5 over-60 approved cruises
To save you the horror of being stuck on a cruise that isn’t right for you, we found out five cruise lines the Over60 community love.
1. Norwegian Pearl (Norwegian Cruise Line)
“We sailed from Vancouver on the Norwegian Pearl. Having used this line previously we knew it would be perfect. There was a full commentary broadcast throughout the ship, which really helped in seeing things we would otherwise have missed. Sailing through the inside passage was speculator! Huge chunks of ice breaking off and crashing into the ocean. Majestic peaks jutting out of the mountains for miles and miles. Not many bears, as we travelled early in the season. The sight of whales brought lots of excited gasps and astonishment at watching these gracefully huge creatures leaping out of the ocean. Also, we saw some flying fish travelling next to our boat! Juneau was a great experience. We rode the cable car up the mountain. This gave us an awesome view of the small fishing village and it was snowing, so that provided a picturesque postcard picture.
We then spent an entertaining afternoon at the Red Dog Saloon. This "old time" Saloon provided refreshments (giant crab legs) as well as having a "character" who sang "old time" songs and his jokes were fabulous! We did a bus tour showing native museums with their artefacts from way back and of course, we spent time looking for bears. We sailed back to Seattle which gave us the chance to visit another city.” – Barbara Holmes
2. Rhapsody of the Seas (Royal Caribbean International)
“We boarded in Seattle. It was absolutely wonderful. We stopped off everywhere and saw lots of snow and huge lumps of ice as we slowly made our way to the big glaciers. The second part of the cruise left from Astoria, Oregon, USA. Returning was just as wonderful. We returned all the way to Sydney, stopping at islands everywhere, including Hawaii. In Hawaii, we went to the Arizona memorial and the best part for me was seeing the lava flowing from the volcano at midnight as it hit the sea. The flames went up high in the air. The next morning all the railings and everywhere on the ship was covered with grey ash. They spent the rest of the journey cleaning the ship. The last stop was Fiji. It was a trip of a lifetime, it was three cruises all joined into one for us but a lot of new people got on and off at different places.” – Lorraine Tate
3. Viking Saga Cruise (Holland America)
“We left from Copenhagen and over 15 days we visited Bergen in Norway, Shetland Islands and Faroe Islands. We went to Iceland, Greenland, St John's in Newfoundland, Halifax in Nova Scotia and finally sailed into New York past the Statue of Liberty, very early on the last morning of the cruise. The absolute highlight was Prince Christian Sound in Greenland where we sailed amongst huge icebergs and saw glaciers with icebergs calving from them. It was nature at its best and so close!
If the weather is clear the Northern Lights are visible but we only had a glimpse before the fog rolled in. We aren't huge cruise fans but enjoyed every minute of this one right down to the cooking demonstration by the Captain who was a bit of a comedian. He was cooking a Dutch Apple Tart. Someone asked what made it different to any other Apple Tart and his response was, 'Well I'm Dutch aren't I?' Some of his answers in a Q&A session for passengers were very funny also. It was a great experience with some wonderful ports of call in remote and urban locations. It is one holiday I would gladly do again.” – Narelle Carlson
4. Celebrity Millennium cruise (Celebrity Cruises)
“Alaska had always been on our to do list so when the chance came we took it. It was part of a back to back Celebrity Millennium cruise. As it was early spring there was still ice and snow around, though the weather was beautiful. The scenery was just breath taking, being able to walk to see a glacier & waterfall, icebergs, whales, sea otters and bald eagles. The air was so crisp and clean, the colours Alaska was just so much more than we could have imagined. We would love to go again maybe later in the summer/autumn to see the change in colours. The forests, small towns, their customs just to walk around in were amazing. The people were friendly and each port of call gave us a wonderful send off. It was just so much more than we ever expected it certainly didn’t disappoint. We want to go again.” – John and Margie Barnes-Mayman
5. Oceania Marina (Oceania cruises)
“Our cruise started in Barcelona where we boarded the Oceania Marina which is an absolutely amazing cruise ship. Our next stop was Marseille then to Monte Carlo. This was the highlight of our trip.
Then we went on to Italy and went to Cinque Terre and Livorno where we went to see the Tower of Pisa. Next was Sardegna where we went to Costa Smeralda, followed by Trapani in Sicily then on to Valletta in Malta back to Sicily seeing Catania. Then we sailed to Sorrento and finally finished in Civitavecchia in Rome. For the majority of the cities we did our own touring mainly on the hop on hop off buses. The service and ambience on the ship was amazing.” – Teresina Riitano
Share your favourite cruise experience in the comments below.