As cruise industry shrinks, fares expand

The cruise industry grows smaller all the time.

Although travel professionals know the number of cruise lines is shrinking, the news surprises many travelers. Three companies now control the majority of cruise ships that offer midlevel prices: Carnival Corp., Royal Caribbean International and Norwegian Cruise Lines.

Carnival Corp., which owns Carnival Cruise Lines, Princess Cruises, Costa Cruises, Holland America Line, Cunard Line, Seabourn Cruise Line and Windstar Cruises, controls the largest number of cruise-ship berths. Royal Caribbean owns 19 giant Royal Caribbean cruise ships as well as Celebrity Cruises. Norwegian Cruise Line owns only its own branded ships and is a distant third in size.

Only a single midpriced cruise line, MSC Cruises USA, remains independent.

Lower-priced cruise lines that once offered budget prices have all disappeared: Regency Cruises, Sun Cruises (including Royal Olympic and Epirotiki), Commodore Cruise Line and Premier Cruise Line are gone, driven under by competition from the larger players. Renaissance Cruises, which charged low prices for high quality, has gone into bankruptcy too.

For the most part, the only other cruise ships available are small, yacht-like vessels charging high prices -- Radisson Seven Seas Cruises, Silversea Cruises, Crystal Cruises, SeaDream.

(I’m not including tiny Disney Cruise Line, which specializes in families with young children; a few Russian icebreakers that sail to Antarctica; and various sailing ships, such as Star Clippers.)

With the above exceptions, nearly all popularly priced cruises are controlled by the big three cruise companies, which announced last year that they would not permit their agents or brokers to discount their published prices. And in the wake of that announcement, cruise prices strengthened. And prices seem fated to remain high this year.

Is there relief in sight? Only if the big three increase their capacity by adding more tonnage than is needed.

In 2006, a torrent of giant new ships will be delivered to their respective owners: the 3,000-berth Carnival Liberty (of Carnival Cruise Lines), the 3,000-berth Costa Concordia (Costa Cruises), Holland America Line’s 1,900-berth Noordam, the 2,400-berth Pride of Hawaii (Norwegian Cruise Line), the 3,100-berth Crown Princess (Princess Cruises), and the 3,600-berth Freedom of the Seas (Royal Caribbean International).

The total comes to 17,000 new berths requiring about 900,000 new passengers a year. Whether this additional capacity will be sufficient to drive down prices despite control of the market by three players is not known. But the absence of any additional lines that could compete in price is a discouraging factor.

Meanwhile, I’ve come across a moderately priced ship that provides a different sort of cruise experience.

The 600-passenger, British-owned Minerva II offers relief from the lowest-common-denominator activities that are offered on the big ships. Instead of cooking classes and seminars on cosmetics, the Minerva II offers speakers from Oxford and Cambridge.

Although its early booking fares average $300 a person a day, that rate includes gratuities and shore excusions, which can cost $100 on other lines. The net cost to passengers may be less than they would pay for cruising on many popularly priced U.S. ships.

For more information, go to www.swanhellenic.com the website of the ship’s owner, Swan Hellenic, or call (877) 800-7926.