Cruise Lines

Interesting e-mail from Joe in response to my column a couple of weeks ago in the Telegraph looking at whether the cruising bubble can continue in view of the credit crunch and ever-rising fuel surcharges.

Swan Hellenic are now writing to passengers who are sailing in 2009, promising no surcharges if they pay in full by July 2008. They state possible surcharge figures of £20+ a day.......

Clever how the surcharge has become a tool to get clients to book and pay for their cruises asap. Clouds and silver linings spring to mind.

An interesting selection of wierd and wonderful new themed cruises are coming out of the Crystal Cruises' stable for 2009.

There's fashion and style with fashion shows and design excursions, photography, even a chance and fortune cruise, which sounds more like a way to get people to spend more time - and money - in the casino.

But it's the tennis that appeals most:

Tennis - experts provide onboard instruction and insights in anticipation of Wimbledon.

 

They'll be getting real grass on board next. No wait. That idea's already been taken by Celebrity Cruises.

It was good to hear from Andy Stuart, Norwegian Cruise Line's executive vice-president and chief product officer, this week that no matter what new stuff they put on the F3 ships, the basic cruise package, with food and entertainment included, will continue.

There have been rumblings that all the new to-be-paid-for nightclub venues suggest the traditional package, which is after all such a strong selling point for the cruise lines - even if they do charge for so much extra these days - could be on its way out at NCL.

Not so, says Stuart. The F3s will continue to include everything that was included but simply add more choice - but that additional choice will probably carry an price.

Example - the private beach club to be on the new F3 ships launching 2010, which will be free to for suite people but an extra for everyone else; likewise the Halo VIP club.

They will probably be great. but have to say my fav is the pool area at the back, which becomes an outdoor Bliss lounge in the evening with double beds, dancing in the pool - OK the bottom comes up to make a stage so it's more dancing on the pool - Chinese food and a big screen where they'll show a sunset if there isn't a real one. How cool is that!

Amid all the doom and gloom of this are-we, aren't-we recession, it's good to see solid proof that cruise sales are buoyant. This comes from Results! Travel, a US travel agency group with 900 locations.

http://www.travelagentcentral.com/consortia/results-travel-survey-shows-growth-cruise-and-resort-sales

Heartening story for agents everywhere in Travel Weekly US this week.

Carnival Cruise Lines' president Gerry Cahill says they have reduced the size of the direct sales department and are putting more resources into getting trade bookings.

What has happened this year is our business with travel agents has grown significantly. Key to us is that the travel agent adds value. If someone is just an order-taker, that doesn't do a lot for us. But when somebody can help add value, they are a very important business partner to us.

http://www.travelweekly.com/article.aspx?id=175928

Yachts of Seabourn president and chief executive officer Pam Conover and Marco Bisagno, president of Mariotti, met up last week to watch as the keels were laid for for two sister luxury 450-passenger yachts launching 2010 and 2011.

 A third sister is already well on the way. Seabourn Odyssey, which also holds 450 passengers, launches next June with a maiden season in the Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea

It's good to see that Peter Deilmann's previous disdain for agents is well and truly over, with a cash bonus the latest evidence that managing director Stuart Perl's really does know the benefit of having the trade on board, so to speak.

The incentive is simple. Agents who book a client on one of four half-price cruises this autumn not only get their standard commission, but an extra £40 per person booked to pocket as well. That's £80 for just one booking for two people, more for more bookings, but I'll leave you to do the maths.

Bookings need to be made before July 31, but with cruises along some of Europe's most iconic rivers at half price - that's less than £400 per person cruise-only on some itineraries - that should surely not be too difficult, especially for agents who know what this river cruise lark is all about.

Stuart Perl says he expecting strong support and a big payout. Not too big, I hope. He is still supposed to be making a profit, after all.

As founder Harley Van Stratten freely admits, the name cruisepricescompared.com hardly trips off the tongue - or indeed the keyboard - but it's hard to think of a moniker that more accurately suits what this new website does.

As my exclusive story in Travel Weekly this week explains, CPC is a marketplace where consumers can come in search of cruise deals and agents can advertise those deals for free. It couldn't get much simpler.

The catch is that if this is to succeed, Van Stratten needs lots of support from agents - and that means registering and putting up your cruise deals fast so there is something there for consumers to buy.

As it costs nothing and registration only takes minutes - or so I am told by Van Stratten, who is waiting by his computer now to OK applications (only ABTA or Travel Trust Association guys please) - it seems silly not to give it a go.

Once you're approved, you're free to put up your cruise deals using a series of drop-down boxes. That bit really is simple - I know because I have had a go.

The site's success also depends on cruise lines and other travel suppliers stumping up cash for adverts, and cruise lines can also pay for weekly slots on the home page to play their DVDs. That money will be ploughed back into cruise consumers' favourite newspapers - the likes of the Telegraph - to get them coming.

After all, a load of great deals with no one to buy them is pretty useless.

I have been picking up a few useful pointers on P&O Cruises' Ventura from Phil at the Cruise Village/Save 'n' Sail as he was on the ship in June and I am on later this month. Ventura, for those who have already forgotten, was launched in April and is the biggest in the P&O fleet, with lots of new-for-P&O stuff on board.

http://www.mycruiseblog.co.uk/

It all sounds pretty good, although he reckons the cover charge in The White Room is too high given the limited choice on the menu. I'll reserve comment on that issue, but I was surprised at the launch to discover that they have gone for flexible pricing in the speciality restaurants so people on shorter cruises pay more. I struggle to see how that can be justified, other than to the bean counters.

But what interested me most is his comment that Freedom dining is not working well because too many people book tables at their preferred sitting time each day so when radom diners turn up to eat, there is no room.

The turn-up-and-dine concept works very well on Princess Cruises (where it is called Anytime Dining) so I wonder what the problem is.

Could it simply be that Princess staff are more experienced at handling flexible dining because they've been doing it for so many years or because P&O people haven't got to grips with this idea of Freedom after so many years of being told when to eat and where to sit.

I just hope things are improving - and fast....

I see that Spirit of Adventure, the one-ship Saga-owned brand for the over-21 market, has bought the 500-passenger Astoria from Dutch-based Club Cruise and will refurb and rename the ship Quest for Adventure, reducing capacity to 450 at the same time.

http://www.cybercruises.com/cruisecolumn_july7.htm

Although mainly direct sell, Saga and Spirit are both sold through Thomas Cook.

Astoria is currently on charter to Transocean Tours and sold in the German market. That's the same company that operates Marco Polo under charter for the UK market.

Last week I reported that the Orient Lines' name - Orient Lines is the company that used to operate Marco Polo - had been acquired from Star Cruises. Now I see Gerry Herod, who started Orient Lines, has just bought a ship - Aegean I - so speculation is naturally rife that it and Orient Lines might about to start a new and beautiful relationship.

And so it all goes around....

Will people pay more to cruise on the giant 220,000-ton Oasis of the Seas just because it's got a Central Park, Boardwalk and all sorts of other amazing features?

Royal Caribbean's chairman and CEO Richard Fain has said it will carry a premium, cruise blogger Anne Campbell questions whether that is realistic when fuel prices are escalating, airlines are taking planes out of the air and experts are determined to talk us into a recession.

http://www.cybercruises.com/cruisecolumn_july7.htm

Of course, Oasis is not due out for another 18 months - the maiden voyage is December 12 2009 - by which time the economy might be on the mend. The question surely is, even if they can afford it, will people buy the principal of paying a premium for a big ship with lots of features?

My thoughts go to the many conversations I've had with passengers resistent to paying $15 or $20 each to dine in a speciality restaurant because food on a cruise is "supposed" to be included in the price and this paying lark is the cruise lines trying to "nickle and dime you".

The classic has to be the man who wrote in response to a piece I wrote in the Telegraph about Gary Rhodes' restaurant on P&O Cruises' Arcadia, saying the food was so bad he wasn't going to pay extra money to try it! I paraphrase, but you get the drift.

If anyone has any thoughts on Oasis and paying extra, I'd love to hear them. 

Fred Olsen Cruise Lines' tours manager Tim Moore has sent me details of CareVacations, set up by Canadians Don and Susan, who saw an opportunity to open a business renting "special equipment" - oxygen, respiratory products, scooters, wheelchairs, walkers and the like - to cruise passengers.

Apparently the idea has gone down a storm in the US, where they are preferred supplier to all the major cruiselines, so now they have set up over here, shipping equipment to European cruisers.

In the States it's quite a common sight to see a person with portable oxygen shopping ... on cruise ships. They are not prepared to be confined to their homes, and neither should Europeans. Someone with impaired mobility may have their own equipment but it may be too large and too heavy for use on cruise ships. Renting lightweight equipment that is compliant with cruise lines' requirements, from CareVacations Ltd., is the answer.

Well they would say that, wouldn't they, but have to admit this sounds a clever idea. Wheelchair prices start at £99 for a week's cruise, £150 for a month, but you can pay £225 for an intriguingly-named newlife quiet concentrator.

Imagine if you could book these through your travel agent at the same time as your cruise? Just a thought...

Just as I am reading on Travelmole that Fred Olsen Cruise Lines has put its surcharge up again - its fifth increase since December, taking it to £6 per passengers per day for the first two occupants of a cabin, with a cap of £50 - I get an email from Olsen HQ telling me that a Christmas hamper worth £100 will be delivered to everyone on Balmoral's pre-Christmas cruise to the Canaries this year in time for the big day.

Wouldn't it just have been easier to wave the fuel surcharge on this cruise and save all those delivery charges, not to mention the fuel used, getting the hampers to everyone?

Sad to see in Travel Weekly that Susan Hooper, managing director EMEA at Royal Caribbean International is leaving the cruise line in September.

Hooper was responsible for persuading her American bosses that Independence of the Seas - the world's biggest cruiseship - could be a success in the UK. Result? The ship was not only named here and is sailing from Southampton this year, but is on sale with a similar selection of Med cruises next year. Suspect that indicates she was right.

Meanwhile, the cruise merry-go-round continues over at MSC Cruises, where Giulio Libutti has taken over from Claudio Baino as managing director, while Stena Line's Lars Olsen has replaced Cunard president and managing director Carol Marlow as Passenger Shipping Association chairman. Olsen was previously chairman of the PSA's ferry section.

Have one too many on the new Carnival Splendor and you'll start to see pink spots in front of your eyes. No wait. That's what you see if you are stone-cold sober.

Carnival's new baby is a real vision in pink - another creation from Joe Farcus, the man behind all the over-the-top designs on Carnival ships, and lately the Costa ones too.

I must admit I am a bit of a Farcus fan, if only because I am intrigued how he comes up with his ideas and because the attention to detail is quite incredible.

Pink spots notwithstanding, Splendor is a very muted Farcus. I'd say he was considering the sensibilities of the British market, but suspect we are really not that important to Carnival, even if the number of Brits booking has doubled in the past year, as president and CEO Gerry Cahill said during his naming speech.

In fact, apart from the spots, which I really rather like, and the garish lions above the thermal pool in the otherwise very lovely, and very large, Cloud 9 spa, I really haven't seen anything very worthy of note.

Surely that can't be right?

My heart went out to the Royal Navy's Christian Rumming, the man chosen to shin 60 feet up the side of Carnival Splendor during Thursday's naming ceremony in Dover. In a pair of flippers.

And all because the lady loved, well, English sparkling wine.

In honour of the fact the ship was being named in the UK, Carnival shunned smashing the usual bottle of good-luck bubbly and chose instead a home-grown sparkling wine, cruise director John Heald explained during the ceremony.

Nothing to do with the the fact the thinner glass made it easier for Christian to smash when he finally got to the top of his rope, of course, although the event organisers didn't want a repeat of the naming of P&O Cruises' Ventura, when two Royal Marines went over the side of the ship (yes, it does sound very similar doesn't it?) to smash the bubbly and reports came back that one bottle didn't break.

The lady in question, by the way, was Splendor's godmother Myleene Klass, singer, classical pianist, model and I'm a Celebrity star (oh dear, and she was starting to sound really talented), who managed to do the naming honours while holding down her skimpy red dress, which was flapping nicely in the wind.

"That only worked for Marilyn," she quipped as she shouldered her responsibilities well and promised to send Splendor a birthday card every year.

Thanks to Mike at Gill's Cruise for spotting the story about the Dorset couple hit with a fuel surcharge bill of £892 by Voyages of Discovery.

Multiply that up over the 700 or so passengers that Discovery holds and we are talking a nice little earner for Voyages.

No wonder they call the black stuff "liquid gold".

As my regular blog readers will have seen, I was at Tilbury last week to see Marco Polo, now sailing under charter to Transocean Tours and sub-charter to Cruise and Maritime Services through the summer. Click on the video, created courtesy of Travel Weekly, to see and hear more.

Catharine Hamm, a staffer on the Los Angeles Times, has a very tortuous style but finally manages to get around to answering a reader's travel dilemma. And it's a good response.

To book through a travel agent or not, that is the question.

Quoting Jay Rein, chief executive and president of US on-line travel agency Travelworm.com, she concludes that booking your cruise through an agent not only means you get the best choice of which line to choose, but also the best deals, whether that be upgrades of perks.

Hamm concludes:

If I set sail again, I'll use an agent, whether it's clicks or bricks, because, frankly, he or she (or it) will offer to help. And when was the last time anybody else in the travel industry bothered to do that?

Isn't it great to find someone on your side?

Carnival Splendor cruise director and fellow blogger John Heald's entry from yesterday does not cover the UK travel industry in glory.

Once you can get past his new-found love for Splendor's godmother Myleene Klass, his dislike of Chekhov and the theatre, he tells his readers about the open bar card Carnival gave all its non-paying guests.

This means that all the beverages were free.............and this means three awful long nights for the poor bar staff. While some of the agents treated the card with respect by ordering just one drink at a time others looked upon it as though they had just been given use of Bill Gates' Black American Express card for 3 days and therefore ................they were going to get absolutely hammered ...................and they did.

I saw things the last three nights that made me so not proud to be British as the Brit Travel industry let loose. I actually ventured into the dance club last night just to see the DJ and discovered Dante's hell. People were ordering three drinks at a time or more and the once polite country I knew and loved so much seemed to have given birth to young people who had not been taught words like "please" and "thank you" and "No, I have had enough to drink, I am going to bed............alone."

Just what the trade needs when it is trying to convince the world - or British travellers at least - that they know their cruising stuff and can make intelligent and sensible recommendations to help customers choose a cruise. Wonder if they realise that the stuff they are supposed to know isn't how quickly you can get served at the bar.

Sad words in view of an earlier blog this morning in praise of the trade.

I'm pleased to say Heald does go on to say most agents were well behaved and ends with a story of how over-indulging on Le House Wine hen in his 20s got him locked up in France for a night. It's very funny, so stick with the blog - and let's hope his readers remember that, and not the agents' antics, as they tune out.

The International Herald Tribune reports that Royal Caribbean International president and chief executive Adam Goldstein was in Singapore to announce plans to base a ship in Singapore starting autumn 2009.

The line dipped a toe into Asian waters this year, so I guess this decision is proof that the experiment was successful. Either that or they just can't think what to do with all the cruise ships they keep building.

Let's face it, the Caribbean might be popular, but when the giant Oasis of the Seas hits the region in December 2009, it's going to soak up an awful lot of passengers - 5,400 on each cruise if all goes according to plan - so Royal's other ships have to fill somewhere else.

And why not Asia? Star Cruises is there year-round, Costa Cruises bases a ship there for part of the year and Princess Cruises has a big selection of exotic cruises there in winter, but generally it's somewhere the big lines only dip in and out of on their way around the world.

On Carnival Splendor last weekend, I heard Carnival Cruise Lines president and chief executive Gerry Cahill rule Asia out as an option, so seems Royal might have it all it's own way - for a while at least. Smart move.

I see Celebrity Cruises, that bastion of cruise tradition, is cutting back on formal nights for nine, 10 and 11-night cruises starting August 1. A sign of the more casual times, even for lines that like to think their passengers are quality, discerning types.

They'll be telling us they are trialing an open-dining system next. I can't wait.

But luckily it's one we can all applaud in these days of being green, in words if not deeds.

The line has won an award from CiAI in Italy, which translates into National Consortium for the Recovery and Recycling of Aluminium Packaging, for collecting tons of empty cans, waste foil and aluminium packaging - 10,000 kg of the stuff between May and December 2007.

CiAI usually reserves its awards for councils, but decided MSC qualified because its ships are floating towns. Actually that doesn't sound so good, does it? I can see the term being picked up with glee by environmentalists determined that cruising is the worst thing since, well, sliced bread.

A report in Travel Weekly US suggests the chill wind of the economic downturn is starting to blow around the cruise lines.

Johanna Jainchill's report talks of downsizing staff and budget cuts at Royal Caribbean in response to rising fuel costs and says sources say the line wants to trim the payroll by 10%.

RCCL's vice-president of corporate communications Lynn Martenstein admitted they are under pressure to control costs.

Like most companies today, we are redoubling our efforts to find savings, but we have not announced any specific actions.

Hot on the heels of news that Susan Hooper, managing director EMEA, is resigning one can't help putting two and two together and coming up with, well,  four.

I feel a definite reorganisation in the air.

Yet another fuel surcharge story, I'm afraid, but read on because this time it's good news.

Travelmole reports that Peter Deilmann has promised there will be no fuel surcharge in 2009 and Viking River Cruises UK managing director Wendy Atkin-Smith tells me Viking has not imposed any fuel supplements this year or next, although she admits they might have to bring in a charge for 2009 later down the line.

Our past passengers are very loyal so we have brought out nest year's brochure two months earlier than usual so they can book 2009. There are no fuel surcharges now, but I can't promise that won't change.

It's also good to see that Deilmann is now including one excursion per day per cruise in the price. Viking includes daily excursions in the price. Everyone takes them and it seems to give the boats a feeling of camaraderie.

Yet funnily, when I asked Torstein Hagen, Mr Viking himself, why they don't include drinks in the cruise price - even just wine at dinner - guess what? He said it's because passengers don't want to pay for drinks they don't want.

I guess I can just about see the logic. But the other journo at the table nodding wisely in agreement? What is the profession coming to?

The crystal ball is working well. No sooner do I predict a reshuffle at Royal Caribbean International, than the top people start moving.

Robin Shaw becomes vice-president and managing director, responsible for finance, human resources, revenue management and guest experience, reporting directly to Miami-based Michael Bayley, senior vice-president for Royal, Celebrity Cruises and Azamara Cruises.

UK managing director Jo Rzymowska has been appointed associate vice-president and general manager, still with responsibility for sales, marketing, trade and guest services, but with more resources to help her exploit future growth.