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Bringing The Wow To Passengers

Bringing The Wow To Passengers

There was some interesting dialog going on recently at the Cruise Line’s International Association’s Cruise360 show.  The general consensus among the CEOs was that “to keep up with ship growth and attract new passengers, the cruise industry had to focus on destinations and innovation.”

So, interestingly enough, Carnival announced this week that they were going to offer 10 and 11 night cruises from Galveston to San Juan, Puerto Rico, beginning in late 2015 and 2016.  They will be stopping at, for them, some new ports like Bonaire, Grenada, Martinique, and Antigua.  That will be really exciting, except for the one-way airfare from San Juan to Houston.  Of course, the suggestion to get away from that is to just purchase another cruise back to Galveston for a 21-day cruise.  I’m quite confident that the cruise line will have an attractive discount for that vacation decision. An interesting aside to this decision is that they are planning to cruise this route with the Triumph, the formerly 4-5 night ship in the Galveston market.  This is the ship that had the serious problems early last year and had to drift into Mobile for some major work on the engine and throughout the ship.  Since coming out of that rehab, through the late summer and fall of 2013, that ship has received the most favorable reviews from the guests than any other cruise ship in the fleet.

Royal Caribbean Cruise Line also announced this week that they are changing Broadway plays on the Oasis, one of their mega-ships.  Since she started sailing, they have had Hair Spray as one of the entertainment features.  As soon as she finishes her dry dock renovation, they will introduce one of the longest running Broadway plays, Cats, to their cruising public. . .this at no additional cost to the guests on this ship.  Another innovation RCCL has announced on one of their new ships being introduced this year, Quantum of the Seas, is the change in dining.  No longer will there be the traditional dining times of early dining at 6PM or late dining at 8PM.  Instead, they have 8-10 dining options each night, some of which sport a modest cover charge, and the guests just go eat whenever and wherever they wish.

Norwegian Cruise Line has been following this dining procedure for several years, and have received very positive feedback, you can bet if it were otherwise, they would have been doing something else.  They also have introduced an indoor/outdoor dining area called the Waterfront which has proven to be a very popular dining option on their ships.  NCL is also introducing a ropes course to some of their ships.  That is not a new activity option for Carnival has had a similar activity on the Carnival Magic sailing out of Galveston for several years.

Not to be outdone, Princess Cruise Line has introduced a television production studio on the new Royal Princess and Regal Princess.  Guests can attend the live productions and oftentimes get involved in the process.

All this to keep up with ship growth and attract new passengers. . .and the experienced travel counselors at The Travel Factory are eager to help our friends experience one of these vacations of a lifetime, so call us today at 698-1421 or drop in for a live, face-to-face visit at 4150 Southwest Dr. and we’ll manufacture vacations together.

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Friday March 29, 2024