As we all know, the public perception of cruise is changing and cruise lines across the board are diversifying their offerings to meet customer demands. As well as keeping up with an appetite for a huge variety of customer interests (from climbing walls, zip lines and simulated sky diving to Broadway shows, wine tasting and speciality restaurants), there’s also the need to cater to the level of service that customers are seeking as part of the experience.
While there will always be customers looking for a low-cost getaway, more and more cruise passengers are now researching and planning for high-end, high quality holidays. As a result, we’re seeing a rising interest in luxury cruise lines and an increase in sales of our luxury Smart Packages. Many cruise lines are already ordering new luxury ships in anticipation of this boom. For example, Celebrity Cruises has recently purchased two new ships for the Galapagos: Celebrity Xperience and Celebrity Xploration. It’s exciting to be part of this renaissance, with the cruise industry being at the forefront of evolving travel trends that are pushing boundaries. Regent’s new ship, the Regent Seven Seas Explorer, aims to be ‘the world’s most luxurious cruise ship and Crystal Cruises plans to launch new ships, mega-yachts and even private planes to cater to the rise in demand for luxury products.
Amid this market development, we have launched our new collection Maison du Cruise providing handpicked, tailor-made holidays to our customers. Increasingly, the Cruise Nation brand has firmly become associated with offering great-value cruise packages and we are now spreading our extensive knowledge, with the same outstanding-value, to a dedicated luxury brand.
In recent years, we have noticed a rise in enquiries and bookings of the traditional luxury cruise lines including Azamara Club Cruises, Oceania and Regent Seven Seas. This, coupled with the demand for experiential, expertly designed itineraries with more flexibility, led to the creation of Maison du Cruise. I am a firm believer in innovation in the cruise industry, and this is exactly what is needed in the future as cruise consumers continue to diversify.
With Maison du Cruise we wanted to take away the hassle of the booking process with a tailored service inspired by haute couture. Each customer is assigned a cruise consultant who specialises in luxury travel products and who will remain the customer’s personal travel consultant throughout the enquiry and booking process. The consultant will work closely with the customer to create a bespoke, special holiday that will come to hold memories that will be cherished for years to come.
Cruising is no longer a ‘rigid’ holiday choice, as it was once perceived, thanks to the significant overhaul in the industry. With our Smart Packages, and now with Maison du Cruise, we offer free stays in destinations to give our customers more time to explore the fascinating locations on their trip. These ‘cruise-and-stay’ packages are particularly popular with new-to-cruise guests as they can benefit from the best of both worlds: the comfort of a cruise ship coupled with the opportunity to really immerse themselves in the destinations they are visiting. Maison du Cruise also offers this service through a series of handpicked five-star hotels in a variety of desirable destinations around the world that guests can stay at pre and/or post cruise. In addition to the luxury hotel stays, Maison du Cruise customers can also tailor their holiday with experiences and land tours that are personalised to their individual interests.
We are excited to offer our customers the perfect high-end cruise experience, created just for them, yet still at the competitive prices that Cruise Nation is known for.
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