2021 Spring Break Week Unknown: Book 2 Cruises and Then Cancel 1?

[GrnMtnMan]

We were just doing some long-term planning, and we’ve resolved we’ll do our next cruise for spring break in 2021. The problem is that we won’t know which week our kids’ schools* will be taking as spring break until March/April 2020.

For the sake of getting the best price, I’d like to book as early as possible…like during the castaway club window. I assume that means booking sometime this fall, months before we have a school schedule.

On an older thread on a similar situation, I saw the suggestion to book both potential cruises then cancel the one we can’t use. Is this still a reasonable strategy? I know we’ll have to put down a deposit on both.

On my prior cruises, our dates were set and I didn’t pay any attention to the cancellation polices. Am I correct that so long as I don’t book a suite or concierge, I will get a 100% refund if I cancel more than 90/120 days our from our departure?

*We have to deal with 2 school systems and they both bounce the spring break week between the weeks before and after Easter.

 

[SamFaniam]

This seems like a good plan to me. You would have plenty of time to cancel with a full refund (except for concierge).

 

[TrishaK]

Yes!!! Book both!

On opening day, I booked a cruise out of Miami for March 2020, thinking I knew exactly when spring break would be - it's always that same week. Nope. Not this next school year! So I booked a cruise on the Fantasy for the following week once I saw the new calendar. Then I held onto both for quite awhile, just to make sure there weren't any more changes to the school calendar....

When I decided to cancel the first one, I simply called the Castaway Club phone number and asked to cancel the Miami booking and transfer my deposit to the other cruise. Super easy.

 

[FigmentSpark]

The only downside is if you wanted to use a placeholder. Then you kind of have to choose.

Where are you?

I was in your situation for 2020, but I found a provincial website indicating the days they expected the school boards to accept as their school breaks. While the school board hadn't put out their 2020 calendar until a few weeks ago, that provincial recommendation for the school boards was enough for me to choose my cruise dates. I banked on the school board accepting the provincial dates and it paid off for me, but then, they haven't gone against the provincial recommendations in a long time.

 

[GrnMtnMan]

The only downside is if you wanted to use a placeholder. Then you kind of have to choose.

Where are you?

I was in your situation for 2020, but I found a provincial website indicating the days they expected the school boards to accept as their school breaks. While the school board hadn't put out their 2020 calendar until a few weeks ago, that provincial recommendation for the school boards was enough for me to choose my cruise dates. I banked on the school board accepting the provincial dates and it paid off for me, but then, they haven't gone against the provincial recommendations in a long time.

Thanks!

Placeholder is not an issue, I think. We made one during our January 2019 cruise, but this will be after the 24 month travel window. Are they ever flexible with that? And this will likely be an Easter cruise, which I recall can also be restricted.

We're dealing with two calendars: one is the Washington DC public school system, which sets its own calendar. The other is the DC Catholic archdiocese. The catholic school usually does the week after Easter, except next year its doing the week before. In the years my kids have been in DC public schools, they've had the break before Easter, after Easter, and several weeks after Easter. And then there was the year that DC revised spring break two months after issuing the 'final' calendar.

 

[GrnMtnMan]

it's always that same week. Nope. Not this next school year!

I've been through this too. I've been thinking about running for mayor with the school calendar as my sole platform issue. I'd implement a 4 year calendar planning system with no changes 24 months before the start of that year. Would you vote for me?

 

[FigmentSpark]

Thanks!

Placeholder is not an issue, I think. We made one during our January 2019 cruise, but this will be after the 24 month travel window. Are they ever flexible with that? And this will likely be an Easter cruise, which I recall can also be restricted.

We're dealing with two calendars: one is the Washington DC public school system, which sets its own calendar. The other is the DC Catholic archdiocese. The catholic school usually does the week after Easter, except next year its doing the week before. In the years my kids have been in DC public schools, they've had the break before Easter, after Easter, and several weeks after Easter. And then there was the year that DC revised spring break two months after issuing the 'final' calendar.

You might try phoning the school board for your school and see if they can at least give you the criteria they use to set the break. It may be that they already have an idea what they'd like to do, but it hasn't come up in the work schedule.

 

[DynamicDisneyDuo]

I've been through this too. I've been thinking about running for mayor with the school calendar as my sole platform issue. I'd implement a 4 year calendar planning system with no changes 24 months before the start of that year. Would you vote for me?

I don't have kids but as I have a lot of friends with kids in school, I'd vote for you.

 

[GrnMtnMan]

You might try phoning the school board for your school and see if they can at least give you the criteria they use to set the break. It may be that they already have an idea what they'd like to do, but it hasn't come up in the work schedule.

I have before....and I think they took one of my formally submitted comments seriously. Specifically I asked them (after that after-final-revision) to move the calendar planning process to earlier in the year. I think they did so because in the following years, the calendar has been released sometime in early-March, and they solicit for comments in December. This used to all happen in February with the final coming out in April/May.

But you have to be careful when dealing with these bureaucrats. During the 2018-19 planning process, supposedly they got a lot of comments asking to limit the number of 4 day weeks. In November and December in particular, there were six weeks when there was a random day off or two for grading or professional development. Well, they took those comments into account and invented....the three day week and two day week. For example, in 2019 look at the weks of October 25, January 21, and April 1:

Plus that February 18 week off was brand new for 2018-19. I make a joke that they made the 2018-19 calendar to spite the people that criticized the old one. I'm not sure how far off I am from their actual motivation.

 

[FigmentSpark]

heh, couldn't they at least have give you April 11th and 12th instead of 4th and 5th? That would have made a nice long break. Our school board purposely avoids giving us any extra days for spring break, too, but will give us two Fridays in a row a week later or earlier. It's like they're afraid teachers might book vacations or something.