For A Satisfying Experience, Sail Sooner, Not Later, As The Cruising Industry Bulks Up

As the cruise industry holds its annual North American conferences this month in Florida we fled further south to the Amazon. Last year we attended the conventions and heard the annual pitch for continued growth and profitability. This year we chose the calm and isolation of the Amazon to reflect on what we consider the paramount challenge facing the industry: consistency within a cruise brand, across all ships, all itineraries, and every single sailing.

The challenge applies equally to budget "party boat" brands aimed at 20 somethings, mass-market "amusement park" brands pushing huge ships as destinations in themselves, and the self-styled "luxury" brands that present themselves as premium or expedition experiences.

It's A People Business

Cruising is at its core a people business. The ultimate point of contact is not an Internet booking site or an apres sailing online satisfaction questionnaire. It is the face-to-face contact of customers with staff and crew. This human touch was easier to enforce two decades ago when there were two-thirds fewer cabins to sell and customer expectations were lower. Guests had been exposed to little of the now highly polished social media and other online promotion that drives cruise sales today.


Our first cruise 20 years ago on the Tahitian Princess was delightful. We had no idea the small ocean-view cabin might years later be considered inferior. And afternoon tea in the dining room was presented correctly, with service and quality you would be hard pressed to find today, even on pricey all-inclusive ships that require you to fetch your own scone from a buffet line.

Brands And Customers Have High Hopes For New Ships

For some brands, the meaning of "all-inclusive" continues to gravitate from quality towards quantity of food, volume of music, less attentive and less personalized service. Discerning customers and the cruise lines themselves hope that a new generation of smaller and more luxurious "expedition" ships will attract the high end of the market and make it profitable.

In five or six years, 550 ships will compete, according to Cruise Industry News. And they will compete not just for paying passengers, but also for the increased officers, staff, and crew required. The business is struggling to meet the need for travel industry-experienced managers and properly trained crew, building or adding to recruiting and training operations in Asia and trying new educational technologies. For example, and somewhat incongruously, one brand recently adopted a virtual reality training system (consider the alternative) to help new restaurant employees better deal with actual humans.

The Contradiction Of Contrary Reviews

Customer satisfaction with a specific cruise line can vary dramatically from ship to ship and sailing date to sailing date and year to year. That is our own experience and you can find similar discrepancies among reviews on marketing sites like CruiseCritic.com, with some guests loving the food or entertainment and other guests hating the same features. Of course, the contradictory reviews also reflect the varied sensibilities and travel experiences of each passenger. This is most obvious when such contradictions occur for the same ship and sailing.

Trending: Luxury In Smaller Packages

While mass-market brands expand capacity arithmetically, "luxury" cruise lines are about to expand exponentially with dozens of ships scheduled for launch in the next few years, including the 200-passenger SeaDream Innovation yacht, 200 to 300 passenger "expedition" ships, and thousand-passenger vessels like those introduced by Viking. A remarkable 40 such ships are on order for delivery over the next eight years, as cataloged and illustrated here by Cruise Industry News.

National Geographic Endurance

126

 guests due

 2020

This creates opportunities for potentially extraordinary guest experiences. And it presents monumental challenges for companies trying to hire professional staff and find uncrowded top-drawer destinations with first-class port facilities, attractions, and ground agents. This high-end of the market represents at most 10 percent of the total cruise market, but it is likely where there will be the greatest conflict between customer expectations and what newly-hired staff can deliver.

Luxury Cruise Bargains May Be Coming

Add up all that capacity and one can speculate that competition in the luxury marketplace will continue to intensify, fighting over not only style and substance but also over price. Watch for relative bargains on contested itineraries and even some brand consolidations or drop-outs as the building cycle peaks next decade.

Do not conclude that we discourage cruising today. We encourage it: cruise sooner rather than later, before destinations become ever more crowded, and the very concept of cruising becomes a less distinctive alternative to other holiday options-- considered by many potential consumers as a generic and repetitive experience.

Dining aboard the RMS Caronia from a 1950s Cunard World Cruise brochure

This Cunard promotional film from the 1950s evokes nostalgia for when cruising had a closer relationship to the ports of call, their peoples, and the sea itself. We enjoyed a brief return to that largely lost experience during three nights on the 150-guest Iberostar Grand Amazon, riding small metal hull boats up narrow jungle channels for hours each day and dining on authentic northern Brazilian cuisine actually procured locally.

The choice is yours: Do you prefer sunset in the Amazon or caviar in the pool?

Sunset In The Amazon

Caviar In The Pool

Too Many Passengers Or Too Many Ships? Market Forces Drive Optimistic Expansion

Cruise executives have used major industry conventions over the past two months to tout plans for continued rapid expansion in the face of dramatically increasing hordes of customers.

Guests will find more shiny new ships from which to chose, with the latest resort features on the 5,000 passenger behemoths. Small ships carrying the new sweet spot of about 300 passengers will enjoy real quasi-yacht amenities and more professional expedition gear.

Ritz Carlton Yacht Collection, 298 Passengers, Begins Sailing February 2019

And latest earnings reports among publicly-held corporations have supported-- and stock prices have reflected-- all the talk of a long term boom for cruise lines.

Shipbuilding companies have been buoyed by orders for scores of new ships that will be delivered over the next 10 years. This will increase worldwide cruise passenger capacity by 40 percent or more.

Royal Caribbean 6,000 Passenger Symphony of the Seas

The executives' optimism is based in large part on the expectation that more vacationers will chose cruising, instead of a road trip to Disneyland, and self-select themselves onto a simpatico cruise line.

Of course, pressing this are traditional advertising, paid social media "influencers," and marketing channels from storefront neighborhood travel agents to massive online cruise sellers.

But what struck us most was the stance of many cruise lines that there will be more than enough passengers to go around. That's the politic thing to say when you're on a conference panel with CEO's of your competitors.

Yet, if we put on our marketing hat, we suspect what is ahead is an increasingly competitive marketplace as new ships add millions of "bed nights" to inventory and, sooner or later, the U.S. and global business cycles begin their predictable sinking.

Regent Splendor 3,000 Sq. Ft. Suite, 1,400 Sq. Ft. Balcony

It may be way early to call a change in the cycle, but there are indicators that cruise buyers can follow and use to their advantage.

At the mass market end, some brands are increasing the voyages for which they promote "free" beverage packages or round-trip economy air or at least a meal in a "fine dining" restaurant. Sometimes the cost of these is simply added to the asking price, but shop carefully and you will find real values that pit one cruise line against another filling those last dozen or hundred or thousand cabins.

For luxury customers, there are choices as more and better small ships are added to leisurely and adventurous itineraries. This new competition already seems to be influencing rates-- in both directions. Yes, some of the newest and best are priced beyond our reach, targeted to customers who, as we like to say, "have too much money."

Self-identified "luxury" cruise lines have a price point in mind, which varies by their definition of all inclusive, season, region of the world, and popularity of itinerary. Let's speculate that a typical goal is $800 per person per night for a base category suite.

Launching 2020: Crystal Endeavor purpose-built Polar Class ship

Just in the past month, we have found and recommended specific desirable sailings on some of these luxury-rated cruise lines at half or a quarter of that price.

Further, an all-inclusive night in a 300 square foot veranda suite for about $200-$250 puts these high-end ships in direct price competition with a lesser cabin on their sister brand mid-market cruise lines, owned by the same corporations.

The winner, at least for now, is you the avid cruise customer.

40-Knot Ocean Liner Will Connect London and New York In Just 3 and A Half Days

April 1, 2018-- The global travel industry was abuzz after today’s announcement of regular express ocean liner service between London Gateway Port on the Thames and New York/Newark in just three and a half days, half the time of Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 week-long sailings from Southampton to New York/Brooklyn.

The crossing at more than 40 knots will compete not only with the Queen Mary 2, but also with transatlantic aviation, particularly business and first class bookings. This is because the new luxury all-inclusive service connects the central cities, not exurban airports or sea ports far from their namesake destinations.

It eliminates bottlenecks at border crossings, security checkpoints, and ground traffic snarls that plague America's JFK airport and Britain's Heathrow, as well as the lost-day transfer from the port of Southampton to London and its airports.

The rapid crossing is made possible by the caterpillar propulsion system first developed by Russia for its nuclear submarine fleet. In addition, turnaround time will be cut to three hours because passengers will board on six port and starboard gangways, not just one, and all baggage, provisions, and fuel will be containerized and rolled directly into the ship.

In New York Harbor, the sleek 900 passenger liner will dock at a new berth in the Elizabeth Channel near the Ikea store adjacent to Newark International Airport. A private security corridor will extend from the berth all the way to the air side of Newark Airport.

Passengers need not pass through border control and security at Newark. They will clear all formalities when they board in London, and on arrival at Newark may travel directly to their air terminal for flights throughout North America and the world.

Meanwhile, a dedicated jet-powered ferry will connect the berth to Wall Street and Midtown Manhattan. Alternatively, passengers can transfer to the existing railroad station at the airport for Amtrak Acela Express trains to Washington, D.C. or Boston, or take a New Jersey Transit commuter train to other parts of the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area.

Similar expedited border arrangements will be provided in the United Kingdom, including free limousine transfers for the 30 mile ride to/from the heart of London.

Cruisecritic.com: Big Ships Popular!

This month major cruise marketing site cruisecritic.com published a story titled, “Compare: 10 Most Popular Cruise Ships.”

The piece by Cruise Critic editor Gina Kramer calls them "the 10 most popular cruise ships in the industry." She makes the case citing features from “a pair of purple slides cascading down the back of the ship” to “28 bars and restaurants” to “skydiving simulator and a London Eye-style glass pod” to “ziplining and a handmade wooden carousel.”

Such features, which certainly have helped draw attention to the biggest cruise ships afloat, have one thing in common: They have little or nothing to do with the sea or sailing.

Harmony of the Seas

Here is how Wikipedia defines “cruise ship:”

“A cruise ship or cruise liner is a passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are a part of the experience, as well as the different destinations along the way, i.e., ports of call.”

So what would be your own perfect balance between “the voyage itself,” “ship’s amenities” and “ports of call?”

While big ships are popular in the sense that they attract more passengers, they are huge containers for people who desire the experience within the vessel.

That does not mean that most deliver, or even promise, voyages that successfully connect travelers with the sea, land and people where the ship calls. Perhaps like us, that's your reason for traveling.

Maximum passenger rosters for the Cruise Critic selections:

Harmony of the Seas 6,780
Carnival Vista 3,936
Norwegian Escape 4,248
Oasis of the Seas 6,360
Celebrity Equinox 2,850
MSC Divina 4,345
Anthem of the Seas 4,905
Norwegian Breakaway 3,969
Celebrity Summit 2,450
Allure of the Seas 6,410

Ten ships, total 46,253 passengers.

Source: Cruisecritic.com

Norovirus: Passengers Rarely Use Readily Available Hospital Grade Preventive Measures

The Royal Caribbean norovirus outbreak last week reminds us that cruise guests rarely use hospital grade weapons to reduce chances of infection. Many wipes and sprays used by medical professionals are readily available to the public and actually kill norovirus and some other threats. It may come as a surprise, but most sanitizer flowing from those pervasive shipboard dispensers does not kill the virus.

Of course, washing your hands often in hot water with soap is the preventive measure of choice. But if only one of your fellow guests does not wash their hands (which we all have witnessed in public shipboard restrooms) and then picks up, examines, and returns each of the cookies on the buffet (which we also all have witnessed), your odds of getting sick increase.

When we cruise, we carry hospital grade wipes and spray to use whenever we observe conditions that may spread a virus, whether it's a careless passenger or a less-than-clean surface on the ship. You can use the wipes to clean everything from your cabin doorknob, to a table in the buffet that has not been cleared. The spray is great after you touch the restaurant menu, but before you begin eating, and the pocket-able two ounce bottle doubles as an emergency hand cleaner when your shore excursion takes you to a suspicious restroom.

There are many varieties. We use these, available from Amazon by clicking below or others:

Clorox CLO 02174 Bleach-Free Hand Sanitizer, 2.0 FL OZ, (4-Pack), Contains Hand Moisturizers, Alcohol-Based

Saalfeld 30825 Hydrogen Peroxide Cleaner Disinfectant Wipes, Kills Norovirus, HIV Rotavirus, 6.75" x 5.75" (Pack of 155)