One of our very good clients recently finished a Seabourn cruise. This was her first experience on a “luxury” ship, and she had some apprehension.

These folks have done a lot of cruising – usually on Celebrity, Holland America and Princess. They were not unhappy with any of those lines, but after having been to just about every cruise ship port, they wanted to try something different. The price they paid on Seabourn on a per-day basis was not substantially more than they had paid on the previous lines.

So why the apprehension?

It’s a “luxury” ship. They experienced the very common fear that people who gravitate to luxury vessels would be way out of their league.

They would feel like Gilligan on a ship full of Mr. and Mrs. Howells.

The first problem is labelling these ships “luxury” ships. It is true that the quality of food, service and amenities is higher than you’ll get on the mass-market ships, but the word “luxury” has some negative connotations for people. It can be synonymous with “pretentious”, “excessive”, or “snobby”.

Bob and I had a bit of this same anxiety before our first small ship cruise (notice I avoided the word “luxury”). Before we were in the travel industry, I worked as a lab tech., and Bob worked in a grocery store. How could we hold our own with a ship full of investment bankers and industry magnates?

As it turned out this apprehension was misplaced.

Undoubtedly there were a handful of pretentious hoity-toity types – but you find these on the mass-market lines too. We found the people on the small ships to be curious, traveller-types from a wide variety of backgrounds. We didn’t hear people talking about their professions or their possessions – they would talk more about where they wanted to travel to next, and what attracted them to a small ship. Most often they ended up on the “luxury” ship was because they wanted to go to ports that the mass market ships don’t visit.

The culture on these small ships is much more casual and relaxed than you will find on the mass market ships. Part of this is just because there are far fewer people, so you get to know people faster, but the casual vibe is very much by design. There was one formal night on our 12 night cruise, which was the only time Bob put on a tie (something he only does under protest). The rest of the time, he showed up to the dining room in jeans (looking nice, but in jeans).

Back to our client’s “luxury” maiden voyage. She was very happy to report post-cruise, that she was not at all out of place on the small ship. To the contrary – she found that the vast majority of her fellow passengers were very much part of her peer group. A peer group that together created memories to last a lifetime.

Planning a Cruise?  I’d love to help!  Click here to get in touch today.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sue Bradley

The most popular river cruise routes are along the Rhine and Danube rivers, and they typically travel between Amsterdam and Budapest. This is the most popular routing for both one and two week river cruises in the world.

But what happens if you’ve already done this route, or this routing doesn’t appeal to you? There are tons of other choices if you want to experience a river cruise, but don’t want to be on the Rhine and Danube rivers.

First – the European options:

• For those with a particular love of the Dutch, you can sail round-trip from Amsterdam on the Rhine, Mosel, and Elbe rivers.
• If France is more your speed, you can sail on the Rhone, Saone, or Seine Rivers. These cruises usually start and/or finish in Paris.
• Italy is also a river cruising destination, often round trip out of Venice on the Po River.
  German river cruises are available on the Oder and Elbe Rivers.
• If you prefer to be further south in Europe, you can sail on the Douro River through Portugal and Spain.
• You can also take a river cruise to Russia. It is normally a two week trip that goes between Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Other River Cruise destinations:

• The Mekong. Several of the European River Cruise companies have ships in Viet Nam for the Mekong River. A typical river cruise is 7-nights long between Siem Reap and Ho Chi Minh City. There are many additional land portions that can be added on to your cruise that include Cambodia and Thailand.
• The Mississippi. There are a variety of options for river cruising the Mississippi between New Orleans to Memphis, or in the summer months as far north as St. Louis and Minneapolis.
• The Columbia. You can sail between Portland Oregon, and Spokane, Washington. Other than the very cool craft brewery industry in Portland, this is the only river cruise that is more about spectacular natural scenery than culture and history.
• The Amazon. Much like the Asian river cruises, these are often paired with land tours to Machu Picchu or the Galapagos.

One last reminder that if you are considering a river cruise to any destination, you are well advised to book well in advance. Many ships sell out a year in advance, and as a general rule of thumb, the best fares are available the earlier you book.

Planning a Cruise?  I’d love to help!  Click here to get in touch today.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sue Bradley

Anytime Richard Branson announces something new, a number of us pay attention.

This is simply because he has a track-record of redefining industries. There is no doubt that some of his ventures have turned out to be more successful than others, but if anyone has ever flown on Virgin-Atlantic, you will know it’s a very different experience than any of the North American carriers offer.

So what does this mean for cruise?

We don’t really know yet, because even though the first sailing is in just 3 years, very few details have been released.

There’s all the normal marketing talk that they have started with “a blank sheet of paper”, and that it won’t be like any other cruise experience, but the actual details are a bit sparse.

Here’s what we do know:

• It will be for adults of 18 years or older. This is a bit of trend reversal, but their target market is clearly not families.
• The first generation of ship will be about 110,000 tons, and will carry about 2800 customers. This puts it at about the same size as the Princess Grand Class ships, and slightly larger than the RCCL Radiance Class ships.
• There will be about 1150 crew, making the crew:passenger ratio about 2.43. This makes it about the same as Carnival, Norwegian, Princess or RCCL.
• The ship is being specifically designed for environmental sustainability. They haven’t released any details, but they are claiming they will be the most eco-friendly ships at sea.
• The staterooms will about 86% balconies, with the next 7% being Ocean view (bucking the trend away from OV cabins), and the remainder being inside cabins.
• They refer to their customers as “Sailors”, as opposed to “guests” or “passengers”. What this actually means, is not clear yet.
• Their target market will be those that have not cruised before, and millennials. I think this is really smart. Even though the cruise industry is growing like crazy, MOST of the vacationing population in North America has NOT taken a cruise yet. Virgin might be the one to talk them into it.
• The experience is said to be inspired by yachting. How you do this on a ship over 100,000 tons, with 2800 passengers will truly be a test of Virgin’s innovation.
• Their first sailing is in 2020, and will be out of Florida to the Caribbean.
• It is not clear what price point they will be pursuing. The crew to passenger ratio, and passenger space ratio would put them somewhere in the mass-market space, likely positioned between Royal Caribbean and Princess, but whether they charge a premium for the Virgin Brand we will have to wait to see. With the information available, it would be difficult to see them competing with the luxury ships.

They are also offering people the opportunity get access to the sailing schedule and reservations prior to the general public by placing a $500 deposit (per cabin) now. Although this is 100% refundable for any reason, I’m not sure I’d suggest this unless you are a huge Virgin fan (or you’ve got lots of $500 bills sitting around doing nothing).

It’s my hope that Virgin truly lives up to its brand promise of redefining the industry. It would be really cool to see what innovations they can come up with. So far, it appears that the Virgin marketing machine is in full gear – we’ll have to wait to see if the product lives up to the hype.

Planning a Cruise?  I’d love to help!  Click here to get in touch today.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sue Bradley