Travel Weekly Interview with WS president

[dandee2]

Interesting fact - I guess fares are just going to go up, up . . .out of reach soon

https://www.travelweekly.com/Preview-2019/executive-view-john-delaney-windstar-cruises

 

[Griller]

It is interesting, and if he succeeds in getting the high income folk on board then he better smarten up a few facets of the operation or they won't be back.

[milepig]

There's a lot packed in there.

 

I am very happy to see the increase in pax from countries other than the US and Canada. One ongoing complaint I've had is the almost total lack of diversity and I almost felt like I hadn't left America. I don't fully understand "lack of capacity" and not working on marketing is Asia. They already work with one firm that has a lot of experience in that area.

 

I'm glad he mentioned the importance of working with Travel Agents and that he seems to value their services.

 

The huge downside is what I think is a bad indicator of what they think about the sailed ships.  In the past the rhetoric would have been "engine assisted sailed ships". Not is is "sail assisted cruise ships." World of difference.

 

In terms of cost - not only have fares been steadily increasing, many of the incentives we saw a few years ago are either gone or watered down. On one long trip we had the liquor package included and a bunch of free excursions, for example. Those seem to be mostly gone.

 

As an aside - have they released any deck plans for the stretched ships? I don't think I've seen any and am very curious, especially in light of rumors about things like "inside cabins" which I hope are not true.

[Del Rio]

12 minutes ago, milepig said:

There's a lot packed in there...

Milepig, some very good points.
Regarding "engine assisted" or "sail assisted", considering this was likely an oral interview rather than a typed interview, I would expect than, when talking, these could be interchanged.  I don't think of John Delaney as a "rigid talker".  And he did seem to speak in the interview about interest in more sailing vessels in the future.

 

About deck plans for the stretch.  When the announcement of the project went out, there was a note in the information that in 2019 there would be a webpage posted with further information.  So I suspect we will see that kind of information.  I did not hear the rumors about "inside cabins", and I listen to Windstar rumors all the time.

[milepig]

35 minutes ago, milepig said:

There's a lot packed in there.

 

I am very happy to see the increase in pax from countries other than the US and Canada. One ongoing complaint I've had is the almost total lack of diversity and I almost felt like I hadn't left America. I don't fully understand "lack of capacity" and not working on marketing is Asia. They already work with one firm that has a lot of experience in that area.

 

I'm glad he mentioned the importance of working with Travel Agents and that he seems to value their services.

 

The huge downside is what I think is a bad indicator of what they think about the sailed ships.  In the past the rhetoric would have been "engine assisted sailed ships". Not is is "sail assisted cruise ships." World of difference.

 

In terms of cost - not only have fares been steadily increasing, many of the incentives we saw a few years ago are either gone or watered down. On one long trip we had the liquor package included and a bunch of free excursions, for example. Those seem to be mostly gone.

 

As an aside - have they released any deck plans for the stretched ships? I don't think I've seen any and am very curious, especially in light of rumors about things like "inside cabins" which I hope are not true.

 

That should have been "Now is sail assisted" rather than "Not". I missed the editing period.

[milepig]

2 hours ago, Del Rio said:

 I did not hear the rumors about "inside cabins", and I listen to Windstar rumors all the time.

 

I picked it up from this thread:

 

It's about the fourth reply.

[Del Rio]

Thanks Milepig.  I forgot that comment, because the logic does not fly.  The yachts are too narrow to do that.  And it makes the flow of the passageways very strange.  And when I look at the windows on the published drawings for the stretch, there seem to be enough added windows to gain 50 suites (all outside).

[milepig]

44 minutes ago, Del Rio said:

Thanks Milepig.  I forgot that comment, because the logic does not fly.  The yachts are too narrow to do that.  And it makes the flow of the passageways very strange.  And when I look at the windows on the published drawings for the stretch, there seem to be enough added windows to gain 50 suites (all outside).

 

Yeah. I agree, but the wrong person in charge could just possibly think "hmm those cabins are very deep, we could chop off a few feet and add a row of inside cabins down the middle." I also agree that it doesn't really add up to anything any same person would do.

[dandee2]

Maybe it point to good things ahead for WS. They obviously want to keep the ex-Seabourn ship for a long time in light of the fact that they are changing the powerplant. That leaves one option open for future built which is a sail-assist ship.  Why gain only 300 berths for all the trouble. They could have just built a brand new 300 suits ship.

[Griller]

On ‎1‎/‎9‎/‎2019 at 12:19 PM, milepig said:

There's a lot packed in there.

 

I am very happy to see the increase in pax from countries other than the US and Canada. One ongoing complaint I've had is the almost total lack of diversity and I almost felt like I hadn't left America. I don't fully understand "lack of capacity" and not working on marketing is Asia. They already work with one firm that has a lot of experience in that area.

 

 

 

Quote

 

Having travelled often on a line which has many Asian passengers I think you should be careful what you wish for.

We were just on a WS ship and there were at least Americans, Anglo and Francophone Canadians, Australians, British, Israeli, Irish and German passengers.

It was good, we seemed to have common values and co-existed harmoniously.

Edited January 10, 2019 by Griller

[milepig]

8 minutes ago, Griller said:

 

Having travelled often on a line which has many Asian passengers I think you should be careful what you wish for.

We were just on a WS ship and there were at least Americans, Anglo and Francophone Canadians, Australians, British, Israeli, Irish and German passengers.

It was good, we seemed to have common values and co-existed harmoniously.

 

Yeah - I get that and completely agree that caution is needed , but I don't expect WS to suddenly totally change their entire demographic. I'm thinking more of being equipped to attract WS-type pax (however you define that) from the regions they operate in. We were on a very early Pride Cruise out of Singapore that had one couple from Australia on board. Singapore is much easier to get to from Australia than the US and the ship was far from full, but we were chatting and they got into how difficult it had been for them to book. There was zero local marketing and they only spotted it in some newspaper article, their TA had nothing to help them do an actual booking, no brochures, no infrastructure, there was no way to call Seattle on a toll-free line. Just nothing. WS can do much better.

 

I also agree about possible culture clashes. On our Japan itin last spring we had an extended Japanese family on board. At the first port they disembarked in disgust. We never heard what had happened (and I'm sort of glad some things aren't blabbed around)  but they were not happy campers. It could have been a million small or large things, some as simple as putting the tea kettle in the room that the Japanese just expect. But, clearly WS wasn't meeting their expectations.

 

I guess my bottom line is that we've met some of our best friends while traveling and we now visit each other around the world. We're richer for it.

[Griller]

I have cruised with many Japanese passengers, the first cruise I was on with many of them was on QE2, a popular ship after it was used for accommodation at the Olympics in Japan BITD, they just loved the ship and cruised on it frequently afterwards. Very polite and friendly, often with little or no English though. Incredibly well dressed on formal nights in traditional Japanese fashions. Menus were specially printed for them.

My more recent experiences are with ethnically Chinese passengers from US Canada and China, they have been as much as 30% or more of total passengers on some Princess ships and they seem to like it, they often seem to travel in family or other groups.

It must be easy to book for them, and maybe Princess have targeted them in marketing.

Yes it does affect the whole cruise experience for other passengers, one positive way is that Princess provide great authentic Chinese food in the buffet for them, and as we love that we benefit from it.

Like any group they can be very noisy, and due to cultural differences they can appear rude and pushy to Westerners who are not used to it. And often they don't  follow ship rules and guidelines, possibly due to not understanding them.

It can be overwhelming if you like a quiet cruise.

 

As we have both travelled in China and I lived there for extended periods - and we have 2 adopted Chinese children we are probably less affected by it than some passengers.