River cruises that attract a younger crowd?

[hcross888]

Gillian,

 

I understand how you feel about this matter. That being said, be very glad you don't live in SC where the mainstream (including people who are young) are as you describe the 75+ group. I find this very frustrating.

 

Also, in our family we are divided politically, and we don't discuss politics either. We do all love and respect each other, but it is too emotional of a topic.

[CPT Trips]

Politics, gender preference and religion . . . add them to the topics to avoid when conversing with new friends on a cruise.

 

As a boomer, let me assure a pp that there are plenty of other boomers (and even younger) who hold quite conservative political views . . . many just assume (incorrectly) that since I am their age (or older) and a vet that I too share their views.

[scapel]

My parents have done a couple of GCT river cruises that they loved, and the crowd is generally all retirees. Nothing wrong with that at all, of course, but my husband and I are interested in doing one perhaps, and we're in our early 30s.

 

Are there any river cruises that attract a younger crowd? Will we be the only non-retired couple there?

HI,

Here is one way to look at it. If you are young and can go, go where you want. Don't let us old people slow you down. On a river cruiser with us old folks you will probably have your choice of bicycles if they furnish them.

You certainly will not take our schedule tour. We would probably slow you down. You will do your own thing. Get another couple your own age to go with you if you can find one that can afford it.

I think it is always better and safer to have a foursome to do your own thing, both for safety and sharing expenses.

I'd share a cab with you to go bungy jumping as long as I don't have to jump.

 

I'll take the pictures as I did of young people jumping off the Sky Tower in Auckland last year.

[scapel]

I went to the first post and did a quote and posted my answer. Then I started reading what others had to say to the original question.

First let me say that I am not ashamed of who I am, what I do, or where I am from so I post it in my profile.

I sometimes post my Cruise History for information, but some make take it wrong, so I sometimes go and take it out. It makes the post take up too much space anyhow.

Regarding the post.

.

gillianrose

Cool Cruiser Join Date: Sep 2003

Posts: 1,425

 

 

________________________________________Quote:

Originally Posted by newlondon

I am well aware that this post may be removed, but I have not been able to contain my displeasure with Gillianrose's criticism of older passengers particularly her assumption that they are by definition conservative and, therefore, their opinions are objectionable. We are 65+ and from rock ribbed NH and yet will still listen to everyone. I think that all reasonable people travel with the idea of learning from their fellow travellers and are not locked in to a point of view. By the way we split our vote!

I think it is very unfair of you to criticize me to others, rather than to quote me, and/or address a comment to me, and question what I may have meant by a certain comment.

 

My displeasure is not with older cruisers, but I do have a beef with a certain segment of pre-Boomers (aged 75+) who moan and groan about the "change" we are about to experience when our new President takes office in three weeks. I have heard many comments like that since the election, and all were made by those of the World War II generation. The comments had a strong racial tone to them and I thought we were past that, but apparently we are not.

Gillianrose,

I did not interpet newlondon’s post as being really critical of you, but if you received it that way, I would like to apologize for him or her. However, prejudicial remarks are ones like “

My displeasure is not with older cruisers, but I do have a beef with a certain segment of pre-Boomers (aged 75+) who moan and groan about the "change" we are about to experience when our new President takes office in three weeks.

Hopefully you will one day get to be older than 75. Even if you don’t mention 75+ in your comments, it sounds prejudicial against people expressing their opinions. I did not see anything in these postings that discussed our incoming president. Hopefully our future will be better than our present. He will be our president and I will wear my American Flag to show support for him.

You might get some idea of my age from the following:

PAST CRUISES: 1.Stella Oceanus 1975 South America, 2. Stella Oceanus 1977 Black Sea and Crimean Peninsula. 3. Mermox 1979 Med. Rome,Sicily,and Nice,Malta. 4. SS Freeport to Gulf Mexico. 5.Vistafjord to Caribbean 1981. 6. Sagafjord to Alaska 1983. 7. Stella Solaris to Aegean, Israel and Egypt 1984. 8. Mississippi Queen out of New Orleans. 9. Nantucket Clipper out of Boston 10. Fairsky to Caribbean 1987. 11. Royal Odyssey Med.& Dubrovnik. 12. Carnivalle to Bahamas 1990. 13. Crown Odyssey to Eastern South America 1991. 14.Monarch of the Seas Eastern Caribbean 1995. 15 Royal Odyssey (Old Royal Viking Sea) Panama Canal 1995. 16 Egypt-Nile River Cruise 1996.

17. Splendour of the Seas- Fjords of Norway 1997. 18 Sun Viking –Orient Cruise 1997.

19. Renaissance R-4 Barcelona-Lisbon 1999. 20. Paradise- Caribbean 1999.

21. Millennium to Baltic Capitals 2000. 22. Summit to Caribbean 2001.

23. Constellation –Fjords of Norway 2002. 24.Horizon –Mexico 2003. 25. Infinity to Alaska 2003. 26. Holiday to Mexico 2003. 27. Infinity -South America Cape Horn 2004. 28. Constellation- Transatlantic 2004. 29.Legend of Seas- Western Caribbean 2005.

30. Millennium- Panama Canal 2006. 31. Rhapsody of Seas- Western Caribbean 2006. 32. Constellation- New England/Canada 2006. 33.Millennium-Caribbean 2007. 34.Voyager of the Seas- Caribbean 35.Mercury- South Pacific 2007.

My recommendation is for people to put more information in their CP. I love to see where people are from and what they do and are interested in.

The most entertaining thing on cruises to me are the people I meet. We thought we were shunned by some French people once, but I still love French people. I thought we were shunned by some Maltese once, but I would never say that all people from Malta are stuck up.

We once met a very nice couple on a cruise and we did a tour together. I accidently used some foul language and she called me down on it. She was correct and her comments made me a better person. She didn't just think that all people from Louisiana talked like that. She just fixed it. :)

[newlondon]

Well said Scapel! Let me say that I don't run a computer well enough to add all the extra info. Shows my age I guess.

[sjde]

Even on RCCL we (in our 50's) felt like we were some of the youngest on board. That may be because it was a Canada cruise, and also, it was not summertime.

 

I'd like to add that my mother-in-law, at 84, is a staunch Obama supporter.

 

Sue

[Nitra22]

Hey DukeGirl

 

My DH and I just booked the Europe's Heartland cruise on AMA Waterway's Amalyra. We are both 31 and are sooo excited about our first river cruise!

We chose AMA waterways because of the computer/free wifi and because it had new ships.

Like you, we read that river cruises attracted retirees, but we chose the cruise because of the incredible itinerary (3 days in paris!!) and our desire to explore Europe in-depth via a river cruise.

We intend to enjoy the people we travel with - all ages!! - but our main focus will be to enjoy each other and marvel at the splendor that will be surrounding us.

 

Cheers! :p

[scapel]

Hey DukeGirl

 

My DH and I just booked the Europe's Heartland cruise on AMA Waterway's Amalyra. We are both 31 and are sooo excited about our first river cruise!

We chose AMA waterways because of the computer/free wifi and because it had new ships.

Like you, we read that river cruises attracted retirees, but we chose the cruise because of the incredible itinerary (3 days in paris!!) and our desire to explore Europe in-depth via a river cruise.

We intend to enjoy the people we travel with - all ages!! - but our main focus will be to enjoy each other and marvel at the splendor that will be surrounding us.

 

Cheers! :p

Cheers,

I have read some of your post elsewhere and admired them.

I was looking around trying to find out some info. about the Amadeus Symphony that we are booked on in May. It turns out it is not an AMA waterways tour.

Somehow I asked about how AMA Waterways got it's name. I received the following e-mail in a reply. I wish I was going on an AMA waterways tour. With this kind of leadership, it has got to be good.

===============================================

Dear Mr Reynolds,

 

The Latin meaning of AMA = LOVE and DEUS = GOD.

 

AMADEUS was frequently used as a boy’s first name in Austria and Switzerland.

AMADEUS is a beautiful name and means LOVE OF GOD.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart made the name AMADEUS almost into a trademark.

 

In 1990, I opened a student travel company in Woodland Hills, California. Being Austrian and organizing tours to Europe it seemed appropriate to name my company Amadeus International Tours. Unfortunately, during the first Gulf War IN 1991, student travel was very limited and in 1992 I closed down the company and I started working for Uniworld. Uniworld was a small tour company which operated motorcoach tours through Yugoslavia and Easter Europe. Here, I designed and planned the first river cruise trips through the newly opened Rhine-Main-Danube Canal. In 1996, I contacted an Austrian company which operated old Romanian ships on the Danube (Dr Lueftner Reisen). I asked them if they would build a ship for Uniworld which Uniworld would lease for several years. They agreed to build a ship for us and I named that ship the MS AMADEUS. The ship started cruising for Uniworld in 1998. In 1999, the MS AMADEUS II was built (renamed later to MS AMADEUS RAPHSODY) and Uniworld started using this ship for the next several years. The ship owner, Dr. Lueftner, continued building more ships. The MS AMADESU CLASSIC was number three.

 

In 2000, I left Uniworld in Encino and I started up Viking River Cruises a few miles down the road in Woodland Hills. For two years, I was President of Viking River Cruises. In 2002, I left Viking River Crises and I started up AMADEUS WATERWAYS in Chatsworth, a few miles from Viking River Cruises. I always liked the name AMADEUS, and I thought again that it was appropriate to have a cruise line with ships in Central Europe with this name. I signed a charter agreement with Dr. Lueftner to build a new ship for our company and this ship was named the MS AMADEUS SYMPHONY. We chartered this ship for 4 years (2003/04/05/06) and then we started building our own ships. To have a very unique ship identity, I decided to name our own ships AMA plus a musical term – all in one word. The MS AMADAGIO was our first ship and the name is a combo of AMA and ADAGIO. Then came the AMALEGRO, the AMACELLO, the AMADANTE, the AMALYRA, the AMADOLCE and currently under construction is the AMABELLA. Dr. Lueftner also continued building more ships which he named AMDEUS ROYAL, AMADEUS PRINCESS, etc.

 

In 2003, I applied for the trademark AMADEUS in the USA. But it was blocked by the airline reservation system AMADEUS, which registered the name two years before I opened my company AMADEUS INTERNATIONAL TOURS. I finally gave up on the trademark AMADEUS and in 2007, I renamed our company AMAWATERWAYS (the Love of Waterways). Our ship names also all start with AMA. We have no longer trademark conflicts with the airline reservation system and we also distinguish our ships clearly from the ships of Dr. Lueftner.

 

I hope to have answered your question.

 

Warm Regards,

Rudi Schreiner

President

(800) 626-0126 (U.S. and Canada, toll free) | +1 (818) 428-6198 (direct dial) | (818) 772-7335 (fax)

rudi@amawaterways.com

[StarTrkGeek]

It's not just the older crowd that fits this description though. There are plenty of younger people that are spewing this garbage that can't keep their mouths shut either. It's always best, no matter who you are traveling with, to keep your religious and political views to yourself and off topic. Everyone will get along much better that way!

 

I agree that you should not talk about religion and politics while on a cruise. After all, we are all on vacation and want to enjoy ourselves.

 

However, to characterize those who hold a view different from your own as "spewing this garbage that can't keep their mouths shut" indicates that your are very close-minded and critical of others. Whether a person is classified as right-wing conservative or left-wing liberal, we should all be willing to listen to one another's views without being openly critical. One of the things that makes this country so great is our freedom to think, believe, and speak whatever we choose.

 

But once again, I do not believe that we should not discuss volatile subjects, like religion and politics, while on vacation, IMHO.