in Cruise
THE GOOD
NEWS
E XC I T I N G D E V E LO P M E N T S I N T H E C R U I S E I N D U S T RY W I L L M E A N M O R E S H I P S , G R E AT E R C H O I C E A N D A W H O L E R A N G E O F F R I E N D LY N E W F E AT U R E S F O R YO U A N D T H E E N V I R O N M E N T. BY RO D ERICK EIM E
66
vacationstravel.com
Š ivansarfatti.com
vacationstravel.com
67
C
ruising, as if you hadn’t noticed, has grown exponentially in recent years to the point where it is the fastest growing sector of the travel business. Right now, more than 25 million passengers are travelling on cruise ships every year with an annual growth of around five to seven per cent. Clearly 21st century travellers are taking to this form of vacation like the proverbial ducks to water and to meet this demand, cruise lines – big and small – are building ships at an unprecedented rate as well as installing groundbreaking facilities and amenities. At time of writing, more than 50 ocean-going cruise vessels were under construction in shipyards around the world. In tandem with this furious shipbuilding, new technologies are being developed to address environmental concerns like wastewater disposal, exhaust emissions and disposable plastic consumption. If the cruise industry is to live up to its friendly face, it needs to build friendly ships both for guests and the environment.
The Giants of the Sea – Big is Beautiful When the Titanic was launched in 1912, she was lauded as the greatest passenger ship ever built and a thing of awe and beauty. At 46,000 tons and 269 metres, she was the pinnacle of marine engineering. More than 100 years later, the world’s largest ship is currently Royal Caribbean’s (RCCL) Oasis-class Symphony of the Seas weighing in at 228,000 tons and stretching to 361 metres. In fact, there are some 40 cruise ships over 300 metres now sailing the oceans, each carrying roughly between 4000 and 6000 passengers each. If you thought we’d seen the biggest ships ever, think again. There is a list of 200,000-plus ton ships on their way, all projected to carry more than 5000 guests and for delivery between now and 2024. Beyond that, who knows? Asian luxury brand, Dream Cruises, is building its Globalclass ships with the first due in 2021 when it will homeport in Shanghai, while MSC, the world’s largest privately owned cruise line, is planning a new class of vessel, the World-class, which will pack 2,760 cabins and a maximum of 6,850 guests, making it the highest passenger capacity in the global cruise fleet. While RCCL’s Oasis-class ships will remain the absolute largest for the time being, even they are designing an all-new class of ship, codenamed ‘Project Icon’. Construction is due to begin in October 2019 and will incorporate many of the latest innovations in large ship design.
68
vacationstravel.com
Other cruise lines due to launch 5000+ passenger ships in the next few years include Costa, P&O, Aida and Carnival. Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) will launch their largest ship ever, the Norwegian Encore in 2019, but it will only carry barely 4000 passengers in double occupancy.
Hi-Tech, Friendlier Ships Ships may be getting bigger, but they’re also getting smarter and friendlier to us and the oceans. Today’s passengers are more aware and better informed than ever before and while we love to cruise, we are mindful of the impact we have on the oceans and our children’s future. Many cruise lines are making a noise about reducing single-use plastic items like cups, straws, water bottles and cutlery. We’re seeing the effect these trash items are having on the oceans through TV and social media and we don’t like it. Some cruise lines are slower than others to get with the program, so you can help move things along by filling out comment cards with ‘no more plastic’. It’s customer pressure that will move them to action more than anything, so it’s really in our hands. Many of the big new ships mentioned above are incorporating some of the absolute latest technology in marine design, so even while they are getting bigger, they are actually ‘greener’ than the smaller ships they replace. Take fuel for example. You’ll see Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) mentioned a lot with these new ships and while it is still a fossil fuel, it is many times less harmful than the cheap, crude-like oil most ships currently burn in their massive diesel engines. This heavy fuel oil (HFO) produces toxic sulphur dioxide and is banned in many areas, such as Antarctica. Many ships are moving to lighter, cleaner marine oil, but it’s expensive and LNG burns with much fewer emissions and zero sulphur. Meanwhile those new ships still burning HFO are employing the latest exhaust ‘scrubbers’ to remove virtually all of the harmful emissions. Hybrid technology is increasingly common in cars and is also finding its way into ships. Hurtigruten, the famous Norwegian small ship line, is the first to make a big deal about hybrid electric propulsion in ocean-going passenger
Opening image: The MSC Seaside. Top and right: PONANT’S Antarctica Expeditions; Go karts aboard NCL’s Norwegian Bliss in Alaska 2018.
Onboard: all the fun of the fair It’s all well and good to pack your ships with passengers, but keeping them entertained and satisfied with dining, activities and fun is a whole new challenge. Once upon a time, deck quoits, bingo and shuffleboard was all you needed to while away the hours on sea days and now even rockwall climbing, giant water slides and video game parlours are run-of-the-mill. MSC’s radical Seaside and Seaview herald a new class of cruise ship with lavish passenger facilities like a bowling alley, Formula One simulator and a twin cable zip line across the top deck that is the longest aboard any ship as well as a Lego-themed area for youngsters up to 12. Its vast, lower deck promenade and glass-floored catwalks are designed to resemble a Miami-style condo, a challenging approach that has certainly raised some eyebrows. For those not worried by heights, Carnival Vista features the daring Skyride where you pedal your way around a 250-metre course that hangs you 50 metres above the water in a kind laid-back (recumbent) bicycle. It’s a great way to get a bit of an exciting workout.
TAHITI AND THE
MARQUESAS 2019 NOW SELLING FAST! Sailing aboard the “Aranui 5”, to one of the world’s most remote and beautiful regions. Packages range from 16-17 nights with 12 nights cruising the spectacular Marquesas Islands.
PACKAGE INCLUSIONS: • Economy flights ex SYD/MEL/BNE* • Pre & Post accommodation* • Chauffeur driven transfers to/from your airport*
PRICES START FROM $8,999* FOR FULL PACKAGE DETAILS SEARCH OUR SITE OR ASK ABOUT PACKAGE 176 Office open Monday to Friday from 9:30am to 5:00pm.
ULTIMATECRUISING.COM.AU OR CALL US ON 1300 485 846 #1329
* Conditions Apply. Subject to availability at time of booking.
Applies to new bookings only. Aranui price based on Ocean View Stateroom per person Twin Share. Luxury car transfers limited to 35 kilometres from SYD/MEL/BNE.
Feel like taking the plunge, but want to stay dry? The Ultimate Abyss Slide on Harmony of the Seas is the longest slide on any ship at sea, dropping 30 metre from a glass platform through a tunnel while sound effects urge you on. Screaming is optional, but unavoidable. Apart from being the largest ship to pass through the Panama Canal, NCL’s Norwegian Bliss also totes a dual-level go-kart track on the top deck. Bliss may not be the only ship to have go-karts, but it’s certainly the largest of its type at sea with the electric karts able to reach 30 miles per hour.
© 2018 Danny Lehman/ NCL.
ships and plans to launch their first two 530-passenger hybrid expedition ships, MS Roald Amundsen and MS Fridtjof Nansen in 2019, then a third in 2021. Ponant’s icebreaker, Le Commandant Charcot, due in 2021 will feature both LNG and hybrid technology together in a shipping first while Star Clippers will employ 6357 square metres of good old-fashioned sailcloth when the world’s largest sailing ship, Flying Clipper, enters service any day now.
202
PACK 0 AGES JUST RELEA SED ENQU IRE NOW
Ponant’s ‘Explorer Class’ vessels are one of the most exciting announcements in the small ship arena. The first two of the planned six 180-guest vessels, Le Laperouse and Le Champlain are already taking guests on their first adventures. Further small ships with exceptional expedition and adventure capacity are due from Scenic, Ponant, Aurora Expeditions, Crystal, Oceanwide and Quark.
Ultra-luxury small ship ocean cruising
New Horizons While the big ships are confined to ports able to accommodate their thousands of passengers, the world’s growing fleet of small ships is busy winkling out destinations that may not even have a jetty, let alone a wharf to tie up to. We all know of expedition cruising in the Antarctic and Arctic, but there’s plenty else to see in between the two poles like the myriad tiny islands and atolls sprinkled throughout the Pacific in Melanesia and Polynesia. Pitcairn, the Marquesas, Rapa Nui (Easter island) and Tonga in the south or the Aleutian Islands of Alaska and the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia where incredible wildlife experiences will see you among seals, walrus, bears and millions of seabirds. You’ll need to look to expert expedition specialists such as Aranui Cruises, Lindblad, Silversea or Ponant for these off-the-grid itineraries which will include a wealth of shore excursions ranging from pearl farms, mangrove forests, isolated villages, pristine coral reefs and even live volcanoes. The world’s expedition fleet is expanding at its own rapid pace, adding a whole new dimension to the cruise experience. In fact, some will argue expedition cruising is not really cruising at all, rather ‘adventure by ship’. Aussie favourite, Coral Expeditions (formerly Coral Princess Cruises) is adding a fourth ship to their Cairns-based fleet. To be called, Coral Adventurer, this newest vessel will become the flagship and expand the 35-year-old line’s itineraries into the South Pacific, Indonesia and Asia from 2019. Three new, 5-star ice-class expedition vessels from German luxury line, Hapag-Lloyd, are scheduled for launch in April and October 2019 with the third in 2021, further reinforcing the pioneering small ship operator’s strong reputation in the high-end stakes. To be called Hanseatic Nature, Hanseatic Inspiration and Hanseatic Spirit, each 139-metre vessel will have a maximum passenger capacity of 240.
Above: Seven Seas Splendor, Regent Suite Dining Area.
70
vacationstravel.com
A number of luxury operators have heavily invested in their fleets built for small group ocean cruising, with the added benefit of being able to drop anchor at smaller ports. In 2017, US company Regent Seven Seas spent US$125 million on a refurbishment across its fleet. In 2020, a second Explorer-class ship, the Seven Seas Splendor, will launch as the sister ship to the Seven Seas Explorer. Splendor will sail its 750 passengers throughout Europe during her first season in 2020. For its 2020 itineraries, Silversea has set out to offer end-to-end service by including complimentary return economy flights and transfers on virtually all of its new itineraries – sailing on 191 new voyages from summer 2020 and into winter 2021. Silver Explorer will cruise in the Sea of Okhotsk, one of the least visited areas in the Russian Far East, on an 18-day voyage from June 2020. Silver Moon, sister ship to Silver Muse, will set sail on her inaugural voyage in August 2020 departing Trieste, Italy, for Civitavecchia on an 11-day cruise. For the first time in the company’s history, Silversea will also be hosting five different itineraries into Cuba, enabling guests of all nationalities to discover the region. In November 2019, ultra-luxury operator Seabourn will also begin sailing to Cuba for the first time aboard Seabourn Sojourn departing Miami in November 2019 – visiting five Cuban ports. Seabourn, the official cruise partner of UNESCO World Heritage, also has two new purpose-built expedition ships joining its fleet in June 2021 and May 2022. Further developments from Crystal Cruises and Windstar Cruises are also coming to the ultra-luxury cruising space. •
Photography by various establishments.
TRAVEL FACTS TRAVEL FACTS Aranui Cruises: aranuicruises.com.au Carnival: carnival.com.au Coral Expeditions: coralexpeditions.com Crystal Cruises: crystalcruises.com Dream Cruises: dreamcruiseline.com Hurtigruten: global.hurtigruten.com Lindblad Expeditions: au.expeditions.com MSC: msccruises.com.au Norwegian Cruise Line: ncl.com/au/en/ Ponant: au.ponant.com Regent Seven Seas Cruises: rssc.com Royal Caribbean: royalcaribbean.com.au Seabourn: seabourn.com Silversea: silversea.com Star Clippers: starclippers.com/au Windstar Cruises: windstarcruises.com
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
ST. PETERSBURG
VOLOS
•
• KAVALA/PHILIPPI
ATHENS (PIRAEUS) •
• ••EPHESUS (KUSADASI) KOS MYKONOS JERUSALEM (HAIFA) ••JERUSALEM (ASHDOD)
MONTE CARLO PROVENCE (MARSEILLE)•
HELSINKI STOCKHOLM •
FLORENCE/PISA/ TUSCANY (LIVORNO)
• • ROME (CIVITAVECCHIA) • • • AMALFI/POSITANO AJACCIO (CORSICA) (PIRAEUS) • ATHENS • • SANTORINI TAORMINA • (SICILY) HERAKLION (CRETE)
VISBY•
• COPENHAGEN
•
• AMSTERDAM • BRUGES (ZEEBRUGGE)
LONDON (SOUTHAMPTON)
• • •TALLINN
•RIGA
GLASGOW (GREENOCK)
• BELFAST • DUBLIN • WATERFORD •
•
EDINBURGH (NEWHAVEN)
•DOUGLAS • •LIVERPOOL HOLYHEAD
• •LONDON
PORTLAND
(SOUTHAMPTON)
72
vacationstravel.com
Captivating KIMBERLEY
W E AT H E R E D BY E O N S O F R A I N , W I N D A N D S E A S P R AY, T H E S E C L I F F S A R E A L M O S T A S O L D A S T H E E A R T H I T S E L F. BY RO D ERICK EIM E
vacationstravel.com
73
A
s you cast your eyes on the golden hues of the savagely weathered stone edifices along the Hunter and Prince Regent Rivers, laid down by the same ancient waterways almost two billion years ago, you are seeing a snapshot of our planet so old, it predates the earliest forms of multicellular life by hundreds of millions of years. That’s the thing about the Kimberley, like old great grandmother nature herself, every tick of the clock here is measured in hundreds of years. Whether you’re a captain of industry, celebrity superstar or humble streetsweeper, the Kimberley doesn’t care. You’ll be gone and long forgotten before she’s taken her next breath. The exquisite and mysterious Aboriginal rock art from the modern Wandjina and ancient Gwion Gwion periods give us some indication of the impact of humans in the vast 425,000 square kilometres of the Kimberley. “The Kimberley is one of the most ecologically diverse areas in the world,” says Professor Lyn Beazley AO from the University of WA, “its biodiversity and marine ecosystem are among the world’s most pristine. The tropical savannah of the region are the only near-untouched such landscapes left on the planet.” Even though we may be brief and transient visitors to her realm, that doesn’t stop us marvelling at the grandeur of her creations. The majesty of King George Falls in full flight ranks along with Victoria Falls and Niagara in terms of sheer beauty, if not water volume. Expert and experienced adventure cruise operators like True North, will bring their tenders so close that your whole body will shudder as the cascade plummets 80 metres into the river, enveloping you in a dense, misty spray. Cruising along the Kimberley Coast has only come of age relatively recently, drawing guests initially from all over Australia, but increasingly from the far corners of the world as the global phenomenon of small ship and expedition cruising grips the imagination of the modern, experiential traveller. The much-celebrated True North affords her 36 pampered guests the opportunity to investigate the spectacular
74
vacationstravel.com
landscapes and natural wonders up close. Take the bucking, turbulent ride through the incredible horizontal waterfalls in Talbot Bay fed by the raging 10 metre tides; cruise among the eddies and whirlpools around Montgomery Reef as it appears to rise from the depths like a returning Atlantis, or hike to the eye-popping Wandjina rock art gallery at Raft Point for a glimpse of life long before the first Europeans and you’ll just start, mind you, to get a feel for this prehistoric wonderland. And there is no more astonishing sight of this land than from a helicopter. True North is one of only a couple of ships operating in the region with its own onboard chopper. The advantage of this machine is apparent when visiting remote rock art sites and distant freshwater pools. During helicopter flights it’s common to see whales, crocs and even dugongs in the rivers and bays below. Beyond the Prince Regent River and into the northern region, you’ll be able to see the enigmatic Gwion Gwion (aka Bradshaw) rock art that some experts believe could be the oldest known murals and portraits known to man. Debate among anthropologists and ethnographers as to their origin and meaning has been simmering for decades. But a visit to the Kimberley need not be all heady, intellectual stuff. Simple pleasures abound in the secret backwaters and mangrove forests that border the many rivers. Expert fishing guides aboard True North offer some of the most exciting fishing to be had among the muddy rivulets where mangrove jack, snapper and the mighty barramundi taunt fisherfolk. Both the fearsome saltwater crocodiles and serene dugong inhabit these waters, while birds of a myriad feather squawk and wheel overhead or flutter among the dense foliage.
Opening image: Heli-exploring in the Kimberley. From below to top right: Stargazing aboard True North; Rock art viewing; Heading ashore for a climb.
ABOARD TRUE NORTH True North is an Australian-flagged, state-of-the-art, purpose-built coastal expedition ship perfectly suited to exploring regions like the Kimberley. Cabins come in three classes, spread among three decks. All have private facilities. Meals are served in the single-sitting, unreserved dining room and are described as ‘modern Australian cuisine’ utilising local produce and the day’s freshly caught fish. There is a large and comfortable top bar/lounge with outdoor area as well as a quiet room forward. All passengers and staff must leave their shoes outside, so be ready to go barefoot.
The late dry season, from August onwards, is best for fishing and wildlife spotting before the wet sets in again. True North’s expedition leaders with incomparable local knowledge will know of secret freshwater billabongs, fed by crystal clear springs, a short climb up from the water’s edge where you can dip in the superbly refreshing waters just as the first inhabitants of the Kimberley did tens of thousands of years ago. Relax in the shade under the paperbark and rivergums as a gourmet picnic is laid out for you.
Broome bliss When you arrive in Broome, the nominal capital of the Kimberley, your first sight of the landscape is from your aircraft as it prepares to land in the historic port town. Vivid greens, golds and ochres wash the entire landscape beneath you from horizon to horizon, while rivers and scrubby trees form the great pastel vistas which so inspired our artists and poets like Dorothea Mackellar. ‘Far horizons’, ‘wide brown lands’, ‘jewel sea’ and ‘droughts and flooding rains’ perfectly epitomises the Kimberley.
For anyone venturing to the Kimberley for a cruise, it is the common wisdom to spend a few days in the intriguing remote township of Broome. A mixture of preserved frontier village and modern go-ahead business, Broome never forgets its roots, carved out of the dust and mud by graziers, pearlers, fishers and miners from numerous ethnic backgrounds over more than a century. You can take either land or air tours from Broome to such significant landmarks as Windjana Gorge, Tunnel Creek or even the Bungle Bungles (Purnululu National Park). The Dampier Peninsula to Cape Leveque, for example, can be explored in a day taking in the fascinating Beagle Bay and its unique church as well as the Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm where you can learn some of the fascinating history of pearl cultivation in this remote wilderness as well as take home a lasting and beautiful souvenir. Exploring all of Australia’s Kimberley, a region twice the size of Victoria, cannot be completed in a single visit. One trip, however, will be enough to sow the seed of wonderment that will bring you back to gradually reveal the many layers of this magical and mystical land. •
Photography courtesy Oliver Oldroyd /True North Cruises.
TRAVEL FACTS FURTHER INFORMATION True North: truenorth.com.au
•
vacationstravel.com
75
