Easter Break Dates?

[JuneauWhatIMean]

I would like to take my mother on a cruise to Hawaii and NCL looks like the best way to go but I don't want a lot of rugrats underfoot. Is it the week before Easter or the week after that most schools are out? Thanks!

 

Also, do you have any favorite sites for great deals? There's so many of them out there now that I'm getting dizzy! :eek:

[ksstizme]

I work for a school district in SC. Ours this year is the week before Easter, but next year they are changing it to the week after. Plus we are only 1 of 46 districts in SC so they could be some for each.

[JuneauWhatIMean]

Thanks for the reply, ksstizme. And sorry about the rugrats comment. ;)

I guess I should avoid both the week before and the week after Easter.

[mikeythemars]

I would like to take my mother on a cruise to Hawaii and NCL looks like the best way to go but I don't want a lot of rugrats underfoot. Is it the week before Easter or the week after that most schools are out? :eek:

 

This is a very reasonable , common question (comes up frequently here and every other day on Disney-World related boards) that unfortunatley has no simple, straightforward answer.

 

That's because (a) school systems schedules vary quite a bit from region to region and (b) Easter is a moving date.

 

Specifically, many school systems in the "sunbelt" open in August, pretty much go straight through all the way to a week or so before Christmas, when the kids get anywhere from two to three weeks off. They then re-open is January and go straight through to sometime in March OR April with another week to two weeks off before closing sometime in May. So "Spring" vacation dates across systems vary quite a bit.

 

In the North and Northeast, school open in September, have shorter Christmas breaks but then have both a "winter" (usually President's day week) and "spring" (usually but not always the week before or after Easter) break.

 

Given just the latter areas, you can generally assume the week before and following Easter is one to avoid at any popular family-focused vacation place (resorts, cruises, you name it) if you don't like have lots of kids around. However, the schedules in the sunbelt (plus colleges, many with have a break in late March or early April) also affect things weeks before or after Easter.

 

The most complicated scenario (in terms of trying to avoid "rugrats") is when Easter falls early (ergo in March or right at the beginning of April, as it will in 2008 when it falls on 3/23). That often leads schools systems in both the Sunbelt and North/Nrthest to tweak Spring vacation schedules, sometimes pushing them back in to mid and even later April. Consequently, kid crowd levels in many popular vacation areas go up and down almost randomly between mid March through late April.

[mikeythemars]

I would like to take my mother on a cruise to Hawaii and NCL looks like the best way to go but I don't want a lot of rugrats underfoot. Is it the week before Easter or the week after that most schools are out? :eek:

 

This is a very reasonable , common question (comes up frequently here and every other day on Disney-World related boards) that unfortunately has no simple, straightforward answer.

 

That's because (a) school systems schedules vary quite a bit from region to region and (b) Easter is a moving date.

 

Specifically, many school systems in the "sunbelt" open in August, pretty much go straight through all the way to a week or so before Christmas, when the kids get anywhere from two to three weeks off. They then re-open in January and go straight through to sometime in March OR April with another week to two weeks off (which may or may not be tied to when Eater falls, more on that below) before closing sometime in May. So "Spring" vacation dates across systems vary quite a bit.

 

 

In the North and Northeast, school open in September, have shorter Christmas breaks but then have both a "winter" (usually President's day week) and "spring" (usually but not always the week before or after Easter) break.

 

Given just the latter areas, yes, you can generally assume the week before and following Easter -- if it falls in April -- is one to avoid at any popular family-focused vacation place (resorts, cruises, you name it) if you don't like having lots of kids around. However, the schedules in the sunbelt (plus colleges, many with have a break in late March or early April) also affect things weeks before or after Easter.

 

The most complicated scenario (in terms of trying to avoid "rugrats") is when Easter falls early (ergo in March or right at the beginning of April, as it will in 2008 when it falls on 3/23). That often leads schools systems in both the Sunbelt and North/Northeast to tweak Spring vacation schedules, sometimes pushing them back in to mid and even later April (in other words, not tying them directly to the early Easter date). Consequently, in that scenario kid crowd levels in many popular vacation areas go up and down almost randomly between late March through late April.

 

Bottom line: simple question, no simple answer. You should avoid the week before and after Easter, but even that may not guarantee no rugrats if your cruise between late March and and late April.

[melika091900]

we are going to hawaii on a 14 day for spring break

and its the week of easter our daughter is out of school...

 

i know some other schools are out in march for break also ..

i would avoid march and april. just in case

[KeystoneCruiser]

Schools in our state set their own vacation dates and the can stretch anytime during a six week period from mid March to late April.

 

From reading the posts on other threads, it appears that between the college and grade schools, Spring Breaks in this country run from late February to the end of April.

 

Of course, any more it doesnt' matter when you cruise, parents will pull their kids out of school to take a vacation anytime in order to save a few bucks.

 

We just had to declare one of our athletes ineligible until April because her parents chose to pull her out of school for two weeks in November for a vacation because the "rates are cheaper." Of course, she did not make up the work or got so far behind that she failed her tests and hence did not have the grades necessary for Athletic Eligibility. I hope that vacation was worth her sports seasons.

[Cosmopolitan]

I would like to take my mother on a cruise to Hawaii and NCL looks like the best way to go but I don't want a lot of rugrats underfoot. Is it the week before Easter or the week after that most schools are out? Thanks!

 

Also, do you have any favorite sites for great deals? There's so many of them out there now that I'm getting dizzy! :eek:

 

End of April, early May may be a good idea.

 

We cruised at that time several years ago...no rugrats and no spring breakers:)

[newmexicoNita]

For many reasons one of the best times to cruise in late April/early May. Spring break starts, depending on where you live as early as the first week of March (rare) and will end the week after Easter. The colleges normally are out somewhere in the middle part of March, some school districts the same with the rest falling just before or right after Easter. Last year we cruised starting Easter Sunday and there were about 400 kids on the ship. NMnita

[98Charlie]

Rule of thumb we normally use is to avoid the entire month of March and most of April when planning a cruise. Have cruised very late April before and found fewer child on board. Cruised in March only once - on a 10 day cruise - with few children on board due to the length of the cruise and the itinerary.

 

January and February are pretty good months as well if you want to avoid large crowds of children.

 

Dianne

[JuneauWhatIMean]

Very helpful information. Thanks everyone! :D

[mousey]

We're from California and our son's Spring Break is Apr. 6 through Apr. 13 this year. Hope you have a great trip!

[watchdiva]

Cruise anytime after 4/13 or so and you will find far fewer kids and almost NO college-age spring breakers.

 

We always cruise at this time of year and haven't experienced any ships being over-run by kids at all.:)

[5kids5]

We are in NY and our kids are off the wk of April 1-6. However, my brothers kids go to Catholic school and they are off Thurs 4/5 thru the whole next wk, returning to school 4/16.

Hope this helps.

By the way, we have 5 rugrats that Supernanny would be proud of!

[mitsguy2001]

The posters who said to avoid all of March and most of April are probably right, because schools, especially colleges, can have spring break during any random week, not always necessarily near Easter.

 

In addition to Easter, there are some other April weeks to avoid. Massachusetts has a holiday called Patriots Day, on the 3rd Monday of April, and they have spring break that week (it would be April 14-22 this year, since April 16 is a Monday); many other New England states also have spring break that week. New Hampshire has it the following week, the week of the 4th Monday of April (it would be April 21-29 this year, since April 23 is a Monday). Also, another week to avoid is the week of Passover, since when I was in school, in New York, that would be the spring break week. This year, as in most years, Passover is close to Easter, so it's a week you'd avoid anyway. But in 2008, Passover is much later than Easter, so that's another week to avoid (I don't know the date of Passover in 2008 offhand, but I do know that Easter is March 23).

 

As mentioned earlier, in most northeastern states (incuding New York and Massachusetts), winter break is the week of Presidents Day (3rd Monday in February), which is Feb. 17-25 this year (since Feb. 19 is a Monday). New Hampshire has their winter break the following week, Feb. 24-Mar. 4 (since Feb. 26 is a Monday). I wonder if anyone has winter break the 2nd week of February. So, I'd avoid anything from mid-February to late April, maybe even early February.

 

Also, check the holiday schedule at the ports you'll be arriving at. For example, Hawaii has a holiday on March 26, called Prince Kuhio Day. You probably want to avoid holidays at the ports that you'll be at too, since things will be crowded, and most places will be closed.

 

I'm booked on the April 30-May 7, 2007 Pride of Hawaii cruise. Unfortunately, at the time I booked it, I didn't realize that was Golden Week in Japan, where people in Japan have a full week off from work, and they all go on vacation, often to Hawaii. But, it seems that there is no off week for Hawaii, so hopefully the numbers won't be increased too much compared to other weeks; I read a lot of conflicting info. Does anyone have any experience with Hawaii during golden week? Thanks.

[Holg]

I'm booked on the Wind March 24-April 4... the 11 day itinerary.. I'm guessing the longer itinerary will kinda weed-out the spring breakers as going on this cruise would require TWO full weeks of missed school and most schools regardless of location or age level only take a week off for Spring.

 

So I guess my point is the seven day itineraries might be more likely to have spring breakers than the longer ones. The longer itineraries aren't really that much more expensive especially when you consider the cost of airfare.

[ROCruiser]

We are booked April 8 on Pride of Aloha. After many years, my son and I finally have our Spring breaks on the same week that we can go on vacation together. He's in High school and I teach grade school, different school district in S. CA. It's usually more expensive to go on vacation during Spring break. Fortunately, we got a good deal this time.:p