Adult-only cruises are very popular for lots of reasons. Many people want to totally relax when they are away, and although it’s great to have children around, sometimes you just want some peace and quiet!

Some cruise lines, like Virgin Voyages, are completely adult-only. Others, like Marella and P&O, have adult-only ships in their fleets.

In this article, we look at my favourite adult-only cruising experiences, and I explain what I liked about them.

Advantages of Adult-Only Cruises

There are lots of advantages to taking an adult-only cruise if you are not cruising with children.

• Often, you find that the prices of adult-only cruises don’t go up disproportionally during school holidays. While the fares go up in peak seasons, like summer and Christmas, the prices aren’t hiked just because children are on school holiday.
• This is great for teachers and others in the education sector. They probably have seen more than their fair share of children in term time and deserve a few weeks to themselves!
• Often you find the pools and sunbathing areas less busy, and you can swim without being splashed or divebombed.
• Large areas of the ships aren’t given up to the kids’ clubs and children’s activities. Whilst I have no problem with finding these areas on ships, I don’t ever go near them, so that part of the ship is just wasted space for me.

How Marella, P&O and Virgin Ships Compare

	Marella	P&O	Virgin Voyages
How Many Adult only ships?	1	2	4
Names of Ships	Explorer 2	Aurora & Arcadia	Scarlet Lady Valliant Lady Brilliant Lady Resilient Lady
Number of Passengers	1,814	1,878 & 2094	2,770
Drinks Included?	Yes	No	No
Flights and Transfers included as standard?	Yes	No	No
Daily Gratutuies Charged?	No	No	No
Free WiFi?	No	No	Yes

Adult-Only Experiences To Consider

Marella Explorer 2

Marella has one adult-only ship, Marella Explorer 2.

Family holidays are great, but if you’re in need of some peace and quiet, and a break from the daily nine to five, an adults-only cruise is just the ticket. Our ship, Marella Explorer 2 comes up trumps in this department. The whole ship’s exclusively reserved for grown-ups. Think less kids’ club and splash pools, and more spas and sophisticated dining.

Marella

Marella Explorer 2 has lots to offer the adult cruiser:

• A Spa, Beauty Salon, Saunas and fitness classes
• Included and Speciality Restaurants
• A British pub and a range of other bars to choose from
• The Verandah – a terraced area over two decks, full of day beds for relaxation
• A Broadway Show Lounge (theatre)
• Indigo – a bar, club and casino all rolled into one

I took a long weekend cruise over a Bank Holiday Easter weekend on Marella Explorer 2. I took a friend along who is a teacher – and was very keen to have a child-free break!

This cruise sailed from Palma, Mallorca and sailed to Alicante, Valencia and Barcelona.

This cruise fitted the bill perfectly – find out how we got on here:

Things I loved:

• Marella are an all-inclusive cruise line
  • Drinks, transfers, tips and flights are all included.
  • This makes this a really easy cruise to take, everything was taken care of
  • Marella cruises are very good value, you are unlikely to end up with a large onboard bill to pay at the end of your cruise.

Things I wasn’t so keen on:

• It was very busy in the ports because it was over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend
• Our cabin was above the smoking area
  • I would recommend you avoid an Aft Cabin if this would worry you.

Who Would I Recommend Marella Explorer 2 To?

All Marella ships are great for those who want a fully inclusive cruise experience.

All flights, transfers and a range of drinks are included within the cruise fare.

You are looked after from start to finish, so great for nervous travellers!

Marella cruises are great fun, and there is lots of great entertainment on offer.

Marella ships are older but refurbished to a high standard. If you want the newest, largest ship, then Marella probably isn’t for you.

If you want a great all-around adult-only cruise experience – you can’t go far wrong with Marella they do what they do very well!

Find out all about the ships in Marella’s fleet here:

Marella Cruises, Ships by Size – Photo Guide and Reviews

P&O – Aurora and Arcadia – Adult-Only Ships

P&O has two ships reserved for adult-only cruising. These ships are very different from the newest, family-oriented mega-ships, Iona and Arvia.

I haven’t yet sailed on Arcadia. It is a bigger ship than Aurora; she holds 2,094 guests and 866 crew. She has a more modern feel to her than the more traditional ship Aurora, but it is very popular with passengers.

I have sailed on Aurora, and really enjoyed the experience.

Aurora

Aurora is the oldest and smallest ship in the P&O fleet. I recently took a short cruise on her from Southampton.

Our smallest ship, Aurora has a slightly more intimate feel. She offers a luxurious spa and salon and a retractable roof over her inviting Crystal pool.
Step aboard and you’ll find everything you need including fine dining, quiet and lively bars, pools, luxurious spa and salon, gym, fitness classes and shops.

P&O Cruises

Aurora is a small, traditional ship and has a capacity of 1,874 guests and 850 crew

I honestly wasn’t expecting much. Lots of my cruise blogging friends were going on this trip, and it was a great place for us all to meet up.

We were all coming from different parts of the country, and if we had met up in a hotel on land, it would have cost us far more than taking this cruise.

We sailed to Bruges, Belgium. The weather was so bad when we arrived that we decided to stay onboard and enjoy the ship instead!

I will be looking out for a longer cruise on this ship, as I would love to sail on her again.

Much to my surprise, I loved Aurora! Although she is old, she has a wonderful ambience.

I loved the wonderful teak decks, the tiered Aft and the amount of space per person the ship seemed to have – compared to the newer ships in the fleet.

Prior to 2019, Aurora wasn’t an adult-only ship. She underwent refurbishment and the kids club area was transformed into cabins, some of them for solo cruisers.

************link to aurora video when complete. *******************************************************

Things I loved:

• The traditional feel and general ambience of the ship
  • The tiered aft, teak decks, and the general sleek shape of the ship
• It felt less crowded than larger, newer ships in the P&O fleet
  • it seemed to have more space per person.
  • There wasn’t additional charge food, drink and shopping options constantly on offer, as you tend to find on the new mega-ships.

Things That I Wasn’t So Keen On

• The dated decor in the cabins
  • Lots of mid-brown wood everywhere
  • Not enough plug sockets
  • Older-style TV sets, fixtures and fittings in the cabins

Who Would I Recommend P&O Aurora To?

I would recommend P&O Aurora to those who like a traditional, old-fashioned cruise experience. The ship has a lovely ambience, it’s not overcrowded or lively.

As Aurora is a smaller ship, it can visit smaller ports the mega ships can’t get to. It would be great for a cruise with a port-intensive itinerary.

P&O offer good value cruises, and gratuities are included as standard. The only thing you really need to budget for is drinks.

If you want Water Parks, Go-Kart tracks, Bumper Cars and Broadway-style theatre performances – this isn’t the cruise ship for you!

If you want a more relaxed time, good food and entertainment on a characterful, smaller ship – you can’t really go wrong with Aurora.

Virgin Voyages

Virgin Voyages is a completely adult-only cruise line. Its first ship, Scarlett Lady, began sailing in 2021.

Since then, Resilient Lady, Valliant Lady and Brilliant Lady have joined the fleet

It’s not just where you go, but how you get there
Sea the world on Virgin Voyages cruise ships: the adults-only, award-winning cruise line with always included luxuries and the most 5-star reviews on TripAdvisor.

Virgin Voyages

Virgin Voyages burst onto the cruising market, offering a different type of cruise to a much younger target market.

They were keen to move away from the traditional, stuffy cruise image and have ships full of modern technology. They are one of the few lines that offer WiFi to guests as standard.

They have moved away from the traditional cruise ship dining experience, offering a number of eateries, all included in the cruise fare. It feels like you are going to a speciality dining venue every night.

Instead of the traditional cruise cards, passengers – or “sailors” as they are known on Virgin, wear high-tech wristbands to open their cabin doors and charge items to their accounts

You can use this band to open your cabin door and charge purchases to your account, similar to how you would use a traditional cruise card.

Virgin Voyages has an App from which you can book dining and other experiences. Unfortunately, when I was onboard, the App wasn’t working well, but I am sure that they have worked out the initial teething issues now.

This did mean that we couldn’t book to go to all of the restaurants that we wanted to, as they were fully booked by others who had managed to get the App to work.

When I first went to the press launch of Scarlett Lady in Dover, I was unimpressed.

This is because many things -like the tablets to control the lights in the cabins – weren’t installed. No mention was made that the ship was unfinished, but they clearly weren’t ready for the launch.

Find out how I got on on my last trip with Virgin Voyages here. I am pleased to report that many of the original teething issues had been solved!

Things I loved:

• The food and food options were of a very high quality
  • Lots of Vegan and Vegetarian options
• The casual approach to uniforms for crew
  • Many crew have tattoos and brightly coloured and unusual hairstyles, which was great to see.
• Virgin Voyages offer active cruises, not sedentary cruises
  • You will find free exercise classes, a large gym and a totally separate running track onboard
• Lots of plug sockets and USB’s in the cabin, as you would expect on such a modern ship.
• The hammocks on the balconies were really comfortable!
  • On most cruise ship balconies, you find two standard chairs and a small table if you are really lucky!

Things I wasn’t so keen on:

• All the ships are totally identical and painted in battleship grey with red highlights
  • It wouldn’t matter which Virgin ship you sailed on – which means I don’t feel the need to try the other newer ships in the fleet
• The pool is far too small for a ship of that size
  • There is only one pool on deck, and it is too small to swim in
• No deck plans on the App
  • I get lost very easily, I like a deck plan!
• Very small bathrooms in the cabins
  • The main cabin itself is a decent-size

Who Would I Recommend Virgin Voyages To?

If you want to get away from the traditional cruise experience, Virgin Voyages might be for you!

If you want to party late into the night, you like quirky, spontaneous entertainment instead of nightly theatre performances, and health and fitness are important to your daily routine, then you will probably like Virgin Voyages.

There are many fabulous food choices, with smaller restaurants. They don’t have a main dining room like all other ships I have sailed on. Virgin Voyages are great for “foodies”.

No one could ever accuse Virgin Voyages of being old-fashioned or stuffy. Although their target market is a younger demographic, I saw cruisers of all ages when I sailed on Scarlett Lady.

There are other cruise lines that offer adult-only cruise experiences that you may wish to consider:

• Fred Olsen – A traditional British Cruise Line sailing from regional UK ports
• Ambassador – Another British Cruise Line, at the budget end when it comes to cruise fares, offers some adult-only sailings
• Viking Ocean Cruises – A luxury cruise line that only takes passengers over 18 years of age
• Saga – A 50+ luxury British cruise line offering all-balcony cabins, drinks and transfers as standard

Before You Go

Find out why more young people are cruising than ever here:

Are Cruises For Young People? Why are more young people cruising Than Ever?

If you are young and on a budget, which cruise lines would be likely to suit you? Find out in the article below:

8 of The Best Cruise Lines For Young Adults – By Price