Cruising: it’s not your parents’vacation anymore

New cruising trends appeal to a younger crowd

Cruise lines continue to diversify, with itineraries that seem to offer some- thing for everyone, from steeped-in-the- wild adventure cruises to massive floating resorts. But large or small, eco or culinary, most cruises today strive to connect passengers to local cultures.

“Cruise lines understand travelers want experiences,” said Carolyn Spencer Brown, editor of CruiseCritic.com. “Especially with the new-to-cruise market in their 30s and 40s, they want con- nections with the places they visit, and we’re seeing that at all price levels.”

A sense of experience drives the following six trends in cruising.

Far and away places

Though Caribbean-bound itineraries account for nearly a third of the market, increasingly more exotic itineraries are being offered, particularly aboard small ships with the nimbleness to call at less- developed ports.

SeaDream Yacht Club will chart a new course to Norway this summer. The 112-passenger SeaDream I will poke into fjords, dock for high-country hikes and feature Scandinavian cuisine, from break- fast herring to reindeer dinners.

Several lines are increasing depar- tures in New Guinea, including Lindblad Expeditions, which will offer three departures to Papua New Guinea in March, April and November, versus one last year. The Australian line North Star Cruises offers five different itineraries there, including a 36-passenger trip in October to Cenderawasih Bay in West Papua, where whale sharks gather to beg sardines from fishermen.

In the north, the 184-passenger Hanseatic from Hapag Lloyd will ship out for coastal Siberia in May on a 17- day trip from Shanghai to Otaru, Japan. And in June, Adventure Canada will visit Canada’s newest national park, Sable Island off Nova Scotia, reachable only by boat and home to wild horses and rare seabirds.

Slow cruising

A spate of new itineraries turns the downside of small ships — their limited range — into a bright-side asset, sacrificing that for depth by spending more time in one region.

Un-Cruise Adventures will route its 60-passenger Wilderness Adventurer to the Puget Sound and Salish Sea in Washington for a series of eight-day trips in spring and fall. Active excursions in- clude hiking in the Olympic Mountains, kayaking around Sucia Island and whale watching in the San Juan Islands.

Blount Small Ship Adventures’ 88- passenger Grande Mariner will spend 12 days in the Bahamas Out Islands in March and April, a first for the dualship line, including shore landings to swim, snorkel, beachcomb and attend a pirate-themed party.

In June, the 210-passenger Pearl Mist will make its first departure for the new line Pearl Seas Cruises. It will

spend the summer primarily in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway on 10- to 14-night itineraries, before plying the Canadian Maritime Provinces and New England in the fall.

Immersing in the destination

The mantra among voyage planners is local, local, local, touting immersive ex- periences ashore as well as onboard.

The Norwegian line Hurtigruten dives so deep into the destination, in fact, that it invites passengers to stay ashore — in Antarctica. Overnight camping has been a success; the crew had to hold lotteries to determine who was allowed to spend the night on the ice, outfitted with tents and below- zero-rated sleeping bags. Hurtigruten plans to offer overnight deck camping on its Arctic itineraries in Spitsbergen, Norway, for iceberg-watching under the midnight sun.

Lindblad Expeditions’ new ship, National Geographic Orion, sets sail this month with a remote-operated vehicle that can dive to 1,000 feet and shoot video while passengers scuba dive at safer depths on the Great Barrier Reef and in Micronesia.

Holland America brings the destination onboard via its “On Location” pro- gram, which features local artists, storytellers and entertainers. Guests can learn to play the didgeridoo and paint a boomerang in Australia, for example, or take French lessons in the Canadian itin- eraries. Noted regional chefs often join cruises from the Caribbean to Thailand to prepare local fare.

Cabin upgrades

For some cruisers the experience is about comfort. Cabins once felt closer to naval berths — small, efficient, purposeful sleeping quarters — than hotel rooms. But that model has changed with larger and more varied options in cabin design, often mimicking hotel trends.

Last spring, Seabourn introduced four penthouse spa suites on its 450-passenger Quest, and plans to add the rooms on two more ships, the Odyssey and Sojourn, this year. Located a flight above the spa, the one-bedroom suites match the décor of the spa and feature oversize showers, designer bath amenities and relaxing music soundtracks.

Perhaps to counter allergies as well as wariness of ship-borne viruses, Crystal Cruise’s 1,070-passenger Crystal Serenity was recently remodeled to include 70 spe- cially cleaned and maintained hypoallergenic staterooms outfitted with air filters. Its four top-level suites now resemble spacious apartments with floor-to-ceiling windows, dining areas, butler’s pantries and media rooms.

Operating like a hotel concierge floor, with a private restaurant, butler service and complimentary alcohol, MSC Yacht Club aboard the 3,502-passenger MSC Divina, which recently began operating out of Miami, features the Sophia Loren Suite, designed by the actress, with red upholstered furniture in the living room, red walls in the bedroom and black-and-white photos of Loren.

Even cheaper quarters have received some attention. Interior rooms on the Disney Dream feature a “magical porthole,” at which real-time images of the sea meet animated Disney characters. And Tauck River Cruising’s two new 130-passenger ships — the Inspire, launching this month, and the Savor in June — feature lower deck “loft cabins” with raised seating areas that allow occupants to sit next to windows that are about half the height of the cabin.

Short cruises

Appealing to both time-pressed travelers and first-time cruisers who may not be certain about committing a full week or more to a ship, abbrevi- ated itineraries are proliferating. The growth of disparate home ports, from New York to Baltimore, Galveston, Tex., Los Angeles and Seattle, has made embarking on short cruises easier for travelers across the country.

Princess Cruises launched its four- and five-day Getaway sailings last fall with departures to the Caribbean from Fort Lauderdale and coastal California and Mexico from Los Angeles and San Diego. Hapag- Lloyd Cruises’ 500-capacity Europa2 will begin running four-day trips in the Baltic Sea and Scandinavia this summer. Celebrity Cruises’ recently refurbished 2,170-guest Celebrity Constellation offers four- and five-night Bahamas and Caribbean runs in March and April that will resume next winter.

“Cruise lines have always offered cheap and cheerful short trips,” Spencer Brown of CruiseCritic.com said. “The exciting thing now is they are making some of their newer ships available to this short-term market.”

Rivers run with it

Though passenger numbers are diminutive relative to ocean cruising, river cruising continues to boom, with dozens of new launches and ships deployed on more rivers outside of Europe.

Viking River Cruises alone will send out 14 new ships this year, all in Europe. Tauck will debut two ships, primarily on the Rhine, Moselle and Danube. Sharing those rivers, the new line Emerald Waterways, with two sleek 182-passenger ships, will start opera- tions in April. A-Rosa Cruises will launch its 158-pas- senger A-Rosa Flora in April with a sold-out cruise past the tulip fields of the Netherlands. In Provence, France, the higher-end Uniworld Boutique River Cruises will send out its new 159-guest ship SS Catherine next month.

Though the majority of river traffic remains in Europe, Asian rivers are rising, especially in Myanmar, where Pandaw River Expeditions recently launched the 40-passenger Kalaw Pandaw and the Kalay Pandaw, with the 20-guest Kha Byoo Pandaw expected to begin opera- tions by year end. They will be joined by the 42-passenger Sanctuary Ananda, setting out this year on the Irrawaddy and Chindwin Rivers.