EP #2: Luxury Ocean Cruises vs. Regular Cruises - How to Decide Which One is Best for YOU

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Transcription:Luxury Ocean Cruises vs. Regular Cruises - How to Decide Which One is Best for YOU
Greg Shuss  0:00  
Welcome to dream vacations with Laurie and Greg Shuss. If you love to travel, we're here to help you plan that special vacation. We are so glad you joined us today. So enjoy the show.

Charlie McDermott  0:18  
Welcome back, listeners. Charlie McDermott, producer of the show co hosts here with Laurie and Greg, guys, how you doing? Great.

Greg Shuss  0:26  
We're doing great, man. Thanks so much for having us again. We really enjoyed doing this.

Charlie McDermott  0:30  
You guys had so much fun. I mean, you're for our podcast listeners who can't see you. You both came outfitted with your cruise shirts. Love it. But what happens on board say stays on board underneath it.

Laurie Shuss  0:46  
Exactly. That's

Greg Shuss  0:47  
right. Getting in Vegas, but actually on a cruise ship, right?

Charlie McDermott  0:52  
Man, Man, you guys, this is great. Last episode was not only a blast, I learned so much talking about river cruises. I didn't even know they existed. So much I get out. But now we're gonna get into another topic. I'm not going to spill the beans here. I see you have a guest. So why don't you go ahead and introduce your guests.

Greg Shuss  1:18  
Today we are focusing on on luxury ocean cruising. And we're so glad to have our guests with us today. Jesse fundador is the strategic Key Account Manager for seaborne cruises. And Jesse, we're so glad that you're here with us today.

Unknown Speaker  1:36  
Thank you, Greg. And that's a long title. But yeah, you got it.

Charlie McDermott  1:43  
You ready for some fun?

Unknown Speaker  1:45  
I am Yes, absolutely. I'm ready to talk all three.

Charlie McDermott  1:49  
Well, you know, I, I love cruises. But then then when you add the luxury part man, I am intrigued. So let's start there, Jesse, how is luxury cruising different from other cruises?

Unknown Speaker  2:05  
Well, there are a lot of differences. The first difference I think you're going to find is just the ships themselves. So typically, the luxury ships or the luxury cruise experience is much smaller, much more intimate. I work for seaborne where our ships average anywhere between 264 and 600 passengers, which is quite a difference from some of the other vessels that are well in the 1000s. Also experience, it's like going to a small boutique hotel. You know, the onboard experience with the crew members, knowing your name knowing your preferred drinks. It's quite interesting, the level of service that you receive on a luxury cruising, and that's just on the service side, the food, the ports of call when you have a much smaller ships, you're able to get into more unique ports of call. I mean, really, we can go down and down the list here. But there's so many differences. Once a guest tries the luxury cruise experience, it's very difficult to go back to a premium or a mass market.

Laurie Shuss  3:10  
Absolutely. I totally agree.

Charlie McDermott  3:13  
You would now again for for our listeners who weren't in on the first episode, I and this may have changed. So if I have a number I mean, my goodness, it's been a week or two since the first episode, you probably squeezed in maybe three more cruises, but you weren't 91 Last time we counted that yeah, you still at 91.

Laurie Shuss  3:32  
Now we just did our 92nd the other day, then we're leaving again on Saturday.

When we were when we were on a seaborne ship doing a tour, I walked on the pool deck and saw these gorgeous padded chaise lounges and little tables next to them. And I want people to picture themselves laying on a cushion chair, having someone deliver your favorite drink without having to ask you what the drink is that you like. They knew they knew the person's name. They knew their favorites. They handed them a cool towel if it got warm. It was the kind of service everybody would love to have. But not many people get the chance to experience.

Unknown Speaker  4:22  
Wow, wow. Absolutely. I'm already envisioning myself there. Laurie, as you're talking about that.

Charlie McDermott  4:30  
Do you get to have fun Jesse, do you do you?

Unknown Speaker  4:34  
I do. So I've sailed. I started at sea born in May of 19. And of course we had a couple of interruptions in between that from then. But I was able to sail three times four times actually on seaborne and it just gets better and better. The experience I mean, I've been on all of the ships on all the classes of ships, so it just it's amazing.

Laurie Shuss  5:00  
Do you get spoiled very easily? You do

Unknown Speaker  5:02  
I have a lot of first timers and I believe it or not, that's that's a, you may not always think that first timers are ideal for a product like this. But it really is if you have, if you're accustomed to the luxury lifestyle, definitely suggest that you try a luxury cruise experience first before try one of the big ones because that makes our your experience. So you definitely want to try the luxury Seaboard. Let's just say because it's hard to go back.

Charlie McDermott  5:31  
Well, you know, I, and that's great advice. However, I know are some of our listeners. You know, maybe those who haven't worked with Lori and Greg yet are gone. Yeah, but that luxury thing comes with a cost. Right? You know, and it's probably so much more. Would you mind just kind of getting into the differences and what your guests looking at rate wise versus the standard cruise?

Unknown Speaker  5:58  
Absolutely. So I you know, I say the word luxury I think we all do. But the truth is that for some people the word luxury, when you say that just means expensive. And it really is not the case, really is the onboard experience that you're going to have on board. With us at at seaboard and for luxury in general. It's most all inclusive upfront. So sometimes when the guest sees the the rate, they question or why is it X and X amount of minutes because with us, you know, with multiple luxury lines, it's all included. So you're paying for that upfront, but you don't have to worry about signing when you're on board. There's nothing to me more frustrating than enjoying a glass of wine at dinner followed by a check that comes in you have to kind of sign for that. sailing on a luxury brand. And since the alcohols included the gratuities are included, all the dining venues are also included. You get a lot more for your money, really your bang for your buck. You know what it is I also enjoy larger cruise ship as well. And I'll tell you quickly, I sailed not too long ago on a large vessel and paid a little bit over $1,000. But between the package the drink package and the dining if you wanted to dine somewhere special you have to pay. By the way I remember when it was $40 to pay the dining. Now a lot of the onboard dining on the big ships, it's kind of ala carte, so you can end up with a two or $300 Check depending on what you what you spent on that thing. And not having that onboard. Seaboard. For example, we have a Thomas Keller restaurant on board that is included where it's hard to get a reservation at the at the French Laundry over in California but you have won a standing invitation on seaborne things like that are standard on the on the luxury brands. You know, when you end up at the end of a standard cruise, when you start adding up the drink package and what you paid on board and all of that it can be just as expensive as a luxury. I didn't say no with 400 passengers, you sailed with three or 4000. And again, I always bring this up the ports of call, I challenge anyone to put a small luxury cruise ship itinerary starting and ending in the same as one of the premiums are one of them. And you'll see the difference in itineraries is just amazing. It's kind of like rediscovering certain parts of the world that you may have been to the Mediterranean, but you into the small ports that the small ships are able to visit though, you're kind of really, really pretty much of rediscovering that when you're on a smaller vessel. So I mean, just the value is incredible that you're able to obtain and also the accommodations on board. This is something else that doesn't get talked about too often. C mon for example starts at 300 square feet plus balcony. And that's very large. Yes, that's a standard. So that's the smallest that you'll be able to get on board.

Laurie Shuss  9:15  
And a balcony. Kevin on a contemporary cruise line is about 197 square feet. So it is a big difference in space. When you think about looking and comparing the pricing of let's say a suite on a contemporary line and a suite on seaborne, you will see that with all the things that are included. The pricing on suites on contemporary lines now can be upwards of $10,000 for their entry level suite, and still doesn't offer all the things that seaborne would do in their all inclusive prices. And also when you were talking about going to smaller ports. Think about some of the major ports in the Mediterranean that every ship hits and you'll see 1000s and 1000s Dozens of people, when you go to some of the smaller, undiscovered ports that a smaller ship can go to, you're not going to see those kinds of crowds. So it's the experience that you get being on a luxury line, not just because the ship itself is so luxurious, but what it offers to you is a more personalized experience that you can really enjoy.

Greg Shuss  10:26  
Yeah, so we find that our clients really enjoy a much more relaxed, intimate environment, especially on a on a luxury ship, because, again, everything's included, they don't have to worry about all these extras. And I mean, even with even with Oceania, they will take care of the airfare the transfers from the airport, make sure they put you on the ship and so forth. And so Oceania seaborne region seven sees these are all great look great luxury lines that offer everything is included. I love that I love that.

Laurie Shuss  11:03  
It's a seamless approach, when they call us and tell us where they want to go. The the booking process is so seamless, you go from choosing your sweet and choosing your flights. And they will pick you up from the airport and take you to the ship. It's such an easy process. rather than us having to find all these different elements of a trip and putting them all together for them. It's taken care of through seaborne, which is really making our job so much easier.

Charlie McDermott  11:36  
So I always like to kind of get into like, put my cell phone on the ship. And and one question I have Jesse, as you mentioned, how and it makes total sense, you know, a smaller ship can kind of get to a more intimate cruise adventure, I'm going to call it what kind of places are you going to.

Unknown Speaker  11:56  
So we need to sail all seven continents. So it really just depends on the time of year. But for example, in the Mediterranean, some of the unique ports were able to anchor off of just thinking of his name right now. Go goodness is the port for for Chico, Tara. Guys, support right now. I'm on the spot here. So I can't remember the name. But you know, also we acre off the coast of a mafia for example, this is a good one. So most of the larger cruise ships go to Sorento via take a tour down to a mafia for the day, which is nice, but you still have to get up to bucks and go down. And to come back up. Again. We anchor right there off the coast of a mafia and offer a tender service that takes you straight into the city. So you're right there. So that also for excursion purposes. In many cases, you don't need to purchase excursions because we're dropping you off right there in the heart of these cities, these port cities. Point to Veneti. That's the point that I was thinking. We anchor up the Gulf of Puerto Veneti, which is the entry point for Chico Terra, which is just a spectacular part of the world, you absolutely have to visit Chico, Terra, bringing it closer to home in the Caribbean, you know, even there, you'll find unique itineraries. Most of the larger ships just don't have access to the smaller port. So we have access to the bars. We also visit St. Lucia, we are down in Grenada. I mean, we're really in these ports than most of the guests have just maybe sailed by, but I've never had the opportunity. Now that we are getting even larger with more ships, you know, we're down in Antarctica, we're up in the Arctic. Greenland, Iceland, so it just really, you know, there is not a spot on the Earth, where there's water where we do not visit. So we can just kind of squeeze into all of these unique ports.

Charlie McDermott  14:01  
Now, do you offer expedition cruises? And if so were?

Unknown Speaker  14:05  
We do? Absolutely. So actually back in 2011, we refunded the seaborne quest to be able to navigate in Antarctica. So when I say in Antarctica, we actually did landings in Antarctica, we just didn't do or anchor off of it. We actually had tenders that went into Antarctica, two continents. In last year, we built our first expedition ship the seaboard venture debuted 264 guests. So really, really small, very personal. That ship right now just is finishing up her and her firsthand article season and it has been spectacular. That ship has two submarines that were able to take in see what's going on, though. Okay, if you can believe that. Absolutely. 30 1000 square feet of open space on the ship. So if you chose not to get off that day, not a problem, we have the opportunity for you to see right from the ship, we also have these incredible cameras on board that are able to really, when we're in the Arctic, with polar bears, you may not want to get to them because they are hungry. But these cameras, the Cineflex cameras, that we have actually be able to be the image of the polar bear back to the ship. And where we will have an expert talking about what you're seeing and kind of deciding if it's a male or female, if they've eaten what they're doing there. I mean, you know, Expedition is about learning is really what what the expedition experience is, we call it

Charlie McDermott  15:50  
That's fascinating. How long of a cruise is that? Or does it vary?

Unknown Speaker  15:54  
It does vary. So in Antarctica, there are there are 12 or 13 Day itineraries, which are the shortest ones that begin and end in whoosh, WIAA. And then we have longer voyages, which are a little bit over 20 days, and those include South Georgia, and the Falklands, where you get to see the king penguins that are primarily taught Georgia, and a few in the Falklands, but there's just so much to see down there. So you can do two weeks to three weeks, the Arctic, similar Arctic, you can do in about 14 days to agreement.

Laurie Shuss  16:33  
We find many of our clients when they're on a cruise have such a wonderful time that they're ready to book one, again, while they're on board. What is the percentage of guests on seaborne that book again, right on board?

Unknown Speaker  16:47  
Well, I don't know the exact percentage, but I can tell you that you're looking at about 30% 30 to 35% book on board, you get an additional savings, when you book on board and you deposit, you don't actually have to select a voyage, which is great. So you just kind of put money down and that holds the space for you. So we're not making you lock in a voyage while you're sailing, you're still enjoying that current sailing that you're on. And, you know, in a company like ours, where we don't do a lot of discounts, or a lot of offers to be able to book on board. And to have that always with you is very important. And I highly suggest it because once you're on board, you can also reserve if you know the boys that you're on, you reserve your preferred suite, you've been on the ship already, so you know exactly where you want to be positioned on the vessel. So it's, it's very important to if you're enjoying the experience to absolutely do a onboard deposit and for future sailing.

Laurie Shuss  17:42  
We always encourage clients to repeat their sailings repeat the cruise lines, so that they develop a rapport. And they're earning points towards better perks with your perks on their next voyage, it's really a great idea to create a loyalty with cruise lines, so that they know you and you get treated so well each time you're on board. And that's something we've always encouraged our clients to do is develop that loyalty with the cruise line.

Greg Shuss  18:14  
And again, it's if it's their first experience on a luxury cruise line, and they're having such a good time, they cannot wait to go back. So you'll see a lot of repeat customers, people who've really enjoyed that, that total inclusive experience, and just they cannot wait to get back on again. So that happens all the time.

Unknown Speaker  18:34  
And I also say that on some of the other larger vessels, you know, they do all everyone has a program, a past guest program. And some of the perks are free internet or maybe, you know, that's all included. So that is another step as well, because I've encountered a lot of guests who are so so loyal to whichever brand, they're on one of the larger ships because they fail so many times. And they have free internet and they get invited to the cocktail party and things of that nature. I mean, that is really what Steve Wynn does for all of our guests. Start so I encourage you to think about that because a lot of times we get that no no no I have I have a privilege with you know princess or with Holland. Fantastic. But you know, we kind of are all inclusive so you're pretty much getting that when you move to experience

Unknown Speaker  19:27  
exactly.

Charlie McDermott  19:29  
Just say How about maybe diving into some of the personal services and food choices, dining choices, you know the difference between luxury cruises versus your standard cruise packages.

Unknown Speaker  19:45  
So first thing that stands out to me is there's no cost for any of the dining menus on board at least on seaborne. So, we have multiple dining we have three sizes of chips we have the Odyssey class, which are the 450 He gets chips. And there we have main dining room which is called the restaurants. We also have a colonnade, which is an indoor outdoor restaurant, out by the pool deck that serves breakfast lunch, and at nighttime, it turns into a third dining option. And we have a fantastic partnership with Chef Thomas Keller, as I mentioned earlier, many of you may be familiar with Chef Thomas Keller, he's the owner of the French Laundry and a couple of other restaurants throughout the country. There's no additional cost there. That's the only restaurant that does require your reservation, but no additional cost. So you have four restaurants plus room service, which by the way, they mentioned the room service, it is not just come to your room, give you your plates and leave and you know, call me when you're done on SIBO. And they actually arrive in your suite, they set up the table with five linens with all the crystal that you would find in the dining table the silverware. And at nighttime you can even have a course by course. So you can have your dinner covenants course by course. So you really have at least five venues on the smaller ships. And on the large 600 passing, which is the Encore the ovation, you have those same options. Plus, we have an additional sushi restaurant that we call sushi. So you can't get lost. If you're looking for sushi, you just go to sushi. But there is an additional venue there. So you're there you're talking about up to six restaurants or six dining options for chip that has 600 guests. So you know, it's all about being able to offer diversity and food diversity and experiences and not have to pay additional for

Laurie Shuss  21:44  
that. What about excursions jesting?

Unknown Speaker  21:48  
So you know what seaborne we do not include excursion. So I know that some of the other luxury brands do include them. And you know, they should preface this by saying when you say include it, they're not giving them to you they are in the pricing. So you will also find that as well that in pricing, they may be a little bit more than us in certain cases, because they are included in the excursions We opted not to include them during the 21 season where things were very, very quiet. That's wonderful anyone, we went out to our travel partners into our past guests, and we asked them should we be including excursions. And the general consensus was that they were okay with us not including them, because what they found is, and some of you may know, they do this as well. A lot of our guests are very well traveled and they stay on board the ship a lot. So they're important and some of them never get off. Or some of them may do one or two excursions, you know, when you have shore excursions included, you're basically playing paying for them, whether you take them or whether you don't take them. So our guests just prefer to be able to manage their excursions, if they want to get off, they will absolutely take an excursion where they will work with their travel advisors to put together a private excursion and not have to go with everyone. And that's very important to them having that that freedom. So right now we do not include them, but we do offer them so you have a wide variety of excursions on all of our itineraries throughout the all of our ships. Now I should say that the expedition vessel do include excursions, because that's part of the expedition experience. So there you will find in places like Antarctica and the Arctic, where there isn't much there isn't a third party vendor that's offering an excursion we will include the excursion so everything the hikes, the tours, are all included when you're sailing in a an itinerary that has cities and that has other opportunities for excursions, we will offer complimentary excursions will also be excursions for pay as well. Great.

Charlie McDermott  24:06  
So then how about your you probably don't have a typical itinerary, but just to give our rookies folks that are interested in say, like a trip to the Mediterranean, what would that look like Jesse?

Unknown Speaker  24:21  
So, you know, Mediterranean is there's so many ports, if you just look again at one of the large vessels you'd be tricked into, there's maybe about 30 ports and that's about it because those, you know, the ships just can't go into some of the smaller ones, but there are so many so one of my favorites is the itinerary from Venice, Athens. That's a seven day itinerary, where it was down the Dalmatian coast and visiting Dubrovnik or split in some options also visiting ports in Slovenia going down to a to integrate as well and it's a nice seven A temporary so it kind of gets you multiple countries to be able to, to visit other itineraries you can do that are kind of standard as far as where they begin and end but everything in between this different is like a Barcelona to Rome, where you're where you're stopping. And as I said, Portofino quick jump in and he says, Hey, and teams, you know, you really just kind of getting into the smaller itineraries, you can even go up to Northern Europe, where we are offering Northern Europe this year without moving to St. Petersburg. We're offering brunch in Copenhagen that goes up to Sweden, goes into Amsterdam, goes also into England. I mean, you the possibilities are endless. Alaska is another one. You know, we do a great Alaska from Vancouver to Juneau. Not going any farther than that. But doing deep inside passage itineraries with our smaller ships. I mean, again, I can go on there's this ice, Greenland, there's a seven night that I just looked at, which is a Reykjavik to, to Greenland itinerary as well. It's just it's amazing the possibilities and the ports of cause visit. I've encountered some guests that they they're not cruisers, that there's some destinations like Antarctica, Greenland, the Alaskan islands that you can only really get to when you're cruising. You really, you can, I guess, but you know, you're not going to be flirting from every single day, you're not going to have a six star hotel waiting for you at the end of the day as well. So I really think that people who may be on the fence, consider that as well. Terrific. Wow. I should also let me just say one last thing. So we're about to release our we also do very long, this. And I want to mention this because it is very unique. So this year, we have a grand voyage that was roundtrip Miami, 79 days around South America, stopping in Antarctica. Next 2025 is going to have a grand world cruise is going to circumnavigate all of Africa. So that is going to be the most crimini days as well. And again, the who does that, you know, you're talking about not just South Africa, which many people are wondering with you're talking about all of Africa, circumnavigating from Morocco, down to South Africa, over to the east coast as well through the Suez Canal. I mean, you know, again, you can only do this if you're cruising.

Charlie McDermott  27:40  
Wow, sign me up for that.



Charlie McDermott  27:52  
was awesome. Well, anything else that we should know Jesse about luxury cruising that we didn't cover?

Unknown Speaker  27:59  
You know, I think that again, a double go by the word luxury because some people may be you know, the word. Luxury just means that the onboard experience is beyond whatever you can imagine. You know, it is about good food. Great service. It's about unique itineraries. And a lot of times if you compare what the luxury cruise without talking about price without saying what they cost, a lot of the guests that I've positioned that to have said wow, this must be X amount of dollars and then actually go back with what the cost really is. The first question is, well, what's wrong with it? You know, why is it so inexpensive because they kind of think that it would be so so expensive. Again, we have seven day itineraries that are just over 45 $4,600 in the Mediterranean, which is very comparable to some of the other some of the premium brands so don't be scared of that word. You know, learn about the luxury experience because once you do that you absolutely will not want to turn around and do anything else.

Charlie McDermott  29:06  
Awesome. Awesome. And Laurie, and Greg, for our listeners who want to learn more want to get in touch what's the best way for them to do so

Laurie Shuss  29:15  
they can call us at 239-603-6040 and they can also visit our website at lshuss.dreamvacations.com or call 239-603-6040 
Charlie McDermott  29:33  
Super anything else you guys want to add anything that we missed from your experiences plural.

Laurie Shuss  29:40  
I think when I think about luxury cruising I think about how I feel when I stay at let's say a Ritz Carlton Hotel. type of experience is equivalent, not quite as nice but equivalent to what you might expect on a luxury cruise line. They they know you they treat you so well, and people need to experience that luxury to understand the difference between mainstream contemporary cruise lines, and what luxury cruise line has to offer them. And Jesse, you hit the nail on the head when when people think about that, and you look at what's included in what's not included on a contemporary line versus your luxury line, they're going to be very surprised to see that those prices are very, very similar. When you look at what's

Greg Shuss  30:29  
included, it also takes all the stress away from your clients experience when they travel so they don't have to really worry about how am I going to get to the to the cruise ship from the airport. You know, where am I going to go for dinner? You know what entertainment dessert place I need to go to to see a show all of those things are taken care of for you.

Laurie Shuss  30:52  
Another part of the travel experience when you're talking about taking flights is seaborne as 24/7 assistance while you are in transit to your cruise or to home. So if there are problems with the airline or you're delayed or you miss a connection, seaborne is there to help you get to where you need to go. And that's an important part for for clients to to understand. They are not alone. They're not stranded somewhere, they have seaborne to call they have us to call. So they have someone who's going to be there to help them.

Charlie McDermott  31:28  
Yeah, that's a lot of stress boy, you start getting delayed, and you have this vision of the ship just sailing away.

Laurie Shuss  31:36  
And if you do happen to miss it, they will get you to the first port.

Unknown Speaker  31:41  
I was just gonna mention that I was on the sailing not too long ago where they canceled the flight. And the guests actually waited until the next port of call we booked the air so we knew exactly what was going on. We knew we were in contact with her directly the ship was and she was able to meet us in the second port of call so

Laurie Shuss  32:01  
excellent. I always tell clients that it's best to book your travel your air travel through the cruise line, because then they're on top of what's happening and keep in touch with you and you can do the same to be in touch with them. So that's a really important thing for travelers, whether you're experienced or you're brand new. I always tell people the best way is to book your air through your cruise line.

Charlie McDermott  32:25  
Oh, terrific. Well, guys, again, you just knocked it out of the park. Jessie, thank you for sharing all of your experiences and logging Greg. We'll see you again soon. I'm sure you have probably like five more trips booked between now and the next episode tomorrow. No kidding. We'll see you soon.

Unknown Speaker  32:47  
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. Appreciate you.

Greg Shuss  32:51  
Okay, take care. Thanks for listening to dream vacations with Laurie and Greg Shuss. To learn more about our travel business. You can go to cruise with cruisewithlaurie.com