How The Cruise Ship Industry Has Changed
"Take it or leave it, that's what
it's coming to," the assistant Maitre D' said with a smile. We
were discussing the changes in attitudes and policies in the cruise
ship industry during the last several years. My wife and I were
enjoying our weeklong 40th Anniversary cruise and had booked on the
Princess Line's Star Princess.
According to recent newspaper articles,
cruising is now at it's all time high in popularity, rebounding from
the horrible slump of the late 90's and early "zeros". The
industry saw many total failures even before the 9/11 attacks that
really put a devastating, almost crippling blow on the industry.
The industry had gone through a
metamorphosis several years earlier, with the atrophy of what were
called "port of call" cruisers, such as the old Viking
Lines out of San Francisco that sailed from Honolulu to Hong Kong,
Lima, Peru, and other world ports. Port of call cruising was slowly
replaced by "Basin" cruising, such as the Caribbean where
the 3 day to 7 day cruises became the prime market for the cruise
lines.
The chief engineer of the Norwegian
Cruise Lines "Norway" had told me the first thing they did
when they acquired the ship as the "France" was to pull out
two of the four engines. As the renamed "Norway", North
Atlantic crossing speeds were no longer an issue. Cruising at a
leisurely pace around the Caribbean was the new mission of the first
of the large basin cruisers.
The first person to fully grasp the
concept of the new market was Ted Arison.
Ted Arison, founder of Carnival, was
famous for introducing "hotdogs and T-shirts" to the cruise
industry when he renamed the "Empress of Canada" as the
"Mardi Gras" and started competing with his old business
partner Knut Kloster out of the old Port of Miami. Kloster had the
original "Sunward", a ship my mother had taught
housekeeping classes to the crew on when she was the Executive
Housekeeper at Lindsey Hopkins Vocational School in Miami.
Fifteen percent gratuity is
automatically added to each tab to allow for the "oversight"
of cruisers who tend to be forgetful when tipping. The staff averages
only $33 a month in wages (yes, $1.10 a day!) They make the remainder
of their wages on tips. Even apple juice at breakfast instead of
orange juice is a two-dollar charge. Want a cup of hot chocolate for
the kids? That's a bar item now and will cost accordingly. What used
to be unlimited dining is now a charge for a second course on
Carnival, but not yet at Princess. Twenty-four hour informal dining
is becoming popular, but even the best attended serving line is still
at times only a warm buffet.
The change of policy from "Carte
Blanche" to "A La Carte" makes cruising affordable to
many who would not have gone before. In my book, it is still the
best vacation for the buck anywhere.
George Mindling © 2004
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