Cruise Lines

Next month's cruise convention in Southampton is going from strength to strength, with a Premiere day now added where agents will be able to learn how to increase their cruise sales as well as lunch and take a tour of one of Princess Cruises' superliners.

Was it really only last year that Andy Harmer got up on stage in Dover to open the first cruise convention and introduce the world to the Association of Cruise Experts? I guess the speed at which this event has taken off just underlines how fast this sector of the industry is growing and what a great job ACE has been doing in the meantime.

Whether agents go for the Premier on May 16, the three-day event the following week, when there will be another five ships to see, or both (definitely the best option), it's a fantastic opportunity to learn more about cruising from some of the leading people in the industry. Proof indeed of how important the trade is to the cruiselines.

Premier day places are up for grabs now. Email natalie@psa-ace.org or call 020 7436 2449.

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

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....

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.

I'm delighted - as I risked saying it was such a good idea - that cruisepricescompared.com, the on-line cruise market place that I wrote exclusively about in Travel Weekly this month, seems to have been a big hit with agents.

Harley Van Straten, who has gone from being the man behind the idea to managing director of the website - where agents can post cruise deals for free - said he was inundated with 150 independent agent registrations within days of the website going live.

Demand has been so high that it has been opened up to members of the Global Travel Group as well as ABTA and Travel Trust Association agents.

I'm amazed how well everything has gone. When I set this up I would have been happy with 50 registrations in the first week and we've already achieved three times that number with more coming on each day.

Van Straten now has to make part two of the business work - namely making consumers aware of the site so they can go in and book the offers posted by agents.

Any registered agents out there? Let me know how it goes.

P&O Cruises has really fired up the nation's cruisers with its latest smoking policy if the comments that have been flooding into the Cruise.co.uk website are anything to go by.

As from October, smoking will be banned on all inside public areas on Ventura, Oceana and Artemis. Smokers will still be able to light up on selected areas of open deck and on their balconies.

Smokers are shouting "not fair"; non-smokers are rejoicing with a holier-than-thou attitude which has then also irritated the smokers....and so it goes round and round.

Having been in cabins just vacated by smokers. I am all for banning smoking in staterooms, and personally I don't like it when people smoke on the balcony next to mine, but otherwise I have to say I'm with the smokers on this one (and I write as an ex-smoker of many years now).

It seems very unfair not to provide a lounge/pub, call it what you will, where smokers can puff away in the company of like-minded puffers. Non-smokers don't have to go in and always have plenty of other lounge areas to ang out in so they can't really compain.

It's called let and let live - although that's probably not the best expression where cigarettes are concerned!

I reckon what really matters is that people who don't like smoke can get away from it (so I wonder therefore whether the balcony and open deck is the best place, given the wind carries smoke, the smell, etc, but guess time will tell).

I see Ideal Cruising is selling a nine-night Canary Islands cruise from Barcelona on Norwegian Cruise Line's Norwegian Jade this winter for just £510 per person - and that includes return flights from Gatwick.

I appreciate that this will be NCL's first winter cruising in the Med and Atlantic so they are testing the waters, so to speak, but it's hard to believe anyone can be making anything from that giveaway price.

Except the customer, of course, who is getting an absolute steal - especially as they can bag an outside cabin for just £92 per person more.

It's for a cruise departing December 12, which just happens to be my favourite day of the year (and not because it's when Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas is scheduled to set off on its maiden voyage) but is probably not a good time to try to get people thinking about a cruise given most minds are focused on turkey and tinsel.

Either that, or people are planning to escape the big day, in which case they won't want to be away just before as well.

Costa and MSC have made it work, so really there's no reason why NCL shouldn't - except, of course that the former appeal to the European market while NCL depends heavily on the Americans.

And why would Americans want to cruise over here in a warm-ish, if they're lucky, winter when they have sun, sea and sand on their Caribbean doorstep - and without forking out a fortune in airline fuel supplements.

Pre-Xmas blues or a deeper malaise? Only time will tell.

There's just three weeks to go before the September 7 start of National Cruise Week, the campaign organised by the Association of Cruise Experts to get Brits thinking cruise.

This is being billed as the world's largest-ever cruise campaign, with 2,000 agencies up and down the country signed up and planning events during the week to try to persuade that sector of great British public that still thinks cruising is for rich old people - ie the majority - that they are a little behind the times.

Event ideas from ACE include a spa night, captain's dinner or poker school - all things that are associated with cruising.

If all goes according to plan it should be a great time for agents to be involved in raising the profile of the industry and hopefully making a few bookings along the way.

Free promo packs have been provided by the Spanish National Tourist Office and if you sign up with ACE, your event will be promoted by the Mail on Sunday and Telegraph.

Just as everyone was thinking the new ship building boom was over - I refer you to a report on Tripso by Anita Dunham-Potter - sharp-eyed cruise watchers spot news on Aker Yards website saying MSC Cruises has ordered two more Musica-class ships.

Sisters to MSC Poesia, the ships will weigh 89,600 tons and carry 2,550 passengers and be delivered in Febrary 2011 and February 2012.

MSC notwithstanding, Dunham-Potter is surely right in predicted the end of the new ship boom As she points out, all the cruiseships on the shipyards' books bar the MSC duo - she estimates 35 vessels at a cost of $22 billion - were ordered before the price of fuel shot up and world economies shot down.

But does it matter that the boom is over, for a couple of years at least? We all love new ship launches, but I can't help thinking it will be a good thing to give the new capacity coming into the market time to settle - there are still 35 ships to come, after all, and two of those are Royal Caribbean's giant 5,400-passenger vessels.

Simple supply-and-demand economics also tells me that a shortfall in capacity means prices will go up. And higher prices surely are better for cruiselines and agents. Given that, I wonder whether MSC wouldn't be better to watch and wait until it starts to command higher fares.

Do we need more cruise ships? Let me know what you think.

Cruise.co.uk put out an email this week asking cruisers for their favourite shore excursions.

Some answers are a bit obvious - catamaran in St Kitts, Dunn's River in Jamaica, swimming with dolphins, the Colosseum in Rome - but a few are quite adventurous and a bit different.

But my favourite has to be from Matt, who counted up the replies and then asked, "why are you asking this question".

It started officially yesterday, but this is the first working day of the UK's first National Cruise Week.

With 2,000 agents registered to take part and cruiselines bringing out some great offers to support the trade, there has surely never been a better time to get the cruising message across to the great British public.

Not only that it's a great holiday, but also great value at a time when everyone is looking hard at the pennies.

Princess Cruises, for instance, is giving away two free nights in Copenhagen next summer to anyone who books a 10-night Scandinavia and Russia cruise this week, or offering a £300 discount to clients booking a Med 2009 cruise on the new Ruby Princess.

Island Cruises has brought out a Captain's Specials mini-brochure to cash in on the extra interest in cruising expected to be generated by this week's activities.

At the moment the Passenger Shipping Association forecasts 1.5 million Brits will take a cruise this year, rising to 1.7 in 2009. It would be great if this week, organised by the PSA's trade arm, the Association of Cruise Experts, is such a success that the figure has to be revised upwards.

Ocean Village is spending £1 million on a multi-media advertising campaign starting next week, which will include TV ads in the Granada, Central, Yorkshire and West Country TV regions.

The cruise line for people who don't do cruises is targeting its core 35-54 market with a one-week cruise in the Med from £599 per person. Gill Haynes, OV's head of marketing, says it's a keen lead price that represents great value for money in the current economic climate.

I would say it's an incredible deal. Don't forget that price even includes a flight and transfers. Amazing.

Agents had better get ready for the rush.

Agents who make three confirmed bookings of seven nights or more with Celebrity Cruises before September 28 will be entered in a draw to win a cruise for two on the new Celebrity Solstice as part of a Celebrity's autumn campaign. There are also 10 runners-up prizes worth £500 each.

Celebrity Solstice is the ship with a real lawn on the top deck and live glass-blowing. It launches in November, offering seven-night cruises around the Caribbean.

To stand a chance of winning, agents need to make the bookings and then fill in the entry form at www.cruisingpower.co,uk

Good news for all agents who are going to miss seeing Celebrity Cruises' new Celebrity Solstice - this is the one with the real lawn and the first new Celebrity ship for six years - which comes out of the shipyard in November and goes straight to the US/Caribbean.

Jo Rzymowska, managing director for Celebrity Cruises UK and Ireland, tells me that the next Solstice-class ship, Celebrity Equinox, will be making a first stop at Southampton when it leaves the shipyard in Germany next August.

After the trade has had time to see it, Equinox will be picking up its first paying passengers in th south coast port for a cruise to Civitavecchia, the port for Rome, where it will be based for the rest of the summer alongside Solstice, which comes back to Europe after an inaugural season in the Caribbean.

Two new Celebrity ships in the Med? That's confidence for you.

Incidentally, I'm lucky enough to be one of a select few from the UK going on board Solstice at the end of next week as it sails out of the shipyard at Meyer Werft and down the River Ems to Gandersum, so keep an eye out here for my first impressions.

The collapse of XL could lead to an increase in dynamically-packaged holidays, according to Nigel Lingard, Fred Olsen Cruise Lines marketing director.

He told the Association of National Tourist Office Representatives/Passenger Shipping Association conference in London yesterday that cruiselines will struggle to find enough capacity to get passengers to their ships next year as a result of XL's demise.

XL was used by some cruiselines so they will have to find other aircraft to charter. We all use charter airlines as we have to get 2,000-3,000 passengers to our ships at once for our flycruises, and without XL there will be a tightening of capacity.

Lingard also said the prices being quoted by charter carriers have gone up since XL collapse and forecast a shift to more longer ex-UK cruises, in fact exactly what Fred is doing, to avoid having to fly people.

There will be problems for all, but ironically it could lead to more opportunities for agent to dynamically package holidays for their clients, selling cruise only and adding flights and pre and post-cruise hotels stays.

A new cruise portal, bestcruisedeal, launches on October 1 where cruiselines and agents can access "thousands of cruisers and promote deals, late availability and new itineraries".

As the site wasn't live when I looked yesterday, I'm not sure how they know about these thousands of cruisers. Wishful thinking and a bit of sales talk, I suspect.

The founders of the site are in talks with cruiselines and cruise specialist agents to enable them to promote their deals on the site on a permanent basis. A range of advertising and promotional packages are available, starting from £500 a month.

Sound familiar? In July I had an exclusive story in Travel Weekly about the launch of cruisepricescompared.com, which allows agents to advertise their cruise deals. The difference is, posting a deal on CPC costs agents nothing.

The launch was all very hush, hush for fear that someone might copy the idea. Seems CPC was right. Imitation is supposed to be the sincerest form of flattery, though.

Is bestcruisedeal just an imitation? Let me know what you think.

With Celebrity Solstice off doing its sea trials around the North Sea, workers at the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany, are turning more attention to Celebrity Cruises' Solstice Number 2, otherwise known as Celebrity Equinox, pictured here behind me.

The ship, a sister to Solstice, launches in July 2009 and will make a first call in Southampton so UK agents and prospective passengers can get a look, before it sets off on its inaugural cruise from the UK to Civitavecchia, the port for Rome, for what remains of the summer season sailing in the Med.

It was a change waiting to happen once Thomson and First Choice became as one. Now it has.

As the rumour mill predicted, Royal Caribbean Cruises has sold its 50% stake joint venture stake in Island Cruises to TUI Travel.

Island Star, on charter from Celebrity Cruises, will complete its Caribbean winter season and be returned to Celebrity on March 26 2009. It will then join Royal Caribbean's Pullmantur Cruises Spanish operation.

Royal Caribbean Cruises chairman and chief executive office Richard Fain said the company wants to focus on developing and expanding the Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises brands in the UK.

"[This way] we will be better able to serve our customers and create value for our shareholders. This belief has been strengthened by the success of the inaugural season of Independence of the Seas, which has served the UK market from Southampton, since it entered service in May 2008."

Island second ship, Island Escape, will complete its winter season sailing in Brazil and then return to the Med, cruising from Palma in summer 2009 as planned, but as a Thomson Cruises ship rather than an Island one. It is not clear whether the name will be changed, but a statement says it is being "integrated" into the Thomson fleet so it's a fair bet that it will at the very least become the Thomson Escape.

Details of the deal and how it affects passengers booked on Island cruises are detailed on the Thomson Cruises website.

Island's managing director Patrick Ryan will leave the company in December. David Selby, TUI's director of cruising, stays at the helm of the new integrated business.

It's a sad end for a cruiseline that, after a chequered start, built up a good following in the UK for its low-cost cruises and casual brand. I reckon a lot of that was down to the captains, who were always to be seen out and about talking to passengers, which the passengers loved. It gave the cruise a human touch.

Island Escape was not the best ship in the world - one couple I met on another cruise called it the Island Mistake and rued the day they went on it - but I had a very enjoyable few days on Island Star, which was a big step up. Unfortunately for TUI, Royal Caribbean gets Star back, Thomson gets the Escape.

It will be interesting to see what they do with the ship's dining. Island is all about buffet dining, with waiter service available at extra cost. Thomson has a 24-hour buffet but waiter service in the evening as standard. Difficult for Thomson to have an odd one out in the fleet so I suspect Escape will have to change.