CruiseDossier

Having just done a short four night cruise to Ireland and back from Southampton, I can highly recommend such a trip to recharge your batteries.

Packing was a breeze - just enough for a long weekend…only one stop  - Cork in Southern Ireland  - and no time to get bored of shipboard life before it was time to disembark. Best of all there was a bank holiday while we were on board, so we didn’t really miss any work time as the trip included a weekend..

Yet we felt as refreshed as if we had been away for twice the time. That’s partly because there was no long flight at either end  - which always takes up the first and last day. Instead, we were in our cabins within half an our of parking the car at Southampton, and eating our first meal within 10 minutes of that! 

Disembarkation was equally leisurely as there were no onward travel arrangements or tense timetables. We got home feeling very relaxed and unwound.

Best of all, the trip only cost £500 pp - which is not a lot more than you’d pay to stay in a decent hotel in the UK - once you’ve added in all the meals and a few films and a show. We had four stunning shows - including one on ice - plus masses of wonderful music and dancing …  Having packed in so much, including two days in Southern Ireland, we really felt we’d had a decent break. We never even bothered to properly unpack! So for once, we didn’t even lose anything.

Having done dozens of mandatory lifeboat drills in my time, I have always wondered what happens to people who decide to skip them. Are they punished? Are they found out? Do they have to go through a drill on their own with dunce’s caps on their heads? What excuse is acceptable?

It’s usually the last thing you feel like doing - having finally arrived in your cabin after your trip to the port, possibly a long flight before that, and the palava of checking in and finding your way to your own personal space. I have always felt a bit peeved, and even sometimes quite ratty when the seven sirens sound and you are dragged out onto the open decks to muster and get a first look at your fellow passengers. I have even been tempted to skip it because I feel I know the ropes, especially when getting on a ship I already know well.

Well, since the Costa Concordia tragedy, things have sharpened up in the cruise industry and passengers have actually been turfed off the ship for failing to turn up at the emergency drills. The Costa Concordia shipwreck on Jan. 13 claimed the lives of 32 people off the Tuscan coast.

Seabourn is standing by its draconian decision to force an elderly couple to disembark the Seabourn Sojourn in Portugal on May 12, after the wife missed the ship’s mandatory passenger safety drill before departure from Lisbon.

The American couple had booked a 20-day, three-leg cruise from Rome to Hamburg, and they had already participated in the drill when the ship left Rome on May 4. At the start of the second leg from Lisbon, another safety drill was announced and all passengers summoned on deck, including those who had alresdy been onboard.

But the 84-year-old woman wasn’t feeling well, and since she had participated in the drill before leaving Rome, she decided to skip it. Her 90-year-old husband attended both drills.

However, within an hour of the Lisbon drill, the two found themselves standing with their luggage on the pier as the Sojourn sailed off.

Apparently, when the elderly lady didn’t show up at the drill, a crew member was sent to her room  where she  was told that she wasn’t well enough to attend.

15  minutes later, an officer was at their cabin door, and told the couple they had to to disembark, and staff packed their cases and escorted them off the ship.

A Seabourn spokesman said: “Mandatory attendance at the emergency drill conducted prior to every voyage is a strict company policy to ensure the safety of everyone on board. No exceptions are permitted.”

He added: “A guest who is too ill to attend may attend a make-up drill when their health permits.” Seabourn did not elaborate on why that option wasn’t offered in this case.

The couple have said they’ll never cruise Seabourn again. It is unlikely they would have been entitled to any refund and their one-way flight home would have been costly, along with the loss of two-thirds of the cruise they had paid for. A very expensive mistake.

The Holland America Line, a sister company to Seabourn, in February also disembarked a passenger for refusing to participate in a drill. Both lines are Carnival Corp. brands, as is Costa Cruises, owner of the Concordia.
The moral of this story - don’t ever skip a safety drill - if you are feeling sick, stagger along with an ice bucket. As an occasional migraine sufferer though, this story worries me and I shall be watching for developments. 

Personally, I have always insisted on a balcony and am pretty sure that in circumstances like the Costa Concordia, (ie close to land) I would prefer to jump overboard to see if I could save myself, rather than risk being crushed in the rush for lifeboats - which might not be able to be lowered anyway.

On our last emergency drill (on a Royal Caribbean ship) we were not required to take our lifejackets with us, which is a great improvement, but we were forced to line up like sardines and stand on the cold  open decks for a good half an hour while we waited for everyone to assemble. You have to be fit to travel - even on a luxury cruise ship!   

Having done dozens of mandatory lifeboat drills in my time, I have always wondered what happens to people who decide to skip them. Are they punished? Are they found out? Do they have to go through a drill on their own with dunce’s caps on their heads? What excuse is acceptable?

It’s usually the last thing you feel like doing - having finally arrived in your cabin after your trip to the port, possibly a long flight before that, and the palava of checking in and finding your way to your own personal space. I have always felt a bit peeved, and even sometimes quite ratty when the seven sirens sound and you are dragged out onto the open decks to muster and get a first look at your fellow passengers. I have even been tempted to skip it because I feel I know the ropes, especially when getting on a ship I already know well.

Well, since the Costa Concordia tragedy, things have sharpened up in the cruise industry and passengers have actually been turfed off the ship for failing to turn up at the emergency drills. The Costa Concordia shipwreck on Jan. 13 claimed the lives of 32 people off the Tuscan coast.

Seabourn is standing by its draconian decision to force an elderly couple to disembark the Seabourn Sojourn in Portugal on May 12, after the wife missed the ship’s mandatory passenger safety drill before departure from Lisbon.

The American couple had booked a 20-day, three-leg cruise from Rome to Hamburg, and had already participated in the drill when the ship left Rome on May 4. At the start of the second leg from Lisbon, another safety drill was announced and passengers summoned on deck.

But the 84-year-old woman wasn’t feeling well, and since she had participated in the drill before leaving Rome, she decided to skip it. Her 90-year-old husband attended both drills.

However, within an hour of the Lisbon drill, the two found themselves standing with their luggage on the pier as the Sojourn sailed off.

Apparently, when the elderly lady didn’t show at the drill, a crew member was sent to her room. She told that person she wasn’t well.

15  minutes later, an officer was at their door, and told the couple to disembark, and staff packed their cases and escorted them off the ship.

A Seabourn spokesman said: “Mandatory attendance at the emergency drill conducted prior to every voyage is a strict company policy to ensure the safety of everyone on board. No exceptions are permitted.”

He added: “A guest who is too ill to attend may attend a make-up drill when their health permits.” Seabourn did not elaborate on why that option wasn’t offered in this case.

The couple have said they’ll never cruise Seabourn again. It is unlikely they would have been entitled to any refund and their one-way flight home would have been costly, along with the loss of two-thirds of the cruise they had paid for. A very expensive mistake.

The Holland America Line, a sister company to Seabourn, in February also disembarked a passenger for refusing to participate in a drill. Both lines are Carnival Corp. brands, as is Costa Cruises, owner of the Concordia.
The moral of this story - don’t ever skip a safety drill - if you are feeling sick, stagger along with an ice bucket. As an occasional migraine sufferer though, this story worries me and I shall be watching for developments. 

Personally, I have always insisted on a balcony and am pretty sure that in circumstances like the Costa Concordia, (ie close to land) I would prefer to jump overboard to see if I could save myself, rather than risk being crushed in the rush for lifeboats - which might not be able to be lowered anyway.

On our last emergency drill (on a Royal Caribbean ship) we were not required to take our lifejackets with us, which is a great improvement, but we were forced to line up like sardines and stand on the cold  open decks for a good half an hour while we waited for everyone to assemble. You have to be fit to travel - even on a luxury cruise ship!   

Having always wanted to go to the Cayman Islands, I was very disappointed recenrly when I realised that we would not be able to moor up alongside and would have to visit by tender- ie in a lifeboat. Our ship, Carnival Libverty as it happens but that is not relevant, arrived and dropped anchor at about 10.30 am.

Three other massive cruise ships had already beaten us to it and were offloading their own passengers- approximately 3,000 apiece. ie 12,000 of us, swamping  the tiny island and George Town - the capital of the Cayman Islands, with its population is currently listed at 20,676.

Our own ship was still summoning those who had booked to go on tours by the time we went to lunch - over two and half hours, before announcing that those who wanted to go on their own would now be free to go.

As we all had to be back on board by 4.30pm, we shudderede to imagine the queues of people there would be getting back on the ship. We got out our binoculars and surveyed the seven mile beach we had planned to visit. It was packed - like Bournemouth or Brighton on a Summer Bank Holiday.

We decided to stay on board and for the first time were able to enjoy the emptiness of the ship and use all the facilities without being jostled or having to queue.

Returning passengers told us that George Town had been a crush and most wished they had also stayed on board.

The Cayman Islands make a fortune from the cruise ship industry and have apparently been talking for years about putting in a proper berth to accomodate some of the larger ships, but nothing has ever come of it. They should jolly well hurry up and get on with it  - or disappointed cruisers like us should plan itineraries which do not include those islands which only permit tendering.  

I guess smaller ships and bigger islands is probably a happier mixture than the other way around.

Having always wanted to go to the Cayman Islands, I was very disappointed recently when I realised that we would not be able to moor up alongside and would have to visit by tender- ie in a lifeboat. Our ship, Carnival Liberty as it happens but that is not relevant, arrived and dropped anchor at about 10.30 am.

Three other massive cruise ships had already beaten us to it and were offloading their own passengers- approximately 3,000 apiece. ie 12,000 of us, swamping  the tiny island and George Town - the capital of the Cayman Islands, with its population is currently listed at 20,676.

Our own ship was still summoning those who had booked to go on tours by the time we went to lunch - over two and half hours, before announcing that those who wanted to go on their own would now be free to go.

As we all had to be back on board by 4.30pm, we shuddered to imagine the queues of people there would be getting back on the ship. We got our binoculars out and surveyed the seven mile beach we had planned to visit. It was packed - like Bournemouth or Brighton on a Summer Bank Holiday.

We decided to stay on board and for the first time were able to enjoy the emptiness of the ship and use all the facilities without being jostled or having to queue.

Returning passengers told us that George Town had been a crush and most wished they had also stayed on board.

The Cayman Islands make a fortune from the cruise ship industry and have apparently been talking for years about putting in a proper berth to accomodate some of the larger ships, but nothing has ever come of it. They should jolly well hurry up and get on with it  - or disappointed cruisers like us should plan itineraries which do not include those islands which only permit tendering.   

I guess smaller ships and bigger islands is probably a happier mixture than the other way around.

April 12th 2012

Non-smokers cruises can still be ruined if they are unlucky enough to be surrounded by smokers, however there is great news from many of the big cruise lines as they are all tightening up their smoking policies very much in favour of the majority of their customers who are not smokers. 

 Carnival Cruise Lines has  recently announced changes in its smoking policy on board its entire fleet of 23 ships by restricting smoking to designated open-deck areas, the Jazz clubs and some areas of the casino and casino bars. After December 1st Carnival will be banning smoking in all its staterooms and introduce a hefty $250 cleaning fee if smoke is detected by cabin stewards (or reported by neighbouring passengers!). However, smoking on Carnival’s balconies (unless you are booked in a spa suite) will still be permitted.  From January 15, 2012, Princess will no longer allow smoking in cabins and balconies across its entire fleet. P&O’s passengers may smoke on stateroom balconies and on certain open decks, but smoking is prohibited in all enclosed public areas and inside cabins. From next January, Norwegian Lines is banning smoking in all its cabins.  Cigarette smoking will still be allowed on balconies but cigar and pipe smoking on balconies will be prohibited.

There is, as yet no way to guarantee against this when booking. But there should be. Why don’t all cruise companies designate smoking cabins well away from the non-smoking ones, like they do in most good hotels these days? At least in a hotel you can usually switch rooms if you find yourself given  one that is unsuitable. We have done this before, and even swapped a bigger more luxurious room for a smaller more basic one when the previous occupant had clearly been smoking and left it smelling disgusting. As cruise companies try their best to fill all their cabins prior to ailing, switching cabins is rarely an option these days - for whatever reason.  Other cruise companies such as Royal Caribbean and Regent have also introduced policies to limit smokers to specific areas of their ships. It does lose them a few bookings from diehard smokers but overall, ships that favour the majority of non-smokers are benefitting from such changes. On Royal Caribbean ships smoking is allowed only on cabin balconies, on the starboard side of open decks and in the designated smoking areas of public rooms.
It is banned in all cabins  but permitted on balconies  and also banned in one public room on every ship. All dining areas and show lounges are also non-smoking, along with the port side of open decks.

Carnival says  that only about 10 percent of its passengers are smokers,  while on the more upmarket lines, smokers form an even smaller percentage of the overall numbers. We were recently tempted to book an MSC cruise out of Venice for six of us next February… It was a great deal and a smashing itinerary we were all keen to go.   However, as I always do before booking anything I looked up ship reviews and there is was - a complete no-no. The ship not only permitted smoking in the public areas, but also the restaurants and even the indoor pool area. All of us are non smokers and I am pretty well allergic to smoke and do not choose to have anyone smoking near me. So we agreed it would have been unthinkable. Thank you BTW so much all those who take the trouble to write up such reviews. You saved us from what would have been a real nightmare and we would not have been alerted to this (for us) serious problem, by any of the booking terms or small print.   Now we have to hope that cruise companies will thave the courage to ban smoking in all balcony cabins, so that those of us who book them, only to find we can’t actually use them because our neighbours turn out to be smokers, can avoid future disappointments. Incidentally, We have heard of people who have successfully claimed refunds when this has happened. Worth a try. Interestingly Silversea allow smoking in cabins, but not on balconies!  If more cruise companies get the message that the majority of people who choose NOT to smoke, object to smokers spoiling their own enjoyment of cruising, the more restrictions will be introduced. And the smokey-Joes can all go on MSC or other (usually non-American run) ships where smokers are welcomed with open arms.  Saga ships - perhaps reflecting their older age profile of passengers, allows smoking in all cabins, balconies, all open decks and also have smokers areas in all lounges.  We won’t be going on one!

Having sworn never to risk crossing the Atlantic by sea (haunted by images from the disaster) last year we crossed it not only once, but twice. The first crossing, In March was calm, the second, in November, we expected to be somewhat rougher. It was like a millpond. Honestly if you’d tried to sail it in a small yacht, it would have taken weeks! We wer eon anything but - Regent’s Mariner of the Seas, a six star ship. As the sea got flatter and milkier, even the Captain and his staff sad they had never seen anything like it. And it was in the aftermath of the Japanese Tsunami. It was eerily, glassily flat.  

The roughest part of the whole crossing was after we left Morocco and crossed the section of the Atlantic up to Spain, before you get to the Straits of Gibraltar. And even along the Spanish coast it was cosniderably rougher.

So, what do we conclude by this? Don’t be intimidated by possible bad sea conditions because you really don’t know where it’s going to be bad. What seems to be a safer choice, ie pootling roud the Med in hgh summer, can actually crossing a massive ocean in winter. One of the roughest seas I have ever sailed in was the strip of water between Corfu and Albania! And anoter very rough crossing - both Force 11, was between Sardinia and Corsica where we had to duck in and take shelter behind the small island of La Maddelena….

Just as householders look to ways of increasing living space in their homes by extensions of dividing up large rooms, so cruise companies look to find ways of making ships more space on their existing ships so they can carry more passengers per cruise.

A number of cruise lines plan to increase the number of staterooms they have when they go in for refurbishment this year. 
Even though business is booming in the cruise industry  - unlike most other sections of the travel trade  - or indeed any other form of trade, the companies are always looking for ways of increasing their income.

One way is to increase passenger capacity - as the more people you have on board, the more money they generate - there are usually around 50 profit centres on the average cruise ship - from the bars to the speciality restaurants to the shops, casinos and tours etc. Obviously these all need space, but often there is a good deal of wasted or under-used space that the ship’s owners take a cool hard look at when it is time to refurbish their ships. 

I have often marvelled at the size of some of the public rooms - especially the casinos and shops! And as someone who rarely uses the bars, I personally would not notice if they sneaked one away on each ship and replaced the space with more cabins. However, more passengers mean less space for everyone so things have to be weighed up carefully. A loft extension in your home that provides only one extra bedroom but at the expense of a bedroom below to provide access - is not a good investment. Likewise, by removing or reducing kids areas or bars - will the ships feel more crowded - especially at the buffets and around the communal facilities like the pool and the theatre? 

 
NCL’s Norwegian Dawn goes in for refurb in May. The ship will gain 58 new cabins and suites, upping its double-occupancy count by 116 to 2,332. To make way for the new accommodation, the ship’s cinema  has been excised and its Spinnaker Lounge moved to a new location. We felt the lack of a specific cinema on the sister ship The Norwegian Jade and although free movies were on offer in the cabins, the choice was severely limited and anyway, most people don’t want to sit in their cabin and watch TV on a luxury liner! Especially if they are in an inside cabin.

Will all these new passengers mean a noticeable difference in public room crowding on the Dawn? The company says not (well, it would wouldn’t it?) And it is adding 10 more crew members.

An increase in cabins is also planned on Celebrity Infinity, which will be refurbed in November - and we will be gong on board very shortly afterwards so will be able to report back on that.

The plans include 60 new cabins , which will raise the 91,000-ton ship’s double occupancy from 1,950 to 2,070.

The $50-million-plus upgrade, will involve replacing the current kids’ club, which will be moved to part of the observation lounge. The latter is usually a peaceful area popular with older people, who might not want to have all the kids on board so close by!


Grand Princess’ April refurbishment will include the addition of 10 new suites, most of which will be replacing existing space in the casino. “We added similar staterooms aboard Caribbean Princess and Golden Princess during recent dry docks and there have been no issues,” says the company.

In 2009, Dawn Princess was refurbished and during the refit, a Movies Under the Stars screen was added to the main pool area, making Dawn Princess the tenth ship in the Princess fleet to offer this feature. It is popular on other cruise lines as well…Another addition was the Retreat, an adults-only private sunbathing area at the front of the ship - something passengers travelling without children often seek out as a refuge.

Increasing passenger accomodation on older ships is not a new idea. In 2009, Holland America added 44 cabins to previously 1,316-passenger Rotterdam and 46 to 1,258-passenger Veendam.

Veendam was  unusual in that the ship was actually phyically extended by stretching one of the decks.

P&O has also gone in for expansion when it added 34 cabins to the stern of Arcadia in 2008. 

Increasing passenger accomodation makes sense for the companies.  Carnival’s most recent figures are revealing - $2.67 billion of the company’s $3.5 billion in revenue came from cabin sales which is 75%.!

I would love to see a breakdown of the profit made by the shops on baord some ships. On our last cruise on NCL’s Norwegian Jade  the enormous department store sized shop at the stern was almost empty most of the time I visited and I rarely saw anyone making a significant purchase and most of the staff stood around chatting to one another all day long. You’d have thought they would be friendly at the sight of a possible customer but some of them were so under-occupied they looked positively annoyed when asked for assistance. You could certainly pop a few extra cabins in there and remove a few of the high end jewellery counters and jogging outfit rails.
 
 

Anyone planning to go to New Zealand via cruise ship this year not be able to stop in Lyttelton, the port for Christchurch, New Zealand, following last week’s severe earthquake, according to an announcement on the port’s Website.

“Auxiliary services and the Christchurch infrastructure associated with cruise have been severely compromised due to the earthquake,” said chief executive Peter Davie in a statement. “The fact that we are still having a number of aftershocks places the personal safety of cruise passengers at risk.”

Lyttleton will not be able to receive cruise passengers for the remainder of the season  as the port itself was damaged and the tunnel linking it to Christchurch is also impassable. Half the houses in the small town there also suffered some sort of damage as it was close to the epicentre.

One cruise ship had in fact just left Lyttleton when the devastating earthquake struck.

All but non-essential travel to Christchurch should be avoided while recovery work continues in the devastated city center. The CBD is cordoned off and power, telecommunications and essential services continue to be disrupted as aftershocks continue.  
Ships that were due to call at Lyttelton between now and April, when the season ends, include, in addition to Volendam and Aurora, Dawn Princess, Royal Caribbean’s Rhapsody of the Seas, Saga Ruby and P&O Cruises Australia’s Pacific Pearl.

Two more cruise lines have announced itinerary changes. P&O Cruises’ Aurora, which was due in on Monday, March 7, will now stop at Tauranga on Wednesday, March 9. The order of the itinerary has been changed, but the ship will still visit Dunedin, Wellington, Napier and Auckland.

Holland America Line’s Volendam,  will call at nearby Akoroa instead of Lyttelton on March 5. Akoroa was unaffected by the earthquake and although passengers have to be ferried ashore by tender there, looks likely to become the default for Lyttelton, as it allows access to all the same local attractions. According to Tourism New Zealand’s updates on the situation, all the main roads in the area are operating normally.

We love New Zealand in general and Christchurch in particular. It was a beautiful city and will be one day again, like the mayor says. The lush green parks will be bigger - and I’m sure appropriate memorials will be built on the sites of the greatest devastation and loss of life. If it proves beyond repair, the cathedral will be saved in some form - perhaps like Coventry Cathedral - as a memorium to the terrible day.

It is understandable that  many might wish to leave and not many might wish to move there permanently, but the chances of getting caught in an earthquake of such magnitude whilst visiting for the day is exceedingly remote. So please don’t be put off from visiting New Zealand and go ahead (as we will) and book your winter cruise Downunder next year. They will need all the support we can give them - so in the meantime, please buy their wonderful wines and  delicious lamb and hep them raise the money to rebuild their beautiful city and re-occupy their homes and resume their lives.