Of Boats and Balconies

by Kevin Griffin writing in cybercruises.com

With the news that Costa Cruises will be adding two decks and balconies to Costa Romantica in a €90 million rebuild, another ship will lose her good looks for the sake of a few more balcony cabins that can be sold for a higher fare.
Costa will join the ranks of Carnival Cruise Lines and Holland America Line in detracting from the appearance of their own ships to make them more profitable. And the reason for this is that most of these ships have been built along the old style of having their lifeboats installed on a high-up boat deck in the style of the traditional ocean liner.

When Costa, added balconies to its Costa Victoria, a newer ship, she had a lower Canberra-style boat deck, nearer to the main deck level as opposed to higher up. (In 1961, P&O’s Canberra became the first major liner to have her lifeboats installed at this level). This effectively meant that “clip on” balconies could be added to  Costa Victoria at levels above the lifeboats without affecting their operation in any way. The same was true of Celebrity Century and her near sister ships Mein Schiff and Mein Schiff 2, ex-Celebrity Galaxy and Celebrity Mercury. These alterations have all been aesthetically pleasing and in fact could be said to have improved the appearance of the ships involved.

But Carnival Corp & PLC has the problem that many of its ships are of an older design that is not easy to convert. Carnival’s eight Fantasy class ships and  Costa Classica and Costa Romantica were all built in the old style, with lifeboats atop ship like the original Queen Mary. The only spots where clip on balconies can be added is in areas of the hull where there are no lifeboats installed above.

Thus we have the Fantasy class, now in the course of conversions that will add 98 balconies to each ship. Many of the new balconies are around the stern of the ship and in particular areas, such as amidships, where there are no boats above. The first ship to be thus converted was Carnival Sensation, in January 2009. Because of this, only 24 new balconies could be added amidships (plus extensions to twelve existing balcony cabins) where there were no boats, but another 74 were installed at the aft end, clear of the lifeboats.

This has lead to an appearance totally different from all other balcony conversions to date, but will almost triple these ships’ balcony cabin inventory from the existing 54.  In fact, once the same is done with all eight Fantasy class ships, Carnival will have added 784 new balconies to its fleet, but at what cost? Late last month in Key West, two of the unconverted Fantasy class ships, Fantasy and Imagination, managed to strike stern-to-stern. Luckily, neither ship has yet received the 74 stern-end balcony cabins or someone might have been hurt.

Meanwhile, Holland America’s four Statendam class ships and near-sisters Amsterdam and Rotterdam do have lower lifeboat decks, but spaces above these boats had already been given over to as many balcony cabins as possible, they had to do something else. Carnival designers came up with a way to clip half a dozen balconies on to each side of Holland America’s Statendam and Rotterdam class ships at the forward end of the superstructure. The first ship to receive this treatment was Veendam, which was fitted with extended stern accommodations as well as her new clip-ons in 2009.

To show just how valuable these balconies are,  Veendam’s bridge wings had to be extended so her officers could see around the new balconies. Installing sliding doorways into cabins that are located along the promenade decks also created new so-called “Lanai” cabins. Holland America ships are also receiving new balcony cabins in new accommodation blocks being added aft.

In the case of  Costa Romantica, Costa will add two decks above the bridge and, seemingly influenced by Carnival Corporate Shipbuilding, will add three decks of clip-on balconies on each side amidships where there are no lifeboats. Another fifteen balconies will be clipped on below five existing balconies on each side of the ship, adding thirty clip-ons and of course there will be balconies in the two new decks above. Her passenger capacity will be raised from 1,697 passengers to 1,800 and her balcony count rise from ten to 86.

As part of the transformation, windows with a view will be added in the forward part of the superstructure but it seems these may be dedicated to the Samsara Spa, a wellness area with gym, thalassotherapy pool, treatment rooms, sauna and Turkish bath. There will also be fifty Samsara Spa cabins and six spa suites as well as a restaurant for passengers in Samsara accommodations. A new wine bar will offer 100 labels and a selection of cheeses from around the world, while a coffee bar will serve sweets.

A new show lounge bar with a dance floor and cabaret and a nightclub are also included in the plans. Almost as if in apology for the exterior changes, the interiors will be the work of Tillberg Design of Sweden and Syntax of London, “with a view to giving the ship an elegant, sophisticated and refined atmosphere.” This is a change for Costa as Joe Farcus has been doing its recent ships.

The result, the “new” ship, to be renamed Costa NeoRomantica, will be a somewhat top-heavy looking vessel with balcony saddlebags amidships. She will no longer be one of the best-looking classical cruise ships afloat – nowhere near in fact. The San Giorgio shipyard in Genoa, a subsidiary of T Marriotti, has been charged with the work, which begins in October, and in February 2012 she will re-enter service on 11-night cruises to the Canary Islands. It is to be presumed that the Costa Classica may be similarly converted in time.

Crystal Winter Collection 2012 Available

This brochure has just come in.  Please contact us if you wish a copy. Available North America only.

Royal Caribbean Fails the Avis Test: “We Try Harder”

by Kevin Griffin, The Cruise People, writing in cybercruises.com

In 1962, Hertz Rent A Car was top dog in the car rental business and Avis number two by a long shot. Hertz was spending five times as much on advertising as Avis and a new ceo, Robert Townsend, had just joined them from American Express. Townsend approached New York advertising agency Doyle Dane Bernbach and it came up with one of the most famous advertising lines ever: “Avis Is Only No. 2, We Try Harder”

Similarly, Royal Caribbean is number two in the cruise business, and a long shot behind top dog Carnival. But last Sunday, in what must be seen as a significant failure, Royal Caribbean seems to have lost its way when it allowed Carnival to “try harder” when both lines had ships embarking passengers at San Juan. With last week’s impending approach of Hurricane Irene, both lines were put into identical situations but each responded in a totally different manner. The port began to limit traffic and forced both ships to sail early to avoid the storm, which hit San Juan that evening and caused flooding and damage and cut off power to 800,000 homes.

Royal Caribbean’s 2,100-passenger Serenade of the Seas was the first to go, forced to sail at 5:30 pm, three hours before her scheduled 8:30 departure time, leaving 145 passengers behind. The unaffiliated web site RoyalCaribbeanBlog.com quoted Royal Caribbean spokesperson Cynthia Martinez as saying “There was no way to notify our guests of this change in departure time. This decision was made by the Port of San Juan to ensure the safe transit of all guests and crew through the port.”

The result appears to be that Royal Caribbean did not attempt to reach its own customers to warn them. And according to media reports, when some of these passengers arrived at 5 pm the cruise terminal was closed and there was not even a Royal Caribbean representative there to greet them

Of its 145 stranded customers, about fifteen, who had booked flights with Royal Caribbean, were contacted and accommodated at a hotel in San Juan courtesy of the line. The rest were left to fend for themselves.

That same day, only a half hour later, Carnival Cruise Lines’ 2,750-passenger Carnival Victory was also forced to depart San Juan, in her case at 6 pm, about four hours early, stranding another 300 passengers at the Puerto Rican port.

For those who missed the ship, Carnival provided a complimentary, two-night stay in San Juan and flew those with passports on to Barbados to enjoy the rest of the cruise. Guests who did not have passports, about half of them, could not fly to Barbados and missed the whole cruise. Even so, they were granted a future cruise credit equal to the amount of fare they had paid.

Most of these were probably Puerto Ricans as there is now an inconsistency in the rules on passports. Those who fly must have a passport, meaning that anyone who flew into San Juan would have had one, but those who travel only by ship can still travel without one if they have a passport card, enhanced driver’s license or enhanced identity card. This accounts for the peculiar statistic from the Cruise Lines International Association, that 81% of American cruisers have a passport while only 51% of non-cruisers do.

But back to the case in hand, both lines learned early on Sunday afternoon that harbour traffic would be limited and both planned an early departure, Royal Caribbean three hours early and Carnival four hours early.

While Carnival offered rooms to all its customers, Royal Caribbean decided to accommodate only those who had purchased airfare through the cruise line, expecting the other 130 to find their own hotels and pay for their own air fare to join the ship in Aruba.

In view of the circumstances and the caring action taken by Carnival, not to mention the fact that airlines were waiving change fees caused by the hurricane, Royal Caribbean come away looking about as bad as it could. For a line that has been garnering so much favourable public reaction in the past couple of years, even if it was a weather-related event and it can be argued that the intending passengers should pay and fall back on their insurance, this does seem like a wrong decision on its part.

Later in the week, both ships made history when they arrived together in St Kitts on Friday, bringing several thousands of passengers to ride the St Kitts railway and go on local tours, an unusual occurrence in the summer time.

And the chairmen of the two respective corporations? While Carnival’s Micky Arison joined the world of Twitter on August 11 and now has almost 20,000 followers, Royal Caribbean’s Richard Fain was reported acquiring another $1.5 million in Royal Caribbean stock.

LiveJournal Tags: Hurricane Irene

Two New River Cruise Brochures

The following brochures are now available for mailing to North America.  Please contact us and we’d be pleased to get one out to you.

Call 1’800.961.5536 or email cruise@thecruisepeople.ca

MS Columbus Performs Her Last Great Lakes Season for Hapag-Lloyd Cruises

from our London office

From her first voyage into the Great Lakes in 1997, Hapag-Lloyd Cruises’ 14,903-ton Columbus has been the largest cruise ship ever to sail the Great Lakes, at least in terms of tonnage. Not only that, but she was the first ship to be built specifically with Great Lakes cruising in mind since the 1,473-ton Norgoma was built to cruise between Georgian Bay ports and Sault Ste Marie in 1950. The idea to build Columbus stemmed from experience that Hapag-Lloyd masters had gained from the days when they had sent ocean freighters into the Great Lakes, and she was designed with flush sides and swivelling bridge wings so that she could transit the locks of the St Lawrence Seaway and the Welland Canal.

On September 5, Columbus will leave Toronto for a 13-night cruise to Chicago via the Welland Canal, Windsor, Little Current, Sault Ste Marie, Thunder Bay, Duluth, Mackinac Island and Traverse City. And on September 18 she will repeat the itinerary in the reverse direction, sailing from Chicago to Toronto by way of all the same ports. She will thus be calling at many familiar ports for the last time in Hapag-Lloyd colours. Columbus’s  successor in the Hapag-Lloyd Cruises fleet will be the 30,277-ton Columbus 2, a vessel that is is too large to enter the Great Lakes. So as the present Columbus prepares for her final Great Lakes season, let us take a brief look at the history of cruising in those waters.

“At one time there were more people asleep on boats on the Great Lakes than on any other ocean of the world” – marine historian Harry Wolf.

Most people don’t realize that the five Great Lakes – Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan and Superior – are where the seven-day cruise originated. This dates to 1894-1895, when the Northern Steamship Company introduced North West and North Land, with its motto “In all the World, no trip like this.” Among the North Land‘s first passengers was one Samuel L Clemens, better known to most as Mark Twain. Part of the Great Northern Railway system, these ships were described at the time as the “largest, most complete and luxuriously equipped passenger boats in the world.” The return voyage from Buffalo to Duluth or Chicago took seven days, and one of the most popular stops was at Mackinac Island, where automobiles are still not allowed to this day. These very luxurious steamers carried 758 passengers each, with 544 in first class and 214 in second. James J Hill, the line’s owner, also started a Transpacific service known as the Great Northern Steamship Company to trade give the Great Northern Railway a connection with Japan and the Far East.

Many more cruise ships followed, on both sides of the border, carrying happy crowds for many decades, with cruise directors, live bands and even radio broadcasts from on board. The better-known included Great Lakes Transit’s Juniata, Octorora and Tionesta and Georgian Bay Line’s North American, South American and Alabama, and, on the Canadian side, Canada Steamship Lines’ Hamonic, Huronic and Noronic and Canadian Pacific’s Assiniboia, Keewatin and Manitoba. These ships were all between 300 and 400 feet in length, 3,000 to 7,000 tons, and carried between 280 and 500 passengers each. This advertisement for the Georgian Bay Line’s North American and South American, which would each cruise the Great Lakes for half a century, dates as far back to 1916.  The lakes’ fresh water was kind to their hulls and not as corrosive as salt water while an enforced lay-up every winter when the lakes and canals were frozen allowed owners to keep their ships in tip top condition.The one black spot would be the loss of Canada Steamship Lines’ Noronic to fire in 1949.

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The 500-foot Seeandbee, twenty-seven feet longer than Columbus, and much beamier at 98 feet, at Mackinac Island in the 1930s

Overnight lines also got into cruising when the Detroit & Cleveland Navigation Company began a Detroit to Chicago service via Mackinac Island in 1924, with the 500-berth Eastern States and Western States. This service became  the company’s “Cruise Division.” In 1933, the Cleveland & Buffalo Transit Company, which had been offering end-of-season cruises from 1921 with its four-funnelled 1,500-passenger 6,381-ton Seeandbee (seen above at Mackinac island), began offering seven-day Great Lakes cruises all summer long. Unlike the traditional cruise ships, these were big side-wheel paddle steamers, the largest in the world, and they continued cruising until 1950, when D&C, deprived of its overnight business by the advent of the superhighway, closed down. Their most interesting amenity was suites with private balconies, many decades before they were introduced into cruise ships.

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Passengers arrive at Port McNicoll on Georgian Bay on board Canadian Pacific’s Assiniboia in an earlier age

Most of the traditional ships, in typical lakes fashion, had their engines aft, presaging modern-day cruise ship design. These ships carried on for several years, until Canadian Pacific’s  Assiniboia and Keewatin were withdrawn in 1965, and the Georgian Bay Line’s South American in 1967, victims of obsolescence and new fire regulations. Keewatin is now a museum ship near Saugatuck, Michigan, while the 100-passenger Norgoma, which sailed between Georgian Bay and Sault Ste Marie for the Owen Sound Transportation Company, is at Sault Ste Marie, Ont.

Overseas ships have also cruised the Great Lakes. From 1959, when the St Lawrence Seaway opened, to 1963, the Oranje Line offered cruises on three passenger/cargo ships carrying 60 to 115 passengers each between Montreal and Chicago while on their voyages to and from Europe. In 1959, Sun Line operated the first Stella Maris into the Great Lakes on a number of cruises from Montreal to Toronto, Hamilton and Rochester. Midwest Cruises of Indianapolis offered two seasons of Great Lakes cruises between Montreal and Chicago with the 233-berth Stella Maris II in 1974 and the 168-berth Discoverer in 1975, but then closed down. More recently the lakes have seen the 90-berth French-flag Le Levant, built in 1998, and the 96-berth German-owned Orion, which Travel Dynamics engaged for the trade in 2004.

Between 1997 and 2011, Hapag-Lloyd Cruises’ 420-berth Columbus became the largest ship to cruise the lakes, but she will leave the fleet in 2012. Most recently, in 2009 and 2010, Travel Dynamics operated  Clelia II, soon to be replaced by Yorktown, with thirteen Great Lakes cruises in 2012.

Full details of the final Great Lakes cruises on board Hapag-Lloyd Cruises’ Columbus please call Gay Scruton at The Cruise People Ltd in London on 020 7723 2450 or e-mail cruise@cruisepeople.co.uk for further information. In North America contact The Cruise People at 1.800.961.5536 or e-mail cruise@thecruisepeople.ca

People Still Remember Canmar Fondly

Image via Wikipedia

The Canmar ships no longer carry passengers.

Several years ago, Canadian Pacific Ships was bought by Hapag Lloyd. This included a very large number of ships sailing under the flags of many companies.

Hapag Lloyd does not like to carry passengers and so we lost all the passenger freighters sailing to/from eastern Canada.

Actually, the Canmar ships have been renamed Express ships (Montreal Express, Mississauga Express etc.) and still sail but we can’t get them to carry passengers.

Hurtigruten’s “Celebrations in the Arctic” Rings in the New Year on Top of the World

Hurtigruten, the subject of the recent Guinness World Record-breaking “Longest Live TV Documentary,” is inviting travellers to celebrate the start of 2012 by experiencing firsthand what six million viewers tuned in to see – the company’s award-winning Norwegian coastal cruise.  Departing Dec. 26, the 12-day round-trip “Celebrations in the Arctic” rings in the New Year with several additions to the classic coastal itinerary: a special dinner in Honningsvåg; a full roster of festivities on New Year’s Eve in the North Cape; and a stop in the port of Alta.  Other highlights include the Art Nouveau town of Ålesund, the small fishing villages of the Lofoten Islands, the medieval Viking capital of Trondheim and the western fjords, including the UNESCO World Heritage site of Geiranger.  Guests can personalize their holiday with an impressive range of optional excursions that range from a traditional Viking feast to an exhilarating husky ride.  Prices range from $US2,255 to $5,252.  Members of the 1893 Ambassador Club, a loyalty club for those who have sailed on Hurtigruten in the past three years, receive 10% savings as well as a range of complimentary onboard benefits.

The special holiday itinerary, aboard 646-berth MS Trollfjord, sails from Norway’s cultural centre, Bergen, to Kirkenes above the Arctic Circle, and back.  Some additions to the normal itinerary include a visit to Alta, the world’s northernmost city with more than 10,000 residents, and additional time to explore the North Cape.  At the heart of the voyage are the special New Year’s Eve activities.  After a festive dinner in the harbour of Honningsvåg, guests kick off the New Year with an exclusive celebration at the “end of the world” that features music, dancing, canapés and champagne – all enjoyed against a background of Arctic-inspired fireworks displays.

An expanded range of optional excursions allow passengers to personalize their holiday.  Time in Alta can be spent learning about the Sami people while enjoying a guided snowmobile safari; taking a three mile, adrenaline-fueled husky ride over three miles of frozen tundra; or visiting the fascinating Snow Hotel, where guests are welcomed with an ice cold shot of “Rudolf’s Revenge” (crowberry) before touring the magnificent suites and the nearby Gabba Kennel.  Other options throughout the voyage include a genuine Viking feast, complete with homebrewed mead, and a city tour of Trondheim.

Rates include accommodation in cabin grade of choice; all meals on board, including a selection of drinks for those in suites; a wind and water proof jacket; and all aspects of the onboard programme, including lectures.  Optional excursions, flights and cruise fuel surcharge are additional.

Hurtigruten is a world leader in expedition cruising, sailing to the most remote of destinations including Antarctica, Greenland and the Arctic’s Spitsbergen as well as year round along Norway’s coast and Europe in the spring and autumn.  The company’s fleet of 12 ships, with 151 to 646 berths, allows passengers to enjoy unique destinations in a relaxed atmosphere.   Additional information on all of these adventures, as well as brochures and reservations, can be obtained from The Cruise People at 1-800-961-5536.

LiveJournal Tags: New Years cruise

Getting Through Security and on Your Way Faster!

via our consortium, Travelsavers

Every day thousands of passengers pass through Canada’s airports making for an often hectic, and hurried pre-flight check-in experience for most travellers. From the carry-on baggage restrictions to the airport baggage screening procedures, airline passengers face a number of security checkpoint hurdles that can affect the time it takes for them to arrive at their departure gate.

Getting through airport security screening quickly starts with you.

What To Wear

Since all passengers must pass through a walk-through metal detector, we suggest you decrease the likelihood of setting off the alarm:

• Dress comfortably with easy-to-remove outerwear, jackets, belts and slip-on shoes
• Limit jewellery to small earrings, watches, wedding bands/engagement rings, eyeglasses
• Wear clothing without snaps, metal buttons, or studs
• Avoid wearing shoes with metal arches, buckles, steel-toes or shanks
• Avoid wearing belts with metal buckles.
• Remove hidden body piercings before you fly

Remember, if you set off the alarm while walking through the metal detector you will have to undergo further screening to determine its source. This may include hand “wanding” and/or a physical search.

How To Pack

Your carry-on baggage and bins will go through the baggage screening x-ray for careful examination by a Screening Officer. Here are a few tips to minimize the potential for the further delay of an additional carry-on baggage content search:

• Avoid over-packing!
• Ensure your carry-on baggage has easy access to remove your laptop computer, video and film cameras.
• Place personal toiletry items in clear, see-through bags. Only bring liquids, aerosols and gels that are packaged in containers with a capacity of 100 ml / 100 grams (3.4 oz) or less, and ensure that the containers fit into one transparent, closed and resealable plastic bag with a capacity of no more than 1 litre (1 quart).
• Exempted liquids should be packed so that they can easily be removed from carry-on baggage for inspection.
• Avoid packing gifts and souvenirs containing liquids, aerosols and gels in your carry-on. These include: liquor, wine, beer, snowglobes, cans of condensed soup, maple syrup, perfume, and lotion. Put them in checked baggage or ship them separately.

Be Prepared!

Remember, all passengers have to go through airport security screening. Common courtesy and patience go a long way in making the process less stressful and more efficient for everybody. Make sure you:

• Have your boarding pass ready to present for verification.  At some airports, the validation of your boarding pass will be done automatically by a scanner.
• Tag your carry-on and checked baggage with your contact information
• Give yourself plenty of time – go through pre-board screening well in advance of your flight especially during peak travel periods (early morning, noon, and early evening)
• Leave empty baggage carts outside of the screening checkpoint
• NEVER joke or make “small talk” about bombs, firearms or other weapons while going through pre-board screening. Depending on the circumstances, you could be charged with an offence under the Canadian Aviation Security Regulations
• Understand what to expect during a physical search

For a complete list of air travel prohibited items in Canada including baggage carry-on restrictions, please visit the CATSA Pack Smart page.

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On Board Drink Prices In 1983

by Kevin Griffin of The Cruise People writing on cybercruises.com

Having just come across a bar list from Western Cruise Lines’ Azure Seas, sailing on 3- and 4-day cruises from Los Angeles in the 1983, it is worth looking at how much on board drinks cost back then.

Cocktails were pretty well $1.75, no matter what you wanted – Margarita, Bacardi Cocktail, Stinger, Black Russian, Pink Lady, Grasshopper, Champagne Cocktail, Manhattan, Whiskey Sour, Rusty Nail, Sidecar, Wallbanger – all $1.75. But even more shocking, a Martini was only $1.60 – something cruise lines typically charge $10 for to-day, and even more if the vodka is Grey Goose. A Daiquiri or an and Old Fashioned was also $1.60.

Highballs were $1.50, Bourbons $1.50 too, as were Canadian Club, Seagram’s VO and 7 Crown. Also $1.50 were Beefeater and Tanqueray gin, Bacardi and Meyers rum and Smirnoff vodka. Liqueurs and Cognacs ran to $1.75.

On the cheaper end, beers were $1.20 for Budweiser, Miller Lite, Heineken and Dos Equis, and on the high end one paid $2.00 for a Long island Ice Tea, Strawberry Daiquiri or Margarita or a Banana Daiquiri. The only thing more expensive than this was an Irish Coffee or a Mexican Coffee or a Cappuccino with Cognac, all of which ran to $2.50.

And on the non-alcoholic side, 50 cents got you a glass of Coca Cola, Sprite, Club Soda, Ginger Ale, Seven Up or Tonic Water, while 60 cents got you a tin. Orange, tomato and grapefruit juice were all 75 cents, whereas at breakfast on Royal Caribbean to-day one must pay $2.50 additional to get the freshly-squeezed variety of orange juice.

From that lowly $1.60 Martini of 1983, many ships, but particularly those of Celebrity Cruises, now have their own Martini bars, while others have specialty Martini menus. Cruise lines to-day sell Martinis for $9.00-10.00, or even more, even $15.75 if it’s Grey Goose vodka. Just what makes people think that the French can make good vodka isn’t clear except that Bacardi bought the brand for $2 billion in 2004.

Typically now, it costs around $4.00-$6.00 for a beer and around $6.00-$8.00 for a drink. Prices to-day are more typical of shore-based hotels and drinks have become a huge profit centre for cruise lines since they abandoned the idea of selling them duty free. That huge margin of tax and duty that has been saved goes straight into cruise line coffers. The same is true, of course, for wines.

BuzzNet Tags: Azure Seas,Western Cruise Lines

Why Some European Cruise Lines Now Avoid America

by Kevin Griffin of The Cruise People writing in cybercruises.com

We read recently how when P&O Cruises’ Arcadia called on Los Angeles on May 26, during a 72-night return cruise from Southampton to Alaska, her clearance was delayed for seven hours by US Homeland Security. Not only were her 2,000 mostly elderly passengers delayed, but there also seemed to be no real reason for it, the ship having visited only US and Canadian ports since her May 7 inward call at San Francisco.

Despite this, and even though all had completed applications for multiple-entry ESTA visas, her passengers were subjected to detailed passport checks, extensive background interviews, and full biometric checks, including fingerprints of both hands and retina scans. In the end, although some were off the ship before 11 am, all the ship’s passengers were not cleared until 4:30 in the afternoon and P&O had to extend her Los Angeles call by a day and drop a call at Roatan in order reach Fort Lauderdale on schedule later in the cruise.

A June story in the “Daily Telegraph” reported that Arcadia’s passengers “had already been given advance clearance for multiple entries to the country during their trip,” but “when a handful of them questioned whether the lengthy security checks at the port were strictly necessary for a group of largely elderly travellers, officials were not amused.” It seemed like retaliation. Surely, one of the courses administered at Homeland Security should be manners. In the meantime, with similar stories being heard from US airports, behaviour like this is sending business away from American shores and hurting their economy. There must be a better way.

Arcadia had left Southampton on April 12 for the Caribbean, Mexico, the US West Coast, Alaska and British Columbia, with visits planned at no fewer than nineteen US ports, three on the West Coast, eight in Alaska (three of which were for sightseeing), and six on the East Coast. With that number of visits, it seems surprising that the ship had such trouble in Los Angeles, her eleventh US port, when she arrived from Vancouver, particularly so as it was during this cruise that the world learned that Osama bin Laden was dead.

But the story finally made public something that has been going on for several years and usually escapes the news. The cause of these problems is that invariably on the arrival of a “foreign” cruise ship, as opposed to one that is operated locally in or from the United States, Homeland Security want what they call a “face check,” that is they want to see every passenger individually.

The time taken to do this literally turns a cruise ship into something more closely resembling an immigrant ship, and the delays incurred have several times shortened passengers’ time in port by anything between three and eight hours. One important result is cancelled shore excursions, there not having been time to perform them after Homeland Security had done their detailed checks.

This treatment of foreign cruise ships by Homeland Security, who have more recently been using the less threatening and more sensible name of its Customs and Border Protection (CBP) section, is costing the US both money and visitors as foreign cruise lines decide it is no longer worth it to call at United States ports. One by one, lines have been forced to make these decisions by their own clientele, who are often elderly and hardly threatening, as the lines cannot afford to subject them to the kind of examination and greeting that has been meted out in recent years by US officials.

To cite just one example, Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines have this year planned a 28-night cruise that will go only to Canada. In five weeks time, on September 5, Balmoral will leave Southampton for Cobh, Halifax, Sydney, Charlottetown, Port Saguenay, Quebec, Trois-Rivières and Montreal, and return by way of Baie Comeau, Gaspé and St John’s, Newfoundland.
In 2009, when  Balmoral left Dover on September 26 for a similar 40-night cruise, she had turned at Montreal and then headed for the delights of New England and New York. But after what is now apparently a typical Homeland Security delay, in this case in Boston,  Balmoral did not return to North America in 2010, and this year’s cruise will make no calls at all in the United States

To go back a bit,  Balmoral had already been subjected to a number of indignities by US bureaucrats in 2008. In that year, just after Fred Olsen had her lengthened, she was sent to Florida to run a small series of cruises out of Miami. On her maiden arrival on March 1, US Coast Guard and US Public Health inspections are said to have forced the line to disembark her passengers two days early, putting them up in local hotels while the authorities did their inspections. While this may have been a decision made by Fred. Olsen in order to ease the inspections, this was not how the voyage had been booked, and in addition to using hotels such as the Hilton, the line gave its passengers a two-day refund, a future cruise credit, a daily food allowance and free shuttle buses to Miami Beach, all of course at some expense.

Passengers on subsequent cruises from Miami still complained of intimidating immigration officers at Miami airport and continual delays in the baggage hall. Although Fred. Olsen also tried a Miami season of big band cruises by the smaller Braemar that autumn, in the end it never repeated the experiment and Miami lost a potential cruise customer.

In 2009 and subsequent years Balmoral went on World Cruises instead, but even there there have been changes. In 2009, sailing eastbound, she visited Alaska Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego, and in subsequent years went westbound, calling in Los Angeles and San Francisco in 2010 and 2011 before crossing to Australia. But next year, Balmoral will make no calls at all at US ports. Instead, she will go eastbound again, making four calls in South America before returning to Britain via the Caribbean. But the United States has not been completely ruled out by Fred. Olsen as Black Watch will call at New Orleans and Galveston in the early part of her 2012 Round South America cruise.

Fred. Olsen might have made some breakthrough though, as  Balmoral is scheduled to return to New York in April 2012, operating on charter to Miles Morgan Travel, as she repeats the famous voyage planned but not completed by Titanic 100 years earlier.

Even before Balmoral’s first call in Miami, on December 14, 2006, Hapag-Lloyd had offered a 9-night Caribbean cruise from Fort Lauderdale, expecting to elicit further interest in their product from the American public, especially as Europa had not typically been calling at US ports. But it was at Fort Lauderdale that a CBP passenger inspection of just 400 passengers took more than three hours and excursions had to be delayed or passengers missed them completely. It was at this stage that Hapag-Lloyd decided to reduce the number of calls Europa made to US ports and the result was that on last year’s World Cruise the only US port she called at was Honolulu.

Only recently has Europa made US calls again when she visited California this April and the opportunity was taken to introduce the new Columbus 2 and Europa 2, which are being introduced in 2012 and 2013 respectively, in the US market. After crossing the Pacific, she made calls at San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego. She also made five calls in Hawaii this year. But compared with 2,000 passengers on Arcadia, it takes much less time to process the Europa’s 400, so Hapag-Lloyd have recently been able to return to the US, at least to a small extent. This November Europa will make a Transatlantic voyage from Lisbon to Miami, a switch from Fort Lauderdale, possibly to avoid having to deal with the same CBP agents.

However, Hapag-Lloyd has also called at US ports with its other ships. In May 2008, for example, Bremen operated a 16-night coastal cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Halifax, and Hanseatic makes calls in Alaska each summer. But with Columbus completing her last Great Lakes season this autumn, there will be fewer US calls by Hapag-Lloyd ships.

Even in the Great Lakes, Hapag-Lloyd have had trouble. At one US port, on arrival from Canada, CBP had proposed removing all the passenger’s luggage from the ship in mid-cruise so that it could be inspected and the ship cleared! And Mackinac Island has now lost all calls by non-US ships because to install CBP’s facility requirements would cost $150 for every passenger landed, or three times the onerous Alaska head tax (that has since been reduced) just for one island.

Even Saga Cruises, which operates Saga Ruby and will introduce the Saga Sapphire next spring, as well as Quest for Adventure, is contemplating dropping calls on US ports. With its ships carrying nothing but “foreign” passengers as far as the American authorities are concerned, Saga is in the same position as Fred. Olsen and Hapag-Lloyd, or even P&O Cruises with Arcadia. Others question whether it’s worth going through the expense of raising railings to 54 inches and putting peepholes in all doors as required under the 2010 Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act.

One thing that is striking is that many of these bureaucratic measures have only come about fairly recently. The terrorist attacks on the United States happened in September 2001 but in April 2008 CBP were still talking about fingerprinting non-US citizens boarding cruise ships departing the United States (!) and in May 2010 about requiring cruise lines to hand over passenger reservation information to CBP, as is done with the airlines. This is years and years after the original event and although the measures seem pointless, a culture now seems to exist in the United States whereby few are willing to object to these costly proposals. In the case of fingerprinting, for example, Homeland Security has proposed contracting this function out to private industry.

Although Homeland Security officials believe cruise ships could become terrorist targets, a 2010 intelligence report from the National Maritime Intelligence Center (NMIC) of the US military found no credible terrorist threat to cruise ships existed. And as there is no sign of progress ahead, many ships will continue to avoid US ports.