Typical Demographics on Summer Med Cruise

We found an amazing itinerary on the Sojourn for summer 2016 - 10 day cruise with brilliant ports! We haven't been on Seabourn yet and were wondering what the typical age range is during the summer. We are in our 30s and are very happy with all ages, but prefer not to have a lot of kids. I know Seabourn doesn't cater to kids, but we weren't sure what the summertime is like. Are these voyages still on the older spectrum, or are there quite a few families onboard?

Michael

We found an amazing itinerary on the Sojourn for summer 2016 - 10 day cruise with brilliant ports! We haven't been on Seabourn yet and were wondering what the typical age range is during the summer. We are in our 30s and are very happy with all ages, but prefer not to have a lot of kids. I know Seabourn doesn't cater to kids, but we weren't sure what the summertime is like. Are these voyages still on the older spectrum, or are there quite a few families onboard?

 

 

Michael

We did 3 x 10 day B-to-B on Sojourn in the Med last May/June (Athens-Monte Carlo, MC to Barcelona, B back to Athens,) one sea day in each 10 day segment, 27 ports in 30 days. It was a great cruise.

One segment we had a total of about 15 teenagers onboard, all very well behaved. Seabourn turned the Card Room into a late afternoon meeting place for them.

I think that being in your 30's you will be one of the younger couples onboard,but I find that in general most Seabourn passengers fit in with all ages.

You will find that the demographic moves a little during European and U.S holiday periods, particularly in the Med and particularly on shorter cruises ie 7-10 days. The likelihood of more than 10 kids is, in our experience, remote. The issue is how well the parents control them since there is no kids area, although they tend to set aside a cards room for them. And on the shorter cruises there are usually limited sea days which means they tend not to be just hanging around the limited pool area. The times we did have some inconvenience was when there were large family groups ie grand parents, their adult children and partners, and the grand children, and the size of the overall group led to congestion eg around the pool. Or at night them wanting to have very large tables at the Restaurant.

If you can avoid the holiday periods you avoid the possibility of these situations. However, because the cruises are port intensive and you don't really see the kids at night, there is not likely to be a great impact other than late afternoon around the pool.

Thanks for all of the feedback. This sounds as what I would expect. Nothing against families, but we have had some unpleasant experiences with kids run amok on Crystal and Regent :eek:

Michael

Also if you can time your cruise so that it is before the middle of july you will then find you have generally fewer children as in the UK for example the school holidays do not start until towards the end of july. Yes you will have children from US etc but not all nationalities. This also applies to later summer when i believe some of the children will have gone back to school.

We avoid July and August altogether - some UK schools actually finish early July, and if you can possibly end a cruise by the end of June, or start one beginning of September you are much less likely to find more than a few children on board. Obviously it depends on itinerary and when you are free to travel, but this would be my strong recommendation.

Also if you prefer fewer crowds and slightly less hot weather, May/June and September are the best times for the Med.

We avoid July and August altogether - some UK schools actually finish early July, and if you can possibly end a cruise by the end of June, or start one beginning of September you are much less likely to find more than a few children on board. Obviously it depends on itinerary and when you are free to travel, but this would be my strong recommendation.

 

Also if you prefer fewer crowds and slightly less hot weather, May/June and September are the best times for the Med.

And the benefit of these times is that the destination ports are also less crowded.

If you don't want to be around kids stay away from the med in the summer. Way too risky imo.