Guests notice when older ships have new amenities or don’t
With fewer new cruise ships debuting at South Florida ports this season, cruise lines are working to refurbish older vessels and to keep passengers happy.
They know passengers are watching. Cruisers make comments about ships that need renovation on message forums such as CruiseCritic.com and CruiseReviews.com.
The commenters are in luck. Some of the ships making their upgrade wish list are among those that the cruise lines plan to sink millions into revamping soon. Among them, the Carnival Imagination and Celebrity’s Infinity and Millennium.
“The challenge for the big lines is that they have large fleets, and it’s going to take time to drill down to every vessel,” said Carolyn Spencer Brown, editor in chief of CruiseCritic.
Earlier this month Celebrity Infinity departed Port Everglades after a $35 million revamp as part of Celebrity Cruises $140 million program to retrofit older Millennium-class vessels.
“This initiative will ensure that our guests can enjoy the same, consistent modern luxury vacation experience across the fleet, regardless of which ship they select,” Celebrity’s spokeswoman Tavia Robb said.
The upgrade impressed. “It’s still an older ship, but they did a great job,” said Frederick Buchsbaum, of Coral Gables, on a recent tour of the ship. Buchsbaum has cruised on Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. brands more than a dozen times.
Celebrity’s Millennium will undergo a facelift in April.
“We’re completing this massive renovation within only three weeks on each ship – something no land-based hotel or resort has achieved within such a compressed time frame,” Robb said. “Accomplishing this on four 91,000-ton ships within two years makes it one of the most ambitious revitalization projects in the history of cruising.”
Royal Caribbean International’s next new ship – Project Sunshine – will debut in late 2014.
Until then, the line is revitalizing some ships in a more than $300 million program that will enable it “to deliver the most contemporary cruise ships to vacationers,” spokesman Harry Liu said. “No ship will go untouched.”
The upgrades include new dining and entertainment venues, expanded Wi-Fi technology and digital wayfinding systems.
Liberty of the Seas was upgraded in January, and Legend of the Seas should get improvements between 2013 and 2014.
“It’s imperative for cruise lines to keep their older ships looking their best so that they can continue to earn top dollar and provide the best cruise experience possible,” said Stewart Chiron of Miami-based CruiseGuy.com.
Here are some other recent renovations and planned upgrades:
Carnival Miracle will get an adults-only retreat area and other cosmetic enhancements starting in January, Carnival Cruise Lines’ spokesman Vance Gulliksen said.
One of Carnival’s most popular ships, Imagination, will go into drydock in September 2013.
In 2014 Carnival Freedom is set for dining and entertainment upgrades as part of a more than $500 million initiative.
And Carnival Liberty was upgraded in October.
“The changes made to the ship were monumental,” CruiseGuy’s Chiron said. “If you sailed on Liberty before, you’d notice the difference.”
Source: Sun Sentinel