Opinions Wanted- Dynamic of Mediterranean Cruise

[CScott095]

A few years ago we did an Alaska cruise on DCL and the dynamic of the passenger mix was odd. (Very few children, lots of elderly families with adult disabled children, very little nightlife, lots of non English speaking large groups, etc). Has anyone done a July/Aug Mediterranean DCL cruise and what did you find the passenger dynamic to be?

 

[kiford]

Predominantly adult. We did a June and a September Med cruise. I know on the September one, we were told that there were only 300 children on board in comparison to the normal 800-900. This was in the first/second week of September so I expect that most kids were back at school. I don't know how many children were on board the June one - we mostly spend our time in the adults-only areas and we did a lot of adult-only excursions that cruise. I recall that on both cruises, it was difficult to find seating at the adult only pool all day long.

We don't do nightlife. We do late dining and by 11 pm are usually ready for bed especially since a lot of the excursions require you to meet at 7 am. By then, we're exhausted. So I don't know how busy those areas were. But DCL isn't really known for nightlife regardless of the cruise location or demographic.

There were definitely more Europeans than on Caribbean cruises. I only know this because they announced the passenger country breakdown one night but I can't say how many were non-English speaking. My experience has been in Europe that most people, especially in larger cities, tend to speak at least some level of English. Even in my in-laws little village in Germany, the children are taught English in school. The older folks may not (some don't even speak German - they only speak Bavarian) but my cousins-in-law all are able to understand me and are able to hold at least some level of conversation with me in English.

 

[linetbo]

Our Mediterranean Cruise was on May 31st 2014 and my daughter was 14th, she did a lot of friends in that cruise. I can't remember exactly how many children's were the at that time, but the Vibe club was full of teen. We met people from the States, UK, Spain, Mexico, Belgium, etc.

 

[bbel]

Kid wise for the Med, around 600-700 on board for the whole season - which is around the same numbers as Alaska, however I feel the clubs were quieter in Alaska.
Culture wise, a much bigger mix of guests from a lot more countries around the world than any other itinerary I've seen, however the majority seemed to speak English, including the kids, even if it's not their first language.
As for nightlife, I can't really comment, but I can go by what I've witnessed, like all longer cruises I feel it's a lot quieter, the Med, like Alaska, has long port days and people tend to get up early to make the most of it so maybe prefer an early night...

 

[aflynn33]

I was on the September 10th 2016 cruise with my husband. I don't know how many children were on the cruise, but was probably close to 600. There were also many families from the Middle East and Europe. Then we did the Transatlantic, which had less the 200 children. There were many different nationalities, but heavily
American and British (at least by my observation). To be honest although the TA was relaxing and enjoyable, the Med Cruise was way more fun. I agree with bbel, on the Med it was early to bed, early to rise, so we missed a lot of nightlife. We made it up on the TA, though.

 

[AinW]

My DD (then 13) & I did a 2 week DCL Med cruise in June 2014 (Barcelona to Venice). It was awesome & we are trying the Baltic this June.

There were about 40/60 Europeans to Americans/Canadians. Most spoke good English or at least one family member did. Definitely a quieter vibe because only 2 sea days & long port days.

A good number of kids (compared to a November Med Celebrity cruise I've done) but did not overwhelm. All 3 families at our table had only 1 child.

Hope this helps!

 

[gismo1554]

Also with the med cruises - it will depend on dates. A lot of Europeans tend to holiday in July & August due to school dates (most European schools are off during this period) so these tend to have more family and children on. The September and May ones tend to have a few more adults in general.