January 3, 2010

Colorado Springs, CO, Red Carpet Cruises, Celebrity Equinox Caribbean Cruise

Celebrity Cruises; 80% of the luxury cruise experience, 20% of the price?

Well we’ve finally closed the book on 2009 and like 2008 it was another year most of us would rather forget.  The forecast for 2010 seems to be more of the same for the first half of the year before the economy hopefully starts to turn around.

So you wouldn’t think that’s the background I’d open with to talk to you about cruise vacations would it?  But give me a few minutes to explain why.

I turned 55 in June.  Turning 30, 40 and even the big 5 0 didn’t bother me at all.  But 55 was the one that got my attention.  My wife Crystal is home for good now after a twenty-year career in the Air Force.  I promised her when she retired that I’d start to slow down with work and we’d start spending some time traveling together.  Up to this year I haven’t kept that promise.

Crystal at 47 has already traveled all over the world during her Air Force career; South Africa, Hawaii, Guam, Turkey, Afghanistan, England, Ireland, Denmark, Canada, Greenland, Italy, France, Spain, Austria, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Croatia, Germany, Mexico, Alaska, the Caribbean.

Me on the other hand?  Alaska and the Caribbean, that's it.  That's all of the world I'd seen coming into 2009.  So as I approached my 55th birthday a little voice in the back of my head started nagging me about that promise I made to my wife.

As part of my CLIA (Cruise Line International Association) certification program, I completed a rather extensive (and hard!) world geography course.  I hated geography in high school but now I find myself absolutely fascinated by this world we live in, the fantastic places there are to see and the adventures waiting to be experienced.  The travel bug has finally bitten me.

Me on the other hand?  Alaska and the Caribbean, that's it.  That's all of the world I'd seen coming into 2009.  So as I approached my 55th birthday a little voice in the back of my head started nagging me about that promise I made to my wife.

Unfortunately, there’s usually that little discrepancy between what we’d LIKE to do and what we can AFFORD to do.  For most of us, there’s that annoying reality of having to earn a living and pay the bills.  Crystal and I are no different. 

That’s why we started Red Carpet Cruises last year.  It’s way too much fun to be called a business.  It’s a new challenge that I’m enjoying immensely and most importantly, it’s a perfect fit for us.  We were married on a cruise, we both love to cruise and we see it as the most stress free, economical and enjoyable way to travel and see the world. 

I finally started making good on my promise this year.  We had a great time on an Eastern Caribbean cruise in February.  Then in April we did a wonderful 15-day Panama Canal/South America cruise.  Both of these cruises were with Celebrity.

Which finally leads me back to the focus of this article, luxury cruising for the rest of us. I’ve been doing a ton of research on cruise lines and ships since we started our Red Carpet Cruises business.  I’ve personally cruised on six different lines now (Disney, Royal Caribbean, Cunard, Princess, Holland America, Celebrity), each of them a wonderful but different experience.

Royal Caribbean is classified as a mass-market cruise line and is considered ‘First Class’ cruising.  Princess, Celebrity and Holland America are considered the next step up, ‘Premium’ accommodations.  The next step up from Premium until recently was the Luxury category (Crystal Cruises, Regent, Cunard).

The price difference between a First Class and a Premium cruise for a standard verandah (balcony) stateroom is generally not that much, generally less then $200.00.  The difference however between Premium and Luxury cruise pricing is huge (usually multi thousands). 

You definitely will get what you pay for on a luxury cruise vacation but what you pay will be… a lot (10K or more depending on the itinerary is not unusual) and probably out of realistic reach for most of us, especially if this is something we’d like to do on a yearly basis.

However there is a relatively young cruise line that seems to have created a niche and a rapidly growing reputation in the industry with the 2008 introduction of a brand new type of cruise ship that is being defined as ‘Deluxe Cruising’, a new classification between the traditional Premium and Luxury segments.

This ship offers many of the amenities, five-star gourmet dining experiences, upgraded stateroom accommodations and entertainment of a true luxury cruise line but at a price that’s only slightly more expensive then Premium cruise lines. 

What this cruise line and new class of ship offers in my opinion is 80% of a genuine luxury cruise experience, for only 20% of the luxury cost.  I believe it’s a unique opportunity to affordably see the world, in extraordinary style.

This is Celebrity Cruise Line and their new ships are called Solstice class megaships.  Approximately 25,000 readers of the prestigious Conde Nast Travelers Magazine voted Solstice ‘Best Megaship’ in their 2009 Reader’s Choice Awards. 

The Solstice completed her maiden voyage in December, 2008.  Her sister ship Equinox (which we sailed on in December), made her debut in July of 2009.  Three more Solstice class ships are coming.  Eclipse, makes her maiden voyage in July of 2010, Silhouette in 2011 and a fifth and as yet unnamed ship in 2012.  Between the five ships they will sail to destinations all around the world and expand Celebrity’s current worldwide ports of call.

Solstice class ships can accommodate 2,850 passengers, much more then the typical smaller luxury cruise ship (150-700).  That’s one of the reasons they can offer their staterooms for so much less, as more passengers per sailing lowers the overall cost for each. 

However the crew to passenger ratio is a remarkable one per two, so the service level is still extremely high quality and the ‘space ratio’ of Solstice ships is huge.   Space ratio refers to the perceived ‘elbow room’ of a cruise ship, the feeling of roominess.  It’s the ratio of total passengers to the size of the ship.  Typical space ratios for First Class and many Premium class ships range from the low to mid 30’s. 

Luxury cruise ships are smaller but have far fewer passengers and generally have space ratios in the low to mid 50’s, a big difference.  The Solstice, measuring 122,000 gross tonnes in size (three and a half football fields) has a space ratio of 43!

Crystal and I sailed on the Solstice in February to the Eastern Caribbean and it was no co-incidence.  I wanted to see if the actual experience of this fantastic new megaship lived up to all the hype.  After all, that’s the value of a professional cruise specialist isn’t it, first hand experience? 

Well, this ship lived up to its advance billing in spades!  So much so that we jumped at the chance to sail on the Equinox in December as our mutual Christmas gift to each other.  If you’d like to read my reviews of both of these cruises (complete with pics and video clips) just go to our Red Carpet Cruises website and look under ‘Ric’s Travel Log’ on the home page.

So here’s the bottom line for me.  One way or another Crystal and I are going to find the time and money to take at least one cruise each year to a new destination.  Now I don’t know if I could bring myself to spend $10,000.00+ on a single cruise vacation (if Crystal finally wins the Powerball maybe I’ll reconsider that last statement).

Here’s what I do know; I think a far greater value for me (and most of us) would be the 80/20 proposition that Celebrity’s Solstice ships now offer.  For the same $10,000.00 I could take up to 3 cruises, to 3 different destinations around the world and experience a level of service, sophistication and pampering along the way that makes me feel like I had won the Powerball!

We did exactly that in 2009.  Crystal and I cruised three times on Celebrity this year (7-day Eastern Caribbean in February, 15-day Panama Canal/South America in April, 10-day Southern Caribbean in December).  Total cost for the three cruises came out to just under $10,000.00 for 32 glorious days of pampering, great food and cruising the world taking in new sights.

So I’ve become a Celebrity cruise specialist.  Celebrity recently introduced what they call their 5-Star Academy certification for cruise agents that I’ve completed and passed.  It’s a comprehensive study on Celebrity, their culture, fleet, destinations, services, stateroom accommodations, cuisine, shipboard amenities and much more.  Red Carpet Cruises is one of only two accredited 5-Star Celebrity Cruise agencies in Colorado Springs.

We’ll still be offering you cruises from all the major cruise lines and we’ll know them all inside and out.  However for me Celebrity just seems a perfect fit for where I currently am in my life, finances and age. I think it’s an unbeatable value for many of you as well that would like to experience a decidedly upscale, sophisticated cruise experience in a truly state-of-the-art ship.

As an example, the total price (excluding airfare) for our recent 10-day Equinox Southern Caribbean cruise that included five ports of call (St. Maarten, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, Barbados, St. Thomas) was just  $1,535.37 per person ($3,070.74 per stateroom).  That’s everything; cruise fare, port fees, taxes, gratuities, meals, entertainment, on-board activities, daily house keeping and too much more to mention here! 

Keep in mind that this price was not for the Solstice’s standard verandah stateroom but an upgraded Aqua Class stateroom which has a number of extra room and spa amenity perks included and private nightly dining reserved for Aqua Class guests only, in one of their intimate specialty (per diem) restaurants, Blu, at no additional charge!

So if you’re looking for a deluxe cruise experience at an incredibly affordable price, please consider Celebrity for your next cruise.

Until next time, remember; if you’re not using a cruise agent, you’re on your own!

Ric

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