Narrator
Welcome to the luxury travel podcasts where you will discover information on luxury travel right around the world. And hear amazing stories, tips and secrets from experts and luxury world travelers. Please fasten your seat belt low and tight and remain seated for the show.
Allen Suss
Welcome, everyone. This is Allen Suss from TravelManagers Australia, the cruise expert, speaking today with David Craven, Key Account Manager for Princess Cruises. You’re all in for a treat today. Hello, David, how are you?
David Craven
I’m very well. Thank you, Allen and how are you?
Allen Suss
Good, Thank you very much for coming on board and, and with this podcast. Perhaps to start off with tell us a little bit about yourself, and how you got into travel?
David Craven
Of course. Certainly, thank you so much for having me on board today. And you share my insights about Princess in the ocean cruising. So I started my adventure, just shy of 10 years ago, as I used to work onboard Princess ship, within the entertainment department, climbing my ranks up to assistant and acting deputy cruise director. So kind of hosting all the fun activities throughout the day, and then hosting the evening activities and then compere, and things like that. And after four and a half years on board, and I met my beautiful wife working on board the Sapphire Princess, and we decided to come away from ship and settle down on terra firma.
So we chose beautiful Australia. I’m now part of the shore side team, supporting all of our trade partners. And, as we promote and spread the word of Princess Cruises.
Allen Suss
Thank you. I just I thought I’d switched all my phones off and somehow they’re operating, don’t understand that. Technology defeats me, Well, that’s, well, so you’re definitely an expert on cruising, from both being working on the ship but also from the job that you’re doing today.
David Craven
Hopefully I know a few things about Princess, fingers crossed.
Allen Suss
I’m sure you do. Firstly, let’s talk about the difference between an expedition style experience and a Princess experience in the region. And Antarctica.
David Craven
Yeah, so a couple of years, we announced that we returned our deployment to beautiful Antarctica. Now obviously, when not a lot of people think about sailing down to Antarctica. Expedition style experiences first come to mind. So, these smaller vessels have zodiacs on board, allowing guests who actually land physically on Antarctica to you know, take pictures of the wildlife there and, and even some cruise lines offer an experience where you can sleep overnight in Antarctica as well as part of the onboard experience. I’ve got friends who’ve done that, and they said I would. I’m glad that I did it. But I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. They said it was an awful and worst night’s sleep they ever had.
And now because we’re not an expedition style cruise line, you can’t actually physically land on Antarctica during our Antarctic voyages. We will be right in the heart of the Antarctic Peninsula. So you’ll find yourself sailing past Elephant Island, through the Antarctic Sound, Deception Island and all those different kind of locations. But you won’t have the opportunity to physically land on Antarctica. But what we do offer is more of a cruise experience. So instead of just nipping down from Ushuaia in and out of Antarctica, we depart from either Santiago, from Chile, or from Buenos Aires, in Argentina. So you actually get to explore more of South America as part of your Antarctic experience.
And also because the Sapphire Princess is an ocean vessel, it takes an awful lot more motion from the ocean to move her around. She’s designed to transit, you know, kind of big waves and big expanses of water. So those expedition style vessels are a little bit smaller, typically anywhere between 50 to say 200 passengers on board, whereas the Sapphire Princess, she can hold two and a half thousand guests, she’s 115,000 gross tons. So the actual onboard experience will be much, much calmer. And with that being said, we’ll have naturalists on board, we’ll have those specialists being able to give insight to the wildlife, to the history of the region, and all those different kinds of things, and the entire experience designed to be culturally immersive. So we’ll have locally sourced dishes from South America, we’ll have locally sourced wines and things like that. Expect, you know feijoada from Brazil, Argentinian Tango performances in the Piazza, all those different kinds of things you do really get a cultural and educational experience on board.
Allen Suss
Fantastic. And I also imagine that when you’re in, on the ship, even though you don’t necessarily step foot on the land, there’s a lot of things happening within the sea itself I imagine with a lot of whales and other big fish that might be on a big animal, mammals rather, that might be in the water. So there’s a lot of stuff like that.
David Craven
Most definitely. We actually dock in Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands. Now in the Falkland Islands you actually get the largest colony of penguins in the region. So you do actually get a chance to be on land, to get up close and personal with those penguins, get your pictures and things like that. And when we’re sailing through Antarctica, we are right in the heart of it, we’re right up close next to these glaciers, you will get that all inspiring experience. Albeit you just won’t be able to physically stand on Antarctica. But I suppose with that being said, as well as the price difference, when you look at the price of a Princess cruise in this region, compared to an expedition style ship, I suppose that expedition and Arctic cruise isn’t necessarily available to everyone. And they are definitely considerably more expensive than a Princess cruise in the region. So
Allen Suss
Yes, the cost, there where you can pay $50,000 for a cabin.
David Craven
Yeah,
Allen Suss
Per person to go and stand on the ice, as against doing or making a cruise with Princess which is costing you almost look 1/10 of that. I mean, it’s just different. The price difference is amazing.
David Craven
That’s exactly, I mean, so many people are desperate to get to this region and explore it. But when you do see the price of some of these expeditions, style cruises, it’s definitely not available to everyone. And it’s definitely out of my price range, unfortunately. And so this is a really good option for those, who still are desperate to explore this part of the world, but don’t necessarily have you know, the five and six figure numbers that you would may need to pay for an expedition style experience.
Allen Suss
Yes, it certainly, the price point is certainly available for many people. And considering it’s a 16 day cruise with all your meals, entertainment, everything else that goes with the cruise, so it’s fabulous value. But of course, as you point out, it’s not for everybody. But for many people, it’s an opportunity for them to go down to Antarctica without having to pay, those paying 20,000 30,000 $40,000 for a cabin on an expedition ship.
David Craven
Most definitely. And one of my favorite parts about the cruise that we offer down to Antarctica is we offer something called a cruise tour as well. So a lot of people venture into this part of the world may never have kind of worked our way through South America. And if you are traveling all that way from Australia or New Zealand, you definitely want to get the most out of your experience. You know, you’ve got places like Machu Picchu, you’ve got a Iguazu Falls, you’ve got Rio, and all these different destinations.
So what we also offer, pre or post Cruise, is something called the cruise tour where we will escort you, you’ll actually have an opportunity. So if you’re doing a the land portion before your cruise, you can literally leave your big bag and you won’t see your big bag until you come on board. Just taking a smaller bag through the land portion. Or vice versa. At the end of the cruise, leave your big bag, take a smaller bag and you won’t see a big bag until you get to the airport.
But we offer an Iguazu, it’s really, really well taken care of. We’ll get you right into the heart of either the Iguazu Falls, or Machu Picchu. So if you doing the Iguazu Falls, you have two nights in Rio, then you actually head over to Iguazu Falls, all this includes flights and things like that, plus two nights in the Iguazu Falls, and then finish it up with a night in Guadalajara so you can enjoy the fantastic steaks and Argentinian tango down there.
Alternatively, if you are starting or finishing in Santiago on the west coast of South America then we offer something called a Machu Picchu Explorer. So this is going to give you one night in Lima, then two nights in the Sacred Valley, one night in Machu Picchu, and a night in Cusco, and then you have one night in Santiago. So we can actually escort you through these two iconic destinations, whilst also then including that Antarctica cruise. So this now then becomes, you know, the ultimate trip of a lifetime to see these incredible destination.
Allen Suss
Yeah, that is quite fantastic. But it can you combine the two trips themselves, Iguazu Falls, Rio and also going across to having a look at the ruins and in Chile. David Craven Machu Picchu, so the way of the reservation system is built. You can only do one unfortunately. So you can either do Machu Picchu, or you can do Iguazu Falls.
Allen Suss
Alright, if you go to join the ship in Chile, are you able to make Machu Picchu at the beginning?
David Craven
Correct? Yeah, so you could start to do Machu Picchu, come on board.
Allen Suss
And when you finish, in Buenos Aires, you’re then able to go to Iguazu.
David Craven
That’s correct. So you can do the land portion before or after the cruise so it’s nice and flexible for our guests.
Allen Suss
They could do both of them just one before and one after.
David Craven
You can’t do them both. Unfortunately. It’s just the way our reservation systems built. You can only do one cruise tour. I’ve had that question before. I wish we could. But it’s just simply a reservation system block. But yes, unfortunately, you’d have to choose either or, doesn’t mean that you couldn’t necessarily add the other one in, and, you know, kind of threw it out to a land based operator. But yeah, if you’re booking it through Princess, there’s only one land portion you can choose. Yeah.
Allen Suss
So somebody asks me to set it up for them. I could do that. So that can be sorted out. Yeah. Excellent.
David Craven
100%
Allen Suss
Yeah, of course. Okay. We have really come to the end, believe it or not, of our short podcast and how quickly the time moves along, but then that will happen. Anyway, today I want to thank David Craven for joining me in a podcast. This is Allen Suss from TravelManagers Australia, Cruise Expert. If you have any questions on cruising with Princess to Antarctica, send the questions to me at [email protected]. Also if you need an experienced travel agent to help you with a next cruise, call or email me.
Today I want to thank David Craven, Key Account Manager for Princess Cruises with Joining me in the podcast today. This is Allen Suss from TravelManagers Australia, the cruise expert until the next podcast. Thank you David.
David Craven
Thank you so much.
Allen Suss
I hope that you have enjoyed listening to my special guest today. Traveling and needing an experienced travel agent to help you book your trip. Call me directly on 0433203713.
And as always be on the lookout for our next luxury travel podcast episode. This is Allen Suss of TravelManagers Australia, wishing you a wonderful day.
