ANALYSIS C R U I S E
take a tour to hear live music at the Rio Scenarium. Pimentel said: “We explore the same places as other lines but differently. The number of lines now talking about destination immersion shows it is the way to go.” Viking Cruises, the new ocean-going line launching in April 2015, is also positioning itself as a destination specialist and, like Azamara, offering late- night departures and overnight stays. However, Viking considers destination to be so important it is including one excursion per port in the cruise price. Viking Cruises chairman
Tor Hagen said: “It is clear our guests want to truly explore their destinations.”
CULTURAL CRUISING
Staying longer in port might be a novelty for most cruise lines – it was certainly not the ethos behind Azamara before Larrry Pimentel was appointed president and CEO in 2010 – but it was always the raison d’être behind cultural cruise
line Voyages to Antiquity, launched in 2010.
Not only do its itineraries include
overnights in ports such as Izmir in Turkey, Sorrento in Italy and Yangon in Myanmar, mostly chosen for their proximity to key historical sites,
but cruises also start and end with a couple of nights in a hotel in the embarkation and departure cities – the likes of Rome, Venice and Istanbul – so passengers don’t miss the sights in these places. In addition, Voyages to Antiquity
offers a choice of included shore excursions at almost all ports. New for 2015, it is visiting Casablanca in Morocco for three nights, from where there are two overnight excursions – one to Marrakech, the other to Fez – with the hotel stays also included in the price. Voyages to Antiquity managing
Sorrento Marrakech
director David Yellow said: “We are a specialist cruise line selling on destination, so it’s only right we include the way for passengers to see the places we are visiting within the price.”
travelweekly.co.uk/cruise
February 2015 | Travel Weekly Cruise | 27
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