Best cruise line for 55+

[TiggerandBart]

Hello, so we are getting older and have done many carnival cruises. Is there a line more suited for older adults 55+ . Must be a newer ship. Any recommendations?

[lx200gps]

48 minutes ago, TiggerandBart said:

Hello, so we are getting older and have done many carnival cruises. Is there a line more suited for older adults 55+ . Must be a newer ship. Any recommendations?

Welcome to Cruise Critic. I believe you will find that Princess, Celebrity and Holland America are your best bets.

[TiggerandBart]

Thank you.

[bebe08]

Hi @TiggerandBartwe are in the "seniors" category as well.  DH and I are in our early 60's.  We have been cruising for about 10 years.  Our favourite lines are Celebrity and HAL. Majority of our cruises have been with Celebrity and have sailed 3 times with HAL.  We recently sailed on one of HALs newest ships the Nieuw Statendam.  Definitely prefered it to the older ships.  We have an upcoming cruise on Celebrity Edge which will be our first time on the newer E class.    We have sail Carnival and NCL once each.  NCL was big and noisy....but with the thermal suite package we found a nice quite place to escape to.  I would sail NCL again with the right itinerary but its not our first choice.

 

Any specific things you are looking for in a cruise line?  Happy to provide more info if you like 🙂

 

 

[TiggerandBart]

We done Carnival Mardi Gras last August. Wonderful new ship but the teenagers ran the ship and so rude. We have done RC Oasis and also done Nieuw Statendam ( I didn’t like the drinks). I was looking for something a bit tamer but with good entertainment. 

[LHT28]

Our  go to line is Oceania  but they do not have all the activities offered by the main stream lines

They are more relaxed  experience

Depends on what you want  to do

 

[phabric]

The longer the cruise less kids on them.   Take a cruise when kids are in school, less kids.  You will always have some kids, toddlers, home schooled , parents take kids out of school.
 

I am a senior.  I have been on Princess, Celebrity, Holland, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian.  I prefer Princess.

[mrgabriel]

We're over 50 and sail on Celebrity. We sailed on Royal Caribbean for several years but found that the experience was just louder. Celebrity is quieter - think more  martinis and fewer pool games. And there always seem to be a lot of people in the library 😴 

 

We've had several sailings with a LOT of children and they also seem to do a good job of keeping kids busy without them taking over the ship. There were 700 children on our New Year's Eve cruise and you wouldn't have known it! Are there drunks? Sure - but generally it's a bit more subdued.

 

We haven't tried HAL. Maybe one day. And Virgin cruises is also interesting ... 

[Fouremco]

With the exception of a family cruise on RCI with our kids and our grandkids, all of our sailings have been on Celebrity and HAL. We enjoy both, but lean a bit more towards HAL because of their itineraries.

 

 

Edited January 12, 2023 by Fouremco

[lx200gps]

Another factor which, surprisingly, no one has mentioned yet; You will almost certainly find the level of service, and particularly the food, to be much better on any of X, Princess or HAL than on Carnival.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

It really depends on your budget and where you want visit 

if you do longer cruises you wouldn’t  find many children on the ship 

our preferred line is Celebrity but with cuts in service and price increase we will start looking around in 2024 

we also prefer Celebrity old ships than their new ones 

 

[cruisefan123]

We are late 50’s as well and prefer Celebrity.   We did NCL when our children were younger but find Celebrity more to our liking now.   There is lots to do if you are up for it, with plenty of relaxation spots if you are not.  

[CDNPolar]

I am surprised that no one has recommended Viking.  Both Viking Ocean and River are designed for the older adults and there are no kids on board under 18.  We have sailed on 7 Viking cruises now and we love them.  Ocean are only 930 guests and River are 80-160 guests depending on the river and size of longship.

[ski ww]

I think it depends on cost, itinerary, length of cruise. Ever thought of  doing a river cruise? Which ever you decide enjoy.

[lx200gps]

15 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

I am surprised that no one has recommended Viking.  Both Viking Ocean and River are designed for the older adults and there are no kids on board under 18.  We have sailed on 7 Viking cruises now and we love them.  Ocean are only 930 guests and River are 80-160 guests depending on the river and size of longship.

You are quite correct, Viking would be a tremendous option, but I believe most responses here just default to the "assuming mainline" cruise lines such as the aforementioned Princess, Celebrity or Holland America. If we widen the search to include more expensive, smaller ship lines, then very good options for older cruisers could also be Viking, Azamara, Seabourn, Oceania, Regent etc.

[Heidi13]

On 1/12/2023 at 4:55 AM, TiggerandBart said:

Hello, so we are getting older and have done many carnival cruises. Is there a line more suited for older adults 55+ . Must be a newer ship. Any recommendations?

 

Finding a new cruise line takes considerable research. I suggest developing a statement of your requirements, listing items that are mandatory and those that are nice to have. You can then compare which each cruise line offers, based on your SoR.

 

While over 55, if you want to have an older pax demographic, your options are Viking (18+), Saga (55+) and P&O (about 50% of fleet is 18+). Other small ship cruise lines have an older demographic, but still accept kids.

 

If you want similar activities to Carnival, then stick with a higher market mega ship line - HAL, Princess, Celebrity, Cunard, etc.

 

If you want more of a smaller ship, check out Viking, Oceania, Azamara, Regent, Silversea, Seabourn, etc.  

[lx200gps]

13 minutes ago, Heidi13 said:

 

Finding a new cruise line takes considerable research. I suggest developing a statement of your requirements, listing items that are mandatory and those that are nice to have. You can then compare which each cruise line offers, based on your SoR.

 

While over 55, if you want to have an older pax demographic, your options are Viking (18+), Saga (55+) and P&O (about 50% of fleet is 18+). Other small ship cruise lines have an older demographic, but still accept kids.

 

If you want similar activities to Carnival, then stick with a higher market mega ship line - HAL, Princess, Celebrity, Cunard, etc.

 

If you want more of a smaller ship, check out Viking, Oceania, Azamara, Regent, Silversea, Seabourn, etc.  

Interesting. Equating Carnival with Princess. X, HAL or Cunard?

Edited January 17, 2023 by lx200gps

[Fairgarth]

On 1/12/2023 at 4:55 AM, TiggerandBart said:

Hello, so we are getting older and have done many carnival cruises. Is there a line more suited for older adults 55+ . Must be a newer ship.

 

Interesting requirement, why so?  New ships tend to be giants, which we don't care for.  We have had much better experiences on smaller ships but, of course, most of them are older.  We enjoyed a wonderful trans-Atlantic on Jewel of the Seas - beautiful ship, built 2004, capacity 2500 when full, not 6000.  No kids, fellow passengers 55+, we fell into bad company and had a great time.  Love Azamara, 700 pax but ships are now twenty years old.  Not a problem for us.  Rumour has it that if you want to travel with ancient decrepits then go Holland America.  Can't verify that myself and it may be a nasty rumour put out by Princess or Celebrity.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

4 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

 

I have not directly priced these other cruise lines, but have friends that have.  It is not always "apples to apples" when you are looking at Viking.

 

Viking have:

 

1. Included wine and beer with lunch and dinner
2. Specialty dining included - no extra cost
3. Daily Afternoon Tea - included - no extra cost (Ocean Only)
4. Wifi included
5. One shore excursion in every port included
6. All cabins are balcony (Ocean Only)
7. Specialty coffee and tea 24 hours included
8. Port fees and taxes included

 

Some refer to Viking as "almost" all inclusive.

 

I have had friends comment on Viking's cost and then after they tallied their full cost of all the additional costs at the end of their cruise, they found that they were very comparable cost to Viking.

 

You are taking a step towards a smaller ship - appealing to some and not others - as well as moving to a much quieter overall experience.  I have been on some of the big ships in the past and just found them to have too much noise and confusion.

 

Viking also have dozens of cruises on sale now with AIR FARE INCLUDED.  We just saved over $3,000 booking one of these.

I did say even if you included the drink package on Celebrity it is still over $100 cheaper than Viking 

Our next 2 cruise with Celebrity are TAs , in balconies ,  so no kids except at the bars 😁

Each cruise including drinks, Wi-Fi , tips , taxes, port fees , one cruise has $550 OBC, the other is $1000 OBC , and it costing $135 CAD a day per person 

Ships tours , only done one in 15 cruises , that has no value to me 

 

 

[Heidi13]

2 hours ago, lx200gps said:

Interesting. Equating Carnival with Princess. X, HAL or Cunard?

 

Certainly didn't equate Carnival to Princess, although since Princess were Carnivalised in 2003, their standards have reduced significantly. They certainly aren't the once great cruise line I worked for many years ago.

 

Although they are all mainstream mega ship lines, I noted that Princess, HAL, Celebrity & Cunard are a higher level, so if they are higher they don't equate, at least in my definition.

[Heidi13]

7 hours ago, lx200gps said:

You are quite correct, Viking would be a tremendous option, but I believe most responses here just default to the "assuming mainline" cruise lines such as the aforementioned Princess, Celebrity or Holland America. If we widen the search to include more expensive, smaller ship lines, then very good options for older cruisers could also be Viking, Azamara, Seabourn, Oceania, Regent etc.

 

While the premium/luxury brands may be significantly more expensive, up front, depending on your cruising style, at the end of the cruise, the difference may be significantly less.

 

I can compare our 2015 World Cruise on Princess (which was terrible) to our 2020 World Cruise on Viking, which was exceptional. The Viking base fare was double the Princess base fare, but by the end of the cruise, once all expenditures were added to the spreadsheet, the daily cost was virtually identical. 

 

This is highly dependent on cruising style, so doesn't work for all pax, especially those that disembark mega ships with no or limited bill.

[*Miss G*]

On 1/17/2023 at 2:21 PM, Fairgarth said:

Rumour has it that if you want to travel with ancient decrepits then go Holland America.  Can't verify that myself and it may be a nasty rumour put out by Princess or Celebrity.

 

The Princess cruise I took last year had far more elderly people on it than I’ve ever seen on Holland America.  For some reason, rumors have a strange way of being accepted as truth.  Or as Ziad Abdelnour puts it:  “Rumors are carried by haters, spread by fools, and accepted by idiots.”  😂. (Not calling you a hater!  lol)

[gmbhardy]

MSC’s Yacht Club might be a good fit for you.

[Dismomx5]

On 1/17/2023 at 2:21 PM, Fairgarth said:

 

Interesting requirement, why so?  New ships tend to be giants, which we don't care for.  We have had much better experiences on smaller ships but, of course, most of them are older.  We enjoyed a wonderful trans-Atlantic on Jewel of the Seas - beautiful ship, built 2004, capacity 2500 when full, not 6000.  No kids, fellow passengers 55+, we fell into bad company and had a great time.  Love Azamara, 700 pax but ships are now twenty years old.  Not a problem for us.  Rumour has it that if you want to travel with ancient decrepits then go Holland America.  Can't verify that myself and it may be a nasty rumour put out by Princess or Celebrity.

Holland America's largest ships look to be similar to your Jewel of the Seas for capacity. They have the Music Walk with rock, blues, classical, and piano bar every day. HAL is trending at probably 55 for an average age these days. Your term of "ancient decrepits" is offensive, to say the least. 

[skatie]

We just got back from first time with Celebrity on its newest Ship the Beyond.  It does cater to the 55+ crowd for sure and we are both late 50s.  There were pros and cons for me.  Prior to this we have been more NCL and RCI cruises.  On Celebrity I really enjoyed the more relaxed buffet - maybe due to its layout or maybe due to basically no kids running around - think I saw 5 kids under 18 on the ship.  The dining room food was good and we always met another couple or solo at the next table to chat with.  Entertainment was good - we always went just before the show started and found seats either up high or right next to stage.  Shopping was too high end for my likes.  The pools were excellent - I found them to be larger than other cruise lines.  Didn't like the layout of hot tubs tho - not near pools.    I love to dance and did miss the more dance club options like NCL's Syd Pour House.  Silent disco on Beyond tho was an absolute blast - we did it twice.   For now, I feel like we still "fit"  between NCL, RCL and Celebrity - so will choose depending on itinerary.