Nearly a dozen new cruise ships, some designed to carry from 3,000 to 4,000 passengers apiece, will be debuting this year. They will add more than 20,000 new berths a week, more than a million such berths a year. And they will be less like ships than like frantic amusement parks with bells clanging, lights flashing and crowds rushing from one spectacle to another.
On a recent broadcast of my Sunday Travel Show, a guest expert described all the new gimmicks we can expect. “They will be like nothing you have ever seen before,” she announced, and with enthusiasm in her voice, she ticked off the advances:
The Queen Victoria and the Celebrity Solstice, in particular, will have “circus-training programs,” “bungee jumping” and “clown acts.” These will be added, presumably, to the rock-climbing walls, boxing rings, bowling alleys and vertiginous Jacuzzis jutting out from the top deck and hanging perilously over the sea (the latter have become standard on some ships, but not necessarily on the Queen Victoria or Solstice). But let me repeat those outstanding new features: “circus-training programs,” “bungee jumping” and “clown acts.”
On a new ship of Costa Cruises, expect every conceivable game, sport and competition. What’s more, Costa will introduce new, extra-charge “spa cabins” so close to fitness rooms that those staying in them can walk to the showers in their bathrobes. People booking the new spa digs will have exclusive access to that spa and to their own spa restaurant.
On some of the new ships, the democratic, one-class policies of cruising will be totally jettisoned. There will be a “ship within the ship” — an area enjoyed solely by passengers paying higher fares, a number of restaurants to which they alone will be admitted, lounges set aside for the elite. On a new ship of Norwegian Cruise Lines, elite passengers will have special suites, special sun-deck areas to use and special swimming pools for them alone.
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