Costa-del-anywhere: how cruising became the ultimate holiday destination

It wasn’t long ago that cruise ships exulted the sort of terror you might associate with a disaster film: mid-Covid pandemic, disease spreading like wildfire, no escape.

In our collective imagination, cruise ships have often been a byword for the elderly – an easy, hassle-free, movement-limited mode of travel that suits the needs of a certain generation. You might be surprised, however, to find that the average age of cruisers is on the decline.

Somewhat remarkably, the heterotopic holiday vessel has experienced an epic comeback over the last few years, with cruise ship bookings positively booming in 2024. This growth is coming from the most unlikely of places, too, as Gen Z and young millennials are stepping on board.

In a 2023 survey conducted by Civic Science, Gen Z was recorded as the most likely generation to show interest in going on a cruise – a higher proportion than any other age demographic. Large cruise operators, meanwhile, have reported growing numbers of younger people on board, with cruise tycoon Royal Caribbean reporting that half of their customers are now Gen Z and millennials. It seems there’s a new set of sealegs on deck.

But what are cruise ships offering young people that activities on solid ground can’t? As an age group that’s been persistently described as the stay-at-home generation – that is, prone to spending lots of time in online spaces, nightlife-shy and somewhat insular – could this be the ultimate stay-at-home holiday? A way to have everything from your day-to-day life replicated, alongside a few added gimmicks and some cultural highlights – say, a short stint in Jamaica or a photo op next to Venice’s Grand Canal. Plus, there’s the risk-free late night partying: no need to navigate a foreign transport system, fewer language barriers, and, hopefully, a decreased likelihood of encountering unsavoury characters. If you get too drunk, you don’t even need to think about getting home – you’re already there.

A cruise cuts out the in-between, the hassle, the faff… and, quite possibly, the real world. You might just lose the texture of a place and its people, but no matter. On-board, experiences are served up on a platter, as comfort, familiarity and safety are optimised over the unexpected.

For Newcastle-based couple Alexis, 29, and Dan, 28, the ease and consistency of a cruise is a major part of their appeal. The pair’s foray into sea-faring territory began as a happy compromise: Dan was keen on an all-inclusive, while Alexis had a desire to see the world. Jumping on a cruise, then, ticked both of those boxes: far-flung travel without the hassle of planning. It was an instant hit: ​“Maybe two, three days in, Dan was like, ​‘I’d happily cruise like this forever,’” Alexis says.

For Dan, the main selling point was comfort. ​“There’s that safety net of [knowing] we’re going to come back and have a three-course dinner at the end,” he says. ​“I was never going to go hungry for anything.”

On his and Alexis’ most recent cruise – 12 nights in Japan for their honeymoon – “[Dan] was able to have a steak pretty much every day,” she says. That being said, the make-believe English pub on their last trip to the Caribbean left a lot to be desired. ​“I wanted a pint of Strongbow [but was served] American Strongbow, which was sweet and not right,” as Dan puts it. It was a clone pint: bittersweet and slightly uncanny.

Undeterred, however, the couple plan to continue cruising for the foreseeable, buoyed by the no-surprises safety afforded by such a holiday. ​“We like the luxury of it. I think you feel very spoiled on a cruise ship,” they add. But cruising tends to be an expensive option, as Dan and Alexis, who are both teachers, point out. To them, knowing exactly what you’re going to get is worth paying for, and anyway, ​“it’s an easier way to budget because it’s all-inclusive.”

This is a mindset that fits our climate of optimised spending – like ensuring you’ve checked a restaurant’s Google ratings before eating out, or reading all the reviews before heading to the cinema. It’s the act of putting down a deposit on a good time, a behaviour which has left us less open to surprises and more prone to experiencing things in a strangely double-layered way.

We’re obsessed with getting the most bang for our buck and capitalising on, well, everything. The cruise is the perfect example of our collective eagerness to stretch money, experiences, and time ever further. The industry commodifies places and cultures as fleeting, one-stop experiences, like holiday speed-dating. The more places you’re able to tick off in one trip, the likelier you are to have a successful holiday (or so goes the formula).

If cruise ship holidaying is defying stereotypes in the kind of crowd it attracts, other tropes associated with it, such as a lack of awareness and a tourist mindset, often still hold true. During their time in Japan, for example, Dan and Alexis mentioned there was a typhoon which led to the deaths of local people. The ship was inevitably rerouted by the captain. For the couple, this was no problem, but for others on board, the change in itinerary didn’t go down well. ​“People were like, ​‘Well, when are they going to give us compensation?’” Alexis says. Everyone on board was swiftly awarded a bottle of wine for the ​‘inconvenience’.

Kyle, a 24-year-old gambling journalist from London, has also found himself roped in by the predictable nature of a cruise. ​“For me, one of the key selling points is reliability,” he says, having recently embarked on a Caribbean cruise.

“[I’ve] been on some honking holidays in the past and there are so many variables. You don’t know what the food’s going to be like, what the rooms are going to be like.” On a cruise, he continues, ​“you get treated a bit like a VIP for the week. Everything’s done for you. Everything is designed for you to have a good time.”

Not to mention you essentially have access to a 24-hour, all-you-can-eat buffet while on board. The choices are endless: ​“It’s just got every single different type of food you can imagine,” he says. ​“They do food at all hours of the day, it’s mental. If you want a slice of pizza at four in the morning, you will find a slice of pizza at four in the morning.” Want to see for yourself? TikTokers such as @corysworldd and @charleyjenni have carefully documented the experience.

On a cruise, Kyle emphasises, ​“You’re never hungry or thirsty” – referring, as Dan did, to the comfort of knowing that a juicy steak will always be on the menu.

Having such an abundance of options at your fingertips reflects the society of convenience we’ve evolved towards, where services like Deliveroo, Amazon, and Uber all offer comfort sans exertion. The multitude of stop-offs on a cruise reflect this bloated variety.

​“I think we’ve all been on a holiday where you turn up and think, ​‘Fuck me it’s going to be a long week’ because you don’t like where you are. If you’re there for six hours, you [don’t have to worry about that] ” Kyle says. ​“It’s complete freedom to do what you want, which sounds weird because it’s on a boat.”

An extension of the all-inclusive, a cruise is largely a replication of the place you’ve just left – home – only enhanced and all in one space. This year, Caribbean Cruises launched the closest thing that has ever come to a city on water: Icon of the Seas, the largest cruise ship in the world. It has eight neighbourhoods, more than 40 restaurants and bars, and even a ​“central park” you can take leisurely strolls in.

If a 20-deck, 250-tonne cruise ship with technicolour waterslides unfurling from its stern is now the Madonna of our oceans, should we be somewhat concerned?

Icon of the Seas offers its customers all the comforts and excesses of Western life, in a kind of Disneyfied way. There’s a water park, an ice rink, a waterfall, an arcade, and a lot more. Areas of the ship have inflated names such as ​“Flow Rider” (presumably the surf pool), ​“Adrenaline Peak” (the climbing wall), ​“Thrill Island” (waterslides). It’s exaggerated, fantastical and theme-parkish, the stuff of fantasy. If Barbie’s dream house was a cruise ship, it would probably be this.

These cruisezillas are hyper-sanitised, hyper-capitalist spaces. Royal Caribbean has even bought an island in the Bahamas which it has turned into a theme park. Why visit the Bahamas when you can go on a roller coaster in the Bahamas? Like the spaceship in Wall‑E, cruises simulate reality, rather than touch base with it.

For 24-year-old Anusha, a PR executive from London, this feeling of enhanced reality was exactly the problem. Cruising with her family across Europe this summer ​“felt very American, very capitalist. It basically felt like you were in a massive shopping centre.”

The 24-hour American diner and inevitable British boozer on the ship left her unpersuaded. The knock-off pub was decked-out with fake wood and crusty red carpets, Brit-pop blaring in the background, the smell of lager in the air – aesthetic choices that left her feeling even more adrift.

​“You feel very disconnected,” Anusha says. Detachment, then, is her main takeaway from the whole experience. On her cruise, WiFi came at an additional cost, which meant she had no contact with the outside world. Even in her and her sister’s room, never mind the actual ocean, there was an illuminated screen of blue waters. ​“It was so blinding and disorientating,” she says. Add dystopian to that.

It isn’t surprising that cruise ships have been likened to reality TV shows, given the contained nature of these spaces. Another one of Caribbean Cruises’ ships, Serenade of the Seas, went viral earlier this year when its nine-month cruise started trending. Naturally, we became increasingly fascinated with the specific cast of characters confined to the seas for the same period as a pregnancy. What drama could possibly gestate on board?

For Kyle, a particular highlight of the cruise experience is the social side. ​“Everyone’s there to have a good time, everyone chats,” he says. You’re all in the same boat, for lack of a better phrase. Was the crowd on board younger than he imagined? ​“Oh yeah,” he says. ​“There [are] a lot of people your age, and bars and clubs open until very late. It’s just a feel-good vibe.”

And there’s no stopping the tried-and-tested one-night stand, even with the added risk of running into them at the breakfast buffet. ​“There were people there just looking for a good time,” Anusha says. ​“There was this one girl who shagged three guys on the ship.”

As more young people step on board cruises, the industry is offering a wider variety of experiences for their increasingly Gen Z and millennial audience. ​“We see this as a growing trend over the coming years, as Royal Caribbean’s ship and destination offering for younger guests continues to evolve,” a spokesperson told THE FACE. Some operators, for example, specifically cater to a crowd who are up for some chaos. There’s the festival on a cruise ship, Groove Cruise, setting sail from Miami to Haiti with a pounding line-up of EDM DJs.

One Reddit thread reads: ​“It’s a party. A nonstop party. You will get fomo [sic] from just trying to catch a little bit of sleep. There’s really nothing else like it. 96 hours of non-stop peak partying. If your body isn’t in near peak physical and mental shape, do not try to keep up with others.”

Virgin Voyages, which provides cruises across the Caribbean, Europe and North America, has also marketed itself as a trip for adults: slightly sexy, slightly sleazy. They launched with the slogan ​“sail our ships with sass” and provide cruisers with wristbands/​room keys tagged ​“Feelin’ Nauti”. Other Reddit threads point to the ubiquity of swingers on board. Notably (thankfully), kids are banned.

Voyages’ campaign video last year largely positioned the cruise as a place to party, with every kind of celebratory occasion mashed together: pool party, Day of the Dead, Carnival, cabaret, drag. In short, something for everyone.

If you’re looking for a getaway that’s got young people who are up for a good time, the pub-on-sea and home comforts at your fingertips, perhaps cruising is for you. Never mind the rite-of-passage booze-up or romantic getaway on land – if things keep going this way, things might just migrate onto international waters.

If anything further cements our inclination towards fully optimised convenience culture, surely it’s this trend. As Alexis puts it: ​“I always say the biggest selling point for me is that you only have to unpack and pack once”. Maximised options, minimised exertion, and, if you pick right, a decent steak dinner.