by Keith Miller
Vacationing on a cruise ship no longer means having to leave behind the joys of frolicking on all of the attractions at your local waterpark. The past few years, these floating cities have witnessed the arrival of water attractions that rival many of those found on landbased waterparks. The cruise industry has not only discovered a recreational bonanza, it has found new ways to capitalize on their popularity.
The explosion in waterpark attractions aboard cruise ships over the past five years presents the question, “why?” After all, cruise ships have been around for decades, and land-based waterparks began appearing over 35 years ago. So why now?
Linda Coffman (www.CruiseDiva.com) has written several books on cruising, including “The Complete Guide to Caribbean Cruises,” the new edition of which was just released. She has also written or helped write several Fodor’s guidebooks. She explains why cruise lines have turned to waterparks in such a big way: “Part of it is because of the huge size of these new ships, which allows for much bigger slides and for things like the FlowRider [surfing attraction]. Also, they’re absolutely competing with resorts on land. So as they’ve expanded their demographics, they’ve had to do this.”
She says this demographics expansion in cruising involves a transformation from a predominantly adult experience to one becoming dominated by families. So these companies are not looking at just other cruise lines as competition, but anything that families do for entertainment, including going to waterparks.
What Cruise Lines Are Looking For
All 23 Carnival Cruise Lines’ ships (www.carnival.com) now have waterslides, and its new mega-ships have an impressive array of attractions in their WaterWorks waterparks. “Water attractions are a signature element of our ‘Fun Ship’ vacation experience, and we want to offer water attractions that offer exciting thrills for guests of all ages,” says Aly Bello- Cabreriza, a representative of Carnival Cruise Lines. “Our Dream-class ships are excellent examples of these types of exhilarating water attractions, with enclosed spiral slides in excess of 312 feet long and the ‘DrainPipe’ funnel-type [slide]. Carnival Magic features the ‘PowerDrencher,’ a 300-gallon water dump bucket that’s proving to be a huge hit.”
Norwegian Cruise Lines (www.ncl.com) has also gotten into on-ship waterparks in a big way with its massive new vessel, the Epic. Its Aqua Park has three slides: “Epic Plunge” (a tube/bowl slide), a three-story twisting tube slide, and a smaller slide for little kids.
The cruise lines say it is important to distinguish themselves from their competition, and Royal Caribbean (www.royalcaribbean.com) has done this by being the only cruise line offering the FlowRider. FlowRiders are now available on five Royal Caribbean vessels, and two ships—Oasis of the Seas, and Allure of the Seas—each have two FlowRiders.
In addition to waterpark attractions that are eye-catching in appearance, the cruise lines mention other elements that are crucial to their selection process. “The most important elements we took into account while designing Norwegian Epic’s Aqua Park was capacity, and creating a one-of-a-kind experience our guests would enjoy in terms of excitement,” says Mark Kansley, Norwegian’s vice president of hotel operations. Capacity is key because the ships don’t have the space for massive lines of guests queued at an attraction, and they also say long lines are a huge turnoff for waterpark visitors, especially on a hot day.
“Lines were one of the things that concerned us the most,” says Jason Lasecki, media relations manager for Disney Cruise Lines (http://disneycruise.disney.go.com) when speaking of the “AquaDuck” slide on the company’s new ship, Disney Dream, “but the lines are usually only 20 to 30 minutes, and the queue is very visible, so guests can see exactly how long it is, which is very important.” The 765-foot-long “AquaDuck” is a water coaster that takes guests 13 feet off the side of the ship in a translucent “swing out” loop that allows them to look 150 feet straight down at the ocean.
Another factor crucial to attraction selection for cruise ships is reliability. Lasecki notes that cruise ships absolutely cannot have attractions down for long periods because the onboard attractions can be the only ones guests have access to for days on end. Also, when the ships are at sea, they cannot pick up parts they do not have on board. “We can’t just run out to Lowe’s or Home Depot,” chuckles Lasecki.
Since these cruise ship waterparks are on the sunny and spacious upper decks, some cruise lines have also been installing adventure experiences nearby as a natural complement. The Norwegian Epic features rappelling, a rock-climbing wall, batting cages, and bowling alleys. Carnival Magic’s Sports Square also has the cruise industry’s first-ever ropes course along with its two-level mini-golf course.
Goofy’s Sports Deck on Disney’s Dream has mini-golf and sports simulators. Lasecki addresses why cruise lines often couple these activities with waterparks, and it comes back to the changing demographics of cruising previously mentioned. “We do it because basically everything on the upper decks is focused on families doing things together,” he says. “In fact, the majority of the entertainment opportunities are focused on the family.”
Extending the Waterpark Entertainment
The “AquaDuck” water coaster passes right through Edge, a tweens center with portholes through which the kids can see the silhouettes of the riders as they pass by. The proximity of the water coaster to the tweens club is no accident; cruise lines have become adept at entertaining guests with age-specific attractions, and kids’ centers are an example. It is all part of the cruise lines’ efforts to pull families away from their other vacation options, and their success is something from which any waterpark can learn.
“As they’ve expanded [their] demographics, they had to have something to compete with resorts on land, and what appeals to a 7-year-old won’t appeal to a 12-year-old or teen,” explains Coffman. “They have youth counselors—young people with some background in education. They lead the activities, and if they have a dance party, they’ll make sure everyone is having fun and they direct the entertainment. It’s something you just usually can’t get at waterparks.”
Norwegian’s Kansley agrees. “Multigenerational cruising is an emerging segment for the cruise industry, and having these options available allows families to enjoy their cruise vacations without worrying about activities for kids and teens. [Our] Kids Program caters to ages 2 to 12, with targeted activities for each age segment. Norwegian’s Teen Program is designed around their interests and is supervised by well-qualified, enthusiastic members of our Youth Staff. There are theme parties, sports events, team-building challenges, Wii, dining together, games, karaoke, dances, and more.”
Carnival Cruise lines has three different kid centers, segmented by age group. Camp Carnival is for kids ages 2 to 11 and offers games, crayons, painting, and a special pool area. It even provides a nightly experience from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. called Camp Carnival Night Owls. Circle “C” is for tweens ages 12 to 14 and includes gaming consoles, scavenger hunts, board and card games, dance and pool parties, and sports. Finally, there is Club 02 for teens, with music, sports, video games, table tennis, parties, and even teen-only shore excursions.
In addition to the age-segmented clubs, Disney offers teens something extra. “Teens want their independence, and we’ve given them their own private outdoor area, so if they don’t want to leave, they never have to,” says Lasecki. “There’s beverage service there and food service, and Xbox (Kinect). It was designed as a teen haven. One of the things we pride ourselves on is offering things that make guests feel the cruise was designed just for them.”
As for what the future holds for waterparks on board cruise ships, though Coffman advises not counting on bigger waterparks on larger ships, the waterparks are not going away: “I think they’ve kind of topped out the ship sizes. Royal Caribbean has a new class of ships planned that are smaller, and Carnival says they have no intention of trying to have the biggest ship in the world. But you’re still going to see the waterplay areas and certain ships with things like the FlowRider, big slides, and rock-climbing walls, because they’re competing with resorts on land.”
Contact News Editor Keith Miller at kmiller@IAAPA.org.
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