When you’re at the quacks for a regular medical and (s)he tells you should really lose a few pounds as you are in the ‘overweight’ category I am sure most of us think “Yeah but could be a lot worse” and take no remedial course of action as there has been no health impact. In the past 12 months this has also been the state of most developed Western Economies.

First we had the Credit Crunch, then we are in recession, then out of recession and in the past few months it’s all been talk of deficit and debt. But what real impact has this had to the (wo)man on the street? Most ‘hard working families’ have probably been a bit better off with record low interest rates knocking hundreds of pounds a month of their mortgage commitments and allowing a pain-free spending spree for many.

As a result in 2009 when the motor industry and cruising had a dire start to the year, by the time we got the second half of the year, people were used this extra cash in their pocket and generally feeling better off. Job cuts had not been as bad as feared, there was no housing market crash, so why worry? Yes the TV news rambled on about deficits and borrowing but it was not actually affecting many people. In the UK a General Election meant no party was going to do anything rash to begin to balance the books ( and hence make themselves unpopular) so the country continued signing blank cheques to cushion the recession blow.

So in 2009 and 2010 there has been a surge on spending and the cruise industry has been a very happy chappy. Bookings up 10%+ early this year, bright shiny new ships capturing new interest, and in response (and with more than a little arrogance) the cruise lines RAISED their prices to cash in on the boom.

However, the General Election has passed, we’ve seen an Emergency Budget that will take a couple of hundred pounds a year out of most working people via TAX and VAT rises. And in the Autumn the spending review will start seriously cutting public funding that can only result in public sector job losses. This will also cut major infrastructure and IT projects so there will also be hundreds of thousands of private sector jobs under threat as well.

“Yeah but we keep hearing this on the news every day, so what”, I hear you ask; well I remember writing a similar blog back in 2008 about the outlook for the first half of 2009 and we certainly did have a very problematic 6 months. But this post is titled “The Perfect Cruising Storm” so let me focus on this big market in the travel sector.

There has been a glut of new ships being launched this last year and this year, all of them ordered 2 or 3 years ago when the economic climate was still good. Decadent luxury with Celebrity Equinox and Eclipse, the enormous 6,000 passenger Oasis of the Seas and her sister Allure of the Seas (launching December), some ‘more of the same’ with P&O’s Azura and Ventura. Cunard’s twin sister Queen Elizabeth to pair up with Queen Victoria and the ‘ugly outside, pretty inside’ NCL Norwegian Epic. Come the end of this year there are very few new boats being launched. The ship yards order books for new cruise ships are very empty. The net effect of all these new cruise ships coming on-stream is an uplift in capacity of over 25,000 extra people. These ships need to be 95%+ full 365 days of the year to break even.

“But more people are cruising you said?” Yes that has been the story over the past 12 months as people have become more affluent, pain free. It’s not just the “newly wed and nearly dead” who have been the traditional cruisig types but families seeing the advantage of one price; all food, accommodation and entertainment. With the upcoming spending cuts, and the inevitable job losses, would you comit yourself to a family holiday that costs 50% the price of a new car? It sounds a lot but let me give you a real example from the cruise.co.uk this morning; a family of 2 adults and 2 kids on a fortnights cruise on Independence of the Seas on 6th August 2011 would have to pay £6,444.44 for an outside cabin. Now that’s not even a balcony. This is also a discounted price and not the cruise line brochure fare. Now if you have not familiar with cruise ships or brands Royal Caribbean’s Independence of the Seas is a 4,700 passenger cruise ship sailing out of Southampton that is equivalent to a Center Parcs land based holiday; that is; it is aspirational, but not luxury, but is also considerably more than a Butlins type experience!

According to the Office of National Statistics in 2009 the average UK wage was just over £25k a year in 2009 so to take a family of 4 on this cruise you would require a family to save £537 a month, and that’s before you add on excursions or spending money.

As I write this article on 1 July 2010 there seems to be a growing detachment from the price of a cruise and the economic reality that’s approaching. This has been the boom time for cruising but I have substantial questions about the viability of SOME ships over the next 5 years. Now I am not a doom peddler at all, indeed if what I outline pans out over the next 12 months there will be some amazing bargains to be had. In the past 2 weeks I have seen some very good discounts for cruises this summer with some of the ‘also ran’ cruise ships. That is; cruise ships that are not aimed at families or brand new crowd pullers. One brand consistently appearing on these lists is P&O who seem to be struggling to fill ships right now in the face of stiff competition from Royal Caribbean, Celebrity and Cunard.

Now before we all start rubbing are hands in collective glee with the prospect of bargains, keep in mind that cruise ships are not tied to any country or market. As the developed western economies try to balance the books other parts of the globe are booming and cruise ships can swiftly re-locate. My advice is to hold back until first quarter next year. The cruise conglomerates will be reviewing capacity and potentially discounting to shift cabins, combined with some people who may have booked in the rush this year but can no longer afford the final payment of thousands of pounds. All of the above is written on the assumption that interest rates stay at the record low level, well we all know they can’t and imagine if they begin to rise in 2011…….2011 The Perfect Storm.

I have never been to Disney; it’s just one of those places that I could never see myself connecting with. I have spoken too many and am confident that it is an amazing experience that sticks in a Childs mind for a lifetime. What makes it not appealing to me is the whole pretence of pretend, trying to be so many things at once, copying other places in the world, recreated with a look and feel of the original.

I find myself drawing parallels as I sit aboard Independence of the Seas writing this review.

Check-in at Southampton was less than smooth. I queued in the car to get into the port, queued to get my case unloaded, queued to get into the waiting area before security, queued to check in. Over an hour and a half to get from arrival at the dock gates to finally embarking. Not that the delays ended there, my case did not arrive until after dinner (8pm) and if you wanted to try and speak to guest relations; join the long, long line. Now Oasis of the Seas, with it’s 6,000 passengers and based in Florida, manages to get kerbside to cabin in 15 mins. Why must we pay 3 or 4 times the price of a cruise in the USA to experience this poor service departing Southampton? This needs to change.

This is my fourth of six cruises this year and as I walked onto the ship she it was as impressive as I had thought. She’s big, very big and immediate impression was lots of people, and no ship guide in the stateroom. Thankfully outside each lift there is illuminated cut-away of the ship so you can see where you are in relation to everything around you.

The main feature of all ‘Freedom class’ ships is the Royal Promenade; a ‘mall style’ 6 deck high alley that goes down the centre of the ship. Like a mall it has shops and pubs each side trying to sell you items over and above the cost of the cruise. Each shop or bar is individually styled to make it feel like something else. The Dog and Badger pub which is presented like an old Tudor English pub, Sorrento’s an Italian style café across the way serving pizza 24 hours a day, or Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream etc

I was blessed with the weather on this cruise with sun and temperatures above 25 celcius every day, so relaxing at the side of the impressive Flo-rider or sipping my favourite BBC cocktail at the pool side sky bar were delightful times. Independence is now sailing year round from Southampton and with no indoor pool and so much public entertainment space in and around the pools on decks 11 & 12, sailing from Southampton on a cold, dark February evening would not be fun.

This ship houses over 1,000 more passengers than Queen Mary 2 and is only slightly bigger and as I strolled round the Deck 12 area it certainly felt like it. Every sun lounger had a either a person or a checked-out towel laying on it. You have to present your room Sea Pass card to get a Pool Towel and if not returned you get charged $20. So despite notices requesting people do not take a sun lounger for more than 30 minutes most were there for the afternoon. There were a few times the number of people became an issue, the captain’s address in the Royal Promenade on Formal Night was certainly a squeeze as was the 40 min queue to buy a fridge magnet on the last night……

The Royal Promenade is deprived of any connection to the sea or the fact you are on a cruise, no glass roof to the sky being completely encased and artificially lit, no windows to the ocean (only small windows in two of the bars looking at lifeboats). It is a celebration of consumerism; a cathedral to shopping and, for me, adds nothing to the cruise experience that I could not get in my local shopping centre on a Saturday afternoon.

I did find the whole imitation theme; the Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth, King Lear, Anthony & Cleopatra and Othello named dining rooms; the Pyramid Lounge complete with fake Cleopatra’s needle outside, the stale smoke drenched Labyrinth nightclub complete with fake stained glass, gothic chairs and pews felt more like a gothic S&M dungeon; Sorrentos the 24 hour pizza outlet complete with 24 hour Italian jukebox, a plastic Morgan car and so on. It all had a veneer of reality that was only as thick as the painted coating.

Why could not the largest cruise ship in Europe have the confidence to be original, to create something that is not just lifted from the text book of history or a copy of something else, but actually tried to bring something new to the party? Royal Caribbean had a chance to really impress and set a new standard that OTHERS could have aspired to, but fell way short. From the looks of Oasis of the Seas, they may have found it again.

The food was OK but not memorable. I steak on the first night arrived overcooked and tough as leather, though most meals in the Romeo & Juliet dining room were edible though not exciting. No four courses here like Cunard or Celebrity. Service was good, though hard sold; It was disclosed to me, after I had completed the questionnaire, that if you had marked ‘Good’, ‘Fair’ or ‘Poor’ on the end of cruise survey they count as minus points to the staff you are rating. Only the highest rank of ‘Excellent’ counts as a positive. So the effort of the waiting staff to impress, and to make sure you turned up on the last night to give them the gratuities envelope, was way to pushy. Joy and Robert our waiters were excellent, even though the dining room we were in was less than half full.

It’s the impersonal approach and the little things I missed on this cruise: No bathrobe, no slippers and no chocolate on the pillow last thing at night (Cunard & Celebrity). No real dress code in the main dining room with jeans and shorts at dinner and breakfast. No extra little cakes after dinner or Bread basket and dips on the table (Celebrity)

However it I was looking to take the family on a cruise this would be top of my list. The FloRider surf simulator with the wrap around seating was a great place to see experts and beginners try out surfing. For the more adventurous the rock-climbing wall was open each day adjacent to the basketball court. And for the under 8’s the H2O zone with its water jets and vortex pool would be a hit.
The ice rink shows on Deck 3 studio B were impressive, 10 skaters pulled from national teams (mainly Russian) executed a through the ages show called Freeze-Frame with great precision. And the Showtime shows in the 1,300 seat Alhambra Theatre were good, especially the Once Upon A Time show on the last night.

As I walked round the ship at sunset one night I passed the windows to the Adventure Ocean kids club and there were toddlers dashing about the place in supervised activities and older kids in the Fuel Teen Club; I did agree that as a family holiday this ship offers both family and adult time with the peace of mind if knowing the kids are safe and having fun, rather than bored and left behind.

Even though this was half term week and the waiter imparted that there was 800 kids on board, the organisation was such that at dinner we were in a quite dining area and families, couples and solo cruisers were well grouped.

To summarise, Independence of the Seas is mass-cruising, how best to cope with the number of passengers. It is mass catering, mass entertaining and mass movement of people, I felt as unique as my stateroom number throughout.

This is not a classy five star ship. It has been designed for the mass family UK market with a bit of something for everyone and at this level it succeeds on all counts. If I were boarding Independence as my first cruise I would be wowed by the experience and everything on offer.

If you have cruised before then this will probably meet all of your expectations for RCI. It’s a good cruise ship, but not excellent like Queen Mary 2 or any of the Celebrity Solstice class ships (owned by the same corporate). This is solid four star family fun.

Facts and Figures:
At 160,000 tonnes, she weighs more than 80,000 family cars or 32,000 adult elephants.

She is 1,112 feet long. That’s longer than 37 double decker buses, five jumbo jets or 3½ football pitches.

Boasting a width of 185 feet, Independence of the Seas is actually wider than the White House is long (168 feet).

Passengers are spread out over 15 decks. And when the ship’s full, there will be 4,370 of them – that’s 1,008 more than Cunard’s Queen Mary 2. Although usually there are fewer passengers – 3,600 or so.

1,360 crew look after them serving 18,000 slices of pizza per week and 65,000 lbs of fresh vegetables and over 64,000 lbs of fresh fruit on each sailing.

The theatre seats 1,320 guests a time – bigger than many theatres on land – and carries the same number of passengers as three Boeing 747 aircraft.

8 March 2010 – Cunard Line has announced that the world’s grandest ocean liner, its majestic Queen Mary 2, will be based in Australia in 2012 for a history-making circumnavigation which will see her visit five states and the Northern Territory.

Queen Mary 2′s Royal Circumnavigation of Australia is a first for Cunard

The largest ship ever to visit Australia, Queen Mary 2 will call at eight Australian ports during her time Down Under including Sydney, Fremantle, Adelaide and the Whitsundays, as well as maiden visits to Cairns (Yorkey’s Knob), Darwin, Melbourne and Brisbane. Her circumnavigation will also include a call at Bali.

Australians will be able to choose from three circumnavigation options – a 22-night voyage departing Sydney on 14 February 2012, a 20-night voyage departing Fremantle on 8 February 2012 and a 21-night voyage departing Adelaide on 11 February 2012.

In all, Queen Mary 2 will spend 28 nights in Australian waters, as she sails from Cape Town to Sydney via Fremantle and Adelaide, and then circumnavigates the country. As a result, Fremantle, Adelaide and Sydney will each enjoy two visits from the liner during her Australian season.

The Australian deployment will mark the longest period of time that Queen Mary 2 has been based in one country outside of her northern hemisphere home ports of Southampton and New York.

Peter Shanks, president of Cunard Line, said, “Cunard has strong and proud links with Australia, going back many years.”

“Recognising the enduring appeal and increased demand from Australians for the unique Cunard Line experience, we are delighted to offer this series of legendary voyages for our flagship Queen Mary 2 in Australia 2012,” he said.

The Royal Circumnavigation of Australia will go on sale this spring as part of the announcement of the 2012 World Voyage programme.

Tags: Australia, Cruising, QM2

As I sit here in the Library on Deck 8, looking at the gathered people dockside gazing at the ship and the overlooking the old port of Cherbourg, France it appears modern living may have misplaced an important item, to ‘journey’.

Modern culture, with time and work pressures, often force us to make compromises on a daily basis. Maybe lunch at the desk working rather than the traditional hour away from the work responsibilities, or the convenience meal hastily cooked in the microwave rather than selecting and preparing ingredients , then cooking a meal. In our dash to be herded into cathedrals to travel, our airports, and the resultant propulsion to our destination, we have skipped or just tolerated the journey. Unpicking this realization takes a few days of removal from the routine and to be completely relaxed is to rediscover the journey.

Docked in Zebrugge

Cunard have managed to deliver a solution that is so elegant and timeless yet cutting edge and revolutionary and with Queen Mary 2 they have delivered perfection with a sense of reassurance, relaxation and uniqueness on a vessel that can accommodate every class, genre and desire of her passengers.

As the self cleaning windows wash with the daily clean I am reminded at the effortless ease that this ships oozes in a 24 hour constant maintenance schedule that keeps her pristine and in the condition that she was launched. As you walk round the ship there is nearly always a small amount of cleaning, or painting or varnishing being undertaken, never big enough to impose and within an hour or two they have finished and moved onto the next task.

So what is the Cunard difference? Well as I sat in Britannia Restaurant this morning with 2 perfectly shaped mounds of creamy scrambled egg with crisp white and gold crockery and a hive of waiting staff meaning neither the coffee cup or empty plate were left unattended for more than a few seconds, I could not help thinking that this is what a meal should be like.

Eating should not just be a necessity but an experience. And rather than the plethora of 2 for 1s or meal price deals we are surrounded but high street food chains, the experience should be bespoke, consistent and near military in precision. And the result is sumptuous in quality, luxurious in environment and decadent in consumption.

Cunard has been delivering this style and for over 150 years and have honed this entire operation to near perfection from tip to toe.

This 155,000 tonne ship is magnificent in size, appearance and stature. I often find myself in discussions about ‘What’s the best cruise ship?’ or ‘But this one is bigger and has x and y’, but that dialogue misses the point. Cunard is a standard, it is a beacon of quality that others aspire to meet. For starters, Cunard don’t do cruises, they are Ocean Liners and I can agree with the distinction. As I read the cruising press and the near monthly launch of new vessels and the increasing size and passenger numbers that others dazzle us with, I keep coming back to the point that is this, who else can have a passenger to staff ratio of 2:1?

On this short cruise there are 2,500 passengers with over 1,200 staff on board. This allows an immense amount of space per passenger and the only get to realise this is the safety drill on day 1. From that moment I stepped on I have been able to walk up and order a drink, obtain a snack or drink from Kings Court on deck 7 or simply walk into the main dining room to be allocated a breakfast table. I have always been able to find a vacant lounger in a variety of locations, or be served within a minute of arriving at a bar.

Cutting edge,? Take a look at the Bridge Viewing room on Deck 12 to see the vast instrument panel that ensures safety throughout, or wireless internet in every stateroom (cabin) on board ($0.75 a minute pay as you go).

On this cruise I travelled single and from the moment I pulled up at Southampton was able to easily engage in dialogue with other passengers. Half of the passengers were first timers on QM2 and I could relate to that slightly daunting experience boarding a vessel of this size and heritage so was able to impart some pointers and recommendations that I would have benefited from before my first trip on her.

Now if some are reading this and feeling put off by the formality, fear not. Like other ships there is a ‘freestlye’ dining experience on Deck 7 in the Kings Court. Four restaurants with different flavours deliver food 24 hours a day without a dress code. You can get tea, coffee, fruit juice or water here, or my favourite a nice warm hot chocolate before an evening circumference of the ship ahead of bed.

Whilst I used and welcome the convenience and sheer quality and selection of the food at Kings Court, to me it misses the point. I have dined each night at Brittania Restaurant and I loved the early evening ritual of showering away the day’s adventure and dressing up in a timeless style to dine and not just eat. To enjoy a walk along the deck 7 prom from the bow (my cabin is one of the Oceanview C3 cabins right at the front) to the near stern (Stairway C for the elevator to the entrance to Britannia) and to get a few lungfuls of sea air ahead of an hour or two of decadent cuisine. That is the experience for me. There were 2 Smart Casual nights and two Formal nights on this short cruise.

I was on a table of 8, although only 5 of us showed up. And here’s the point, you meet people on a voyage that you would never normally have met. You get to share your days’ experiences whilst consuming 5 star food and impeccable service in I had 2 delightful couples on the table, both from different parts of the UK but each night we would discuss the trips ashore, compare on board experiences as well as discuss the journey from their home towns. It is a reminder that in a modern world where we rarely know are own neighbours, this is how we used to socialise.

Gangway in Water

Drama? On here? Well only by way of the outstanding shows put on each day in the Royal Court Theatre, or the amazing planetarium 3D show in the Illuminations Theatre, but we actually did have a real mini-drama. Whilst moored in Zeebrugge I had taken a walk into to town and returned early afternoon. After a swim and a BBC cocktail had returned to my cabin and was surprised to see a massive amount of wind and rain out of the porthole. The day had been sunny spells and clouds and this sudden squall had occurred very suddenly. Waiting for the lift on deck 5 on my route to view the storm on the prom the ship suddenly juddered to the point of me nearly stumbling. Upon reaching deck 7 the ship had moved away from the quayside and 4 mooring ropes were frayedon the ground below.

What transpired was that a freak gust had hit the portside of the vessel and 4 substantial mooring ropes had snapped in the force and one gangway had fallen into the water and another was left suspended in mid air. The one remaining mooring rope had pulled the rear of the vessel into the quayside and that was the jolt experienced from the impact.

Insurance assessor was called to clear the ship before leaving port and complimented the strength of QM2 for holding the impact so well. A lesser cruise ship would not have taken this so well. She finally left 5 hours late. Divers on Wednesday inspected the damage whilst in port in Rotterdam and cleared her for onward transit.

Pure chance this morning that I met Captain Nick Bates in a lift on my route to deck 7. He commented that the instruments on the bridge measured the wind gust from 0 to 65 knots in less than 3 seconds. This was not forecasted and passed as quickly as it came so no chance for reaction. I questioned the need for repair and he confirmed that the divers reported that the QM2 was still in fine shape for the Transatlantic New York trip on Friday

There are so many outstanding spaces on Queen Mary 2 that I could wax lyrical about but favourite experiences would have to be;

The Library where I am typing this blog and review from, row upon row of glass fronted dark wooden illuminated cases with thousands of books with sumptuous sofas and subdued lighting whilst the bowed windows to the front of the ship offer an amazing viewpoint;

The Pavilion – a pool, 2 Jacuzzis, a bar and a small band stand where a entertainment plays each lunchtime on sea days with a retractable glass roof looking at the iconic funnel whilst poolside is hugged by padded wooden sunloungers, never full, you MUST try a B.B.C. cocktail (Baileys, Banana and Pina Colada);

The Prom deck 7 – a full 1/3 of a mile of wooden decking wrapping round from the open backed multi-pool stern to the fully enclosed weatherproof bow of the ship. I even walked this circumference in the warm damp shower yesterday evening and the walk it is nearly all undercover due to the overhanging lifeboats above and the overhanging deck at the stern.

Afternoon Tea in the Queens Room; perfectly crustless triangle sandwiches, English tea, exquisite tiny cakes and of course homemade scones, cream and jam served by white gloved waiters in the largest ball room afloat whilst a 4 piece string quartet or harpist simply defines the ambiance and heritage of Cunard, and the standard they created. Just be there 3.30pm sharp for a seat!

Service and excellence are what define Cunard. Rooms made twice a day with perfectly little Cunard mints each night. A waiter there in seconds when dining, or a room steward a phone call and a there in a minute if you need anything. The constant fresh towels in your stateroom or poolside, the army of cleaners and maintenance staff ensuring the ship stays at the pinnacle of her condition. This is what makes a 5 star ship so special and the ability for the passengers to easily differentiate this voyage to other cruise lines.

Above all, the most emotional experience has been leaving port. Last year I was on board QM2 as she navigated up then down the 8 hours transit along the river Elbe as she headed to Hamburg. There were people ALL along the banks during the journey despite it being midnight, bands played, fireworks exploded over head and then the indescribable blast from the ships funnel mounted horns. It is so deep and so loud it just makes you tingle with the experience.

This happened again last night departing Rotterdam and navigating the 2 or 3 hours down the Rhine, a line of people all along the banks, and at certain points a crowd just coming to see the spectacle that is Queen Mary 2. I stood there with glass of something sparkling in the tuxedo I had emerged from another calorie overloaded dinner from Britannia and got that same tingle as the QM2 blasted her farewell nod to the admiring crowds. I could not help but feel privileged once more to be afloat what is a unique triumph to travel. This separates the plethora of cruising indifference to a simply unique voyage and experience. This is the Cunard difference that people in every port just have to come and see.

Cunard use this phrase, but it rings so true on Queen Mary 2, “Life is not about the destination, it’s about the journey