Cruise Lines

The agreement that brings five additional cruises to the port of Baltimore next summer carries the promise of even more business as other cruise companies watch closely for expansion possibilities in new markets.Ed Didion, president of Didion World Cruises of Washington already is talking about increasing those five new cruises to seven or eight in 2001, if all goes well during the July 2000 season."I feel confident that if we fill this up, we'll continue to do this and build this up incrementally," he said yesterday at a formal signing of an agreement with Premier Cruise Lines.

It is not nearly as romantic as a message in a bottle, but electronic mail is certainly a much faster and more efficient way to communicate with friends and family back on shore from a ship at sea. For example, passengers on the Norwegian Sky, the first ship to offer 24-hour Internet access to passengers, were able to write home instantly when the ship, on one of its first voyages, ran aground in Canada last month.This inauspicious beginning for this new era of floating e-mail access notwithstanding, nearly every other major cruise line is also going full speed ahead to equip its ships with Internet-connected computers.

Every ocean cruise comes wrapped in the myth that the harried traveler finally gets away from it all. No telephones, no traffic, no nothing -- just lots of time and an endless expanse of sparkling water. It offers leisure in the most concentrated form to be found outside a flotation tank.The cruise lines know better. Doing nothing is highly stressful, which is why many of them have entertainment divisions working day and night to ensure that passengers never have to confront an idle moment.

Many passengers have long presumed that port fees are merely a pass-along of various taxes and government levies that ports require cruise lines and their passengers to pay when they come to dock. It's long been the cruise industry's custom to exclude those fees (anywhere from $80 to $200, depending on the itinerary) from the fare figure advertised in large print by cruise lines.But over the last several years port fees have inflated, with many cruise lines adding other nongovernment expenses in with them, including payroll expenses, tugboat fees and phone bills.

A growing number of time-share operators are offering the option of spending time at sea. The cruises are not actual time shares, but rather are options that time-share owners can take in lieu of their land-based weeks.Traditionally, time-share owners have only been able to trade, say, a Thanksgiving week in Maui for a week at another vacation-ownership resort. A trade typically involves swapping your week for someone else's. The bartering usually is done by either of two major time-share exchange companies, Interval International or Resort Condominiums International.

For nonsmokers, boarding a cruise ship can be like taking a trip back in time: Other people seem to be smoking cigarettes everywhere.In recent years, some cruise lines have eliminated smoking in dining rooms, main showrooms and/or theaters aboard their ships. Others have smoking and no-smoking sections in dining rooms, showrooms and large lounges.However, smoking is largely unrestricted in casinos, bars and other indoor public areas -- even corridors -- aboard many ships. It's a shock to people who are seldom or never around cigarette smoke.

Recently a number of cruise lines, big and small, announced that smokers are not welcome. In fact, they have introduced not only smoke-free interiors and a smoke-free ship but also an entirely smoke-free cruise line.For years, smokers have been consigned to the hinterlands, restricted to smoking only on designated sections on ships, most commonly bars, staterooms and outer decks.Clipper Cruise Line may have been the first to outlaw smoking altogether inside a ship. Last November, Clipper announced that, though passengers may smoke on the outer decks, smoking no longer would be permitted in any interior areas of its 100-passenger ships.

Responding to demand from health-conscious repeat passengers, and trying to attract a new clientele among younger vacationers, most cruise lines -- especially those plying the youthful Caribbean and Mexico markets -- have lightened up their menus while beefing up athletic activities.Salad bars have become standard luncheon fare on the buffet deck, vegetarian entrees and simply broiled chicken and fish dishes have joined the mix of red meats in the main dining room, and menus proliferate with asterisks denoting low-cal appetizers, entrees and desserts.

If I could pick a perfect cruise, I would ask for smooth seas, bargain rates, good food and Charles Rittenhouse dance lessons.Rittenhouse, who lives in New York between sailings, has made 39 cruises in his 60-some years, 25 of them as a dance instructor aboard Costa, Norwegian, Celebrity and other cruise lines. A recent memorable voyage was on Celebrity's Meridian, sailing through Hurricane Bertha on the way home from Bermuda.As the ship tossed in mountainous waves, Rittenhouse held his Saturday-morning dance class as usual, running through the rumba, cha-cha, Lindy, reggae.

Is bigger better?That is a question the cruise world will soon find out. Next month, the world's largest cruise ship, the 102,000-ton Carnival Destiny, takes to the seas. It will sail the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean on its way to the Caribbean. It is too large to fit through the Panama Canal.Passengers on the Destiny probably won't be thinking about the Panama Canal, however, because this ship will be a wonder in itself. The Destiny will also have many innovative design features -- features that just may help attract more vacationers to the sea because it will appeal to those who think a cruise is too confining or sedentary.

Two captains. Two ships. One city: Baltimore. One word: Pride. That was the scene last week as the Carnival Pride, a Carnival Cruise Lines' ship, sailed into the Port of Baltimore to begin year-round sailings to the Bahamas, Florida and the Caribbean. On board was a host of travel agents, hotel owners, tourism groups, city officials, media and politicians, including Gov. Martin O'Malley, U.S. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, U.S. Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin, Baltimore County Executive Jim Smith, Maryland Secretary of Transportation John D. Porcari - recently tapped for a spot in the Obama administration - and Jan Miles, captain of the Pride of Baltimore II. It was a charming welcome committee that greeted Carnival executives who pledged to do more than simply sail in and out of Baltimore.

There's something about not having a job that can really get in the way of travel plans. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it may have something to do with vacations being less important than feeding your family or putting a roof over your head. The economic crisis as well as the stomach-tumbling drops of the stock market are making Americans feel insecure about summer vacation plans. That's why travel providers, including airlines and cruise lines, are trying to give you a safety net. JetBlue was first out of the gate with its promise to refund passengers' airfare in full if you lose your job after purchasing a ticket and notify the airline within two weeks of the planned flight.

Casual-dress men, take heart: When you sail the seven seas, you can now leave that tux at home. Instead of a "formal" night, Carnival Cruise Lines now offers a "cruise elegant" evening. Other lines offer casual-dining alternatives for those who don't want to change out of their shorts. Still other lines have tossed the dress-up concept into the ocean. The thinking at Carnival: Requiring a tux was out of sync with the idea of a "fun" ship - and not always practical for someone dashing back from a late shore tour of horseback riding, snorkeling or a safari.

Vacationers who hit the high seas in 2009 will find a treasure-trove of bargains - and that's not all. At least 14 new ships, including the world's biggest behemoth and two intimate luxury vessels, plus innovative facilities and more U.S. departures, are on the way. Unlike your stock portfolio and many businesses these days, cruising is a growing enterprise. Cruise Lines International Association, the industry's largest North American organization, says its members expect to carry 13.5 million passengers this year, up from 13.2 million in 2008 and 12.6 million in 2007.

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Speaking of cruises, did you know Baltimore is becoming a year-round cruise port? After dropping anchor in Maryland a number of years ago, several cruise lines pulled out leaving Maryland cruise fans bereft. But now these same cruise lovers are going to be in heaven in 2009, as several cruise lines have been lured back to Baltimore. Earlier this year, Carnival announced that the Carnival Pride would offer cruises from South Locust Point in September 2009. Then just last week, the governor's office announced that the Celebrity Cruises ship, the Celebrity Mercury, will begin sailing from Baltimore next November.

For a winter cruising forecast, we tapped the expertise of Carolyn Spencer Brown, editor of Cruise Critic.com, the Web's largest interactive guide to cruising. The site covers nearly 300 cruise ships and more than 60 cruise lines. Here is an edited version of our discussion. What will cruise pricing look like for this winter and into 2009? What we are going to see ... in fact, what we are already seeing in the last month ... are absolutely amazing discounts. Most people buy cruises a fair amount of time in advance.

In today's tough economy, cruising can offer travelers a good value - lodging, food, entertainment - all for a pre-set price. But the "not-included" fees and onboard "extras" add up fast onboard cruise ships. Soda and cocktails, shore excursions, gratuities, photos, spa treatments, tuxedo rentals, Internet access and more are available at sea - for a charge. Passengers who research and plan before embarking on their cruise vacation can help themselves have fun and avoid a shocking bill at home port.

We stood between a sentinel of Inuit guides armed with rifles on Akpatok Island, an uninhabited outcropping of 700-foot-high cliffs, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. We arrived here at the edge of the Canadian boreal forest a few hundred miles below the North Pole aboard a small vessel operated by Cruise North Expeditions, an Inuit-owned cruise line. The lure: to experience the grandeur of nature in this desolate, frozen land near the top of the world. On Akpatok, the guides' eyes fixed on the horizon, watching beds of lingering snow for itinerant polar bears.

A lot of us have sampled cruising - a winter Caribbean cruise here, a Baltimore-to-Bermuda cruise there. Now imagine visiting more than 100 ports across the globe on a floating luxury hotel over a three- to four-month period. Throw in a butler - and what's not to like? World cruising, as it's called, is one of the industry's emerging trends. Why? Because travelers are no longer waiting to retire to take the cruise of their dreams, according to Carolyn Spencer Brown, editor of CruiseCritic.