The travel section of the New York Times has an article on the strengths and weaknesses of booking a cruise online, and finds that a booking a cruise is much more frustrating than booking flights or hotels online.

Judi Brownell, a professor at the Cornell Hotel School who follows the cruise industry and has taken six cruises since January, said she often ends up making calls to book cruises, when she would rather complete the transaction on her computer. “If I wanted to call an 800 number or speak to a travel agent, I wouldn’t be online,” she said.

Professor Brownell isn’t alone. Just 37 percent of 2,000 participants in a recent interactive test of travel industry Web sites found cruise line sites to be satisfactory, according to Keynote Systems, a company that analyzes e-businesses.

“The sheer number of people who experienced frustration on the cruise line sites was high, especially when compared to lodging and airline sites,” said Bonny Brown, director of research at Keynote, in San Mateo, Calif. Complaints include online customer service, difficulty in researching shipboard activities and, at the top of the list, limited online booking.

They go on to state that some of the cruise lines, with Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises, are working very hard to improve the experience and provide new tools such as online check in. Other lines are allowing the booking of classes and meals online also.

As the competition between the cruise lines heats up online, the tools available for the traveler will increase as well. That will be a welcome change from the present system.

The after effects of the hurricane season has hurt the 2005 cruise season tremendously. First the damage in the US Gulf region closed the cruise ports of New Orleans, Mobile, and Gulfport. Now Hurricane Wilma has hurt the Western Caribbean and Mexico, closing many of the ports of call.

 Hurricane Wilma has wreaked new havoc for cruise ships sailing from Texas ports, and passengers are likely to feel the effect for some time to come.

For a week, ships dodged Wilma’s wrath as it churned across Mexico’s Yucatan region and raked South Florida, dealing unexpected blows to the two busiest U.S. home ports: Miami and Port Everglades at Fort Lauderdale. More than 20 ships were affected.

Key West, a popular port of call that’s on some itineraries from Texas, was closed to tourists for nearly two weeks. It’s now open, and ships are returning. Royal Caribbean International’s Rhapsody of the Seas, sailing from Galveston, is again calling at Key West .

The worst and longer-lasting devastation was in Mexico’s popular Maya Riviera. Cruise lines now are dealing day by day with the aftermath. The popular resort of Cancun was severely damaged, but the destruction at the nearby island of Cozumel is a greater impact to cruises. Cozumel is the most popular port in the Caribbean, with an estimated 50 ships calling there regularly. During the winter season, as many as a dozen ships with 30,000 passengers might call at Cozumel in one day.

via The Dallas Morning News