SHIPSHOPPER INDEX

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35 What is it Seven Blue Seas has developed the first totally objective, worth-based cruise ship rating system to help consumers evaluate the different ships as part of their cruise purchase decision Cruise vacation is becoming a more and more important aspect of the dream vacation to Americans In 2002, an estimated 75 million passengers have cruised As important as it is, very few cruisers get to know their product before they buy it As there are over 100 major cruise ships, even veteran cruisers would likely have cruised on not more than a few ships and would still welcome help in choosing their next cruise ship Currently, this information comes mostly from brochures from the cruise lines which are long on qualitative information The few quantitative bits of information are just slightly helpful For example, is a ship with higher "crew ratio" or "space ratio" or "balcony ratio" a "better" ship Likely but not always How about the size and age of the ship-- is a larger or newer ship a "better" ship Again, likely but not always Some agencies try to help by providing a 5 or 6 star rating system of the ships However, two major drawbacks quickly become apparent-- (1) these are totally subjective ratings; (2) as a courtesy to the cruise lines, the ratings are usually somewhat inflated For example, in a rating system that is currently available at an online site, out of 158 ships rated on a 6 star level, 105 ships get a rating of 4 or higher! The crux of the matter is-- to decide which ship is "better" is mostly if not totally subjective To decide what each ship is worth is however totally objective For example, you and I may both be shopping for a used car To me, a used '99 Mercedes may be a "better" car To you, a used '98 BMW may be the "better" car But for both of us, we would want to know what each car is worth before reaching our buying decision For this, we consult the Kelly's Blue Book Similar to Kelly's Blue Book showing what each car is worth, the Ship Shopper's Index will show what each ship is worth How is the Ship Shopper's Index produced Conceptually, it is very simple The Ship Shopper's Index is based on what each ship is charging on a per diem basis However, the per diem rate changes widely with time of the year For example, summer rate is typically over 75% or more higher than the fall Christmas and New Year's prices spike up even more Secondly, per diem rate changes with the cruise region and itinerary The same ship sailing in Alaska will charge higher per diem than when it is sailing in the Caribbean The same ship sailing a Vancouver round-trip Alaska itinerary will charge more per diem than an open-jaw Vancouver-Seward Alaska itinerary Thirdly, proliferation of last minute deals confuses the picture To top it off, some advertised special prices are for rooms of very limited availability, further confusing the true price picture Seven Blue Seas has analysed the whole database base of bookable prices for the next year and distilled the intrinsic worth of a ship into the Ship Shopper's Index Because prices are updated continually by the cruise lines, the Ship Shopper's Index is also updated continually It continually reflects what each ship is worth It is similar to a continually updated Kelly's Blue Book that reflect the current used car prices It is also similar to a computer ranking of tennis players that reflect how the tennis player is currently doing In a nutshell, the Ship Shopper's Index reflects what the ships are worth by the 75 million cruisers voting with their pocketbooks How to use the Ship Shopper's Index 1 For side-by-side comparison of deals When you are comparing two ships sailing the same itinerary during the same week, their Ship Shopper's Indices will indicate relatively what their fair market prices should be This knowledge will be particularly useful for last minute deal shopping and price comparison For example, consider the following two deals-- 2-1-03 Western Caribbean 7 night Norwegian Sun, Category N, $474 2-1-0 3Western Caribbean 7 night Royal Caribbean Nordic Empress, Category Z, $499 How would you know which deal is better and by how much The indices are respectively-- Norwegian Sun - 124 Nordic Empress - 78 Which is a better deal and by how much is now quite obvious 2 For shopping on a budget Some people have set a budget on how much they want to spend on a cruise They may have a pre-conceived notion of which ships they can afford Consulting the Ship Shopper's Indices will turn up many pleasant surprises For example, the Holland America Amsterdam made big news by coming in second in the large ship category as voted by the Conde Naste Traveller's Magazine Readers poll, right between the two prestigious Crystal ships Many people would have thought that they can never afford the Amsterdam The Ship Shopper's index shows that the Amsterdam is about the same as the Grand Princess class and slightly lower than the Celebrity Millennium class It is more affordable than you thought Another example may be the Celebrity Mercury Celebrity is known in general as a "5-star" cruise line and particularly noted for its excellent cuisine Again, many people may have thought Celebrity ships are beyond their reach Checking the Ship Shopper's Index will show that the Mercury does not cost that much more than many Carnival ships and is very affordable

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