Do cruises attract senior citizens?

Question

Some friends of mine just returned from a cruise to Alaska. They claimed that it was like a floating senior citizen home. A typhoon hit near the area where they were cruising and all the people with the oxygen tanks and walkers were stumbling around the ship. One overweight woman fell and was rolling down the hallway of the ship. I don't want to be mean but this doesn't sound like an elegant vacation...should I not consider cruising? Did they have an unusual cruising experience?

Answer 1

Yes, and families, and young couples and other living people.  Cruising is the best way to vacation whatever age you are.

Answer 2

From what I have read, it is not necessarily the cruise line you take, but the lenght of the cruise that matters the most.  Apparently, cruises that are longer than 7 days tend to have mostly senior citizens on board.  Also, cruises shorter than 4 days tend to have alot of younger, college age students on board (Especially during March and April!).  I (29) took my father (65) on a 7 day Carnival Cruise on the Glory.  While there were a good number of people my age on board, the age range was very wide, and didnt seem to cater to any particular group.  My father and I both had a blast.  Remember, you can hit a large group of certain age individuals if a large reunion type gathering is in place.  Many Class reunions of 30+ years can take place on a cruise.  If you happen to be hit with a reunion, you may have alot of older people on the ship.  

If you are interested in taking a cruise longer than 7 days, consider a back-to-back (B2B) cruise, in which you cruise both the ships itineraries back to back, basically making 2 5-day or 2 7-day cruises into one long cruise, while still having a large age range of guests.

FYI, young drunk people also stumble and fall when they walk around the ship, so this is not just limited to older people.  In the off chance that bad weather strikes and you have seriously choppy waters, you may see people having balancing trouble.  However, as long as you don't go during hurricane season (to the carribbean, anyway), you shouldn't have much of a problem  I have been on 3 cruises, and have never had any severe behavior issues on any of them. (2 Carnival and 1 Royal Carribbean).   Check out CruiseCritic.Com for more information.

Answer 3

OK, watch it, I am a senior citizen.

Actually cruise attract all ages of people and most cruise lines have a variety of age people on board.  The one exception to that is Holland America which tends to attract the oldest people.  We went on a cruise last year and there were some people on our bus transportation to the port who were going on Holland America (we were going on Royal Carib) and these folks asked if anyone was a doctor because they figured they may need one before the cruise is over. ... LOL

Some cruise lines , like Carnival, have mostly young people in their 20's and 30's.  I know from experience that RC, NCL, Celebrity and Princess will have a good mix of people.  These lines even have programs with a staff and special areas for teens and kids.

Answer 4

Let me ask you one question? What do you consider a senior? My kids say a senior is 45 and over. We have been on many a ship and you see all ages... I would guess from newborn to 80's. The older folks 70's-80's are usually very polite and take to their rooms early in the evening. They are no problem. On the other hand the teens and 20+ are usually very inconsiderate, loud, drunk, puking,running,bitching, eating without their shirts(guys) at the buffet, and wearing no shoes. Now let me ask you what age group would your perfer to be around? If there was a storm I can bet you almost everyone would be tossed around but maybe those seniors could of used a hand to get them back to their rooms.

I think the worse cruise ships are the Disney as they always smell of rotten diapers, and screaming uncontrolled kids. You decide.

Have Fun.

Answer 5

my parents live up near Alaska and they do NOT have Typhoons... second of all, I think your disrespectful attitude toward elderly people is APPALLING... you will be there one day and I SURE hope some snot-nosed little bugger JUST LIKE YOU NOW---makes fun at YOUR expense when you are an OLD TIMER.......  Senior citizens have worked all their lives---some for 50 YEARS or more and they certainly have earned the RIGHT to take cruise vacations whenever and WHEREVER they desire....without being made fun of by people like your friends or YOU.   Your friends had the right to ask the average age of the passengers on the list BEFORE they contracted for the trip.... so why the heck didn't they do THAT?  It's really sad that they spent all that money on a cruise and all they could come back and tell you about was the OLD PEOPLE on the boat.... must be they spent all their time watching the OLD people and NO time looking at the absolutely BEAUTIFUL views that are Alaska...

Answer 6

Yes, cruise ships do attract senior citizens as they have the time and the money to travel to their hearts content.  But, some cruise ships aren't "geared" towards seniors such as Carnival Cruise Lines and the Disney Cruise Lines.  Those have been geared towards the "younger" crowd.  It all depends on what your looking for in a cruise experience.