Best Cruises For Millennials and Young At Heart

Cruise lines have their eyes clearly set on Millennials, roughly described as young adults in their 20s and early 30s. These cruisers, or in most cases potential cruisers, are looking to stay connected, want to be entertained, hope to be good parents and like their vacation to include new experiences.   If all that sounds good and shuffleboard, endless buffets and old-fashioned show productions just won't cut it with for you, check out these cruises.

Quantum/Anthem of the Seas:

If there is a ship built for Millennials this is it. From robot bartenders (industrial robots programmed to make drinks) to bumper cars, to indoor skydiving, to the fastest Internet at sea (and at reasonable, unlimited use prices), this is a ship for the new generation. The "main" dining room has been eliminated in favor of more than a dozen restaurants and you can make reservations via an app on your smartphone or by taping your radio frequency ship wristband at locations around the ship. Entertainment includes performers interacting with digital screens controlled by robot arms. The future is now, on sailings from Bayonne, New Jersey to the Caribbean.

Allure of the Seas/Oasis of the Seas:

Despite fleet-mate Quantum's unmatched awesomeness, these ships are the largest in the world and cruise the Caribbean with more cool activities onboard than you can possibly do in a week – though you should definitely try soaring down a zipline above the Boardwalk, one of seven shipboard "neighborhoods." Test your surfing skills on the FlowRider, hit the rock-climbing wall, go ice-skating, munch burgers at Johnny Rockets and order lattes from Starbucks when you're not eating ice cream from Ben & Jerry's or shopping at Coach. Bonus: You can pose for photos with Shrek (with DreamWorks characters part of the fun).

Norwegian Getaway/Norwegian Breakaway:

"Freestyle Cruising" means a flexible schedule when it comes to dining – there are some 27 eateries on these ships, including sushi and Asian options. As you cruise the Caribbean you can try your hand at one of the largest ropes course at sea – where The Plank helps you to pretend you're in "Pirates of the Caribbean" and walk a few feet off the ship. Kids will enjoy interacting with Nickelodeon characters and racing each other down the slides in the waterpark. Bar and lounge choices abound, including a real Svedka Ice Bar (you put on a parka to imbibe) and the outdoor dance club Spice H20, where during a weekly 80s night you and your side ponytail can dance under the stars to Madonna and Devo.

Disney Fantasy/Disney Dream:

Whether you've already got kids or you just like the idea of reliving your childhood, Disney ships bring back the memories. Celebrate your nostalgia by interacting with plenty of costumed characters, watching first-run Disney movies and attending shows featuring popular movie tunes. If you're looking for thrills, check out the 765-foot AquaDuck watercoaster, the only such ride at sea. Kids ages 3 months to 17 will be immersed in age-appropriate activities, leaving you free to hang out at an adults-only pool with cool coffee shop/bar. At night you'll find a surprisingly adult party scene – including a lively dance club and several bars. On Disney's picture-perfect private island, Castaway Cay, you can play with water cannons when you're not lounging on the beach.

Cunard's Queen Mary 2:

A decade old, the cruise world's fastest ship is one of the most traditional at sea. That makes it perfect for Millennials looking for a nostalgic, classic experience. Go ballroom dancing in a real ballroom, sip Veuve Clicquot Champagne from Waterford Crystal flutes at the champagne bar, visit the only planetarium at sea, have a pint in the British-style pub, and party all night at the two-level G32 disco, all while crossing the Atlantic between New York and Southampton.

Carnival Cruise Lines: 

The updated "Fun Ships" have a lot Millennials will enjoy, not the least of which is a lively atmosphere and budget prices. You can do a quick, three-, four- or five-day cruise this fall from a variety of ports at fantastic budget-friendly fares.  Carnival Corp. (parent company of nine brands) is debuting a new hybrid WiFi@Sea setup that promises faster and cheaper connections. The Carnival Live! concert series brings well-known artists onboard to perform at select ports – including Daughtry and REO Speedwagon in December. The shipboard scene includes waterslides, ropes courses, Guy Fieri burgers, themed bars, adults-only sunning areas, Dr. Seuss characters, top-rate comedians and experienced DJs.

Un-Cruise Adventures:

 Up for an adventure? Some of the small ships (as few as 22 passengers) of this Seattle-based line take you into the wilderness for days spent hiking, kayaking, snorkeling and standup paddle-boarding in places including Alaska's Glacier Bay, the Hawaiian Islands and Mexico's Sea of Cortez. There's a focus on group exploration, though there's also plenty of opportunities to explore on your own. Captains have flexibility to change itineraries if, for instance, a pod of whales is spotted. But warning: This experience is nearly always unplugged (Wi-Fi only offered on Galapagos sailings).

Happy Cruising!

Excerpts From USA Today

Cruise Innovations - A Look Back

This past year saw the introduction of only a few new, big cruise ships, most significantly Norwegian Getaway, Regal Princess and "smart ship" Quantum of the Seas. But 2014 will be remembered as a "wow" year – one that saw the debut of amazing features and programs geared towards making cruising a younger, trendier vacation choice.

Robot Bartenders

Ordering drinks on the brand new Quantum of the Seas is a total kick. The mechanical arms – originally designed for use in car manufacturing – "man" the first-ever Bionic Bar by Makr Shakr. You place your order on a tablet, the robots do the pouring and mixing, and your drink is delivered on a conveyor belt. It's a huge "wow."




Adventures in the air

Getting high above the water is a trend that appeared on all the new ships. Norwegian Getaway has The Plank, which allows you to walk a few feet off the ship (while wearing a harness), with nothing but the sea below. Regal Princess has SeaWalk, a top deck, glass-bottomed walkway that cantilevers off the ship so you can see down some 128 feet to the sea. Quantum of the Seas doubles down (or up) with North Star, a ride that takes you in a glass capsule some 300 feet above the sea; and RipCord by IFLY, an indoor skydiving experience.


Faster Internet

Cheaper and faster Internet access at sea is a significant development, including for those who want to stay in touch via social media. Royal Caribbean is showing off superfast broadband on Quantum of the Seas, achieved via low-orbit satellite. Carnival Corp., parent of nine brands including Carnival Cruise Lines, Princess Cruises and Holland America Line, is speeding things up with a setup that combines satellite, port connections and land-based antennas.

Magic

Norwegian Cruise Line's Miami-centric Norwegian Getaway brought the cruising world The Illusionarium, an extraordinary magic/dinner show experience (for a fee). Five Master magicians, illusionists and mentalists perform amazing feats in a specially created video dome; the accompanying surf & turf dinner is just an added bonus.

Bumper Cars

At the first-of-its-kind SeaPlex, an indoor (all-weather) sports center on Quantum of the Seas, at various times of day passengers can play basketball, volleyball and soccer, go roller skating and do a circus school.  But a first-at-sea favorite is the opportunity to ride bumper cars, smashing into your fellow passengers.






180-day World Cruises

Oceania Cruises had an immediate hit when the upscale line announced its first world cruise would also make history as the longest ever – 180 days visiting five continents, 44 countries and 89 ports of call. The sailing sold out so quickly the line announced a second 180-day world cruise embarking July 2015 and then another for 2016.


Carnival Live!

Carnival launched this first-of-its-kind shipboard concert series, which brings top-rate performers onboard ships in ports including Cozumel, Catalina Island and Nassau. They do private concerts available only to cruise passengers, with tickets starting at $20 to $40. Those who splurge on VIP tickets add extra time with the stars – who included Jennifer Hudson, Rascal Flatts, Lady Antebellum, Styx and REO Speedwagon. The series continues in 2015.



Smoking bans

This year saw pretty much the end of the concept of using your cabin balcony as your private smoking space. Royal Caribbean, Carnival and Norwegian instituted bans on balcony smoking (the only holdout among major lines is Holland America).

Happy Cruising!

Excerpts from USA Today

A Tale of Two Cruises – Holidays 2013

This year we had the unique opportunity to take two different cruises over the holidays.  Thanksgiving was aboard the Carnival Breeze for an 8 day Southern Caribbean cruise to a couple of ports we have not done before.  Over Christmas we decided to enjoy a last minute 5 day Western Caribbean voyage on the Celebrity Constellation – and we barely missed the huge ice storm leaving town!  How did they compare? Did we enjoy both? What would we recommend to clients?

First Impressions

Carnival:  Great job Carnival for moving ship décor away from the neon cartoon like features of the Joe Fracus designs. We really enjoyed the new fresh contemporary look while leaving a few whimsical and fun design elements. The ship design is still the basic Carnival design with the Atrium, promenade on one side of the ship, and the galley in the middle with two dining rooms.  The new Carnival look should be liked by many guests.

Celebrity:  Celebrity has been adding new features to their ‘older’ ships and the results are fantastic. We loved the Constellation’s sleek and modern style. We enjoyed viewing all the cool artwork throughout the ship.  Since she is smaller than most ships there is no 6 story atrium but the three story atrium served her well with bars and cafés centrally located.  The ship was also decorated for the holidays in grand style. Being greeted with champagne (and OJ for the kids) started us off on the right foot.



Service / Staff

Carnival:  Since Carnival is a value oriented line the staff to guest ration is a bit lower than other lines.  This does show when waiting in some lines for lunch, debarking, guest services, or a bar waiter.  Some might not notice but since we cruise a lot it is something that did stick out with us. But our stateroom steward was the best we have had in a number of cruises.  She was truly a ninja – we would leave the room for 20 mins and like magic our room was cleaned.  Our dining wait team seemed to be overworked and our first couple of dinners took forever.  It did get a bit better as the week progressed but due to the lower staffing levels at time service can suffer a bit.

Celebrity:  We had one of the best and funniest cruise directors and assistant directors in many cruises.  We actually looked forward to watching their morning ‘talk’ shows on the TV while preparing for the day.  The officers were everywhere mingling with guests.  The Captain  was recently promoted and available in many venues to speak with guests.  He even participated in many of the activities which were a lot of fun to watch. The staff aboard the ship was very attentive and we had no service issues at all.


Dining

Carnival:  The dining on Carnival overall is very good. One of the things I miss from other lines is at times there is a lack of variety in the buffet and other venues. The differences in some of the quality are noticeable– for example frozen waffles heated up in lieu of freshly made on other lines.  We did visit the premium steakhouse which was very good with excellent service – well worth the nominal fee. Thanksgiving dinner was so so with the typical cruise ‘Tom Turkey dinner’ which was a bit disappointing.  The ‘food court’ areas such as Guy’s Burgers, Fat Jimmy’s BBQ, and Blue Iguana Cantina were very good.

Celebrity:  The Celebrity buffet was great with lots of freshly prepared items and a good variety for a smaller vessel. The dining room had some very good selections and we enjoyed most of the items that we ordered.   The Tuscan Grill was a nice treat for specialty dining with the excellent steaks cooked to perfection.

Café al Bacio is now the Operach’s favorite spot on the ship with premium teas, coffee, and pastries served in classic Italian style service ware.  On Christmas there was even a special added menu for dinner to make the day special and memorable.




Entertainment / Activities

Carnival:   The entertainment was the new breed on the Breeze. With Carnival you do get less production shows than some other lines.  The two we did see had prerecorded music, limited sets, limited cast, and were shorter in duration than the usual shows.  The shows were adequate but the particular singers on our ship were average at best.   Where Carnival does excel is the George Lopez’s Punchliner Comedy Club which we enjoyed very much.  They are so popular that the venue they are held in is just too small.  Get there early to be sure to get a seat!  Other entertainment in the smaller venues was good but also limited. Carnival does have the water park and ropes courses for the kids.  They particularly ventured on the ropes course many times.

Celebrity:  The best part of this cruise was the Entertainment.  The production shows were some of the best we have seen.  The cast of singers were extremely talented and we wanted more of the shows and music. They received a standing ovation every night. We also enjoyed the enrichment programs on Celebrity for variety where for example you can learn about the ports (not just shopping) or about the ship navigation.  In our cruise the Captain himself did a presentation which turned into a very interactive and interesting QA session. Celebrity did a fantastic job on Christmas day with Santa visiting the ship and visiting with all of the young cruisers with gifts in hand.  The special Christmas show was spectacular and well done.


Final Thoughts

We had a spectacular time on both cruises.  These experiences just reinforced the advice we give to our clients. Carnival is a solid value oriented brand that does the basic very very well.  Carnival may not have the variety of offerings, spectacular entertainment, or white glove service … but that is not who they are. They are the Fun Ships with a casual and laid back environment that offers great value for your dollar.

Celebrity lives up to their ‘Modern Luxury’ tag line with contemporary well-designed ships, attentive service, and variety of dining options.  They are excellent at providing a premium product at competitive rates.

Depending on what type of cruising experience you are looking for, both Celebrity and Carnival will provide you excellent value and a fantastic experience.

Happy Cruising!

Carnival Takes a Bite From Apple

Apple is known for quality products, great customer service at its Apple stores, and a strict pricing policy.  Ever wonder why Apple products are never discounted?  Apple requires all of its suppliers to charge the same price – no discounting and extremely limited value adds.  Late last month Carnival announced a new policy effective 8/1/12 to all their suppliers regarding how their product can be marketed and priced – no discounting an no value adds (IE onboard credit offers)– period!  How does this affect you the consumer, Carnival, and us the suppliers …..

Why did Carnival make this decision? Carnival feels as though they have a very competitively priced quality product.  They want to avoid confusion in the marketplace with many vendors offering different promotions at different times.  They feel as though discounting devalues the Carnival brand and want to maintain integrity in their pricing models.  I believe they also feel that any of the suppliers who are working with razor thin margins by large discounting cannot afford to service their clients very well.  If the supplier is not providing outstanding service to the client they end up calling Carnival – defeating the whole purpose of paying the supplier to sell Carnival cruises and service their guests.

How does this affect you?  First, you can now be assured that whoever you call to help you with your dream vacation on Carnival you will be getting the same price and same offer for the cruise portion of your vacation.  Consumers will now be selecting who they wish to book their cruise with based on service and not price.  Often CruiseOne will have special promotions such as no deposits required, shore excursion credits, or cash back offers.  These can no longer be offered on Carnival cruises.  Any supplier found to be discounting or adding these value additions will lose their ability to sell Carnival.

How does this effect CruiseOne?  From my perspective I think it will help the industry as a whole.  We pride ourselves on providing outstanding service to our clients.  We can save money for clients in other ways such as recommending shore excursions that save clients up to 25% on cruise line excursions.  We often book transfers at 50% the cost of booking with the cruise lines.  We recently saved a client over $700 from published airfare by utilizing one of our partnerships with an air consolidators.  A supplier who might spend one to two hours working with a client to find them the perfect cruise will now not have to worry about a competitor coming in after the fact and offering a small discount (because they did not do any of the work) and ‘stealing’ the client.  Carnival wants to protect the work the original agent did and we applaud that!

Donna and I always have believed we offered great prices and exceptional service.  We believe that finding the best value to match a client to their dream vacation is not the same as the finding the ‘cheapest cruise’.    And now we have Carnival backing us up!

Happy Cruising!

Carnival Dream - Is it really?

It is day six on our spring break cruise and we are at sea.  I am sitting here on my balcony looking at deep blue ocean as far as the eye can see, sunny, with a nice breeze from the slowly moving marvel at sea.   It has been a while since we have sailed a full seven days with Carnival.  They have made many changes and upgrades with their new ships and Fun Ship 2.0 enhancements.  Having a travel business is tough!  We need to give our clients firsthand experience and knowledge on the products we recommend.    We hear all the time ‘I do not want Carnival - they are a party ship’ …. Well I have to say on this cruise during spring break that was not the case.  That reputation is from many many years ago and the focus now is on fun and multi-generational offerings for all – not a drunk fest or ‘party ship’ in the slightest.

There are 4500 passengers on board this week and about 1400 are kids under 18 years old.  I can honestly say we have not noticed that there are that many passengers on board which is a great comment about how the ship handles crowds – we even found pool chairs by the pool mid – afternoon!  Below are my thoughts on the pluses and minuses from the Carnival Dream.

Pluses:  

Crew – They have been fantastic from our room steward remembering all of our names after the first day, to the dining room staff accommodating our Gluten Free dining requests.  A quick story …. It was Donna’s birthday this week and as she is gluten free she cannot have cake and desserts have been hard to find for Donna on board.  At the last minute right before dinner I asked the Maitre’d if he could maybe bring some chocolate covered strawberries for dessert since I could not order the cake.  Well after dinner out comes not only a gluten free cheesecake (not on menu) with a candle but 6 beautifully decorated strawberries on a plate with Happy Birthday Donna written in pastry frosting.  I thought this went well above my last minute request … well done Carnival!!

Waterworks – For the kids you cannot beat the longest waterslides at sea with four distinct slides, play areas, and pools.  Kids loved to use them whenever they could.

Dining – Again exceeded my expectation.  There is usually one meal I do not care for on a cruise, but everything the family ordered was delicious.  We did not have one bad meal and lots of variety.  Our dining staff was some of the best as well!  The lobster was scrumptious and the quality above what we have had on any of the other main cruise lines.

Carnival is a great value … but since we have started our business I look at our cruises from a different perspective now.  Below are some cons I see on where Carnival is ‘saving’ money in order to have lower pricing than some competitors.

Cons:

Ship Design – Frankly I dislike the design of their ships from a logistics standpoint.  It appears they are designed for maximum utilization of space and in some cases in disregard to the convenience of guests.    Case in point the sports desk is two decks down and across the pool area from where most of the sports actually are.  

Staffing – Even with the helpful and pleasant staff, at times there do not seem to be enough staff from the ship stores, to pool attendants, and bar staff.  This does reduce the level of service you might receive on a Carnival cruise … still good but not up to the level of other cruise lines.

Activities – Less than others lines – especially during the day.    Nighttime entertainment was where the focus is on Carnival.  Many of the day time activities focuses on selling opportunities rather than some shows or other type of activities or entertainment.  Even the pool deck activities were limited.

Overall – Carnival is a great cruise line for the right client looking for a specific type of vacation.  Staff and Dining room food completely exceeded our expectations.  When you are getting a well-priced cruise there are some trade-offs such as a lower staff to guest ratio, a bit less daytime activities, and more basic entertainment.  With that said Carnival is a great value and we are planning our next Carnival Cruise on the brand new Breeze next year!!