“Frequent Flyer” Miles reporting on Travel
It has been a while since I have blogged on what I have experienced in travel. Given the overall time the industry has had (over 18 months) to regain their “sea legs” in delivering a great customer service experience. We can no longer expect the travelling customer to willingly accept the excuses around supply chain issues and labor shortages. My focus this blog has shifted to international travel to include what is touted as experiential cruises, which fall into the posted price, before any discounts, of $6,500 to 10,000 per person!
First why I switched to Cruising versus typically fly and drive destinations. Over the Covid period, the ongoing expansion of the total number of new and updated ships continued at an unprecedented pace. Albeit at a slower pace due to supply chain issues but grow it did over the almost two years of suspension due to International Covid restrictions. It does not take much effort to determine that the total current capacity of cruise ships far exceeds pre Covid travel. This industry has seen the largest increase in both number of ships, sub classes of ships and the growth of the jumbo class of mega cruise ships, which has created new types of cruising experiences. Combine this with the virtual shutdown of cruises during Covid and the difficulty in starting up again, many would be cruise customers postponed trips until now. FFMiles included! Many, like me are making up for lost time and missed destinations that have been on a bucket list since 2019 and forward.
One of the biggest expansion areas in cruise ships is what the industry is calling the “small ship” They have a capacity around 850 to 1100 passengers, compared to the regular ships with a 2,500 capacity and the newer large/jumbo ships of 4,500 to over 5,000 starting in winter of 2024. This small ship class has opened multiple “secondary” ports that could not accommodate the standard 2500 passenger ships. This meets the need of the new experiential cruise itinerary of new and different ports. This new type of cruise allows you to board in a main port, sail to smaller ports each day yet live on board and only unpack once for an average of 10-12 ports. Many of these trips are from 7 days to 14 days but can go for 30 days or much longer as the itineraries are so designed. You can simply sign up for multiple extended segments all on the same ship. You sail every evening and land in a new port and have multiple daily excursions.
FFMiles has taken 3 of these types of cruises each about two weeks in duration. Fly to a major port and then join the ship for your selected journey. You will depart at another port for home when your segment is completed in about 12-14 days. Over 15% of those cruising on our ship were on an extended tour with one couple having over 2 months on board with no repeat ports! It is also important to note that these types of cruises focus on higher end cruise clients with many restrictions on young children. This is very different from the regular total family cruising or Disney type cruises.
So how do they perform overall? In my humble opinion they charge customers for well above average service but are not delivering as well as you would hope. Yes, it is staff training, rebuilding the corporate culture and finding adequate staff. While each of our cruises had a diversified staff from over 30 countries, training was ongoing in real time from day 1 of hire onboard. This is not what I would expect at this level of advertised cruising and the price level charged.
Visiting the various ports and excursions is the other reason why this level of cruising has grown dramatically. Fortunately, the smaller ports are more friendly to boarding and disembarking, but not necessarily the large ports. These unnecessary poor facilities and untrained staff at these ports do not make you feel welcome or want to visit. Tour guides, though arranged by the cruise line, are all subcontracted out. Many are new to this profession as tourist numbers increase. Buses and bus drivers are also relearning these skills. Again, not very comforting when expectations are not met.
Then there is the requisite air travel to meet the ship and or return home. This is still the worst part of travel. If you are looking at booking Business first air internationally, you can expect airfares at twice the cost of 2019 airfares at a minimum on an advanced ticket. The service and or condition of the plane or experience of the flight attendants is far below pre Covid standards on the major airlines. It appears that the airline industry previously shutdown international flights and did not invest in upgrading and general maintenance of the fleet. Ticket prices double with half the level of quality.
In summary a two-week small ship cruise for two senior adults (with all discounts applied from multiple sources, will set you back about $15,000 to $20,000 for ship fees. The airline Business first tickets for two international tickets can range from $14,000 to Europe up to $26,000 to Australia. A sad day when flying is now usually more than the cruise. Remember the airlines received large subsidies and the cruise ships minimal to none from the US Government.
Frequent Flier Miles has now logged over 3 million in seat miles on multiple airlines and has been to all 7 continents and now 84 countries. See you on your travels and hopefully we all enjoy a better experience!
