Central de la charla de la travesía

Uno de los detalles que asombran lo más adentro de Avisos de NCL la semana pasada sobre su nuevo “″ F3 envía, es que incluirán dos o más áreas públicas/barras que requieran un honorario de la carga o de la calidad de miembro de cubierta para la entrada.

Uno será una barra del hielo, de que es realmente más de una atracción que una barra. Será una de esas barras totalmente congeladas encontradas a veces en las ciudades europeas norteñas de moda en donde los patrón ponen parkas y después muestrean bebidas en el ambiente totalmente congelado. NCL dice que la carga de cubierta incluirá los parkas y una bebida o dos.

La otra área, representada arriba, es el club elegante exclusivo. Las huéspedes tendrán que comprar un paso para utilizar esta área exclusiva de los adultos solamente de la nave. NCL también menciona vario la otra exclusiva o los lugares de los adultos solamente en su F3 envían, no obstante he visto informes que estaban en conflicto encendido si o no su es una carga de cubierta específica.

Intencionalmente o no, NCL esencialmente está creando un sistema de dos clases en su nave. Con sus precios del extremo inferior, todo el código ocasional del vestido y el sistema que cena no estructurado, atraen a muchos pasajeros que desean y partida ocasional barata. Se parece que NCL también desea atraer el alto extremo, pasajeros más altos del gasto también. Quizás NCL se siente que él puede ofrecer el mejor de ambos mundos para llenar sus naves. Un pasajero básico comería en los restaurantes incluidos y gozaría de toda la hospitalidad y lugares ofrecidos con el paquete básico de la travesía. Sin embargo, los pasajeros inclinados podrían gozar de una más experiencia del upscale en la especialidad que cenaban lugares y escapar más bien las masas en estos clubs exclusivos. Mientras que el contraste puede no ser tan extremo como primero clasifica y Steerage, trae para importar de los días de los viejos trazadores de líneas transatlánticos que dividieron a pasajeros en clases separadas y exclusivas.

One of the aspects of pleasure cruising that I have always most enjoyed was the non-exclusive nature and mostly inclusive environment. It really emphasized that while on a vacation you could get away from your daily stresses weather you were a CEO or Housekeeper. Both jobs are stressful. Whether a passenger was in a highest level suite or sharing a lowest level inside cabin with her three sisters, a passenger had most everything else on the ship to enjoy equally. Other than a bar bill and tipping, passengers didn’t have to worry too much about when and where they spent their money on the ship.

As ships budgets got tighter, the cruise lines wanted to still offer relatively low fares, but then make up the lost revenues elsewhere. Rather than cut quality and services, many of the cruise lines decided to offer some “extras” not previously available on the ships and charge for them.

The example of this policy on my favorite line, Celebrity, is the specialty dinning rooms on some ships and the specialty coffee in the Cova Cafes. Both of these venues charge in addition to cruise price, about $30 for the meal service and about $3-5 for the fancy coffees. However, the quality of the food has still remained high in the main dining room, and coffee, though not the best, is available for free in the dining room and the buffet area. I’ve been please with the overall cruise experience on the Celebrity line, and the idea of free style has never appealed to m.

However, I did want to see what the price difference would be between several different lines on a similar itinerary. Perhaps with the cruise price savings, I could afford all the extras and come out about the same or ahead? I priced an example cruise on NCL, Celebrity, Princess, Holland American, and Royal Caribbean. I looked at Panama Canal itineraries in Nov of 2009. (I went with this example because it is actually the next itinerary and time frame that I am looking to book a future cruise) The cruises on these lines ranged from 10 to 13 days, so I broke the pricing down to price per family of 4 per day for a standard Ocean View cabin and include the current taxes and fuel surcharges. Here are the results:

• Princess - $545 per family per day
• Royal Caribbean $475 per family per day
• Holland American $575 per family per day
• Celebrity $550 per family per day
• NCL $406 per family per day

Our family would come out the same on NCL verses Celebrity even if we spent a total of around $144 a day on extra’s above and beyond what we would spend on extras on board Celebrity. While we still very much prefer the traditional cruise experience and the ambiance of Celebrity, this plan might work well for a family desiring the “Freestyle” experience. With the same travel budget, a family could take advantage of the higher end dining venues, the parents could enjoy some of the exclusive clubs while the kids are in the children’s program, and enjoy many of the extra’s not included in the basic price of the “Feestyle” cruise.

One thing is for sure, those lines that have lower base price have to make up that difference in some way. Perhaps NCL feels that the implementation of cover charges will allow them to keep their basic price down, appealing to persons looking for the most basic casual cruise, while still offering a more upscale experience to those who are willing to pay extra for it.

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Categories: Blog, Cruise Lines, Features, Planning
Tags: casual dress code, cruise experience, F3 ships, membership fee, Norwegian Cruise Line, Panama Canal, upscale experience