Teri West
Like any business, cruise lines want more customers. But as an industry that makes up a small part of the leisure travel market, they know that their greatest source for new customers isn't each other's passengers -- it's those of their competitors on land.
That can be easy to forget when examining a landscape like the private-island race among contemporary cruise lines. As the companies build more elaborate land-based experiences and grow their portfolio of private destinations, it can seem like a contest to constantly one-up each other.
And sure, that's part of the story. There can be benefits for one line to have more offerings than another. Royal Caribbean's Perfect Day at CoCo Cay, for example, is the only private island with a waterpark, and its revenue is currently running circles around its closest competitors. Norwegian Cruise Line plans to add a waterpark to Great Stirrup Cay next year.
But as they move to build bigger destinations, you'll hear cruise executives insist that the primary benefit isn't to poach repeat cruisers but to tempt the vacationers who might otherwise be planning land-based vacations, perhaps to an amusement park or a Caribbean resort.
On an episode of our podcast The Folo by Travel Weekly, Royal Caribbean International chief product innovation officer Jay Schneider said the company's decisions about private destinations were shaped by the entire family-vacation landscape, not just decisions made by other cruise lines.
"It isn't just about Celebration Key or 'insert another cruise line destination,' per say, but really the totality of what guests can do, or families can do around the world," he said.
During a cruise in Alaska last week, I met a vacationer who turned out to be testing the cruise executives' theory in real time.
He told me that this was his first cruise and that he typically vacations at all-inclusive resorts in the Caribbean. As he spoke, I learned that throughout the cruise, he'd been comparing the experiences.
He'd been loving the food and music onboard but not loving the volume of people in the ports. He missed his outdoor space that he'd typically have to himself while on vacation.
I mentioned that perhaps he'd enjoy a smaller ship and wondered whether he'd also prefer a cruise to a warmer destination. But to him, the question seemed to be about whether to take a cruise at all, not which cruise might best suit his preferences.
He said he planned to continue reflecting on the experience at home.
To the cruise industry, it would be a win if he gave a cruise of any kind another shot, even if it wasn't the same brand that he'd vacationed with initially.