It is all a bit of a cliché — the silver-haired retirees heading off on a leisurely, extended sea voyage, mingling with hordes of fellow sixtysomethings. Well this image, we are being assured, is out of date: the cruiser of the 21st century is young, fun and full of adventure.

Cruise operators today are increasingly targeting the younger cruiser, introducing packages and facilities aimed at enticing more under-60s on board.

The move is partly because they see rich pickings in this relatively untapped market, but also because the traditional over-60s market is, well, a dying breed.

Marc Bennett, director of Cruise Thomas Cook, says: “Innovation within the cruise industry is helping to attract a newer cruising customer and one which is predominantly younger. Forty to fifty per cent of our annual cruise business comes from the new-to-cruise market, of which a significant number are in the 30-45 age bracket — a trend that has only just begun to emerge.”

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This newer and younger cruise demographic is being attracted by facilities such as Royal Caribbean International’s FlowRider surf simulator and rock climbing walls; family-orientated events such as P&O’s Noddy and Mr Bump shows; and better-quality children’s clubs and family-friendly itineraries, including educational and historical stop-offs.

Elsewhere there are ice rinks and bowling alleys, ships on which you can eat pizza 24 hours a day and do “backstage” tours to the bridge. NCL even has a White Hot themed dance night on every cruise (all very Miami), the first true ice bar at sea and a Bliss Ultra Lounge nightclub on two of its boats featuring big velvet beds, which make them more like LA nightclubs than cruise liners.

Similarly, when Virgin Holidays Cruises launched in 2007, the strategy involved inviting young celebrities on board to help to dispel the myth that cruising is the unique preserve of older people. It also focused on a “ship-to-shore” proposition, giving cruisers the chance to include a beach or city break before the cruise.

Leslie Peden, managing director, says: “We have noticed that the younger generation are cruise- curious — they would consider a cruise but tailoring the experience to suit them, as well as making it young, fun and relevant, is very important. The average age of people cruising is reducing consistently year on year.”

Costa Cruises is another young and vibrant cruise line with an average passenger age of 47 and a host of facilities including 4D cinema (a multi-sensory experience in which people wear 3D glasses and the seats move about), PlayStation World and a grand prix driving simulator.

While some operators still cater mainly for the sedate, older brigade, others are promoting the more ruggedly active side of their cruises and pulling in younger voyagers. Sarina Bratton, the founder and managing director of Orion Expedition Cruises, says: “I saw a gap in the market aimed at the younger-at-heart and more adventurous traveller seeking new experiences that traditional cruising companies could not offer.”

Orion, the company’s purpose-built vessel, is designed to access hard-to-reach destinations, including Papua New Guinea and Antarctica. “The very nature of our operation means that we encourage people to get off, get on board the Zodiacs and experience the natural phenomena and wildlife of the region,” Bratton says.

Choice of destination counts for much in this market — Royal Caribbean even offers trips to the hedonistic party destination of Ibiza, doing a four-night cruise for £290 a person, excluding flights and including visits to Barcelona.

Cruises can sometimes be very rigid affairs, but some lines are deliberately creating a more unstructured product. NCL has introduced a Freestyle Cruising initiative on all its ships, which means there are no set meals or stiff dress codes.

Cruising attracts around 1.5 million passengers from Britain each year, against the 16 million that go on a package holiday, so many players say the opportunity to interest a younger demographic remains huge.

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