Cruising
On The First Luxury Liner To Board Passengers In India
All
journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware - Martin
Buber
Why cruise for pleasure? Rest, relaxation,
renewal, hope, laughter, music, new friends, food, drink – it can be for many
reasons.
And the newest pleasure travel ships, circa
2018, will be adding laser games and robots to refresh the older cruise culture
of billionaires in gowns and tuxedos, the Noel Cowardisms, grand pianos,
chandeliers, cognac. Perhaps to lay to rest the Fedora and pencil moustache
wearing ghosts of cruises past, their strains of Cole Porter songs overtaken by the insistent
beat of non-stop Cannes and Ibiza style partying.
But the entire thing is all very new to India, exposed
to little beyond shore- hugging steamers and passages to England or Basra from
an earlier time.
The Costa NeoClassica is an Italian cruise ship,
built in the nineties. But it was comprehensively refurbished recently. It is one
of 12 Costa cruise-ships sailing the world with great savoir faire. They are all
part of the Carnival Group, currently the largest cruise-operators in the
world.
The first surprising thing that we noticed on
boarding the ship at Mumbai is that most of the passengers were Italian,
indicating considerable interest in India and the Maldives.
There were some
French and English too, but just a minority, perhaps no more than 20%, of
Indians. A sizeable crowd of jubilant life insurance salesmen did board late in
the day at Mumbai, rewarded for their performance with a four night cruise to
Kochi.
The sumptuous food catered generously to the
tastes of Europeans and Indians alike, with a considerable variety of offerings.
The Chefs also made sure that the vegetarians and those who do not eat beef or
pork had plenty of chicken, sea food and fish to choose from instead.
There were sit down options with linen, cutlery
and waiter service at a grand restaurant, as well as multiple buffet stations
in two informal café settings. And all this - breakfast, lunch, high-tea and
dinner, was included in the price - but there were fixed timings. In addition,
there were restaurants and bars which have to be paid for separately, but were
open practically at all hours.
The entire ship including all the toilets was
kept scrupulously clean with Housekeeping and the plumbing working perfectly
well. Dedicated Cabin Stewards made up the rooms to suit passenger time preferences.
In the evenings, there were acrobats, dancers,
musicians and light shows in the auditorium. A jazz combo with regulation
crooner played dance music in the grand bar. At least one or two Bingo games
gave away impressive prizes of 500 Euro or more.
A casino catered to the gamblers but only in
international waters, and after dinner there was peppier live music and dancing in
yet another lounge. Many people, fat and lean, unabashedly learned Latin dance
steps on deck 11, taught the moves by rhythmic staffers.
There was a supervised toddlers’ lounge with
deep pile carpet and safe toys to give young mothers a break. And another with
racks of “princess” dresses for little girls to live out their favorite fantasy
(and be photographed doing it).
The Gym, Sauna and Turkish Bath (Steam Room) were
included in the price, though the Spa treatments and Massages were charged for.
There were
several lifts at either end of the ship and double sets of staircases for those who wanted more exercise even after
using the artificial grass-turfed jogging track.
There was a quixotic inconvenience with
drinking water however, that forced the entire shipload to forage periodically,
jugs and empty water bottles in hand, up to the deck 10 buffet dining area.
The Costa NeoClassica came along as recently as
the December 2016 season. Their first
and only cruise so far goes out from Mumbai to Mangalore over three nights,
taking one more to Kochi, all along the Arabian Sea, and then three more to
Male in the Maldives, out in the Indian Ocean.
It returns via Colombo in Sri Lanka, and Goa.
Costa has plotted its first route on a visa- free course, though you do need
valid passports to book. It takes on and disembarks passengers at each stop,
and allows ample time for shore excursions, both independently, or at vast
prices in Euros, if one chooses to use the Costa travel operators.
Holiday-makers can customise both the duration,
from a 3/4 nights minimum, to 7, or even 14 for the round-trip, and
accordingly, the cost of the cruise.
Free travel of children under 12 in the same
cabin is standard, presumably with bunks of their own. A single passenger
however, has to pay 1.5 times to justify occupying a cabin designed for two.
There is quite a lot on the look and feel of the ship and its facilities
online.
There were 600 odd cabins, both sea-facing and
inside. And decks at 11th, 12th, 13th levels with restaurants, bars and swimming
pools/sunbathing areas interspersed, were popular with the guests. There was
also a plush air-conditioned 360 degree view observatory lounge at the 14th
level, and quiet lounges with comfortable seating everywhere. Wi-fi was extra,
as was use of the ship’s laptops. Calls to shore from the reception however,
were free.
Over 1200 passengers, including children, were
served by as many as 600 staffers- Italians certainly, but Indians, Brazilians,
Filipinos and others too.
There was no cash,(US Dollars/Euro), accepted
on the ship except in bill settlement. Instead, the “Costa Card” was room key,
identity and credit card rolled into one. Alternatively, a credit card could be
linked for on-board payments. Passports were held over till the port of
disembarkation.
There were duty free shops with special offers-
perfumes, watches, bags, souvenirs, liquor, cigarettes, funny hats.
A daily newsletter from the Captain announced
the activities around the ship, themes, dress codes and other cruise arcana.
There was a de rigeur Captain’s
Evening for a general dress up, an Indian night for Italians to try out their
sarees, and Bollywood music from 6 pm every evening at deck 11.
There was, reassuringly, a well equipped and staffed
hospital on the 3rd deck and its attentions were included under the
on-board insurance for those who paid for it.
Costa is the first company that has chosen to
seize the first-mover advantage from India’s exciting new Cruise Tourism Policy.
Since India has over 7,500 km of coastline, is strategically placed between
West Asia and South East Asia, and has much to offer the sightseer and souvenir
shopper, it is surprising that it hasn’t been done so far.
The logic for it all is impeccable. Some
120,000 well-heeled Indians go on cruises every year now, taking ship mostly
from Singapore.
There is a huge potential. Fifty-nine cruise
ships docked in India in fiscal 2016 with 1.76 lakh visitors, many of whom came
ashore to spend their money. And yet this
represents just 0.5% of the global cruise market of 2.3 crore travellers.
The Government’s desire is to ramp this up more
than 10-fold to some 700 cruise ships calling every year alongside the
requisite infrastructure on the ground.
Costa has come forward on the basis of a new
single-window clearance process, a waiver of compulsory licensing, and a 30%
cut in current Government charges across-the-board. The Government has begun to respond to the
needs of cruise ship operators. Dock charges based on tonnage of the ships
rather than the number of passengers on board have been removed. The number of
days a cruise-ship can occupy a berth in port has been increased from one to
three.
Dynamic Union Minister Nitin Gadkari is behind
the new Policy. In the detailing, it is being worked on jointly by the Shipping
and Tourism ministries. The Policy envisages five circuits along both coasts,
some of it on inland waterways. Amongst many other things, the Government
proposes to build a swanky 2,00,000 sq.ft., Rs. 225 crore International Cruise Terminal
in Mumbai. This will act as a model for the ones to come at each stop on the
circuits.
Meanwhile, temporary ones have been opened in
erstwhile goods storage sheds at Mumbai’s faded Alexandra Docks, and at the
other ports of New Mangalore, Kochi, Goa, and Chennai, the last on the Bay of
Bengal. These five are the only ones amongst India’s12 ports that can currently
berth the sizeable ships.
Though in Male, the ship anchored off-shore, and we
went ashore on wildly swaying tenders. 
For: The Sunday Guardian
(1,399
words)
December
20th, 2017
Gautam
Mukherjee
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