"Dining with likely minded fellow passengers."
This line appears in so many cruise brochures that it must rank among the most repeated cliches of the industry. Well, every now and then you do meet interesting people at your dinner table and consequently, the conversation that follows can be interesting as well.
However, most of the time, the precise opposite is true. First of all, people are not chatting with each other but at each other, as somebody so well put it. How many cruises have I taken on this line before and how ship X compared with ship Y tend to rank among top opening lines in this chit chat, followed by how delightful is our six bedroom house in Kingston-upon-Thames.
Quite simply, the fact that a number of people have chosen the same ship for the same cruise does not mean that they have an awful lot in common.
I mostly cruise on my own and those holidays are time I dedicate for myself and do things that I want to do. Quite simply, I find very little appeal in the idea of spending two hours each night with the same people with whom I am not likely minded, listening to something that I have no interest in whatsoever.
Luckily, many lines and ships offer alternative dining options whereby you can escape all this. My preferred option is to have light dinner at the buffet on one night and then on some other book a table at a specialty restaurant. Yes, it will cost extra, but it is worth it!
Venues like Todd English on Cunard Line's Queen Victoria or Arcadian Rhodes on P&O Cruises' Arcadia that I have visited on my own have produced a truly enjoyable dining experience whereas the main dining room frequently has not.
In these little restaurants, you enjoy the attentive but not intrusive service of half a dozen or so people, the atmosphere is quieter, more peaceful and more pleasant than that of the huge main dining room. And last but not certainly least, you can have a table for yourself. There is no obligation to join a conversation or to be exposed to that of others, which is so very satisfying indeed. A holiday should be a holiday also from social engagements that you do not want to parttake.
All this turned even better when Carolyn, an American friend of mine, said that she takes a book with her to such restaurants when she goes on cruises on her own. The book acts as a perfect "companion" that allows you to divert your attention to something between the courses and even while enjoying one so that you can comfortably slow down and truly enjoy the meal.
I will be going on Queen Victoria again in December for a quick stint of four nights and look forward to going back to Todd English: it will be Me Time in My Space.
Monday 14 September 2009
Tuesday 8 September 2009
Baltic ferry companies need to reinvent themselves
In the Port of Vaasa on the west coast of Finland, an old and rusty hulk of a ferry is waiting for demolition. In fact, it should have been scrapped a long time ago, but the Indian owners of the hulk and the Finnish environmental officials have a dispute over what to do with asbestos that is on board.
That hulk, now called C Express, was built in 1966 as Fennia and operated by Silja Line until the early 1980s. In its early days, it was regarded as an exceptionally fine vessel: after all, passengers had a heated indoor swimming pool, sauna, hairdressing salon, cinema and supermarket among the facilities on their disposal.
Compared to modern ferries, it was small, just 6,179 gross register tons as built, and its 299 berths were hardly adequate even in those long since gone days to cater for a maximum of 1,200 passengers it could take.
Still, the designers of Fennia had created the nucleus of cruise ferry: the ship itself should be an aspirational destination in itself. Gradually, but not without outright steps backwards, operators such as Silja Line and Viking Line developed the concept further. Ships became larger and offeed more choice in terms of bars and restaurants, but cinema and hairdressing salon have disappeared a long time ago from the to do list availble for cruise ferry passengers.
It is not unfair to say that what cruise ferries in the Baltic have today, Fennia had already 43 years ago. It was a benchmark design. And it is also not unfair to say that the ferry industry should create another Fennia - a vessel that brings something genuinely new to the disaposal of the passengers. The current concept is based on wining and dining - and largely self service.
The Baltic cruise ferry business saw its peak in the late 1980s before a recession in Finland and Sweden early in the next decade combined with a huge expansion of capacity by both two majors led to a crash in ticket prices. The aftermath of Estonia in 1994 and gradual increase in other affordable forms of travel negated the ferries the possibility to regain the position in the eyes of the public they enjoyed 20 years ago.
Every industry and every company needs to reinvent itself at some point. The cruise industry did so about 40 years ago and it has maintained the momentum: innovation that started from small first-generation purpose built cruise liners of that time continues with giants like Oasis of the Seas that offer facilities unthinkable all those decades ago.
The cruise ferry business in the Baltic presents a striking contrast: since the late 1980s, new ships have offered nothing really new and the business model of wining and dining itself has become tired.
Royal Caribbean International has started to operate cruises in the summer from Stockholm and obviously by doing so grasps part of the better-paying business from the ferry companies. The time time has come for the ferry companies to look at themselves with a critical eye and to regain the innovative thinking that was their hallmark from the late 1960s to the end of the 1980s.
Otherwise, their offering will become an increasingly cheap commodity that drfts down market in the eyes of the travelling public.
That hulk, now called C Express, was built in 1966 as Fennia and operated by Silja Line until the early 1980s. In its early days, it was regarded as an exceptionally fine vessel: after all, passengers had a heated indoor swimming pool, sauna, hairdressing salon, cinema and supermarket among the facilities on their disposal.
Compared to modern ferries, it was small, just 6,179 gross register tons as built, and its 299 berths were hardly adequate even in those long since gone days to cater for a maximum of 1,200 passengers it could take.
Still, the designers of Fennia had created the nucleus of cruise ferry: the ship itself should be an aspirational destination in itself. Gradually, but not without outright steps backwards, operators such as Silja Line and Viking Line developed the concept further. Ships became larger and offeed more choice in terms of bars and restaurants, but cinema and hairdressing salon have disappeared a long time ago from the to do list availble for cruise ferry passengers.
It is not unfair to say that what cruise ferries in the Baltic have today, Fennia had already 43 years ago. It was a benchmark design. And it is also not unfair to say that the ferry industry should create another Fennia - a vessel that brings something genuinely new to the disaposal of the passengers. The current concept is based on wining and dining - and largely self service.
The Baltic cruise ferry business saw its peak in the late 1980s before a recession in Finland and Sweden early in the next decade combined with a huge expansion of capacity by both two majors led to a crash in ticket prices. The aftermath of Estonia in 1994 and gradual increase in other affordable forms of travel negated the ferries the possibility to regain the position in the eyes of the public they enjoyed 20 years ago.
Every industry and every company needs to reinvent itself at some point. The cruise industry did so about 40 years ago and it has maintained the momentum: innovation that started from small first-generation purpose built cruise liners of that time continues with giants like Oasis of the Seas that offer facilities unthinkable all those decades ago.
The cruise ferry business in the Baltic presents a striking contrast: since the late 1980s, new ships have offered nothing really new and the business model of wining and dining itself has become tired.
Royal Caribbean International has started to operate cruises in the summer from Stockholm and obviously by doing so grasps part of the better-paying business from the ferry companies. The time time has come for the ferry companies to look at themselves with a critical eye and to regain the innovative thinking that was their hallmark from the late 1960s to the end of the 1980s.
Otherwise, their offering will become an increasingly cheap commodity that drfts down market in the eyes of the travelling public.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)