What are the best adult-only tours – not just for kids but catering to adults’ likes and interests?
You might be asking because you’ve just spent time on a megaship where the kids are taking over the pools and hot tubs (not to mention the elevators), which really upset you. Or, you might be looking for a vacation with more lessons and less limbo — or maybe a cruise that rocks more R-rated than G.
The list of adult-only boats is, alas, very short. Only a handful of cruise lines ban children from their ships and offer cruises for adults – perhaps most notably Virgin Voyages and the fast-growing Vikings.
The trend in sailing in recent years, in fact, has been towards family-oriented sailing, with many children appearing on ships of all types. Indeed, some of the biggest, most well-known cruise brands have gone so completely after the family market, that the sun-soaked upper decks of their ships can sometimes feel more like an episode from “Daddy Day Care” than a happy vacation retreat.
However, don’t lose hope. Even though many lines are doubling down on the family market, a small group of cruise operators remain committed to the idea of an adults-only cruise.
Here are our picks for the best adult-only, active-adult cruise lines to embark on.
Related: A beginner’s guide to choosing a cruise line
A Girl’s Trip
A new ballyhood line from Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group has banned children under 18 from its ships. It’s part of an effort to create a hipper, more sophisticated, adult-oriented vibe that company leaders think is sorely lacking in the cruise world.
“We’ve done a lot of research trying to create a more sophisticated experience,” Virgin Voyages chief executive Tom McAlpin said days before the line’s 2021 launch. “I did some personal research. We found out that if you put kids in the pool, they make noise, and we don’t want that.”
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Related: I’ve been on over 150 cruise ships. Here’s what I thought of Scarlet Lady
Virgin Voyages’ first three adult-only ships, the 2,770-passenger Scarlet Lady and sister ships Valiant Lady and Resilient Lady, cater to adults looking for an adult-specific type of entertainment with offerings such as interactive dance parties. Each ship also offers a karaoke lounge with pink and purple karaoke rooms and a tattoo parlor (read how one of our crew was among the first to get inked on board).
What you won’t find on the three ships (a fourth ship, the Brilliant Lady, will be launched in 2025) are waterslides, water splash areas, youth lounges and all the other family-friendly features that have become so common on larger ships. .
The Viking
To create an adults-only cruise experience, Virgin Voyages has taken a page from Viking’s fast-growing playbook. Viking’s 12-ship ocean cruise division has banned children under 18 since it began operating in 2015. Additionally, its fleet of 80 ships had an age limit of over twenty years. (Originally, the cutoff was 12; as of 2019, it has jumped to 18.)
It’s not that Virgin and Viking are the same. Virgin is designed to appeal to millennials and older travelers who want to party like they’re a millennial. Viking, by contrast, is an anti-millennial line.
Viking’s target market is the 55-plus bracket. It taps into that demographic with a high-quality, destination-focused experience that relies on what the industry likes to call “enrichment” — insider talks and other learning opportunities. It also emphasizes tours focused on history and culture (at least one free tour in each port) and entertainment offerings that cater more to string quartets than dancers in string bikinis.
“What we’re looking to do is try not to be everything to everyone,” Viking’s vice president of marketing, Richard Marnell, told TPG. “We don’t have a children’s program. What we have… [an] an immersive experience best suited to the intellectually curious.”
P&O Cruises
This storied British line clearly sees the need for adult-only ships, but it doesn’t stop at the family market, either. A line divides the difference between two segments. Five of its seven ships (Arvia, Iona, Britannia, Ventura and Azura) are marketed as “family friendly” and open to passengers of all ages. The other two (Arcadia and Aurora) are reserved for adults only.
Given that more than 95% of Southampton, England’s cruise line passengers are British, you’ll probably want to be British yourself or a big Anglophile to consider booking one of these last two ships. Cruising with P&O Cruise is a British experience, something that becomes clear when you see its ships. They have hulls painted with large Union Jacks.
In addition, you’ll find quintessentially British offerings such as impressive afternoon teas, high-table quotes and dining menus designed by the United Kingdom’s top chefs, such as Marco Pierre White, on board P&O Cruises.
That said, if you’re a fan of Princess Cruises, you might feel right at home on a P&O Cruises ship. Placed under the same corporate umbrella, the two brands are longtime sisters that have swapped ships back and forth (although Holland America fans may be interested to know that Arcadia shares a ship design with that Vista Class line).
For booking purposes, P&O Cruises considers anyone who will be 18 years of age or older on the cruise to be an adult.
Saga Cruises
Like P&O Cruises, Saga Cruises is a British line that has succeeded in the business of offering adult-only travel, but it goes beyond what P&O Cruises or any other line does in catering to younger travelers. The minimum age on Saga Cruises is not 18 or even 21 – it’s 50.
That’s right – you won’t find one thousand or that many Generation Xers on a Saga Cruises ship (58, even the oldest members of Gen X are only eight years old). Instead, you’ll find more baby boomers, many of whom are retiring.
Saga Cruises operates just two ocean liners, sailing exclusively from the UK, as well as several river cruises. Like P&O Cruises, it’s probably the best brand for British travelers or big-time Anglophiles.
Another tour focused on adults
In addition to lines that completely ban passengers under the age of 18, a number of cruise lines allow minors but only a few of them.
Examples include luxury lines such as Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Silversea Cruises and Seabourn, which cater mainly to the older crowd. Small-ship specialist Windstar Cruises allows tweens and teenagers on six of its ships, but does not allow any children under the age of 8.
Scenic Luxury Cruises & Tours, which sells both sea and river cruises, generally discourages customers from bringing passengers under the age of 12 on ships except for Christmas holiday cruises.
Also, the longer the journey, the fewer children you will have. Book a cruise of two weeks or more to an exotic destination, like Asia or South America, during the school year on a line like Holland America or Princess, and you’ll be sharing the ship a lot with adults.
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