Two things happened last week:  the news (Spitzer! Bear Sterns Nearly Collapses! Escalation of Hillary vs. Obama! More Foreclosures! Dollar Sinks Lower! Gasoline $110 per barrel!) and, at an annual cruise industry confab, Carnival and RCI CEO’s essentially said, ”Downturn?  We don’t see that.” 

HUH?   In a rapidly tanking economy, when consumer confidence is low, people are still taking vacations?  

According to Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), an organization comprised of all the major cruise lines, the industry has an average of 105% occupancy and, according to a poll of travel agents, 2008 should be as good, or a bit better, than the previous year.  Here are the numbers: in 2007, 12.7% million passengers took cruises, including 10.3 million North Americans.

According to CLIA marketing committee head, Dan Hanrahan, “There’s this belief amongst people that they deserve their vacations. The fact that cruising provides value is what’s helped the cruise industry weather this storm so far.”  Hanrahan is also CEO of Celebrity Cruises and Azamara Cruises which are owned by Royal Caribbean Cruises.

Still, Carnival’s president and CEO Gerald Cahill is realistic when it comes to the cruise industry.  “In a weakening economy, I’m not going to tell you that cruising won’t be affected. It will be,” he said.  Cahill pointed out that cruises fare better than other vacations in periods of economic stress, “because it is about 20 to 50% cheaper for a cruise vacation when compared to comparable land-based vacations.”

When you take a cruise, you pay for roughly 80% of vacation costs up front.  You’re guaranteed a stateroom, mountains of food and entertainment.  If you have kids, they’ll find special activities and facilities geared to their age group that don’t cost a nickel.    If you reside near a port you can skip worries about airport delays and won’t have to concern yourself that airfares have increased each week for the past month.

An added benefit is how easy it is to plan ahead and decide ways to further reduce vacation costs.  I can decide to eliminate unnecessary purchases like t-shirts, plan my own excursions ashore instead of buying them from the cruise line, forgo massages, gambling or exhorbitantly priced art. 

As a resident of the most expensive city in the U.S., New York, I’m cutting back on dining out and unnecessary purchases.  But as long as I can afford a roof over my head and dog food for my puppy, I’ll find a way to run away to sea. 

The biggest benefit of taking a cruise:  I don’t have to be reminded daily by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer how terrible things are.   For a week or so, my brains are unscrambled.  After I board the ship and unpack, the ropes are raised, the Captain sounds the horn and we sail regally off into the sunset.  

Ciao Wolf! 

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