Big Wheels Stop Turnin'

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday January 17, 2009

Mike Heard

Costs sink Mississippi boats, writes Mike Heard.

Australians hoping to cruise US waterways made famous by writer Mark Twain and his heroes Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn are running out of options.

Just months after the owner of the best-known Mississippi paddlewheelers announced it would not be operating the vessels this year, a second company has made a similar move.

RiverBarge Excursion Lines says rising costs and soft bookings have forced the decision.

The New Orleans-based company has been cruising the Mississippi for 10 years with a 98-passenger "hotel barge", made up of two flat-bottom craft joined together.

Late last year, Majestic America Line announced it was ending its loss-making paddlewheeler operations on the Mississippi and its tributaries, as well as on rivers in the region of the US known as the Pacific Northwest.

Room-service sting

Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines has caused a stir by introducing a room-service fee.

The $US3.95 ($5.60) charge will apply to food orders placed from cabins between midnight and 5am. It will not apply to drink orders.

Much of the reaction has centred on what prompted the move.

The line is reported as saying the fee is designed to minimise food wastage.

But that seems at odds with the cruise industry's general philosophy of providing unlimited quantities of food around the clock.

Many of Royal Caribbean's 20-odd ships offer 24-hour restaurant grazing.

Cruise bargains lapped up

Are Australians showing a new appetite for cruising or do they just know a holiday bargain when they see one?

A few days before Christmas, P&O launched what it called Australia's Biggest Cruise Sale, promising to cut up to 50 per cent off fares for 110 cruises out of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Fremantle. There was a predictably solid initial response but after Christmas and New Year, bookings skyrocketed.

In one day, P&O received 7000 calls, a 43 per cent increase on its biggest January day last year.

P&O attributes the response to its "good-value and relaxing holidays to amazing destinations".

© 2009 Sydney Morning Herald

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