Interporting seen as a second home port

The word "port" tends to come up when cruising is the topic of conversation: embarkation port, disembarkation port, ports of call, home ports ... and now you can add one more to the list: interports.

Interporting simply means the creation of a secondary embarkation and disembarkation on a cruise. Let's use this example: A ship home-ports out of Miami and is on a seven-day Caribbean and Bahamas cruise. An interport could be Nassau, where passengers would embark and disembark during the cruise, still spending the full seven days cruising by getting off at the same place where they boarded the ship.

Think of it as a second home port. European cruise companies, such as MSC and Costa, have been doing this for years. Interporting was part of the ill-fated Costa Concordia's schedule, as it had just picked up 600 passengers in Rome (Civitavecchia).

So why interport?

It allows passengers to take the ship from their home city, or one that is closer to home, saving transportation and hotel costs, and it provides the line with new revenues.

It also allows you to pick a destination that may have more pre- and post-cruise interest.

U.S.-based ship Norwegian Epic is planning to interport for the first time when it spends the summer in Europe this year. NCL's flagship will interport twice during its seven-day western Mediterranean cruise that originates in Barcelona, the ship's European home. Rome (Civitavecchia) and Marseille, France, will be two interports on this cruise.

Of marginal interest for North American passengers will be the interporting planned by Royal Caribbean in the Caribbean next winter. A seven-day cruise on Brilliance of the Seas, home-porting out of San Juan, will interport in Guadeloupe, but that's geared to accommodate the cruise line's South American passengers.

Regardless of where you get on, you must stay on board for the seven days.

Interporting could work on back-to-back cruises from New York to stops in New England and Canada. Interports would work, say, out of Quebec City and Halifax, as just one example.

Regardless, U.S. ships have an opportunity to follow the Europeans in this growing use of the word "port."

------

A few weeks ago, UBS reported in this space that, shortly after the Concordia incident, sales were holding firm. That's not the case now, according to Bob Iger, CEO of Disney. He says all cruise lines have experienced a decline in bookings.

Cruise lines had been reporting that sales were way ahead of schedule for 2012, and many in the cruise industry expect this downturn to be short-lived, which is why -- at the time of writing -- I have not seen a massive discounting of product, other than the usual plethora of "Wave Season" sales that are typical at this time of year.

------

Sadly, it takes an accident to heighten safety concerns. Holland America showed it has kicked it up a notch by escorting a passenger off a ship last month for "non-compliance" during the mandatory muster drill. No reason was given, but you can guess.

-- Postmedia News

Visit portsandbows.com for daily updates on the latest cruise news, best deals and behind-the-scenes stories from the industry. You can also sign up for an email newsletter on the site for even more cruise information. Phil can be contacted directly at portsandbows@gmail.com.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 12, 2012 D2