THE CRUISE GUY
The Luxury gap S
Stewart Chiron, aka The Cruise Guy, tackles today’s key issues in the cruise world – especially on two of the most mis-used words in the cruising vocabulary
o much about cruising is subjective and opinion orientated. Two of the most overused terms in the cruise vocabulary are “luxury”
and “innovative.” It’s comical to read press releases, reviews or news stories that associate luxury with the wrong ships. While most cruise lines would agree
they’re not in the luxury market, they do want to provide luxurious features and amenities for their passengers. Some cruise lines like to tout they’re ‘luxury’ or ‘premium’ when they’re not even within the same zip code. One of the only similarities is that their ships float, and that’s where it ends. The other overused term, ‘innovative,’ describes features that were supposed to be new to the industry and then was used to describe features new to a cruise line or even a ship. So many lines copy features found on other vessels that had been previously introduced, some more than 10 years prior, and think they were first. It’s obvious many lines operate in a vacuum and have no clue what their competitors are up to. The recent, and for the most part, future crop of ships being introduced are copies of previous versions, or improved enhancements. Some lines have taken ships that looked like the bride of Frankenstein and made them more resemble their original intentions.
Back in April, Royal Caribbean hosted the initial reveal of their new Quantum Class, with the first, Quantum of the Seas, debuting in autumn 2014. We knew the ship would be 168,000 tons with 4,100 passengers but that was about it. Some people thought they’d reveal
smaller versions of their Oasis Class. But, with Royal Caribbean, you always have to think, “what will they think of next?” A cutting-edge video starring
Quantum’s godmother and actress, Kristin Chenoweth, showed the new class will be totally different. We saw industry firsts, like a viewing capsule taking passengers up to 305ft above the water, single balcony cabins, a sky-diving simulator, multi-use indoor basketball and even bumper cars. During post presentation interviews, I
stated: “Without a doubt, Quantum of the Seas is a game-changer with technological innovations never imagined aboard a cruise ship.” The term, game-changer, can also be a misused term when citing changes that won’t be replicated by anyone else, notably by claims that “such-and- such a ship is a game-changer” – when its features already exist on other ships!
A Burst Of Sunshine In May, Carnival Cruise Lines reintroduced Carnival Sunshine, formerly Carnival Destiny, in Europe. This was the most expensive
cruise ship transformation in history and it’s amazing how much $155million can change a ship’s look and feel! Carnival Destiny was the world’s largest cruise ship, and the first to exceed 100,000 tons, when it debuted in 1996. The ship received significant upgrades to make her more relevant in the future by redesigning the ship to more resemble Carnival’s newest ships. For the most part, they succeeded.
They eliminated the ground floor of the 3-storey showroom and added more cabins. The now two-storey showroom also doubles as a high-energy nightclub called Liquid Lounge. The second floor of the mid-ship dining
room was reallocated for two speciality restaurants and a bar: their famed steakhouse called Fahrenheit 555 and Bonsai Sushi,
Autumn 2013 I WORLD OF CRUISING
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