How old are we

[gfwgfw]

Bleeding Heck

The Cerne Giant is circa at least 1300 years old and counting

Lubbooo all

gfwgfw

[Mervyn and Trish]

Sorry Giant. I neglected to provide an "Over 1300" option in the survey.

[oldbluefox]

No it's a Samsung 5(6). Anyway I thought albums were called L.P.'s. I can sit in bed in the morning and look at Yahoo, BBC, and CC. But I have such big fingers that trying to write anything makes lots of mistakes on that fiddling little imaginary keyboard. Why cant they make a bigger one for grown ups, they could call it an iPad.

I had the same problem Frank but I bought this bluetooth qwerty keypad thingy and it is brilliant, it is very light and charges up via a USB cable and it always goes in my hand luggage when on the move. It is a bit bulky to carry around with you but then I use the voice recognition facility, the only problem with that is people think I am talking to myself but at my age I suppose they think this is normal.

I saw one today in Home Bargains for £10.99 so not expensive.

[Not so ancient mariner]

I was referring to the question in the first posting

"Are we representative of the established market or the new target one?"

In answer to your second answer, NO we are not the representative of the established market or new target one. It just represents this forum. If the group polled are from a select age group, 50+ you then cannot take the answer, ie 100% are over 50 and say that the cruise industry has got it wrong by marketing their ships towards the under 50s.

It is like saying, we, this forum has 1500 members so why built ships of 2000+ as it is a waste os space.

I didn't say we were representative of P&O's clientele as a whole, and nor was it me who asked the original question.........

[Mervyn and Trish]

Whoa this is getting a bit strange. The question was entirely about the age profile of this group, to try to get a rough (not scientific) idea of whether we are mostly from the old guard or the younger market the cruise companies are trying the attract.

It was to understand the pattern of our views in some of the other discussions, not to suggest the cruise industry are right or wrong. It was never intended to be statistically robust, any more than any other poll on this site, and I have no plan to present it to the marketing departments as a guide to future policy. My unscientific conclusion is we are mostly the old guard, which is no surprise and fits the way we, as a whole, seem to think on other issues.

But to offer a view on that last point, they can't be wrong to try to attract younger people, because they will be the market when us older ones are pushing up daisies.

However, they would be very wrong if in doing so they alienated the older market, whom it is quite clear on most cruises (P&O at least - my most common experience) make up a big majority of their current passengers.

And in a growing and diverse market it would be bonkers if all the cruise lines targeted the same people.

Years ago working in radio I was challenged by my bosses about the age profile of the station I was running at the time. They pointed to another station with a younger average aged listener and said why couldn't we be more like them. I showed them the figures which proved we actually had more young listeners than the other station and that we could match their overall audience and profile exactly if I lined up one third of my older listeners against a wall and shot them. They got my point.

And the cruise conundrum is the same. They want and indeed need more younger people, but there is no point if for every new youngster they lose two oldies.

[CaroleF]

Well said Mervyn. Surely too it's the older ones who take the longer trips, who do the World trips and if P&O lost these people in trying to focus too much on the younger element they would lose revenue. Very difficult trying to please two different sectors at the same time, well nigh impossible I should think. They have to give everyone something they like to keep them re-booking.

Carole

[Mike B]

Thanks for the welcome Silver_Shiney,

I should point out that it isn't 80 against 60 but 72 against 67, which narrows the gap a little.

Regards Mike B

[oldbluefox]

I don't understand any headlong rush to attract the younger cruisers. By all means cater for them within the organisation but cruise lines need their older clientele just as much as their younger ones. Don't forget that the current crop of youngsters will be older one day and if there is no niche for them they will go elsewhere where there is one.

Btw welcome Mike B.

[Onelife]

I don't understand any headlong rush to attract the younger cruisers. By all means cater for them within the organisation but cruise lines need their older clientele just as much as their younger ones. Don't forget that the current crop of youngsters will be older one day and if there is no niche for them they will go elsewhere where there is one.

Btw welcome Mike B.

Yes foxy....and by the time most of these so called young cruisers reach 40 they will be looking for the same things we are......now where did l put my slippers?

[Mervyn and Trish]

Mine are in their nice little bag in the wardrobe

[oldbluefox]

I don't understand any headlong rush to attract the younger cruisers. By all means cater for them within the organisation but cruise lines need their older clientele just as much as their younger ones. Don't forget that the current crop of youngsters will be older one day and if there is no niche for them they will go elsewhere where there is one.

Btw welcome Mike B.

Yes foxy....and by the time most of these so called young cruisers reach 40 they will be looking for the same things we are......now where did l put my slippers?

Hear, hear OL. Of course they will!! And they will have the same moans we have at the moment.

[Mervyn and Trish]

I don't understand any headlong rush to attract the younger cruisers. By all means cater for them within the organisation but cruise lines need their older clientele just as much as their younger ones. Don't forget that the current crop of youngsters will be older one day and if there is no niche for them they will go elsewhere where there is one.

Btw welcome Mike B.

Yes foxy....and by the time most of these so called young cruisers reach 40 they will be looking for the same things we are......now where did l put my slippers?

Hear, hear OL. Of course they will!! And they will have the same moans we have at the moment.

A moaning cruiser? Surely not!

[Silver_Shiney]

Don't forget that the current crop of youngsters will be older one day and if there is no niche for them they will go elsewhere where there is one.

If the "current crop" see what's on offer now with the likes of Ventura/Azura/Britannia/RCI behemoths, they may well regard that as "the standard" and that will be their niche market.

I haven't been cruising as long as most of you and I love the current P&O/Cunard product, but understand from many comments here that it's very different from it used to be. However, it's what I'm used to now and, to me, it's the norm.

It's my opinion that the newer ships will be seen by the "current crop" as the norm and the smaller ships that many of us like will be phased out as we ourselves "phase out"

[oldbluefox]

That makes an assumption that the current crop will like the same things in later years as they do now. My likes/dislikes and tastes are vastly different to what they were even 10 years ago and it is only natural we look for something more relaxing as we get older. Some older people dislike the larger ships for the simple reason they find distances too great hence I can see there will always be a market for smaller and medium sized ships. Whether the cruise lines realise this we can only wait and see.

[towny44]

That makes an assumption that the current crop will like the same things in later years as they do now. My likes/dislikes and tastes are vastly different to what they were even 10 years ago and it is only natural we look for something more relaxing as we get older. Some older people dislike the larger ships for the simple reason they find distances too great hence I can see there will always be a market for smaller and medium sized ships. Whether the cruise lines realise this we can only wait and see.

You can always check what new builds are on the order books Foxy, there are lots of websites out there, all of them give the tonnage and passenger capacity, and some even break it down into segments.
So its easy to see what will be coming available and with which lines, of course if you want your size preference with P&O then write to them direct and let them know.