Nice White Ships

All cruise lines have nice white ships, but there the similarity ends.

Those uninitiated who say very loudly “oh, cruising’s not for me, it’s only for coffin dodgers, we’ll all be seasick and the ships are so claustrophobic” may as well say that they’d never step foot in a hotel – such are the differences between cruise ships today.

At the Travel Convention run by ABTA in Barcelona, Micky Arison, chairman and chief executive of Carnival Corporation – the world’s largest cruise group – said that Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 would be the largest ship he would ever build.

He added that the organisation had no plans to build any larger ships than those currently in service for key brands Carnival Cruise Lines and P&O Cruises.

Arison went on to deny having “ship envy” over rival Royal Caribbean Cruise Line building Oasis of the Seas, the world’s largest cruise ship carrying 5,400 passengers when it enters service from Florida at the end of the year.

Different strokes for different folks

“There’s nothing wrong with larger, but it’s different strokes for different folks,” Arison told convention delegates.

Let’s face it, he should know as Carnival Corporation is responsible for no less than 93 ships across its range of brands.

The point being that there are cruise ships to suit all tastes, from cruise virgins to more experienced ocean-going globe trotters.

The global cruise market represents more than 300 vessels offering over 400,000 beds – so there’s little excuse for those who say all cruise ships are the same.

There are ships like “the Mall of Americas” – as Arison put it – and those vessels which offer a classic cruise experience, and everything in between.

There are six star ships with only a couple of hundred passengers, where the emphasis is on indulgent me-time, relaxing in on a teak deck with a book and a glass of Montrachet, or there are ships for those who want to shimmy 200 feet up a rock climbing wall and look down on St Mark’s Square.

Other people want to take a guide book and find the hidden corners of Venice and sip an espresso away from the crowds, having discovered a family run trattoria making the best spaghetti puttanesca, while some people want to take their children to a water park and then return to the ship for a comedy show.

Some mega ships are destinations in their own right offering a multiplicity of action and entertainment that make the destinations visited almost incidental.

Others provide a more intimate seafaring experience enabling passengers to visit smaller ports and off the beaten track destinations.

What cruise passengers look for most

Those in between vary from being family friendly to adults only yet all strive to provide the key elements cruise passengers are most looking for: a high quality of food and service and great value for money.

The value element was clearly demonstrated by figures provided by P&O Cruises’ managing director Carol Marlow at the Travel Convention which showed that the average price per day for a cruise last year was £135 yet that figure has actually dropped this year as cruise lines contend with the rocky economic climate.

And the quality provided was demonstrated by passenger feedback which found that three quarters of people described their cruise as “excellent” or “good” with just four per cent saying it was “poor”. Not a bad ratio when you consider that more than 1.5 million Brits will take a cruise this year.

I’m the first to concede that collectively the cruise industry still has a long way to go to challenge the old negative misconceptions about cruising, but the ability of the sector to truly punch above it weight at events such as the Travel Convention suggests the right course has been set.

Having got the message across to a growing number of travel agents, the task ahead is to start convincing more holidaymakers to jump on board.

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Posted in Industry

19 Oct 2009

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