Royal Caribban Europe 2012: more with a twist

by Chris Owen on
Royal Caribbean International this week unveiled its 2012 Europe cruise and cruisetour season, increasing deployment from its 2011 lineup of 11 ships to 12 for 2012, which will again include two Freedom-class ships. The line also detailed itineraries and added a new port with a twist on traditional cruise itineraries that offers passengers a great deal of flexibility.

“Every year Royal Caribbean surpasses its previous Europe offerings to continue to exceed the expectations of vacationers,” said Betsy O’Rourke, senior vice president of Marketing, Royal Caribbean. “In 2012 the line’s ships will add 23 more ports in seven additional countries, giving vacationers the opportunity to tailor-design their cruise experiences on itineraries that are as short as three nights or as long as 16.”


New in 2012 too will be Amsterdam as a homeport, for a total of 12, with ships calling at 101 ports in 34 countries on itineraries ranging from three to 16 nights.

In addition to the 12 homeports from which guests can choose from, Royal Caribbean is also offering eight “interports”, where guests can board itineraries en route, creating 20 options for embarkation and disembarkation

For the third consecutive year, Independence of the Seas will be positioned year-round in Southampton, primarily operating on an alternating series of 14-night sailings but will also offer one three-night sailing, overnighting in Paris (LeHavre) in May along with a four-night cruise spending the night in Cork, Ireland.

Royal Caribbean Europe 2012 will feature Vision of the Seas adding two new six-night Norwegian Fjord cruises from Oslo. The ship will sail Northern European waters from April 29 to September 7, offering 14 different itinerary options ranging from four to 12 nights. A 12-night Arctic Circle sailing on August 9, roundtrip from Copenhagen, will cruise the Arctic Circle.

From May through September, Adventure of the Seas will continue on its pattern of seven-night Western Mediterranean itineraries roundtrip from Malaga, Spain then move to a series of five seven-night Canary Islands sailings, also from Malaga. Sister ship Navigator of the Seas begins its European season with an eight-night itinerary on April 14 from Barcelona to Spain, where, through November 18, it will offer seven-night Mediterranean sailings.

Grandeur of the Seas schedule will include seven-night Western Mediterranean sailings that will operate from June 2 to October 10 roundtrip from Palma de Mallorca. Voyager of the Seas, meanwhile, will spend the bulk of its Europe season sailing out of Venice, but will shift from seven-night itineraries to 10- and 11-night cruises, with itineraries including overnights in Istanbul and Kusadasi.

Splendour of the Seas will return to sailing roundtrip from Venice in 2012 from late April through early November. Jewel of the Seas will continue to operate on its 12-night sailings roundtrip from Harwich, England. It will also feature one new cruise on June 20, a “Fjords & Iceland” itinerary, roundtrip from Harwich.

Royal Caribbean is offering six cruisetours, which enables guests to couple sailings with escorted land tour options to create packages in conjunction with six of the line’s ships. Options include nights in Madrid and Barcelona, Venice, Florence and Rome, Lake Como and Venice,Paris and London, and Turkey’s Istanbul and Cappadocia.

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SkyWork launches Bern-London route with iPads

by Alex Robertson Textor on

Today SkyWork, a small Swiss airline, launches service between Bern-Belp and London City. SkyWork will be the only airline connecting the two cities with a direct service. London will join a short list of destinations in the SkyWork summer schedule stable: Barcelona, Berlin, Elba, Hamburg, Ibiza, and Palma de Mallorca.

There are a number of small airlines in the Alpine region flying short-haul routes across western and central Europe, including Baboo and Air Alps. But only SkyWork among these–and, as far as I can tell, among airlines in general–offers iPads for passengers to use during flight. User reviews of the SkyWork iPads suggests that passengers can look forward to browsing apps devoted to news, destinations guides, and games. Bern-London fares start at €59 each way.

SkyWork recently announced its expansion plans for next winter. The airline will fly to Amsterdam, Belgrade, Budapest, Madrid, Rome, and Vienna from Bern-Belp beginning as early as September. Here’s hoping the airline will continue to provide iPads for passengers during flights as it expands.

Check out Gadling’s Switzerland coverage.

[Image: Flickr | edwin.11]

Cruise lines hit rough waters, navigate well

by Chris Owen on

While the popularity of cruise vacations has never been higher, earnings at major cruise lines are down. First they adjusted operations in a depressed economy. Then they absorbed high oil prices to hold the line on fares. Now, thanks to the effects of worldwide travel turmoil and a natural evolution of the industry, cruise lines hit rough waters and have a full list of decisions to make. While changes are inevitable, count on cruise lines to not stray far from their proven formula for success.

We start with this week’s announcement by industry leader Carnival Corporation that said turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa could cost about $44 million in lost revenue. From changing itineraries for safety purposes to a lack of interest in traveling to troubled areas, 280 voyages had to be issued new sailing orders.

“We pulled out of just all North African stops, in Tunisia and Morocco and Egypt, and we’ve pulled out of — actually, in some cases, we’ve had to pull out of Israel because we got a lot of resistance,” said Howard Frank, Carnival’s vice chairman and chief operating officer.

Other lines reported a similar effect on operations because of worldwide turmoil too and timing could not have been worse. This just after cruise lines have announced/deployed a record number of ships to the European market. Viewed as a smart move at the time, the more lucrative European markets were to bring greater earnings that came along with higher prices cruise lines could get from under-served Europeans.

But not if they don’t sail.

Here now we see the down side of cruise ships as mobile assets.

On one hand, the ability to move your floating resort to safe waters is a huge factor in favor of a cruise as a vacation option. Most itinerary changes are weather-related and happen with some regularity. Cruise ships can make alterations to itineraries and still provide a good vacation experience to consumers. Land-based vacation options hit by weather events don’t have that option or as cruise travel agents are fond of saying “We can move the ship, we can’t move the island” in defense of cruises over all-inclusive land vacations.

On the other hand, cruise lines really wanted to sail to the Middle East and North Africa among other destinations affected by weather or political unrest events. They can quickly modify an itinerary but can’t quickly sail back across the Atlantic to safe, calm, North American waters. In many cases, they are finding not the full ships of Europeans, eager to sail but less than full ships which at the end of the day are not producing the profits they want.

Then there’s the oil problem. Nobody wants to say the “F” word.

Fuel Surcharge. Cruise lines have for the most part held the line on pricing, not adding on the rabidly unpopular Fuel Surcharge. While they are much better prepared to implement a fuel surcharge and oil prices have risen far above the threshold at which they can, they don’t want to because they know what will happen. Booking levels will fall. Those who hold existing bookings recoil at the mention of the term and will be mad about it. Consumers know the price of oil is up but have little tolerance for an additional charge that really adds up fast.

For example, here is Royal Caribbean’s current policy

Royal Caribbean International reserves the right to impose a fuel supplement on all guests if the price of West Texas Intermediate fuel exceeds $65.00 USD per barrel. The fuel supplement for 1st and 2nd guests would be no more than $10 USD per guest per day, to a maximum of $140 USD per cruise; and for additional guests would be no more than $5 USD per person per day, to a maximum of $70 USD per cruise.


For a typical family of four, the market cruise lines have made such a huge push to get on the ships, that’s an extra $210 on a seven-day cruise. That could force those families off ships and on to land vacations and that is exactly what keeps cruise lines awake at night.

Still, Royal Caribbean announced plans this week for growth in Europe for 2012 adding another ship. The interesting part of the line’s 12-ship 2012 European deployment is adding (politically sound and happy) Amsterdam as a cruise port, handy to get to now with KLM service from Miami to Amsterdam.

Smart.

Smarter yet, passengers can get on and off ships at eight interports, creating 20 choices for embarkation and debarkation when the 12 homeports are included. That’s a lot of flexibility and exactly what they need to shore up confidence in their plan and help navigate what storms may come their way.

The ongoing trick to it all is to keep cruise vacations relatively convenient and affordable compared to other options. Cruise lines learned the hard way that in bad economic times travelers cut back on travel…but only for just so long. They may be looking for a greater value now than they once were. They may not be satisfied with just the lowest price now and will look beyond to see what they get for that price. The click-to-book people are probably clicking a whole lot more than they used to or using a travel agent to help insure value.

To get a look at the future, a glimpse at the past tells the story:

“The convenience and affordability of a cruise vacation continues to gain recognition as consumers discover the unrivaled experience cruising offers,” Carnival Chair and CEO Mickey Arison said. “As a result, long-term fundamentals for our business remain attractive in an environment where consumers increasingly value the importance of taking their holidays.”

The perfect English country walk: five ingredients

by Alex Robertson Textor on

The country walk near or around London is a venerable tradition. Every weekend, in good weather and bad, scores of Londoners descend upon different areas of the Home Counties–the counties surrounding London–to tramp along country roads, walk adjacent to (and sometimes through) cultivated fields, and wander into rural churches.

My first walk transpired this past Saturday. I was lucky enough to do a walk with a group of friends, some of whom have spent many a weekend exploring the countryside. Our meander, a circular walk based on a Surrey town called Guildford, came from Time Out’s Country Walks Volume 2, which was written by a committed group of walkers called the Saturday Walkers’ Club. The Time Out volumes are well-known and very well researched. Most of their walks require only very basic fitness.

Here are five ingredients for the perfect country walk. First up is a tip for making things affordable from the get-go.

1. Take the train to your origination and from your termination points, and take advantage of discounts for groups. Go in a group of three or more. My inaugural walk last weekend required the purchase of a group round trip ticket from London Waterloo to Guildford, a snip at £6.95 ($11.10), considerably less expensive than the lowest normal round trip fare of £13.90 ($22.30).

2. Make sure there is a good restaurant or pub at the midway point as well as at the walk’s conclusion. A filling midday meal, capped with a scone slathered with insanely good clotted cream and jam, is part of the tradition. And a crisp refreshing drink at the close of the walk, alcoholic or otherwise, is also key. There should be a pub close to the termination of your walk.

3. Do your research. Time Out has published two Country Walks volumes, with over 80 walks between them. Take a look at these and examine walk durations, transit times, and level of difficulty. The Time Out volumes certainly aren’t the be-all and end-all of country walks, either. Check out the walks detailed at Urban75 for some additional ideas.

4. Walk with someone with a good sense of direction, or, barring that, good navigational gear. Some of the Time Out walks travel through unmarked territory and will accordingly be made more pleasant by including someone comfortable with a compass.

5. Not to belabor the obvious, but dress appropriately. You’ll need rubber boots or hiking shoes with very good traction for walks during or following rains. For some walks, sneakers will do. Other walks will require shoes with an especially good grip. Pay attention to the difficulty grade and description of your walk beforehand. And layer appropriately.

Baggage problems irk one-third of travelers says new study

by Chris Owen on

Have you ever had baggage problems when flying? Lost, misplaced, damaged in some way? Did it make you mad? If so, you are not alone. A new study shows that baggage problems irk over one-third of travelers. 34% of all air passengers have experienced baggage-related delays when checking in, depositing or picking up bags on their most recent flight.

The study was commissioned by Amadeus, the Global Distribution System used by many travel agencies, composed by Norm Rose of Travel Tech Consulting and says new technology can help. It details three key “passenger pain points” in the airport experience; Baggage, Delayed or Canceled flights, and Time Delays at check-in and security.

Called “Navigating the Airport of Tomorrow” the study suggests that adopting technology can help solve some of the problems too.
The report found that 18 in every 100 passengers had experienced a delayed or canceled flight during their last travel experience. Ten percent of passengers complained that they had not received “relevant and real-time information.”

The survey found that at 43%, “disruption management” ranked as the single most important area where travelers would like to see improvement.

Just under 40% of travelers said they would “adopt services that delivered real-time information to their mobile devices on flight and baggage status, as well as directions at the airport.”

A third of respondents require greater self-service options, including the ability to purchase additional services at airport kiosks and self-tagging options for luggage.

The survey found that these problems translate into negative perceptions of the carriers. If customers are made to wait in line for longer than 30 minutes to check-in, their perception of the airline swings negatively by 10%.

New, emerging technologies can help too such as one-touch check-in and progress tracking, permanent luggage tag technology that enables bag tracking through the airport, onto the airplane and off again at the final destination and roaming agents with iPad-like computers to provide information to passengers.

Flickr photo by tttallis

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