When a ship arrives carrying our friend and Ports and Bows colleague Phil Reimer, we know where you’ll find him. An early riser, Phil likes to be first off the ship…if possible.
As for us, not to much.
We’d be quite happy — unless there is an urgent travel commitment we have to keep — at being last off the ship. Yes, we’ll turn out the lights.
So now there are three cruise lines, at least, playing right into our hands. Celebrity has joined Royal Caribbean and Azamara in giving (make that selling) passengers the option of disembarking later. Or even after that.
Fundamentally, this seems like a good idea, although maybe not for the Phils of the cruise crowd. If you are off the ship by 10 a.m. and your flight (or whatever) is at 5 p.m., what are you going to do for six hours? Or more importantly, how much will you spend doing what you’re going to do?
In what is still an experiment, on select ships with all three cruise lines, you have to vacate your stateroom by 9 a.m., which makes sense because it’s turn-around day for the cleaners. After that you can more or less have the run of the ship for anywhere from noon until 90 minutes before it leaves.
On Azamara, a three-hour extension costs $25 per person and includes lunch. On Royal Caribbean and Celebrity, the tab is $35 or $59 to spend the day in a variety of places, including the gym, the spa and some type of eatery. Coincidentally, all three are owned by Royal Caribbean.
Because it’s experimental, it appears these cruise lines are testing the waters to establish a price point. How much will people pay to stay on the ship? Once they have the answer, it’ll be implemented fleet-wide and once they do do, watch how many other cruise lines follow suit.
This is too good an idea to go away.
Just not for Phil.
DAILY DEAL:
Disney Wonder
7 nights
October 23, 2011
Los Angeles (return), Puerto Vallarta, Cabo San Lucas (2 nights)
Inside $909
disneycruises.com