the Grandeur this year. I'm trying to confirm if this is the case. It was about teens running wild; even putting plates of food in the elevators so that people would step on them as soon as they turned around at the buttons. Does anyone know how long this cruise was? I am going to see if there is anything still around on the roll call boards.

 

We never sail on holidays and are very concerned about what this might be like. The cruise we are looking at is 12 nights and we hoped that this would keep the kid count down.

 

Any advice or suggestions would be helpful. Thanks.

[CaroleSP]

This got to page 2 so quickly, I thought I would move it back to page one and hopefully get some feedback. Thanks.

[PhoenixCruiser]

The only reason I would book a holiday cruise would be that it was free, including pre-cruise night, and airfare :D :eek:

 

If we had kids my opinion might be different. However, if you do have kids and they get involved with a *bad* crowd, be sure to have enough credit on your credit card to be able to afford airfare home :p

 

Edited to add: We are booked on a 12 night cruise and I'm amazed to see (roll-call thread) how many parents are willing to take kids out of school for so long UGH!! And you have to remember all of those kids who are being "home-schooled".

 

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[Pumbaamd]

Carole, I've never heard of that particular episode, but I can see it happening with a bunch of unsupervised kids running loose and their parents not caring a whole lot about them. If you're going for 12 days, you're on the Spring repo. You are correct in saying there should be very few kids on that longer cruise. You probably have little to worry about.

PS: We are spending Thanksgiving on the 13 day Fall repo from Baltimore to NOLA!

Rick and Deirdra

[CaroleSP]

Carole, I've never heard of that particular episode, but I can see it happening with a bunch of unsupervised kids running loose and their parents not caring a whole lot about them. If you're going for 12 days, you're on the Spring repo. You are correct in saying there should be very few kids on that longer cruise. You probably have little to worry about.

PS: We are spending Thanksgiving on the 13 day Fall repo from Baltimore to NOLA!

Rick and Deirdra

It's not the repo, that would probably have less kids due to air costs. It's 3/16/08, but I'm still not sure we will book it.

[CaroleSP]

The only reason I would book a holiday cruise would be that it was free, including pre-cruise night, and airfare :D :eek:

 

If we had kids my opinion might be different. However, if you do have kids and they get involved with a *bad* crowd, be sure to have enough credit on your credit card to be able to afford airfare home :p

 

Edited to add: We are booked on a 12 night cruise and I'm amazed to see (roll-call thread) how many parents are willing to take kids out of school for so long UGH!! And you have to remember all of those kids who are being "home-schooled".

 

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We've raised our kids and try not to cruise or do land vacation during holiday times. We like any craziness to be caused by us:D :D not the kids. I do think that the parents of these kids are the real problem! thanks for your thoughts.

[sal7202]

We were on the Brilliance of the Seas Easter week 2005 and it was a total zoo. Unsupervised children ran wild all over the ship. You couldn't put out a room service order at night because they were going around switching the room service cards from one door handle to another. There was even an incident in which a cup of chocolate syrup was poured over the balcony on deck 11 onto an art auction being held in the centrum.

 

You are right that the parents are at fault, one day I overheard a father talking to a young child (I'd guess the kid was around 5 years old or so) around lunchtime in the pool area, telling him to make sure he was back at the cabin by 5:00 pm. :eek: Now I don't know about you, but personally, I wouldn't allow such a young child to go unsupervised on a ship full of 1900 or so strangers for 5 hours. I'm sure they are all law abiding citizens and all, but in this day and age of pedophiles and perverts who could guarantee a childs safety.

 

Personally, we will never cruise at holiday time again, and generally we are now taking longer cruises in the hopes of cutting down on the number of children on our cruises.

[hollyanna]

Hi Carole SP.

I wondered if you had booked the cruise 16th March 2008 on Explorer? i am booked for the same cruise with my two "Very well behaved kids", boys who will be 10 and 13 when we go. I would not allow my 10 year old to roam around freely and dont think I would allow the 13 year old either. i think they have quite enough freedom in the club activities. I was slightly worried about what I had read with regards to unruly kids playing pranks but I have to go as near as possible i the school holidays as cannot take my eldest out of school at all due to his school work and the strict policies at school. My eldest son will miss no school as finishes for the holidays the friday before sailing and my other son will need 4 days off school as doesnt finish until 3 days before easter (usually week before which would have been fine but with easter being so early, they have to moved the dates). Being at different schools they have slightly different holidays so it is difficult, expecially with a cruise, to get suitable times (unlike a flight when which will go everyday).

 

I am really excited and have even bought both my boys their suits for formal evenings as I think children should look smart also (we intend on them being with us when they wish, for dinner). We have another couple of planned cruises also before this one so hopefully they will get the wear!They have done Disney cruise before and loved it.

 

From what I have read about Explorer, it sounds like even when at full capacity, there is ample room per body and if USA kids vacation times are similar to UK (apart from private schools like my eldest who has 3 weeks off), it would mean taking kids out of school for one of the weeks so I would assume this would not attract as many parents with kids? I can think of nothing worse than unruly kids and I would be horrified to find my kids had upset anyone. Fingers crossed I won't come across many of them and I am sure that my kids will be happy at their respective clubs and will enjoy their time with us equally without expecting total freedom.

 

Hope you enjoy whichever cruise you decide. Hollyanna