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Redneck Cruise Reviews
Independent cruising tips for the professional at Leisure
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Here are my observations of the income segregation of the cruise market, one
that has opened-up the area I call "redneck cruising". For a
complete overview of the cruise market, see my notes and
Cruise Reviews.
While Cunard Cruises offers the ultimate in highbrow luxury
with 5-star restaurants like Spago, and Crystal cruises is designed for professionals at
leisure, rednecks gravitate to the lower end with the no-frills cruise lines
like Costa and Carnival. Disney Cruises is all about kids, and Carnival is
all about under-30 young'ins.
Lots' of partying and daily drink specials.
For rednecks, Costa, Carnival, Royal Caribbean's older ships offer steerage
class travel. Nothing fancy and food like your elementary school
cafeteria. Popular with rednecks, the working poor, welfare recipients,
ex-cons and practicing Catholic and Mormon families who want to take the whole
family.
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Even within the same cruise line you see segmented
classes. The older, smaller ships offer cheaper rates, and I
suspect that the cruise lines use these "redneck cruises" to train their
staff for the larger ships. If you take a look at the construction of a cruise
ship, they are really nothing more than a freighter, stacked up with
tiny single-wide trailers.
It's just like redneck nirvana, a floating trailer
park stacked up like kindling. |
So, what do the cruise lines do with their elderly ships?
Let's take a closer look at their ingenious marketing of luxury cruises for the
poor!
Riding the older scows - redneck cruising
With over 40,000 passengers plying the Caribbean every
week, the cruise lines offer spectacular discounts to passengers who are willing
to sail the older scows, generally any ship that is over a decade old.
Here is a list of
cruise ships by
date built. Note that any ship over 10 years old is likely to offer
far cheaper rates, and far inferior food and service. Some cruise lines are revamping their older scows,
packaging them as "intimate" cruises. The new
Azamara cruise line is just one
example.
Some cruise lines are placing their older scows in ports
like Norfolk, where people who cannot afford an airline ticket can drive to the
port, and save even more money.
Not all Rednecks can afford to fly to the cruise port
For more on
Redneck cruises, see:
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