Chapter 10- Cruising Again

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Chapter 10

Cruising Again

November, 2024

 

 

Wednesday, October 30, 2024

 

Phoenix to Paris, Paris to Rome. Overnight at the Rome airport Hilton, car service to the port of Civitavecchia, and board the Oceania Vista for a 12-day cruise around the Mediterranean. Easy.

 

Why this cruise?

 

We booked on the Oceania Vista to update our personal cruise experience now that we have been franchise owners and travel advisors for almost five years. Our personal, post-pandemic, travel experience has been river cruises with lots of land excursions and land vacations with lots of tours. Our clients however have booked lots of cruises. In fact, almost 80% of our bookings have been cruises. We have booked barge cruises in France, lots of river cruises all over Europe, yacht cruises, and plenty of traditional cruises with most of the major brand names. But we have not personally done a traditional cruise since we started this business and in the time since our last cruise, the big-name cruise lines have expanded their fleets and reinforced their position in the market.

 

I was always struck by John DeLorean’s observation that his Senior Exec colleagues at Ford did not drive a Ford and thus could not relate to the customer experience, and when I managed far flung retail outlets I was always on the road to experience the services we offered and to make changes where needed.

 

Therefore, we thought it important to update our personal cruise experience to be better able to guide clients to make their vacation dreams come true.

 

To achieve our objective we reviewed tons of data about cruise ships and a significant learning is that the market has segmented into extra large, large, medium and small ships. There is a ship designed for anyone interested in cruising and at many price points for every demographic market subset. In fact, we maintain a database about the cruise lines and the cruise ships that our clients inquire about, or usually book.

 

Shown below are comps of the average maximum number of guests across all these ships. (Some of these brands have large and small ships so the average may be deceiving but you get the point).

 

At the far left are some of the popular mass-market brands, the middle are the luxury brands, and on the right are the river cruise brands. We placed Oceania between the mass-market premium brands and the luxury brands, which is what they are trying to be.

 

 

Interesting, right?

 

We hear from people all the time that their perception is that cruising means being on a ship with 3,000 or 4,000 or more people. As the charts show, this just isn’t true. There are many options to experience the benefits of cruising without the feeling of being downtown in a major city during rush hour.

 

All of which is to say that we decided to check out one of the niche ships in the 1,000 guest range. Oceania is a relatively new brand (e.g. 20 years) looking to fit into what they call the ultra-premium niche, which is just below the pure luxury brands (e.g. Silversea) and above the premium, mass-market brands (e.g. Celebrity).

The Vista is a brand-new ship, launched in 2023. It will be our home for 12 days starting in Rome and ending in Athens. Here is the itinerary:

 

 

BTW, what follows is not meant to be a review of the ship or the brand, although there will be plenty of references to pros and cons, but rather just my journal of personal reflections and experiences of being in other countries and cultures. But if you want a detailed review of the ship with pros and cons here is a link to Cruise Critic.

 

https://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/cruise/oceania/oceania-vista

 

And so, as the late, great guitarist Mike Bloomfield said after he explained how his last-minute Super Sessions concert in 1968 with Al Kooper came about……….. “Now you know where it’s at”.

 

Thursday, Oct 31, 2014

 

The first port we sailed to was La Spezia, the access point to Cinque Terre, the famous “Five Towns”; a gateway to the Italian Riviera. Our goals, having been there before were to 1- buy enough Sciacchetra (a dessert wine grown there and impossible to find in the States) to keep Jacqui happy for a few more years and 2- to see if a particular street had changed in the years since we bought a photographic piece of art way back in 2004 and which has had a special place in the many homes we have lived in over the years. Here is a photo of the original:

 

 

When we bought the original we did not know where in Cinque Terre the image was taken. A little Google research, a bus from the ship to the town of La Spezia, a taxi to get on the train to the town of Corneglia, a bus ride to avoid doing 400 steps and we were in the town square. GPS did the rest and voila; there it was, basically the same as the original.

 

Back on the train to another one of the five towns where Jacqui found the wine and shipped home enough for the coming holiday season.

 

The ship is lovely; it is consistent with our modern aesthetic. It will take a few days to orient ourselves to where things are. But most importantly, even with 1,000 people, there is not a feeling of having to ‘get yours’. Plenty of space for everyone and so many places to dine and activities to do or not do. I type this in a library with plush reading chairs, beautiful coffee table books, and a selection of books to read on a wide variety of topics.

 

Friday, November 1, 2024

 

In my Twitter feed I often see posts phishing for replies to the question, ‘What city would you not go back to?’’. Today we took a walk through Toulon, a city on the far west of the French Riviera. Or, as Dorothy might have said, “Toto, we’re not in Monte Carlo or Nice anymore.” It is not as noisy, dirty, or intimidating as Naples but other than the French cafes on the water it did not have any real raison d’etre to explore more than we did, so Naples would fall to number 2 on my Twitter post.

 

This is our fourth time in less than 18 months to be using Euros as currency and it has become natural and easy, as is figuring out what time it is at home.

 

Tonight the ship sets sail for Valletta, the capital of Malta, a country we have never been to and has been a bucket list destination. Why? I have no idea. It will take more than 24 hours to get there so Saturday will be At Sea, a day to enjoy the amenities onboard the ship.

 

Saturday, November 2, 2024

 

At Sea

 

How nice to be on a floating luxury hotel with so many things to do and so many places to be. Did I say it also has at least 10 different places to eat? A day at sea really goes by very quickly and restfully.

 

Sunday, November 3, 2024

 

Malta is a large rock in the middle of the sea; a limestone rock.

 

Limestone is a yellowish stone and everything is built using it so everything looks the same. Do you want color? Try Positano.

 

Monday, November 4, 2024

 

Taormina, Sicily

 

A town worthy of being an Italian city. Beautiful clothing stores, many places for coffee, breathtaking views of the sea, etc. A place worthy of a week’s vacation; not just a few hours on an excursion. Oh, and Catania, where the ship docks and is a large, working-class city is not worth the time to explore.

 

Tuesday, November 5, 2024

 

We are on the way to Calabria……….well, maybe not.

 

Cruising has an interesting inherent premise. No matter how luxurious the ship, how big or how small it is, you are subservient to the Captain. You are on his or her ship and deal with the outcomes of whatever is his or her decision. This morning we awoke to a broadcast by the Captain telling us that we can’t port in Crotone due to weather and safety issues. I don’t understand any of the reasons but it doesn’t matter; that decision was made and we have no options- after all, we are on the water with no control; no options. It’s actually pretty cool and in this case a reason to enjoy cruising. You just surrender to the current state. Again, on a floating luxury hotel; you just chill and enjoy everything on board.

 

To the great credit of the crew, within an hour of the Captain’s announcement at 7:00 am that we would spend the day At Sea, the staff canceled all the excursions and re-arranged the social activities available throughout the day. And, they published those revisions and distributed them to 600 cabins. I tip my hat to the ops team.

 

The ship has a resident historian and he did an impromptu presentation about Athens, the evolution of the Greek mentality, and the impact on modern lives. That was very cool. I thought I felt a ripple of a reaction in the audience when he discussed the Greek concept of the hero; someone who will be remembered for being a warrior; who lives a life of honor and whose name will be remembered. Given the number of retired lawyers, doctors, and executives on board, I think everyone did a quick personal assessment of their “hero” status.

 

 

Wednesday, November 6, 2024

 

 

Even though we are going to Dubrovnik today and Kotor tomorrow I am thinking about Venice. If you’ve been to Venice and been awed by tales of its history and see the grandeur of the Doges Palace you are experiencing the echoes of the wealth and power of the Venetian Empire, the result of their commercial and political domination of the Balkans for centuries.

 

We were last in Dubrovnik in 2007. To us in the West (and me in particular) it is lots of hard-to-pronounce words and much talk about the many wars they have endured and just beneath their breath is a level of hostility and contempt for their former enemies.

 

 

Thursday, November 7, 2024

 

Kotor is in Montenegro, which, like Croatia was part of Yugoslavia when I was in grade school all those years ago.

 

Rather than do a planned ship excursion we got adventurous and hired one of the guides hawking his services as we stepped on land. Marco was a terrific host as he drove us to beautiful parts of Kotor that we would never have seen had we just walked around the port. Plus, we got to learn about the history of Kotor, Marco’s views on global politics, Marco’s view on global politics, how different the people in the north are from those in the south, and his impending fatherhood.

 

 

I can’t say where this beautiful lake, mountains, and land are that he took us to but I did start to ruminate about renting a cottage for a few months and writing a novel.

 

 

 

 

Friday, November 8, 2024

 

From Friday the 8^th until the 11^th your humble journalist has been sidelined by a harsh case of sciatica. Jacqui continued the planned visits to Corfu and Mykonos while I got to experience the medical and pharmaceutical services aboard the ship.

 

Corfu

 

 

 

 

Saturday, November 9, 2024

 

At Sea

 

Saturday, November 10, 2024

 

Mykonos

 

 

Monday, November 11, 2024

 

Disembarkation and Athens

 

An amazing display of coordination by the entire ship staff to get 1200 people off the ship and on their way home or to another destination. We had prepaid for a taxi to our hotel in Athens and when we got to the departure hall the taxi was there and whoosh, we were off into the graffiti-filled freeways of Athens.

 

Tuesday, November 12, 2024

 

I dreaded today from the moment, months ago, when we made our travel plans for this trip.

 

Because we were going to have to leave such elegance and go home to real life you surmise?

 

Oh no.

Because we booked a series of flights that began at 6:00 AM in Athens. And as you know, an international flight needs you to be at the airport three hours before take-off. I can do that math in spite of my poor grades in arithmetic and that meant an airport arrival at 3:00 AM. And sooooooooo, that meant a wake-up at 2:00 AM. WTF! It’s been a half-century since I intentionally saw an hour between midnight and sun-up.

 

The three-hour flight from Athens takes us to our connection in Amsterdam where we will settle in for a ten-hour flight to Seattle, make another connection for a three-hour flight to Phoenix, drive home, and fall into bed.

 

Wednesday, November 13, 2024

 

So what did we learn?

 

We learned, speaking as cruise ship guests, that we like “floating luxury hotels” that take you to interesting places, serve great food, and have amenities to keep you as involved and active as you want to be, all at an acceptable price that delivers a good perception of value. We have discovered a passion for luxury cruising on the open seas and luxury river cruising. If you return home and regret that there is no one there to offer you still or sparkling water at each meal then you too have been spoiled and are a luxury cruise customer.

 

As professional travel advisors, we gained a much greater appreciation for the myriad of factors that go into deciding which cruise to go on. When you look at the chart at the top of this journal that shows the average maximum number of guests for the various luxury brands you can see that ships in the range of 600 to 900 guests are abundant which makes them not unique to each other. Unique and different from a Royal Caribbean ship with 5,000 guests perhaps, but not to each other.

 

We learned that these ships and brands must differentiate on a complex set of variables including “newness”, on-board amenities (I.e. art classes), food quality and quantity, number of and length of stay in interesting ports including excursions, and of course, perceived value for money.

 

The goal was to better understand our customers and I think we will be better able to help clients align their wants and needs with the number of options available to them.

 

Who wants to book a cruise?