ITV Documentary The Cruise Ship -Watched it and worried!

We're new to cruising and on Celebrity Eclipse for a 2 week cruise ex Southampton to the Med in September.

We've just watched the ITV documentary "The Cruise Ship" and now we're slightly worried.

We're in our early to mid thirties and this documentary (set on the Royal Princess ship and showing a cruise ex Fort Lauderdale) seemed to show almost exclusively a 60+ age group. Eccentric Crew and passengers, and suggestions of "elites" looking down their nose at anyone who isn't at their level.

Mrs DYKWIA said "crikey, what have we let ourselves in for?"

We know this is an ITV "documentary" and therefore one should take the "documentary" word VERY loosely. We were lured into the idea of cruising by shows like "Mighty Ships" but this has left us a bit concerned.

I wonder if Princess has made a mistake by doing this...

OK take a deep breath! YOU WILL BE FINE!

This is a documentary and it will be edited for maximum drama, so they will have picked the most outlandish characters out of the possibly 1000s hours of footage to home in on. There was a documentary about Fred Olsen recently which made it look truly awful, and according to Fred passengers nothing like reality.

Im sure elite dont look down on other passengers, after all theres no way of telling of you're elite or not unless you tell someone. I think the issue here is the moaning woman was annoyed because she is not elite yet!

Age on ship varies from cruise to cruise. GP is billed as family friendly which means she will attract a broad range of ages. Im guessing the film crew picked a long ie 3 week plus cruise to ensure they got the amount footage they needed. Long cruises tend to attract older passengers as they are not tied to work and annual leave commitments.

Focus on the ship itself I doubt you will meet anyone like the people you see on the show.

I agree with Sea green.

My DH and I have sailed with RCI 3 times and Celebrity 3 times with 1 trip on Princess sandwiched inbetween. The programme gave a very edited view of a cruise, so much so that my DD called to ask if it was a true reflection of our holidays as, having watched it, she could not imagine us on a cruise!

Whilst our cruise with Princess was our least favourite, we still had a good time (we sailed to the Baltic). Celebrity is our favourite line so far, with RCI a very close second. The lines just offer a slightly different,but nonetheless enjoyable, experience. If I hadn't cruised before watching the programme, I would be concerned too but bear in mind the amount of editing that has gone in to producing a 23 minute programme. In 71 days of sailing we have only encountered one person similar to the lady featured on the programme and, given the size of the ship, we never had to cross paths again!

Look forward to and enjoy your cruise!

Princess certainly doesn't attract a young party crowd. If that's what you want, you'd be better off with Carnival. Otherwise, take everything with a very big pinch of salt. It's the type of 'documentary' that is made for entertainment and programme makers always home in on conflict, eccentricity etc because they think that's more 'interesting'. They're not remotely concerned about balance. At least, that's the case with UK programmes of this type. Maybe documentaries are different in the US and Princess didn't realise what they were letting themselves in for.

We're not after a young party scene (we're in our forties not in our thirties as I accidentally stated early). We're after something laid back, contemporary, not too stuffy, with a range of ages.

We're not after a young party scene (we're in our forties not in our thirties as I accidentally stated early). We're after something laid back, contemporary, not too stuffy, with a range of ages.

Depending on your itinerary, that is probably what you will find.

We're not after a young party scene (we're in our forties not in our thirties as I accidentally stated early). We're after something laid back, contemporary, not too stuffy, with a range of ages.

The demographics for any given cruise will often depend on the port area the ship sails from and the length of the cruise.

Longer cruises (greater than 7 days) tend to have an older crowd because families, especially with children, have a harder time getting away for more than 7 days. You indicated you were taking a two week cruise but we don't know if it a single 14 day itinerary or two back-to-back 7-day intineraries.

We've never sailed from a UK port so I have no idea what the typical passenger mix will be. Our 30-something daughter & her husband enjoy themselves on Princess and I see no reason why you shouldn't too.

Enjoy!

The demographics for any given cruise will often depend on the port area the ship sails from and the length of the cruise.

 

Longer cruises (greater than 7 days) tend to have an older crowd because families, especially with children, have a harder time getting away for more than 7 days. You indicated you were taking a two week cruise but we don't know if it a single 14 day itinerary or two back-to-back 7-day intineraries.

 

We've never sailed from a UK port so I have no idea what the typical passenger mix will be. Our 30-something daughter & her husband enjoy themselves on Princess and I see no reason why you shouldn't too.

 

Enjoy!

Its a 14 day cruise to the med from Southampton. The 14 day holiday is quite normal in the UK, where leave entitlement based on a 5 day week is usually 28 days or more + bank holidays.

We'll be travelling at the beginning of September so schools holidays will be finishing then, so anticipate less children on board. We've no problem with a slightly older age profile.

Realistically on a two week cruise in September the average age passenger will be in their 50's and 60's. That is because of the time of the year and the length of your cruise. You will see some people younger than that and some older than that.

In the summer you would see a younger group but on a two week cruise you will still see many older because of the length of the cruise and the cost.

You will meet a lot of nice people and hopefully you will find that age doesn't mea a lot. When we were your age we sailed with many older than us and that was not a problem and now we are late 50's and I will tell you that we have more energy than many well below our years.

Just enjoy.

Keith

A couple of years ago Jo and Rob Howarth did a live video report from their cruise to the med on the Eclipse.

Here is the link: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1454387 to the thread.

If you follow the link in their first post you should be able to watch some lovely videos of their family cruise.

It should be the perfect antidote to the ITV "documentary"

We are in the same age bracket as you and love sailing on Celebrity. The cruise is what you make it.

There will be plenty of things to do if you want to do them, and plenty of quiet places to relax if that is your preference. Don't expect a constant party atmosphere, but there will be activities if you wish to participate. Usually one evening will be a 70s night and one an 80s night in my experience.

Mid 30s here and we love cruising! We prefer the more quieter atmosphere, so no Carnival for us. We've done Royal, Princess, and an 11 night upcoming on Celebrity. I'd say the majority of pax are 40-60s, but my dad is in his 70s and looks and acts very young and he cruises and vacations a lot. He's def not in the walker set. You'll find you will meet plenty of friendly people of all ages.

We're new to cruising and on Celebrity Eclipse for a 2 week cruise ex Southampton to the Med in September.

 

We've just watched the ITV documentary "The Cruise Ship" and now we're slightly worried.

 

We're in our early to mid thirties and this documentary (set on the Royal Princess ship and showing a cruise ex Fort Lauderdale) seemed to show almost exclusively a 60+ age group. Eccentric Crew and passengers, and suggestions of "elites" looking down their nose at anyone who isn't at their level.

 

Mrs DYKWIA said "crikey, what have we let ourselves in for?"

 

We know this is an ITV "documentary" and therefore one should take the "documentary" word VERY loosely. We were lured into the idea of cruising by shows like "Mighty Ships" but this has left us a bit concerned.

 

I wonder if Princess has made a mistake by doing this...

Here is a link to a thread all about that show. No need to worry.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2065413

I agree with all the above posts and wonder have you joined your roll call for your cruise on here? You will 'meet' lots of lovely people before you board if you do and many cruises have an 'informal meet and greet' on the afternoon of boarding so you start off on a good footing and will spend the whole fourteen days bumping into the same people over and over and makes for a very friendly cruise.

Agree that in September you will find perhaps a slightly older group of people as they will not be tied to school holidays, but on every cruise I have been on we find that whatever the age, everybody is so friendly and FUN, Cruisers are very gregarious people!!

We might have been on your sailing but DH (dear Husband if you are not yet familiar to the lingo on here) wanted an August trip for some reason. I also thoroughly endorse that you watch the video mentioned above, they take one of their travels every year and are an interesting watch.

Enjoy your trip!!

Just watched the first two episodes - totally reasonable, IMHO.

It's on tonight - EEK!

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I watched the first three episodes on catchup and I didn't find it very representative of the wide passenger demographic cruise ships have now. I'm not sure whether that was intentional or not. The woman in the first episode was so annoying though!