August 25, 2004 -- In this latest roundup of cruise industry happenings, you'll find out why a cruiseline has apologized and issued refunds, what new programs are available on board for kids of all ages, who's offering cellphones and more.
NCL Offers "My Bad" Apology for Pride of Aloha Service Snafus
Acknowledging that staff problems aboard Pride of Aloha have detracted from guests' experiences, NCL issued a blanket apology last week and offered a peace-offering refund to past guests.
Citing the challenges of working with a largely inexperienced all-American crew, the line's official statement said that, "for a variety of reasons, the service on the initial cruises was generally not up to the standard for which NCL is known."
All passengers who sailed on the ship's early Hawaii itineraries are entitled to a 50% refund of their automatic $10 per day service charge, a fee that's replaced the traditional gratuities passengers leave at the end of their cruise. (The charge is currently only in force on Pride of Aloha, though NCL plans to implement it fleetwide in May 2005.) Additionally, early Pride guests will receive a credit of 20% of their recent Pride of Aloha fare toward a future NCL cruise booked and sailed before the end of 2005; any guest who chooses to sail Pride of Aloha or the new Pride of America will be able to book at 2003 rates, when the sailings were first announced. The 20% credit and the 2003 rates may be combined.
As reported here following the ship's initial sailing, Pride was plagued by slow, inexperienced service -- a flaw that NCL officials acknowledged readily at the time. NCL president and CEO Colin Veitch called the ship's staff "a work in progress," and noted that "they have the aloha spirit and they're willing to work hard, but what they lack is experience."
Guest complaints included sloppy service, slow replenishment of food and other items in the buffet restaurant, extremely long waits for dinner, and staff who often seemed confused or uninformed about the ship's operations.
United States law requires that a ship be built, owned, flagged, and crewed in the U.S. if it is to sail itineraries composed solely of U.S. ports. In order to implement its new all-Hawaii itineraries, NCL has had to staff the ship entirely with Americans -- and as the wage structure on most foreign-flagged ships doesn't compare with what Americans can expect ashore, there was almost no pool of experienced U.S. crew to draw from.
According to NCL's official statement, senior management is currently aboard the vessel to ensure that service problems are rectified quickly.
Pride of Aloha sails every Sunday from Honolulu's Aloha Tower complex. In summer 2005 she'll be joined by Pride of America, and the following year by Pride of Hawaii. Click here for a review of Aloha's debut cruise.
Carnival & Holland America Expand Kids Programs
As anyone who's sailed a mainstream cruise ship recently can tell you, there are kids out on those waves -- lots of kids. And where there are kids, there are parents desperate to keep them occupied. This week, Carnival (tel. 800/CARNIVAL; www.carnival.com) and sister-line Holland America (tel. 877-724-5425; www.hollandamerica.com) both announced big changes to their kids programs, intended to fill just that need.
Carnival's big Camp Carnival program, already one of the best and most extensive in the business, will add six new activities options:
- The A-B-Seas storytelling program has youth counselors reading popular children's books aloud in the ships' libraries, after which parents, kids, and youth counselors present their own creative interpretations of the stories through puppet shows, skits, and other group activities. Also planned for this program are nightly bedtime stories in the children's playrooms and writing workshops where kids crank up their creativity with short stories and essays. Fair guess that they won't be assigning "What I Did on My Summer Vacation."
- A new hands-on program, H2Ocean, explores the physical sciences through activities like ice-cream making and the construction of toy helicopters.
- The line's popular EduCruise program has also been expanded to include even more interactive projects focusing on the cultures, landmarks, history and geography of each ship's sailing region.
- A new art program takes arts-and-crafts to a higher level than normal, teaching kids the techniques of oil paintings, watercolor, paper mâché and other media.
- The ExerSeas recreational fitness program is a kind of systematized "get out and play," using intense physical activities like basketball, obstacle courses, and games like "steal the bacon" and "capture the flag."
All are included in the complimentary Camp Carnival program, available from 9am to 10pm daily. At night, Mom and Dad can get an earlier start on their kid-free evening through counselor-supervised kids' mealtimes in the Lido restaurant. Group, slumber-party-style babysitting for ages 4 months through 11 years is available afterward till 3am in the playroom.
Though some of the new programs are currently only available on some ships, full implementation across the Carnival fleet is expected soon. Ditto for a new youth spa program, in which kids ages 12-14 can take body and beauty treatments with their parents on port days, at discounted rates. Packages (available in mother/daughter and father/son combinations) include hair and nail treatments, health evaluations, and foot and scalp massages. Junior's going to get spoiled bad. The program, currently being tried out aboard the 2,124-passenger Carnival Miracle, is scheduled to go fleetwide by summer's end.
While Carnival's kids program has always been in the vanguard, Holland America's is still getting up to speed following decades in which it catered primarily to older passengers. Many of its older ships lacked kids centers entirely, simply using multi-purpose rooms for kids' activities when enough children were aboard. And while Maasdam and the newer Zuiderdam, Oosterdam, and Westerdam have dedicated "KidZone" playrooms and separate teen centers, they lack a real "kid" feel.
That may be about to change, though, thanks to a decision to upgrade youth facilities fleetwide over the next year.
Designed by Norwegian marine architects Peter Yran and Bjorn Storbraaten, the new children's facilities will be art-themed, with colors swirling on the ceiling, paint-brush-shaped pillars, and enormous pencils adorning the back wall. Art tables, a big screen television, and a slide in the shape of a tape dispenser continue the theme, and kids will learn art techniques as part of a "Little Artists" program.
Different areas will be tailored to different age groups, and the minimum entry age for kids has been lowered from 5 to 3. An area for kids aged 8 to 12 will feature arcade games, air hockey, foosball, Karaoke, Internet access, and Sony Playstations, while new teen facilities include an indoor lounge designed to resemble an urban artist's loft and (down a private entryway) a stern sundeck for teens only.
As part of the program upgrades, HAL will also implement a "parents' night out" program similar to that offered by Carnival and other lines. Called Club HAL After Hours, it will provide group activities and babysitting from 10pm to midnight.
The new program is expected to debut aboard the 1,266-passenger Ryndam for its fall Mexican Riviera sailings, beginning October 10. Full implementation across the HAL fleet should be achieved by 2006.
NCL to Roll Out Onboard Cell Phone Service
It was inevitable, I suppose. Last week, Norwegian Cruise Line (tel. 800/327-7030; www.ncl.com) announced that it would begin offering cell phone access on its North American sailings, starting with the 1,960-passenger Norwegian Sun and expanding fleetwide within a year.
The service, created by Wireless Maritime Services (a joint venture of AT&T Wireless and Maritime Telecommunications Network), combines satellite and wireless services, enabling passengers to send and receive calls and text messages on their own cell phones, with their own phone numbers, while in international waters.
Cellular service has previously been made available aboard Carnival Corporation subsidiary Costa Cruises and Island Cruises, a joint venture between Royal Caribbean and Britain's First Choice Holidays. Between those farm teams and the new NCL program, it seems increasingly likely that all major cruise lines will be hooked up in future. Can we implement a "turn off your ringer" campaign right now, please? Or better yet, a "No Blabbing in Public Areas" policy?
The service will be available to most passengers with GSM phones that operate at 900 MHz and 1900 MHz, which are common in the U.S. In addition to regular phone service, the planned offering will enable passengers with data-capable GSM/GPRS devices to access data services, such as e-mail and picture messaging. Passengers will be billed by the carrier to whom they subscribe at roaming rates set by that carrier, just as if they were roaming on land instead of at sea.
Small Ship Clipper Odyssey Sustains Damage in Alaska
On Saturday, July 31, Clipper Cruises' (tel 800/325-0010, www.clippercruise.com) 128-passenger Clipper Odyssey ran aground on a rock in Alaska's Aleutian Islands chain, puncturing her fuel tank and forcing passengers to abandon ship.
The incident occurred while Odyssey was sailing through Akutan Pass, between Baby Island and Unga Island.
According to Coast Guard reports, mayday calls were received at 9:14pm and rescue teams were dispatched immediately. Several private boats in the area also responded. All passengers and about half the crew were removed from the vessel and transported to Dutch Harbor, approximately twenty miles distant. No injuries were reported.
After the extent of hull damage was determined, Odyssey was refloated and sailed to Dutch Harbor under her own power. Three voyages have since been cancelled, and details on the vessel's repairs and return-to-service date are still to come. Odyssey is scheduled to sail to the South Pacific in mid-September for a series of cruises around Polynesia and New Zealand.
Royal Caribbean Takes a Time-Out on Second Ultra-Voyager
RCCL (tel. 800/398-9819; www.royalcaribbean.com) is currently building the world's largest cruise ship at Finland's Kvaerner Masa-Yards, but it's apparently undecided about whether the 3,600-passenger, 160,000-ton ship should have a sibling. An option to build a second "Ultra-Voyager" vessel was to have expired on August 31, but Kvaerner has extended the date to September 30.A larger version of Royal Caribbean's popular and extremely well-conceived 138,000-ton Voyager-class ships, the Ultra-Voyager will reclaim the "world's biggest" title it lost to Cunard when the 150,000-ton Queen Mary 2 debuted earlier this year.
Wait, Was There a Princess in The Wizard of Oz?
OK, here's a weird one. As reported in this space back in April, Princess Cruises (tel. 800-PRINCESS, www.princess.com) has gotten the movie bug, debuting a big-screen outdoor movie option on Caribbean Princess and planning to add them to its other Caribbean ships, starting with Grand Princess in November.
Now the line is reporting that one of the screen's biggest hits has been a Rocky Horror-style audience participation showing of The Wizard of Oz, in which passengers sing along, hiss at the Wicked Witch of the West, and add a touch of orchestrated anarchy by using noisemakers and bubble juice from "Perform-A-Long Fun Packs."
"Passengers really seem to love this sing-along," said Martin Hall, Princess's VP of entertainment. "It's quite something to walk out to the pool area to see everyone singing along, blowing bubbles and waving their magic wands."
I'll bet it is.
Designed to be used during the day as well as when the lights go down, the $1.5-million, 300-square-foot LCD "Movies Under the Stars" screens broadcast feature films such as Shrek 2, plus family entertainment, sporting events, and concerts. Ushers are on hand during show times to seat nearly 200 passengers in the official viewing area (reservations are required, but seating is general-admission) and the deck chairs are laid out with an extra pad and a cozy plaid lap blanket. There's free popcorn, candy at extra cost, and roaming waiters for anyone interested in a drink or cocktail.
The line is offering the Wizard sing-along on the indoor screens of several of its other vessels as well. They'll get you yet, my pretties.