`You just unpack; and we move the scenery.” That’s how a ship’s captain once summed up cruising.
Certainly such “proxy” travel isn’t every cruiser’s dream; but even if that captain had said it tongue-in-cheek, it seems an accurate assessment of the cruise experience. For many of the almost 5 million passengers who board annually, it’s ship-as-floating-hotel.
In fact, all but a few of the 11 ships that will debut now into 1996 will have the look and feel of resort hotels. Almost to a vessel, the new flotilla is dictated by the desire of cruise lines to lure landlubbers from earthbound vacations and set them at sea. In this regard, many perks and services offered on contemporary cruise ships rival those of the finest resorts. One even has a golf course. Well, sort of.
“Vessels have become destinations in themselves,” says Joseph Farcus, the Miami-based interior design architect responsible for several Holland America ships and for Carnival’s flashier, high-profile ones. Real destinations are just “icing on the cake.”
The new armada introduces ships in all sizes: from the smallest, at less than 100 tons (American Canadian Caribbean Line’s 86-passenger Niagara Prince) to Princess Cruises’ 1,950-passenger Sun Princess logging in at 77,000 tons (see accompanying story). In general, the new ships will run faster and quieter, have more views of the water and decors Donald Trump would envy. In all, they’re a hotel-lover’s dream.
Amenities
One result of the ship-as-resort concept is the rush to add “on-premises” amenities that render them practically indistinct from their terra firma counterparts.
Such amenities as concierges and broader business services clearly echo those of hotels. Many also will routinely offer one-hour mini-lab photo processing. The Crystal Symphony rents camcorders, and even has its own retail flower shop.
Some will introduce automated services such as express checkout. On Carnival’s Imagination, all cabins will have safes that passengers can program with their own credit cards; and the Symphony’s phones have private voice-mail capabilities.
Perhaps one of the more unusual resortlike features is the mini-golf course on Royal Caribbean Cruise Line’s Legend of the Seas. Most ships no longer drive golf balls into the sea. Previous alternatives, however, were putting-greens about the size of a double bed; but the Legend will have a full-sized outdoor mini-golf course similar to the one in the Mall of the Americas-with 18 holes, and accommodating 70 players at one time.
America’s mall mentality even may have left its design fingerprint on the new ships. We’ve gotten so accustomed to everything under one roof-literally-that even weather at sea quickly is becoming irrelevant. Pools on the Symphony and Legend are inside/outside, protected by huge retractable glass ceilings, called “magrodomes.” Under the Legend’s glass canopy is the Solarium-an all-in-one entertainment area, including swim pool, whirlpools, food service, even landscaping. Two swimming pools on Holland America’s Ryndam are designed for either freshwater or saltwater, and can be heated or not.
Some amenities definitely are of the “ooh-aah” variety. There’s a virtual bonanza of verandas, for instance: 120 on the Ryndam; one of every four cabins on the Legend; and 75 percent on the all-suite yachtlike Silver Wind. Of Sun Princess’ 1,050 cabins, 424 will have private balconies, the most afloat, given its size. Symphony features private verandas or large picture windows in all its 480 outside staterooms; and Costa takes delivery of a ship in 1996 with verandas in 65 percent of its 960 cabins.
To further compete with land-based resorts-and with each other-cruise lines are beefing up their entertainment, with everyone getting into the high-wire act, literally. On souped-up stages, there will be Broadway-scale extravaganzas, gravity-defying acts, trapeze artists and pyrotechnics. Ryndam’s show lounge has a thrust stage, a revolving platform, state-of-the-art special effects, and computerized sound and lighting. The Celebrity Century show-lounge, with a telescoping wall and hydraulic orchestra pit, is designed to look like an indoor/outdoor theater and boasts flying bridges and cantilevered balconies for totally unobstructed views.
Passengers on the newest paddlewheeler, the American Queen (the largest river steamer ever and the first passenger vessel to be built in a U.S. shipyard since the SS United States in 1953) will view performances in a small-scale circa 1885 Opera House replete with proscenium stage and private mezzanine box seats.
Economies of scale
As a result of mammoth costs for mammoth ships-about $250 million to $300 million per megaship-it’s certainly more economical to build in multiples, says Anne Campbell, author of Fielding’s Worldwide Cruises. The trend is to “all megaships”; and while the industry maintains that’s because passengers want more to do, Campbell says it’s economies of scale. She predicts that, by century’s end, there will be few options besides megaliners-and they’ll all be owned by the Big Three: RCCL, Carnival and Princess.
Meantime, such economies of scale result in cranking out cookie-cutter ships like Carnival’s four superliners in the Fantasy class; the Legend, whose twin Splendor of the Seas is due in March 1996; Century, the first of three planned sister ships; and Holland America’s whole “dam” fleet, Ryndam, sister ship to Statendam and Maasdam and a fourth, the Veendam, scheduled in 1996.
While inch-for-inch, each is physically identical to its respective “sister,” the differences are not in degree, but in design. Attempts to create individual styles and entirely different atmospheres on each ship result in mind-boggling convolutions of decors.
The bright-blossom colors in the tulip-themed Vermeer Lounge on Ryndam, for example, succeeds the aqua and marine-blue irises in the Statendam’s Van Gogh Lounge, and the Rembrandtian tones in the Maasdam’s equivalent. Named for the 17th-Century Dutch master, Jan Vermeer, the Ryndam’s room soars with nests of leaded-glass tulips and is studded with Tivoli lights to reflect a garden at twilight.
The different decors are most visible in the personality of public areas; each with its own identity. Farcus, who most recently put Hollywood-star replicas on the Fascination, says the next new Carnival ships follow a trend that’s a little more sophisticated, a word that doesn’t fall trippingly off the tongue when it comes to the Fun Ship line. Nevertheless, Farcus acknowledges the market is maturing and is trying to present a little more elegance. The Imagination will have a more classical feel, a muted and more elegant dining room, for instance.
Dining rooms on Holland America’s three sister ships are practically identical, except for lighting. The Ryndam’s dining room, with signature mother-of-pearl glass morning glory fixtures, will shimmer with fiber optics rather than incandescent lights.
Adding intimacy
At first blush, you’d expect a 2,600-passenger behemoth to have a PA system for paging someone last seen wandering on Wednesday. Paradoxically, even as designers enlarge ships, they are attempting to make spaces more diverse and intimate.
To reduce confusion, for example, designers often use the atrium as a ship’s heart and compass. Its function is similar to a hotel lobby’s, with public rooms fanning out from there. Like its predecessors, the Imagination will have a seven-deck-high glass-domed atrium; while the center of Ryndam’s Grand Atrium will house a colossal fountain that is a throwback to antiquities one might find in a Roman piazza, complete with marble chosen from the same quarry as Michelangelo’s in the 16th Century.
Also cropping up are smaller, more intimate restaurants that offer passengers alternatives to huge dining rooms. The Symphony has two, Jade Garden, a Chinese restaurant, and Prego for Italian-food lovers.
The issue of various dining venues is one that all lines have grappled with; not all have introduced them, however. John Layzell, RCCL’s manager of new building projects, says his line concluded its passengers still prefer a formal dining room for dinner; so it has focused on making the Legend’s spectacular, Layzell says. By locating it in the superstructure rather than in the hull, its walls are virtually all glass.
However, the Legend will introduce informal dining in the Solarium. For times when other dining spots aren’t operating-say, between breakfast and lunch-passengers can get warm croissants; or for noshing after noon, there’ll be pasta and red wine, even cheesecake and coffee. “If anything,” Layzell says, “it’s downscale.”
On the biggest ships, multilevel dining rooms and more lounges will reduce the sense of crowding, give passengers the option of choosing, and help capture the atmosphere of a smaller ship. For “nights out” there are jazz clubs, piano lounges and discos along boulevards and late-night cappuccino at cafes. On Sun Princess, there’s even a pizzeria-with cobblestone floors; and the Legend and Symphony both have video arcades.
Health-spa facilities on Sun Princess are more prominently featured on upper decks, with views of the sea and access to the Lido pool area; the health center and spa surround a pool suspended between two decks (one of three pools on the ship).
Even stateroom design is more commodious and comfortable, and accommodations more luxurious-almost industry-wide. There are seating areas in all Legend staterooms; and all Ryndam’s have sofas to lend a homey feel. Many have added space: Symphony’s hull actually was designed 2 feet wider than its sister-ship’s so that closet space in lower-deck cabins could be increased. Now all standard staterooms have 15 drawers and 9 feet of hanging space in a closet.
Technology
Improved technology also has influenced design. Vibration-free engines, for instance, allowed Ryndam to create a large dramatic dining room at the stern of the ship, affording broad sea views.
Ships now not only are bigger, they’re faster. The Legend will cruise in excess of 24 knots. Increased speed means arriving in ports earlier and leaving later. Speed also results in better itineraries, and a first for RCCL: a cruise to Hawaii.
While the majority of new ships are bigger, one debut is diminutive. ACCL’s tiny Niagara Prince, which resembles a canal boat, has a unique retractable pilot house that enables it to cruise under low bridges. In spring of ’95, it will cruise from New Orleans to Chicago-under the bridges of the Chicago River, right through the heart of the Windy City.
The line itself is so small that, compared to those whose ships carry 2,600 passengers per cruise, ACCL carries an annual total of only 4,500 passengers. And while the Niagara Prince may be tiny enough to slip beneath Chicago’s bridges, some future ships will be so big, they won’t even fit through the Panama Canal! Two as-yet-unnamed 100,000-ton behemoths from Princess and Carnival will forego the flexibility of Canal cruising in favor of added passenger space. Though Princess was first with its announcement of plans for a “wide-body” vessel, Carnival will beat it into the market in late-1996 with its 100,000-ton 3300-passenger ship.
One can’t help wondering, what will those be like? So far, all we know for sure is that the Princess’ will be the first to feature a virtual-reality theater. If the only distinction left between ships and hotels is that ships move and hotels don’t, maybe future passengers on these gigantic whatchamacallits won’t even need to leave the dock in order to get somewhere: They’ll just take a “virtual” vacation.
SPECIFICATIONS ON SELECTED SHIPS AND THEIR PORTS OF CALL
Fascination (Carnival Cruise Line): 2,600 passengers; 70,000 gross registered tons (GRT); inaugurated July 22, 1994; beginning September, makes seven-day lower Caribbean cruises from San Juan.
Regent Jewel (Regency Cruises): 500 passengers; 8,000 GRT; launched Sept. 4, 1994; Black Sea, eastern Mediterranean, Far East.
Ryndam (Holland America): 1,266 passengers; 55,451 GRT; maiden voyage Oct. 20, 1994; Alaska, Panama Canal & Caribbean.
Silver Wind (Silversea Cruises): 296 passengers; 16,500 GRT; maiden voyage, Jan. 29, 1995; the African islands, Seychelles and Indian Ocean combined with safari; future sailings in Mediterranean and Baltic, eventually in the North American market, Amazon and Caribbean.
Niagara Prince (American Canadian Caribbean Line): 86 passengers; less than 100 GRT; maiden voyage Jan. 13, 1995; six Panama Canal sailings; then back to N. America for several sailings between New Orleans and Chicago; then to Rhode Island home port for New England and Canada cruises.
Legend of the Seas (Royal Caribbean Cruise Line): 1,808 passengers; 70,000 GRT; maiden voyage May 16, 1995; Alaska, Hawaii, Mexico, Caribbean.
Crystal Symphony (Crystal Cruises): 960 passengers; 50,000 GRT; maiden voyage May 10, 1995; Panama Canal, Alaska, Pacific Orient.
American Queen (Delta Queen Steamboat Co.): 420 passengers; 4,700 GRT; due June 1995; North American river cruises.
Imagination (Carnival): 2,600 passengers; 70,000 GRT; due July 8, 1995; seven-day western Caribbean from Miami.
Century (Celebrity Cruises): 1,750 passengers; 70,000 GRT; maiden voyage Dec. 20, 1995; seven-night cruises from Ft. Lauderdale to eastern Caribbean.
Sun Princess (Princess Cruises): 1,950 passengers; 77,000 GRT; due January 1996; Caribbean and Alaska.
