Travel
Ben Murray-Bruce is updating his record of accomplishments in entertainment business by offering African families an alternative to pleasure and relaxation through sea voyage starting with the world’s most sophisticated cruise ship-Wonder of the Seas. He explains how. Excerpts by Nduka Nwosu
On July 24th, the world’s biggest and most expensive Oasis class cruise ship, Wonder of the Seas which carries a maximum of 6988 passengers, will be on a seven-day sail from the coast of Barcelona in Spain across three countries within six cities in Europe, and back to Barcelona July 31st.
When the ship sets sail, there is the expectation of a strong African presence in particular Nigerians. This is courtesy of Silverbird Entertainment Group, the Democratic Republic of Congo/Rwanda based TheXperts and Royal Caribbean Nigeria.
Why are these three business partners embarking on this modern expedition of rediscovery? Murray-Bruce who is the chief lead, is willing to go into memory lane and tell you why he has something new to offer. His ultimate objective is to get Africans back to the big ship and then the party begins. He has done it with musicals, video films on NTA, bringing back the cinema culture for families, couples, and people, who leave their homes to relax and watch movies on the big screen whether in Accra Ghana, or Abuja, Lagos, and Port Harcourt.
May be when the Wonder of the Seas berths in Apapa Quays, the Most Beautiful Girl in Africa (MBGA) beauty pageant supporting the Miss World Beauty pageant along with the Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria (MBGN) beauty pageant and the more than the 30 Nigerian musicians who performed on his 60th birthday, will actualise the dream of bringing Africa back to the big ship cruise. “It’s gonna be mad ooo,” croons a Nigerian advertorial. Murray-Bruce says he has three other projects in his bag and would unfold them at the appropriate time.
Of course, from inception in 1980 when he launched the Silverbird Entertainment Company that brought foreign artistes to Nigeria, Murray-Bruce has remained a recurring decimal with class and panache in the entertainment business even as a Distinguished Senator of the Fourth Republic.
A chip off the old block, Ben as his friends call him, can recall his father Papa William Mully Murray-Bruce travelled to London in 1953 in a business class, the Elder Dempster Lines passenger ship fitted with what could have passed for a cruise ship, at the time. Both Papa and his wife paid £101 (one hundred and one pounds) each to sail on the Elder Dempster business class section. Senator Bruce still has the ticket of that voyage to support his argument.
If they were doing the same trip in 2022 with the Wonder of the Seas, and in a First-Class Balcony Cabin, the couple would be paying $2235 each while papa as a single guest would have paid $4,215. It was a two-week smooth sail in 1953 attracting a minimum cost of £101 whereas the Wonder of the Seas leaves the port of Barcelona for one week and back with a higher ticket incentive. Life has changed many times over since the couple made that trip, yet a sea cruise is one dream those who go for it are ready to save for years to have the experience.
In 1974, papa and mama sailed to London in a similar fashion and that was it. No one could say if what they paid as a couple had gone beyond £101. However, if papa had travelled in this world’s most sophisticated ship as a single guest in a cabin in 2022, he would have paid $3545 facing the Central Park Balcony where the panorama of New York’s famous Central Park is replicated, whereas if he were travelling with mama, they would each be paying $1900 for persons sharing a cabin. A family of three would have been classified as triple passengers or quad with a fourth person, all attracting defined occupancy rates in that category and checked in facing the Central Park or the balcony; subject to availability and timeliness.
The emphasis on family is explained by Ben: “If you have never been on a cruise, you are the one I am talking to, it is an experience. Africans how do we relax? We do not; we work until we die whether as Africans or Nigerians. We do not have any kind of pleasure; we do not spend time with the kids; we do not spend time with our loved ones. I am saying seven days in an entire year, in 365 days, take some time off and spend quality time with your family and a cruise ship has every facility on planet earth.
It is like you have concerts on steroids. You have entertainment for children; it is out of this world. You have a combination of everything you can imagine, water park, theme park, the best food, the best drinks; there are doctors and a clinic, everything you can imagine.
“You are close to the port; you are going around the ocean stopping at different ports and countries every day. The takeoff date is July 24 in Barcelona; it is for the world. However, the next one would be solely African in the sense that all the entertainment in the ship would be solely African music. This one would be a mix.”
According to him, if you come early, it will be possible to process your visa and buy tickets before the rate goes up. “We will help you to process your Schengen visa. We will help you with the airline tickets to get to Barcelona. We are going to release the programme very quickly. You will come in there, catch your flight and from the airport you are driven to the seaport. From there you get into the Wonder of the Seas and sail from Barcelona and back to Barcelona. It will be seamless with no stress on your part.
“You cannot apply one week before the cruise because it would be stressful. If you need to be assisted with a visa you have to apply right now.
“Cruises are all over the world. The one I sailed on was from Los Angeles to Mexico. I sailed with my mum and some of my siblings from Los Angeles to Mexico and back. Yes, there are cruises everywhere but, this one is special. It is the most expensive and the most luxurious cruise ever. I am not placing a target on numbers for now. I am looking at the experience. “
Murray-Bruce says he wants people to come back and tell their story. That, he believes, is more important, then next year he will put together a different kind of cruise. “We will brand it differently every time we do it but do not forget the objective, to get Africans back to the big ship.”
The Mexican Riviera Cruise, on Norwegian Cruise Line, gives you an idea of what the Wonder of the Seas is all about. It was then described as a Seven Star hotel on the high sea with restaurants, swimming pools and cinemas to catch your ideal screen plays, with four stops in four ports including Cabo San Lucas, shopping for souvenirs.
It was quite fascinating staying in a sea that long and the night added to the hypnotic hold on nature with the heavens providing electricity which descended on the waters like a thousand lit fluorescent bulbs. The beaches with their pearls offered a tourist delight. The island has an array of good seafoods and outdoor activities-surfing, snorkeling, scuba diving plus the beauty of the coast resorts.
The cruise ship of the century also has an Oceanview compartment depicting a panorama that exposes occupants to the beauty of the sea cruise ($3005 for single guests in a cabin and $1635 for a person sharing a cabin) whereas the interior cabins hide guests from any of these views again with $2605 for a single cabin and $1435 for sharing.
The next one, adds Ben, will be an all-African cruise but “we will not be sailing from Nigeria until we have a critical mass in terms of patronage or participation. This ship cost a few billion dollars to build. We are not going to bring a multibillion-dollar ship here and you cannot guarantee three to five thousand passengers,” Murray-Bruce explains, adding, “you are not going to bring the most expensive ship in the world, and you cannot guarantee a deal whose economics makes sense. So, we are conducting a test from the Barcelona cruise to get as many Africans as possible.” For now, TBI Cruises and Tours is selling tickets for the current cruise whose take off point is Barcelona.
According to Ben, 1974 was the last time Elder Dempster sailed from London, England to Banjul in Gambia and Accra in Ghana. From that date till now there have been no cruise ships in West Africa and Africa, except some few but small built cruise ships in South Africa. Therefore, he says, “I came up with an idea on how about getting Africans back on a cruise? How about planning a holiday on a beautiful and amazing cruise ship from Apapa to London? How about bringing that back and I said to bring that back I must do something historic. I must get people back on cruise ships. The cruise ships will not come to Africa because there is no demand but if I can get Africans to go on a cruise whether it is a Mediterranean or Caribbean cruise, a South American cruise, or a cruise from Los Angeles to Mexico; that means we are getting Nigerians and Africans back on a cruise. Then I can get the cruise ships to come back here.”
Ben waxes lyrical with a poser to all fathers and parents: “How many fathers can say I have spent more than two hours with the children. This cruise is important for promoting family values of a mother and a child, a father and a child. Take time off, spend time with your children, spend time with your daughters and sons.
