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Homeland Cruising
Homeland Cruising, by Cindy Bertram
Twenty years ago, anyone interested in taking a cruise
who wanted to avoid flying had extremely limited choices. The
primary option was driving to Florida. But as demand for other
ports and places of embarkation grew, along with the effects of
9/11, cruise lines made a major push to develop alternatives.
Today,
Homeland Cruising is an integral part of the cruise
industry.
During the earlier days of the cruise industry in the 1980s,
ships normally departed from the Florida ports of Miami and Fort
Lauderdale. Port Canaveral then became a mainstay, thanks to Premier Cruise
Lines innovative Big Red Boat concept, which is
really credited for developing Port Canaveral and making it a
convenient option for Orlando visitors. The Port of New York was
another seasonal option, and a few cities in California such as
the Port of Los Angeles rounded out the choices.
Even before 9/11, cruise lines were viewing the development of
alternative ports as a way to expand their markets. Norwegian
Cruise Line (NCL) once again took the lead. A veteran when it
comes to pioneering new areas in the cruise industry, NCL can
really be credited with developing the homeland cruising concept
which it aggressively launched in late 2001, focusing on
offering more
roundtrip cruises out of new cities in the U.S. In
2001, for instance, NCL sailed from six ports, but by 2003 they
were sailing out of 16 ports located in the U.S. and Canada.
By 2003 most major ports in the U.S. showed strong increases in
ship tonnage, with important growth seen in ports not usually
considered as major cruise hubs-Galveston, Baltimore, New
Orleans, Norfolk, Va., Mobile, Ala. and Charleston, S.C., as
well as
Long Beach, Calif. and Jacksonville, Fla.
The increased interest in these cruise ports
was a result of a few key factors. There was an
increasing popularity of the drive market. Just as important was
the explosion of new ship tonnage along with the introduction of
even faster ships these elements were both forcing and allowing
cruise lines to come up with new alternatives to the traditional
ports of departure and more innovative itineraries.
In the case of Galveston, Texas, which is conveniently located
on the Gulf Coast, the city developed a topnotch cruise terminal
and then began to expand it by working on a partnership with the
Carnival Corporation, which currently owns 7 different cruise
lines. As a result, Galveston is one of those second-tier cruise
ports that is evolving into a main port by offering cruises
year-round. Princess Cruises, for instance, moved the Grand
Princess to Galveston in 2004.
A cruise port overlooked for years by cruise lines that has seen
resurgence in interest is Seattle. For years, cruise lines have
used Vancouver for Alaskan cruises and bypassed Seattle, even
though Seattle had a good location and major airport. Many even
used the Seattle Airport over the Vancouver Airport for their
flights and then transported cruise passengers to Vancouver via
motorcoach shuttle, which could easily take four hours. Back
then the drawback to using Seattle was the distance factor.
Slower sailing ships could not feasibly sail to destinations in
Alaska if they departed from Seattle, but that has since
changed. NCL was the first to rethink using Seattle for Alaskan
cruises and now other cruise lines, including Celebrity, Holland
America Line and Princess Cruises all have ships departing from
Seattle to Alaska
Source: Gro
up Travel Blog
About the author:
None
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