Cruising Tradition Revived

Montreal Gazette

Passengers may bring guests on-board

Princess Cruises is bringing back an old tradition, but with a new twist.

Once you could bring your family and friends on-board to say goodbye in style before the cruise ship sailed. Princess's Bon Voyage Experience will allow passengers to invite friends and relatives on-board for a four-course lunch with wine, a ship tour and a souvenir photo.

Here is the part I like. The passengers and guests will have priority boarding and will be able to spend about four hours together before the ship sails.

But there will be a cost: each guest will be charged $39, which can be applied as a credit toward a future cruise.

For the guest, it's a good deal for the price. For Princess, it's a better deal. It may be the first time many guests step on a cruise ship, and they may become future customers for Princess Cruises.

The program will debut next month in Los Angeles and cruises departing from Fort Lauderdale before expanding to New York, San Francisco and Seattle.

The cruise ships will not have hundreds of guests roaming their decks just before departure. The number of guests is capped at 50. You can reserve spots well in advance or up to six days prior to departure.

In other Princess news, the cruise line's owners, Carnival Cruises Corp., have reached an agreement with Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri for two new prototype ships - 20 per cent larger than other Princess ships and with a capacity of 3,600 passengers in double occupancy, similar in size to the Carnival Dream, the largest ship in the Carnival fleet.

The first Princess ship will be launched in spring 2013, the second a year later. These will be the first new ships for Princess Cruises since the launch of the Ruby Princess in fall 2008. Princess caters more to an adult audience.

Norwegian Cruise Lines is getting ahead of the game when it comes to announcing ship deployments for 2011 and the winter of 2012. NCL will base its first ship in Copenhagen, in 2011 for nine-day Baltic cruises. The Danish port city was one of my favourite cities on my last Baltic cruise. It also is close to Scandinavian and Baltic ports, so you spend less time sailing to them.

NCL Cruises also announced plans to sail year-round out of New Orleans for destinations such as Costa Maya, Cozumel, Roatan Bay and Belize City.

Celebrity Cruise Lines will be opening an Internet café - it sounds more like an Apple store - on the Eclipse when it launches in April. The iLounge, as the line is calling it, will be set up with 26 computers, will offer courses and will sell Apple products. If it proves successful, I expect iLounges will be rolled out through the rest of the Celebrity Cruises fleet.

New Luxury Ship from Seabourn to go Around the World in 109 Days

USA Today

Seabourn has announced plans for an unusually exotic world cruise to take place in 2012 on the 450-passenger Seabourn Quest.

The still-to-be-built ship, scheduled to debut in mid-2011, will set sail on Jan. 5, 2012 from Fort Lauderdale on the 109-night voyage, which will start with a trip down to South America followed by an eastbound crossing of the Atlantic Ocean to Africa and then Asia before  a loop back to the Middle East and Europe.

The voyage will include stops in a number of new-for-the-line ports, including Port Elizabeth, South Africa and remote St. Helena Island.

Other port calls scheduled for the voyage in South America and Africa include Devil's Island, French Guiana; Recife, Salvador Da Bahia and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil; Walvis Bay, Namibia; Cape Town and Durban in South Africa; and Maputo, Mozambique.

Among stops in Asia: Singapore; Ho Chi Minh City and Chan May in Vietnam; Keelung (Taipei); Shanghai; Hong Kong; Phuket, Thailand; and Port Kelang (for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia).

The ship also will call in Cochin, Mormugao (Goa) and Mumbai in India; Khasab, Salalah and Muscat in Oman; Dubai; Safaga (for Luxor), Sharm el-Sheikh and Alexandria, Egypt; Aqaba, Jordan;  and Corfu.

While global in its reach, the world cruise from Seabourn Cruises does not include a complete circumnavigation of the globe. It'll end in late April 2012 in Venice.

Cruise Lines Offering Boatloads of Enticements

Chicago Sun-Times

If you’re planning a cruise vacation this year, get ready for higher prices, better entertainment, water parks and one of the most innovative concepts to come along in a while: rooms designed for solo travelers on the Norwegian Epic, without the supplemental charge that single passengers on cruises have traditionally paid.

“I think it’s genius,” said Cynthia Boal Janssens, chief blogger at AllThingsCruise.com. “I’m amazed with so many new ships coming on line that this hasn’t been done sooner. Lots of single people cruise and want to cruise, but right now, if you are going on a cruise as a single person and you occupy a double cabin, they charge you an additional fee for doing that, sometimes as much as 200 percent.”

The Epic, which launches this summer, will offer 128 studios for singles. The cabins open onto a lounge area where solo travelers can socialize.

Paul Motter, editor at CruiseMates.com, said he thinks the single studios “will take off. We have a whole message board on CruiseMates for people seeking cruise companions. It’s a huge potential market.”

Motter said another emerging trend in cruises is more brand-name entertainment. For years, mediocre musical revues with names like “Salute to Broadway” were standard fare on ships, to the point where they “kind of became a joke,” Motter said.

In contrast, the Epic will feature Blue Man Group and Second City improv shows. Royal Caribbean Cruises' megaship, Oasis of the Seas, which launched last fall, offers a complete production of “Hairspray.”

Motter said “Hairspray” is “the first time a cruise ship has fully licensed a Broadway production. And it’s a really good production, on par with a national touring company.”

Oasis was the “it” ship of 2009, attracting enormous publicity as the largest cruise ship ever built. It carries up to 6,300 passengers and 2,100 crew members, with facilities that include an ice rink, golf course, volleyball and basketball courts, a 1,300-seat indoor theater and seven “neighborhoods,” including a boardwalk and a mini-Central Park. There’s so much to do onboard that when the ship pulls into a port, “a lot of people don’t get off,” said Carolyn Spencer Brown of CruiseCritic.com.

The cruise industry will launch a dozen new ships this year, but, Brown said, “Nothing will compete with Oasis.”

Ships debuting in 2010 include a sister ship of Oasis called Allure of the Seas, a new Queen Elizabeth from Cunard, and Celebrity Eclipse, the third in a series of Celebrity ships that started with the Solstice in 2008 and the Equinox in 2009.

Despite all these new ships coming onto the market during a recession, the cruise industry has managed to keep them full. In 2009, ships sailed at 104 percent capacity on average, meaning that every room was occupied and some rooms were shared by more than two people, according to Cruise Lines International Association, an industry group with 25 cruise lines representing 97 percent of cruise capacity in North America.

At the same time, the number of passengers keeps increasing: 13.01 million people cruised on CLIA ships in 2008, 13.44 million in 2009 and a projected 14.3 million will sail in 2010.

“Maybe we are not recession-proof, but we are recession-resistant,” said Richard Sasso, CEO of MSC Cruises and marketing director of CLIA.

One way cruises have kept ships full is by dramatically increasing the number of international passengers, to make up for slow growth in the North American market. The number of passengers from outside North America has doubled to more than 3 million a year since 2003, while the number of U.S. and Canada cruise passengers has increased by just 30 percent to 10.29 million.

Discounts have brought customers in, too. Cruise prices go down when demand is weak — just like airfare — until every cabin is filled.

But the low prices of 2009 are starting to disappear. “Fares are going up, for sure,” said Brown, the CruiseCritic.com editor.

One sign of change: More passengers are booking further in advance. In 2009, the average booking window for a cruise was 4.6 months before the departure date, and 39 percent of passengers were booking their trips less than four months out, Sasso said. For 2010, the average booking window already has increased to five months out, and only 30 percent of clients are booking less than four months before their departure.

What does this mean for consumers?

“As the ship fills up, the prices go up,” said Motter, the CruiseMates.com editor. “They give you the best prices six months to a year out, and at the very end, if there are still empty cabins, they discount them. The best way to get the best deal on a cruise is to book early. Almost all the cruise lines offer price guarantees, so if you see a price lower than what you booked, they will honor that.”

On the other hand, you can still find last-minute bargains in places where the market is “really soft,” said Brown. “Eastern Mediterranean, Greek Isles, Turkey. For the Mexican Riviera, I’m still seeing $299 departures on seven-day trips.”

Don’t forget to check social media when planning a cruise. More cruise companies and cruise Web sites are using Twitter and Facebook to highlight deals and trips. Cunard Cruises even has a YouTube channel where fans can watch construction progress on the new Queen Elizabeth, as well as videos of James Taylor performing on another Cunard ship, Queen Mary 2.

Another long-term trend in cruising is the increase in family-friendly programs and attractions. In the last 10 years, the median age of cruisers has dropped from 57 to 47, according to Bob Sharak, CLIA’s executive director.

“Multigenerational groups — the groups that bring adults, kids and grandkids — are bringing down the average age,” said Mimi Weisband, spokeswoman for Crystal Cruises.

One feature on new ships that younger passengers are sure to love is the water park. Carnival Dream, which launched last year, has an aqua park called WaterWorks with a 300-foot-long water slide, the longest water slide at sea.

A new ship from Disney Cruises, the Dream, launching in January 2011, will have a 765-foot-long water coaster, the AquaDuck, that will wrap around the perimeter of the ship’s top deck, with one loop jutting 13 feet over the side of the ship, 150 feet above the ocean.

Other innovative features on the Disney Dream include virtual portholes for windowless staterooms that will offer live views of the sea and sky from video cameras mounted around the ship. The Dream also will have an adult lounge called Skyline with changing backdrops offering views of famous skylines around the world.

Cruises also keep offering more and more sophisticated programming. In late 2009, Celebrity Cruises' ships launched a series of enrichment seminars and activities called Celebrity Life. In addition to fitness classes and spa treatments, the programs include cooking classes, wine-tastings, stargazing, scrapbooking and lectures on art and history.

Cruise itineraries keep changing, too. Crystal Cruises’ new port calls include Kuwait City, Bandar Abbas in Iran, Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, Sevastopol in the Ukraine and Port Elizabeth in South Africa cruises, with new excursions that include South African wineries and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

Princess Cruises will visit 17 new ports in the next two years, including Abu Dhabi, Tangiers in Morocco and Xiamen, on the southeastern coast of China. A “Highlights of Germany” tour offered by Princess this year will include two nights in the town of Oberammergau to see the famous Passion Play that villagers only perform once a decade.

Janssens, the All ThingsCruising.com editor, says river tours of Europe are also increasingly popular. “They’re replacing the bus tour of Europe,” she said.

Brown of CruiseCritic agreed, adding that ships designed for river cruising are “much more stylish than they used to be,” with “much nicer cabins, tech toys like DVD players, French balconies, elaborate furnishings and better food.”

Janssens said the small and medium-size ships from lines like Silversea, Star Clippers and Crystal Cruises are especially appealing for older, more traditional travelers.

“They may not have big-name shows, you don’t have all the razzle-dazzle, but there’s a lot of elegance with this type of cruising — lovely dinners and you meet so many well-traveled people,” Janssens said. “They tend to be more luxurious, and you go to interesting places that the big ships can’t reach, where there aren’t 10,000 people in port.”

While megaships like Oasis may get the headlines, Janssens theorized that “people who like small ships are becoming even more loyal to them as big ships get bigger.”

The Fastest Growing Cruise Destination is . . . The Persian Gulf?

USA Today

It wasn't by accident that Costa Cruises chose Dubai in the Persian Gulf as the location for last week's naming of its newest ship, the Costa Deliziosa. The gleaming tourist and business hub is turning into a boom town of sorts for the cruise industry.

Costa CEO Pier Luigi Foschi noted at the event that the Carnival-owned line was moving 140,000 cruisers through the city this winter, a 40% increase from last year and more than three times the number of just three years ago.

"The business grew fast," says Foschi, ticking off details of the company's rapid, four-year expansion from one ship to three in the region.

Perpetually sunny and warm, the Persian Gulf is proving a popular winter getaway for cruise fans from Europe, in particular, as well as Middle Easterners and smaller numbers of Americans, despite its location near several troubled countries including Iraq and Yemen.

For a European cruiser, the Persian Gulf is closer than the Caribbean and offers an appealing mix of culture, history and modern conveniences, not to mention luxury (Dubai's sparkling new airport puts those in cruise hubs Miami and Fort Lauderdale to shame, and the beach-lined city boasts some of the world's most elaborate resorts).

Dubai's top tourism official, Hamad Bin Mejiren, told cruise writers in Dubai last week for the Costa event that the city expected to see 575,000 cruise passengers by 2015. That's more than double the 263,000 that arrived in 2009, he noted.

As recently as 2001, Dubai was getting just 7,000 cruise passengers a year.

The naming of the Costa Deliziosa last week was a first of its kind in an Arab city -- and, officials say, a harbinger of things to come.

Costa already is basing its two newest ships -- the Deliziosa and sister Luminosa -- in Dubai this winter (both vessels sailing seven-night Gulf voyages that include stops in ports such as Muscat, Oman). It also has been operating 18-night cruises between Dubai and Savona, Italy, on the Costa Europa, though the voyages came to an abrupt end last week after the ship was involved in an accident in Egypt.

The trend of cruises around the Middle East also got a big boost in January as industry giant Royal Caribbean began its first season of voyages in the region. Royal Caribbean's 2,112-passenger Brilliance of the Seas, now sailing weekly out of Dubai on seven-night trip to Oman, Bahrain and other parts of the United Arab Emirates, was docked next to the Costa Deliziosa during last week's ceremony.

How significant will cruising in the Persian Gulf become? Clearly, Dubai is betting big. The naming of the Costa Deliziosa last week coincided with the official unveiling of a new cruise terminal at Dubai's Port Rashid that can accommodate up to four cruise ships at a time.

Sushi Lollipops?

USA Today

Celebrity Cruises Unveils Plans for New Restaurant

Celebrity Cruises is going arty with its newest restaurant concept, a $30-a-person eatery called Qsine that will be as much about style and design as it is about food.

Among menu items at the venue -- announced late Wednesday for the soon-to-debut Celebrity Eclipse -- will be elaborately presented "Sushi Lollipops" and a Kobe beef "Slider Party" of mini-grilled burgers with Wisconsin cheddar served on brioche buns.

The 2,850-passenger Celebrity Eclipse -- the third ship in the line's much-heralded Solstice Class series -- will enter service in late April.

Celebrity Vice President of Culinary Operations Jacques Van Staden says Qsine is designed to present passengers with an unexpected, modern approach to familiar dishes from around the world.

"Our guests love new and different dining experiences, and we've designed Qsine to deliver that in a big way," Van Staden says. "Qsine is designed to offer a globally-influenced blend of nostalgic and contemporary favorites, artfully presented to the Celebrity Cruises diner with elements of surprise."

Among high-design touches: Qsine's menu will be a large, backlit square; wait staff will wear custom-made asymmetrical jackets with square buttons; desserts will be showcased in a menu described as a hinged, twistable cube.

Qsine will be open nightly on Celebrity Eclipse from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. There will be no age restriction for entry, as there is with some other Celebrity eateries, and the dress code will be smart casual and above.

The restaurant will be located in the space that houses Asian eatery Silk Harvest on earlier Solstice Class ships.

Carnival 'Glory' Returns to Duty after Major Refurbishment

Hotel Interactive

The 2,974-passenger Carnival Glory has resumed Caribbean service from Miami following a multi-million-dollar renovation that added a host of new facilities and features, including a Serenity adults-only retreat, a 270-square-foot Seaside Theatre poolside LED screen, and a Circle “C” facility for 12- to 14- year olds. 

Eighteen new balconies were also incorporated onto existing ocean view staterooms and a new Mongolian wok venue was added to the casual poolside restaurant.  Bow-to-stern Wi-Fi access was added, as well.

From February to May, Carnival Glory operates seasonal seven-day cruises departing from Miami, alternating weekly to the eastern and western Caribbean. Seven-day eastern Caribbean cruises visit Half Moon Cay, St. Thomas, San Juan and Grand Turk, while the western route features Grand Cayman, Isla Roatan, Belize and Cozumel.

The ship will then be deployed to New York where it will offer a series of four- and five-day Atlantic Canada cruises from June 6 – September 6, 2010, followed by a series of seven-day Canada/New England cruises, from September 11 – October 9. 

 “We are constantly looking for ways to improve and expand our product to deliver fun and memorable vacations to our guests while at the same time offering exceptional value,” said Gerry Cahill, Carnival’s president and CEO. “The new Seaside Theatre, adults-only area and Circle ‘C’ facility, which are all available to our guests on a complimentary basis, serve to enhance an already terrific, value-packed vacation choice,” he added.

New Seaside Theatre
Located poolside on Lido Deck is Carnival Cruises new “Seaside Theatre,” a massive 270-square-foot LED screen displaying movies, concerts, sporting events, and other programming, including the popular “Morning Show” hosted by the ship’s cruise director.  Utilizing the same technology featured in large stadiums and New York’s Times Square, the state-of-the-art entertainment system includes a 70,000-watt sound system, providing concert quality sound, even outdoors.

New Balcony Accommodations
During dry dock, 18 new balconies were added to existing Spa Deck accommodations, creating spacious 220-square-foot verandah staterooms. They are conveniently located next to the ship’s 14,500-square-foot “Spa Carnival” facility offering sophisticated exercise equipment, expansive workout facilities and a variety of soothing European-style treatments. 

With the addition of these newly reconfigured staterooms, nearly 40 percent of the Carnival Glory’s 1,487 cabins now feature private balconies.

New Adults-Only Retreat
Another popular feature added during the dry dock is Serenity, a two-level adults-only retreat located forward on Sun Deck and Sky Deck. Designed as an oceangoing oasis for relaxation, with decorative latticework and teak-style decking, this area features different styles of seating, including shaded sun loungers and hammocks, a full bar, and two oversized whirlpools.

Circle “C” Facility for 12- to 14-Year-Olds A new Circle “C” facility catering to 12- to 14-year-olds has been added as part of the line’s unique offerings for kids. The center features a high-tech sound and lighting system, plasma-screen TVs displaying movies and music videos, a touch-screen jukebox, and gaming pods with the latest video games and consoles.

Dining Enhancements
A new Mongolian wok option was added to the Carnival Glory’s Red Sail casual restaurant located poolside on Lido Deck. At the new venue, guests can select their favorite meat, sauce, vegetables and other ingredients and watch as a chef creates their custom-designed stir fry dish right before their eyes.

Additionally, the Golden dining room, located forward, was reconfigured for Your Time Dining providing guests the option of open seating between 5:45 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. nightly.  

Celebrity Cruises introduces 'Celebrity iLounge'

Travel Daily News

With the launch of its new brand platform, "Designed for you," last month, Celebrity Cruises reinforced its commitment to delivering the ultimate combination of ship design, service, cuisine and programs for cruise lovers. And today, it announced plans for a new venue whose design, products and programming are sure to appeal to today's cruisers.

When Celebrity Eclipse - the third in Celebrity Cruises' stylish Solstice Class fleet of ships - launches in April, guests will find the first "Celebrity iLounge." Designed to not only offer a hip, modern lounge ambience, Celebrity also created the space to offer what its guests said they wanted most in an Internet cafe: easy access to the Internet, inspiring classes and new products.

The Celebrity iLounge is composed of three main areas: a series of 26 contemporary workstations where guests can check their e-mail, retain their social media connections, or print boarding passes; a retail space offering cruisers the opportunity to see and try out the latest MacBooks(R), iPods(R) and accessories; and an enrichment center where certified staff will offer guests tips on Mac or iPod usage.

"Our new Celebrity iLounge is a direct outgrowth of our 'Designed for you' brand platform, and our commitment to listen to our guests and offer experiences and programs expressly designed for them," said Celebrity's President and CEO Dan Hanrahan. "Our surveys show that our guests rely heavily on the Internet for research, learning and staying in touch, so we think this new offering will be a big hit, as will the contemporary online classes offered through the 'Discover' series of our inspiring and enriching 'Celebrity Life' experiences."

Enhancing the "Discover" component of its "Celebrity Life" series of inspiring enrichment and entertainment experiences, Celebrity will offer in the Celebrity iLounge a series of engaging new courses designed to suit its guests' interests - including do-it-yourself photo books, movie editing and web design, through programs including iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD and iWeb. And whether guests are savvy or novice users of Mac or iPod products, Celebrity's certified staff will be well-equipped to assist, following more than 125 hours of training in operating systems, applications, and products. They also will be poised to illustrate to guests the differences between Macs and PCs.

Guests eager to expand their collection of merchandise will find the Celebrity iLounge an enticing venue, too. As an Authorized Apple Reseller, Celebrity will have products available for guests to purchase, including iPods, MacBooks, and essential accessories.

Located on deck six of Celebrity Eclipse, the Celebrity iLounge will house the 26 MacBook Pro's, classroom and retail area, in addition to display pods, a 56-inch flat-screen TV for use during classes, and an accessible workstation.

The Celebrity iLounge also will be presented on Celebrity Silhouette, which launches in 2011, and the fifth ship in the Solstice Class fleet, which sets sail in 2012.

Celebrity Cruises is designed for discerning cruisers, with modern, sophisticated environments, impeccable service, enriching and inspiring onboard programs, and world-class cuisine. The ultimate in premium cruising, Celebrity sails on Alaska, Bermuda, California, Canada/New England, Europe, the Pacific Coast, Panama Canal, South America cruises, and year-round in the Caribbean and the Galapagos Islands. Celebrity also offers immersive cruisetour experiences in Alaska, Canada, Europe and South America. Celebrity's mega-series of honors include being named the top mega-ship line in Conde Nast Traveler's annual Readers' Choice Awards (November 2009). Celebrity's fleet currently consists of nine ships. Its $3.7-billion investment in building five stylish Solstice Class ships between 2008-2012 represents the largest newbuild commitment for a single brand in industry history.