Riviera Demographics - Miami-Miami

[caroak]

Being familiar with Oceania and having sailed on the Insignia, I'm aware that Oceania attracts an older demographic but was wondering if the passengers on a Riviera Caribbean cruise would be about the same or could we expect some younger passengers. We would not be going during a school break. I recall speaking to someone who took such a cruise on the Riviera and said there were a lot of very elderly passengers, more so than on a foreign port cruise, who were not very mobile and there were crowded elevator situations and other issues.

 

On the Miami-Miami itinerary do a lot of passengers stay on board while docked to enjoy the pool deck? If so, is it difficult to get a lounge chair and preferable in the shade?

[Benita]

We have done the roundtrip Miami cruise twice. The demographics on both cruises were much older than on the four Oceania cruises we sailed around Europe. There were a few younger couples, but at least 95% of the passengers were older than us (mid 50s). Caribbean cruises, in general attract an older clientele and going from Miami means loads of retirees can drive to the pier, which is a big plus (even for us not so old, not yet retirees). Oceania has never been known for its nightlife, so we were not expecting a party crowd, which was fine with us.

As far as seats around the pool, I think that is a problem on every cruise line and Oceania has its share of chair hogs. We tend to take cabins with the extended balcony, so rarely go by the pool, except when we go to Waves for the filet and lobster sandwiches at lunchtime. For that, we always find a seat.

[newbie60]

We did a ten day Miami-Miami last December. The pool deck was way more crowded than on any other cruise -- whether it was a sea day or not. A lot of the passengers were European and had been on board since the ship left Barcelona. And there were more walkers, wheelchairs and scooters on board than usual.

 

Only three children on board, younger than school age, with parents and grandparents.

[LHT28]

On our Jan cruise I do not recall many scooters & walkers

there did seem to be more people in 50-70 age bracket

 

We had no trouble getting a lounger in the shade on port days ...we did go ashore for most ports for part of the day

sea days are always a problem for the shady loungers ..maybe more people are more careful about the sun as we age

 

I think just the fact that O attracts less children will have a different feel compared to the main stream lines

 

Probably the luxury lines also attract an older crowd ...I have no personal experience

 

YMMV

 

Lyn

[Travelcat2]

We have sailed Caribbean itineraries three times on Regent and will be sailing on the Riviera at the end of November. Regent and Oceania tend to have similar age demographics and few children. IMO, most people were over 60. We are not sun worshipers so neither the pool or the destinations are of much interest to us. We are looking forward to just hanging out on the ship - hopefully in air-conditioned comfort! Also looking forward to culinary classes. For a change of pace, we'll do some snorkeling in one of the ports.

 

IMO, age doesn't really matter (except children - we prefer to sail with adults). The majority of people we sail with were wonderful and are from all age groups and backgrounds. We occasionally find some real rude people -- age doesn't matter with them either.

Edited August 30, 2014 by Travelcat2

[alainciao]

We were on the same cruise in Jan as Lyn. I agree on the demographics. However, chair hogs were a real problem. I was rather surprised at the rudeness of people on this cruise. And, to compound the problem, Oceania did not enforce any rules on the chairs. The ship and restaurants were very nice but, sorry to say, I would not take a Miami-Miami again.

[LHT28]

We were on the same cruise in Jan as Lyn. I agree on the demographics. However, chair hogs were a real problem. I was rather surprised at the rudeness of people on this cruise. And, to compound the problem, Oceania did not enforce any rules on the chairs. The ship and restaurants were very nice but, sorry to say, I would not take a Miami-Miami again.

 

I agree about the chair hogs

I think the pool staff were cut back so hard for them to keep track

I am sure if someone mentioned the problem it would have been taken care

 

We have done several MIami R/T cruises this one seemed to have more "entitled" on it than other cruises ..maybe they were from the Luxury lines;)

 

We also found some of the crew to be rude & sometime argumentative with passengers :eek:

 

Lyn

[CintiPam]

We were on the same cruise in Jan as Lyn. I agree on the demographics. However, chair hogs were a real problem. I was rather surprised at the rudeness of people on this cruise. And, to compound the problem, Oceania did not enforce any rules on the chairs. The ship and restaurants were very nice but, sorry to say, I would not take a Miami-Miami again.

 

We also were on the same cruise. The chair hogs were awful, a real contrast to the lovely people on our May cruise on the same ship but in the Med. Definitely an older crowd as well.

Edited August 30, 2014 by CintiPam

[Mura]

We have done a total of two Caribbean cruises and decided we don't need to do anymore. (That's us, I'm not expecting anyone else to agree!) If we wanted to do an easy cruise from the east coast and plan on not going into any of the ports, we might change our minds ...

 

The first of our Caribbean experiences was on QE2 in April 2003 and then we did a B2B from LA to Costa Rica to Miami (a Panama Canal cruise) the next year when Oceania was new, which of course included a number of Caribbean ports.

 

So my information isn't current and I'm not talking about our experiences.

 

But in reading various threads it's become evident that the Caribbean cruises tend to have an older clientele, and possibly more children (depending on when the cruise takes place). And considering the climate, I can see that there would be more popularity around the pool and thus more chair hogs.

 

We aren't pool people so we never noticed if this was a problem, even back 10 years ago.

 

It remains unfortunate that people can be so inconsiderate, and even more unfortunate that the ship doesn't police the area better.

 

And I DO mean POLICE!

 

Mura

[Caroldoll]

That being said, we book the Riviera every year for January. We, like another poster, book a cabin big enough to have a verandah that we can go there rather than the pool, i.e. OS. It seemed to me when we walked by the pool there were more than ENOUGH chair hogs. Sorry to say.

[caroak]

Thanks for all the input which was what I expected to hear but just wanted to be sure. We are not young and fit into the very upper end of the 50-70 demographics but still very active. We have no issue traveling with fellow seniors but would rather avoid the wheelchairs, scooters and walkers crowd. Who needs reminders of what might lie ahead for us especially on vacation.

 

Our other winter vacation option is a land trip to Hawaii which is easy when you live on the West coast. We've never had a bad Hawaiian vacation but just thought it would be fun to try something different with a Caribbean cruise but I guess we'll have to save the cruising for Europe.

[klscaz]

Thanks for all the input which was what I expected to hear but just wanted to be sure. We are not young and fit into the very upper end of the 50-70 demographics but still very active. We have no issue traveling with fellow seniors but would rather avoid the wheelchairs, scooters and walkers crowd. Who needs reminders of what might lie ahead for us especially on vacation.

 

Our other winter vacation option is a land trip to Hawaii which is easy when you live on the West coast. We've never had a bad Hawaiian vacation but just thought it would be fun to try something different with a Caribbean cruise but I guess we'll have to save the cruising for Europe.

 

It's funny. I'm 56 and didn't notice the scooter/walker crowd until disembarkation day and I think it only bothered me because we had to catch an early flight. It was a 10 day cruise and I never felt that my activities were impeded by this demographic. I hope I am still cruising at 70+! Kathy

Edited August 31, 2014 by klscaz

[hypercafe]

We have done two RT Miami and I must agree, lots of chair hogs around pool so it was hard to get a seat. I am 66 and felt young.

 

Sent from my XT1032 using Forums mobile app

[pacheco18]

I was on riviera rt Miami last December

Huge mix

We met some charming well traveled folks in their 90s

Lots of walkers

But There were also many 30 somethings

Atypical o crowd IMO

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[hondorner]

We have a total of something like 9 cruises to the Western Caribbean and at least 3 to the Eastern; not all on Oceania or Regent (started in 1980 and '81 on Carnival Carnevale and Mardi Gras; Carnival was a different line, back then). However, one Eastern was on Regatta and one on Regent Navigator, and to the Western, one on Marina, one on Riviera and one on Regent Voyager. We'll be returning to the Eastern Caribbean on Insignia at the beginning of the 2015 World Cruise. Believe it or not, we've managed to find at least two new ports on each voyage, and the upcoming Eastern will be repeating only one port, with 8 new-to-us ports! The variety can be there if you're selective.

 

But, back to our experience on board -- on our last Western, on Riviera, we walked ashore most mornings and were back on board in time for lunch (which we almost always eat at Waves). We never had a problem with getting a lounge chair, even in the shade, and did not notice many scooters, and I don't recall any wheel chairs. Maybe they were there and I just never noticed. Most of the folks were younger than us (currently 74), and almost everyone was fit and loving life. I will admit we are running out of excursions, ship or private, especially after our Regent trips when excursions were included in the fare. After our 2015 cruise I think we will have visited virtually every Caribbean port at least once except a couple of the mega ship ports like Falmouth, Jamaica. I don't care if we never go back to Samana, Dominican Republic, twice was two times too many.

 

Are we done in the Caribbean? Probably not, because fares are inexpensive, the weather is great even for us Floridians, and the timing sort of falls between other cruises on our bucket list. We also cruise the Caribbean more for the ship than the destinations. It will be mostly Oceania or Regent, but if NCL Star or NCL Dawn are sailing to that area we might be aboard -- we love the 401 sf Family Suites on Deck 12.

[dorisis]

we love Oceania for the itineraries. Like others, we always seem to find a new port or something interesting in a previsited port. We also love traveling with younger folks. We are close to 90 and find most Oceania passengers well travelled and interesting.

[MVPinBoynton]

We did a different Miami to Miami in April that went to Bermuda. Quite a nice itinerary. The age group was definitely older and we are in our upper 60's. There were many folk that used mobility devices of some sort; and based on how much assistance they received from the wonderful staff, we understood why thy cruised on Oceania. I must say that the other cruisers we met were by far the most interesting and pleasant we have met on any cruise. I am looking forward to our next two O cruises.

[Hambagahle]

Now I am beginning to worry! On our last TA cruise (Mariner in 2012) there were a LOT of people in wheelchairs and walkers. That is not a problem at all as far as I am concerned - who knows? I might be in one myself one day. However what was a real problem was their attitude or at least the attitude of quite a few of these people. They seemed to feel that they could mow others down to get into the lifts and ahead in lines for the buffet. I am more than happy to help someone who needs a hand but I did not appreciate having a walker run over my feet - and that twice by the same person!! So I do hope that in April we don't have the same problems...

 

Did not notice any of the above on our Caribbean cruise in 2013. The group on board seemed either the same age as us (mid 70s) or younger. People were delightful no matter their age.

[Jancruz]

We also were on the same cruise. The chair hogs were awful, a real contrast to the lovely people on our May cruise on the same ship but in the Med. Definitely an older crowd as well.

 

I believe the rule is if no one is in a pool chair for over 45 minutes you can move their items..I usually wait an hour and then have no problem moving their things and calling over a crew member and tell them what I am doing..yes I have been yelled at but I ignore the person usually back in several hours so the chair would have been empty all that time..

Jan

[Lola911]

That is a bummer when you do not think the staff are following the rules to curb the lounge hogs. We were on TA last December to Rio on the Marina and the pool staff did not hesitate to remove belongings of lounges that had been sitting empty and others were waiting. It was mentioned quite often in the Currents newsletter also. I saw a couple of people go searching for their stuff and they took it in stride. We have only done one Caribbean and definitely an older crowd that did not get off the ship in ports. It's a floating hotel...