Cruises
One of the big developments in cruising in the past few years is the rapid rise of river cruising, which has a big marketing advantage over ocean cruising among a certain segment of the population: namely, those who don’t like the idea of being out in the ocean on a big ship.
Emerald Waterways features an innovative “indoor balcony” in some cabins. Photo from Emerald Waterways.
Whether it’s fear of open water, fear of getting seasick, fear of overcrowding, or fear of being on a big ship if a crisis strikes at sea — such as some of the highly publicized events of the past year or two — a number of people just won’t consider taking a traditional ocean cruise. (No matter how much I or many other cruising advocates try to convince them otherwise.)
River cruising, on the other hand, enables you to stay close to land on… Continue reading
Stan Bahnsen in his New York Yankee pitching heyday
Hey, baby boomer baseball fans: Anybody remember former stars like Frank Howard, Ferguson Jenkins, Tommy Davis and Ken Griffey, Sr.?
Of course you do. And MSC Cruises has figured out a way for you to meet them on their long-running series of Baseball Greats Cruises, now in their ninth year.
Organized and hosted by ex-Yankees pitcher Stan Bahnsen, the Baseball Greats Cruises run from November to April or May each year, forming a kind of high seas hot stove league.
Passengers get to mix and mingle with the greats, who mostly vary for each cruise — 17 different players, along with Bahnsen, will appear during five cruises between November 2013 and May 2014.
Highlights include autograph sessions, baseball trivia, pitching contests, baseball skills clinics, storytelling, question and answer sessions, and bonuses like blooper films and baseball movies. Passengers… Continue reading
The MS Europa 2. Photo from Hapag-LLoyd.
I’m onboard the Europa 2, Hapag-Lloyd’s new luxury cruise ship, sailing from Sicily to Sardinia in the western Mediterranean.
One of the afternoon offerings onboard is a meat seminar featuring Wolfgang Otto, one of three German brothers who recognized a need in Germany and decided to fill it: supplying Germany’s finest Michelin-rated restaurants with top-quality beef and pork.
Otto admitted to me and the other baby boomers onboard that just eight years ago he knew very little about meat, yet today his family’s company, Otto Gourmet, is regarded as the top beef and pork purveyor in Germany. Kobe cattle and Iberico pig are two of the products they distribute to both top restaurants and private customers.
For enlightenment on the subject, he and his brothers first turned to a Nebraska rancher, Dan Morgan, who taught them the finer points of how to… Continue reading
Valletta, Malta – I’m in the capital of Malta before embarking on the Europa 2, Hapag-Lloyd’s new luxury cruise ship, for a cruise through the Western Mediterranean.
Malta is home to forts and remnants of the Knights of St. John, but nary a falcon in sight. Photo by Clark Norton
Valletta is a beautiful walled city, once home to the Knights of St. John — originally formed during the Crusades to bring Christianity back to the Holy Land — who fled here from the island of Rhodes in the 1500s.
When the knights arrived here, they paid a fief to the Spanish king of one falcon per year in order to occupy the island; eventually, the payment evolved into a golden falcon. No one knows what happened to the golden falcons, but the mystery formed the basis of the Dashiell Hammett novel The Maltese Falcon, later made into a… Continue reading
Holland America ships carry knitting cruisers around the globe. Photo from Holland America.
Having written a column about theme cruises for Porthole Cruise Magazine for five years, I’ve covered everything from Goth cruises to ghost-hunting cruises, murder mystery cruises to psychic cruises, baseball legends cruises to pirate cruises (see my previous post on the latter) and many more.
For those unfamiliar with theme cruises, they involve like-minded groups of people going for a cruise together to spend usually a week or more pursuing a particular subject, including the topics above or others such as motorcycles, blues music, ukulele playing, ballroom dancing or soap operas. The may attend classes, talks, and practice sessions, take specialized shore excursions, and play trivia games and share meals with their fellow devotees. In some cases, they go scuba diving, play soccer at sea, or even run marathons.
The thing that’s struck me most about the… Continue reading
Uniworld’s River Queen on the Moselle River. Photo courtesy of Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection
Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection, whose trademarked slogan is “the world’s only authentic boutique cruise line,” is offering experiences that are right out of the baby boomer promotional playbook.
According to a recent press release, “enhancements for 2014 include delving even more into authentic and personalized travel experiences.”
“Authentic” and “personalized travel experiences,” please note, are exactly what baby boomers are looking for when they leave home.
The press release continues: “Uniworld’s onshore experiences will continue to focus more on flexibility with their ‘Choice is Yours’ options, along with more authentic and enriching experiences with more interaction with local communities, such as their ‘Do as the Locals’ and exclusive ‘Village Days’ offering the ultimate insiders’ experience.”
“Flexibility”…”Choice is Yours” options…”authentic” (again)…”enriching”…”interaction with local communities”…”Do as the Locals”…”insiders’ experience”…
All of the above are words and… Continue reading
The Isaac H. Evans sails the Maine coast. Photo from Maine Windjammer Association
Brenda Thomas, the hard-working but fun-loving captain of the historic Maine Windjammer Isaac H. Evans, may or may not think of herself as a travel marketer, but she’s a good one.
During the Evans’ four-month annual summer season, when it plies the Maine coast and scenic Penobscot Bay — anchoring in secluded coves, visiting small islands and offering views of lighthouses and marine life — Thomas offers a number of specialty cruises that seem tailor-made for baby boomers.
Chocolate Lovers Cruise? Check.
Knitting Cruise? Check.
Lighthouse cruise? Check.
Perseid Meteor Shower cruise? Check.
Puffin Cruise? Check.
“Old Salts” cruise? Well, maybe “Older Than We Once Were Salts” cruise. Check.
Music Cruise With Hank Cramer? I have no idea who Hank Cramer is, but what the heck…check.
Lobster Festival? Double check.
Even Thomas’ swashbuckling Pirate Adventure cruises… Continue reading
Captain Cook Cruises’ 130-passenger vessel sails through Fiji. Photo by Clark Norton
Possibly due in part to recent bad publicity about large ocean cruising vessels gone wrong, travel agents are seeing an upsurge in interest in small ship and river cruising, according to an internal American Express Travel survey released during a recent cruise industry conference in Vancouver.
The survey of 250 Amex agents showed that 38 percent of them ranked small ship cruises as their highest-demand voyages, followed by megaships at 31 percent and river cruises at 27 percent.
This dovetails with my own surveys of baby boomer travelers, who have often told me they would never consider taking a cruise — until I ask about small ship and river cruises. Then I often get this kind of reply: “Oh, those are different — I’d try them.”
Megaships carrying thousands of passengers — with their myriad on-board activities, entertainments,… Continue reading
Sailaway to Alaska aboard the Disney Wonder. Photo from Disney Cruise Lines
When my wife and I took a Disney cruise to Alaska last summer — sans kids, who are now grown — we weren’t sure if we would feel out of place on a Disney vessel. We had enjoyed all the usual Disney entertainments when our kids were young, but how would we fare as a couple on the Disney Wonder, sailing through Alaska’s Inside Passage?
Would we be overwhelmed with small children in the swimming pool and dining rooms, and besieged by roaming Mickeys and Minnies?
We needn’t have worried. While Disney cruises are certainly as family-friendly as you would expect, with far more kids sailing with Disney than on the average Alaska cruise, Disney is expert at balancing the needs and desires of different ages and interests — just one way in which they are expert… Continue reading
Former Carnival CEO Bob Dickinson
According to a recent Harris poll, cruising has taken a serious hit in the wake of the Carnival Triumph’s power failure at sea, which received saturation coverage in the media. The public has less trust in cruises, perceives the quality of cruising in a more negative light, and is less likely to book a cruise now.
It also regards air travel as safer than cruising, the poll says.
While the results were particularly bad for Carnival, they also extended in varying degrees to other cruise lines the poll tested.
Carnival is now working to regain its tarnished reputation. Carnival Corp. — which owns not just Carnival Cruise Lines but several other lines including Holland America, Princess, Costa, Cunard and Seabourn — has hired Carnival’s former CEO, Bob Dickinson, as a consultant to “reassess the brands.” Dickinson is a legend in the industry and as… Continue reading
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