Holland American and Clients

I was wondering I hard that Holland America passengers majority are usually over age 65 is this true?

Just found a 14 night Caribbean with them. for end of October. I am in mid 30s

would on average the majority of the other passengers be much much older?

would all the services onboard the ship be more tailored to people with disabilities or who are more mature in age?

thanks

Here's a link to the HAL CC forum.

You may wish to read there and decide from what you read if you think you'd like to sail HAL. :)

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=&f=171

I don't think any of the services are tailored to people with disabilities.

But it's not a party ship.

HAL ships probably do carry a more mature demographic than other mass market lines, but they are not geriatric. They provide better food and better service than other lines, offset somewhat by less late night entertainment.

Checking out the HAL forum, as earlier suggested, may give you a general idea of what to expect.

I was wondering I hard that Holland America passengers majority are usually over age 65 is this true? In my experience, yes

 

Just found a 14 night Caribbean with them. for end of October. I am in mid 30s

would on average the majority of the other passengers be much much older? In my experience, yes

would all the services onboard the ship be more tailored to people with disabilities or who are more mature in age? Not for disabilities, but entertainment definitely geared towards the more mature. Activities are more general

 

thanks

Mr Chew & I are early 60s (almost!!) and on our cruises on HAL we have found ourselves to be among the young 'uns. We have met many wonderful older folks on HAL ships!! We've gotten a a lot of pleasure from our cruises with them.

I was wondering I hard that Holland America passengers majority are usually over age 65 is this true?

 

Just found a 14 night Caribbean with them. for end of October. I am in mid 30s

would on average the majority of the other passengers be much much older?

would all the services onboard the ship be more tailored to people with disabilities or who are more mature in age?

 

thanks

A 14 day cruise on any cruise line will be an older demographic because younger people can't get that amount of time off for a cruise easily, and in October, kids are in school.

There are requirements for certain facilities and activities on a cruise to be handicapped accessible. In the US, it is called ADA compliant. It really doesn't have anything to do with older people specifically. It has to do with people of any age who have mobility issues for any reason.

By the way, on two recent 10 day cruises, there were 400 and 100 kids on board. How does that do for averages?

That being said, we are long time cruisers on HAL, since our 30s, whose only gripe is with people on HAL who think themselves more physically capable than they actually are. On our last Caribbean cruise, we were (as retired medical professionals) involved in two extremely serious medical emergencies because passengers on excursions were trying to do things they weren't physically capable of doing. So that should tell you there are activities on HAL that are above average in their physicality.

I'm 43 and Dh is 45. We sailed on the Westerdam to Alaska last Sept. I would say the age demographic was spread from 30 to 90, with the majority around 50s and 60s. We did not particularly feel "young". There were very few teens and children though, but school had already started.

FYI, it is Holland America, and the people on board are passengers, or "pax". Clients?

I was wondering I hard that Holland America passengers majority are usually over age 65 is this true?

 

Just found a 14 night Caribbean with them. for end of October. I am in mid 30s

would on average the majority of the other passengers be much much older?

would all the services onboard the ship be more tailored to people with disabilities or who are more mature in age?

 

thanks

From our experience, 90% of HAL cruisers are over 50.

Despite the fact that HAL does have an older demographic, they don't specifically cater to the disabled. Quite the opposite actually. I'm disabled, and have done 73 cruises on most lines (I say this just as a point of reference to show I have cruise experience) and I found that Eurodam, one of HAL's newest ships, to be the worst in terms of accessibility for the disabled. But, I will say that on that cruise, at my age at that time, 59, that I was one of the youngsters by a wide margin.

Traditionally HAL does carry an overall older passengers than say some other lines but the ages will vary depending on the length, time of year, and specific itinerary.

Keith

A lot also depends on the ship you choose.

The Signature class ships -- Eurodam and Nieuw Amsterdam tend to attract younger people -- more families.

Also the Vista class ships -- Oosterdam, Westerdam, Zuiderdam and Noordam will attract a mixture of older and younger passengers.

The older and smaller ships -- Ryndam, Statendam, Veendam, Maasdam, Zaandam, Volendam, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Prinsendam definitely attract a much older group of passengers.

When you choose a longer cruise (14 days) at a time when school is in session (late October), any cruise line is going to have an older demographic then you would find on a 7 day or shorter cruise during holidays.

When you choose a longer cruise (14 days) at a time when school is in session (late October), any cruise line is going to have an older demographic then you would find on a 7 day or shorter cruise during holidays.

We have sailed HAL since about our early forties. It never mattered to us in the least who else was aboard with us as long as they did whatever they did without disturbing others. If they had their fun without bothering anyone else, all was fine by us.

We are 'self-entertainers' and never wanted all sorts of fun games at the pool or other activities we did not initiate or seek out for ourselves.

If you feel you like the group activities such as putt putt at the pool etc and there is certainly NOTHING wrong with that, by all means, you are asking the right questions. Usually you will find more noisy, active, busy commotion at the pool of a behemouth ship vs a more refined smaller HAL ship.

Which is your style?

Oasis with apprx 6,000 guests of a HAL Vista Class ship with approximately 1,900 guests?

I was wondering I hard that Holland America passengers majority are usually over age 65 is this true?

 

Just found a 14 night Caribbean with them. for end of October. I am in mid 30s

would on average the majority of the other passengers be much much older?

would all the services onboard the ship be more tailored to people with disabilities or who are more mature in age?

 

thanks

Started cruising on HAL at the age of 30 when I was abled bodied and never found the age variance on board to impact my enjoyment.

Now am disabled and can assure you that HAL does NOT tailor their onboard services to people with disabilities. In fact it's my personal opinion that HAL does one of the worst jobs when it comes to disabled cruisers.