Cruises, Cruise Deals & Cruise Holidays

What a rude comment Dean, there is no need for personal insults to a very reasonable point. Personally, I don't consider that parents who deliberately take their children out of school just to go on a holiday, have their children's best interests at heart. As Lewis says, there is more than enough time during the various school holidays and half terms to take the kids on holiday. And I don't agree with Millington, school terms do not vary very much, if a kid is on a cruise ship (or anywhere else on holiday) during normal school time, it is because the parents consider the holiday more important than school.

Obviously you dont have childre.people go on these cruises in school time as they are too expensive in the holidays.Also some people have job constraints ie mty husband who is a farmer.and cant always go in school holiadys

Hello Mrs Brown. I have two children as it happens and I do have sympathy with people like yourselves, i.e. farmers, who wouldn't be able to have a family holiday during periods like harvesting. However, there must be some times outside of school holidays when you could all go away together. I'm afraid I also disagree with your comment about expense. When our children were at school we could never have afforded to cruise at any time of the year. We used to go camping or stay in a caravan, hire a cheap apartment in this country or even not go away at all. What we wouldn't have done would be to take the kids out of school because it was cheaper. I remember times when I was sick and off school even for just a few days and feeling that I never caught up with the lessons that I'd missed. I'm not trying to score points here, but I still think that too many parents think it doesn't matter if they take their kids out of school because it's convenient or saves them money.

THE WORLD IS A CLASSROOM----------Our daughter is 9 we have cruised with her since she was a toddler and at times have needed to keep her off school to take our family holiday. The company i work for have restrictions on how many can be off at one time and as there are many of us with children it is getting harder and harder we are not allowed holidays from mid Novermber to mid January so no chance over the Christmas holidays October half term is a nightmare as everyone wants the last week off before the holidays stop till the the following year Easter and Whit are difficult as the company only allow so many off as they struggle to staff the departments during these busy times so when it comes to the main summer holiday and again due to restrictions for sale time there are two weeks last week of june first week of july when no holidays can be taken this means that all staff not just the ones with children are trying for holidays during the summer and you are lucky to get the weeks you need. As for caravan/camping holidays each to their own our daughter teachers tell us that they are amazed by her Genral Knowledge and her love of history and that they love her doing her show and tell because of all the fantasic places she has visited Rome Venice Florence some 30 different places and many she has been to 2-3 times she recounts what she has seen and i dont think she would have got the same from a two week caravan holiday. As far a some keeping their children off so that they benifit from the term time deals i cant blame them we are lucky we only have one child and we have always been able to pay a full fare for her as she share a cabin with her nana so it really makes no difference to us as far as cost but for larger families it must be very tempting to keep the children off and take advantage of the deals. Just as a foot note i do agree that too many children are being left to run around onboard ships and this needs to be addressed as ship become bigger and more and more families are cruising. We have always told our daughter that if she is well behaved, considerate of others and well mannered she will be welcome anywhere.

Well said fella. When will people realise its a FAMILY ship. Kids are off school at different times and for different reasons. Just for the record im sailing on ventura because its a family ship even though i aint got any kids. I didnt want to go on a " coffin cruise " lol

There is more than enough time in the school holiday's to take kids on holiday, god knows they are off long enough. Thats why some people go before or just after the holidays to minimise this.