Same as Viking?

[Sunflower & The Scientist]

Just a question...loved Viking ship...

 

1) No children (We like kids don't get us wrong, but sure like how quiet Viking ships are.)

2) No casino

3) No incessant sales pitches over loud speakers

4) Small ship, no floating city

 

...can you name more ships that offer these things as well? 

[Jim Avery]

12 minutes ago, Sunflower & The Scientist said:

Just a question...loved Viking ship...

 

1) No children (We like kids don't get us wrong, but sure like how quiet Viking ships are.)

2) No casino

3) No incessant sales pitches over loud speakers

4) Small ship, no floating city

 

...can you name more ships that offer these things as well? 

Nope.  Most others have some of it but lose out at the no kids part.  Crystal, by all accounts a really nice line advertises "Kids Sail Free".  They lost us with that for sure.  Have had more than one very expensive cruise impacted negatively by others Little Precious.  

[Sunflower & The Scientist]

Thanks for the info Jim...we've been looking and couldn't come up with any. We are looking at the British Isles and Viking appears to have an incredible itinerary, but we thought we'd look at all the options.

Was it you who recently wrote about Walmart with Golden Corral and feral children?  We love that!  Orion was our best cruise EVER and we both say a lot of it was due to no kids!  We love them...just want to leave them home! 

[Jim Avery]

5 minutes ago, Sunflower & The Scientist said:

Thanks for the info Jim...we've been looking and couldn't come up with any. We are looking at the British Isles and Viking appears to have an incredible itinerary, but we thought we'd look at all the options.

Was it you who recently wrote about Walmart with Golden Corral and feral children?  We love that!  Orion was our best cruise EVER and we both say a lot of it was due to no kids!  We love them...just want to leave them home! 

Haha, wasn't me but I read it too.  Spot on!

[Heidi13]

A few ships in the UK market have no kids (P&O-UK have 3 ships as 18+) and Saga Cruises is 50+, but I don't know of any other line that has no kids and no casino.

 

Some of the very small expedition ships many meet both criteria, but I don't have any knowledge of this segment of the industry.

[zitsky]

I didn't mind the kids on my recent South America cruise, but there weren't too many.  It is nice to have a cruise that is more relaxed (Viking).

[Peregrina651]

On the other hand, it is sad to know that if I ever want to do a multi-generational cruise that I will be not be able to do it on Viking.

[Jim Avery]

32 minutes ago, Peregrina651 said:

On the other hand, it is sad to know that if I ever want to do a multi-generational cruise that I will be not be able to do it on Viking.

A World of other options out there.  Just let us have this one hideaway from feral children

[Heidi13]

Totally agree Jim. If we decide to take grandkids on a cruise, we will probably suffer on M/Mouse Lines. 

[jiminyC_fan]

We've sailed close to 20 cruises with Disney and we've always had great cruises even with other people's little ones.  (We've only sailed with adults.)   We've tried a couple other lines as well but once we sailed Viking I don't think Disney will work for us any longer.  The size of the ship, no loud speaker nonsense, no bingo, no pool games, no loud music, small ship, free internet, free wine, free specialty restaurants, free laundry, smaller ships, screams Viking is better.  Viking ship is not broken up by concierge only.  Everyone is treated equal on Viking and that I love.  I feel that Disney is going back to the days of Titanic with class separation.    So for us, Viking wins.

[Peregrina651]

2 hours ago, Jim Avery said:

A World of other options out there.  Just let us have this one hideaway from feral children

 

Please don't misunderstand. I am not even suggesting that Viking change the policy. I'm just saying that Viking suits us so well that it will be difficult to return to the mainstream for a family cruise.

[Mrs Miggins]

Been on 9 Azamara cruises.  Usually there are no children.  Have occasionally seen a couple of Officer's children and last year there were perhaps 2 or 3 children with passengers.  Very low key.

Azamara is a good fit for those who like Viking.  We love both.

[terrydtx]

17 hours ago, Sunflower & The Scientist said:

2) No casino

This is my favorite of all, no cigarette smoke filled casino to walk through to get to other parts of the ship. On many mainstream cruise line ships you have to walk through the casino to get to places like the theaters and lounges.

[Sunflower & The Scientist]

Children: Gotta love them, and sometimes there aren't many of them onboard other lines, but seriously the atmosphere that Viking has created in their quiet spaces just won't work with children.  We were in the "quiet lounge" at the airport and they told us at the desk when we enquired about them notifying us of flight changes, to be aware this was strictly a quiet lounge. HA! It was quiet until a family with a few children came in. It only takes one feral child to destroy what you paid a whole lot of money to enjoy. 

 

My thoughts are...if you wanted to take children, why would you want to take them on Viking...there is nothing kid oriented.  Like a child wants to be served a cup of coffee in the Atrium and curl up with a good book while the lovely string ladies are playing beautiful music? 

 

Casinos: So right, there is nothing worse than walking to the theater and being hit with smoke spilling out into the hallway from the casino.  I must say however, on Orion, floor 7 elevators are located by the door that leads out to the deck where the smoking area is.  VERY frequently we hit the elevators there plumes of smoke hit us. I am so thankful cruise lines no longer allow smoking on verandas.  

[Clay Clayton]

2 hours ago, terrydtx said:

This is my favorite of all, no cigarette smoke filled casino to walk through to get to other parts of the ship. On many mainstream cruise line ships you have to walk through the casino to get to places like the theaters and lounges.

Lack of a casino doesn’t bother us except it means our good cruising friends who cruise to gamble (Va Girl) won’t consider VO. 😢

[Wendy The Wanderer]

20 hours ago, Sunflower & The Scientist said:

Just a question...loved Viking ship...

 

1) No children (We like kids don't get us wrong, but sure like how quiet Viking ships are.)

2) No casino

3) No incessant sales pitches over loud speakers

4) Small ship, no floating city

 

...can you name more ships that offer these things as well? 

 

I think they're perhaps the only line that completely bans children under 19.  That being said, there are very, very few children found on Regent, and few on Oceania and Seabourn, except over Christmas and New Years (and possibly Easter), and perhaps in high summer in Alaska and maybe the Med.  Many of these will be part of a multi-generational group, especially during the holidays.  This goes for the Paul Gauguin in Tahiti too.

 

And I suspect Viking is the only one without a casino, but on the luxury lines the casino is very small and easily avoided. Oh, and most casinos are non-smoking now, at least on the luxury lines.

 

The luxury lines (and premium as far as I know) have NO sales pitches, in fact, very few announcements at all publicly, except the noon day report from the captain and the odd emergency broadcast as required.

 

And most of them qualify for #4--Regent, Azamara, Paul Gauguin, some Oceania ships, and definitely Seabourn.

Edited January 28, 2019 by Wendy The Wanderer

[Choose Something Fun]

2 hours ago, terrydtx said:

This is my favorite of all, no cigarette smoke filled casino to walk through to get to other parts of the ship. On many mainstream cruise line ships you have to walk through the casino to get to places like the theaters and lounges.

I just cruised with Carnival for the first time this month and the smoke from the casino spilled out into the surrounding areas which made it unpleasant to attend events that were in the vicinity of the casino. There was also an outdoor smoking area near the pool that was awful to walk by.  

[Riocca]

7 hours ago, Mrs Miggins said:

Been on 9 Azamara cruises.  Usually there are no children.  Have occasionally seen a couple of Officer's children and last year there were perhaps 2 or 3 children with passengers.  Very low key.

Azamara is a good fit for those who like Viking.  We love both.

Azamara are also removing the Casinos, Pursuit was refurbished without a casino Quest’s is being removed in March 2019 no date for Journey as yet.

Reason for removal is probably the same as Viking’s for not having them, with overnights and late stays on so many itineraries the casino was closed for most of the cruise anyway.

[philw1776]

22 hours ago, Sunflower & The Scientist said:

Just a question...loved Viking ship...

 

1) No children (We like kids don't get us wrong, but sure like how quiet Viking ships are.)

2) No casino

3) No incessant sales pitches over loud speakers

4) Small ship, no floating city

 

...can you name more ships that offer these things as well? 

No

Silversea comes close.  Has a casino, small & tucked away.  Walked thru it for fun. Unobtrusive. You'd never know it's there.

Small ships. Smaller with 600 vs 900 passengers. 

No anything over speakers, just like Viking.

Kids allowed but have yet to notice any.

 

Downside is more formality.  Yeah I'm a hypocrite having accused some Viking passengers os dressing as "homeless chic" but Silversea has a Formal night and requires a suit jacket in many of the dining areas.  Viking does it better.

[lextrvlr]

My wife and I will be taking our first Viking cruise this summer so I can't make comparisons. However, we have cruised with Windstar, with about 1/3 the number of guests as Viking, and have not seen any children, although they are permitted. We have also sailed numerous times on Star Clipper's much smaller ships which included children who were extremely well behaved, polite, quiet and a joy to have on board - never more than a few and always with European families. You may well like the Windstar yachts.

 

[Marykatesmom]

22 hours ago, jiminyC_fan said:

We've sailed close to 20 cruises with Disney and we've always had great cruises even with other people's little ones.  (We've only sailed with adults.)   We've tried a couple other lines as well but once we sailed Viking I don't think Disney will work for us any longer.  The size of the ship, no loud speaker nonsense, no bingo, no pool games, no loud music, small ship, free internet, free wine, free specialty restaurants, free laundry, smaller ships, screams Viking is better.  Viking ship is not broken up by concierge only.  Everyone is treated equal on Viking and that I love.  I feel that Disney is going back to the days of Titanic with class separation.    So for us, Viking wins.

I feel the same way.   I'll probably do a multi-generational when we get grandchildren but we've aged out of DCL.

[SM77]

Oceania comes close.  There is a casino but it's very small.  We saw very few children(& they were well-behaved) on a Mediterranean cruise; there were some on the shorter leg between Athens & Venice( that was only 8 days); from Venice to Barcelona, I don't recall seeing any.  We love Viking but we were also impressed w/ Oceania so we would do a cruise w/ them again, in fact we booked Athens to Athens since Oceania is stopping in Istanbul again - maybe avoid sailings that are more family focused and during summer & holiday vacations. As for Crystal, we saw a few (well-behaved) children on our first leg and definitely not well-behaved (running up & down the halls) children on our 2nd leg.     Crystal is too formal for us though we loved the quality of excursions and attention to providing you with an exceptional cruise experience. 

[mcmahan706]

On 1/27/2019 at 4:33 PM, Jim Avery said:

Haha, wasn't me but I read it too.  Spot on!

 

On 1/27/2019 at 4:27 PM, Sunflower & The Scientist said:

Thanks for the info Jim...we've been looking and couldn't come up with any. We are looking at the British Isles and Viking appears to have an incredible itinerary, but we thought we'd look at all the options.

Was it you who recently wrote about Walmart with Golden Corral and feral children?  We love that!  Orion was our best cruise EVER and we both say a lot of it was due to no kids!  We love them...just want to leave them home! 

Someone please send me this post about feral children. At sea day positively awful with children playing hide and so seek on RC. 

[zitsky]

49 minutes ago, mcmahan706 said:

 

Someone please send me this post about feral children. At sea day positively awful with children playing hide and so seek on RC. 

 

Norwegian wasn't bad at all.

[carrots]

On 1/28/2019 at 4:05 AM, Mrs Miggins said:

Been on 9 Azamara cruises.  Usually there are no children.  Have occasionally seen a couple of Officer's children and last year there were perhaps 2 or 3 children with passengers.  Very low key.

Azamara is a good fit for those who like Viking.  We love both.

We’e been on a quite a few Azamara cruises also.  We were able to get to know the crew who recognized us each time we returned. There were very few children. We loved our first experience on VO last Feb. We might have a hard time returning to Azamara since Viking seems to have a bit more perks that are included.