Leading Passengers to Water !!!

An excellent article. Thanks for posting.

Robert

"steinbrenner" wrote in message
news:cG9uZGVydGU=.736f6e55046239637b2fc716e56321bd @1064678050.cotse.net...
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/28/tr...rends.html?8td

Cruise Trends: Leading Passengers to Water
By IVER PETERSON

THERE was a time in this country when cruising meant a flight to Miami
and a slow boat to the Caribbean, with ho-hum ports of call to buy
baskets and conch shells and dumb T-shirts.

Cruise lines have known for some time that, to attract new passengers
and to get the repeat customers they need, a new cruising menu was
needed. The pace of change has only increased since the terror attacks
on New York and the Pentagon brought new worries to the traveling
public and the businesses that depend on them. The question before the
ship operators this year, as the winter and spring cruising season
begins is, Will all of these new options keep the passengers coming,
and help the cruise industry climb back from the steep drop in
passengers that began in 2001?

The cruise industry has certainly done what it can to see that they do,
emphasizing convenience and variety as never before. Don't want to fly?
If you live within a day's drive of the East or West Coast, chances are
there's a ship waiting for you close to home.

Tired of the Caribbean? Royal Olympia Cruises has a 17 -day cruise out
of Fort Lauderdale making 28 knots, almost 32 miles an hour, as it
races through the Caribbean to South America and five days on the
Amazon before turning homeward.

Hooked on themes? They've got them, from doo-wop to yoga

Much of the added variety in cruising has been made possible by a big
expansion in the number of new ships and passenger berths the cruise
lines ordered during the booming 1990's, and that they will now be
competing to fill. Carnival Corporation, which includes 13 cruise
lines, among them Carnival Cruise Lines, Princess Cruises, Costa
Cruises and Cunard, is spending $6.35 billion on 13 vessels set to go
into service between now and mid-2006. The ships represent about 34,000
additional passengers.

"Consumers want more choice, and the bigger ships we are getting give
us that," said Jennifer de la Cruz, spokeswoman for Carnival. "You have
more bars and lounges to offer a wider variety of types of
entertainment. You've got people who can't live without their country
and western, and they can have that. You've got disco clubs. Wine bars
are big." Ms. de la Cruz has noticed, however, that the cigar craze, a
creature of 90's swagger, has lost some of its glow.

"Although it has faded, it's still popular," she added, "and the bigger
ships allow us to fill that variety, too."

For consumers, all this new capacity will come at a price, but
generally a low one. Prices have still not completely recovered from
the drop that followed the chain of events starting with the terrorist
attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and continuing through the war in
Afghanistan, the Iraq war and the unabated Middle East conflict. Asian
cruises, meanwhile, have barely begun to recover from the effects of
the SARS outbreak. Cruising to Europe is still off, travel agencies
report, and while Europeans continue to cruise the Mediterranean,
Americans are staying away.

Still, cruising is still a major vacation pastime, particularly among
Americans. Worldwide, 9.2 million passengers took cruises in 2002,
compared with 8.4 million the year before, according to the Cruise Line
International Association; Americans account for most of the passengers
and most of the increase. And most of the worldwide growth was
registered, in turn, primarily in the new ports ringing the country
where the industry has deployed its fleet in an effort to bring the
ships closer to their passengers.

So while Miami remained the biggest port of embarkation, Galveston's
passenger count grew to 267,000 from 149,000, San Diego to 135,000 from
103,000, and New York City, emerging as a year-round home port for
several liners, saw embarkations grow from 238,000 in 2001 to 326,000
in 2002.

"The new capacity was based on pre-9/11 assumption, but the industry
has always been able to sell capacity; the only question is at what
price you sell it," said Andy Stuart, senior vice president for
marketing and sales at Norwegian Cruise Lines. "The home port cruise is
a drive to fill that capacity, because you drop the price by $200 to
$250, which was the price of the flight, and you are going to have a
lot more people who can afford it than before."

Five years ago, there were perhaps a dozen home ports around the
country, and now there are about 20, with more likely as cities compete
for cruise ships. Now, according to Ron Russo, director of
bestpricecruises .com, a big Web-based cruising travel agency based in
Port St. Lucie, Fla., passengers can sail from Boston, New York,
Philadelphia, Baltimore, Norfolk, Charleston, Jacksonville, Port
Canaveral, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Tampa, New Orleans, Galveston, San
Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver and Honolulu.

Chris Lafrenz, cruise marketing manager for Liberty Travel, the big
East Coast travel agency, said it was all part of the plan. "The
biggest single thing since 9/11 is that the cruise lines have tried to
redefine their philosophy about how people get to the ship," he said.

One reason prices have not rebounded is that travelers have been buying
closer to the sailing than in the past, travel experts said. Waiting
until the last minute, which means 24 hours before sailing, can be the
best strategy for cruisers who are not very fussy about their
accommodations aboard ship or their departure dates. Cruise lines
generally do not take new passengers within 24 hours of sailing.

"Buying last minute worked last year, but in general terms the industry
works very hard to offer attractive pricing early and then to increase
prices," said Mr. Stuart of Norwegian. "We are going to fill the ship,
so sometimes there are last-minute deals. But you tend not to get the
cabin you want the longer you wait."

The company's reasons for filling the ship at almost any price are
simple: cruisers are big repeat customers, so getting a first-timer on
board is important to the companies. And, of course, even pinch-pennies
spend money on board, at the shops or at the roulette wheel.

An example of how the prices move with the time of year and as sailing
date approaches: in early September, Travelocity, the online travel
agency, posted a five-day cruise to Mexico at $179 a person for an
inside cabin - that's cheaper than a motel on the outskirts of a second-
rate city - for a departure date two days away in mid-September. The
same cruise and cabin location leaving in April 2004, a peak cruising
period, was listed as $449. The same strategy doesn't generally work on
high-end cruises like round-the-world trips or on luxury lines like
Cunard, Mr. Russo said. The people who can afford those cruises buy
their space early, and such ships are not above letting a cabin go
empty.

And where do those cruises go? Norwegian Cruise Lines won a lot of
attention last fall when it announced it was buying and restoring two
famous but aging American ocean liners, the United States and the
Independence, ships that had ruled the oceans before the jetliner. But
they need extensive renovations and their deployment will not be
decided on for several years. In addition, starting this winter,
Norwegian will bring three more ships under American flags, with
American crews, in contrast to all other major ships these days, which
carry foreign registration and crews.

The American flags mean that Norwegian can cruise between American
ports without putting in at a foreign port before returning home, a
requirement of a law aimed at protecting American shipping.

So while every other cruise line must put in at Canada, the Caribbean,
Mexico or points farther away to operate, Norwegian will begin offering
island-hopping, all-Hawaiian cruises starting July 4 on two ships, the
Pride of America - complete with a screaming eagle motif on its hull -
and the Pride of Aloha. And because these ships do not have to scoot
away to touch a foreign port before returning, the company will offer
unusually long stays in port, including overnight stays in local
hotels, for passengers who will be able to get on at any one of several
stops.

The other cruise lines are watching Norwegian's experiment in all-
American cruising, but in the meantime they are adding ports of call.
In May, Holland America's Maasdam will put it at New London, Conn., an
old seaport better known for its submarine base, as local merchants
spruce up the harbor area and prep cabdrivers on the proper treatment
of cruise visitors.

Mr. Lafrenz said Liberty Travel was handling bookings this spring for
an all-rock 'n' roll cruise on the Norwegian Dawn, departing from New
York in November; an all-yoga cruise on the Costa Atlantica, leaving
Fort Lauderdale for the Caribbean in March; and a July cruise, also on
the Norwegian Dawn out of New York, done in association with R Family
Vacations, for gays and lesbians and their families.

Americans who are determined to break away from the North American mold
will still have plenty of choices for foreign cruises in the
Mediterranean, and along the rivers and coastlines of Europe, Asia,
Africa and South America. EasyCruises, a new cut-rate cruiser founded
by the owners of EasyJet, is emerging in Europe, offering trips of
varying lengths for as little as $45 a day. But the discount ships are
older and less luxurious than the new liners joining the major fleets,
so Mr. Russo, for one, does not think the discount cruisers represent
much of a threat.

"Europeans are much more tolerant of older ships, so the cruise lines
have divisions that cater to them," he said. "But if you have a first-
class ship like the Noordam already selling for $50 or $75 a day, I
don't have much faith in someone going up against her at $45."


IVER PETERSON is a reporter on the metropolitan staff of The New York
Times.