Centrale de Bespreking van de cruise

Één van de meest verbazende details binnen van De aankondigingen van NCL vorige week ongeveer is hun nieuwe „F3 ″ schepen, dat zij twee of meer openbare gebieden/staven zullen omvatten die een van het dekkingslast of lidmaatschap prijs voor ingang zullen vereisen.

Men zal een ijsstaaf zijn, die werkelijk meer van een aantrekkelijkheid dan een staaf is. Het zal één van die volledig bevroren staven zijn die soms in trendy Noordelijke Europese steden worden gevonden waar de patroons parka's en dan steekproefdranken in het volledig bevroren milieu aantrekken. NCL zegt de dekkingslast de parka's en een drank of twee zal omvatten.

Het andere hierboven voorgestelde gebied, is de exclusieve Elegante Club. De gasten zullen een pas moeten kopen om dit exclusieve volwassenen slechts gebied van het schip te gebruiken. NCL vermeldt ook verscheidene andere exclusieve of volwassenen slechts trefpunten op hun F3 schepen, nochtans heb ik het strijdig zijn de rapporten gezien over al dan niet hun een specifieke dekkingslast is.

Opzettelijk of niet, leidt NCL hoofdzakelijk tot een twee klassensysteem op hun schip. Met hun lagere eindprijzen, al toevallige kledingscode en ongestructureerd het dineren systeem, trekken zij vele passagiers aan die en goedkope toevallige ontsnapping wensen. Het schijnt dat NCL ook hoog eind, hogere bestedende passagiers wil eveneens aantrekken. Misschien is NCL van mening dat zij het beste van beide werelden kunnen aanbieden om hun schepen te vullen. Een basispassagier zou in de inbegrepen restaurants eten en zou van alle vermaak en trefpunten die met het basiscruisepakket wordt. aangeboden genieten Nochtans, konden de beter eter gehielde passagiers van een upscaleervaring in de specialiteit het dineren trefpunten meer genieten en aan de massa's in deze exclusieve clubs ontsnappen. Terwijl het contrast niet kan zo extreem zijn zoals Eerste Klasse en Steerage, brengt het om op de dagen van de oude Transatlantische voeringen te letten die de passagiers in afzonderlijke en exclusieve klassen verdeelden.

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