The cruise industry is basically a duopoly, with two players--Carnival, which owns Cunard, Holland America, Princess and Seabourn, among others, and Royal Caribbean, which also owns Celebrity and a few international lines--controlling 70% of the market. There are three segments: contemporary, at $200 and under per day; premium, $250 and up; and luxury, at $300 and above. Royal Caribbean and Carnival operate mostly in the contemporary segment.
[...] Robin Farley, an analyst at UBS, says only 5% of vacationers opt for cruises each year, "just larger than the number of people who go to Branson, Mo."
Heh. The cruise lines might sell more tickets if folks could drive their RVs right onto the ship. Do they have 'tank decks' like an LST? Pull into port, just ram the thing up a boat ramp and disgorge everybody in their own rigs! Fabulous! It's the American Way! It'd be a lot of fun to watch 'em back their rigs back onto the ship too. After about one session of that the cruise line'll install turntables to hold down the damage! Valet parking at the very least. Or maybe ro-ro. More amenable to the port facilities. Don't wanta piss the locals off just by showin' up. Cruise ports-of-call probably shouldn't be treated like Iwo Jima.
To cruise lines, every passenger is a potential ATM, which is why they'll do anything to avoid leaving with empty berths. A full ship is important to the atmosphere, and to employees' pockets, as tips are an important income boost. If you board, you might buy drinks, spa treatments, snorkeling excursions or even airbrush tattoos. And gamble. So the 103% occupancy rates RCL has maintained through the recession have been worth the deep discounting. "It's been a frustrating time," admits Goldstein, "but in this downturn it's critical to satisfy our customers and hope they'll come back and pay a higher price."
Your ticket accounts for more than 70% of revenue--Royal Caribbean had sales of $6.5 billion last year, with $574 million in earnings--and ancillary charges, easily paid with a swipe of your onboard ID, made up about a quarter of those revenues. In the past 10 years, the ships have added acupuncture, personal trainers, spinning classes and premium restaurants. One line even offers Botox treatments. The bigger the boat, the more opportunities, which is why Kochneff, for one, expects cruise companies to introduce more sea monsters like Oasis.
"A swipe of your onboard ID." According to reports, Fixer wears out the card readers, but his bar tab easily pays for replacements.
According to Yesawich, Oasis is tailor-made for first-timers--hence the park, the golf, the shows. "Getting them on the ship is the big hurdle," says Brown. "So the way to get a ton of them up the gangplank is to make it as much like land as possible." Apparently, irony floats.
Go see photos. This barge, and a barge it truly is, looks just like the joints in Las Vegas, difference being that Vegas can't sink. Think I'm kiddin'? They couldn't get the whole ship in one photo!
Click to embiggen
Not for me, thanks. If you're gonna spend all your time in the ship as the destination, I think I'd rather go in one of these.
Or a nice, useful cruise to the African coast in one of these.
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