How many chaperones must you have per minor on a cruise? And how many people per room usually?

Question

My high school senior class wants to go on a cruise for our senior class trip so I was just wondering what the rules are about chaperones. Also how many do rooms on cruises usually go for? Any cruises that you recomend that are not to pricey and lots of fun? Thanks for the help.

Answer 1

i think many people have given you some good advice and reasoning on the idea of a senior class trip.  You could contact carnival.com;ncl.com; rcci.com for specific information about group travel, just in case you still think it is your best plan.  Have a great senior trip. Its one of those that you will remember for a long time.

Answer 2

Generally speaking you must be over 21 to have a cabin on your own. BUT if you're 18 or under you must have someone over the age of 25 with you in the cabin.

However this is on the basis of a single booking. If you are a group as you suggest, I would recommend that you contact the groups booking department of each cruise line as they can make arrangements for your group to travel with an agreed number of adults (teachers or parents) and not have to share cabins

Answer 3

Your Senior class can set up a group cruise.  Carnival and Royal Caribbean only work with a few travel agencies specializing in Senior group trips.   The guidelines and rules are different. such as 1 chaperone for every 10 students.  Try contacting   http://www.graduatesatsea.com/index.html...  They should be able to answer all your questions.

Answer 4

Most cruise lines don't take high school class trips anymore.  

Just FYI:  Ships are sold by cabin..usually 3 to 4 can fit in one cabin in relative comfort - if a little crowded.  

The kicker is this; You must be 21 years old to be in a cabin.  If you are NOT 21 years old, there must be an adult at least 25 years old in the cabin with you.

This is how the cruiselines finally got out of the senior class business.  Too many seniors were out of control and destructive.  They harrassed the other cruisers, running the halls all night talking, yelling, fighting.  They generally tore things up, stole things, threw chairs and other things overboard.  They misbehaved in the dining rooms, didn't obey any of the rules around the ship, were insolent and disrespectful to others.  Passenger complaints rose and business started falling off during the traditional "senior class" calendar....So....the cruiselines ended it.

The cruiselines couldn't stop the groups from coming - so they changed the rules to discourage the groups.  Therefore, the "21" year old rule.  If there are 2 seniors in the room under age 21, there must be one adult over 25 in that room with them.

I was in the travel industry for over 30 years and back in the day I used to arrange senior trips and escorted them.  I did 2 and only 2 cruises.  They were awful and, like many kids of that age, were out-of-control once they were away from their parents.

Answer 5

i thought the rule was one adult and three minor in a room of four ?  our two married people that are under 21 ?  check with travel agents.  it's definately changed because high school students adn college students have abused it.

Answer 6

The current rules for booking a stateroom on a cruise is that everyone in the room must be over 21 or if there are younger passengers then one person in the cabin must be over 25.  The person over 25 would have to have a document provided by the cruise line that makes the adult the legal guardian for the cruise.  This form must me signed by one of the minor's parents or their legal guardian.

In general the staterooms are set up in one of three arangements, a double, a triple or a quad. (2, 3, or 4 people)

The triples and quads are not all together so the group would be spread over the ship where there were rooms set up as triple and quads.  This prevents clustering and has been done to ease the load on the cabin stewards in the areas.

Separating the large capacity rooms has also made taking large groups of minors on cruises more difficult.  You didn't mention the size of your senior class.  It would be difficult for the cruise line to accomodate a group of 600 or more passengers without significant planning.

As far as cost, the best rates normally are obtained by getting advanced group tickets about a year before the cruise departs,  Carnival cruises normally would have the best large group rate.  If a class were large enough say 2500-3000 students, arrangements might be made to book an entire cruise ship, but that would take a great amount of advanced planning, probably in excess of a year as we are currently booking passengers on cruises through mid 2009.

Also the cruise lines have broad discretionary powers and if people were found to be acting in a manner which was not conducive to the good order and sailing of the ship, they can put them off at any port to be flown home.  Also note that since almost all cruises leave the country, currently by Summer 2008 all passengers will have to have passports.  If before the passport date a passenger traveling on other documents had to be put off the ship for reasons of order or medical issues, they could not be flown back to the US without a passport.

As a final note, now with security regulations, all bags may be searched, and if any alcohol is brought on board it will be confiscated and thrown away.  Persons under 21 are not allowed to drink and the cruise lines will card everyone under 30 y/o.

All the complications make a cruise for a senior class trip extremely difficult, and if you are graduating next spring you will need to start planning now, and find a travel agent immediately.