Archive for the ‘Norwegian Cruise Lines’ Category

Cruising Away From the Crowds

Azamara Cruises, Carnival Cruise Lines, Celebrity Cruises, Cunard Line, Holland America Line, Norwegian Cruise Lines, SeaDream Yacht Club, Seabourn Cruises, World | Posted by cruisepeople
Aug 16 2010

by Mark Tre’ – "The Cruise Examiner"

With all the new ship introductions of late, and their attractions including Blue Man Group on Norwegian Epic; over 6,000 passengers and "neighbourhoods" on Oasis of the Seas, whose sister ship is due later this year; and four of the world’s largest cruise ships, Norwegian Epic, Liberty of the Seas, Carnival Magic and Celebrity Solstice, all over 125,000 tons, to be based in Barcelona next year, the time may have come to see if there are other products out there for people who really want to get away from the crowds.

What Do People Really Want From a Cruise?
We asked one of our regular readers the ten things she might like to get out of a sea voyage.

Here is the list she came up with, and when you think about it, it really does bring us back to the original ideas of why we like to go cruising:
1. To meet the captain and be recognized.
2. Time to sleep in and not be bothered about activities.
3. Time to dry your hair on deck all morning.
4. To wander about without having to answer to anyone.
5. Not to have to dress for anyone but yourself.
6. To be just one with nature and enjoy all the sights.
7. To learn about real peace and know that there are no deadlines.
8. To rejuvenate and refresh and heal.
9. To contemplate your life and make new plans.
10. To enjoy the inner beauty of freedom and to discover oneself.

This list is almost impossible to match with most contemporary cruises, what with having to get up every morning at the crack of dawn for another port arrival and get ready for shore excursions, and then when one sails be assaulted with all the on-board "activities" that passengers are invited to attend. This has been made even worse in the Mediterranean in recent years by the addition of "animators" to the crew list, a sort of pep squad that has been engaged to get passengers involved when they don’t want to be, into contests and onto dance floors etc.

While this list does consist of the things people have always wanted from a sea voyage in the traditional sense, most cruise lines have now gone so far down the road of installing multiple attractions and on board revenue-generating schemes into their new ships that people don’t have the time to contemplate. They thus tend to forget, if they ever knew, what it was like even in the recent past when cruising really first entered the mass market in the 1970s.

 
In recent years, tiered decks aft have given way to blocks of additional cabins and pool spaces now face inboard rather than outboard, as do many public spaces. Forward views if they exist are given over to gyms rather than lounges and even a cafeteria on one ship. The long teak-laid promenade decks on the Carnival Destiny class have only one door for access on each side and there are no deck chairs to lounge in.
One must go and sit in huge galleries shaped like auditoria on the top decks of the ship. At least Holland America retains the traditional teak promenade deck and steamer chairs, as does RMS Queen Mary 2. Elsewhere, bright lights and casino noise are actually found to be offending to some passengers. And not all are in favour of the rock-climbing walls that can be found on more than one cruise line now.

But let’s have a look around and see where one might be able to find a sea voyage in the traditional sense rather than a week on a floating resort.

Yachting not Cruising
To start with, we borrow a slogan from SeaDream Yacht Club, where, indeed, this company goes as far as saying that what they offer in their all-inclusive deluxe programme is not even cruising. People do not have to dress up on SeaDream – country club casual is the style and this is becoming popular on some other lines as well.

Not the blue jeans that are now so welcome on NCL, with its Freestyle Cruising, but careful dress such a chinos and collared shirts for men etc. There are no formal nights with gowns and black tie on SeaDream ships, just being able to mix with up to fifty other couples and enjoy the seagoing life for what it really is.

SeaDream has usually had its two ships based in the Caribbean by winter and the Mediterranean by summer but 2011 is going to see lots of new opportunities. For one thing, SeaDream I will for the first time cruise the Baltics and the Norwegian fjords. She will do things such as going right into central St Petersburg rather than being out at the cruise terminals in the port area and miles from town, and will do the same in ports such as Tallinn.

In Norway, she will offer private events in the fjords and be able to get much closer to the action than the usual cruise ships. Other new itineraries from SeaDream will include cruises to the Amazon, operating between Barbados and Manaus, and Trans-Panama cruises between St Thomas and Acapulco.

Other lines have also been introducing new ships that will attract this sort of crowd. Compagnie du Ponant has this summer introduced its 264-berth Le Ponant and sister ship Le Boréal will follow next year. Along with earlier members of its fleet, and like SeaDream, these ships offer more of a traditional sea voyage in comfortable surroundings and with no crowding.

And Azamara Club Cruises, now under the leadership of ex-SeaDream president, is taking quite a number of steps to slow down the cruise concept so that passengers get to enjoy their destinations, including overnight stays at many of their ports of call. Azamara also asks its guests to wear resort casual rather than black tie and has added complimentary wine with lunch and dinner to the fare.

Another way to get away from the day-to-day grind of a cruise, although still on a big ship, is to book yourself Trans-Atlantic in RMS Queen Mary 2. In order to save fuel and the environment, crossings now take six or seven days depending on the voyage and what better way to get away from it all and relax in a steamer chair for day after day. With North Atlantic weather being what it is, however, remember it might mean a blanket as well as a cushion on that deck chair. Cunard staff will provide both.

Freighter Travel
AOL News came up with another idea this weekend when it published a piece by Ben Muessig entitled "Freighter Ships Offer Vacationers a Simpler Life at Sea," espousing the advantages of getting away from the crowds. One of its contributors is quoted as saying that "cargo ship travel is for those who like a bit of peace and quiet," which harks back to our original reader’s wish list.
The great advantage of traveling by cargo ship is large quantities of sea time with little to do except keep oneself entertained with just a few fellow passengers. As Mr. Muessig put it "In fact, there’s hardly anything to do aboard a freighter. And that’s part of the appeal," adding that "freighters don’t offer passengers pre-planned shore excursions or adventure on the high seas."

According to his source, freighters let vacationers "become a part of the ship and get to know its workings."

Mr. Muessig adds that this is "something that would never be possible on a cruise. When passengers aren’t staying in their comfortable private cabins, lounging on the deck or using the swimming pool or exercise room, they can pass their time chatting with the officers on the bridge or in a communal lounge. And when it comes to dining, passengers don’t need a special invite to get to the captain’s table — they’ll be dining right alongside him or her at every meal."

Most passenger-carrying cargo ships these days are European, usually French, German, Italian or Polish, with the French and Italian ships having the advantage of offering passengers complimentary table wine at lunch and dinner.

New itineraries also appear from time to time. Earlier this month, four Leonhardt & Blumberg ships were opened up for passenger carriage on the route between Antwerp and Auckland, New Zealand, by way of the Panama Canal, with port calls at Tahiti and Noumea en route. Each ship carries up to six passengers and there will be sailings twice monthly in each direction. So far, however, bookings are only being accepted four to six weeks prior to sailing.

The latest large container ships of CMA CGM, engaged in the trade between Europe and China, carry only ten passengers on a hull as large as that of  Oasis of the Seas. And the longest voyage, a round-the-world trip offered by Rickmers Pearl String, offers a 124-day get-away from the crowds, carrying a maximum of seven passengers each – the maximum number before having to hire a doctor is twelve.

This form of travel shows no signs of dying out as new passenger-carrying cargo ships still come into service almost every month, with about 300 now being equipped with a few passenger berths on each ship.

A Genuine Sea Voyage
The bottom line therefore is that cruising now offers such a vast array of products out there that it is still possible to book a genuine old-fashioned voyage that fulfills the soul rather than just our various appetites for food, drink, entertainment and fun.

After all, people say it was Carnival that made a big thing out of pushing their "Fun Ships." But it was another, much more traditional company that first used the word, when Cunard Line adopted the slogan "Getting There is Half the Fun" in the 1950s. In those days, however, it seems that fun might have had quite a different meaning from what it has today.

For anyone wanting to try a short sea voyage for themselves the best way to do this is to book a weekend voyage from Miami to the Bahamas, for example in Norwegian Sky, or on the west coast a weekend voyage from Long Beach to Ensenada, Mexico, and return. In Europe, weekend cruises are offered every week from Athens’ port of Piraeus to the Greek Isles and also from Limassol in Cyprus.

At certain times of the year, short cruises can also be booked from UK and Italian ports

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Class Comes Back to Cruising

Carnival Cruise Lines, Celebrity Cruises, Crystal Cruises, Cunard Line, Holland America Line, MSC, Norwegian Cruise Lines, Oceania Cruises, Seabourn Cruises, Silversea | Posted by cruisepeople
Jul 12 2010

by Mark Tre’ – “The Cruise Examiner”

While Cunard has always maintained a sort of class system with its so-called Grill Class, other lines are now following suit. MSC has developed its Yacht Club and Norwegian Epic now has a separate “building” atop the bridge of its new Norwegian Epic just for those booked in suites. Elsewhere, .
 
Class Returns to the Cruise Industry

Back in the 1920s and 1930s, companies such as Canadian Pacific and the French Line began experimenting with a change in class from the old First, Second and Tourist Third classes to come up with some rather novel attempts at reclassifying ships.
Indeed, the French Line had introduced a single class ship as far back as 1907 with Chicago. In 1922, the North Atlantic lines lowered First Class fares, especially on older ships, but held Second and Third Class fares, and some of the older ships carrying three classes were change into “one cabin” ships. Canadian Pacific then built quite a number of Cabin Class liners that charged less than First Class fares. The advantage of these one-class or Cabin ships was that passengers had run of the ship now that they were no longer segregated into three classes.

Later, in February 1936, the North Atlantic Passenger Conference, the body that then set fares, came up with three “new” classes – Cabin Class, Second Class and Tourist Class and ships such as Normandie and Queen Mary when first introduced had no First Class, which would make a comeback however after the Second World War. Only the Italian ships such as Rex and Conte di Savoia maintained First Class as they were not members of the Conference.

Cruising in turn saw the rise of single-class run of the ship vessels. For a while, some British ships charged First and Tourist Class cruise fares, but this practice soon fell out of use on cruises and passengers were given a more democratic run of the ship, the earlier segregation having served to separate First Class businessmen and millionaires from the destitute masses emigrating to America.

In recent years we have been seeing similar innovations being made by cruise lines. Celebrity Cruises introduced its Concierge Class in the about 2003, which meant priority check-in, a chilled bottle of sparkling wine in the room on arrival, fresh flowers daily, fresh fruit, complimentary binoculars, bathrobes, afternoon canapés and sundry other minor amenities. Every Celebrity ship now offers Concierge Class cabins.

In 2008, MSC Cruises introduced something called “Yacht Club” on its MSC Fantasia class vessels, with 99 suites in an exclusive VIP area at the top of the ship with its own private Top Sail Lounge with a forward view that is denied to all other passengers. Yacht Club passengers also have priority embarkation, private butler and concierge service, two whirlpools and a private swimming pool. One passenger was even quoted by “Cruise Critic” as saying “This experience on board is better than on Silversea.”

Last month, from the same shipyard, came Norwegian Epic, delivered with a huge private area on top of the ship that contains its own “ship within a ship” feature that frankly ruins the appearance of the ship as it sits right forward above the bridge like a massive carbuncle. That carbuncle contains sixty massive suites centred around a two-deck-high private courtyard.

Forty-six Courtyard Villas, each with two bedrooms and two bathrooms, measure more than 500 square feet; six Courtyard Penthouses with a bedroom and a separate living and dining area, at more than 320 square feet, and top of the pile, eight deluxe Owners Suites, at more than 850 square feet, with floor-to-ceiling windows and separate bedroom, living and dining areas.

Similar to what happens in MSC’s Yacht Club, guests staying in these suites in Norwegian Epic will have exclusive access to a Courtyard Villa complex that includes a pool, two whirlpools, gym, saunas, sun deck, indoor/outdoor dining, a bar and nightclub and concierge lounge.

NCL had started this trend on its own with its Garden Villas on its earlier “Jewel” class Freestyle ships five years ago, but now seem to have taken advantage of STX’s experience with the new MSC ships as well. The biggest disadvantage with both the MSC ships and NCL’s is that the suites with floor-to-ceiling windows up forward face into the wind and therefore do not have balconies, a major detraction for the terrific forward views.

And of course, the longest-standing purveyor of class is Cunard Line, which has for decades now operated its so-called Grill Class accommodation in first RMS Queen Elizabeth 2, with three grills (Queens, Princess and Britannia) and then RMS Queen Mary 2 with two grills (Queens and Princess).
Passengers occupying the best suites and accommodation on board of course dine in the grills, with Princess Grill passengers coming from the smaller suites (335 to 380 square feet) and Queens Grill passengers from the larger ones (500 to 2,250 square feet) and also benefit from the Queens Grill Lounge.

Subsequently, Cunard Line introduced yet another class of accommodation when it introduced the Club Britannia concept a few years later, whereby passengers accommodated in the best veranda cabins on Deck 12 have been allocated a separate area of the three-deck high main Britannia Restaurant for open sitting dining. These passengers also receive an invitation to the captain’s Grill reception during the voyage, thus introducing them to the higher class diners as well.

With its newest ships,  Queen Victoria of 2007 and this year’s new Queen Elizabeth, Cunard has kept this tradition, with each having her own Queens and Princess Grills, with even better views than on Queen Mary 2, on either side of the funnel casing. Both ships also have an adjacent Courtyard area that is reserved for Grill Class customers. All Grill Class passengers also enjoy priority embarkation. strawberries and wine or champagne, terry robes, personalized stationery and the usual pillow menu!

Each line has its own attractions, and in a lesser way, butlers on Holland America and priority embarkation on Carnival and Oceania are art of this trend as well. So are the privileges of many of the cruise lines’ loyalty clubs.
But some of the main market lines are trying even harder now to compete with upmarket lines such as Crystal, Regent, Seabourn and Silversea and no doubt will be successful in their own way with these new classes of accommodation. As the years go by, though, more people are being denied access to certain areas unless they have paid, something that may offend some passengers as it harks back to an earlier era.

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Two New Christenings

Holland America Line, News, Norwegian Cruise Lines | Posted by cruisepeople
Jul 06 2010

"Queen of Country" Names Norwegian Epic

Norwegian Epic was officially named last Friday in New York by the sometimes-called "Queen of Country" (country music that is) Reba McEntire, Oklahama-born daughter of a steer roper and successful country singer and television actress. NCL ceo Kevin Sheehan first met Ms McEntire in another NCL ship and discovered that she was a regular customer before choosing her for Friday’s ceremony in New York City (itself known as Nieuw Amsterdam between 1609 and 1674). On Independence Day, the Epic also hosted Macy’s 34th Fourth of July fireworks display.
As an interesting aside, both  Norwegian Epic and Nieuw Amsterdam, which was christened in Venice, come with a Manhattan dining room.

Princess Maxima Names Nieuw Amsterdam


Nieuw Amsterdam, latest 2,106-berth addition to the Holland America fleet (and its 15th) was christened in Venice by Her Royal Highness Princess Maxima. As part of the ceremony, a captain from each of the line’s fifteen ships arrived by his own vaporetto in preparation for greeting the princess. This Nieuw Amsterdam, the fourth of the name, is the 11th Holland America ship to be christened by a member of the Dutch royal family. Her Majesty Queen Beatrix named sister ship Eurodam in 2008. Princess Maxima herself is married to Prince Willem Alexander, heir apparent to the Dutch throne, and could therefore one day be Queen of the Netherlands.
The fact that both new ships have a Manhattan restaurant will ensure that at least one remains. The other is on the Celebrity Mercury, which is to become Mein Schiff 2 next year.

by Mark Tre

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Norwegian Epic Makes her Debut

News, Norwegian Cruise Lines, Regent Seven Seas | Posted by cruisepeople
Jun 28 2010

No sooner had Norwegian Cruise Line’s new 4,200-passenger Norwegian Epic left the shipyard at St Nazaire, where she had become the largest ship ever built by that yard, than rumours started to circulate that Bernard Meyer of the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg was on board discussing with NCL executives what the design of future NCL ships might be. Simultaneously, NCL chief executive Kevin Sheehan announced that no more F3 class ships such as Norwegian Epic would be built. She will thus become a once-only ship with no sister ships. 

The acrimony that resulted from the dispute between NCL and the French shipyard now known as STX (earlier Akers) will probably also mean that STX is unlikely to build any more NCL ships and that Meyer Werft, who have built the majority of the NCL “Freestyle Cruising” fleet may well see NCL’s next order.

This would follow Regent Seven Seas, who left the French yard after difficulties with Seven Seas Mariner to order Seven Seas Voyager from the Mariotti yard in Italy. One of the things Regent got from this was single corridors on the Voyager compared to double corridors on the Mariner, which Regent did not really want because of its large stateroom and particularly bathroom sizes.

Meanwhile, as Norwegian Epic crosses from Southampton to New York, initial reports from journalists and travel agents who have seen the ship report on her many entertainment venues and their quality. We shall wait to hear the full story when she arrives in New York, where she is due to be christened.

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118 New Ships Since 2000 – Ship Sizes – The New Panama Canal

Atlantic Crossing, Caribbean, Carnival Cruise Lines, Celebrity Cruises, Costa Cruises, Cruise West, Crystal Cruises, Cunard Line, Disney Cruise Lines, Fred Olsen, Hapag LLoyd, Holland America Line, MSC, News, Norwegian Cruise Lines, P&O, Panama Canal, Royal Caribbean, Uncategorized | Posted by cruisepeople
Jun 18 2010

by Mark Tre’

The recent announcement by CLIA that 118 new cruise ships had been delivered since 2000 has led us to have a look at how the world cruise fleet is now made up and how it has changed in the last decade. The findings, along with progress now being made on a new Panama Canal, are rather interesting. Large ships, nay huge ships, have now become the norm. And like the trade of the world, the type of passenger attracted to each size of ship is surely quite different.


118 New Cruise Ships Since 2000
In January, Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) published an interesting statistic. It said that 118 new cruise ships had been introduced to the world fleet since 2000. That is very close to one ship a month, every month, year round for a decade. While there has been a slowdown during the recession, orders are starting again and it is worthwhile to have a look at how this massive new fleet is composed. To do this, in order to give the fleet a different perspective, we are going to look at how the fleet is divided in the same terms used for cargo ships, working from the largest down.

The Capesize Ships
In cargo ship terms, Capesize ships are the next size up from Suezmax, the latter being ships that are too wide or deep for the Panama Canal but can still use the Suez. Capesize ships, however, always have to navigate via the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn. Length and beam are not a problem in the Suez Canal, but draught is limited to 62 feet.

As cruise ships carry passengers and not heavy cargoes, this is not a problem for them, as even RMS Queen Mary 2 has only a draught of 32 feet 10 inches, which means that there is really no such thing as a "Suezmax" cruise ship. In the container trades these ships tend to be known as "post-Panamax" (a Panamax ship can carry up to 5,000 twenty-foot equivalent containers while a post-Panamax can carry up to 12,000 (although there is also now a design for a 20,000-unit vessel).

Capesize cargo ships ten to carry large cargoes of low-value goods such as coal and iron ore, of ports they can serve is severely restricted by their size. The same is of course true of Capesize cruise ships that cannot enter many cruise ports because of their own size, but the huge advantage they offer is that they can bring down rates because of economies of scale. Indeed, the same applies to Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas, which carry 6,000 passengers each but limit themselves to the same more on board activities such as ziplines and high diving and their ports, which they visit on a repetitive basis all the year round, feature things such as roller coaster rides and chair lifts. Despite the fact that they offer huge loft suites, these ships must cater to the mass market with their low unit costs in order to stay full.

Where Capesize cargo ships are typically above 150,000 tons deadweight, or about 100,000 gross tons measurement, Capesize cruise ships are of basically the same size, The first Capesize cruise ships were actually built in the 1930s, with the delivery of  Normandie for the French Lines and Cunard Line’s Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. These three North Atlantic express passenger ships were all too long and to wide to be able to use the Panama Canal, and were the largest ships to have been built to that time.

To-day’s Capesize cruise fleet thus numbers forty-seven ships either in service or on order. Starting with the 5,400 lower berth Oasis and Allure of the Seas, they work down through a quintet (the largest cruise ship order ever placed) of the 2,850-berth Celebrity Solstice class, a quartet of 3,100-passenger ships consisting of the Voyager of the Seas class, and three trios, the 3,600-passenger Freedom of the Seas class, 3,500-guest MSC Fantasia class and the 3,100-berth Carnival Dream class.

Then follow another pair, Disney Dream and sister, and the one-off 4,200-berth Norwegian Epic (which was to have been part of a pair until her sister ship was cancelled), to be introduced next week, and Queen Mary 2, another one-off, and one with a lot more space with only 2,620 lower berths. These ships are all above 1,000 feet in overall length and only one, Voyager of the Seas of 1999, was delivered before the year 2000.

To be added to these are twenty-two more. The eleven ships of the Carnival Conquest (six) and Costa Concordia (five) classes, all 952 by 116 feet in overall dimensions, are ten feet too wide for the present Panama Canal. Eleven more ships, of the Grand Princess class, including P&O’s Azura and Ventura, all 951 x 118 feet, also fall into this category. These twenty-two Carnival Corp & PLC ships were built to a short and stout design that precludes them from passing through the present Panama Canal, and they are all products of the Fincantieri shipyards in Italy. Only one of this lot, Grand Princess of 1998, was delivered before the year 2000.

So of the 118 cruise ships delivered since 2000 sixty-seven, or more than half, are too big to transit the Panama Canal.

The Panamax Ships
The next category down is Panamax, which is the maximum size ship that can use the Panama Canal (although new locks are due to open in 2015). Cargoes carried by Panamax ships are generally a little higher value and include grain, steel and minerals as well as thermal coal and iron ore. And Panamax cruise ships are more likely to feature alternative restaurants and big shows than ziplines and roller coasters. In fact, many offer more than just a repetitive 7-day itinerary and are more likely to be found on alternating 10-day circuits in the Mediterranean as just one example.
These ships have a maximum length overall of 965 feet and a beam of 106 feet and are able to squeeze through the present locks. This size is ideal for World Cruises as well, and can reposition easily between Alaska and the Caribbean. For example, where Queen Victoria and the new Queen Elizabeth can offer world cruises that transit both Panama and Suez, Queen Mary 2 is forced to sail all the way around the tip of South America to get from the Atlantic to the Pacific as she is too big for the Panama Canal.

The Panamax cruise fleet numbers eighty ships. Owners such as Norwegian Cruise Line (and its once-parent Star Cruises) made sure they did not build wider than Panamax and so this fleet includes half a dozen Meyer-built vessels of dimensions of 965 by 106 feet, while Celebrity Cruises has four St Nazaire-built ships of the same dimensions in the Celebrity Constellation class and Princess Cruises two St Nazaire-built ships of the Coral Princess class. To these can be added Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria, all of maximum Panamax dimensions.

Following closely behind are the four ships of the MSC Musica class, all just a foot shorter than Panamax, and the four Royal Caribbean ships of the Radiance of the Seas class, three feet shorter. Following at 960 feet are the four Carnival Spirit class and two ships each of the Costa Atlantica and Costa Luminosa classes. At 936 feet, or 29 feet short of Panamax are half a dozen Holland America ships, from the 2002-built Zuiderdam to this year’s Nieuw Amsterdam. Royal Caribbean’s five 915-foot "Vision" class ships (not including the now-lengthened Enchantment of the Seas) and the 921-foot Pride of America, complete the Panamax class above 900 feet.
Fully another forty ships follow at between 800 and 900 feet and Panamax beam, representing Carnival, Celebrity, Costa, NCL, P&O, TUI Cruises and at the lower end in terms of length, the ships of Aida Cruises (half a dozen at 817 feet), P&O Australia (three at 805-810 feet) and the Crystal Serenity at 820 feet.
There have been one or two exceptions to the maximum Panamax length of 965 feet. The laid-up s.s. United States, for example, was constructed in 1952 to be able to transit the Panama in an emergency, but her overall length is 990 feet. A couple of other ships to-day, the 990-foot Enchantment of the Seas, which was lengthened in 2005, gets around this as her bow was redesigned when she was lengthened to that it can be hinged up to bring her overall length down to 965 feet. The 970-foot Utopia, to be delivered in 2013, is the other.

The New Panama Canal
However ships may be classified today, the present Panamax definition will become redundant in five years when a third lane of locks is opened on the Panama. These new locks will allow ships of up to 1200 feet length overall by 167 feet in beam and up to 49.9 feet in draft to transit the canal. Essentially, this will allow most of the world cruise ship fleet to transit Panama.

There are sure to be some exceptions, however, as with the five largest units of the Royal Caribbean fleet their maximum width at the level of the bridge wings is 226 feet for the Oasis and Allure of the Seas and 184 feet for the Freedom class ships. This could leave the five Royal Caribbean ships as the last of the Capesize cruise ships, unable to use the new locks. How many other cruise ships might be affected is not yet clear.

 
Meanwhile, Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 may be able to conduct her world cruises using the Panama Canal after 2015, although that is not yet clear. One factor, that might also affect other cruise ships, is the height of the Bridge of the Americas at the Pacific end of the canal, which has a clearance under the main span of 201 feet at high tide. By comparison, the clearance under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge at the approach to New York is 228 feet, and Queen Mary 2 clears this bridge by only 13 feet.
This means she could be about fourteen feet too tall for the Panama Canal unless some height can be obtained from masts or her funnel, which was specifically designed to the maximum height to pass under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. By comparison the maximum height of the Queen Victoria is 179 feet from keel to top of the highest mast.

Handysize Ships
The next designation of cargo ships, called Handysize, carries all sorts of cargoes to and from ports all over the world, and again usually cargoes with higher values than either the Capesize or Panamax ships, including the likes of steel, project cargoes, copper, zinc and other valuable metals. Such ships are designed to maximum dimensions and maximum capacity to allow them to serve the vast majority of the world’s ports.

Within this grouping will be found all the traditional style cruise ships that we were used to until just a decade ago plus some new ships. Some examples of ships in this category, mostly ranging in the 600 and 700-foot overall length brackets, include the fleets of Azamara Cruises, Fred Olsen Cruises, Oceania Cruises, Phoenix Reisen, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, plus the most recent newbuildings of Seabourn and Silversea.

One point about all these fleets is that none of them do repetitive 7-day itineraries, which is the wont of the larger ships, and they offer itineraries worldwide that change according to the season, many of them never repeating an itinerary in a year.
A mixture of traditional and upmarket ships, the more traditional ones do not include many balconies but the newer middle-range ships such as the eight former Renaissance ships (now with Azamara, Oceania and Princess, with one to go to P&O soon as Adonia) offer a more discerning product. The new ships of Seabourn and Silversea, however, together with Hapag-Lloyd Cruises’ Europa, serve the most discerning market of all with not only balconies but the best of on-board facilities.

These are indeed the finest cruise ships in the world, paying attention to every detail of service. They also cost more and attract a different clientele.

Small Ships
As well as the larger ships, there is a wide variety of small ships, ranging from the myriad of new river ships to the daily mail boat from Bergen to the North Cape to ships such as Cruise West’s Spirit of Oceanus, which now completes a globe-spanning world cruise of 335 days every year and a large fleet of expedition ships sailing to the Antarctic, the Amazon to Peru and the Northwest Passage, not to mention Alaska, Costa Rica and the Galapagos Islands.
But that, as they say, is another story for another day.

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Carnival To Become No. 5 to Bermuda

Bermuda, Carnival Cruise Lines, Celebrity Cruises, Holland America Line, News, Norwegian Cruise Lines, Princess Cruises, Royal Caribbean | Posted by cruisepeople
May 22 2010

Bermuda’s traditional April to October cruise trade began again last month with the first regular calls at Hamilton’s Front Street cruise piers since the Azamara Journey completed her Bermuda cruise season in 2007 by Holland America’s Veendam.

With Holland America being a newcomer to the Bermuda trade this year, its Veendam will make 24 cruises from New York direct to the Front Street cruise ships docks in Hamilton, with a tender call at St George’s en route. One call will also be made by the line’s Prinsendam. This year actually marks a return by Holland America to the Bermuda trade, where it had been a regular caller until the 1980s when it moved its centre of operations from New York to Seattle.

Other regular callers this year include Norwegian Cruise Line, with 45 calls by Norwegian Dawn from New York and Norwegian Spirit from Boston, and Royal Caribbean, with 40 calls by Explorer of the Seas from Bayonne, New Jersey, and Enchantment of the Seas from Baltimore to either King’s Wharf or Heritage Wharf, both located at the old Royal Navy Dockyard and served by ferry running into Hamilton. Celebrity Cruises will also offer seventeen cruises with its Celebrity Summit and Princess Cruises ten with Caribbean Princess.

Carnival Cruise Lines announced that it would offer a total of sixteen cruises to Bermuda in 2011, six from Charleston by Carnival Fantasy, five from Baltimore by Carnival Pride, four from New York by Carnival Miracle and one from Norfolk by Carnival Glory, all docking at King’s Wharf. This year will see only one Bermuda call by Carnival Miracle from New York but 2011 will see the largest number of Bermuda calls ever made by Carnival Cruise Lines, bringing them to No. 5 place after NCL, Royal Caribbean, Holland America and Celebrity, and within one call of Celebrity at No. 4.

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A Move Back to Single Cabins

Cunard Line, News, Norwegian Cruise Lines, P&O, Uncategorized | Posted by cruisepeople
Apr 20 2010

While Fred Olsen Cruise Lines has included a number of single cabins in all of its ships for some time, P&O and NCL are now joining them with the new Azura and Norwegian Epic, and others such as Voyages to Antiquity are joining as well, while several lines continue to offer no single supplements on certain departures.

P&O’s Azura entered service recently with 18 single cabins, 6 inside and 12 outside, These singles are so popular that they are sold out for all of 2010. But Norwegian Epic will far outstrip this, with 128 single cabins out of a total of 2,100. These so-called "studio" cabins are all inside and measure about 100 square feet each, smaller than the 120 square feet of first generation cruise ships but big enough for one person, and certainly a good way of using less desirable inside space to generate additional revenue from a singles market that has been clamouring for such accommodation for decades. The cost of a single cabin is usually more than the per person charge in a double, although on Norwegian Epic there will be no surcharge and studio customers will also get their own exclusive singles lounge.

Until Norwegian Epic, Saga Ruby claimed the largest number of single cabins, with 70 (Saga Rose, now retired, had 60). Fred Olsen’s Balmoral was next with 63, while Black Watch and Boudicca have 42 each and Braemar 27, for 174 single cabins in a single fleet. In 2009, Fred Olsen booked 7,700 single passengers, almost two-thirds of which were female, and they accounted for 8% of their passenger carryings. This compares to about 3.5% for P&O.

Voyages to Antiquity has also joined the movement with 16 cabins on board its new Aegean Odyssey out of a total of 198. The little Hebridean Spirit, however, has the highest ratio of all, with 11 single cabins out of 30, or more than a third.
Until now, many lines have been charging single supplements of 75% or even 100%, which has just pushed away the business in favour of couples. The feeling that a single might spend only half as much as two in a cabin now seems to be giving way slowly to an attitude that catering to the singles market might indeed bring them some revenue that they did not have before. After all, although each cabin must be serviced, a studio cabin occupies only about 55% of the space of a more standard 180-square foot cabin, which has been the norm on some lines for many years now.

This is far different from the attitude that prevailed ten years ago, when RMS Queen Mary 2 was designed with nothing but double cabins despite the fact that her predecessor RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 had offered 125 single cabins. The reason given at the time was shipbuilding methods and prefabricated cabins but singles now seem to be gaining some favour again in the cruise market.

Courtesy of Mark Tre

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Shipyards Anxious for New Orders

Carnival Cruise Lines, Celebrity Cruises, Costa Cruises, Cunard Line, Fred Olsen, Holland America Line, Louis, News, Norwegian Cruise Lines, Oceania Cruises, Princess Cruises, Silversea | Posted by cruisepeople
Apr 11 2010

In recent years there have been four major cruise ship building yards in Italy (Fincantieri), France (Chantiers de l’Atlantique), Germany (Meyer Werft) and Finland (Aker), and two aspiring yards in Japan (Mitsubishi) and South Korea (STX). That was true at least until recently when STX took control of the majors in Finland and France by acquiring Aker Yards, which had also recently acquired control of the former Chantiers de l’Atlantique.

And two new entries, Samsung and Daewoo, who have both built overnight ferries, are now arriving from South Korea.

The past year or two, with the world financial crisis, has seen a lull until recently in orders for new cruise ships as the world adjusted to the new reality. Without new orders the shipyards will soon begin to lose their skilled workers. However, if they can hold on, there is no question that more new ships will be needed as the cruise market continues to grow worldwide. Literally dozens of new cruises ships will be required over the next few years.

For now, however, the world recession that has stopped new orders means that some shipyards may end up with empty berths.

Most successful so far in landing orders as confidence returns and orders re-commence is Fincantieri, which has already landed one order from Carnival Cruise Lines and two for a new design for Princess Cruises. Even prior to these orders, Fincantieri had work going forward, with four ships for delivery this year (Azura, Le Boréal, Nieuw Amsterdam and Queen Elizabeth), four more for 2011 (Carnival Magic, Costa Favolosa, L’Austral and Marina) and three for 2012 (orders for Compagnie du Ponant, Costa and Oceania’s Riviera).

Second most successful in getting new business, and most in need of the work, STX France has managed to obtain an order for a single ship from MSC Cruises. Parent company STX Europe, builder of Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas, has built or is now building the fifteen largest cruise ships in the world in its French and Finnish yards. Many of these were three series of large ships for Royal Caribbean, but they also include Norwegian Epic for NCL, RMS Queen Mary 2 for Cunard and several ships for MSC.

After STX completes Allure of the Seas, building in Finland, and Norwegian Epic, building in France, its cruise ship order books come to an end. It is no wonder then that the name of Nicolas Sarkozy came to the fore in the negotiation of the latest MSC order, as employment in the St Nazaire region depends heavily on STX France, in which the French still retain a large number of shares.

Meyer Werft, meanwhile, seems to be in reasonable shape. With only one delivery this year, next month’s Celebrity Eclipse, future orders nevertheless include three cruise ships for 2011 (one each for Aida, Celebrity and Disney) and three more for 2012, a direct repeat of the 2011 trio. Meyer Werft has been successful in the past with fill-in orders, building container ships between cruise ships, for example, but container ship tonnage is now in huge oversupply.

Another European yard, niche operator T Marriotti in Genoa, still has two orders yet for delivery, in Seabourn Sojourn this year and Seabourn Quest in 2011, but no orders beyond. Marriotti is at present converting Carnival Celebration into Grand Celebration for Carnival’s Spanish subsidiary Iberocruceros.

A recent order of interest, still at letter of intent stage, is the all-suite ship Utopia, for Utopia Residences of Beverly Hills, California. As well as 200 residences, which are selling for prices between $3.7 million and $26 million,  Utopia will feature a 206-suite Utopian Hotel, for those who wish just to take a cruise. The $1.1 billion Utopia, due for delivery in 2013, is being built by Samsung Heavy Industries, a shipyard that has not yet produced a cruise ship, although it has built a pair of new ferries for Stena Line. With experience from the Stena Line ferries and this 971-foot ship, Samsung will have the fitting out experience that will allow them to go after more cruise ship business.

As well as the Carnival, Royal Caribbean, MSC and Apollo groups, which will need dozens of new ships, there are two or three potential new entries into the newbuilding arena. A possible first order, because it has the largest fleet, may come from Louis Cruises of Cyprus, who is said to have been discussing a new design with South Korean builders Daewoo Shipbuilding. To carry around 2,000 passengers, the Louis ship would reportedly be for charter to a tour operator.

The main tour operator to whom Louis now has ships on charter is the UK’s Thomson Cruises, who is imminently to take over Costa Europa and Thomson Dream. Daewoo has gained passenger ship experience as it has built and is building a number of new ferries for Blue Star Ferries of Greece.

Others said to have been in play for possible newbuildings once economic conditions turn around include Fred Olsen Cruise Lines and Saga Holidays in the UK and Phoenix Reisen in Germany. And no doubt others will appear.

Article courtesy of Mark Tre

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Are The Americans Taking Control of World Cruising? – The Cruise Market in Brazil – Croisières de France

Carnival Cruise Lines, Costa Cruises, Cunard Line, Holland America Line, Louis, MSC, News, Norwegian Cruise Lines, Oceania Cruises, P&O, Princess Cruises, Royal Caribbean, South America | Posted by cruisepeople
Mar 15 2010

by Mark Tre’ – "The Cruise Examiner"
The recent news that the Carlyle Group of Washington has taken a controlling interest in Brazil’s CVC Cruises follows major incursions into the UK, Italian, Spanish and French markets in the last decade.

The result is that Americans will soon control all the world’s significant cruise fleets other than Swiss/Italian-based MSC Cruises, Malaysian-based Star Cruises and Cypriot-based Louis Cruises. We also look at recent events in the rapidly expanding Brazilian cruise market and what’s happening with  Bleu de France in France.

THIS WEEK’s STORY

Are The Americans Taking Control of World Cruising?
The news that the Carlyle Group of Washington has taken control of Brazil’s CVC Cruises leads one to sit back and wonder what is happening to the control of the cruise market.
At one time, Europeans effectively controlled the cruise industry in North America, with British, Dutch, Norwegian, Greek, Italian and Swedish shipowners all running cruise businesses from local offices in New York or Miami with a titular US president.
The first move away from this was the formation of Carnival Cruise Lines in 1972, after the Arisons and Klosters parted ways, with Kloster having owned the ships and Arison having run them. Set up as an independent, Carnival has come a long way from a one-ship operation to to-day, where it owns 95.
According to Ryan Wahlstrom’s Cruise Market Watch web site, Carnival now controls 55% of the North American market and 52% of the rest of the world, with Royal Caribbean having 27% and 22% respectively. If we ignore for the moment Apollo Corporation and its interests in NCL, Oceania and Regent, these figures for just the top two come to 82% and 74%. And adding NCL’s 10% North American share brings that figure to 92%.
This leaves MSC with 2% of the North American market and 10% of the rest of the world and Star Cruises with 5% and Louis with 4% of the rest of the world. Beyond that is getting into niche and one or two-ship brands.
As the world market has grown outside North America, there have been many incursions by the American "big two." The following timeline summarises the most important of these in the past dozen years or so:
1997 Royal Caribbean Cruises acquires Celebrity Cruises (UK/Greece)
1997 Carnival Corporation and Airtours (UK) jointly acquire Costa Cruses (Italy)
1998 Carnival Corporation acquires Cunard Line (UK)
2000 Carnival Corporation acquires the remaining 50% of Costa Cruises (Italy)
2000 P&O Princess Cruises PLC acquires Aida Cruises (Germany)
2003 Carnival Corporation merges with P&O Princess Cruises PLC (UK)
2003 P&O Princess Cruises PLC becomes Carnival PLC (Carnival UK)
2006 Royal Caribbean acquires Pullmantur Cruises (Spain)
2007 Carnival Corp & PLC acquires 75% of Iberocruceros (Spain)
2008 Pullmantur Cruises forms Croisières de France (France)
2009 Carnival Corp & PLC acquires the remaining 25% of Iberocruceros (Spain)
2010 Carlyle Group acquires 63.6% of CVC Cruises in Brazil (Brazil)
With Carnival and Royal Caribbean having taken control of most of the market in the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain and now Brazil the trend is obvious.
Mitigating this of course is the fact that both Carnival and Royal Caribbean do have European shareholders as well as American. Carnival PLC is listed in London and Royal Caribbean have European shareholders in Anders Wilhelmsen, one of the original Norwegian founders of the line, and Sammy Ofer, based in London. But Carnival management is clearly in American hands, with deputies in the UK and in Italy, while in the case of Royal Caribbean the decisions are made in Miami.

THIS WEEK IN CRUISING
The Cruise Market in Brazil
Many years ago, in the 1960s, Brazil had four very handsome cruise ships built in what was then Yugoslavia and in Spain. Anna Nery and Rosa de Fonseca were built in Yugoslavia while Princesa Isabel and Princesa Leopoldina came from Spain. Members of this class were used in coastal passenger service in Brazil and also for cruising, but they all later cruised elsewhere, not only from Miami and Piraeus, but also in the South Pacific and from Japan.
For many years previous to this, Brazil had been on the routes of major liner services from the United States, Moore-McCormack Lines being one of the big players, with its luxurious Argentina and Brasil, and from Europe, with operators such as Costa Line, Hamburg-Sud, Italian Line and Royal Mail Lines building ships for the South American market, regarded as second only in importance to the New York. All this activity to a keen interest in Brazil in things maritime, one that continues to this day.
The Brazilian cruise market in 2008-09 numbered 502,000 and this winter eighteen ships are offering berth capacity in excess of 900,000 with 405 cruises from Brazil. Cruise growth has averaged 33% annually over the past eight years and estimates are that the overall market could grow to 1.5 million, the size of the UK market to-day.
With the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics both scheduled for Brazil, the government is also looking at building new cruise terminals in its most important ports. Besides CVC, and the usual lines running into the Amazon, other important cruise operators in Brazil include Costa, MSC, Pullmantur and Louis.
In this context, Royal Caribbean opened an office in Sao Paulo in August 2009 and to-day has the 1,800-berth Splendour of the Seas and the 2,000-berth Vision of the Seas based there, offering 3-,4-, 5-, 7- and 8-night cruises from Santos. Ricardo Amaral, managing director of Royal Caribbean Cruizeros Brazil, is also president of ABREMAR, the Brazilian association of cruise lines.
It is also in this context that Carlyle made its latest move into the Brazilian market by taking control of CVC Cruises. Carlyle is not new to cruising, however, having taken a part interest in Iberocruceros before selling it to Carnival Corporation & PLC in 2009.

Croisières de France
Last week, Croisières de France announced that Bleu de France had been chartered as of October 24, 2010, and that her Eastern Mediterranean cruises beyond that date through to her Christmas cruise were being cancelled. This is the second time in just a few months that Bleu de France cruises have been cancelled, the last event being the cancellation of her 2009-10 Red Sea programme.
Nine cruises have been cancelled and passengers now booked are being offered substitute cruises on Pullmantur’s Zenith, which is not a French-speaking ship, in October or November, or a full refund.
In fact,  Bleu de France will be going on charter to CVC Cruises to run cruises to Fernando de Norhona, an archipelago of twenty-one islands situated some two hundred miles off the Brazilian coast that enjoys wonderful beaches and dolphin sanctuaries and has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage site. This unknown destination has been listed number four in the world’s best destinations by jetsetter.com.
It seems that Bleu de France will replace  Orient Queen, which has been operating 4- to 7-night cruises from Recife and Fortaleza to Natal and Fernando de Norhona, where she stays for a full day and a half. Bleu de France will also cruise from other Brazilian ports and the CVC web site now shows her season running from November 3, 2010, to May 22, 2011.
Meanwhile, what will be the future of Croisières de France now that French passengers are being booked on to Pullmantur ships, with Pacific Dream substituting for  Bleu de France in the Caribbean and Zenith substituting for her in the Eastern Mediterranean?
Have Croisières de France’s bookings been successful enough that a larger ship can be sent to be based in Marseilles next summer? For now, at least as far as ships go, Croisières de France seems to have been reduced to a seasonal operation.

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The New Crop of Ships – New Ship Orders – Updates on Last Week’s Column

Carnival Cruise Lines, Celebrity Cruises, Costa Cruises, Cunard Line, Holland America Line, MSC, News, Norwegian Cruise Lines, Oceania Cruises, P&O, Pearl Seas Cruises, Princess Cruises, Silversea | Posted by cruisepeople
Mar 03 2010

by Mark Tre’ – "The Cruise Examiner"
This year sees the delivery of several interesting new ships, a new Queen Elizabeth and Nieuw Amsterdam, for one thing, both named for famous Transatlantic liners, and two brand new designs, Marina from Oceania and Le Boreal from Compagnie du Ponant, each the first of a pair.
Plus new deliveries for Costa and P&O. And all from Fincantieri. We also look at the start of cruise lines placing new orders again, with one order from Carnival, two from Princess, all three from Fincantieri, and one, maybe two, from MSC with STX France, as of last week.

STORY OF THE WEEK

The New Crop of Ships
Three new orders at Fincantieri, one for Carnival and two for Princess, a new order at STX France from MSC, the recent floating out of Ponant’s Le Boreal, Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth and Oceania’s Marina (and the revelation that her sister ship will be named Riviera), and Norwegian Epic‘s sea trials, together with the christening last week in Dubai of Costa Deliziosa and in Dover of MSC Magnifica, along with the delivery next month of Celebrity Eclipse, all come together to introduce a new crop of cruise ships for 2010.

The most famous ships named, Nieuw Amsterdam and Queen Elizabeth were of course ocean liners, by Holland America Line and Cunard Line and delivered respectively in 1938 and 1940. Now, seventy and more years later, the two lines are still in existence and both part of Carnival Corp & PLC, and the two North Atlantic liners namesakes spring from the same basic design, called the Vista class.
The 92,000-ton Queen Elizabeth, at 965 feet, will carry 2,092 passengers in lower berths while the 86,200-ton Nieuw Amsterdam, at 936 feet, will carry 2,100 passengers. Queen Elizabeth is of a slightly elongated design that was originally used for Queen Victoria in 2007. The main difference between the two Queens will be in their internal decoration. Floated out at Fincantieri’s Monfalcone yard in January, the new Cunard ship will feature double and triple-height public rooms on a grand scale, luxurious rich wood panelling, intricate mosaics, hand-woven carpets, sparkling chandeliers and marble. Art Deco features will pay homage to the original Queen Elizabeth.
Nieuw Amsterdam on the other hand, the fourth ship to bear that name since 1906, will be similar to Eurodam of 2008, and will feature a new pan-Asian restaurant called Tamarind on one of the top decks and a casual Italian restaurant on the Lido deck, while her cabins will feature a new decor.
The 92,700-ton Costa Deliziosa, at 960 feet, has 2,260 lower berths. While also springing from liner company, but a more recent one, again now owned by Carnival Corp & PLC, she is another derivation of the Vista class. She and her sister ship Costa Luminosa will both be based out of Dubai, giving Costa a more homogenous product from that port and lots of balconies. In 2011, Costa Deliziosa will perform Costa’s first world cruise in many years.
Two more ships are raising much interest because they are both being completed to a new design, and also they will look more like ships than floating resort hotels, something that pleases those that follow ships.
First to be delivered will be Compagnie du Ponant’s 10,600-ton Le Boreal, which although a reasonable size at 466 feet, will only carry 264 passengers, all in outside cabins and 95% with verandas. With the introduction of this vessel and her sister ship, L’Austral, to follow next year, Compagnie du Ponant has decided to open all its ships to English-language cruisers at all times. Along with French cuisine and French wines, this should be a real winner. An indication of the quality of these ships can also be taken from the fact that upmarket operator Abercrombie & Kent has taken Le Boreal for its 2010-11 Antarctic season.
The other new design, again the first of a pair, is Oceania’s 66,000-ton Marina, which was floated out last Thursday. While to-day regarded as of moderate size, at 782 feet she is only eight feet shorter than that Cunard record breaker, the first Mauretania. She and her sister ship, to be named Riviera and to be delivered in 2012, will carry 1,260 passengers in plenty of space, and among her features are a Lalique staircase and interior design by Ralph Lauren Home. The two ships were designed by Yran & Storbraaten, the renowned Norwegian architects whose work has included ships for Sea Goddess, Seabourn and Silversea, in that order.
And one ship built as the final development of a tried and trusted old design, is the 116,000-ton Azura, which at 951 feet, will have 3,100 lower berths. Her design dating back to the first of the "Grand" class, that appeared twelve years ago, she will probably be the last to be built to this design since Princess has now developed a new prototype. Unlike her sister ship Ventura, which caters for families,  Azura, the "newest superliner for the UK," will be an adults only ship so it will be interesting to see how the initial ship reviews compare with the somewhat unfortunate Ventura, which has now apparently been tweaked into a more than satisfactory product for the UK market. But unfortunately for those who like quiet in deck, she will feature a movie screen on deck known as "Movies under the Stars" which some have called MUTS.
The most remarkable thing about all these ships, Queen Elizabeth, Nieuw Amsterdam, Costa Deliziosa, Le Boreal, Marina and Azura, and their sister ships, is that they were all built in Fincantieri shipyards. Non-Fincantieri ships like Seabourn Sojourn from Marriotti, Celebrity Eclipse (more on her in a future column, but see The New Celebrity Equinox August 03, 2009) from Meyer Werft, MSC Magnifica and Norwegian Eclipse from STX France and Allure of the Seas from STX Finland, have become the minority.
It has also been Fincantieri that has landed the first three new orders since the onset of the present world economic crisis. During February both Norwegian Epic and Azura completed their initial sea trials before returning to dry dock for completion and we will hear more of these ships later.

THIS WEEK IN CRUISING
New Ship Orders
After a lapse of a year with no new orders, shipyard order books have finally started to revive, even if only lightly. Carnival companies were first, with a 130,000-ton order for another sister to Carnival Dream and Magic, for delivery in 2012, and two orders in mid-February for a new 139,000-ton prototype ship for Princess, for delivery in 2012 and 2013, all three placed with Fincantieri.
Following them closely was a report last week from France that MSC was ordering a 148,000-ton slightly revised version of the Fantasia class (with 100 more cabins) from STX France, for delivery in 2012, with possibly a second order to follow. No details have been released yet on the new Princess ships, although some reports say they will be a fresher development of  Ruby Princess. Even if a new design they are bound top retain the most successful aspects of the present fleet.

Updates on Last Week’s Column
Last Monday, we said about Royal Caribbean that "the last time it tried to sell Celebrity in the Australian market, it ended up cancelling the programme (and there is still no word on whether Celebrity might try again once all their new ships are delivered)."
On Wednesday, an alert Lars at Cruise Line Fans posted the following "The Celebrity Century has been confirmed booked into several Australian ports in the late 2011 early 2012. So far this is all I know but hopefully Celebrity will issue a Press Release soon." And of course  Celebrity Millennium was there a year ago but had to cancel an Auckland to Sydney cruise because of a pod failure.
Christopher Wright at Mariport Limited in Digby NS has pointed out that Pearl Seas Cruises’ new ship, the 246-berth Pearl Mist, has not yet been accepted due to alleged fault, and has been laid up at Shelburne NS since November 20, 2009.

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