Cruise
Cruise ship Webcams and Bridgecams: cruise
live from your desk!
 The
ongoing Internet-enabling of cruise ships now brings live
cruising to your computer. Many ships offer near-real-time
Webcams and Bridgecams with views from their ships' bridges
and elsewhere onboard.
Admittedly, port areas aren't always the most scenic part of
cruising, but every once in a while you'll get a glimpse of
the Statue of Liberty, or the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec
City, or picturesque Villefranche on the French Rivera. It's
a fun diversion for any cruise lover.
Among cruise lines offering Webcams are:
Four major cruise lines introduce advertised pricing rules
So did you think you can always find the best pricing for cruises
online? Not any more!
First Royal Caribbean and Celebrity (which is owned by Royal Caribbean),
and now Carnival and Norwegian, have announced new policies that are
songs from the same hymn book. All four have announced that any publicly
advertised cruise pricing must be the cruise line's officially approved
rate, whether on the Internet, newspaper, radio, or anywhere else.
While Carnival and Norwegian will still allow a travel agent, once on
the phone with a customer, to rebate some of their commission back to
the customer, in effect lowering the cruise's price, Royal Caribbean and
Celebrity went a step further to say that rebating itself is
forbidden--that all customers must actually pay the company-approved
price.
The impact to you, the customer? At least where Norwegian and Carnival
are concerned you may be able to get a better price when you call a
travel agency, than the price you see advertised online or in your
newspaper or from the cruise line itself.
And with Royal Caribbean and Celebrity the situation is mayhem. Travel
retailers forbidden from giving back cold, hard, cash are instead
offering everything from free merchandise, to free insurance, to free
hotel stays, to free champagne, in a quest to gain your business. Plus
there are undoubtedly those who rebate behind the back of the cruise
lines by mailing consumers a post-cruise check, although these agencies
risk being cut off by Royal Caribbean and Celebrity altogether if
discovered. One of Royal Caribbean's stated goals was to reduce consumer
confusion, whereas more confusion has been the result.
Up until now, big-boy travel agencies earning more lucrative commission
rates from these cruise lines advertised better pricing than their
smaller competitors, since they could afford to give some of their
higher commission back to their customers. Within the travel agency
community there has been a lot of animosity toward these "rebaters"
under the socialistic logic that the "little guy" and the "big guy"
should be on a "level playing field." Although I can see the popular
appeal, the last time I checked, this is not the way the real world
functions. The irony is that the mega-agencies can afford to build
entire departments to manage new value-added programs, like lining up
free pre- and post-cruise stays at hotels, that the "little guy" will
never be able match.
Frankly the populist angles of the cruise line press releases are a
smokescreen. They can't come right out and say so, since travel agents
currently sell the vast majority of cruises, but the cruise lines are
trying to cut their payments to travel agencies. Which is 100%
reasonable, given that these public companies' obligation is to deliver
the highest possible return to shareholders. With larger travel agencies
earning as much as twice the commission of smaller ones, by moving
market share from larger agencies to smaller ones, the cruise lines save
a pile of dough. Plus, now the cruise lines' own direct-to-consumer
sales departments won't be in the embarrassing position of offering an
"official" price on a cruise only to have it undercut by a mega-agency.
Another red herring served up by the cruise lines has been a stated
concern that Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Smith, sitting down for dinner on the
ship, might compare pricing and discover that the amount they paid was
very different for a similar accommodation--due to travel agent
rebating.
While Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Smith may well have an experience like this,
travel agency kickbacks are unlikely to be the culprit. This is
silliness for one big reason. Anybody who's bought an airline ticket is
well aware that pricing varies wildly depending on when you bought it.
The same holds true for cruise tickets, and in fact cruise line pricing
yield management systems--that adjust fares as often as several times
daily--had their genesis in that same airline technology. The amount of
variance in pricing that a travel agency could introduce is absolutely
trivial compared to the fluctuations driven by the cruise lines' own
pricing techniques.
It will certainly be fascinating to see how this trend develops!
Wait-time monitors to smooth Freestyle Dining
on Norwegian Cruise Line
 Norwegian
Cruise Line's Freestyle Dining program, although
very well reviewed overall, has occasionally annoyed
hungry travelers surprised by a wait to dine. Norwegian
is now installing flat-panel monitors throughout the
ship that display the current wait time, if any, at each
of the ship's restaurants.
With up 10 ten open-seating restaurants serving from
5:30 pm to midnight, from tapas cantinas to Teppanyaki,
it was inevitable that occasional bottlenecks would
occur. With the new monitors, starving passengers can
make a beeline straight to an open table. After a trial
run on
Norwegian Spirit, the system will officially debut
on the brand-new
Pride of America, then
Norwegian Jewel, followed by the remainder of the
fleet.
November 15, 2001
Press Release: Norwegian Cruise Line
Norwegian Sun Glows With New Amenities
November 15, 2001 - Freestyle Cruising is about freedom of choice and
NCL's Norwegian Sun offers guests more amenities to chose from than any
other ship in its fleet. From classes on genealogy and spa treatments at
Body Waves Spa to browsing in the Galleria shops and surfing the
Internet, passengers will leave the Norwegian Sun relaxed with a sense
of having learned something, achieved something or simply regained
balance in their lives.
- Lifestyles & Techstyles Rooms - Located on Promenade Deck - Deck 6,
these rooms are the center of NCL's Freestyle Cruising "Active
Decompression" lifestyle and enrichment programs. Passengers have the
opportunity to enrich both their minds and stimulate their bodies. Some
programs include: personal finance seminars, cooking classes, yoga,
mountain biking, computer classes and genealogy discussions. The rooms
can also be utilized for social gatherings.
- Internet Café - Located on the Promenade Deck within the ship's
atrium, 24 computer terminals are available for guests to go online 24
hours-a-day while Norwegian Sun is at sea. Guest can send and receive
e-mails, "surf the net," check the stock market, get news updates, play
computer games and more. Throughout the day, an Internet Café manager is
on duty to offer instruction and assistance.
- East Indies Conference Center - Located on the Promenade Deck, three
rooms make up the East Indies Conference Center: Bali Room, Malaysia
Room and Borneo Room. The Conference Center can accommodate small group
meetings and larger group functions from 12 to 42 seats. In addition,
the Borneo Room offers several different audio/visual equipment options
including slide projectors, TV, VCR, movies and power point projectors.
- Galleria Shops - Located on the International Deck - Deck 7, this
joint venture with the exclusive retailer Colombian Emeralds
International offers duty-free shopping for elegant jewelry, fine china
and crystal, perfume and other gift items. A kiosk in the gift shop
allows guests to order gifts for direct delivery to their homes.
- Body Waves Spa - Located on the Pool Deck - Deck 11, this full-service
spa and unisex beauty salon features the services of Mandara Spa, the
leading operator of resort spas in the world. The Body Waves Spa
experience emphasizes wellness, relaxation and pampering from a broad
range of spa and beauty treatments combining the best of East meets
West. Some signature treatments include in-spa treatments for couples,
in-stateroom massages and exotic scrubs such as the Balinese Coffee
Scrub and the Coconut Body Polish. De-stress treatments and massages on
the secluded beaches during visits to NCL's private island in the
Bahamas, Great Stirrup Cay, are also available.
- Sports Facilities - Norwegian Sun features two swimming pools and five
hot tubs on the ship's expansive sun deck, in addition to basketball,
volleyball, a batting cage and golf driving net. Junior passengers can
enjoy a separate splash at the kids' pool on the ship's top deck. With
dramatic view from its floor-to-ceiling windows, Body Waves Fitness
Center -- open 24 hours-a-day -- offers state-of-the-art exercise
equipment in addition to a variety of spinning, aerobics, yoga and
toning classes taught by certified instructors. An outdoor
jogging/walking track is located on the Promenade Deck where 3.5 laps =
1 mile.
- Chapel - The first of NCL's ships to have a chapel, Norwegian Sun can
host wedding ceremonies, marriage vow renewals and other special
celebrations. Norwegian Sun offers two elegant honeymoon/anniversary
suites with private balcony, walk-in closet, a luxury bathroom with
whirlpool tub and shower, and a concierge to fulfill any additional
needs.
Miami-based Norwegian Cruise Line is an international cruise company and
industry innovator that currently operates a fleet of eight ships
sailing to more than 200 ports around the world. On October 31, 2001,
NCL took delivery its newest and largest vessel, the 2,200 passenger
Norwegian Star, which will be deployed year-round in Hawaii.
NCL is currently building Norwegian Dawn, a 2,200-passenger sister ship
to Norwegian Star, slated for delivery in December 2002.
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