red ink

This morning, Silversea has just showed a lot more "silver sailings" (red ink) for the Spring of 2005 on their website. Some Mediterranean cruises are down to $280 per diem (European itineraries are typically more expensive than the Caribbean, for example). This is in stark contrast to Oceania, which has increased the price of its typical two-week cruise by $1,000 per person from Spring 2004 to 2005. Even allowing for factors such as Oceania's "free air", and Silversea's "inclusive tips and drinks", etc., Oceania's pricing is already very close to, and in odd cases higher than Silversea's, despite the fact that Silversea's cabins are better than comparable ones on Oceania's ("verandah suite" versus "PH minisuite", for example). As for food, I read on this board that Silversea is just as good and more liberal with high priced items such as caviar and foie gras. So what is the reason?

By the way, Silversea has been concentrating on shorter voyages lately (which is more suitable for young professionals limited in vacation time, and more affordable for some folks like ourselves), but less appealing to those who have time and can afford it (the wealthy retired). Oceania has gone the opposite way and concentrated on longer voyages (after flying across an ocean and suffered though jet lag, you may not want to come back in just one week!) To suit the needs of both types of customers, Silversea will be well advised to set their 2006 itineraries in such a way that while individual voyages may be one week, there should be no repetition of ports in any two or even three consecutive weeks. This will make it easier for those who want longer cruises to combine voyages back to back. Or alternatively, have long two or three week voyages subdivided into segments A, B and C (as has been practised before but alas decreasing in number lately). While ways can be found to lower costs (cannot go too far without sacrificing quality) and increase revenue (higher fares will lower competitiveness), more thoughts need to be put into creative and attractive itineraries.

Are you aware Silversea gives you the option of getting on and off anywhere you please at nominal charge? As they seldom repeat ports, you can have as long or as short a cruise. My recollection is that your cruise needs to be four days minimum to exercise this option.

What you say is true, you can have "personal voyages" of five days or more. However, if you look at the itineraries of the individual ships, and the ports of call each goes through, they tend to "zig-zag" in such a way that usually you will repeat at least one to three ports in a ten day stretch (in the Mediterranean, for example). Besides, if you take the "personal voyage" option, you will not get the special discounts offered for standard voyages. What I am saying is that any consecutive voyages should not contain any repeated port for two to three weeks, so that both short and long cruisers can easily choose either a short segment (or a "personal voyage") or "back-to-back" long combinations with ease (without having to repeat ports)!

So what is the reason?

It's called "yield management," and it's used by cruise lines, hotel chains, airlines, etc. I have the impression that Silversea uses more sophisticated computer modeling than Oceania does, resulting in selective discounts earlier in the booking cycle. Oceania sends out discount mailings fairly late in the game--or at least that's the way it seems, based on what arrives in my mailboxes from Oceania (both e-mail and snail mail).

For what it's worth, Seabourn has a number of "Save 50%" on its Web site at the moment, for roughly the same period as Silversea's red discounts (at least in Europe, the area that I checked). RSSC is also offering discounts of up to 50% (via a 2-for-1 offer on some voyages). Crystal's discounts are harder to determine, but a glance at its Web site revealed per diems of US$150-200 on some cruises. So all of the luxury lines are obviously doing what they need to do in the current market.

It would have been kinder not to point this one out. Mrs UK1 has just seen the offers page and made me book 3512. She's already got 2521. How many make a set for god's sake.

Ah well.

I have another suggestion to make in regard to itineraries. Reading on the internet, I have got the impression that the majority of Silversea cruisers have already been to those popular destinations more than once. A substantial fraction of them are rather adventurous and eager to try more exotic places. Instead of having two or even three ships zigzagging the same familiar ports in any one given region, be it the Mediterranean, Caribbean, Scandinavia or even South America in any given season, Silversea should perhaps consider sending one ship to more exotic places like Africa, India or even the inland rivers of communist China, for instance. This should prevent "self-competition" in those "beaten tracks" and attract those frequent cruisers who are tired of repetitions. Why not send questionnaires to past customers and ask them where they would like to go, and then set itineraries accordingly for 2006, while there is still time, just before the finalized version is published? Any comments? Thank you.

But they go to exotic places. Even in Mediterrenean, they go to less traveled ports, while others like Radisson tends to stick to tried and proven ports. They don't repeat those popular run-of-the-mill often either, except on the St. Petersburg route. There there aren't too many places they can go really.