Saturday, February 26, 2011

Fighting Cruise Misconceptions

It’s a sad thing, a really sad thing, but can you believe that some people don’t have any desire to cruise? In fact many people WILL NOT cruise. Why? Some had a bad cruise previously (I have heard some rumors, that this phenomenon, “bad cruises”, does actually exist…though I have my doubts), some people are afraid of stepping off land, and then there are even more who buy into the ridiculous misconceptions about cruising and the cruise industry. DON’T LISTEN TO THOSE MISCONCEPTIONS!! CRUISING IS GREAT!!!! GREAT I TELL YOU!!!! ……really I am not biased at all. ;)

This blog is here for one sole purpose, to express my love of the cruise industry, ships and cruising. I feel that because of this, I must fight this beast of wrong ideas and misconceptions. If someone sees this article, and decides after reading it, that they will forget about their baseless reservations, and cruise, well then, I will have made a difference in the world, and sent someone on a great vacation! However, that said, I always try and be honest with you, my readers, about the realities of ships and cruising…the good, the great, and the ugly (which I will admit…there is sometimes ugly in regards to cruising).

The funny thing about some of these misconceptions is that they, in fact, have historical basis. Ideas like structured schedules, tiny rooms, violent seasickness and nothing to do, all had some truth back in the olden days. Admittedly, though, there are still some small traces of this around. For example, structured schedules...they do still partially exist on some ships, but not in the way some people fear. On a cruise you can do what you want, when you want, but there still is a schedule in the sense that onboard activities, shows and sometimes dinner, happens at a set time. In the case of dinner, many cruise lines will assign you to either early, or late seating schedules, meaning you either eat at 7:00, or later at 8:30 (I made up those times by the way, the actual times vary), and this is only in the main dining room.

A few years back, NCL started a new concept in cruise ship dining that they called, “Freestyle Cruising”. With this new concept, NCL did away with the traditional big main dining room and seating times, opting instead, for many smaller restaurants. This in turn allows their passengers to eat where they want, when they want, and with who ever they want (I think I should point out that many, if not most cruise lines, may assign you to a table shared with other passengers, though you can opt out of this), much like land based restaurants.

There are a lot of difficulties with this concept (NCL found that out the hard way), like longer wait times to be seated, more restaurant staff, and other organizational problems that I won’t go into right now. That said, Freestyle Cruising has overall been successful with passengers, and NCL seems to have found its groove in regards to it. Though there were problems at first, NCL is now getting pretty good reviews, and people seem to like the Freestyle concept.
Now due to its success, other cruise lines have launched their own (but scaled down) version of it. Basically when you book your cruise, you can opt either for traditional seating arrangements, or you can opt for to eat when it suits you (as long as it’s during dinner hours). There are many people on both sides of the issue, who like it one way or the other. My point in telling you all this is to show you that while, yes, there is still a schedule onboard ships nowadays, there is also flexibility and choice.

On to my next misconception, tiny rooms, or cabins, as I call them (some say staterooms)... Cruise ship cabins can be small. The standard hotel room that most people are used to, are bigger (sometimes by a lot) then the standard cruise ship cabin. The reason for this is obvious…space on a ship is limited; therefore, cabins are made to be compact. This does not mean, however, that you will be cramped or uncomfortable in one. Actually quite the opposite is true. Cabins are designed to be compact, yet still feel roomy and bigger than they actually are, while being very comfortable. Some are small (and feel that way) but I think that is the exception. Also worth noting, unless you have an amazing suite, you really won’t be spending a lot of time in your cabin anyway.






(Above photo, Norwegain Epic's single person 'Studio Cabins' are small at only 100sq ft)




This tiny room misconception though, again has some historical basis. There are some old ocean liners, and even older cruise ships, that had/have cabins that are legendary for their small size. QE2 (Queen Elizabeth 2) had rooms that accommodated 2 people, their stuff and a full bathroom all in just 100sq ft…that is pretty tiny. These tiny tiny rooms though are simply not the case in the modern cruise industry anymore (except for maybe the Norwegian Epic SEE HERE http://shipgeek.blogspot.com/2010/06/epic-update.html). Small and compact rooms, yes, but not tiny.

Ok next!!!! Seasickness...Once described as “not sick, but going to be”, seasickness is miserable and does still happen. The problem is that no matter how big a ship gets, if Mother Nature wants to throw that ship around, it can, and unless you have your sea legs and a strong stomach…you can definetely get seasick. But fear not, there is hope for those with a weak constitution!

For the most part, ships always try and avoid harsh weather, thereby keeping the ship on flat, calm waters. On top of this, ships are built today with advanced stabilization technology, such as stabilizers. These mechanisms are basically wings that jut out from the hull of the ship below the waterline, in rough weather. When the ship starts to roll, these wings (or fins as they are more usually called) pivot and move which forces the ship into a counter roll, cancelling out the ships rolling motion. Stabilizers are able to cut a ships roll by over 90%! After this, if you still find your self feeling queasy, there are several other ways to fix that…

All cruise ships have a hospital onboard and a doctor(s) to oversee it. In the event that someone gets seasick onboard, the doctor can give you a shot that will help you. The only negative side effect is that you might start to feel drowsy after awhile. Other than the doctor, there are several drugs on the market that will help, such as less drowsy-Dramamine, Bonine, or for some people, Benadryl. With these medicines, drowsiness can still be a side effect, which some people don’t mind, but there are also some other solutions. Seasickness patches work very well for some people and do not cause drowsiness. One woman I met recently down in San Pedro (she herself is prone to seasickness) swears by them. On top of that there is also ginger, or ginger pills, which I have heard is one of the most reliable solutions.

It should be noted that everyone is different and no one thing, or drug, works for everyone. You have to figure out which one works best for you. It's also important to note that most people (even those prone to it) never get seasick on a cruise. Cruise ships are extremely comfortable and steady nowadays.

There are many other misconceptions about cruising. I won’t write about them here, as I wrote about them in a previous article (SEE HERE http://shipgeek.blogspot.com/2011/01/man-goes-overboard-fire-norovirus.html).
Though I will mention a couple more I do hear a lot....inceberg and tidal waves...Some people are afraid of cruising because they have seen Titanic and the Poseidon movies, and are convinced that this could happen to them. First of all, the Titanic disaster happened almost 100 years ago (just over 99 years to be precise) and ship design and ship safety have come a long way since then. You will not crash into an iceberg and sink and die like the Titanic (on most cruises the only ice you will see is the ice in your ice cold fruity drink). Secondly, the Poseidon movies…please, take these movies with a grain of salt. Cruise ships have been hit by rouge waves before and have come out fine. Even little ships have been hit and survived. Rouge waves will not flip your ship like in the movies. It will list momentarily but flip it will not. Not to mention that the size of the wave in the movies is pretty much impossible (or at least a wave 200 ft tall has never been recorded).

Interesting fact is that the RMS Queen Mary was the ship used in the original Poseidon Adventure. In the movie the ship flips over but in reality this wouldn’t have happened. The Queen Mary while serving as a troop ship during WWII, and carrying thousands and thousands of soldiers, was broadsided by a huge 90ft rouge wave. The ship leaned over very close to the tipping point (about 52 degrees over…about 3 to 4 degrees from her estimated “point of no return”), but in the end was able to right herself, and continue on with her voyage with no fatalities (though there were a few injuries I believe).

And while there are a couple of cases of modern cruise ships getting hit by rouge waves, like the Bremen (which lost power and propulsion for 2 hours) or the small Caledonian start, (which was damaged but sailed on) this is really, really unlikely to ever happen on your cruise. In both these cases, both ships survived, no one was killed and both are still cruising successfully.

That’s it for right now. While I am not sure if my arguments here are enough to convince people that cruising is fun, and most of all safe, at least I have tried. And I hope that the people who see this blog, will consider a cruise vacation. Just go and relax. Be smart but don’t be worried that at any moment you might get killed by a 300ft wave. You won’t, I promise you. And if you are afraid of icebergs...cruise in the Caribbean. Problem solved (even though you are perfectly safe even in icy waters)!

I would suggest, though, that you don’t go to Hawaii for your vacation………you might get blown up by a volcano. ;) ;)






(One of Royal Caribbeans great Voyager Class ships anchored at RCI's privet resort, Labadee)

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Rambling's New Facebook Page

Hello my dear readers!

In response to the blog's ever growing number of readers, I have decided to start a facebook page for it!
By "liking' this page you will be able to stay current on all things to do with the blog, the cruise industry, Cruise news, and ships in general. You will also be able to interact with other ship and cruise geeks from all over the world.

Having this facebook page allows me to be more consistent in my updates to you. While I will still have the blog (which I promise I will try and update more frequently), you can always pop on over to our facebook page for the latest and most current industry news, and commentary, as I will be updating it everyday.

This also gives you, our readers, the chance to communicate with me and other shipgeeks....so don't be shy! On top of that you can use our facebook to connect to the cruise line's and other cruise and ship related entities' facebook pages.
Have fun and thank you for supporting my blog!


-Mark

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

This past few weeks. The SS United States, Cunard in Los Angeles, and other industry news!

EEEEEEE!!!!!! I am still glowing! Why? Well if you don’t know by now…Cunards Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth were here in Los Angeles!!! It was beautiful!! Too beautiful........I almost died. But that’s not all that happening lately, nope. There is also news of RCI’s plans for a new class of ships, some small updates on the Carnival Splendor (the one that caught fire), Oceana’s newest ship is out and sailing, the SS United States has been bought and some other news!

Cunard!
AHHHHH!!!!! AHHHH!!!!! IT WAS BEAUTIFUL!! Seeing two of the Cunard Queens here in my home town was incredible! The day started off very early, like at 3:30 am early!(…usually I have not even gone to sleep yet at that time.). I got up this early so I would be able to travel from Pasadena to the port (a drive of about 30 miles I’d say) in time to see the Queen Elizabeth sail into port. Unfortunately, when I got there to San Pedro (the port district of the City of Los Angeles) there was some very thick fog and I was not able to see the ship sail in through Angles Gate (the entrance to the Port to Los Angeles), however I was able to go to a park across the quay from the cruise terminal. From here, I was able to see the QE come up the main channel through the fog and dock at the terminal. It was beautiful and I was totally ship geeking out!! (photo at right- "Queen Victoria" by flickr member "Voyager One")

There was only one problem I had. For some reason, it had been decided that the QE would use one of the lower terminals. Let me explain…the cruise terminals at the Port of Los Angeles are arrange in a ‘L’ shape. Two berths are parallel to the main channel, the other terminal and berth is perpendicular to the channel (you see it in the beginning sequence of “The Love Boat”) and it’s perfect for ship spotting as there is a small park and boardwalk located across the slip from it. This later terminal is where I wanted the ship to dock but alas, they docked at the other lover terminal. This terminal isn’t horrible for ship spotting as there is a long walkway that has a good view of the ship but it does put more distance between the ship and you not to mention a large parking lot and a chain link fence. As it turns out, the Sapphire Princess and the Norwegian Star ended up taking the 2 other berths.

As you know, I have my problems with the Queen Elizabeth but seeing her in person was great. I have to admit I am really starting to like this ship (even though I stand by all I have said before) and have never been able to resist a ship in Cunard color. She’s still not as good looking as her sister the Queen Victoria but she’s not as bad as she looks in some pictures. After looking at her pretty much all day she departed from LA in the dark as me, my family (who I dragged along with me) and some other shipgeeks watched.

Next day, it was the Queen Victoria (my favorite of the two)!!! For the sake of keeping this article at a shorter length I shan’t go into the details of the day. I think it will suffice to say, that the day went pretty much like the day before had gone…she docked at the wrong terminal (Disney Wonder got the one I wanted for QV), I geeked out and she was beautiful! I should also mention that despite that fact that the QV had been to Los Angeles before, this was my first time seeing her, which made it very special to me. Unfortunately, I was not able to watch her sail out as I had to get back up to Pasadena but I am sure it was beautiful!!

The only thing that would have made the weekend better was if Cunard had allowed me to visit!!




Royals New Ship?

Speaking about RCI’s better then expected results for the 4th quarter of 2010 and the year as a whole, Richard Fain Chairman and CEO of Royal Caribbean also stated that RCI is working on a new class of ship.

In his own words…


"I know the question, when will you be ordering another ship is out there, and
it's waiting to be asked -- it almost always is," said Fain. "I have previously
confirmed that while we look forward to a period of slower growth, we do not aim
to stagnate."

“It will probably be the start of a new a series, which
would incorporate our latest learnings about efficiency and about guest
amenities.”

“We’ve been working intensively on developing a design that
reflects our innovative spirit but in an efficient package and we think we are
near an acceptable outcome,”


Of course, the online cruise and ship geek communities like Cruise Critic or my favorite Cruise Talk at Travel Server, have been buzzing with speculation and predictions about this new class of ships. Everyone is sure that the ships will be smaller then the Oasis class (that is pretty much what Fain said) but can’t seem to agree on just how much smaller. Some are predicting ships around 180,000grt and others are predicting a more modest 120,000 to 130,000grt ship. Some speculate that these ships will not have all the bells and whistles of the Oasis Class or the Freedom Class, others say that these amenities (like the Boardwalk or Central Park on Oasis) can and should appear on these new smaller ships as they are what RCI is know for.

If I can throw my own predictions into the mix here… Personally I think that RCI will or should go smaller with this new class; maybe around 110,000 to 130,000grt in size. I also think that while many of the newer features on RCI ships should be retained, I think these ships should be toned down slightly. My reasoning for these ideas is this…I have read many reviews and opinions that have said they would like to see smaller ships from RCI. For many, the Oasis, Freedom and even the Voyager class are just to large for them, they prefer the likes of the panamax (the largest size that can fit in the Panama Canal) Radiance Class ship. A class of ships sized in between the larger classes and the smaller classes in RCI’s fleet could at like a bridge or stepping stone, for people transitioning to the larger ships. A smaller ship also has more versatility then a larger ship. It can serve more destinations and be put to work on up and coming markets, for example, Australia or Asia. Also some destinations like Alaska, Hawaii or other Caribbean destinations, are more suited for smaller ships (if you can call 120,000grt small).

What ever comes out, I am sure it will be great! RCI are know for their newbuilds. Its very exciting!

Oceana’s New Ship!

Oceana (a luxury line) just put its first new ship, the Marina, into service this past week. Oceana is a relatively new cruise line, started in 2003, and up until now has only had 3 “R” Class ships which were built in the early 2000’s for the now defunct, Renaissance Cruises. A few years ago Oceana ordered a duo of new ships for the line. These new ships would be larger and hold more people then the original ships but were still heavily related to them.

A few days ago, Oceana hosted a naming ceremony for the ship at its home port of Miami. The ship was christened by Entertainment Tonight star Mary Hart. After this the ship set off on a preview cruise with travel agents (which are responsible for the vast majority of Oceana’s bookings) and invited guests. So far the ship looks good (maybe a little dated looking in some areas, but that works for Oceana’s passengers) and the reviews are really good.

The United States has been bought…

The world famous Ocean Liner, the SS United States, has recently been bought from its previous owners, NCL, by he United States Conservancy, a group dedicated to the future career and preservation of this American flag ship. (photo at right - "The SS United States coming in" by flickr member "Captain Zenith ")

The sad thing is that most American’s have never heard of this ship, their flagship and Ship of State, the United States (also know as the Big U). They don’t know of its unique mark on the USA’s history, they don’t know of its career or the way it came to symbolize a powerful post WWII United States to the rest of the world.

The United States Conservancy and I would love to change that.

Short history of this ship…
After WWII, the US wanted to build a passenger liner to serve on the North Atlantic and compete with Brittan and France for the passenger trade. The ship was to be safe, reliable, fast…like really fast, and comfortable. On top of this, seeing the way the glorious Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth heroically served the allied forces during WWII, delivering hundreds of thousands of troops to the front, the US wanted a liner that could do the same in a time of war.

The answer to these demands was the beautiful United States, our nation’s new Ship of State. Setting sail on her maiden voyage on July 4th, 1952, she shattered all previous transatlantic speed records (……the Queen Mary’s speed record…-_-…). After that she went on to have a successful but short career. She carried many of the worlds most elite on almost every voyage and never once did she have any kind of mechanical failure delay her. Throughout her career she was an icon of American ingenuity, innovation and power. However due to the emergence of clumsy jet travel, transatlantic travel by ocean liner began to decline. Because of this, the United States Line (her owners) decided to with draw her from service and lay her up. After that she was passed from owner to owner having all her interior fittings removed until eventually she was bought by NCL with the intention of putting her back into active service in Hawaii. These plans never materialized for many reasons and as such the Big U remained laid up in Philadelphia. Through the last few years the United States Conservancy has worked tirelessly to insure that this ship is preserved and protected. In 2009, NCL announced that it was taking bids for the ship which of course attracted the scrap yards. In response to this the Conservancy ramped up its fund raising in effort to by the ship themselves. Luckily due to the generosity of some people and NCL, the Conservancy was able to reach an agreement with NCL where the Conservancy would buy the ship for only 3 million…even though this was less then the bids from scrap yards.


This past week the transaction became final and the SS United States is under the owner ship of the Conservancy. Now comes the real challenge…the Conservancy only has a limited amount of time to raise money and come up with a viable way to save this historic ship. Keeping up a ship is not cheap and to say that this will be a difficult undertaking is a large understatement. But I sincerely hope that they will succeed…this ship is too important for it to just be scraped or laid up forever. It’s a symbol of our country and needs to be saved. I would encourage anyone reading this to donate to the cause or do anything you can to help the Conservancy in this important effort.
PLEASE LOOK HERE... http://www.ssunitedstatesconservancy.org/

Anyways, sorry it has been so long since I have written on here. I haven’t forgotten about this blog or my readers (who apparently now number in the thousands :D ).
Hope by the time you finish reading this really really long article that I have the next one ready for you. I currently have 3 other ones in the oven.

Stay tooned!!




Above photo- the SS United States (top) passing her fleetmate the SS America (bottom) in New York City.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Hello! Don't go away!

Hey Dear Readers!

Sorry for this long pause in post...its been a pretty busy week but at the same time a great one...I SAW QUEEN VICTORIA AND QUEEN ELIZABETH!!!!!! *SQUEAL!!!

Anyways, more post are on their way so be patient (spelling?? I am a horrible speller if you haven't noticed), I will try and have them up withing the next day or so!!

Keep reading!!

-Mark