Is Arthur Frommer going insane?
That is not a rhetorical question. I believe the years have finally caught up with him and he needs to have the pen taken out of his hand immediately. Or, maybe he is being held captive by his evil twin, who has commandeered his magazine and personal column? Perhaps there is an anti-cruising coalition, of which I am unaware, that has brainwashed Mr. Frommer?
It must be something like that. I cannot believe that a travel industry 'icon', prolific traveler and travel writer of the magnitude of Arthur Frommer, would actually write the words I read today in the travel section of my Palm Beach Post (Mr. Frommer's article is below in its entirety, for those who wish to read it.)
His article is so wrong, in so many ways!
Introduced by the title "Behemoth liners ready? Send in the clowns", Mr. Frommer proceeds to lambaste the cruise industry for building new, larger ships with more amenities and activities than those of the past.
Not only does Mr. Frommer refer to the cruising public, and in fact, our entire nation in general, as having a "lower level of culture, education and maturity" as if the cruise industry is the barometer of society's measures, but he refers to cruise industry executives, en masse, as "commonplace, dime-a-dozen, mindless oafs."
I have to take a step back (in time) to allow Mr. Frommer some benefit of the doubt. This is a man whose expertise and accomplishments I had admired since I was old enough to understand the travel industry. Growing up in my family's travel agency in Belmont, Massachusetts back in the 60's and 70's, I can remember using his Europe on $15 (or $20) a Day books quite often when I was putting together European FIT's for those clients who emphasized their limited budget.
So, it's troubling to me to have to help expose this side of Arthur Frommer.
But, this is neither the 1960's, nor is it the age of cruise ships being simply a method of transportation. This is the 'new' age of cruising, and it has been building now for several decades (where has Mr. Frommer been?). Cruising is not just transportation. No one boards a cruise ship today solely to get from point A to point B. or to simply sail on the seas. They want a unique experience that only the modern cruise lines and their ships can provide.
Does Mr. Frommer know that cruising is the fastest growing segment of the travel industry today? Does he know that the tens of thousands of new berths coming onto the market this year will be filled? Yes, they will be filled, but they will not be filled by the cruise passengers Mr. Frommer, in his fairy tale world, seems to believe exist and are clamoring for the simplicity and the mindless joy of being able to be out upon the "vast oceans."
The majority of Mr. Frommer's "cruise contemporaries" are long since deceased, and those living persons that had traveled like Mr. Frommer did 50 years ago have understood and done something Mr. Frommer has not done - they have evolved, accepted, embraced and understood the changes that have come with the passing of time and the growth of an industry.
The cruise ships of today, and of the years to come, will be filled with families, couples, multi generational groups, affinity groups, singles and active retirees, and they will come from all economic levels of society, all ages and all ethnicities.
Is that what bothers Mr. Frommer? His comments are quite elitist and egocentric. Is what HE wants from a cruise simply the ability to relax on board with one thousand other of his 70+ year old white, affluent, Ivy League cronies, have afternoon tea, perhaps a good cigar and, maybe later, a heated discussion of the works of Chaucer? Perhaps white glove service, with a butler and no pesky children running around? We all know, there are several luxury cruise lines that will give him what he wants. Yet, he attacks the entire cruise industry.
And his reference to the class system on the Titanic? Was that necessary? Why would a travel veteran mention the Titanic when talking about the cruise industry? There are levels of accommodations in EVERY facet of the travel industry which cater to the wealthy, and even the ultra-welathy. Why should cruising be any different?
It already exists, actually anyway - when you sail on Cunard, which 'Grill' will you be dining at? If you pay the premium to have a 'Presidential Suite' with a jacuzzi, are you expexted to share that jacuzzi with others on the ship?
Does Arthur Frommer fly coach class? Does he stay in a Motel 6? My guesses are no and no! What is it that bothers Mr. Frommer so much? Is it because mainstream cruising is a great value? I believe so, even though that is exactly what the majority of the public wants!
Arthur Frommer needs to get back in touch with reality. His magazine is called Budget Travel and promotes values in travel. What better value than a cruise? I sold 7 night cruises in 1978 for $795.00. Today, I can find many 7 night sailings available for $795.00 - and much less - as little as $495.00 - or just about '$72 a Day'!
We have all seen the comparisons with land vacations. Cruises always show significant savings over an equivalently feature-packed land vacation. Of course, Frommer has his "Europe From $85 a Day", which represents a 325% increase in price from the "Europe on $20 a Day" I remember from the 70's.
So, the vaue, again, is - where?
Perhaps the sour grapes are because cruising represents a real and serious threat to Frommer's franchise of Budget Travel properties, both online and written? There HAS to be an alterior motive to his tirade.
Or, maybe it's just nostalgia he cannot let go of.
Or, maybe, just maybe, he really is going crazy.
Most of Frommer's comments do get my "benefit of the doubt" (and the above rants.) What I cannot forgive, forget, or let go are the attacks mentioned above on the executives of the cruise industry.
Mr. Frommer is not above reproach.
Over the last 20 years, these executives, most of whom I know professionally, and several of whom I know personally and consider my friends, have brought the cruise industry to a new level - and continue to do so, year after year.
The vast majority of cruise executives I have had the pleasure of associating with over my lengthy career in the travel industry are far from being commonplace or dime-a-dozen. They are, predominantly, well educated, well-read, personable, highly qualified individuals who bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to their positions, and they have brought their vision of cruising to the forefront of our industry.
As far as the "mindless oafs" of the cruise industry are concerned - there have been a few, as there are in any industry. But, the Cruise Coalition for Mindless Oaf Discovery and Deletion, founded in 1982 has historically been very good at uncovering mindless oafs and banishing them from "cruising" for all time.
This is not an industry in which you can feign competency for very long and get away with it!
Some of the 'oafs' are still around, however, and, judging from the fact that Frommer's current article was actually allowed to be released, my guess is that several of them have found their way into Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel staff.
Well, I'm sure they feel at home!
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Below is Arthur Frommer's complete article:
Behemoth liners ready? Send in the clowns - By Arthur Frommer
Circus-training programs are among the new offerings on today’s mammouth ships
Nearly a dozen new cruise ships, some designed to carry from 3,000 to 4,000 passengers apiece, will be debuting this year. They will add more than 20,000 new berths a week, more than a million such berths a year. And they will be less like ships than frantic amusement parks with bells clanging, lights flashing and crowds rudhing from one spectacle to another.
On last week’s broadcast of my Sunday Travel Show (you can hear it at www.wor710.com), a guest expert described all the new gimmicks we can expect. “They will be like nothing you have ever seen before,” she announced, and with enthusiasm in her voice, she ticked off the advances:
The Queen Victoria, and Celebrity Solstice, in particular, will have “circus training programs,” “bungee jumping,” and “clown acts.” These will be added, presumably, to the rock-climbing walls, boxing rings, bowling alleys and vertiginous Jacuzzis jutting out from the top deck and hanging perilously over the sea (the latter have become standard on some ships, but not necessaruly the Queen Victoria or Solstice). But let me repeat those outstanding new features: “circus training programs,” “bungee jumping,” and “clown acts.”
On a new ship of Costa Cruises, expect every conceivable game, sport and competition.What’s more, Costa will introduce new, extra-charge “spa cabins” so close to fitness rooms that those staying in them can walk to the showers in their bathrobes. People booking the new spa digs will have exclusive access to that spa and to their own spa restaurant.
On some of the new ships, the democratic, one-class policies of cruising will be totally jettisoned. There will be a “ship within the ship” – an area enjoyed solely by passengers paying higher fares, a number of restaurant to which they alone will be admitted, lounges set aside for the elite.On a new ship of Norwegian Cruise Lines, elite passengers will have special suites, special sun-deck areas to use, and special swimming pools for them alone. (I suddenly thought of all those aristocrats dressing for dinner in Titanic.)
I find these developments deeply disturbing and reflecting a lower level of culture, education and maturity in our nation. A cruise should be sufficient in itself. It is an opportunity to venture out onto a new and unfamiliar area of the world – the vast oceans. It is sufficiently different and sufficiently provocative of eternal questionsthat it need not be “aided” by bungee jumping, amateur boxing, glass-blowing exhibitions, rock-climbing and wave-surfing.
A cruise should be an occasion for conversation and reading, for long afternoons in a chaise lounge, gazing at the sea and enjoying it. Those were the classic pleasures of cruising that once satisfied a large number of people, who emerged from the cruise with their equilibrium restored and with memories and new friendships.In place of this, the cruise ships are becoming amusement parks geared to a child’s mentality, raucous and hyperactive, the equivalent at sea of what gyms at home and on land normally provide. Why go to sea to become part of a crowd, to engage in bungee-jumping, rock-climbing, wave-surfing and glass-blowing? Or to listen to lectures on better make up and gardening?
It was to be hoped that the people who ascended to the top ranks of the cruise-ship industry would be well-educated, well-read, thoughtful people. Turns out they are commonplace, dime-a-dozen, mindless oafs.
Imagine a balcony cabin inside the ship where you look below to people enjoying life on a ship a cobblestone street with live plants and trees and where you look up to the tropical sky! At night, the promenade has alfresco dining, concerts and street performances. What pleasure! There will be five decks and 254 balconies overlooking the park. 
This 8 day cruise to the Exotic Western Caribbean onboard Carnival Liberty was just wonderful! After the recent bandito incident when some natives attempted to hold up a bus load of cruisers from Carnival Liberty in Costa Rica, I decided the only way to see that country was to take a tour in a converted Russian Missile Launcher! It was a hoot barreling through the jungle and fun to go careening past the banana plantations. Our tour guides were wonderful. We met the deadliest creature on earth, a cute little one inch red frog the natives use the venom of on thier arrows to shoot monkies, and a really cute spider. One of the strands of the Costa Rican's spider's web is the stongest fiber on earth which scientists are trying to copy. This trip was so educational, geographically, botanically, culturally and visually. 
