Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 10, 1993 TAG: 9310100285
SECTION: TRAVEL PAGE: F5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: EDWIN McDOWELL N.Y. Times
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The flotilla that cruises to Alaska in spring and summer has relocated to warm-weather ports, there are longer cruises to choose from, and South America and the South Pacific show up on more itineraries.
Many veteran travelers prefer fall and winter cruises because they provide a respite from the cold and from the summer throngs who have helped the industry achieve record bookings almost every year since the 1970s.
Since then growth in the number of passengers has averaged more than nine percent a year, and is expected to grow from 4.4 million passengers in 1993 to eight million in the year 2000.
But ships booked to 90 percent of capacity in recent years owe much to widespread discounting. In the last year, the industry has had some success instituting a more orderly system of graduated discounts - the highest for early bookings. But brochure prices are still like auto sticker prices: essentially negotiating ploys.
Cruises have been ranging farther and farther afield, but this year's fall-winter schedules are more wide-ranging than ever.
This diversity is a response to consumer demand - demand that has ships calling at remote islands like St. Helena, where Napoleon was exiled, at Yemen, on the southwest Arabian peninsula, which only recently has tolerated tourists, and at as many as five Vietnamese cities on a two-week voyage.
At the same time, Caribbean cruises remain highly popular, and cruise lines are trying to spice them up with new ports of call, new land packages or new wrinkles. About 75 ships are Caribbean-bound this fall and winter, mostly on 7-to-12-day voyages.
Panama Canal transits, for example, have become popular in recent years, with 50 in each direction scheduled between now and April. But many of Royal Cruise Line's 16 canal cruises include new calls at the San Blas Islands, famed for its colorful appliqued fabrics (molas) handcrafted by Cuna Indian women, and two of those cruises will visit New Orleans for the first time. The Regent Star's weekly sailings from Montego Bay, stopping in Costa Rica, Cartagena and Aruba, include a partial transit of the Canal; after going through the Gatun locks, one of three sets of locks in the waterway, the ship turns around in Gatun Lake for the homeward trip.
One of the more unexpected trends is the emergence of Southeast Asia as a popular cruise destination, with 20 cruise ships sailing there this fall and winter, compared with 13 all of last year. The 67 cruises to the region this year is up 34 percent over 1992.
The region's popularity has surprised some cruise officials for several reasons: the high tariff, caused by trans-Pacific air fares, the time required to sail from one distant port to another, and the predominance of luxury ships on those routes.
The Seabourn line began sailing in Asia last winter, and this year has eight sailings.
Wind Spirit will begin a year-round Southeast Asian schedule next month, operating out of Singapore's new $20 million cruise terminal. Windstar's Wind Song will continue cruising French Polynesia through 1994.
And Vietnam is a growing cruise destination. Two Ocean Pearl sailings in January call at several Vietnamese ports, while the Royal Odyssey also calls at Danang in January. Two Seabourn cruises this fall will call at Ho Chi Minh City and Danang.
Song of Flower will call three times at Ho Chi Minh City, once at Danang and Haiphong, and the lecturer on its Nov. 21 cruise will be H.R. (Bob) Haldeman, White House chief of staff under President Richard M. Nixon.
And at least 10 ships will cruise to Australia and New Zealand this season, double the number of a year ago; Holland America's Maasdam and Royal Viking's Sun will cruise in the region next fall.
Next month, Cunard's Crown Monarch, now permanently based in Australia, will begin a year-round series of 10-and 11-day voyages between Sydney and Cairns, and will offer 14-day voyages to New Zealand and the South Pacific. The Royal Odyssey, returning to the region after a year's absence, will make a total of 12 stops in Australia and New Zealand. This season will see an increase in "theme" cruises. American Hawaii, recently purchased by the New Orleans-based Delta Queen Steamboat Company, is offering "1940's Remembered," featuring big-band music by groups like the Sammy Kaye Orchestra, celebrities like June Allyson and Maxene Andrews, and movies from that era.
Norwegian Cruise Line will offer its fifth annual "Big Bands at Sea" cruise, on the Norway's seven-day voyage next month from Miami to the Caribbean and Bahamas. And the Costa Romantica will sail from Miami in January on a weeklong cruise chock-a-block with country-music performers.
The Delta Queen and Mississippi Queen, forced to divert a dozen cruises to other rivers this summer when the upper Mississippi flooded, are scheduled to resume trips on the lower Mississippi on Nov. 5.
Earlier this year, California banned gambling on cruise ships between ports in that state, and there is a move afoot in Congress to prohibit cruises to nowhere on foreign-flag ships. Since only Delta Queen and American Hawaii register their ships in the United States, passage of such legislation would probably doom the idea.
The industry is also keeping a wary eye on several other bills in the House of Representatives, which, if they became law, would ultimately result in higher fares - and, opponents say, would force cruise ships to abandon United States ports. One is legislation extending certain United States labor laws to foreign-flag ships, including American minimum-wage laws. (Most employees of such ships are foreign workers who depend largely on tips.) Another bill would levy fines and in some cases bar from United States ports ships built in foreign shipyards with government subsidies.
Prices could also rise if Caribbean destinations enact the recent recommendations of the Caribbean Tourism Organization, which represents 31 islands: a $5 a passenger tax beginning in April, rising to $7.50 next October and $10 in October 1995, not unlike the taxes in effect at many airports.
The Jamaican government has already announced that its current tax will rise in January, from $10 to $13 at Ocho Rios and to $12 at Montego Bay.
And in June, Barbados announced a $6 tax scheduled for June 1994. The tax is to remain in effect for three years, and the money is to be earmarked for specific port improvements.
And tourist authorities at several other destinations - including French overseas departments like Martinique and St. Maarten, which have no passenger tax, and Guadeloupe, which imposes a $2 tax - are thought to believe that higher taxes may discourage tourism to their islands.
by CNB