Travel – Le Lyrial – an technical review

The birth of leisure cruising began with the formation of the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company in 1822 (P&O). The company started out as a shipping line with routes between England and the Iberian Peninsula, adopting the name Peninsular Steam Navigation Company. It won its first contract to deliver mail in 1837. In 1840, it began mail delivery to Alexandria, Egypt, via Gibraltar and Malta. The company was incorporated by Royal Charter the same year, becoming the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company.

The company began offering luxury cruise services in 1844, advertising sea tours to destinations such as Gibraltar, Malta and Athens, sailing from Southampton. The forerunner of modern cruise holidays, these voyages were the first of their kind, and P&O Cruises has been recognised as the world’s oldest cruise line. The company later introduced round trips to destinations such as Alexandria and Constantinople. It underwent a period of rapid expansion in the latter half of the 19th century, commissioning larger and more luxurious ships to serve the steadily expanding market. Notable ships of the era include the SS Ravenna built in 1880, which became the first ship to be built with a total steel superstructure, and the SS Valetta built in 1889, which was the first ship to use electric lights.

Some sources mention Francesco I, flying the flag of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (Italy), as the first cruise ship. She was built in 1831 and sailed from Naples in early June 1833, preceded by an advertising campaign. The cruise ship was boarded by nobles, authorities, and royal princes from all over Europe. In just over three months, the ship sailed to Taormina, Catania, Syracuse, Malta, Corfu, Patras, Delphi, Zante, Athens, Smyrna, Constantinople, delighting passengers with excursions and guided tours, dancing, card tables on the deck and parties on board. However, it was restricted to the aristocracy of Europe and was not a commercial endeavour.

The cruise of the German ship Augusta Victoria in the Mediterranean and the Near East from 22 January to 22 March 1891, with 241 passengers including Albert Ballin and wife, popularised the cruise to a wider market. Christian Wilhelm Allers published an illustrated account of it as Backschisch (Baksheesh).

The first vessel built exclusively for luxury cruising, was Prinzessin Victoria Luise of Germany, designed by Albert Ballin, general manager of Hamburg-America Line (HAPAG). The ship was completed in 1900. The practice of luxury cruising made steady inroads on the more established market for transatlantic crossings. In the competition for passengers, ocean liners added luxuries (Titanic being the most famous example) such as fine dining, luxury services, and staterooms with finer appointments. In the late 19th century, Albert Ballin, director of the Hamburg-America Line, was the first to send his transatlantic ships out on long southern cruises during the worst of the winter season of the North Atlantic. Other companies followed suit. Some of them built specialised ships designed for easy transformation between summer crossings and winter cruising.

In 1896, there were three luxury liners for transportation, for the Europe to North America trip. These were European-owned. In 1906, the number had increased to seven. The British Inman Line owned City of Paris, the Cunard Line the Lucania. The White Star Line owned Majestic and Teutonic.

From luxury ocean liners to “megaship” cruising

With the advent of large passenger jet aircraft in the 1960s, intercontinental travellers switched from ships to planes sending the ocean liner trade into a terminal decline. Certain characteristics of older ocean liners made them unsuitable for cruising duties, such as high fuel consumption, deep draught preventing them from entering shallow ports, and cabins (often windowless) designed to maximise passenger numbers rather than comfort.

Ocean liner services aimed at passengers ceased in 1986, with the notable exception of transatlantic crossings operated by the British shipping company Cunard Line, catering to a niche market of those who appreciated the several days at sea. In an attempt to shift the focus of the market from passenger travel to cruising with entertainment value, Cunard Line pioneered the luxury cruise transatlantic service on board the Queen Elizabeth 2 ocean liner. International celebrities were hired to perform cabaret acts onboard and the crossing was advertised as a vacation in itself. Queen Elizabeth 2 also inaugurated “one-class cruising” where all passengers received the same quality berthing and facilities. This revitalized the market as the appeal of luxury cruising began to catch on, on both sides of the Atlantic. The 1970s television series Love Boat, helped to popularise the concept as a romantic opportunity for couples. 

Another ship to make this transition was SS Norway, originally the ocean liner SS France and later converted to cruising duties as the Caribbean’s first “super-ship.”

Contemporary cruise ships built in the late 1980s and later, such as Sovereign-class which broke the size record held for decades by Norway, showed characteristics of size and strength once reserved for ocean liners. The Sovereign-class ships were the first “megaships” to be built for the mass cruising market, they also were the first series of cruise ships to include a multi-story atrium with glass elevators. And they also had a single deck devoted entirely to cabins with private balconies instead of ocean-view cabins. Other cruise lines soon launched ships with similar attributes, such as the Fantasy-class, leading up to the Panamax–type Vista-class, designed such that two thirds of the ocean-view staterooms have verandas. As the veranda suites were particularly lucrative for cruise lines, something which was lacking in older ocean liners, recent cruise ships have been designed to maximise such amenities and have been described as “balcony-laden floating condominiums”.

Until 1975-1980, cruises offered shuffleboard, deck chairs, “drinks with umbrellas and little else for a few hundred passengers.” After 1980, they offered increasing amenities. As of 2010, city-sized ships have dozens of amenities. There have been nine or more new cruise ships added every year since 2001, including the 11 members of the Vista-class, and all at 100,000 GT or greater. The only comparable ocean liner to be completed in recent years has been Cunard Line’s Queen Mary 2 in 2004. Following the retirement of her running mate Queen Elizabeth 2 in November 2008, Queen Mary 2 is the only liner operating on transatlantic routes, though she also sees significant service on cruise routes.

Queen Mary 2 was for a time the largest passenger ship before being surpassed by Royal Caribbean International’s Freedom-class vessels in 2006. The Freedom-class ships were in turn overtaken by RCI’s Oasis-class vessels which entered service in 2009 and 2010. A distinctive feature of Oasis–class ships is the split “open-atrium” structure, made possible by the hull’s extraordinary width, with the 6-deck high “Central Park” and “Boardwalk” outdoor areas running down the middle of the ship and verandas on all decks.

In two short decades (1988-2009), the largest class cruise ships have grown a third longer (268 m to 360 m), almost doubled their widths (32.2 m to 60.5 m), doubled the total passengers (2,744 to 5,400), and tripled in weight (73,000 GT to 225,000 GT). Also, the “megaships” went from a single deck with verandas to all decks with verandas.

The golden age of ocean liners has faded, replaced by cruise ships.

Cruise lines have a dual character, they are partly in the transportation business, and partly in the leisure entertainment business. A duality that carries down into the ships themselves, which have both a crew headed by the ship’s captain, and a hospitality staff headed by the equivalent of a hotel manager.

Historically, the cruise ship business has been volatile. The ships are large capital investments with high operating costs. A persistent decrease in bookings can put a company in financial jeopardy. Cruise lines have sold, renovated, or renamed their ships to keep up with travel trends. The cruise lines operate their ships virtually 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year. A ship which is out of service for routine maintenance means the loss of tens of millions of dollars. If the maintenance is unscheduled, it can result, potentially, in thousands of dissatisfied customers.

A wave of failures and consolidations in the 1990s has led to many cruise lines to be bought by much larger holding companies, and now operates as “brands” within larger holding corporations, much as a large automobile company holding several makes of cars. Brands exist partly because of repeat customer loyalty, and also to offer different levels of quality and service. For instance, Carnival Corporation & plc owns both Carnival Cruise Line, whose former image were vessels that had a reputation as “party ships” for younger travellers, but have become large, modern, yet still profitable, and Holland America Line, whose ships cultivate an image of classic elegance. In 2004, Carnival Corporation had merged Cunard’s headquarters with that of Princess Cruises in Santa Clarita, California so that administrative, financial and technology services could be combined, ending Cunard’s history where it had operated as a standalone company (subsidiary) regardless of parent ownership. However, Cunard did regain some independence in 2009 when its headquarters were moved to Carnival House in Southampton.

The common practice in the cruise industry in listing cruise ship transfers and orders is to list the smaller operating company, not the larger holding corporation, as the recipient cruise line of the sale, transfer, or new order. In other words, Carnival Cruise Line and Holland America Line. for example, are the cruise lines from this common industry practice point of view; whereas Carnival Corporation & plc and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., for example, can be considered holding corporations of cruise lines. This industry practice of using the smaller operating company, not the larger holding corporation, is also followed in the list of cruise lines and in member-based reviews of cruise lines.

Some cruise lines have specialties; for example, Saga Cruises only allows passengers over 50 years old aboard their ships, and Star Clippers and formerly Windjammer Barefoot Cruises and Windstar Cruises only operate tall ships. Regent Seven Seas Cruises operates medium-sized vessels (smaller than the “megaships” of Carnival and Royal Caribbean) designed such that 90% of their suites are balconies.

Several specialty lines offer “expedition cruising” or only operate small ships, visiting certain destinations such as the Arctic and Antarctica, or the Galápagos Islands.