During the season between New Years and Spring Break, especially if you are on itineraries of twelve days in length, your clientele will tend to be older. These are the people who have time to cruise for twelve days and who do not have children in school. This pushes the age demographic way up. There have been voyages when the number of passengers under the age of 20 is less than 20 out of a passenger complement of 2900. Also, those still in the work force are especially under represented. This means that our youth program; Quasar, our nightclub; and our Molecular Bar are all distinctly under utilized.
But in the second half of March all of that changed with the advent of Spring Break. In the blink of an eye the demographic dramatically transformed. For the cruise that just started on March 29th, we now have over 200 minors and another several hundred in the 20 to 40 age group. These aren’t Disney numbers, of course, but we don’t try to be Disney. The 40 to 60 demographic skyrockets and the number of guests over 75 dwindles precipitously. The entire energy of the ship changes. Our target market is more the successful 40 to 60 year old and Spring Break instantly returns us to that sweet spot.
The first thing you noticed is that the volume level of the entire ship increased from virtually the moment the guests came onboard. The area around the Grand Foyer was almost always packed on all three of the levels surrounding that central gathering space. The Molecular Bar forward on Deck 5 was consistently full. There are some cruises that it more closely resembles a saloon in a ghost town. From the very first night the Specialty Restaurants each had good crowds and ‘packs' of children or teens could be seen roaming the ship. When you went onto the pool decks the quiet conversation around the pool was replaced by the delighted squeals of children and the more raucous conversation of younger adults. The youth program was packed to the gills. In fact, we brought on three additional youth workers just for the duration of that one cruise. Food signs in the buffet were added at a kid-friendly level and a Kid Station with all the most popular foods for children was set up.
It was amazing how quickly the entire tenor of the ship changed. Without question it will change that quickly back after this voyage. In fact, I have been told that the pendulum swings so rapidly that it will actually peg to the far other end of the spectrum on the very next cruise. There are benefits of both demographics when you work on a ship. But for now I’m enjoying this one cruise of higher energy and the sound and vibe of a younger clientele.
And the adventure continues . . .
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