What’s new for 2008? This is going to be the biggest year ever in terms of the number of British travellers taking cruises – getting on for 1.5 million. And the ships are getting bigger too. Cunard launched Queen Victoria, a very traditional sort of ship, and we are soon going to see P&O’s Ventura based at Southampton. Biggest of all is Independence of the Seas, the latest from Royal Caribbean and the biggest ship ever to have sailed from UK waters. It’s massive, with all sorts of facilities on board.
What sort of things? The bigger the cruise ship, the more facilities it offers. For instance Independence of the Seas and its sister ship Freedom of the Seas have things like a rock climbing wall, an ice rink and a surfing simulator.
So we’ve have moved away from the days when a cruise was a very posh hotel on the seas? We started doing that some years ago. Cruising is becoming more and more mass-market and the average age of passengers is falling quickly. Now there are a lot of ships that cater for the family market, with great play areas and a more informal feel – so you don’t have to dress up for dinner.
Although I think of cruising as being just one long meal from morning until midnight, I believe more and more ships have spas and fitness clinics? Cruise ships can be a really great wellness centre. You have all the gym equipment on board, and some have fantastic spa facilities with massage, sauna and steam rooms.
Every year it seems there’s a story about illness on board. For example, the passengers on the new Queen Victoria all came down with a sickness. There was an incidence of the Norovirus which is an extremely contagious and rather unpleasant stomach complaint. But when you have a lot of people in very close confinement, if any of them brings on a contagious bug then unfortunately there is a chance that some people will catch it. But the cruise lines do a lot to minimise the chances of any kind of bug spreading. For instance, you are instructed to wash your hands with a special solution before you go to the buffet. They take plenty of precautions to make sure people get back happy and well.
For someone thinking of it for the first time, how do you go about choosing the right cruise? The three S’s are scale, style and sights. Scale depends on what you want from a ship. The very big ones carrying 3,000 plus passengers have great advantages in terms of facilities and the entertainment on offer. Or you might prefer something more intimate like a mid-size family ship, or you can go for one of the real specialist and luxurious smaller ships.
Style is so important. Do you want the quite formal Cunard experience or do you want something more relaxed? Finally the sights. The great advantage of cruising is that you can get to see maybe ten different destinations in the course of a fortnight. So make sure it’s going to places where you know you will be able to have a fantastic on-shore experience as well as a great on-board experience.
Alsion Rice, Travel Writer
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