There’s a sense of suspended reality about being on a cruise liner; some love it (the industry is said to be growing again) but the modern cruise ship is not for everyone and it’s attracting more than the clichéd “older crowd”.
There are cruisers and there are critics. Some prefer more secluded space, or want the nitty-gritty of life on land and exploring destinations at their own pace. Then there are those who love unpacking just once and not having to face the logistical challenges of getting from one place to another, and enjoy the pampering that’s on tap on a cruise ship.
Everything on board is taken care of and there’s a social buzz. Plus food and drinks for the most part are included in the package. So where the resort largesse repels some people, it’s alluring for others.
Our group of first-time cruisers joined the Norwegian Viva in the Caribbean. It is the second Project Leonardo-class ship in the Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) fleet and it is spanking new, having made its maiden voyage last year.
As part of the media contingent, we were prepared to be cynical about cruising. It turned out to be loads of fun. As a friend remarked, “It’s like camp for grown-ups” — those with disposable income, that is.
Years ago cruises were derided as being for the “newly wed and nearly dead”, but things have evolved. You can do old-style cruising with dress-up evenings, or theme-park, informal, or just pure party cruises. And let’s not forget that all liners are not created equal, so as you get a range of hotels from Holiday Inns to the Four Seasons, so it rings true for cruise ships.
We had barely unpacked before running around from floor to floor, exploring what was set to be home for the next few days. We managed only a few floors in our first escapade (there are 20 floors). Nevertheless, I made mental notes of particular places I knew I wanted to head back to. First on that list was the outside area with plump, tan-coloured loungers covered with canopies, perfect for an aperitif and a view of the bar and of the pools.
Among the immediate standout options is the three-level Viva Speedway racetrack (with a length of 420m). There’s also a free-fall slide, The Drop, which means you don’t need to get into water, but you have access to a theme-park fix where only one person gets to ride it at a time. There’s a huge floor of outside gaming and simulators, where you can try your hand at golf, football and other sports. Then there are waterslides, casual water features, ice cream stations and a wraparound promenade deck.
The design on Norwegian Viva is bright and airy and fresh; different areas have varying colour themes so one has turquoise with bursts of orange and purple, another enclave of yellow and rattan, placed opposite ones with bold green leaf design.
Décor and design on Viva lift the experience. Design features include a scientific periodic table, but the standout is the 16m-long artwork by digital artist Dominic Harris, which passengers can run their fingers over as they walk past in the Metropolitan Bar. Entitled Every Wing Has a Silver Lining, it features silver butterflies that start flapping their wings and fly away when touched.
The pursuit of chill and food is matched for some by the pursuit of energetic fun. The large theatre transforms from an auditorium style set-up to a club with a dance floor. One night it hosts a game show, then a 1990s disco. The following evening it’s home to Beetlejuice The Musical, the Tony award-nominated show from Broadway. It’s a wacky show about death, ghosts and exorcism. I found karaoke the most fun; it was smaller and full of people wanting to sing and take a chance for their brief moment of fame on stage.
Of the dining venues, some are included in the package. The Commodore Room and Hudson’s are the ship’s two complimentary main dining rooms and the menu changes daily, but it’s the same at both venues.
Hudson’s is wrapped with floor-to-ceiling windows offering panoramic views. The Indulge Food Hall is an open-air food market with 11 distinct eateries or food trucks. You order by choosing on a tablet — snappy and fun — from barbecue grill to Asian food such as noodles (delicious) and Indian dishes. The on-board Starbucks option, despite being an add-on, was furiously pumping lattes day in and day out.
The more canteen-like Surfside is the busiest of the lot, and customers get to choose as they go.
There are several speciality restaurants. The most memorable meal for me was dinner at Hasuki, a teppanyaki-style restaurant. Some may find it cheesy, but our group was enthralled by the showmanship, with the chef singing versions of If You’re Happy and You Know It and My Eggs on the Grill go Round and Round while flinging his knives around, and preparing steak or chicken, or fried rice on a large steel grill.
Continuing the theme of big and grand, the spa is huge. Picture sitting in a large thermal pool (hot and cold) in a huge room with double-height ceilings, right in the belly of the ship while you’re at sea. You’re surrounded by the water of the ocean and there are water features everywhere.
I spent an inordinate amount of time in the pool and trying almost all the saunas (turns out there are various types: Finnish, a charcoal sauna known for detoxifying properties, an infrared sauna, a salt room, and an ice room). My favourite remains the basic sauna. Then you can relax in one of the many heated lounge chairs; plus there are reams of treatment rooms.
NCL positions itself at the upper end of the contemporary mainstream market. Its modern and immaculate liner cost $1bn to build.
No, we didn’t have to dress up in the evening for formal dinners and, no, people were not dancing on tables and drinking from morning to night (not that I saw).
After a short while I forgot about life on land as there were no decisions to make (no deadlines, dinner prep or school lifts). All I needed to do was choose where to hang out: in the infinity pool or the hot tub, and where to head to for lunch. Sure there are add-ons that require some thought, such as deciding whether to take part in line dancing or diamond art.
Our foray onto land was spending the day on NCL’s private island in the Bahamas, Great Stirrup Cay. The azure water is as tantalising as it looks in photos. As you make your way past the large boards shouting corporate branding, there are plenty of lounge chairs and protected coves for swimming and snorkelling. Of course there are also dining and bar areas.
For the more active there’s a zip-line adventure. You could even try parasailing. For the truly adventurous, you can swim with pigs on the nearby Treasure Island (yup, there are even people who head there directly for that), which is a 10-minute boat ride from Great Stirrup Cay.
I couldn’t help but think of the Titanic, not because of safety concerns but the hierarchy of that ship persists among contemporary cruise liners. On Norwegian Viva, The Haven is the luxury “ship-within-a-ship” concept and a quick tour showed the top-end finishes, the extra space of the cabins plus access to an exclusive lounge, a huge sun deck and a private restaurant and bar. Guests at The Haven have their own private elevators, to “elevate” the experience for the highest-paying passengers. Most of our group doing the tour were drooling to stay there, others felt it could be too isolating.
Cruise ships now resemble floating resorts with high-speed Wi-Fi, and they’re largely about middle-class people looking to be fed, well looked after and entertained. And just because Norwegian Viva has capacity for about 3,099 guests (and about 1,500 staff) you certainly aren’t going to see them all at once.
On the last morning, as we were about to disembark from the liner, a young man, probably in his mid- to late-30s with a well-tailored shirt, got into the lift with a big smile. We asked if he’d been on a cruise before. “Oh, about 500 times,” he replied. Once I’d had a moment to digest that and figured he must have started when he was probably a babe in arms, I asked what he loved about cruises. “Everyone is happy,” he said.
The writer was a guest of Norwegian Viva
Open season on the open seas as holiday cruises increase
Covid almost sank the cruise business in early 2020, but three years later ocean liners are sailing out in a big way, and they don’t come bigger than the Icon of the Seas, which was launched last month. It’s a behemoth five times the size of the Titanic, with 18 passenger decks, seven swimming pools and even its own dog, Rover, a golden retriever, meant to “bring happiness” to passengers and crew.
From the cruise sector’s lowest point in mid-Covid, when it had 4.8-million passengers, it ballooned to 31.5-million last year, and is expected to reach close to 40-million by 2027, according to the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), the largest trade organisation in the industry.
Holiday cruises are now among the fastest-growing sectors of tourism. By mid-2023, The New York Times reported, the three biggest cruise companies — Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) — were among the top 10 performers on the S&P 500. That year the share prices of all three rose from the depths; and last month Royal Caribbean’s stock increased 212%, more even than the seven big tech companies that dominate the US market.
This comes after all three suffered losses of about 80% of their pre-Covid market capitalisation. But “with debt falling and profitability improving, the sector has exited intensive care”, Alex Brignall, a travel and tourism analyst with Redburn Atlantic, told UK newspaper The Times.
Sitting in the Caribbean aboard the Norwegian Viva, which cost $1bn and was launched last November, Kevin Bubolz recalls how, during lockdown, his company, NCL, had to find ports to dock its ships and hire crew (200 for each of its 18 vessels).
Bubolz, the firm’s CEO for Europe, Middle East and Africa, tells the FM that demand is back, and prices are high. “[But] we need two good years to get to what we had before,” he says.
South African interest is growing, he says, but the biggest hurdle is the country’s weak currency. In addition, visas for South Africans take a long time, and there are fewer airline connections.
The company is experiencing its strongest growth among people aged between 45 and 55 from continental Europe and the UK. “It’s a younger age group than one might think,” says Bubolz. “There has been a view that cruise liners are for older people, but this has changed. Millennials are now the fastest-growing group for us.”
This is confirmed by the CLIA, which says cruise liners with high-speed internet — often powered by Elon Musk’s Starlink — have attracted millennials and Generation Zs.
The participation of solo travellers is among the top trends, and NCL has added about 1,000 single cabins across its fleet. On the Norwegian Viva these are connected to a studio lounge where people can meet, says Bubolz. Solo travellers don’t pay double, but not quite half, either, he says.
At the other end, the ship has The Haven, a five-star-plus area served by a butler and concierge.
NCL ships sail to about 300 destinations around the world. Cruises include trips on rivers, special-interest forays and expeditions to remote places. The company offers cruises from Mauritius to Cape Town and Namibia, and longer ones from Dubai to Cape Town via the Seychelles, Réunion and Dubai. There’s also interest in Alaska and the Caribbean, ports in northern Europe and voyages from Dubai to Doha.
The Travel Market Report website says 11 cruise ships will make maiden voyages this year. More than 70 new ships have been on order for last year and for as far in the future as 2027. NCL will have nine ships in the Mediterranean next year, and 19 in total. A new liner is due to be launched in 2025.
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