I took our photo of the day this week in Naples, Italy where we stopped for the day to go through the ruins of Pompeii. Pompeii is possibly the most famous excavation in the world, drawing 15,000 people every day, almost as many as lived there before the horrifying eruption of Mt Vesuvius in 79 A.D.
Read all about it in A day in Naples, Italy.
In a marketing move best described as “ironic,” a handful of airlines are now offering land-bound folk a taste of the finest of what they serve in the air. The New York Times reports that Air France, Austrian Airlines, Southwest, and Delta are trying to lure potential passengers by tempting them with samples of in-flight meals “from” celebrity-chefs.
The modus operandi are primarily roving food trucks and pop-up restaurants in cities from New York to Denver (there are also some permanent vendor spots at various sports stadiums). In Washington, passerby were offered European coffee and guglhupf, a type of cake. In Manhattan, crowds lined up for a taste of buckwheat crepes with ham, mushrooms, and Mornay sauce, or duck confit.
I get it. Airline food sucks. Time for an image makeover. But isn’t the airline industry so financially strapped that we’re lucky to get a bag of stale pretzels during a cross-country flight? And just because reknown chefs like Joël Robuchon, Tom Colicchio and Michelle Bernstein act as consultants for airlines and design their menus, that doesn’t mean it’s their food you’re eating on the JFK-to-Paris red-eye.
Most ludicrous, however, is the notion that there’s any basis for comparison against fresh ingredients and made-to-order food versus even the best institutionally-prepared airline crap. I’ve had a couple of decent meals designed by well-regarded chefs when I’ve been lucky enough to fly business class, but in the grand scheme of things, they were still made from flash-frozen, sub-par ingredients whose origins I’d rather not ponder. And if food truck crews are merely nuking actual airline food, then how are they any different from the corner deli with a microwave?
I’m not trying to be a food snob. I just find it interesting that airlines are hopping on two of the hottest culinary trends of the new century–ones largely based upon local, sustainable, seasonal ingredients. Yet by all accounts (to hear airline reps tell it), the plane campaign has been wildly successful. Of course. Who doesn’t love free food?Raymond Kollau, founder of Airlinetrends.com, cites social media as the gateway to this type of “experiential marketing.” “As people are bombarded with marketing messages,” he explains, “real-life interaction with products and brands has become increasingly valuable for airlines to get their message across.”
Valid point, and there’s no doubt this is a clever scheme. But truth in advertising is what wins consumers. What a catering company can pull off on-site is a hell of a lot different from what you’ll be ingesting in the friendly skies. If airlines want to use food to entice new passengers, they need to start by sourcing ingredients in a more responsible, sustainable manner, rather than supporting ecologically detrimental produce, meat, and poultry (talk about carbon offsets). I realize that’s not financially feasible at this time, but supposedly, neither are in-flight meals. As for making it taste good? You got me.
[Photo credit: Flickr user OpalMirror]
Pompeii is possibly the most famous excavation in the world, drawing 15,000 people every day, almost as many as lived there before the horrifying eruption of Mt Vesuvius in 79 A.D. It was a topic covered long and hard in my 8th grade Social Studies class teacher, Mr. Hoobing, years ago to the point that it had a permanent place on any bucket list I might have floating around someplace.
The drill in 8th grade was to hand-draw exact replicas of famous archaeological sites as a method of reinforcing information about them…or so I figured out years later. The point was well-taken though; these sites had huge historical significance and told of a time long ago that while vastly different as far as technology goes, was fueled by some of the very same human emotions that rule today.
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If you are an armchair fan of archeology, this place takes you back to a time when prostitution was legal, rich citizens ruled and perhaps gave insight to the fall of the Roman empire and all it stood for. If you are not a fan, this is not the place to visit but if you’re in the area anyway, you probably should. There is a lot to be learned here about life long ago that can have some answers to the world of today. Maybe. If you want it to. If you go to Pompeii and find yourself thinking “Oh great, more old stuff”, you are in the wrong place.
Naples offers a bunch of great cafes, shops, and other sites to see as well as some of the best Italian food in the world. It would be a shame to be in the area and miss this one. Off a cruise ship there are a bunch of excursions one can take. Count on them all to be crowded/clogged with people. After hundreds of years, these attractions are still a huge draw to travelers from all over the world.
I think Mr Hoobing would be happy I went. I’m happy I paid attention in 8th grade.
Photos: Lisa Owen
If features on a ship are the ingredients that go into making a good cruise experience, new 130,000 ton Carnival Magic would come up short. You won’t find a rock-climbing wall, ice-skating rink, Broadway show or a dozen different restaurants to choose from.
What you will find is a very nicely appointed ship that has everything one might need to have a great cruise experience, a cruise line that knows how to deliver it and is now talking about it.
“We’re encouraging our guests to try something different, to go outside their normal comfort zone” said Carnival President and CEO Gerry Cahill, on board the Carnival Magic this week for the ship’s inaugural sailing.
Let’s just go ahead and give that test a passing grade right now.
One might do a whole lot worse than visiting 8 different places in 9 days via cruise ship for a fair sampling that might result in a future, longer visit. Of the ports visited so far, Dubrovnik in Croatia plus Sicily and Naples, in Italy, I have captured enough information make future plans. (We will be going back to Dubrovnik) We still have three more ports to go, Rome and Livorno in Italy then Monaco and Barcelona, but to give “by cruise ship” a thumbs-up for a way to get there works.
To stop right there though would only tell a small part of the story. There is something a whole lot bigger and better going on with Carnival on the new Carnival Magic.
Carnival Magic is like an artist’s blank canvas, waiting for us to create life-changing experience.
I know, that sounds too good to be true, but this is where we get right down to the true nature of today’s cruise vacation. It’s an experiential form of traveling like no other that has earned at least a look if not a try from even the most anti-cruise people among us. Cruise fans will love this one too.
Yes, Carnival Magic does have bingo, a hairy-chest contest and a buffet; standard elements one might find on any ship. What makes this one different is that Carnival, unlike any other cruise line, is talking about what was a pretty closely-guarded secret up until now.
Before, only those passengers who completely immersed themselves in the cruise experience, chose not to sweat small inconveniences that come along with any kind of travel and really “get into it” gained a life-changing experience.
They got it.
By immersing themselves in what was being offered on board, they were able to put their heads in a place that heads need to go sometimes: away. From sailing away on the first day of any cruise until the last night at sea, cruise lines made available all the elements to make that happen, they just did not directly tell you about how it all worked. Still, many got it and came away refreshed and renewed, surely a goal of any vacation.
Now, Carnival Cruise Lines is talking. They are telling guests right up front that “we have your life-changing experience right here” IF they embrace the programming on board. The line then encourages guests to jump in with both feet.
Following their past success, Royal Caribbean added an almost theme-park feel to their new Oasis-class ships. They find themselves wondering “What will we add next?” to the extent that the next new ship from them is a secret, buying them time to gauge the market, size the ship and add features appropriately. They don’t quite get it but they are close, close enough to realize “big is not always better so let’s rethink this shall we?”
Following their past success, Norwegian Cruise Line went for first-class entertainment options for their newest ship, long-desired solo cruiser accommodations and top-shelf alternative dining options. They went overboard and find themselves in the familiar profit doghouse once again.
Building on their past success, Carnival paid attention to their guests and got everyone in their organization on the same page saying “we create experiences” and, new with this ship; “we will show you how to make this work for you”.
That’s the significant part that nobody else is talking about. Allowing those experiences to happen is the secret ingredient that only those who managed to fully immerse themselves took advantage of.
In our family of four, we almost always came away from a cruise as changed people in some way. I always thought it was the mark of a good vacation; to come back home and have the clarity to break up with that boyfriend, quit that job, go after that next goal or simply define us a little bit more. We went on vacation, we relaxed, and we were ready to resume real life, perhaps with a fresh look or from a different perspective.
When we first started cruising our then teen, now Gen Y kids always agreed: a cruise was the best vacation ever. But a lot of changes go on in teen years so being able to attribute that “I always feel a little different after a cruise” feeling to anything other than growing up was hard to do. Teens feel different every 12 seconds. That ambiguity was no problem for us: we got it. Others had to be told, led to the experience and shoved into it.
If they were lucky enough to have someone there to do that, great, they had a chance. If not, they often amused themselves complaining about stupid things that don’t matter/you can’t do anything about like slow service in the dining room. Someone into the whole experience would either use that slow service time to engage others in conversation or break away and do dining differently, maybe on their own in a variety of venues.
We have noted before that a cruise is what you make it and that there is a cruise for everyone. Recalling the essence of that and a story we did not long ago about theme cruises, helps make the point.
Every sailing of every ship is like that blank canvas, waiting for us to create a one-of-a-kind travel experience. Carnival Magic makes that easier by having all the elements needed for a good experience in place AND providing a crew that knows what to do with them.
In other words: Carnival is giving away the big secret. That is actually the easy part.
The big trick to this magic will be to see if the cruise line can keep crew in place that will deliver the experience.
A year from now, the ship, ocean, ports and other elements will be pretty much the same. The single most important factor to continuing this grand plan of immersing their guests is the crew. Right now, the ship is staffed with a high percentage of the best crew members from other ships around the fleet. At some point the best, happiest, most productive crew members will rotate out and a regular crew will be left.
Can Carnival reproduce this in your face “we got the experience for you” thing fleet-wide?
Time will tell. Let’s take a brief look at how it is playing out right now.
The Red Frog Pub is a perfect example of the listening and delivering Carnival is up to on Carnival Magic that can lead to a life-changing experience. Yes, other lines have many more alternative dining venues. But to fund those, a cover is charged, up to $50 per person extra on top of the cruise fare paid. There is no cover for the Red Frog Pub and typical bar food is offered at a truly nominal price of $3.33.
“We don’t want to nickel and dime our guests” says Cahill, leading a unified management team on board Carnival Magic who all echo exactly the same credo. That’s huge news to cruise lovers who have tried multiple cruise lines and are quick to observe that the all-inclusive nature of a cruise vacation is not what it once was. The cruise fare that used to cover about 85% of the total cost of a cruise has covered less in recent years on many lines. Carnival’s experiential focus brings that back.
For the most part, we won’t pay extra like we might on a different cruise line for what is included in the reasonable price of a Carnival cruise which can be exactly what we want it to be.
If what we want is simply a way to get from place to place, that’s a good reason to choose a cruise that helps fulfill your travel plans. We were glad to see our familiar ship at the end of an exhausting day sampling various ports.
But if what we want is an experiential travel experience like no other, Carnival is partnering with us to make that happen and Carnival Magic has what it takes.
The question we asked back in January: “Can Carnival capture the magic?” has been answered: Absolutely, and then some!
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An American Airlines Boeing 757 was forced to make an emergency landing at Las Vegas‘ McCarran International Airport earlier today after pilots detected smoke in the cockpit.
AA Flight 431 was traveling from Miami to San Francisco, and was over Utah, when the crew diverted from their course to make the landing. They touched down at 11:10 AM Pacific time and were met by emergency crews who assisted with the evacuation of the plane. All 159 passengers and six crew, exited without incident or injury.
A spokesperson for American Airlines said that the emergency landing is standard procedure for pilots after smoke is detected on a plane, and that the crew was just acting properly to ensure the safety of all those on board.
At this time, it is unclear as to the cause of the smoke, but investigations by AA flight mechanics and the FAA are ongoing. In the meantime the company is working to re-book all the stranded passengers and get them back on their way to San Francisco.