Whatever floats your boat

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Reflection Suite bathroom on Celebrity�s new Reflection ship. The all-glass shower extends over the edge of the ship with a wrap-around verandah and special glass so you can see out, but not in. It�s one of a number of new features and attractions on ships as the 2013 cruise season gets underway. (CP)

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Carnival Cruise Lines Guests onboard Carnival Breeze enjoy the Thrill Theater (CP)

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This artist�s rendering shows the SeaWalk, a glass-bottom walkway being built on the Royal Princess cruise ship, which launches in June. The walkway will extend 28 feet beyond the edge of the ship and 128 feet above the ocean. (CP)

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Guests aboard the Carnival Liberty relax in an adults-only areas. (CP)

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disney A couple enjoying a champagne brunch at Remy, the adults-only restaurant on Disney�s Fantasy and Dream ships. (CP)

NEW YORK -- Cruise trends as the 2013 season gets underway are shaping up to include a bigger focus on multi-generational groups, more specialty food offerings and continued efforts to wow passengers with new onboard firsts such as an aquapark, a glass walkway and a vertical garden.

Here are some details on what's new in cruising.

The new 'it' ships

CruiseCritic.com editor Carolyn Spencer Brown says two of the hottest new ships debuting in 2013 are the Norwegian Breakaway, which will be the largest ship ever to home-port year-round in New York City, beginning in May, and Princess Cruises' Royal Princess, launching in June.

The Breakaway's exterior features the unmistakable pop art of Peter Max, with Lady Liberty's face and a city skyline anchoring the brightly coloured design. On board, the ship offers an open-air .4-kilometre boardwalk and an aquapark, including five multi-storey waterslides and a double free-fall slide where the floor drops away. The ship will carry 4,028 guests and will sail week-long cruises to Bermuda through Oct. 6.

The Royal Princess will carry 3,600 passengers and will feature a jogging track and the SeaWalk, a glass-bottom walkway extending 8.5 metres beyond the edge of the ship and 39 metres above the ocean. One part of the ship, The Sanctuary, is described as a "signature haven just for adults," w ith private cabanas and steward service for light fare and drinks. Its maiden voyage will begin in Southampton, England, and head for Spain and Portugal, followed by trips to the Mediterranean and Caribbean. It calls on Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in October.

"The important thing about these two ships is what they say about cruising, which used to be you were outside during the day and at night you got dressed up and had dinner and went to the theatre," said Spencer Brown. "Both ships reflect the new trend of being outside all the time, with outdoor restaurants, more on-deck seating and other reasons for you to be outside."

New attractions and activities

Today's cruise ships offer everything from skating rinks to planetariums to climbing walls, but the new attractions and activities just keep coming. Among the latest:

-- Crystal Symphony debuted in September with a vertical garden, which is a plant-covered freestanding living wall 2.4 metres high.

-- The MSC Preziosa ship, debuting in March, will feature what's being called the longest single-rider waterslide at sea (120 metres).

-- On the Celebrity Reflection, an all-glass shower extends over the edge of the ship with a wraparound verandah and special glass so you can see out, but not in.

-- On Cunard's Queen Mary 2, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth ships, passengers can take "back-of-the-house" tours and visit everything from the engine room to backstage theatre areas to the kitchen galley and the recycling facility.

-- Carnival Cruise Lines offer TV-quality game shows at sea with passengers as participants, along with 3-D movies in theatres equipped with motion seats and special effects such as wind and water.

-- Holland America Line has a programming partnership with Dancing with the Stars, while Celebrity is partnering with Zumba for fitness workouts and pool parties.

-- Theme cruises woo fans of everything from country music to sports by hosting performances and celebrities on board. NFL coach Don Shula and Miami Dolphins Hall of Famer Larry Csonka will be on a Crystal Serenity cruise this summer.

Specialty food

Seems like every cruise line is upscaling and expanding food options. In October, Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy began offering a $50-per-person champagne brunch at Remy, Disney Cruise Line's adults-only restaurant named for the character from the animated film Ratatouille, with dishes created by the French Michelin-starred chef Arnaud Lallement. The Norwegian Breakaway will have everything from a churrascaria (Brazilian-style steakhouse) to separate bars for Asian noodles, gelato and raw shellfish. On MSC's forthcoming Preziosa ship, there will be an Eataly Restaurant modelled on the Manhattan Italian gourmet food mall.

Celebrity chef Jacques Pepin has served as Oceania Cruises' executive culinary director for nine years, and this September, he'll be a guest on Oceania's Riviera ship, doing a cooking demonstration, Q&A and meet-and-greet with guests at his namesake onboard restaurant, Jacques, and the ship's culinary centre.

But there may be a downside to some of the new food offerings. Arnold Boris, editor-in-chief of Cruise Gourmet, said he has found that as specialty food options with extra fees increase, basics that used to be offered for free decrease. "It's all unbundled now," he said.

Spencer Brown agreed: "The quality of the main dining room has gone downhill while they've raised the prices to get into these alternative restaurants."

For example, she said Royal Caribbean now "charges for food in the dining room that used to come with your cruise. Surf and turf is $38, but surf and turf used to be part of the dinner. The dining room had been sacrosanct in terms of hands-off, no extra fees, except for liquor. On Celebrity cruises, you go to a French restaurant and you pay to get in, and they greet you with a glass of champagne. Then you look at the bill and see it's an extra $18."

The unbundling trend is seen in other areas as well, with mass-market lines keeping fares low but charging extra for various onboard activities. Ironically, the opposite is happening on luxury lines, where "they don't want to lower (ticket) prices because it doesn't look good, but they're throwing everything in for free. Luxury is the best value it's ever been," Spencer Brown said.

Ship revitalization and multi-generational trips

Fewer cruise lines are building brand-new ships, but many are doing intensive renovations on existing ships. Some of these renovations involve adding new spaces to accommodate a fast-growing segment: multi-generational groups. Cruises are being marketed as the perfect vacation for grandparents, parents and kids to take together because they can pursue different activities on board, then have a meal or shore excursion together.

On Norwegian, for example, between 15 and 20 per cent of guests on any cruise are part of a multi-generational group, according to spokeswoman Vanessa Lane. "Families are the second-largest cruising segment, only behind the 55-plus age group," she said.

More than half of Carnival bookings involve more than one stateroom, no doubt many booked by family groups.

Even luxury lines, which tend to attract an older crowd than mass-market ships, are seeing more children. Crystal Cruises saw family groups increase 30 per cent in 2012 over 2011, said spokeswoman Mimi Weisband. "Our youngest world cruiser is 21/2," she added.

To accommodate the diverse needs of old and young, ships are expanding areas for youth activities while creating more adult-only pools and quiet areas where passengers can nap, sun or read a book. Carnival ships have Serenity Spaces. Norwegian ships offer exclusive suite areas with key-card access and private courtyards called The Haven; they're not adult-only, but are designed to be quieter than other parts of the ship.

Carnival ships increasingly offer observation areas next to youth play areas where parents and grandparents can watch their kids play. "My mom's not going to play basketball with her grandson, but she sure wants to take pictures," said Jim Berra, Carnival Cruise Line's chief marketing officer.

Social media and online booking

The cruise industry has long recommended that consumers use travel agents to navigate their options: which cruise line, which ship, type of room, itinerary. But an increasing number of travellers are abandoning the middleman and booking directly with the cruise line of their choice, either by calling or through the cruise company's branded website.

Traditional travel agencies "not long ago accounted for three-quarters of all cruise sales," according to a November 2012 report by PhoCusWright, but "slipped to 62 per cent in 2011." Overall, 13 per cent of cruise bookings were made online in 2011, up from 11 per cent the year before. Of those online bookings, in 2010, 43 per cent were made through cruise-line websites, a share that is expected to rise to 59 per cent in 2014, PhoCusWright said.

Meanwhile, the cruise industry is making new efforts to reach travellers using social media. A new YouTube channel, Cruise Industry TV, launched this month at http://www.youtube.com/cruiseindustrytv. Also new is CruiseForward, a website with a Facebook page, for showcasing stories from the cruise industry such as voluntourism efforts (https://www.facebook.com/CruiseForward).

-- The Associated Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 2, 2013 ??65535