10 Ways to Beat Post-Cruise Depression

10 Ways to Beat Post-Cruise Depression

If the sudden absence of pillow chocolates, umbrella drinks and endless horizons leaves you hollow, you might have Post-Cruise Funk (PCF), an affliction that's affected nearly 100 percent of cruisers, according to a well-cited study I just invented. But know this: The situation can be remedied. We've compiled 10 tips and strategies, many sourced from Cruise Critic members in recovery, to get you through the painful sea-to-land reacclimation period. Enjoy a dose of the collected advice, and be sure to add to the group therapy session in the comments. Prescription: The Photo Detox If a picture is worth 1,000 words, a few of those words must be therapeutic. "I found if I take lots of fun photos while on the cruise, I can stave off some of the depression by reviewing and organizing them into a book," writes member Tudy. She and her husband periodically host "cruise evenings," during which they peruse photos, share stories and laugh. Check out our tips for taking better onboard photos. There is no shortage of Web and mobile apps, like Shutterfly or Cruise Critic sister site TripAdvisor's TripWow, to preserve a cruise experience. Side Effects: Narcolepsy, if too many photos coupled with tedious narration are shown to friends Prescription: Write a Review As with photos, reframing the at-sea narrative -- remember that woman with the Royal Caribbean tattoo? -- can be like reliving the experience. When you reminisce by way of review, you're doing thousands of readers a service through your insights, tips and tricks. Heal yourself by writing a cruise review. Side Effects: Narcissism sparked from the respect and adulation you receive from thousands of Cruise Critic readers in search of the right ship Prescription: Focus on Diet If you're pining over the loss of cruise food -- the availability, the variety, the fanfare -- there are antidotes. Drool over epicurean content in Cruise Critic's cruise food section , recreate at-sea meals with readers' favorite recipes, or chew on some useful member advice in the Cruise Foodies forum. For example, member MissMap keeps all the nighttime pillow chocolates from her cruise and deposits them in a desk drawer at work: "So if I'm having a stressful day at work," she writes, "I savor one and take a moment to remember the latest great cruise vacation." Or borrow cruising's culinary nomenclature, like member Econom405, who admits to referring to the first post-cruise family dinner she cooks as the "chef's regional specialty." Side Effects: Minor weight gain, modest weight gain, excessive weight gain or this Prescription: Get the Cruise Cocktail Recipe Booklet For many passengers, that first slurp of sailaway daiquiri marks the official start to a cruise. If you drink to remember, there might be nothing easier than recreating your favorite cruise cocktail at home. Side Effects: The cruise hangover can be replaced with an actual hangover. Do not operate heavy machinery after using the cruise cocktail recipe booklet. Prescription: Always Be Booked Chronic PCF sufferers argue there is but one cure to the vicious cycle: the pre-emptive booking. The recommended approach is to plop down on your next cruise while onboard. Many lines offer attractive perks -- discounts, reduced deposits, onboard credit -- for doing so. The fine print is key here. If you're serious about this treatment, peruse our in-depth piece on booking onboard. Don't think you have the cash? Member Gek offers her tactic on the Cruise Critic forums: "Find a cruise at least 12 months away that looks really good. Forget about cost or circumstances -- just book it. Research it, plan it, and up until the day when cancellation penalties kick in, assume the cost or your circumstances will change. If they do not, just cancel and repeat the process. The deposit also becomes a ready source of cash that you can access any time you want. Consider the fun of planning a cruise as the return on your investment." Side Effects: Debt, land-sea dysmorphia Prescription: Join a Roll Call Until sandals touch lido deck, talking about a cruise is what makes it real. Shameless ship's horn tooting aside, there is no better place to chat with fellow passengers about upcoming itineraries than a Cruise Critic Roll Call. You can swap tips, set up pre-cruise or onboard events or book a group tour if you think your virtual relationships can make the transition to the real world. Meet your fellow passengers here. Side Effects: Blood pressure spike if pre-cruise conversation veers into the political, religious or cultural Prescription: Vicarious Immersion Therapy No looming embarkation to boost morale? There are thousands of Cruise Critic members enduring the same pain. Their recourse: the virtual cruise experience. Check out the "live from..." logs endlessly spawned on the Cruise Critic message boards. Here's but oneprime example, which has been read by thousands of PCF sufferers. Cruise Critic editors also regularly report from wherever cruise ships travel, posting photo-heavy vignettes on the Lido Deck Blog and hosting weekly live chats. Side Effects: Too much cruise voyeurism can lead to a permanent break from reality and, potentially, loss of family, job or Hawaiian shirt. Prescription: Become an (Unpaid) Travel Agent Take enough cruises, and you'll start to discover the secrets the cruise lines don't tell you. Use your developing expertise to help a friend or family member plan his next cruise. While helping new cruisers is rewarding in and of itself, you just might find a bathrobe, luggage tag and chocolate melting cake mix gift wrapped with your name on it. Side Effects: Offending friends by demanding a commission Prescription: Towels as Tonic There's no denying it: Most cruisers prefer the company of towel animals to their significant others. Ogle this menagerie of towel creatures, or get your hands linty by learning the time-honored craft. Side Effects: Callouses, towel shortages, wet floors, grins that last more than four hours, no friends anymore Prescription: Turn Your Home Into a Cruise Ship The next best thing to being there: Install a porthole in your bedroom, and paint the glass with a seascape, like reader Richard S. Alternatively, Member Dodget1964 brings home the breakfast room service menus and hangs them on the bedroom door. "I keep thinking the room service attendant will show up," she writes. Better still, pass on your love of cruising to your child by filling his nursery with cruise ship accouterments. For a more tongue-in-cheek approach, see our incisive report oncruising from home in 10 easy steps. Side Effects: Home resale value reduction

Norwegian Cruise Line and Avis Budget sign marketing deal

By Tom Stieghorst

Avis Budget Group and Norwegian Cruise Line said they’ve signed a multiyear marketing agreement that will make Avis Budget part of pre-cruise tour packages for Norwegian Getaway, the line’s newest ship.

The packages will be available to guests and travel agents through Norwegian’s call center.

Information about the Avis and Budget car rental brands will be featured in Norwegian's electronic marketing channels, while Norwegian Cruise Line will be featured in communications to Avis and Budget customers.

Norwegian Getaway is scheduled to begin cruises from Miami in February. 

Celebrity Cruises revamps loyalty program

By Tom Stieghorst

Celebrity Cruises has overhauled its  loyalty program, making it easier to earn additional perks and adding two elite levels to give top-tier members more to aspire to.

Celebrity is sending notifications to members of the club, which the cruise line says has about 2 million active participants.

David Brown, Celebrity’s marketing vice president in charge of the program, said guests had been asking for more in the program, which until now has had just four benefit levels.

“We wanted to recognize those guests who sailed frequently with us and kept sailing with us,” Brown said.

The previous structure was based on the number of sailings a member accumulates. So, for example, it took 10 credits to reach Elite status. Credits could be earned by taking a cruise, staying in a concierge-level suite or taking a sailing of 12 nights or more.

Going forward, the system will change to one based on cabin category, multiplied by cruise nights. So an interior cabin will earn two points, while a penthouse suite is worth 18 points.

The difference on a seven-night cruise would be 14 points vs. 126 points.

“So you can see there’s a dramatic difference based on the type of room,” Brown said.

At the same time, Celebrity is adding two more tiers, Elite Plus and Zenith, which will require more points and provide more perks. Some existing Elite members will automatically be enrolled in Elite Plus.

“We’re going to have a lot of people excited because they’re in that new level,” Brown said.

Very few members will graduate initially to Zenith, however.

“It’s not going to be easy to get to that level,” he said. “The point structures are clear. If you sail in a suite-level category for a certain amount of time, it is achievable.”

Elite status will require 300 points, Elite Plus 750 points, and Zenith will start at 3,000 points. Perks at the Zenith level include laundry service and 1,600 Internet minutes.

Celebrity studied changes in other loyalty programs before redesigning Captain’s Club. An important point, Brown said, is that no one will go backward in status as the points system changes.

There will also be no fees in the program, and points will never expire. Elite members will have lapel pins and leather luggage tags delivered to their homes starting this week.

Brown said the new system is more finely calibrated so that it’s easier to see how to get to the next level, and easier to change status by staying in a higher-level accommodation.

“It’s a really easy structure for somebody to say, if I book a little higher category of room, I’m going to increase the points for the sailing,” Brown said.

Status level in Captain’s Club will be indicated by Sea Pass card color, with Zenith members getting black cards; Elite Plus members’ cards will be burgundy.

Celebrity tested a new lounge on Infinity separate from the Captain’s Club lounge for Zenith members and high-level cabin occupants. Brown said it would begin opening the lounges on other ships next year. 

Technology and the shipboard library

By Tom Stieghorst

The ship’s library has always been a small but special part of the cruise experience. But for how much longer?  

The library at sea, like libraries everywhere, is under siege by changing technology. And whether ships need to set aside space for libraries in the future is very much being debated as new ships are designed.

Carnival cruise director and blogger extraordinaire John Heald said in a recent posting that the library on the recent transatlantic crossing of the Carnival Legend was full of books.   

"One thing all those transatlantic crossings had in common was that the library, by the end of the first sea day, sat entirely empty," Heald wrote. “Here on the Carnival Legend, the bookcases are full.

"Yep, the book is dead, long live the Kindle. Every deck I walk on, I see young and old reading their Kindles."

Even on an ocean crossing with presumably few younger, tech-savvy passengers on the manifest, the library remains fully stocked, Heald said: “Wherever I am, I see older people and their parents absorbed in their Kindles.”

Perhaps that’s just Carnival. Maybe the magnificent libraries on the Cunard Line fleet have emptier shelves on their Atlantic trips. But on most ships where space is at a premium, the library is an endangered species.

At the next major drydock nothing prevents a ship’s library from being converted to some other use. Heald suggested perhaps a cigar bar (a suggestion likely made for for comic effect, but maybe not.)

The trend is on display on Carnival Sunshine, the ship Carnival renovated from stem to stern earlier this year. While the library wasn’t eliminated or converted to another use, it now shares space with a bar.
Carnival is in the process of designing the next ship to set sail under its red and blue banner, the Carnival Vista. With Kindles in the hands of passengers young and old, it may well be the first Carnival ship without a library.

In his post Heald referred to a bookstore in Miami that he said was possibly a Borders, which he liked to visit when he comes to Miami. “It would not surprise me that, when I return there in November, it’s become a Walgreens or worse, a gym,” he wrote.

If in fact it was a Borders, it closed two years ago, along with the rest of the chain’s stores.  The Borders on South Dixie Highway in Miami reopened last week as a Trader Joe’s specialty market. 

At least it’s not a gym.

Royal Caribbean cuts 100 jobs, including Bauer's

By Tom Stieghorst

About 100 people in Royal Caribbean's Miami offices have been let go this week, and the departures include sales executive Lisa Bauer.

Royal Caribbean spokesman Rob Zeiger said Bauer will be leaving by the end of the week. She is currently executive vice president of global sales and marketing, but has held roles in numerous departments at the company over the course of her career.

"She was a terrifically effective executive," Zeiger said. "She made her mark wherever she went. We wish her well."

Zeiger said Bauer's role is being eliminated. Managers who now report to Bauer will report to Royal Caribbean International CEO Adam Goldstein.

The other layoffs were spread across disciplines and up and down the position ranks, Zeiger said.

"This isn't a signal of a shakeup or a restructuring. There are simply ways to make the company run more effectively," Zeiger said. 

Iglu swoops for rival Planet Cruise

By Lee Hayhurst 

Cruise and ski specialist online travel agent Iglu.com has acquired rival Planet Cruise claiming the deal makes it the UK’s number one cruise retailer.

The deal, for an undisclosed sum, comes just over 12 months after Iglu secured venture capitalist funding from Growth Capital Partners (GCP) in a deal which valued the firm at £19 million.

That deal saw GCP take a "significant minority stake" in Iglu buying out previous investors Matrix Private Equity Partners.

GCP backed the planet buyout and the annual turnover of the combined business was said to be £135 million.

Both Iglu’s and Planet’s offices in Wimbledon and Portsmouth respectively will be retained as will all staff. Planet employs 75 people.

Iglu claimed the deal means customers will be the first in the country able to research their holidays via either its website, its mobile App, on a tablet or on television.

Iglu chief executive Richard Downs said: “This acquisition means we are going to be delivering the future of travel retailing today.

“With the convergence of TV and the web our customers will have access to the richest and most informed content whichever way they chose to access it.

“Iglu has long been the number one independent ski retailer in the UK and this deal makes us the number one retailer in cruise.”

Portsmouth-based Planet Cruise, which was founded in 2005 by husband and wife team Gary and Jenny West, launched a cruise show on the Ideal World Shopping Channel in January 2008.

It sells cruises on regular TV slots which on all digital platforms such as FreeView, Virgin, Sky and Freesat.

Planet Cruise managing director, Gary West, said: “Combining Iglu’s online capabilities and our strength on television is an exciting prospect.

“There is a natural fit in the two businesses coming together and we as a team here at Planet Cruise look forward to creating a new market leader.”

Iglu managing director, Simone Clark, added: “This is an extremely exciting chapter for Iglu - we'll be keeping on all the staff and both offices as we plan to continue to grow both the Iglu and Planet Cruise businesses and we now have an even stronger team to take us forward.”

Iglu was founded by Downs in 1998 during his final year of an MBA at London Business School. It expanded into cruise in 2006 and now employs a team of 150.

Simon Jobson, partner at GCP, said: “This acquisition will make Iglu the largest cruise agent in the UK and the market leader in its field. 

“We initially invested in the business having seen how brilliantly it capitalised on the huge increase in the popularity of online travel, especially in the cruise sectors and we recognised the potential for developing its online presence and growth by acquisition.”