Is it more than a coincidence that the two lines dedicated to attracting first time cruisers are to be phased out at almost the same time?

Island Cruises and Ocean Village, which operate fly-cruises in the Med in summer and in the Caribbean in winter, will both have disappeared off the radar by the end of 2010.

One of Island Cruises’ two ships – the original Island Escape, itself a one-time car ferry – is to join the Thomson Cruises stable, possibly retaining its branding, while the superior Island Star is to leave the fleet after spring 2009 to operate under the guise of Spanish line Pullmantur.

Meanwhile, Ocean Village’s parent company Carnival has opted to redeploy its two ships to the P&O Cruises Australia brand at the end of 2009 and 2010 respectively, where it is felt they will operate far more profitably.

Ocean Village was set up just five years ago in an attempt to break the mould of traditional cruising by emphasising no fixed timetables or formal dress codes.

It sought to attract “thirty-to-fifty-something’s” combining cruises with activity-based shore excursions.

The marketing gurus even coined the motto that Ocean Village provided ‘cruises for people who don’t do cruises’.

All of which begs the question – was there ever really a market for so-called casual cruising?

Certainly those people I know who have sailed with the two companies have come back raving about what a good time they had and the incredible value for money the cruises offered.

And I know the customer satisfaction ratings from both have been exceptionally high.

So why exit the UK cruise market when all the indicators suggest there will continue to be exponential growth over the next five years?

On the surface, the concept of both Island and Ocean Village seems pretty compelling – provide a different experience in an effort to overcome the traditional barriers to people choosing to cruise, like it’s stuffy and only for the over-60s.

Spruce up older ships and give them a funky feel with stand up comedians and the odd celebrity chef, price the itineraries at an affordable level just below the major companies, and away you go.

Which is all very well if you want to get first-timers and young families on board – and by all accounts this succeeded. Then you have to hope that they’ll want to repeat the experience and encourage all their friends to do the same.

The trouble is that while Island and Ocean Village plied a somewhat one-dimensional path, their larger parent companies were introducing brand new ships with even more impressive facilities aimed squarely at the same market – families and first timers.

Also competitors such as NCL were muscling into the UK with cutting edge new ships and fully flexible dining concepts.

So while there’s nothing wrong with the older-style vessels used by Island and Ocean Village, from a customer perspective sailing on one of the world’s newest and biggest ships such as Royal Caribbean’s Independence of the Seas makes this a non-contest.

This becomes even more evident when the price differential becomes marginal between the two offerings – as has been the case with both Independence and P&O Cruises’ latest superliner Ventura.

All of which suggests the concept of creating a niche for cruise newcomers was never really sustainable in the long-term when their bigger sister companies were investing hundreds of millions of pounds in brand spanking new ships and then aiming them at exactly the same market.

I’m sure I won’t be alone in being saddened at the passing of both Island and Ocean Village as both helped tremendously in opening up cruising to the masses.

There will now be a particular novelty value about the final cruises on offer by both companies and I would urge any newcomer to give them a try while they still have the opportunity.

Phil Davies

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