What types of cruises are offered to families?
Every type of cruise have offers for families nowadays. You have big cruises, and you have little cruises. The most popular ones are usually the Caribbean and Mexico. What happened in the cruise industry that is most interesting to me is that you now have many more choices about where to take your cruises. It used to be that you flew to Miami, or you flew to LA, and those were your only choices. Now you can sail out of Houston, you can sail out of New Orleans, you can sail out of different places in Florida, you can sail out of Norfolk, you can sail out of New York, you can sail out of Boston. Cruise lines have taken this into account, making it easier for families to get on board ships. They can actually drive to the terminal. Some of the people who have been catering to families for a long time include Carnival, which has a tremendous kids program, taking well over a quarter of a million kids a year. Princess also does a terrific job, and NCL is wonderful. Royal Caribbean has all that exciting stuff that they frequently advertise. But, can you imagine learning how to rock climb on a cruise? It is not the kind of thing that you always put in mind, but what has happened in the marketplace is that everybody, rich or poor, is traveling with their kids. You even have three generations traveling together - cruise is a wonderful place for multi-generation vacations. There are just about so many things out there that you wouldn't believe! The Radisson Cruises now have a childrens program that is led by Jacques Cousteaus' son.
