Do You Take Your Kids On Longer (8+ Night) Cruises?

[DCLCrazy64622]

I talked to them both and our oldest thought he could handle the missed work and our youngest said it's worth it. I'm still worried about them being considered truant. Anyone else have a workaround for this?

Is there an exception for cultural experiences?

 

[ChicosWife]

Is there an exception for cultural experiences?

Hmmmm. How do you ask the school this question?

 

[ChicosWife]

Each state and school district is different. Here in MA I just informed them of my plan without really asking permission. Some states make it a bit more complicated.

We're in California.

 

[DCLCrazy64622]

Hmmmm. How do you ask the school this question?

I am not sure because we homeschool, but I could swear that someone on this board mentioned that that is how they got around the truancy issue. Maybe just flat out ask the attendance office if taking your child out of school for an extended cultural experience counts as an excused absence. Sometimes they will make the student write a paper on what they experience as part of the deal. Good luck!

 

[mousefan73]

If your child is in middle or high school and is into varsity sports, band, theater You will definitely run into issues. I know back in my day if you missed a certain number of practices or rehearsals you are out regardless of the reason. It affects the whole team. The Hawaiian cruise is a pretty long one. We are booked on the westbound and just adding the travel days and cruise days for that you’re looking at two weeks alone.

 

[Soccer Princess]

I talked to them both and our oldest thought he could handle the missed work and our youngest said it's worth it. I'm still worried about them being considered truant. Anyone else have a workaround for this?

You can just un-enroll the students right before your trip and re-enroll them when you get back. Then their attendance isn't counted against them or the school.

 

[ChicosWife]

You can just un-enroll the students right before your trip and re-enroll them when you get back. Then their attendance isn't counted against them or the school.

Really? That's a new idea, I haven't heard before.

 

[ChicosWife]

If your child is in middle or high school and is into varsity sports, band, theater You will definitely run into issues. I know back in my day if you missed a certain number of practices or rehearsals you are out regardless of the reason. It affects the whole team. The Hawaiian cruise is a pretty long one. We are booked on the westbound and just adding the travel days and cruise days for that you’re looking at two weeks alone.

Yep. It would be two full school weeks. I am really torn between going on this trip while I still have my oldest as a minor and going to Hawaii that we have not been before and his academics.

 

[mousefan73]

Yep. It would be two full school weeks. I am really torn between going on this trip while I still have my oldest as a minor and going to Hawaii that we have not been before and his academics.

At least you have the option to think about it. Where I live in Germany it’s illegal to pull kids from school. I would love to do the panama with them but I don’t see that happening until they are adults

 

[soniam]

Ignoring the "pulling out of school part", we are doing a 9 night next summer. Our son loves being on the boat, so I think he would be perfectly fine with a Panama Canal or Trans-atlantic. Some day, we will do one.

 

[spiders]

I have not personally done an 8+ night but do pull my kids out of school for vacations. I would love to do a Panama Canal with them. The real problem is me and not school.

I'm an air traffic controller and as such, work in a 24/7/365 environment. We bid our schedules and our leave in the fall for the following year. The Panama Canal cruises usually fall near or on spring break or fall break for someone so it's difficult for me to get the days off from work during such prime days. Furthermore, my actual "weekend" days might not line up correctly so I would technically need around 2.5 consecutive weeks off and we only bid up to two weeks per round. So even if I got the first two weeks, I'd have to wait for everyone that I work with to bid again before I got the opportunity to bid the final days. I would never book the Panama 2022 cruise because I won't actually even know if I'll have the days off until this time next year. Typically we book pretty close to the sailing and then school can just deal with it. The kids follow my schedule and not the other way around.

 

[cgolf]

We took our daughter out of school when she was 13 to do the 15 night Hawaii cruise. We took the classwork she got ahead of time with and she did roughly 2 hours of school work a day. she was a strong student which helped. She didn't seem to be behind at all when she got back. If she had struggles in school, we likely would have chosen to not pull her out for that many days.

 

[ChicosWife]

I guess I could just pay more and go when school is out, but then that means no Hawaii.

 

[Sun_soakin]

Our longer trips have been in the summer. We used to pull them out for vacay but after taking a fall cruise when my oldest was in 8th grade he asked that we stop...too stressful (college prep 7-12 school, really hard to make up).
I honestly don’t understand the enthusiasm for the HI cruises...We love HI but prefer a land based trip.

 

[MomOTwins]

I guess I could just pay more and go when school is out, but then that means no Hawaii.

Our longer trips have been in the summer. We used to pull them out for vacay but after taking a fall cruise when my oldest was in 8th grade he asked that we stop...too stressful (college prep 7-12 school, really hard to make up).
I honestly don’t understand the enthusiasm for the HI cruises...We love HI but prefer a land based trip.

That's what we do--longer trips during the summer or spring break. That's why the summer, christmas, and spring break timeframes are so much more expensive--everyone with kids is dealing with the same issue! During the school year, we work around holiday weekends/grading days and do shorter trips so the kids are missing no more than 2/3 days of actual school. We also will likely do Hawaii as a land trip in summer or on spring or fall break (with a stay at Aulani for the disney experience).

You can just un-enroll the students right before your trip and re-enroll them when you get back. Then their attendance isn't counted against them or the school.

Depends where you go to school--in some states you legally cannot withdraw your kids from school unless you have proof you are transferring them to another school, or if you qualify your home school as a private school (need proof of curriculum for example).

Bottom line--you really just need to talk to your kid's school administrators to find out what their policy is on vacations during the school year. Sometimes that info is on the school website as well in a school policies documents (e.g., where they set out the dress code etc.).