Luxury cruising
At the top end of the cruise market, luxury liners are rated five stars and higher. Caviar, Champagne, sparkling silverware, designer linens and 'white glove' butler service are the norm when travelling with a luxury cruise line.
Luxury cruise ships are often smaller than others, holding anywhere from 100 to 1,000 passengers. However they offer a higher ratio of staff to passengers to ensure every attention is paid to passenger comfort. Staterooms are often larger on luxury cruises, and cabins and suites almost always have balconies. Luxury cruising means something different to everyone, and luxury liners range from small adventure ships designed to explore exotic and remote destinations to larger vessels renowned for their gourmet dining options and world-class facilities.
Many luxury cruise lines offer all-inclusive packages that cover onboard dining, activities and shore excursions. This is one of the services that sets luxury cruising apart - fewer hidden onboard expenses.
The luxury cruising niche generally appeals to mature, experienced travellers more interested in life enrichment as opposed to a high onboard activity level. With a very high percentage of repeat passengers, luxury cruises generally enjoy the highest customer satisfaction levels.
Luxury cruise lines include Crystal Cruises, Cunard Line, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Seabourn and Silversea Cruises.
Luxury Cruises
Nimbler, more luxurious vessels are attracting a new category of cruise aficionados.
For a small but growing number of people, especially the affluent Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964), ships that are more luxurious, have longer itineraries, more imaginative shore excursions and are small enough to visit interesting ports off the main routes are the vessels of choice.
They may not have the breadth of facilities of new mega-vessels, but these ships offer a different kind of comfort and intimacy. They represent an important niche market and they're a sign passengers are becoming more experienced, according to Andrew Mevissen, a spokesman for Carnival's US-based Seabourn brand. "These cruises are typically longer and more upmarket. The people on board are friendly and like to share experiences."
Admittedly luxury means different things to different people. For the operators of Bora Bora Cruises' two classy motor yachts, Tu Moana and Ti'a Moana, in the islands of French Polynesia, it means "surprises, emotions, contrasts" says the company's Patrick Picard-Robson.
"Luxury is an abstract concept," Picard-Robson says. "It's the quality of the ship, the cabin, amenities, food, smooth service, the introduction to a different culture, a different aesthetic. It's also something that's unique."
Bora Bora Cruises claims to occupy a new cruise niche - "nomadic yachting" - voyages without fixed schedules or constraints. The traveller lives according to his own rhythm and mood. Breakfast, for example, is served at any hour in the morning on a private deck, while activities tend to be flexible.
Boutique cruise experiences, defined as being less than 100 passengers per cruise, as opposed to small ship cruising (300 or less), generally offer more unusual itineraries, says Scott Forrest, Director of Commercial Operations for Blue Lagoon Cruises in Fiji.
The constraints the boutique cruise market faces tend to be operational and based on the lack of economies of scale but also on the remoteness of area of operation, he adds. However, recently released research shows a continued demand for authenticity of experience.
New choices
Luxurious small ships usually give their guests an eclectic selection of shore excursions to choose from and, often, a deal in which all meals, drinks and land entertainment are included in the fare price. US-based Seabourn, whose fleet consists of three 10,000-ton yachts that sail to diverse destinations around the globe (including Australia), offers complimentary shore experiences.
In the Turkish classical city of Ephesus, for instance, passengers are treated to a classical concert, and at tropical destinations they're served caviar on the beach. The ships visit a selection of the world's most famous cities as well as unusual ports of call on cruises that can be as long as 88 days.
Experiential travel
A subsection of this market falls into the category of what Doug Smith, head of sales, marketing and land programs for Orion Expedition Cruises, refers to as experiential travellers. These are folks seeking enrichment, who would consider a luxury tented safari in Africa, for example, rather than a stereotypical cruise experience.
p>"Many of our guests have never been on cruises before," says Smith. "They're not tourists, they're travellers."
Orion is an Australian-owned, five-star expedition vessel that fits the bill very well. Its year-round expeditions vary with the seasons and include the Top End and Barrier Reef, Papua New Guinea, Tasmania and Antarctica.
Blue Lagoon cruises are also experiential holidays, involving forays into remote island locations. This results in more enriching vacations, asserts Scott Forrest. "This is especially so of our alternate seven-day cruise itineraries which, limited to 72 passengers per itinerary, are more personalised."
A real advantage for many who sail on these ships is spaciousness and the crew-to-guest ratio, a far cry from the holiday-camp feel of some overcrowded vessels. The "six-star" Paul Gauguin that plies the waters round Tahiti takes 320 guests and has a crew-to-guest ratio of one to 1.5.
Itineraries are painstakingly researched on such (all-inclusive) voyages. The UK-based Hebridean Spirit, which takes 96 guests, arranges for them to explore destinations off the well-trodden tourist routes in small groups. The aim is to provide "an insider's view" of the culture and history of regions as diverse as Norway and the Red Sea, the Baltic, South Africa, Black Sea and Mediterranean.
The price of luxury
Naturally these trips cost more. A 16-night Mediterranean cruise on Hebridean Spirit will set you back 5,311 ($AU13,500) while a six-night trip on one of the Bora Bora yachts will cost 5000 ($AU8,500) per person twin share. Still, on some cruises like Seabourn's, generous early booking savings of up to 50 per cent mean travellers can sail for as little as US$1,595 ($AU2,200) per person twin share. As Andrew Mevissen observes, the clientele is willing to pay for what they know they'll get.
For reports on some of the best small luxury vessels, see the following pages.
Written by Bruce Heilbuth, Issue 26 Summer 2006-2007