Vacations Delivered

Source: The Associated Press

Single travelers will be pleased to learn that beginning this year charges for cruise ship rooms designed for solo travelers on the Norwegian Epic will not carry supplemental fees for solo passengers as in the past, but brace yourself for higher prices to cover better entertainment, water parks, and other new perks.

“I think it’s genius,” said Cynthia Boal Janssens, editor and 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,” said Motter.

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

“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,” Motter said.

Oasis was the “it” ship of 2009, attracting enormous publicity as the largest cruise ship ever built. It carries 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 is 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, editor 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, CLIA lines have managed to keep them full. CLIA said ships in 2009 sailed at 104 percent capacity on average, meaning that every room was occupied, and some rooms were shared by more than two people.

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 Canadian 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 editor.

One sign of change: More passengers are booking farther 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 has already 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.”

Paying for extras
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 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, executive director of the Cruise Lines International Association, an industry group with 25 cruise lines representing 97 percent of cruise capacity in North America.

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

One thing younger passengers will love are the water parks on many new ships. 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 Disney ship, the Dream, launching a year from now 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 will also 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 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, with new excursions that include South African wineries and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

Princess cruise ships 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 a passion play that villagers only perform once a decade.

Janssens, the AllThingsCruising 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 that the small and medium-sized ships from lines like Silversea, Star Clippers and Crystal 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.”

_____________________________

My Take: Personally, I’d rather be a Los Angeles court reporter than the owner of a travel agency right now.  The industry is among the slowest to recovery from 911 and the ensuing economic meltdown linked to the housing market.  Every travel agent I know says they’ve had to take on “second” careers just to make ends meet.

California’s economic crisis is among the most severe and doesn’t seem to be showing any signs of a recovery in my book.  Obama’s announcement this week to offer tax credits to small businesses is not a new idea and every small business up and down the state from Redwood City CA criminal lawyers to the traveling LA court videographer would have to see hard financial data show why now is the time to start think about expanding or hiring more employees just to get a tax break.

On the other hand, perhaps a cruise is the anecdote for a sluggish economy.  Hedonistic business owners would say seek out pleasure first and the business will follow, and even if it doesn’t follow, you’ll have a good time while it lasted, right?

———————————————————————-

Other Resources

Driving Vacations

If you travel by car in California, remember the drinking and driving rules are stiffer than anywhere across the Golden State.  Find a good Redwood City CA DUI attorney at attorneysdelivered.com, or click on other areas for help.

Out of the country

Heading to Canada? Travelers can find a Cornwall DUI lawyer pretty easily online, or a good Toronto criminal lawyer at Lawyerlocate.com.

Budgeting for Retirement

When you create a budget you begin to see a clear picture of how much money you have, what you spend it on and how much, if any, is left over. Once you can see the inflows and outflows of your money you can optimize your spending so that necessary items are sure to be covered while cutting back on wasteful spending that will allow you to successfully complete senior financial planning.  Today, many people that are planning for retirement want to be able to continue with many of their life passions such as green issues.  By utilizing a retirement calculator they are able to incorporate their passion into their finances.