What are the best adult-only cruise lines
and cruises in the world today?
I'm Gary Bembridge, this is another of my cruising tips
for travellers.
There are surprisingly few adult-only cruise lines
and cruises.
So I thought I would explore what those are
and the best ones that you can focus on if you're looking
for a kids-free vacation,
plus some tips on how to make sure
if you do want to cruise kids-free
that you choose cruises that even if they're not adults-only
are going to minimise the chance of having loads of kids.
So let's start by looking at the adult-only cruise lines.
There are surprisingly few adults-only cruise lines
which is quite a surprise considering that this is something
that's been identified as a growing trend in cruising.
There are probably only three key adult-only cruises.
The first of those is the new boy on the block
and that's Virgin Voyages.
Virgin Voyages have Scarlet Lady in 2020,
they have Valiant Lady in 2021 and two more ships coming
in the two years after that.
The first two ships are going to be adults-only.
So Scarlet Lady is going to be based in the Caribbean
and sailing out of Miami and Valiant Lady
in the Mediterranean sailing Mediterranean trips.
You have to be over 18 to go on a Virgin Voyage.
We don't know if the future ships are going to be family or not
but certainly if you're looking for an adults-only cruise
and certainly one that's going to be very high energy,
very buzzy, lots of partying and loads
of special adults-only features,
Virgin Voyages is definitely one to consider.
Virgin Voyages have largely all inclusive fares,
so they're going to throw in wi-fi, they're going to throw in
all of the dining options of which there'll be many,
gratuities are included, so basic soft drinks
and things like coffees are going to be included.
So quite a lot is going to be included within
the Virgin fare.
The second one is probably going to be
a little bit more mature and sophisticated even
than Virgin Voyages which is aiming to really cater for
the youthful at heart, and that is Viking Cruises.
To cruise on a Viking ocean cruise,
in fact even on a river cruise,
you have to be over 18 years old.
So certainly if you're looking for
a sort of more sophisticated, perhaps more refined
kind of cruising experience,
one that's perhaps a little bit more laid back,
less sort of party-like,
then Viking is a great one to consider.
Viking have quite a lot included
within their fare so that's a big plus.
So they normally have excursions
in many of the ports included,
drinks at meal times, lunch and dinner are included,
wi-fi is included.
So the key extras will be things like
gratuities and other extra excursions.
The third adults-only cruise line is one
that's catering for the over 50s, and that is Saga Cruises.
They sell mostly out of the UK
and they cruise all the year around out of the UK.
So you have to be 50 to go on the cruise,
however people in your party can be under 50,
ideally over 40 to go on the cruise.
They also cater a lot for solo travellers.
So 20% of their ships are solo cabins
at all sorts of grades.
So they have the Spirit of Discovery
and the Spirit of Adventure.
So a very new fleet, Spirit of Discovery came into service
in 2019 and Spirit of Adventure in 2020.
Those are the only three
totally dedicated adults-only cruises.
There are some that offer adult cruising,
some times of the year on some specific ships.
So let's take a look at what those are.
There are then four cruise lines
that either have ships dedicated adults-only
or some times of the year are for adult-only cruises.
Now what's interesting about that is most of them
are actually UK owned or operated cruise lines
although many of them do sail internationally.
The first and one of the best known,
certainly in the UK, is P&O Cruises.
So they have quite a big fleet which is growing
and at the time of recording they have seven ships
either launched or announced, including Iona
and they offer family cruises.
However they have two ships which is Aurora and Arcadia
which all year round are for adult-only cruises.
And what's interesting about both those ships is
they do sail around the world,
they go to the Caribbean for example
and some of them even do Grand World Voyages.
So as an adult you can definitely find many of the regions
of the world you can cruise adults-only on P&O Cruises.
The second cruise line which falls
into this category is Marella.
Now Marella is part of the TUI Travel Group
and in the UK Marella is their cruise brand.
It's a very, very popular and fast growing brand,
partly because it's really good value
so the fares are pretty low and it's all inclusive.
So everything is bundled into those fares.
They have one ship which is the Marella Explorer 2
which is a focused adult-only ship.
So that sails adults-only and the facilities
are catered to adults so they've stripped out things like
the kids club when they acquired that ship.
With the rest of their fleet
they do offer adult-only cruises
at certain times of the year and that tends to be
out of peak school holiday periods.
So Marella is certainly a great one to look at.
Marella very UK focused so tends to sell mostly out of
the UK and very UK passenger focused.
The third cruise line that falls into this category
is Cruise and Maritime.
This is UK operated, owned and sails out of the UK mostly,
however their ships do go internationally.
So if you take a look at their itineraries you'll find them
heading right down to Australia, through Asia
into the Caribbean, so certainly
it's definitely one to consider.
They have, certainly at the time of recording,
four key ships within their fleet and those are,
the Columbus, the Magellan, the Marco Polo and the Astoria.
Now the Marco Polo and the Astoria
are their adults focused ships.
So they sail normally all year round adults only.
The other two in their fleet,
so the Magellan and the Columbus,
they operate as adult-only most of the year round
but they will have families,
certainly multi-generational cruises,
particularly in the school holiday period.
So certainly Cruise and Maritime
is leaning very much towards adults
and most of the year they operate adult-only.
The fourth cruise line that falls into this category
is Fred Olsen.
Fred Olsen although it is Scandinavian linked and owned
it is very much a UK cruise brand
and it's very popular particularly
with the slightly older audience
and they do sail again extensively,
they have a world cruise that goes all around
so certainly no matter which part of the world you're in
you probably can buy one of the legs to cruise
somewhere exotic in the world
and they do offer adult-only cruises
at certain times of the year.
So certainly if you look at their website you'll find
which are defined as adults-only but they do,
in the rest of the year,
have very kids friendly cruises.
So certainly Fred Olsen's a good one to look at,
particularly if you're looking for longer voyages
and they're very reasonably priced
and will offer you adult-only cruising.
If none of those appeal to you there are some cruise lines
which are pretty adult focused,
certainly by the nature of the ships they have
and the sort of experience and these tend to be the smaller,
more premium cruise lines.
So the two I'm really thinking of here are Oceania Cruises
and Azamara Cruises.
They operate small ships so they'll have ships
around about 700 passengers up to about 1,200 passengers
so it's that sort of small to mid size.
They tend to be very destination focused,
they don't have kids clubs facilities onboard
and the whole experience, the destinations,
the length of the cruises is geared very much to
an adults audience.
So it's very likely if you go on those cruises
that you're not gonna find kids onboard 'cause
they just don't cater for them.
The one exception is probably in Alaska,
Oceania during the key Alaska season,
certainly the holiday period,
will put some programmes on for kids
but they don't have family cabins on those two cruise lines
they don't generally have kids clubs
and it's very, very focused towards adults.
So certainly if none of the others appeal to you
take a look at Oceania and Azamara 'cause you're more
than likely not gonna find kids on board
and if there are kids onboard they probably gonna be
much older so late teens, early 20s
which I guess aren't kids anymore,
on those particular cruise lines.
If you wanna cruise without kids you've got
your adults-only cruise lines
which you've seen are not that many.
You've got those that some or part of the year either
through cruises or some of their ships operates adult-only
and some which are biassed really towards adults.
How do you, no matter which cruise line you're on,
minimise the chance of having kids onboard?
Well first of all look at longer cruises.
So the longer the cruise the less likely
there's going to be kids onboard just because of the nature
of the way that holidays and family lives work.
Secondly, of course avoid any key holiday periods,
whether that's school holidays, Christmas, Easter,
any of the big holiday periods like Thanksgiving
in the US for example.
So avoid all of those and look at the times
when kids are most likely to be in school.
So for example I really like cruising in November time
into very early December,
I like cruising in February, from mid January
but certainly February times are really great time to go
and June are really good times.
So periods around those, just take a look
if there's any big half-term holidays or whatever,
but those are the months that I really, really like
to cruise because the chance of you having kids
is really, really small.
And the other thing to do is look at itineraries
which are a little bit more exotic.
So the Mediterranean is gonna have lots of itineraries
that are going to be very popular with families.
The Caribbean of course, very popular with kids and family.
So as you start to spread out into more exotic parts
of the world you going to find less chance
of there being kids onboard.
There are surprisingly few adults-only cruise lines
at this point in time.
Hopefully this has helped you.
If you do want to cruise without kids find the best way
to go whether it's adults-only cruise lines,
cruise lines that have adults-only part of their fleet
or part of the year or lines that are very focused
on adults anyway even though they don't have a policy
around kids coming onboard.
I have many more cruising tips and advice videos
so why don't you watch another one of those right now.