Taking Home a Souvenir from your Cruise Holiday

When we take a cruise we always end up buying some kind of souvenir item off the ship and a recent Cunard image gave me an idea for this news piece.

A souvenir from your holiday is something nearly all holidaymakers buy, whether it be a stick of rock or a fridge magnet or even something larger like a hand made rug from Turkey for example. Whatever it is we always end up buying it but what about souvenirs we buy from our cruise ships? Nine times out of ten they are the usual run of the mill pens, t-shirts, keyrings. In short things we never really need nor want but buy for the sake of it anyway.

Recently I came across an image from Cunard (see feature image we have also included a link below where you can view the un-edited full size image) and it gave me a light bulb moment of what about a change for cruise ship branded items? Things passengers actually would purchase because they could use it or truly wanted it and not because they felt they should.Although the image is nothing spectacular it is informative and it is the kind of thing many avid cruisers would love the chance to take home with from their cruise. There is more to it than a cheap pen or notepad.

It is probably time some of the cruise line’s had a brain wave on re-branding their “branded” items onboard, they are generic, nothing captures the passenger or gives us inspiration, there is only so much you can get from a pen that says “Ventura” or “Independence of the Seas”. It is time for new and exciting souvenirs that can be brought home and put to good use.

Just for an example like the feature image pictured this would be stunning as a poster, why not do this for all ships within the fleet, poster size not postcard size. Books detailing facts about the line’s fleet that can only be purchased onboard. Calendar’s for cruises edging on a new year, DVD’s detailing the cruise line’s history containing archive footage and exclusive interviews, vintage t-shirt collection detailing ships from days gone by or even embroided cushions featuring yesteryear ships. There really is a whole boat load (pardon the pun) of ideas and you would probably find a lot of them would be far more appealing than some of the items currently available for sale.

Royal Caribbean has started to go in the right direction with the introduction of the bedding collection. This was a brilliant idea. The bedding can be purchased in an array of sizes and all features the trademark Royal Caribbean anchor logo. The only down fall with this is the price, although the idea is superb and it is something many a cruiser would love to have the opportunity to buy it really is over priced but, well done to RCI for a step in the right direction.

We want to hear your thoughts, what idea’s do you have?

The full size image can be viewed here http://www.cunard.com/Documents/Infographic/Transatlantic%20Cruises%20Infographic.jpg