Has the Med had its day?

[Kendhni]

Carnival, RCI, and now Regent all scaling back in Europe.
There are more lucrative markets in Australsia and Asia and many of the the cruise lines seem to want to cash in on those markets.

[JenniC]

I do hope not as that would mean more fly cruising and whilst I absolutely am one of those who has no issue with flying, it is lovely to have the choice and sailing from Southampton is bit of magic.. something I never tire of. The med still has some wonderful places, some of which I have yet to see and some that I would love to see again. Problem is they are all business and they will go where they can maximise profit...

[barney]

Not for most Europeans

The Yanks are pulling out because of the cost of airfares and the fact that some of their ships don't suit the European market.

I do think that the remaining players should look at the destination ports a bit more.

It can be a bit same old, same old. There are many that are underused

[Mariner Mike]

I don't think the Med will ever lose its attraction for me, or for P&O. Let's face it, is one visit enough for places like Rome, Florence, Venice and many others?

I do find the launch of 'FlyMed' both a good idea as an alternative and maybe an indication of direction.

Longer Central and Eastern Med cruises are great for the traditional customer base who have more time, but going forward if they are looking to attract younger and family audiences with holiday restrictions in play, maybe P&O feel they will need a wider range of destinations that fit within 1 or 2 weeks (whether 7 or 14 nights, or 7 nights plus a 3/4 night stay maybe). A thought I would like to add - if next year's Fly Med is a success what about Eastern Fly Med as a follow on - maybe when the new ship arrives??

[qbman1]

The Med still certainly has a place for us, if only because it is relatively easily accessible from Southampton. Flying is such a hassle these days ! It seems P&O are catching on to the need to vary the itineraries as much as possible and I have noticed that not every voyage now has the obligatory call at Vigo and Lisbon. There is now quite a bit more variety in the outward and inbound ports of call. I accept that there is a limit to the number of ports that are possible and maybe one or two more port authorities on the Atlantic coast might wake up to the fact that they can attract cruise lines to visit with a few modest improvements

[paultheeagle]

Has the Med had its day..................No.

Having said that, as the ships keep getting bigger and bigger the number of Ports that they can get in must be reducing....So some will get fed up with keep going to the same old places.

We need some new small ships.

[Dark Knight]

by no means
it is easy to forget the vast wealth of places to visit in the Med , just coz the cruise companies only visit the ports they can fit into or are cheap, this doesn't mean the med is done
it needs some more thought from the operators and they need to improve the excursions......but the med has still many undiscovered gems left for any holiday maker

[barney]

Rather than always go round the north of the Med, I'd like to see a few cruise around the south, including some of the Arab countries and maybe Malta,Sicily & Naples.
The distance would be about the same, I reckon.

Cartagena is also little used in Spain. It's a nice place

[B52-2002]

I think that there are several reasons why Europe is losing a little of the cruise market. The first one surely has to be the continued recession in most of the European countries. You only have to look at the massive reductions in prices for this summer. I would guess that this is due to too many ships and too few passengers. This spreads them too thinly across the ships.

Asia is a booming market, as the recession has not hit over there, and there is an awful lot of " new money " around. Asians have become a lot richer over the last few years and have now taken to the Western "luxury market " which obviously includes holidays.

I do agree with other posts though. There are many under used ports in the Med and perhaps, particularly for P&O, a bit of a shake up of ports used may rejuvenate the market slightly.

[Dancing Queen]

I don't think the Med will ever lose its attraction for me, or for P&O. Let's face it, is one visit enough for places like Rome, Florence, Venice and many others?

I do find the launch of 'FlyMed' both a good idea as an alternative and maybe an indication of direction.

Longer Central and Eastern Med cruises are great for the traditional customer base who have more time, but going forward if they are looking to attract younger and family audiences with holiday restrictions in play, maybe P&O feel they will need a wider range of destinations that fit within 1 or 2 weeks (whether 7 or 14 nights, or 7 nights plus a 3/4 night stay maybe). A thought I would like to add - if next year's Fly Med is a success what about Eastern Fly Med as a follow on - maybe when the new ship arrives??

The Med will never lose it's attraction for me either, as you say Rome, Florence etc one visit isn't enough.

As for attracting families .... well they will have to look at their pricing structure, they will not attract families if only vantage fares are available with very little discount for children, so I can still see the ships being difficult to fill, having said that I haven't looked at the fly/cruises for next year so they could well be offering incentives.

[Kendhni]

We have deliberately avoided cruising the Med so far .. simply because we are happy to do long haul flights, but at some point that may change.

When that time comes we still have the Fjords and I look forward to a short flight to Southampton or somewhere in the Med so that we can enjoy many of the Med ports (so I hope any current glitch is short lived).

[paultheeagle]

Just curious....

Why would anyone fly into Southampton to start a cruise?.....if you are flying then you might as well go a bit further....that way you will miss out the sea days and the BoB getting to and from the Med.

Unless of course you enjoy being at sea for a couple of days at the beginning and end of your cruise....like what I does.

[qbman1]

I think he lives across the water PTE

[towny44]

....only for cruise lines that rely heavily on US passengers, which is especially true for fly med cruises based in the Med. For these passengers the air fare is now higher than the cruise price
Our Eclipse Med cruise from Southampton was 95% Brits, and I imagine that Princess and Royal Caribbean cruises from Southampton have a similar high proportion of Brits.

Ken, you have to consider that Australiasia cruises started from a much lower base level, so when trade magazines quote massive percentage increases, they are still looking at much lower passenger numbers than for Med cruises.

[Mr-big-bits-mk2]

We're pretty new to cruising but even now it's hard to find a cruise that doesn't have a large overlap of ports that we have previously been to.

I'm not surprised at any business looking away from Europe. The boss of F1 said quite blatantly that there would be less races in Europe at some point as F1 has to follow money and with us languishing in poverty as a continent whilst others are starting to boom it's hardly a surprise that cruiselines as with many other businesses are looking further afield.

[Capt Black]

A while back, a couple on our table didn't go ashore in Venice because they had been there so many times! Didn't stop them cruising to the med.

[paultheeagle]

I've been to Barcelona about seven times, six time on a cruise ship and the same for Gib.....Been to Civita.........ia (Rome) endless time as well and Livorno (Florence)....Been to Corsica about four times as well and had a couple of stops in Lisbon and Venice.

But every time I have been to these place I have enjoyed them because they have been different...same place but I've done different things and I will never tire of visiting them again....I know that don't make sense but I know what I mean....It ain't where you go, it's what you do when you get there that counts.

Just as long as the ship I'm on has got a wrap around Prom Deck.

[daib GC]

Just curious....

Why would anyone fly into Southampton to start a cruise?.....if you are flying then you might as well go a bit further....that way you will miss out the sea days and the BoB getting to and from the Med.

Unless of course you enjoy being at sea for a couple of days at the beginning and end of your cruise....like what I does.

We like to BoB around, so we like to sail from Southampton.


Gan Canny


Dai

[Dancing Queen]

It makes perfect sense to me Paul, we find something different to do however many times we visit the same place, we did the Med over Xmas/New Year and it was amazing how different it was to the middle of the summer, did we enjoy it any less ... definitely not ... we did different things and we probably did more sightseeing than we would normally do , for someone who is used to being in the Caribbean at Xmas I had my doubts that I would enjoy this but I can honestly say it was fantastic.

[JenniC]

Just as long as the ship I'm on has got a wrap around Prom Deck.

And a tele to watch Palace (Off Topic - sorry MobyMod) .Have you been a Palace supporter for long as I have a soft spot for them as I went to school at Lady Edridge which was of the corner of Holmsdale Road, think it is Sainsbury's or Palace car park now.... Got detention in 1965 bunking off Domestic Science to climb over the fence and get tickets to watch Palace take on Leeds in 6th round of FA cup - got the tickets though - Palace lost 3-0

[JenniC]

Back on topic.. I do think with the relative ease of getting to the med from Southampton P&O at least will continue to offer a variety of cruises.. Or is that just wishful thinking !

[Suekersh]

We have cruised the med a few times with P & O and never tire of the ports of call. The first time we went to Rome we saw most sights but now when we go back we concentrate on one site and view it in depth. The same with other ports. Often do HOHO and make notes for the next time we visit.

Same with the Caribbean. Just love it even though the same ports every year.

Sue

[Islander]

Same here Paultheeagle and Dancing Queen. We've been many times to various places in the Med and never get bored with them. August cruise takes in Venice again and even though we've been there 8 times before we have explored a different area or island each time. Come across some lovely sights without even trying. Last year, wandering round the Academia area we found the family run boat yard that repairs all the gondolas. Earlier this year two programmes on TV about it. There's always something different if you're prepared,or want to, look around. All there to be discovered.

[paultheeagle]

Just as long as the ship I'm on has got a wrap around Prom Deck.

And a tele to watch Palace (Off Topic - sorry MobyMod) .Have you been a Palace supporter for long as I have a soft spot for them as I went to school at Lady Edridge which was of the corner of Holmsdale Road, think it is Sainsbury's or Palace car park now.... Got detention in 1965 bunking off Domestic Science to climb over the fence and get tickets to watch Palace take on Leeds in 6th round of FA cup - got the tickets though - Palace lost 3-0

Jen... I could talk about Palace all day and night but thought I better not on here so I have sent you a PM.

[Manoverboard]

... Have you been a Palace supporter for long as I have a soft spot for them ...

Getting a detention for watching Palace sounds about right to me

So now there are two of you