Florida, and some other areas, are having alot of problems with rowdy spring breakers. Its to the point where there is discussion about them banning it. It used to be years ago Florida liked Spring break because of all the income from alcohol sales and hotel rentals but the crowds are becoming too hard to handle.
I dont know exactly how but I do know when we were down there a couple years ago the number of beach hotels is down as the move is to go to condominiums.
What do you all think?
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Since this is seeking opinions it is better suited to IMHO.
Moving thread from General Questions to In My Humble Opinion.
How would they “ban” it? It’s not like the state of Florida can tell all the nation’s colleges to keep their students in class.
I have a hard time coming up with a law that would work. Maybe they could limit the age of hotel guests during March (no one under 25 or something).
Do you know what specifically they’re planning to do to stop it? Maybe they could stop their colleges in the state from having Spring Break somehow, but it seems like a legal quagmire to try it.
I think some cities in Florida have passed laws that mean not many kids go there now. But there is just too much money to be made for it to change much.
Various Florida cities have been making noises about banning Spring Break festivities since the mid-1970s. Possibly longer.
I don’t think it’ll happen.
(Source: grew up in Florida. Skipped school in the mid-80s to see free concerts at Daytona’s Spring Break, underwritten by MTV.)
Business owners have always preferred Bike Week in Daytona to Spring Break, especially as “bike” owners have gotten older, more sedate, and had more spare cash to spend.
My late aunt used to own a hotel in Daytona Beach. She detested spring break and was a huge proponent of the laws that essentially “banned” spring break back in the 80s (IIRC). Her financial losses were profound from the damage caused to hotel rooms and common areas. I’m talking tens of thousands of dollars to repair holes in walls, replace damaged fixtures and missing bedding, and to hire extra cleaning people to clean up all the vomit and shit. One year, some kids made off with all the cushions from her lobby furniture. It was a high rise hotel, so she had to hire extra security to patrol the hotel, and make sure that nobody’s beloved kid did anything stupid, like break their necks jumping from their balconies into the pool.
How do you “ban” spring break? For starters, you don’t rent out rooms to anyone younger than 25 years old, and then you require that person to appear in person. You either require security deposits or put holds on credit cards for a few thousand bucks until the room is checked for damage. You limit, and then enforce via wrist bands, a maximum number of guests per rooms. You demand to see the driver’s license of anyone drinking alcohol. And the police departments start actually arresting people for public intoxication, disorderly conduct, and underage drinking.
Right, you do not really “ban” it but there can be legislation such as Panama City Beach was hearing this week to crack down on alcohol abuse and on public misbehavior; and as PunditLisa points out, establish a policy by the business owners to prevent anarchy in private property. As she states, it has already happened over the years, communities established restrictions to clean up – but what happened was the activities moved elsewhere(*).
Of course it requires determining if the business is worth the headache and, sure, for Spring Break Gone Wild it may seem a no-brainer, BUT, it’s not just a matter of Spring Break: it also requires the local authorities to balance out whether their practices as a destination attract manageable * numbers of desirable tourists and events the rest of the year. If a 53 y/o stockbroker wants to see the sun rise on the beach over mixed drinks, is there space for her?
( this would be especially an issue where municipal government is rather fractioned so a half mile away it may be another whole “city” with another whole set of rules, or the beachside neighborhoods be a panhandle of other municipalities, enclaving the ones on the Inland side).
But then you start running away the families and the older people that you are catering to. I’m not staying at a hotel that will put thousands of dollars of a hold on my credit card or make me wear a wristband to walk to the ice machine at night. Or want to be harassed by the police for drinking a beer at the pool.
There are some business owners who do not want to see the end of spring break. I can’t remember the exact dollar figure, but restaurants and bars make tons of money without the damages that might be experienced by hotels.
Maybe they should have spring break in a place that allows weed. It might make the partiers more mellow than alcohol does.
Well I agree with you that the massive credit card hold would be off putting but not the rest. All-inclusive resorts have used wrist bands forever ( they stay on at all times, no remembering to put them on when you go for ice). And I seriously doubt the police would harass some middle aged guy having a beer by the pool.
Spring Break in Seattle, yo! Overcast, misting rain, highs in the 50’s… bikini weather!
They can definitely regulate organized events, ban things like all-you-can drink specials, and ramp up loitering and alcohol enforcement. You can’t keep spring breakers from showing up, but you can make your town less appealing than the next town over.
I suppose you would ban it the same way Hoboken banned Hoboken St Patrick’s Day when it became to rowdy.
They don’t have to tell the colleges anything. All they have to do is make it so much of a pain in the ass to party that it will discourage people from showing up.
Banning it from a town, sure, but it will never be banned from the state. Some cities/towns can handle it in terms of infrastructure and others get torn up. Orlando, for instance, is a tourist mecca and is happy and well-prepared to take money from tourists of all ages year-round. Many cities do not want spring breakers, but shifting them to better-prepared destinations within the state is a win for everyone. Florida knows tourism is it’s bread and butter, so I can’t see many people getting on board with trying to “ban” young vacationers statewide.
I hope not: although it would be hell on earth for me — including when I was 18 — hundreds of thousands of people get off on this innocent fun, and it is recognised all over the world as one of the most distinctive and typical American traditions, like Thanksgiving or Mardi Gras.
Well the question is how are Orlando hoteliers more prepared for insanely drunk 20 yr old partiers? I am sure the bars in most places know how to handle a drunk crowd but the bar owners aren’t generally the ones calling for a ban on the big drinking party .
It’s not always innocent fun. That’s the problem. I think PCB (Panama City Beach) will crack down slowly over the next few years. The Breakers already been kicked out of Daytona and Ft Lauderdale.
Spring Break isn’t really suited to a very large city (too spread out), so Tampa’s out. Orlando doesn’t have any beaches. Miami is too expensive (and is basically already SB year-round anyway).
So let’s look at the smaller coastal cities with a decent hotel infrastructure in place.
St Augustine doesn’t want them (and doesn’t need them). Pensacola Beach doesn’t (they already have a big Mardi Gras and it’s not that big a place). Pensacola itself really doesn’t have any beaches and the infrastructure doesn’t exist to the West (Flora-bama, etc). I can’t image Destin/Ft Walton wanting them as they’ve gone heavy condo/family friendly over the last decade.
What’s left? The Forgotten Coast just doesn’t have the facilities to be “the” SB destination. Have I missed anybody? Cocoa? I think they learned their lesson from watching Daytona get trashed.
TLDR - I think SB’s future home is probably on the Gulf Coast of Texas.
Mexico, more likely; I don’t see Cancun as banning spring break anytime soon. Or Puerto Rico. As a bonus, the drinking age in both places is 18.
SB is like Mardi Gras (New Orleans). it attracts a lot of nitwits who break stuff and get arrested; but it is hugely profitable for bars and liquor stores. How about a special surcharge on alcohol to compensate for all the damage?
I like the idea of big fines-let the parents of these boobs pay for their kid’s insane behavior.