Over the years, we’ve been on two ocean cruises and a short river cruise (as part of a tour). These haven’t been “top of the range” cruises, but it has given us an insight into what’s involved with this form of travel.
Certainly the industry is conducting an email campaign to retain enthusiasm for cruising and to reassure the client base that it is taking the COVID-19 issues seriously.
Likewise, there have been lots of advertisements in the print media (such as the weekend “travel” pages), and there have been a few upbeat reports from industry sources about the enthusiasm for past cruisers to resume their travels.
I’m not sure how widespread this sentiment is, but I can imagine that within the “cruise demographic”, it may well have some currency. In fact, a friend has tentatively booked not one but two cruises for future years! Another friend is actively planning what they might do. I’m told that the deposits are relatively modest and are a good insurance against the possibility that the cost of cruising is likely to rise, given that post-virus, passenger and crew densities are likely to have to be lower, and there are likely to be additional operating costs. Just the same, although the mid-range cruise passenger is often looking for a “good deal” I suspect that if prices do generally increase across the board, then the cost of itself won’t be an issue for many of those that have been “regulars” in the past.
A glossy brochure for a cruise company fell out of last Sunday’s newspaper. It encouraged us to book for a cruise in 2021 or the following couple of years, perhaps in Europe or North America. I love the optimism.
On the same day, there was a report that cruise ships are being broken up for scrap, and a Federal Minister stated that he thought it unlikely that travel to Europe and North America would occur until the end of 2021.
True, right now an Australian citizen can get an exit permit to travel if you say that you’re going to be away for 3 months or more. But – there’s absolutely no guarantee that you’ll get a place in the very limited quarantine facilities if you decide to return. Moreover, given the “Do Not Travel” advisories in place for all overseas travel, I would think that it would be very hard to get travel insurance.
Of course, we’re all hoping that things change more quickly than seems likely at the present time. One possible scenario is that if (!) a vaccine becomes available, the current hotel quarantine system will be changed to allow “self-isolation”. This is widely used in other countries (and even in Australia, celebrities have been granted special privileges), but given the highly-politicised issues with the current system in Australia, perhaps we can’t count on any widespread relaxation of the regime anytime soon.
It’s very tragic to hear about the volcanic eruption on White Island in which a number of tourists lost their lives. Some (many?) of those involved were on an excursion to the island from a cruise ship docked at Tauranga- or more accurately, the port of Mt Maunganui.
Well, we’ve been there on a cruise ship. But I don’t recall an excursion to White Island, which is some distance out in the Bay of Plenty, even being offered. And I must say, it’s not the type of activity that would interest me!
Of course, the region is well known for its seismic activity. I certainly took notice of the evacuation routes around town in the event of a tsunami.
We have been to Portarlington on odd occasions over the years, and when we were there recently, it still had a “small village” appeal. However, one of the locals told us that the ferry has been “good” for the town, in that it brings visitors down from the city. I wonder how long it will take for the character of the place to change. Already, new apartments are being built next to the hotel, and there are roadworks going on to build a Drysdale bypass which will speed up access by car.
I see that the ferry commenced in 2016, seemingly with government support (I wonder how much it’s costing us taxpayers?)
We went down the Bellarine peninsula again on a group trip to Portarlington. This involved taking the ferry from Docklands to Portarlington, a bus transfer to the golf club for lunch, then returning to the shops for a short time before re-joining the ferry back to Docklands.
The ferry is modern with coffee etc available on board. The trip takes 80 minutes. It’s slow going down the river, but the speed picks up in the open water of the Bay. Some of the smaller craft seemed to be making heavy weather of the choppy surface, but there was barely any movement on the ferry at all.
The ferry passed the dragon boats practising, and under the Bolte and Westgate Bridges. Williamstown was quite some distance away, and then there was a lot of quite open water until Portarlington, where we transferred into buses for the ride up the hill to the golfclub.
The lunch was typical “club” fare, and there wasn’t much of a view, but was generous and there was a reasonable choice. A glass of house wine or beer was included, but better quality wine was available at the bar. Some of the group tried their hand at the pokies, but many of us accepted a transfer back into town so as to have some time to look around before the ferry departed.
Portarlington isn’t a big town, but it was interesting to walk around. Unfortunately, there was a shower, which “dampened” things somewhat. So we made our way back to the ferry – and I dozed for a large part of the return trip!
I’ve previously posted observations about New Zealand, which we’ve visited a number of times over the years. But perhaps a few updated reflections might be OK? Well, here goes anyway.
At the outset (as on previous trips), we were met with friendliness wherever we went. Even the security people were often good for a welcoming comment. Why so much security, though, eludes me. Sometimes when re-boarding we were checked three or more times. Yes, I know, there was local wharf security, and the ship’s own security, but still…. Just for the record, none of the checking involved immigration issues. Although we were advised to take our passports ashore, when re-boarding they were just sighted as an identity check and any government-issued photo ID would have sufficed.
Even when disembarking in Melbourne, although our passports were sighted, we didn’t have to go though an immigration check. I’m not sure whether the same applied to people travelling on a non-Australian passport.
A particular quirk of mine, of course, is access to wi fi. This was usually readily available in every port. True, it cost me a cappuccino (which I wanted anyway) in Mount Maunganui, but at other ports I didn’t even have to do this (although as it happened, in Auckland we were having coffee and since wi fi was available, I used it). At Port Chalmers and Auckland, it was provided in the departure terminal; in Wellington, it’s available all around town although I actually used the museum’s wi fi (there are even power outlets there); in Arakoa, I used the local library (outside) but I also saw a sign at one cafe at least. In short, nearly every cafe has wi fi these days; you just have to ask for the password.
I was struck by the vibe of Mount Maumganui. As I’ve already commented, it feels a little like a mini-Gold Coast, but of course on a much smaller scale. The area seems to appeal to the “mature demographic” (perhaps looking for a sea-change) but the tsanami instructions around the place would trouble me!!
The crew on shore leave at Mount Maunganui knew where to find wi fi, all on their phones outside the Asian groceries store!
I think ocean cruising is best regarded as a fair weather activity, almost a floating “resort” (at least, on ship’s the size we went on). There’s lots of deck space devoted to pools and lounging about. But the Melbourne/New Zealand loop isn’t the warmest part of the world, even in February.
Ice carvings
There were the nightly shows of course, but in addition quite a busy program was offered. To mention a few: an ice carving demonstration (impressive); bingo; aerobics sessions; bridge (I didn’t look in on this); various musical performances around the ship; trivia competitions, plus the usual eating (and more eating), art ”auctions”, sales pitches for various clothing and jewellery lines, movies and the like. On one “sea” day, there was a backstage tour of the main theatre, and on another, a walk-through of the main galley; I thought both of these were interesting.
The nightly shows were mostly very good. One of the shows was a “Born to Dance” review, which show-cased the exceptional talents in this area of the 14-strong singing/dancing ensemble. Along with Las Vegas casinos, cruise ships are apparently a major source of employment for near-Broadway standard dancers. The positions are highly sought-after and not many get past the audition phase. They’re supported by a 6 piece orchestra.
At the “behind the scenes” session we were told that four of the ensemble are singers and 10 are dancers , although the singers also dance and the dancers also sing. There’s also a technical production crew. The group on our ship had signed 18 month contracts, working as a group on three different ships, each for 5 or 6 months, with a break of a few weeks between the stints. Other performers are offered six month contracts. Each show is rehearsed at the cruise line’s facilities near Los Angeles, and each group has a repertoire of 4 or 5 shows (but the cast members also have other duties by way of less full-on performances and other work). Each show is scheduled for 45 minutes.
If I had any minor criticism, it would be the musical style: always “big band”/noisy. Sometimes a quieter style would have appealed to me.
We didn’t get to either of the “specialty restaurants”, much beloved by Cruise Critic. Frankly, we couldn’t see the point. The normal main dining room food was fine, with a good choice of dishes (changed nightly), and the idea of paying extra for a fine-dining Italian restaurant or a beef-oriented “grill” didn’t seem to stack up. I would have thought that there might be more of a market for an up-market Asian (Chinese or Thai) restaurant, whch would have a completely different offering to the main dining rooms. However, this ship spends half its time in North America, and I suspect the choice of fine dining venues might be influenced by that.
I know I’ve already posted quite a few comments about the issues involved with cruising, at least the type of cruise we went on, but I want to indulge myself with just a few more!
The cabin, as I’ve mentioned, was fine. It wasn’t very big, and only had a single chair to sit on at the dressing table. However, it was well thought-out and the bed was fine.
The bed was comfortable
There’s no easy chair – but there are lounge-type chairs on the balcony, although these didn’t get much use because the weather, at least on the transits of the Tasman Sea, was pretty dreary. If the lack of an easy chair is an issue, then obviously you’d want a mini-suite (at least). But the bathroom is very “compact”, particularly the shower.
Bathroom adequate but “compact”
In a couple of discussions around the ship, I was surprised that the sample of people I spoke to people all appear to have used travel agents to make their booking. Perhaps this follows from the demographic? In one case, they had no idea that the booking process allows you to select a specific cabin (if you wish – as we did). Likewise, our last-minute “move over” offer appears to have come through because our booking was on the cruise line’s web-site. I haven’t checked in detail, because it’s very hard to do so, but my hunch is that any saving to be made by booking through an on-line agency would be nominal, and I’d be most surprised if there’s any saving at all to be made by booking through a “bricks-and-mortar” agency.
In relation to the crew, I’ve previously mentioned the diverse composition. I kept my eyes and ears open for hints of the “hierarchy”. The categories, as I understand it, are officers (ship’s officers, that is), staff and crew. I’m not certain where the line is drawn between “staff” and “crew”; obviously the entertainers, shop and photography staff and reception people are “staff”, but where the dividing line is drawn in relation to the wait staff (dining room supervisors, for example), I’m not sure. As I understand the matter, the main significance of these distinctions is where each group takes their meals (see here), although the ship’s officers also have their own wardroom, whereas my impression is that everyone else shares a “crew bar”. Just how the apparently high morale is maintained at all levels eludes me. Clearly the creature comforts that are conferred on the “first world” passengers can only be because of the wage differential in different countries. But crew positions are sought-after, even with the long hours and extended periods away from home, so there would be even less opportunities for the people who perform this role if cruise lines didn’t exist. There’s always a nice smile and greeting.
Apparently cheerful wait staff
Morale is not the sort of thing you can impose, but I suppose careful selection procedures and reasonable working conditions (even if the hours seem tough to us) contribute.
I hadn’t factored in the weather conditions when I prepared the previous post. Guess what? Tropical Cyclone Oma was hovering somewhere near Queensland while we were in the middle of the Tasman Sea. We weren’t directly caught up – but it certainly seemed to affect the wind and meant we had what can best be described as a “bumpy” ride for a while. S was uncomfortable and took to bed for a time, although there still seemed to be plenty of passengers out and about around the ship.
But we made it to Melbourne on time, and A kindly collected us. My carefully scheduled arrangements proved too conservative – but A had out-thought me, and had arrived early, and by an amazing coincidence, we all arrived at the same point just near the car at the same time!
The sun was rising just as we berthed,
The cruise line manages most aspects of disembarkation quite well – except for the queue for taxis. This probably isn’t within their control, and someone (the port authority?) has installed a coffee facility next to the queue suggesting that the authorities are resigned to long delays. I estimate that at the time we walked past, the queue was at least 50 metres long, and to say that the taxis were only dibbling in is not over-stating it.
Yet pre-booked taxis (and Uber?) had to be picked up at the head of the pier, a much longer walk.
By the time this post appears we’ll be at sea crossing back over the Tasman Sea, so perhaps it’s an opportunity to reflect on a few aspects of cruising.
There are the basics, of course: if you want anything more than a small shower cubicle, you need to have a suite; there’s food (and drink, at a price) everywhere; and be aware of the likely demographics of your fellow cruisers. We can only speak about our experience, which took place out of the school holiday times and the age mix on our cruise certainly felt like an Australian aged care facility at times!
The staff on this cruise seem mainly to be Asian, including a lot of Filipinos. There are also Indians and I’ve spoken to people from China and Indonesia. This is in contrast to our previous cruise, where there was also a reasonable sprinkling of Central and Eastern European crew. On this cruise, there aren’t so many of these, just a sprinkling and usually in supervisory roles. There also seem to be a good representation of Italians among the ship’s officers (including the captain).
We’ll be back home soon, and I’ll probably have a few more reflections to post. After all, before getting home, I’ve got three “sea days” so there will be plenty of time to collect my thoughts. Actually the prospect of all this time with only shipboard life to contemplate is something of a worry! And the weather forecast isn’t looking great, so maybe I won’t be tempted to mimic a seal on a sun-lounge by the pool (anyway, my days of doing that are long past, if they ever existed). But I still have a couple of un-read books.
Certainly the industry is conducting an email campaign to retain enthusiasm for cruising and to reassure the client base that it is taking the COVID-19 issues seriously.
Musings and Mutterings 