What makes a Homeschool Cruise different from any other cruise?

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What makes a Homeschool Cruise different?

What makes a homeschool cruise different from any other cruise? It’s all in the extras!

A cruise is a fantastic way to see different parts of the world and learn about history, culture, geography, and more. We take the awesomeness of the cruise and amp it up a little to make for an even better experience!

First, we make family-style lessons for families to do together before the cruise about the region we will be visiting. Then, we invite all of you, our homeschool friends, to join us!

Once on the ship, we will have a meet-and-greet to get to know each other and some other fun on-board activities.

When we get to each port, we will have customized excursions planned for anyone who’d like to join us!

Pre-Cruise Lesson Plans That Enhance Learning

Let’s talk about the lessons! This is honestly my favorite part of preparing for the cruise.

As you can tell, planning for the Homeschool Cruise each year starts fairly early – a year in advance we choose the cruise, secure the group rates, and start advertising, even though final payment isn’t until November! Booking the group early is important, but it also has the benefit of giving me some free time to work on all the fun details.

So what do I do with the time between now and November? I study! I’ll spend the next few months researching all there is to know about the Caribbean islands, then take what I have learned and create lessons for you to share with your family before the cruise.

We cover topics like geography and maps, topography, history, culture, and ecosystems each year. We also will have a lesson going over activities that you can do at each port that we will visit. This is a great springboard into a discussion as a family of what you’d like to explore when we stop at each island next February.

Why do I love writing the lessons? Because we learn so much, of course, myself included! But also because it allows me to be more intentional as we travel with our kids. We travel not just to go on vacation – there are a LOT of beaches we could go to, friends. We travel because we want our children to see and learn about the world. It has been so rewarding to see our kids get excited about the places we are going to visit, and then to see them engaged and thoughtful when we are there in those regions exploring.

So what would you like to learn about the Caribbean? And what are you the most excited to explore?

What are the Homeschool Cruise lessons about? We go over everything from ecosystems, geography, topography, history, and culture for each port we visit.

Guided Excursions Designed for Homeschoolers

Remember how I have some free time between now and November? Of course we will be using that time to continue to give quotes and help people book their staterooms, but we also will be taking some time to meet with cruise excursion reps to create customized excursions for our group.

So what’s a customized excursion? Well, first, an excursion is an activity that you can choose to do at each port that you visit. These are things like tours, snorkeling, beach days, ziplining, etc. We want to design some specifically for our group that you can choose as well!

The goal is to plan excursions that families can do together to explore some of the things we learned about in the pre-cruise lessons. This could look like a historical tour, a tour of the rainforest ecosystem, a visit to a local town to learn more about the local cuisine and culture, or something else!

What would you like to be able to see or do next winter? We are open to ideas!

In addition to what is offered by the cruise line, we design some excursions specifically for our homeschool group that you can choose from as well.

Homeschool Cruise Perks

Another question we come across once in a while is “Can I book through ________ instead?” Great question!

We have not chartered the whole ship (that is $$$$$) so we do not have exclusive access to the ship’s inventory. It is possible to book the exact same cruise we are going on through a different travel agent, a travel website, or even directly on the cruise line’s website.

That being said, we DO have access to all of the same promotions as other agencies and websites, plus, we make sure there are lots of homeschool families all on the same ship! On top of that, we have done a lot of behind the scenes work to secure some great perks for booking with us that you won’t find anywhere else.

What perks? When you join the Homeschool Cruise group, you will have access to customized excursions for our group, activities and meet ups on the ship specifically planned for us, and family style pre-cruise lessons about the areas we will visit. Not to mention you also will have a wonderful travel agent working for you, access to group rates, and additional perks for each stateroom!

When you book through Homeschool Cruises, you get a dedicated travel agent, pre-cruise lessons, customized excursions, and group rates!