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Thinking of a cruise and worried about your fellow passengers? Choosing the right ship is the key to a successful vacation
Cruise ships are just like hotels – depending on their style and location, they could attract blue-rinsed seniors, or hip young professionals. Or families, or gay parties, or honeymooners. But fellow cruisers are a concern for first-timers and there are ways of predicting what your shipmates will be like. Generally speaking, the more expensive the cruise, the more mature in years the other passengers will be. Cruise lines like Silversea, Regent Seven Seas and Seabourn do tend to attract an older, wealthier clientele. Older people also have time for long cruises, so on a 30-day voyage, expect to find a high percentage of over-60s. Some cruise lines target an older market, for example, Saga Cruises, which only allows over-50s, and Spirit of Adventure, its sister brand, on which the minimum age is 40. River cruises, too, tend to attract older passengers, particularly in Europe, with the exception of the new EasyCruise river operation, aimed firmly at young party types who want to enjoy the nightlife. Others pitch themselves clearly at baby boomers, like Holland America Line and Celebrity Cruises, which states 'Elegant nights and days of discovery' as its current strapline. Cruise ships aimed at the family market – those of Carnival Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL), P&O, Princess and Royal Caribbean – will have a much younger clientele during school holidays, and probably a lot of children, although they all operate excellent children’s clubs and many have adult-only areas for some respite. But if you want to avoid a lot of pint-sized cruisers running around the deck, sail outside school holidays or pick an adults-only ship! Hip young professionals, meanwhile (‘young’ being 35-50 in cruise language), might prefer the informal but luxurious SeaDream Yacht Club, which has two 100-passenger megayachts in Europe and the Caribbean with great food, sexy cabins and lots of gadgets to play with. Windstar Cruises operates elegant sailing yachts and is casual-but-chic, while Star Clippers has three gorgeous square-riggers in the Mediterranean, Caribbean, Thailand and Tahiti, attracting a more adventurous clientele. Ships are divided up by nationality, too. P&O Cruises, Fred. Olsen,Thomson,Island Cruises and Ocean Village attract almost exclusively Brits. If you want an international flavour in an elegant Italian setting, go for MSC. For a multicultural ship with decent Italian coffee but glitzy American design, try the Costa fleet. Australians travel the world on cruises but also favour the P&O Australia brand, while Star Cruises has some ships aimed purely at Asians. On the Aida cruises ships and Peter Deilmann's Deutschland, the guests are German, while tiny Hebridean International attracts well-heeled Brits and Anglophiles. All the big cruise lines sailing out of the USA tend to attract Americans and a percentage of Brits. A lot of regular cruisers enjoy this; after all, a cultural mix is a good thing on vacation!
The copyright of the article Is Cruising Only for the Elderly? in Cruise/Island Vacations is owned by Sue Bryant. Permission to republish Is Cruising Only for the Elderly? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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