Just Cruises Plus

Royal Caribbean reported weak 2nd quarter financial results.  According to Richard Fain, Royal Caribbean’s CEO, anemic European bookings was the primary culprit.  He indicated that the weak economy as well as the tragic capsizing of the Costa Concordia caused folks to avoid Europe.

At Just Cruises Plus, we also noticed that European bookings were much slower this year than last year.  Although we had many inquiries about Europe, the most common reason our clients decided not to travel to Europe was high airfare rates.  Last year, round trip airfare was in the range of $800 to $900 for a round trip ticket to major European cities.  This year, rates nearly doubled mainly due to higher fuel prices (although they are beginning to drop).

We had over 100 responses to our survey asking for your opinion of why Europe bookings were slow.  A large majority felt that the economy was primarily responsible.  Only 7 people agreed with Mr. Fain that the Concordia was a major factor.

There is one inconsistency in our survey results, theCEO’s conclusions and your opinions.  Last year, the economy was weaker by most objective measures (stock market lower and unemployment higher) but European bookings were stronger than this year.  Why?  Perhaps, because our politicians are utterly incapable of getting their act together and we are feeling uncertain about the future of the economy.

If you are a contrarian, now may be the best time to cruise Europe.  Cruise lines are offering big discounts and the Euro is lower than it has been in many years which means that you can buy more with your dollars.  For example, Royal Caribbean has some 7 day cruises leaving from Rome in October.  The price for a balcony is $599.

What’s the best time to visit Europe?  For the best chance of good weather, spring and fall in the Mediterranean and mid summer in Scandinavia.

The winner of this week’s $25 gift card drawing is Michele Nihen, of Chalfont, PA.  Michele’s name was randomly selected from all who responded with their opinion.

Royal Caribbean reported a net loss of 3.6 million for the 2nd quarter.  Management said that the entire loss resulted from declines in European travel.  To quote Richard Fain, the Chairman and CEO of Royal Caribbean “The bummer, of course was Europe.  We all knew there were challenges there, but we had not anticipated either the severity of the financial crisis or the roller coaster ride that politicians and the media have precipitated.  And, of course, the Concordia impact there has been the greatest and the slowest to dissipate.”

What do you think is the most important factor that caused cruisers to avoid Europe this year?

Concordia

Weak Economy

Civil unrest including Arab Spring

High airfare rates

All of the above probably had a deleterious effect on European bookings.  If you had to pick the most imortant, what would it be? 

Give us your oponion and we will enter you into our weekly drawing for a $25 Visa gift card.

We cruisers have been tortured by snail paced internet connections aboard cruise ships.  Add this to the fact that we are paying top dollar per minute to connect.

This is set to change next June, at least on Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas.  The Oasis will be the first cruise ship to be linked to a new satellite network that is expected to deliver fiber-optic bandwidth to the ship, which, in turn will be able to deliver maximum-speed WiFi to passengers.

Royal Caribbean is doing their best to attract younger passengers.  The Oasis class ships have a zip-line, rock-climbing walls,  FlowRider surf simulators, mini golf course, ice-skating and even a carousel.

What’s all that worth if you can’t connect on facebook and twitter with the folks back home?  This is pure genius on the part of Royal Caribbean.  Their passengers will supply the advertising for them when they put  pictures of themselves zip lining across the ship on Facebook.

It’s estimated that more than one-billion people will tune in for this year’s Olympic Games in the host city of London, and Celebrity Cruises has arranged the opportunity for guests sailing on its modern luxury fleet to be among them.

From the eagerly anticipated Opening Ceremony July 27 to the celebratory Closing Ceremony August 12, Celebrity will broadcast ‘live’ via satellite the swimming, diving, gymnastics, rowing, cycling, athletics, and basketball events, in addition to airing daily compilations of highlights from all 26 sports featured in the Games of the XXX Olympiad. On Celebrity ships sailing in North America, the events initially airing live also will be re-broadcast during more convenient times of day for guests to enjoy.

Whether sailing on Celebrity Constellation in Scandinavia and Russia; in Iceland and the Fjords on Celebrity Eclipse; in the Eastern Mediterranean on Celebrity Equinox; in the Adriatic on Celebrity Silhouette; in the Mediterranean from Venice on Celebrity Solstice; in Bermuda on Celebrity Summit; or in Alaska on Celebrity Millennium, Celebrity Infinity and Celebrity Century, Celebrity’s guests can stay on top of the Games while vacationing.

Trouble for Another Costa Ship

The Costa Allegra lost power in the Indian Ocean and was adrift for 3 days without power.  She has been towed safely to the port of Victoria on the Seychelles island of Mahe.

We are very familiar with events resulting from loss of power on a cruise ship.  We were aboard the Norway when she lost power and was adrift for 3 days.  No lights, no air conditioning, no flushing toilets, no hot food — these are some of the inconveniences caused by the failure of a ship’s ability to make power.  However the biggest thing to overcome was boredom.  There is absolutely nothing to do but read and complain.

Our captain tried to alleviate boredom by giving free drinks.  However, that resulted in fights and broken bones.

We are glad that the Allegra’s passengers have left the ship safely.  We also must point out that the news media got it wrong when they said that the Allegra was a “sister ship” to the Costa Concordia which capsized off the Italian coast last month.  The Concordia is 4 times larger than the Allegra and is hundreds of feet longer.

Disney Fantasy Visits the Big Apple

The newest Disney ship, the Disney Fantasy stopped in NY long enough to host a number of VIPs including Mayor Bloomberg as well as Seinfeld and it’s “godmother”, Mariah Carey.  The Fantasy headed past the Statue of Liberty and out to sea on Friday and will begin cruising nest week.

Passenger Robbed at Gunpoint in Puerto Vallerta

A group of passengers from the Carnival Splendour were robbed during a cruise line sponsored tour.  Masked bandits stopped their bus and stole money,  jewelry and cameras.  Fortunately, no one was injured.  We have recommeded for months that folks avoid the Pacific side of Mexico (the route of the Love Boat).  However, we don’t see the same dangers in Cozumel and Cancun, which are located on the Caribbean side.

Effect of Costa “Accident” on Cruising

All of the major cruise lines have experienced a moderate decline in bookings as a result of the grounding of the Costa ship off the coast of Italy.  We have noticed that we are getting fewer inquiries about Europe and more interest in Alaska, South America and the Caribbean.

The cruise lines have already committed many ships to Europe this summer based on an improving economy here in the U.S. and a decline in the Euro relative to the US Dollar.  With the grounding of the Concordia and the uncertainty regarding Iran,  Americans have become “gun shy” on Europe.  We think that this will result in an over supply of cruise ship berths in Europe, especially the Mediterranian.  Since this is a purely supply-demand business, we expect lots of deals.

In fact, Princess has started with an “Up to 2 for 1”  promotion on their European cruises.  Royal Caribbean has a 15 night cruise from Dubai for $699 (Oceanview room).

When we look at the situation objectively, we think:

1. The Costa Concordia is a very rare event and is highly unlikly to be repeated.

2. War with Iran is unlikly.

Perhaps now is the time to take advantage of the cruise line’s predicament.  Rememeber what they say on Wall Street; “buy when everyone else is selling and sell when every on else is buying.”

Ship Migration to Start Soon 

The Caribbean season is winding down and the vast majority of ships now sailing in the Caribbean will be moving to Europe and Alaska.  Celebrity and Princess will have zero ships in the Caribbean this summer.  This leaves the Caribbean to Royal Caribbean and Carnival.  Of course, the two big Royal Caribbean ships, the Allure and Oasis of the Seas will stay in the Caribbean.

Because their are fewer ships and demand is fairly high (families travel in the summer), we don’t expect any terrific deals in the Caribbean until the ships come back in October.

Virtually everyone is aware of the grounding and capsizing of the Costa Concordia and the total vilification of the captain of the ship.  We know that the ship had every modern aid to navigation and was equipped with more than enough lifeboats and life rafts.  So why did the ship impale itself on the rocky coast of Giglio Island and why did people die?

From all of the information available from the news media, it would appear that a hubristic captain and a less-than vigilant company combined to cause the destruction of the Concordia and the resultant loss of life. It appears then that the captain made the decision to steer the ship toward disaster despite having all of the information that he needed to avoid tearing the bottom out of his ship.  It appears that he chose to ignore the information that would easily have brought the ship onto a safe course.

We know that the ship has a “black box”.  Does Costa Cruises have someone who reviews each sailing to determine whether this or any other captain makes risky navigational decisions? 

What about the deaths?  No passengers should have died in this incident.  There were plenty of lifeboats and life rafts.  However, there was no leadership and very lax training as evidenced by how long it took to get people into boats.  Training is clearly the responsibility of Costa Cruises.  While the captain appears to have made major errors of judgment, we believe that Costa must bear an equal part of the blame in that abandon ship procedures were woefully inadequate.

Just Cruise Plus has not booked a client on any Costa ship since 2005.  We stopped recommending their ships as a result of customer feedback.

We have always believed that cruising was an extremely safe way of seeing the world at great comfort and convenience and we urge all of the cruise lines to review their safety policies to make certain that this kind of event never occurs again.

Do you chose your cruise based on the ports or do you choose based on the ship?

Cruise lines recognize that these are two distinct groups.  Alaska, Europe, South America, Asia and Hawaii are destinations and the ships that take you there are  the supporting actors.  The ship is not the focus of these travelers.   These cruises are selected because the passengers wish to experience the ports of call.

On the other hand, there are folks who choose their ship because of the features and amenities of the particular ship.  This is true of many Caribbean cruisers where the various islands have much in common (great beaches and lots of sun).  Since entertainment is a significant amenity of Caribbean cruises, cruise lines are partnering with entertainment companies to enhance the entertainment experience.

Disney has always been in the forefront of this cruise/entertainment marriage since the ship and the entertainment are all Disney.  In order to compete, Royal Caribbean has aligned with Dreamworks, a Disney rival, and you will see Dreamworks characters (Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, etc) on their ships.  Royal Caribbean also acquired the rights to Broadway shows like Hairspray, Chicago and Saturday Night Fever.

Norwegian Cruise Line is associated with “Second City”.  It also added the hit show “Blue Man Group”.  The theater on the Norwegian Epic was built with this show in mind.

Cunard’s three ships offer original plays based on West End (London) plays while Carnival Cruise Line has hired George Lopez to lead the comedy direction on their ships.

Finally, the Great American Steamboat Company has lined up the Glenn Miller Orchestra, the Harry James Orchestra, The Lovin’ Spoonful, The Platters and The New Orleans Jazz All-Stars (sorry – no heavy metal or Hip-Hop).

New year, new look… That’s what’s in store for Celebrity Summit in January 2012, when the award-winning ship becomes the third in Celebrity Cruises’ much-loved Millennium Class quartet to complete a significant “Solsticizing,” the term Celebrity coined for its initiative to complement its Milllennium Class ships’ style and design with some of the most popular attributes found on its widely heralded Solstice Class ships.

What are some the highlights?

–       Aqua Class veranda staterooms

–       Bleu (Aqua-class) and Qsine specialty restaurants

–       Creperie and Bistro on Five

–       Café al Bacio and the Gelateria

–       Cellarmasters wine bar, including the “Enomatic” state-of-the-art wine serving system

–       The cool, ice-topped Martini Bar and Crush

–       An expanded collection of original, contemporary art

–       Updated carpeting, upholstery and other cosmetic updates

Click here for a video which contains great before and after images of the Millennium Class ships:  What Is Solsticizing?

What does this mean for you?  

The Summit, already a Bermuda favorite pre-solsticization, sold out many sailings early on last year.  In anticipation of the solsticization of the Summit, we decided to hold cabin space, at prices lower than Celebrity’s online rates, on many of its 2012 Bermuda sailings.  Bermuda cabins tend to go early, so it is not too soon to reserve your cabin now.  See our hot deals for some sample pricing on these Bermuda sailings.

Princess Cruises just announced the new 3600 passenger Royal Princess whose inaugural sailing is scheduled for May of 2013.  Does this name sound familiar?  That’s because the first P&O Princess Cruises cruise ship (1984) was also named Royal Princess.  It was one of the first, if not the first, ships to completely dispense with interior cabins.  The ship now serves in P&O Cruises fleet as the Artemis.

The latest Royal Princess, in addition to being the largest in the fleet at 141,000 tons, will feature an on-deck retreat exclusively for adults which offers passengers a secluded spa-like setting for complete relaxation.  As the first Princess had all outside staterooms and no inside rooms, the new Royal Princess has no traditional outside staterooms.  All ocean facing rooms will have balconies.

A sister ship to the new Royal Princess is expected to sail in the Spring of 2014.