Cruise lines, the class society continues?

I was reminded of a conversation I had on the plane to Barbados the other day, with a fellow passenger about cruises and what we thought of the service. The lady in question was not happy at the perceived first and second class service on Cunard and said that she did not want to travel with them because it would make her feel uncomfortable!

Well, to be honest Cunard are not the only cruise line which is offering 'Luxury Suites' like the Grills in what may be seen in same places as elitism.

What about the Yacht Club on MSC?

These suites, Standard and Deluxe Yacht Club suites range from 223 to 316 square feet, and the Royal Suite ranges from 417 – 439 square feet. All feature bedroom and sitting areas, bathrooms with tubs, and in-cabin Wii consoles. Most, but not all, have private balconies.

The Yacht Club suites and exclusive areas occupy prime top-deck position on the bow of the ship. Exclusive to Yacht Club passengers are the Top Sail lounge and eatery and a separate area in the ship's main restaurant, bar, and private pool and whirlpool areas. Yacht Club passengers also have access to butler and concierge services.

Or even Courtyard Villas on NCL?

In Norwegian Epic's Courtyard complex, passengers have the choice of a courtyard villa (sleeps six, 506 square feet), a courtyard penthouse (sleeps two, 322 square feet) or an owner's suite (sleeps four, 852 square feet), all the Villa's have private balconies.

Passengers have exclusive use of a private pool, two whirlpools, saunas, a sunning area, a fitness facility, private indoor/outdoor dining, a bar and a concierge lounge. Each suite comes with butler service, as well.

Now, these are not the only lines which offer additional services for some categories of cabins, and we are not talking of the luxury lines.
 
But Cunard is perhaps the most well known of the '2 class ships' and seems to get some negative comments about elitism, whereas few people seem to comment about the other lines. Come on be fair, is just because its Cunard - I think so.



However, these suites are still very popular, I'm not too sure that is just because these passengers don't want to mingle with the hoi polloi over steak and lobster!

Help....Man overboard, are you sure?

We all know from being on board ship that the crew do practice various drill whilst in port or on sea days, and whilst in Bergen a couple of months ago I watch while the crew used one of the inflatable lifeboats to 'save' a man in the drink!

But reports are out that Princess Cruises' Ruby Princess  changed course briefly the other day off the coast of Mykonos to search for a possible man overboard -- but it turns out that the man in question may have been a blue sun lounger!

It appears that a passenger reported seeing a blue sun lounger in the water, but could be sire if there was a sunbather with it! The bridge was advised and the Captain decided that the ship should undertake a search, while at the same time notifying the Greek Coast Guard.

The final decision when darkness fell was that it could not have come from the ship, so Ruby Princess steamed onwards and the itinerary will not be affected.

The serious point here is that the training is important, and even though they did not need to save anybody this time it could have been a real emergency.

But how did a blue sun lounger get out to sea!

Neu für Carnival Aida online bestellt Schiff

OK, so I have gone mad!

We spend all our time selling and looking at cruises on the lines that sell specifically in the UK, that occasionally adding a bit of news from abroad gives a broader view of the whole cruise market.

So what does the title mean? - well I hope that Google translate has got it right so .... New ship ordered for Carnival's Aida line.

Carnival Corporation & plc has ordered a 71,300-ton cruise ship for its AIDA Cruises brand, which caters exclusively to the German-speaking market. It will be the seventh new ship that the German cruise operator has ordered in the past six years.


The 2,192-passenger vessel, will be built at Germany’s Meyer Werft, and  the new vessel will join the 71,300-ton AIDAsol, set to debut in April 2011, and an as-yet-unnamed sister ship in June 2012.


So what is AIDA, well its an informal “club resort” cruise concept which is marketed exclusively to German-speaking clientele and offers a product aimed at younger, more active guests who enjoy a host of on-board innovations.

So, is there a market for this type of ship in the UK? and do they still put their towels on sunbeds even though there are no Brits on board. Well, as they are not sold in the UK we will never know, unless some one can tell me!

Is that the picture, or just another way to make a profit?

You have just spent 9 hours on a plane or travelled for 4 hours by road to Southampton and are in a long queue to embark on the cruise of your dreams, and you turn what you think is the last corner and you meet the Ships Photographer! With a cheesy grin they thrust a lifebuoy in your hand and shout smile!!

Now don't think that is the last you will see of the photographer, no round every corner you turn they will lurk! On formal nights they will be there catching everybody in their finery, with a formal shot on the stairs or a lounge. When you get off at port they will be there again with the lifebuoy, but named with the port so you know where you are!

If you are really lucky, a photographer may be with you on your tour - or in my case with the video camera. I am now the proud owner of a DVD of my cruise, only because of my brief appearance in 1 of the sections!

Then you go and spend hours in the photo gallery, glasses on straining at the thousands of (samey) photos of people on the cruise, have you tried to find your picture when everybody is wearing a dinner jacket and black tie!

Once you have found them, and there will be many you start adding up the costs. At $24.99 per picture on Cunard it could be very expensive, although if you bought 6 you only paid $124.95! There were signs saying no cameras allowed, but I did see a couple of people taking snaps of the snaps, don't know how successful that would be.

But technology moves on, I have just read that on NCL Epic they are going to have a Youfinder® Facial Recognition System. Which means that they will software to recognise facial features from your embarkation photo so its easier to find your cruise pictures. So you can choose which prints you want, or you may want a picture CD of them all!

As I have not yet been on the Epic, still got a couple of months or so to wait, I'm not sure what the cost will be but I can't imagine they will be cheap.


Is this a move to more advanced technology, or to improve the overall profit margin of the photo gallery as they won't be printing thousands of photo prints that people don't want to buy. It has to be profit, I have to say the last pictures I printed, at Tesco, were only 10p for a 5x7 print, yet the cruise lines are charging upwards of $25 a time!