Voyages for all

NEW YORK (AP) -- Improve your golf swing. Take a yoga class. Bring Grandma and the kids. Marvel at a megaship. And start your trip at a home port near you.
Such are the latest trends in the cruise industry. There are theme trips, activities for all ages, and classes in everything from cooking to financial management. Travel by extended families is growing. A slew of mammoth vessels -- including the largest ocean liner in history, the Queen Mary 2, and five more ships with room for even more passengers -- are due to be launched in 2004. And local departure ports, from Philadelphia to Mobile, Ala., are growing in popularity.
The trends reflect larger cultural swings: Travelers want more options, more time with loved ones, and fewer hassles in getting to their destinations.
Vacationers "don't want to spend five hours flying to get to their destination, and then get on a cruise," said Vicki Freed, marketing executive for Carnival Cruise Lines. "With close-to-home ports throughout North America, people can drive to their embarkation ports."
Ports in Florida and California hosted the most cruise passengers last year, but Hawaii, New York, New Orleans, Seattle, Boston and Galveston, Texas, each served as departure points for hundreds of thousands more. Meanwhile, smaller ports such as Baltimore and Charleston, S.C., are increasingly busy.
Cold-weather cruises
Home ports are not the only example of how the industry is trying to accommodate travelers who'd rather not have to fly to get on a ship. Norwegian Cruise Lines has just launched the first Caribbean cruise in at least a generation to sail from New York City during the cold-weather months. Trips began leaving Manhattan on Sunday afternoons in November; they arrive in Orlando at 8 a.m. Tuesday, then head for the islands. So far, New Yorkers' appetite for the ease of stepping on a boat without flying to Florida outweighs the discomfort of 24 hours bundled up on deck in winter coats; Norwegian says the ships are sailing at capacity.
An adage about cruises painted the typical passenger as "newlywed, overfed or nearly dead," but demographics for cruises are changing. A million children took cruises in 2002, double the number from 1998, according to the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), which represents 21 cruise lines. And with a five-day, $500 (or less) trip to a warm place (meals included), available in many markets, prices are affordable for middle-class families.
"Since Sept. 11, vacationing has been about being with people you care about," said Amanda Bliss, spokeswoman for Disney Cruises. More than half of Disney's passengers book more than one room at a time; parents and kids go with grandparents and sometimes even neighboring families.
Radisson Seven Seas, a luxury line that tends to attract an older, wealthier clientele than Disney, has seen grandparents booking cruises with their children and grandchildren. "They want to go together as a group," spokeswoman Lauren Kaufman said. "We're seeing a lot of anniversaries."
Plenty of interests
Once on board, families can dine and do some activities together, then separate to pursue individual interests. The old cruise model -- eat a big meal, then sit in a deck chair until you dock somewhere interesting -- has been replaced by parties for teenagers, games for kids, play areas for toddlers, and spas, gyms and seminars for adults.
Larger vessels provide the space for this ever-growing choice of activities. The Queen Mary 2 -- as tall as a 21-story building, with a capacity of 2,620 people -- has a planetarium and the world's largest floating library. Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas, which carries 3,114 people, has an ice rink and a rock-climbing wall.
"Talk to 50 people getting off a ship, and they'll describe 50 different vacations," said Bob Sharak, CLIA's executive director.
Although the large ships provide economies of scale for the industry and many options for passengers, some travelers are repulsed by the idea of a seaborne mini-city bustling with thousands of people. After all, aren't vacations about escaping busy crowds for a little serenity? For these travelers, more intimate trips -- such as a 186-passenger cruise on China's Yangtze River, sponsored by Viking River Cruises -- are more appealing.
Theme cruises
Some cruises use themes to attract passengers. The 900-person Regal Princess will be crawling with twentysomethings when it features "jam bands" and their marathon concerts on January cruises. All-kosher luxury cruises are offered out of San Juan. A D-Day anniversary cruise will cross the English Channel to Normandy. And because of the recent Massachusetts court ruling on same-sex marriage, a weeklong "honeymoon cruise" for 1,200 women departs Boston for Montreal on July 4, featuring singer K.D. Lang; the cruise is sponsored by Olivia Cruises, which specializes in travel for women.
But the industry's happy mantra that "there's a cruise for everyone!" has been dampened by a series of public-relations nightmares. Fifteen people died when the gangplank to the Queen Mary 2 collapsed in France as workers and their families boarded for a prelaunch tour. Environmental advocates complain cruise ships pollute the water -- a claim the industry disputes, citing the local and national regulations ships must comply with. And every time an outbreak of Norovirus -- a common gastrointestinal illness -- is reported aboard a cruise ship, many would-be passengers change their plans.
Despite the bad news, the number of passengers who take cruises each year keeps going up, with a record-breaking 8.3 million North Americans expected to cruise in 2004.
Of course that number pales next to the 40 million people who go to Orlando each year; only 15 percent of Americans have ever been on a cruise, according to CLIA. Yet the cruise industry doesn't see that as bad news. "We have," said Freed, of Carnival, "an opportunity to grow."