xps15z Posted November 20, 2018 Report Share Posted November 20, 2018 Anyone with experience on Royal Caribbean during the off season? We are in our 30s with a 11 year old. I know in the summer the boats are filled with children around my daughters age. I'm curious how ships are in March, April and September. Those happen to be the kids sail free months. Is it a completely different vibe on the boats when your not sailing in the summer or is it about the same? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oliver Posted November 20, 2018 Report Share Posted November 20, 2018 Well remember that March is Spring Break so there should be lots of kids. Most schools and universities will stagger out the times they are off so most of March should have kids on cruise ships. I would imagine the April and Spetember have much less but you should always find a few. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweety Posted November 20, 2018 Report Share Posted November 20, 2018 Also, April is spring break for Chicago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pima1988 Posted November 20, 2018 Report Share Posted November 20, 2018 I think it will depend on multiple aspects, such as the size of the ship, the dates of the cruise and how long. We sailed on Anthem for 5 nights in Sept. It left on a Sat. and returned on Thurs. I would not say there were a lot of kids, like there probably would be in Mar or April when there are many schools on spring break, but I would say everywhere you turned you would see kids. However, remember Anthem is not a small ship compared to say Enchantment or Lady G and that could also impact how many kids will be on the cruise. For Example we sailed Enchantment (4 nt) during Nov. leaving on a Mon, ret. Fri. kids were far and few between. I also think that it had to do with the ship itself since the Enchantment really does not have the bells and whistles. Don't get me wrong it was a great cruise, because of Enchantment's size it was port intensive, no sea days, which also might be another reason why there were few kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lovetocruise2002 Posted November 20, 2018 Report Share Posted November 20, 2018 Mid-march is spring break for many schools in Ontario. Also, from what I have learned from roll call groups, March is also spring break for parts of Texas and Florida. I would not call March the "off season". When we sailed Anthem last March (which was our first March break sailing), it was packed with kids. I expect it to be the same on Harmony this March as well. I have never had the opportunity to sail in September or April, so cannot comment on that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coneyraven Posted November 20, 2018 Report Share Posted November 20, 2018 I know on Grandeur ..... there were a lot of kids in October over Halloween. Like others have said, it wouldn't surprise me if the larger ships have plenty of kids while the smaller ones have fewer..... it would make sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auto Posted November 20, 2018 Report Share Posted November 20, 2018 Ours is probably an extreme case, but two weeks ago on a Greek cruise, there were 22 teens on the manifest (only 3, including my oldest, showed up to the teen club). For the younger set, the most I ever saw in Adventure Ocean was 8, divided among the various age levels. Also, my conservative estimate for the average age on this cruise was 102. On the plus side, our three youngest daughteres got so much personal attention, it was like have a private club just for them. They didn't seem to mind the small group size, but then again, since there are three of them they are their own roaming motorcycle gang. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pima1988 Posted November 20, 2018 Report Share Posted November 20, 2018 We did a Yugoslavia, Greece and Italy cruise (our 1st cruise) I would agree that age wise they were much older than us. However, I think that has more to do with the costs than when the cruise occurred (May). Flying from the US to Europe is expensive, paying for airfare, cruise, dining options and excursions in my opinion, would be in the ten thousand marker at least for my family of 5. Whereas, I could do an 8 night Caribbean for my family @5K since I live on the east coast and could drive to Cape Liberty, Baltimore, Miami, or even fly to San Juan. Don't get me wrong Auto we took our kids to Europe for 1 of my bucket lists...Winter Olympics in Italy. Kids were 11, 13 and 15. I am just saying cost wise as an American that is a really expensive trip for the avg family, thus, I am not shocked at the age demographics. We did our European cruise when we were in our late 20's and I swear at 9 p.m. we were the only ones in the bar, on the deck, etc, bc most were in their 70s. That was decades ago, and it seems it still holds true today. My In-laws did the RCCL Greek cruise for their 50th wedding anniversary 10 yrs ago (they were in their 70s). My sister in law just did NCL last summer, she is 59. My close friends just did Princess 2 yrs ago, and they are early 50s. Just saying, impo as an American, those cruises are more bucket lists later in life. I want to do a river cruise, but everyone my age (53) says NO, wait until you are at least 60 bc even at 60 you would be considered a baby age wise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auto Posted November 20, 2018 Report Share Posted November 20, 2018 For the record, I am 'Merican. I just happen to live in Europe for the time being and can cross of a bunch of bucket list trips while I am here. Like I said, ours is the extreme example. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pima1988 Posted November 20, 2018 Report Share Posted November 20, 2018 1 hour ago, Auto said: For the record, I am 'Merican. I just happen to live in Europe for the time being and can cross of a bunch of bucket list trips while I am here. Like I said, ours is the extreme example. Which again I think why the cruise was that way. Living in Europe is cheaper to fly to the port in Italy with a family of 5, than if, let's say you are coming from Kansas. Hence, why I also said the reason the age was so high impo comes down to most Americans with kids would opt not to go that route, instead do the Caribbean and maybe Disney later on for the exact same cost as a European Cruise. I am sorry if I offended you. that was not my attempt. My attempt was to say for the OP, I really thought your experience is the extreme since it is Europe. Just like I would say to them that if they attempt to go on a NE/Canada cruise for 9 days in Sept on Lady G that the demographics would be older, much older. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiny260 Posted November 20, 2018 Report Share Posted November 20, 2018 My wife works in the local school system, so we are tied to dates just like we were when our kids were in school, but at least now we can fudge the dates a little. With that said, we would never try and cruise in mid-march because that is our local spring break, we usually try and cruise in early June, typically when school lets out, we will then cruise in October during our Fall Break (School is only out for 3 days), this is the fudge part, my wife can usually get the extra 2 days off without repercussions, a lot of parents may not take a whole week off. So June has more kids than October, but October still has a lot. We took our grandson this summer in July, but I couldn't do kids sale free because I had to wait until baseball season was over, not offered in July. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auto Posted November 20, 2018 Report Share Posted November 20, 2018 5 hours ago, Pima1988 said: sorry if I offended you No offense taken My intent, and buried the lede, was to point out that my kids got great, personal attention by being among the few kids on board. I totally get the economics and bucket list-ness of Europe from the States. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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