What are the perfect adults-only cruises — those that not solely ban children however cater to grown-up tastes and pursuits?
It’s possible you’ll be asking since you simply hung out on a megaship the place the youngsters took over the swimming pools and scorching tubs (to not point out the elevators), a lot to your chagrin. Or, you may be on the lookout for a trip with extra lectures and fewer limbo — or maybe a cruise that skews extra R-rated than G.
The checklist of cruises just for adults is, alas, very quick. Solely a handful of cruise strains ban kids from their ships and promise cruises for grown-ups — maybe probably the most notable being cruise newcomer Virgin Voyages and fast-growing Viking.
The development in cruising in recent times is, in reality, towards extra family-focused sailings, with extra children showing on ships of every kind. Certainly, a number of the greatest, best-known cruise manufacturers have gone full-bore after the household market, to the extent that the sun-soaked high decks of their ships typically can really feel extra like a scene out of “Daddy Day Care” than a blissful trip retreat.
Do not despair, although. At the same time as many strains double down on the household market, a small group of cruise operators stays all-in on the concept of adults-only cruises.
Listed below are our picks for the perfect adults-only cruise strains, with a grown-up vibe as well.
Associated: A novices information to choosing a cruise line
Virgin Voyages
The much-ballyhooed new line from Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group has banned kids below the age of 18 from its ships. It is a part of an effort to create a hipper, extra refined, adult-focused vibe that firm leaders assume is sorely missing within the cruise world.
“Now we have completed a ton of analysis actually making an attempt to create a classy expertise,” Virgin Voyages CEO Tom McAlpin stated within the days earlier than the road’s 2021 debut. “I’ve completed some private analysis. We discovered that if you put children within the pool, they scream, and we do not need that.”
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Associated: I have been on greater than 150 cruise ships. This is what I considered Scarlet Woman
Virgin Voyages’ first three adults-only cruise ships, the two,770-passenger Scarlet Woman and sister vessels Valiant Woman and Resilient Woman, cater to grown-ups on the lookout for a decidedly grownup form of enjoyable with such choices as interactive dance events. Every of the vessels additionally provides a karaoke lounge with pink-and-purple karaoke rooms and a tattoo parlor (examine how one among our staffers was among the many first to get inked on board).
What you will not discover on the three ships (a fourth vessel, Sensible Woman, is attributable to debut in 2025) are waterslides, watery splash zones, teen lounges and all the opposite family-friendly options which are changing into so frequent on larger ships.
Viking
To create an adults-only cruise expertise, Virgin Voyages took a web page from fast-growing Viking’s playbook. Viking’s 12-ship ocean cruise division has banned kids below the age of 18 because it debuted in 2015. Moreover, its 80-ship river cruise division has had a minimal age restrict for greater than twenty years. (Initially, the cutoff was age 12; as of 2019, that jumped to 18, too.)
Not that Virgin and Viking are something alike. Virgin is designed to attraction to millennials and older vacationers who wish to occasion like they’re millennials. Viking, in contrast, is the anti-millennial line.
Viking’s goal market is squarely within the 55-plus bracket. It zeroes in on that demographic with an upscale, destination-focused expertise that’s heavy on what the business likes to name “enrichment” — onboard lectures and different studying alternatives. It additionally emphasizes excursions centered on historical past and tradition (with not less than one free tour in every port) and leisure choices that veer extra towards string quartets than dancers in string bikinis.
“What we’re trying to do is strive to not be the whole lot for everybody,” Viking’s government vice chairman of promoting, Richard Marnell, advised TPG. “We would not have a children’ program. What we’ve got is … [an] immersive expertise that’s finest suited for those who are intellectually curious.”
P&O Cruises
This storied British line clearly sees the demand for adults-only cruise ships, however it is not giving up on the household market, both. The road splits the distinction between the 2 segments. 5 of its seven vessels (Arvia, Iona, Britannia, Ventura and Azura) are marketed as “family-friendly” and open to passengers of all ages. The opposite two (Arcadia and Aurora) are reserved solely for adults.
On condition that greater than 95% of the Southampton, England-based cruise line’s passengers are British, you will in all probability wish to be both British your self or a serious Anglophile to think about reserving one of many latter two vessels. Crusing with P&O Cruises is a really British expertise, one thing that turns into clear the second you see its vessels. They function hulls painted with large Union Jacks.
Moreover, you will discover quintessentially British choices like elaborate afternoon teas, quoits on the highest deck and restaurant menus designed by cooks massive in the UK, akin to Marco Pierre White, on board P&O Cruises ships.
That stated, in the event you’re a Princess Cruises fan, you may really feel proper at house on a P&O Cruises ship. Nestled below the identical company umbrella, the 2 manufacturers are longtime sisters which have swapped ships forwards and backwards (although Holland America followers may be to know that Arcadia shares a ship design with that line’s Vista Class).
For reserving functions, P&O Cruises considers anybody who might be 18 or older when crusing an grownup.
Saga Cruises
Like P&O Cruises, Saga Cruises is a British line that has honed in on the enterprise of providing voyages only for adults, however it goes means past what P&O Cruises or some other line does in shunning youthful vacationers. The minimal age at Saga Cruises is not 18 and even 21 — it is 50.
That is proper — you will not discover a single millennial and even that many Era Xers on board a Saga Cruises ship (at 58, even the oldest members of Gen X solely make the cutoff by eight years). As an alternative, what you can see is plenty of child boomers, lots of them retired.
Saga Cruises operates simply two ocean vessels, crusing solely out of the U.Ok., plus a number of river ships. Like P&O Cruises, it is a product that’s in all probability finest for British vacationers or big-time Anglophiles.
Different adult-focused cruises
Along with strains that ban passengers below the age of 18 outright, a variety of cruise operators enable younger kids however get comparatively few of them.
Examples embrace such upscale strains as Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Silversea Cruises and Seabourn, which cater closely to an older crowd. Small-ship specialist Windstar Cruises permits tweens and youngsters on its six ships, however it does not enable any kids below the age of 8.
Scenic Luxurious Cruises & Excursions, which sells each ocean and river cruises, historically discourages clients from bringing passengers below the age of 12 on vessels besides throughout Christmas vacation sailings.
Additionally, the longer the cruise, the less kids you can see. Guide a two-plus-week crusing to a extra unique location, like Asia or South America, through the faculty 12 months on a line like Holland America or Princess, and you may share the ship predominantly with adults.
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