With boomers and millennials holding as the current largest cruise demographics, we considered which primary ocean cruise lines cater more towards one or the other.
It is in the best interest of brands to consider both as the groups are generally neck and neck at filling cruise ships, but there are indeed those that lean a certain way. Let's break it down by cruising lifestyle: standard, premium, upscale and luxury.
Standard companies are the mainstream ones that do a fine job of appealing to the largest swath of the population. Given these are also usually the lines also with the largest ships, they need to offer as much for everybody as possible to occupy them week after week.
That means Carnival Cruise Line, MSC Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean International sail mostly down the middle. However, there is a decidedly more millennial approach being taken in many marketing campaigns-especially from Norwegian with Pitbull employed and Royal Caribbean with its own high-energy music. Of course, these can speak to boomers as well, but the target is clear.
One could perceive Carnival and MSC to be more ideally even with a slight edge towards boomers for the latter brand.
Transitioning from standard to premium brands, the use of high technologies continue to roll out across the board to ease vacationing for both millennials and boomers. In fact, the more expensive category known for its value proposition is more demographically mixed.
The luxury lines also mostly follow suit, welcoming boomers while taking the approach that millennials will organically find their brands should they be a good fit.
That hasn't stopped Crystal Cruises, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Seabourn and Silversea Cruises from continuing to renew their fleets with updated hardware and software. New ships in the pipeline from every company are enough to get every demographic excited and interested in coming aboard.
Crystal was the line that I regularly cruised on as a child and continue to sail on today as a millennial myself. Regent is definitely learning from its Norwegian parent on ways to appeal to younger sets with lavish entertainment, and both Seabourn and Silversea engage with youth thanks to adventurous expedition cruises.
One could conclude it's all relative. Really every brand can suit boomers and millennials nicely. They all offer so much to do these days, but some still skew a bit more towards one or the other. It all comes down to what you decide to make of it.
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