Tom Stieghorst
If someone told you three days at a theme park was the same as two weeks in Palm Beach, Fla., would you agree?
Probably not. Yet we talk about cruise vacations without distinguishing between products that are equally dissimilar.
I was on a four-day cruise to the Bahamas recently, part of Royal Caribbean International's expanded lineup of short cruises from Florida. (By 2020 Royal will have short cruises from all three big Florida ports).
The ship itself was great, but the experience was so different from recent luxury and expedition cruises I had been on that it might have been a completely different vacation deserving of a completely different name.
That's why it's not so far-fetched for Virgin Voyages to coin a new label for everything -- you know passengers are "sailors" and travel advisors are "first mates."
A short cruise, at least judging by the one I took on the Navigator of the Seas, is a big ship, late-night, pool-centric, buffet-packed extravaganza. There were few enrichment classes, unless they involved jewelry shops in Nassau. The ship itself was a theater, with a dramatic scale that never ceased to impress. The heart of the ship was a mall, not a concierge square, although Royal Caribbean prefers to call it a Royal Promenade.
But it was my fellow cruisers that really made the difference. They were on the whole much younger, more mobile, less wealthy and less well dressed than their counterparts on luxury ships. I saw more tattoos. I saw more odd hair. I saw more sleeveless T-shirts.
All of which is important to know if you're selling these ships. Are you selling the Navigator of the Seas or the Seven Seas Navigator? Similar names, different customers.
To be sure, all cruise vacations have certain things in common: The food and the entertainment is free. The cabins are smaller than comparable hotel rooms. Ceilings are low, there's usually an ocean view, and everyone has to go to the muster drill, big ship or small.
I have to say I enjoyed my four days with the short-cruise, Harleys-and-hamburgers crowd. It was refreshing to see a whole ship full of young people, rather than a whole ship of older folks for a change.
When I asked Vicki Freed, Royal's senior vice president of sales, trade support and services, why agents should sell sort cruises despite their lower price points, she said that showing a young couple or family a good time at a price they can afford could yield a lifetime customer who may be world-cruise candidates someday.
"You really have to look at it as the opportunity to expand your reach," Freed said. "If you're in it for the long term, you're going to make a lifetime of commissions on a lifetime of vacations for that consumer."