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cruise news Ports of call: Sophie’s verdict
Crystal Symphony’s refurbished pool deck
with Discovery is excellent. It allows the cus- tomers to really explore the ship.” On Crystal Symphony, agents admitted that they missed exploring the ship by themselves, but said having a guide could be useful. Chloe Browne, Reader Offer cruise consultant, admits it is nice to be able to ask questions on a guided tour, and adds that guided tours mean there isn’t as much responsibility on the agent to have to do as much research. “The guide can an- swer the customer’s queries instead,” she says. Travel Counsellors’ Minal Patel agrees that guided tours have their advantages. “On a larger ship like Symphony, you might forget to see something,” she says. “Or you might miss out a special room upgrade just around the corner that the guide knows about.”
So is it worth it? “There’s no better way to show the value of cruis- ing,” claims David Hearn, Ocean World Travel’s commercial manager, who visited Discovery. Speaking after the visit, he said: “We hadn’t done ship visits for over three years, but we’ve done two already this year and have another one planned. It’s a way of bringing people back to cruising after the recession. We’ve already taken a booking — just one day after the visit.”
QUICK FACTS.
MV Discovery ■ 698 passenger capacity, over 8 decks
■ 350 cabins sleeping 2 to 4 passengers ■ 2 single cabins ■ 2 pools and 2 jacuzzis ■ Built in 1972 ■ Refurbished in 2003
Crystal Symphony ■ 940 passenger capacity, over 8 decks
■ 461 cabins ■ 6 restaurants ■ 2 pools ■ Built in 1995 ■ Refurbished in 2006
Above: Mick DuPont, national account manager for Crystal, shows agents around Below: Chloe Browne and Matthew McArdle from ROC check out Symphony’s nightclub
For Patel, it was her first time taking customers on a ship visit. However, after seeing their reactions, she insisted that it wouldn’t be her last. It makes it much easier for the agent to sell
the product. The customers called the day after I took them onboard.
TTG’s Sophie Griffiths visited Voyages of Discovery vessel MV Discovery and Crystal Cruises’ Symphony (above) last week. Here’s what she made of the ship visits... “All the ships I had previously seen were new launches, so I was intrigued this time to visit two ships that had been in service for several years. “It was interesting to note how the ship
visits reflected the ethos of the cruise lines. While Crystal Cruises was a structured guided tour, Voyages of Discovery left visitors to their own devices, encouraging them to take their own “voyage of discovery”. “Crystal insisted the only way guests could learn what it was like to cruise on one of their ships was to experience the product, and the service it offers. Short of taking the visitors on a cruise, it did its best to showcase this, presenting guests with champagne or orange juice as they boarded. “While this was a lovely way to start a tour (despite it only being 11am!), with Voyages of Discovery I took a certain element of enjoyment from being set free to roam the ship at my leisure. “On Crystal Symphony, we had a wealth of information given to us, including a 15-minute presentation by the national account manager in the ship’s lounge. “But during the Discovery tour, we had many questions, such as how the grading system for cabins worked. We asked a crew member, who despite being helpful did not have the answers, so we missed having a guide on hand who knew the ship inside out. “Both were enjoyable days, and both
were educational. But it’s worth finding out whether the visit will be guided, and conducting your own research before if it won’t be. Otherwise you and your customers could be left with a string of questions that will remain unanswered.”
03.09.2010 21
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