By Virginia López Valiente
Managing Director of Cruises News Media Group and Editor of CruisesNews magazine
Editorial from CruisesNews magazine no. 36 – March 2016
Not long ago, I was saying that I missed the "lost glamour" of the cruise vacation. It's not that there isn't glamour in taking a cruise, especially if you embark on a luxury one, but the cruise itself was an experience that was conceived as something not for everyone. That's what gave it an aura of exclusivity that made us long to one day experience it. At some point, when someone decided that Spain was a land of plenty and that Spaniards had plenty of money (or what others called living beyond our means), practically the entire global cruise fleet came to keep us company, and all hell broke loose.
This overwhelming supply of places meant that they searched high and low for passengers, consequently adjusting fares to suit the new travelers. We've all heard stories about tourists who had never traveled further than the beach 100 km away, but who, given the low price of the trip offered by the local travel agency, boarded one of the world's largest ships and tried to bring enough food for the whole week in case they didn't like what they found on board.
Cruise lovers with the appropriate purchasing power fled to other categories, and that's where premium and luxury companies came out on top, adjusting their prices to capture that niche. Call me snobbish if you want, but I admire their taste.
I'm not saying under any circumstances that not everyone can travel the way they want or can afford, and that a camping enthusiast can't also enjoy a cruise—we could go that far—but when I want to go camping, I go camping, and when I want to go on a cruise, I go on a cruise. I don't go camping on a cruise. The crisis hit us all before the cruise lines even had time to correct the mistake they'd made, and the market faltered. Certainly, now it seems they're regaining their footing as a vacation product. Some cruise lines are including beverage packages, but they're careful with their messaging so as not to seem to be encouraging people to throw bottles overboard. There's also been a push across the board for gastronomy: more restaurants, shows, exclusive customer clubs in loyalty programs, family cruises, unique experiences for children and teenagers, and so on.
Another aspect is the free children's season at certain times of the year, which made your July or August cruise a very relaxing experience, as you preferred to stay in your cabin and nap for most of the afternoon before venturing out to the pool. Some cruise lines have begun to recognize that not all those under 18 are children, of course, and not all of them travel for free. Prices are recovering beyond occasional offers, and winter cruises are becoming less of a novelty. I don't know if we'll ever regain lost ground in Europe, but if we do so with the foundations we've laid, cruising will continue to be a highly desirable experience, surpassing many others.
