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Luxury cruise line that regularly has 4+ passengers in their 20s or 30s?


JoshNash94
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We’re a Canadian couple in our mid 20s looking to go on a luxury cruise in the Mediterranean for our honeymoon in Summer 2021, something with the quality of Seabourn, Regent, Crystal, Silversea, Ritz Carlton Yacht, Emerald Azzurra, Sea Dream etc and would even consider a spa suite on a premium line like Azamara, Oceania etc even though they’re not “technically” luxury as per this forum. Not sure where Viking fits. Ponant would work too as we can get along in French. We could make do with language barrier on Hapag-Lloyd.

 

The main thing we want to know is which luxury cruise lines (and specific ships if applicable) will provide the greatest chance of us running into at least a couple other people in their 20s or 30s? If that’s highly unlikely, then what about people in their 40s?

 

I’ve been on just one cruise, Carnival Pride to Bahamas and Turks & Caicos, while my fiancée has been on that one and several other mass market ships, and we both found the nickel and diming really annoying, especially being handed a bill to sign every five minutes even though we had the most all-inclusive package. Plus we’d just like the classier experience of a luxury ship.

 

I love old people, but it would be cool to find at least a couple other younger people who we could hang out with. I’ve read a complaint on here from a physically active couple in their late 60s saying that most of their ship was 80-95 and so they had trouble finding anyone to keep up with them on excursions. Not sure if that was an exaggeration, but if this is likely to be the case on any of these ships we’ll just book a couple of more adventurous excursions externally on our own.

Edited by JoshNash94
Added in non-English luxury lines
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SeaDream may be your best bet.  We chose it for our first luxury cruise because of its younger dynamic.  The few older people on our three cruises with them were very young at heart.  It’s really marketed to couples, and we ran into honeymooners your age.  
 

Azamara might be worth a look, too.

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I started to cruise on - in those days - luxury lines when I was in my early 30s ( Cunard , Royal Viking ) and I know what you are meaning - once somebody told me I was far too young to cruise on the former Vistafjord , yes I was surrounded by people of 80 and more !

Seadream certainly is an option for you

Silversea really does have an older  clientele  and is still rather formal , jacket and ties and more of that  - old fashioned entertainment

Crystal : on the Ocean ships you do have a mixed clientele but people of your age are a minority 

the Crystal Esprit  is an extremely expensive product especially in summer when she is in Croatia - those cruises are very popular  - I was on the Esprit  for Dubai  Dubai and must admit - as single  in my early 60s - that is not so my item; service was great as usual on Crystal. 

on Seabourn there is a younger clientele as on Silversea 

Going to a very expensive suite on Oceania : ok but aside that once you are on board Oceania is extremely expensive , drinks wines , excursions  - I am going to repeat once more the price of a glass of Champagne : 16.5 Us $ +18 % service + possible VAT 

( out of a bottle Germain costing 15 € taks included in my country )for that fare you really can have something better 

Ponant : the cabins are rather small and what I saw a few times in my hometown - it is upper premium not luxury

Not aware if "all inclusive" is important for you : Ponant is partly all inclusive basic table wines and basic drinks example

Smirnoff is included  Grey Goose is not  ( 12 € )  - I heard a lot of English when visiting seniors are French.  I found the lunch buffet rather basic. The new ships of Ponant are really beautiful on the other side.

You do mention Hapag Lloyd  : the Europa 2 is bilingual  but is not all inclusive  - the expedition ship Hanseatic inspiration is also bilingual - expedition maybe not suitable for a honey moon 😀

the basic cabin is large as is the bathroom  -  the cruise fare is maybe a higher step up however once on board the drinks are maybe the cheapest - depending on the lenght an on board credit is granted from 100 up to 200 € a person 

US wines are maybe more  expensive as the European , that is a fact. 

all parties are done with generous real French Champagne Jacquart  - there is no service tax on the drinks

there is a photographer , a jewelry shop and a shop with clothes - nothing else - so no daily publicity for "not to miss tomorrow's sale "

you have the opportunity to join a few events that are payable - example Champagne tasting  was 85  € a person and for 8 people there were 8 bottles including Dom Pérignon an Krug.  

I think other past pax could confirm that the buffets are indeed  luxurious and no extra for speciality restaurants. 

There is no casino. Especially in summer there is a younger clientele including children who are supervised . 

I did visit Azamara twice and found it weak  - both service and food 

 

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This is a hard question to answer because passenger demographics will change on the same cruise line from one cruise to the next. Your best bet to find younger people is shorter cruises (7 to 10 days) to the Caribbean or the Med (although the Med right now is not the safest bet to book.) 

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Congratulations Josh ❤️ 

 

My husband and I have been on several cruises (including the Pride Bahamas/GT) and will be sailing Viking Ocean this fall for our 25th anniversary.  VO is also considered a premium line, not luxury, and we expect to be some of the youngest passengers at 47 and 48.  It does appear that many passengers are physically fit.

 

Virgin Voyages does look like it skews younger, but I suspect prices out most 20 somethings.  It also screams anything but "classy" too me which you described as wanting in your original post.

 

Best wishes on both your new marriage and in finding a great honeymoon cruise 🙂 

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  • 1 month later...

Not "Luxury" as many on here state, but on Viking you have a chance of getting younger passengers. However nobody under 18.

 

Just completing the World Cruise and we had a 21 yr old on for the entire 8 months, a couple of 18 year olds from L/A to Sydney, a mid 20's from L/A to Dubai and a mid 30's couple from L/A to Bali.

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7 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

Not "Luxury" as many on here state, but on Viking you have a chance of getting younger passengers. However nobody under 18.

 

Just completing the World Cruise and we had a 21 yr old on for the entire 8 months, a couple of 18 year olds from L/A to Sydney, a mid 20's from L/A to Dubai and a mid 30's couple from L/A to Bali.


We did a B/B/B and thr youngest on any of the three cruises were a few  in their early 50’s. If your looking for luxury Viking does not fill the bill although it is a very nice experience however not Crystal.

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Most luxury/Premium lines  have a large age range

 Some have  more 50+ than others  but most have  younger pax as well as older pax

 Pick a line that has the itinerary, amenities that suit your needs/wants  & fit your budget

There is  no perfect cruise line

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On 4/10/2020 at 8:14 PM, LHT28 said:

Most luxury/Premium lines  have a large age range

 Some have  more 50+ than others  but most have  younger pax as well as older pax

 Pick a line that has the itinerary, amenities that suit your needs/wants  & fit your budget

There is  no perfect cruise line

 

This has not been our experience.  We have sailed on mainstream, premium, premium plus and luxury (all within the last 3 years).  I'll agree that mainstream and premium cruise lines skew younger but not necessarily premium plus.  When we sailed on Oceania (twice), there may have been a few more younger people but the activities onboard were less than on Regent (a luxury cruise line).  As luxury cruisers (having 34 Regent, 3 Silversea and 1 Crystal cruise), we find that there are many more activities onboard than on Oceania (this is another way of saying that Oceania was a bit boring).

 

Another thing to consider is the fact that the Regent singers and dancers interact with passengers and often enjoy being with other younger passengers.  

 

As has been said, summer cruises and short itineraries (like Alaska) tend to have more young people than on long cruises when school is in session.  However, having said that, we need to consider Covid-19.  This changes a lot. We can only guess what the future of cruising will look like.  We have cruises booked (on Regent) for November 2020, January, March and October 2021.  We expect to less young folks than normal on these cruises.

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  • 1 month later...

We're in our mid 30s and travel Seabourn a reasonable amount (at least twice a year) and have found that theres at least another couple or two in our age range on most cruises we've done (7-14 days). I would imagine we would be a rarer species on longer trips which we have not taken. We've found that theres always at least a small group of people in their 20s-30s-40s on Seabourn's shorter Caribbean itineraries (7 day+). We've had a similar experience on SeaDream but have only taken them twice so not sure if we just got lucky or they do indeed skew younger than the others in the luxury segment. 

 

On the Caribbean trips in particular we've always found a few super fun older folks though who are partying their butts off who are a blast to hang out with-- they are cute at that age. 

 

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On 5/29/2020 at 4:59 AM, hypercafe said:

If price is not an issue I would pick H/L Europa 2. Very grand while casual. Excellent in all regard

 

We've only been on HL's Europa (where we were the only young couple) but acquaintances have been on Europa 2 and confirmed that there were couples in their 30s and 40s.

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14 hours ago, cathaana said:

 

We've only been on HL's Europa (where we were the only young couple) but acquaintances have been on Europa 2 and confirmed that there were couples in their 30s and 40s.

One of the reasons for that is that the Europa2 is more family oriented so there should be younger passengers, some with children.

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2 hours ago, wripro said:

One of the reasons for that is that the Europa2 is more family oriented so there should be younger passengers, some with children.

 

You just gave one reason why many luxury cruisers do not sail on Europa2 - they prefer not to be with children (a been there - done that situation).  Europa2 does look lovely but most passengers' first language is not English and if you couple that with the children, it is not something that we would not choose to do.

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4 hours ago, Travelcat2 said:

Europa2 does look lovely but most passengers' first language is not English

English and German are both spoken in equal amounts on Europa 2-- all literature is also in English and German. I don't speak a bit of German and it wasn't an issue at all and never felt any different than another cruise on an English speaking vessel. 

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4 minutes ago, princeton123211 said:

English and German are both spoken in equal amounts on Europa 2-- all literature is also in English and German. I don't speak a bit of German and it wasn't an issue at all and never felt any different than another cruise on an English speaking vessel. 

 

Thank you for your response.  From what I read previously from Europa2 passengers, there were less than 30% of the passenger that spoke English (as their first language).  Do you feel that your experience is typical?  If so, they must be getting more passengers from English speaking countries.

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2 hours ago, Travelcat2 said:

 Do you feel that your experience is typical?  If so, they must be getting more passengers from English speaking countries.

Thats possible they are but even then there are far more German people who speak English extremely well than Americans who speak German. I don't remember one instance that I wasn't able to speak to another passenger or crew in English. 

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22 hours ago, Travelcat2 said:

 

You just gave one reason why many luxury cruisers do not sail on Europa2 - they prefer not to be with children (a been there - done that situation).  Europa2 does look lovely but most passengers' first language is not English and if you couple that with the children, it is not something that we would not choose to do.

I wasn’t’t addressing why some people don’t want to sail on Europa 2. I was addressing the OP’s question on which lines attract a younger demographic. No one dis likes children on a cruise more than  I but they are sometimes a byproduct of a younger demographic.

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46 minutes ago, wripro said:

I wasn’t’t addressing why some people don’t want to sail on Europa 2. I was addressing the OP’s question on which lines attract a younger demographic. No one dis likes children on a cruise more than  I but they are sometimes a byproduct of a younger demographic.

 

Sorry - I misunderstood your post.  Now we can argue which of us dislikes children on a cruise more.  IMO, the younger demographic needs to sail with their "byproduct" during the summer.  

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On the subject of children on the Europa 2, the following video bears repeating once again:

 

 

From H-L Cruises website:

 

During supervision hours, our youngest guests can look forward to lots of fantastic games, sports and creative programmes. On board the EUROPA 2, for example, we offer musical workshops, group cookery courses or even fencing lessons.  

The menus are designed with children in mind; after an eventful day, children eat together with our childcare specialists.

On our luxury ships, MS EUROPA and MS EUROPA 2, even your children will not miss out.

If we have four or more children on board, two childcare specialists will join the cruise and organise a varied programme of activities. Childcare is offered for children aged two years and older on MS EUROPA 2 and four years and older on MS EUROPA.

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