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Onboard options raise the ante

Cruise lines are packing new ships with an ever-increasing array of amenities and activities, some at a fee. It's yours to choose.

By David G. Molyneaux, Special to the Times
Published October 14, 2007

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While sitting in the Caribbean sun atop the massive new Liberty of the Seas, you might get an afternoon hunger for ice cream.

But which ice cream? And how much do you want to pay?

You could saunter inside and take an elevator to the middle of the 4,000-passenger ship. Royal Caribbean's signature indoor Royal Promenade, longer than a football field, features a Ben & Jerry's scoop shop with a set of tables and chairs tailor-made for watching other passengers stroll past. Most items are less than $5 a portion.

Or, you could tootle aft to the popular indoor/outdoor Johnny Rockets diner for a milk shake at $3.60. You'll have to decide if the price is right because you'll be in a constant line of passengers bent on buying burgers and ogling enormous onion rings as they wait for a seat.

Or, you could amble over to the free soft serve machines on the pool deck, taking the tack that it's hard to turn down free ice cream after paying a thousand dollars or more for your week at sea out of Miami.

This is the new world of competitively priced cruising, where the joys of options on the new big ships come with the need to make choices, particularly about how you want to spend your time and money.

Whether it's ice cream, burgers, coffee or dinner, you may feast for free because such sustenance is included in the cruise price. Or, you may choose something a little special at an extra cost. If you want dinner in the top specialty restaurant, you'll need a reservation, perhaps days in advance.

Some cruisers now anticipate a hefty shipboard account, and they bring their calendars for planning out the days. The simple world of cruises past, where passengers trooped aboard and ate in lockstep, waiting to be called to tea, bingo and dinner every night, is mostly gone. You can still opt for a humdrum life aboard ships, but these days, even if you want simplicity, you have to work at it.

Mass-marketed cruise lines such as Carnival, Norwegian and Royal Caribbean have loaded their new ships with extras, topped by specialty restaurants and fancy spas. This trend of adding options is bound to continue as the most popular lines compete for new passengers with rock bottom pricing, while adding dining choices, activities and amenities for younger cruisers and more upscale guests at an extra charge to boost the revenue.

Suites, supper clubs and super splashes

Multiple choices begin with your cabin selection. Bedding down is not just choosing between an inside or outside cabin. Many outside cabins now offer a private balcony at a price that is about double the price of an inside cabin. Top suites on some of the newer ships go for as much as $2,000 a day per person, which is enough money to buy a week's cruise for two people in a lesser cabin on the same ship. And all inside cabins are not equal. On its largest ships, Royal Caribbean offers inside cabins with windows overlooking the Royal Promenade, while other inside cabins have four solid walls.

Following are innovative options aboard some of the more economical cruise lines: 

Carnival: On all its new ships, passengers may dress up for a reservations-only supper club, with prime steaks, chops, seafood, a top wine list and live music for dancing. Carnival's small supper clubs are not for everyone. Many passengers would find the dinner too time-consuming (course by course), the room too dressy (men are requested to wear jackets) and the meal too expensive, with a surcharge of $30 per person, which includes tip but not alcoholic beverages. With wine, this easily can be a $100 night, but if you are looking for an intimate evening away from the clamor of the big dining rooms, the supper club is a winner. Check out the extensive wine list; prices for some quality vintages are lower than you would fine in a restaurant on land. 

Norwegian: Taking a run at a younger, hipper traveler, including singles, NCL offers a free-spirited style of vacationing without structure and schedules, especially at meal time, which can be just about anytime you want. NCL has packed each of its new ships with 10 or more restaurants, some of which levy a surcharge of up to $20 per person.

At night, NCL ships have the buzz of a busy city neighborhood. Passengers bar-hop and examine menus outside restaurant doors, checking plasma screens that show which restaurants are full, moderately busy or nearly empty. Passengers who show up without reservations can put their names on a waiting list and are issued a pager that works anywhere on the ship.

The year-old Norwegian Pearl sports NCL's first rock climbing wall, as well as a four-lane bowling alley built into a sultry lounge called Bliss. Bowling costs $5 per game. 

Royal Caribbean: Since May 2006, Royal Caribbean, the cruise industry leader in the concept of turning behemoth ships into active floating resorts, has launched the world's two largest cruise ships, twins Freedom of the Seas and Liberty of the Seas.

On these ships, Royal Caribbean is also the leader in offering onboard options, both free and at a surcharge. Included in the price of the cruise, for instance, are nightly ice skating shows and activities such as skating in the ice rink, practicing in a golf simulator, climbing a rock wall and attempting to ride the gush of water that spews from a surf simulator. (This activity always draws a crowd to watch passengers test their surfing skills and occasionally lose their shorts.) Activities for a fee include boxing training (the PowerBox condition class is $15 and one-on-one training runs $210 per three sessions) or, for indoor play, a huge, techy arcade where games range from 75 cents to $1.45 per play.

The option-heavy Liberty of the Seas can add heavily to onboard expenses. But the occupants of inside cabin Number 6305 can count on at least one break. In this cabin, the view out the picture window facing the interior Royal Promenade is obscured by the rumps of two cows that stand on the sign over the Ben & Jerry's ice cream store. Folks in that cabin are compensated for their view with a free ice cream every day in the shop under the rumps.

David G. Molyneaux, editor of www.TravelMavens.net, writes about cruising, golf and journeys of discovery on his blog, www.TravelMaven.typepad.com.

[Last modified October 11, 2007, 14:21:07]