Average age

[beg3yrs]

The best solution would be selling them. But who is going to pay $50 - $80 Million for a small used cruise ship that cannot possibly make a profit?

 

The same companies that already operate identical ships and charge many more $$$ than Princess does for a cruise.

 

Well, here it is: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2131478

[CruisinFinsUp]

We have children aged 36 and 32, and grandchildren aged 17, 13, and newborn. There was much discussion about bringing them on the upcoming family celebration cruise. We all decided against it. The kids will be much happier at home with nannies, and not having to behave and be restless on a long flight, or be stuck sitting in a long embarkation line, or being bored without a lot of tween activities for them on the ship.

 

At the risk of further irritating people, I will say that I stand by my assertion that unless it is a Disney cruise, a cruise ship is not the ideal place for kids. There is a reason we do not cruise Disney or Carnival. The younger demographics are it. When I go on a cruise and the tweens respect the adults only area, and their parents enforce it, and when I walk down a hall or on the Promenade and don't get knocked over by running children, and when I can find a lounger near the pool and not have to listen to children or tweens omg'ing and Justin Bieber and One Direction'ing, and when I can stroll through the Plaza to the café for a light afternoon snack without having to deal with a group of teens who think they own the café and have to spread out over several tables and then leave a mess, I will re-assess my opinion. I recognize that this is about respect and courtesy and politeness, which are woefully lacking these days.

 

We simply choose to not have to deal with children when we go on vacation. Thank you to those of you who extended good wishes on our upcoming celebration.

 

I don't usually participate in these highly opinionated threads. But this one took the cake.

 

I feel bad for you that you think that your grandchildren have been raised such that they would be happier with the nanny at home, than with their family, on a vacation.

 

Would it not make more sense to expose your grandchildren to travel with their extended family along, and take this opportunity to teach them respect and courtesy and politeness and how to properly travel and behave in new situations, all while celebrating their grandpa's 60th? If you don't teach them, who will?

 

In our experience, poor behaviour is not restricted to "younger demographics". We have witnessed, on Princess, many examples of all ages behaving poorly: Yes there are some teens racing about, but there are also teens behaving well. The adults can be rude too. From the man in his 70s that barked at the pizza staff every day "Whadya got? Gimme the special"; to the seniors in the buffet who bark drink orders, impatiently wave empty mugs at the staff; to the large families in the dining room occupying two tables for 10 yelling back and forth to converse, and staying late at first seating not respecting the fact that the dining room staff have to prepare for 2nd sitting; to the groups of adults who play cards all day in the Horizon court, taking up tables and tables so other guests cannot sit and eat lunch; to the adults who reserve loungers right by the pool then disappear somewhere else for hours on end preventing others from using the seating; to the seniors who push onto the elevators without allowing those wishing to get off to do so first (even when we clearly state that we are trying to do so)... All on Princess.

 

We respectfully disagree with you and have found that a Princess cruise ship IS the ideal place for OUR kids. DD is 14 and has been on 11 cruises, and DD is 12 and has been on 10 cruises. Most of them were 8-10 day itineraries. Our kids do not want to cruise RCI or Carnival again, or try Disney. Our kids LOVE Princess. They do not find it an inconvenience to behave appropriately, at home or while travelling. They look forward to travelling and do so with great enthusiasm and awesome behavior.

 

However, given your stated preference for adult company (no matter their manners), perhaps you might want to consider Azamara or Regent or Oceania - one of the more adult oriented cruise lines.

 

 

Rant over.:eek:

[SailinC2C]

No; but we just finished a 12 day on the Ruby and I have never seen so many walkers and Rollators in one place in my life.

 

I think the length of the cruise plays a large part.

 

Mike:)

 

I think I was on that cruise too! Never seen so many walkers or scooters.

You will see an older crowd on the longer cruises. Princess may be older than Royal Caribbean, but not as old as Holland America!

[suzyed]

Small, older cruise ships are bought and sold all of the time. RCCL's Sun Viking is now painted black, renamed "The Oriental Dragon" and is selling out of Singapore. Seabourne is selling two of its smaller, older ships to Windstar next year.

 

RCCL's Sovereign of the Seas was sold several years ago and is now called The Sovereign. They are also in the process of selling the Majesty of the Seas.

[shredie]

I don't usually participate in these highly opinionated threads. But this one took the cake.

 

I feel bad for you that you think that your grandchildren have been raised such that they would be happier with the nanny at home, than with their family, on a vacation.

 

 

I'm thinking maybe the kids prefer the company of the nannies to a grandparent who thinks children are a nuisance.

[hawkeyetlse]

BTW, multiple posters on this thread had stated that if the average age of passengers is X, then half the passengers are younger than X and half are older. This is absolutely not true as average numbers can be skewed by outliers.

Yes, they are wrong about how averages work, but the point they are trying to make is absolutely correct: It is highly unlikely that any cruise has an average passenger age of 75! In reality that would mean that more than half of the passengers are above 75, because any passenger younger than about 50 years old would need to be balanced out by more than one passenger over 75.

[furb]

This is always an interesting topic for me... we specifically book our cruises to avoid having to deal with other people's children.

 

While I agree time of year has a large effect on the average age, I think the main determinant is often cruise length, for reasons already explained... working adults like us simply can't spare the time for a long cruise.

 

With that said, one of the cruises we took with the highest average age was a "last of season" Alaska cruise (when places like Skagway were shutting down for the fall). I'd guess the average cruiser was in their 70's... we only saw 3 children the entire trip, and that was in a single family.

 

Now on our 10-day Mexico honeymoon cruise this year, one of our (elderly) dinner companions pointed out that "the average age of this cruise was deceased."

[JimmyVWine]

I'm thinking maybe the kids prefer the company of the nannies to a grandparent who thinks children are a nuisance.

 

Yes, yes. A thousand times, yes!

[caribill]

I think I was on that cruise too! Never seen so many walkers or scooters.

You will see an older crowd on the longer cruises. Princess may be older than Royal Caribbean, but not as old as Holland America!

 

On Royal Caribbean, passengers ask each other if they remember where they were when JFK was shot.

 

On Princess, they ask each other if they remember where they were when FDR died.

 

On Holland America, they ask each other if they can remember what they had for lunch.

[bhopal21]

On Royal Caribbean, passengers ask each other if they remember where they were when JFK was shot.

 

On Princess, they ask each other if they remember where they were when FDR died.

 

On Holland America, they ask each other if they can remember what they had for lunch.

 

Too Funny!

 

Mike:)

[Jimmys Chippy]

I don't usually participate in these highly opinionated threads. But this one took the cake.

 

I feel bad for you that you think that your grandchildren have been raised such that they would be happier with the nanny at home, than with their family, on a vacation.

 

Would it not make more sense to expose your grandchildren to travel with their extended family along, and take this opportunity to teach them respect and courtesy and politeness and how to properly travel and behave in new situations, all while celebrating their grandpa's 60th? If you don't teach them, who will?

 

In our experience, poor behaviour is not restricted to "younger demographics". We have witnessed, on Princess, many examples of all ages behaving poorly: Yes there are some teens racing about, but there are also teens behaving well. The adults can be rude too. From the man in his 70s that barked at the pizza staff every day "Whadya got? Gimme the special"; to the seniors in the buffet who bark drink orders, impatiently wave empty mugs at the staff; to the large families in the dining room occupying two tables for 10 yelling back and forth to converse, and staying late at first seating not respecting the fact that the dining room staff have to prepare for 2nd sitting; to the groups of adults who play cards all day in the Horizon court, taking up tables and tables so other guests cannot sit and eat lunch; to the adults who reserve loungers right by the pool then disappear somewhere else for hours on end preventing others from using the seating; to the seniors who push onto the elevators without allowing those wishing to get off to do so first (even when we clearly state that we are trying to do so)... All on Princess.

 

We respectfully disagree with you and have found that a Princess cruise ship IS the ideal place for OUR kids. DD is 14 and has been on 11 cruises, and DD is 12 and has been on 10 cruises. Most of them were 8-10 day itineraries. Our kids do not want to cruise RCI or Carnival again, or try Disney. Our kids LOVE Princess. They do not find it an inconvenience to behave appropriately, at home or while travelling. They look forward to travelling and do so with great enthusiasm and awesome behavior.

 

However, given your stated preference for adult company (no matter their manners), perhaps you might want to consider Azamara or Regent or Oceania - one of the more adult oriented cruise lines.

 

 

Rant over.:eek:

 

I fully concur.

[Iamcruzin]

I'm thinking maybe the kids prefer the company of the nannies to a grandparent who thinks children are a nuisance.

 

And I'm thinking that the kids are in better care with the nannies than with the parents and grandparents.

[JRT5000]

And I'm thinking that the kids are in better care with the nannies than with the parents and grandparents.

 

Can't agree with you more. Feel bad for any child that has a grandparent that has that point of view..:mad:

[billco]

We recently completed a 17 day transatlantic cruise on the Emerald Princess. I believe there were 4 children aboard, but the only one I saw was a 4 year old girl. In fact, it seemed we saw her everywhere, often being fawned over by nearby adults. It was announced at the Captains Circle party that she had over 150 sea days and was now elite. Cute little girl, really seemed to lap up the attention. Had her picture taken in her costume with lots of people at the ships' Halloween display. Got a little tedious watching her run from table to table in the dining room. Wouldn't have bothered me if she had stayed home with a nanny.

 

BTW, we are going on an Alaskan cruise next May with our daughter and 10 year old granddaughter. It will be our granddaughter's first cruise and we can't wait. Just my opinion, but we think a 7 day Alaskan cruise is a great venue for children, not so much a long transatlantic.

[Serotta1]

I had no idea my post would cause such turmoil! After re-reading the original post several times, I am at a loss to see how anyone could take such offense to my question. To anyone I have insulted, please accept my sincere apology. That was my first Cruise Critic post and this should probably be my last.

 

In addition to our 25th anniversary, we both celebrated birthdays (61 and 57) on this cruise. We have enjoyed every cruise we have ever taken and this trip on Royal Princess was our best ever. Now that our kids are grown, we don’t need the surfing pools, rock walls, kids clubs, etc. that we enjoyed on RCCL, Carnival and Disney so we tried Princess this time. The only reason for asking the question about the average age of Princess passengers is that we felt a little out of place being among the youngest couples in any of the ship’s venues. This point was underscored when the waiters sang “Happy Anniversary” to us on one of the formal nights – the group at the next table (who apparently didn’t think we could hear them) sarcastically said “All that commotion for 25 years, that’s hardly even a good start”. It’s a good thing we asked that they not sing to us on our birthdays!

 

All we hoped for was some advice on the best fit for our future cruises.

[suzyed]

I had no idea my post would cause such turmoil! After re-reading the original post several times, I am at a loss to see how anyone could take such offense to my question. To anyone I have insulted, please accept my sincere apology. That was my first Cruise Critic post and this should probably be my last.

 

In addition to our 25th anniversary, we both celebrated birthdays (61 and 57) on this cruise. We have enjoyed every cruise we have ever taken and this trip on Royal Princess was our best ever. Now that our kids are grown, we don’t need the surfing pools, rock walls, kids clubs, etc. that we enjoyed on RCCL, Carnival and Disney so we tried Princess this time. The only reason for asking the question about the average age of Princess passengers is that we felt a little out of place being among the youngest couples in any of the ship’s venues. This point was underscored when the waiters sang “Happy Anniversary” to us on one of the formal nights – the group at the next table (who apparently didn’t think we could hear them) sarcastically said “All that commotion for 25 years, that’s hardly even a good start”. It’s a good thing we asked that they not sing to us on our birthdays!

 

All we hoped for was some advice on the best fit for our future cruises.

 

Don't get discouraged. Stay and keep posting...you may help someone and you may learn something too!

One of the problems with this type of forum is words can be misconstrued because the inflection/intention of the words is implied.