Archive for the ‘Deilmann Cruises’ Category

Boom Down Under – The End of EasyCruise? – The German Market

Australia/New Zealand, Canadian Cruises, Cunard Line, Deilmann Cruises, Great Lakes, Hapag LLoyd, Norwegian Cruise Lines, Orion Cruises, P&O, Pearl Seas, Princess Cruises, Royal Caribbean, Seabourn Cruises, Transocean Tours | Posted by cruisepeople
Feb 23 2010

by Mark Tre’ – "The Cruise Examiner"
This week’s story is all about Down Under, especially with the recent visits by David Dingle and Peter Shanks of Carnival UK and the announcement from Royal Caribbean that it would double its presence there next year.
We also note the possible demise of easyCruise and have a look at how the German market is developing.

STORY OF THE WEEK
Boom Down Under
As the world cruises all pass by Sydney in February, cruise line executives have the habit of escaping the northern winter and visiting Sydney for various events and announcements. This year was no exception, and while Carnival brands P&O Cruises, P&O Australia, Princess, Cunard and even Seabourn remain to the fore, Royal Caribbean has just announced that it is about to double its presence down under.
To begin with, David Dingle, ceo of Carnival UK (which includes Australia in its portfolio), visited down under late last month and revealed that twelve ships from Carnival brands P&O Australia, P&O Cruises, Princess Cruises, Cunard Line and Yachts of Seabourn would visit Australia this year. Half of these ships would be based there.
He also revealed that Carnival Australia would book 190,000 passengers this year and then went on to predict that that figure would rise to 300,000 in 2010-11 and 350,000 in 2011-12, a massive increase of almost 85% over two years.
Part of this growth will come from P&O Australia, which has added Pacific Jewel and will soon see the addition of Pacific Pearl when she transfers in to the down under fleet. Both ships are moving to Australia from the Ocean Village brand, which is being closed down.
Mr. Dingle’s visit was followed last week by Peter Shanks, president and managing director of Cunard Line, who revealed that Australia and Germany are Cunard’s fastest-growing markets, and that Cunard will probably attract 10,000 cruisers from Australia this year, up 25% on last year. Not bad for a line whose ships only call on Australia once a year on world cruises. Mr. Shanks sailed from Sydney on Saturday in Queen Victoria, on board which he will host a dinner for the ship’s full round the world cruisers.
Princess Cruises operate two Australian-based ships now in the 1,950-berth Sun Princess and Dawn Princess, which latter will leave Sydney on a world cruise for the Australian market on May 21 for the Mediterranean (with a special call at Gallipoli, where 8,141 Australians gave their lives in the First World War), the UK and Ireland, the United States, Panama, Mexico, Hawaii and the Pacific Islands before arriving home again on September 3.
However, more interesting news came from Gavin Smith, managing director of Royal Caribbean Cruises Australia, who last Thursday announced that in November 2011, Royal Caribbean will send its 2,112-berth Brilliance of the Seas to join the 2,000-berth Rhapsody of the Seas in Australia. He further commented that Royal Caribbean is considering basing a ship year-round in Australia starting in 2012.
This still leaves them a long way behind Carnival Australia but there has to be room in that market for more than just one cruising group, especially as Smith admitted that most of Royal Caribbean’s business in Australia presently comes from abroad. Radiance of the Seas will become the newest and largest ship to be based at Sydney.
Royal Caribbean Cruises has been chasing P&O in the UK market for several years now and has its 3,600-berth Independence of the Seas based in Southampton, to be joined this year by Celebrity Cruises’ 2,850-berth Celebrity Eclipse. In the UK, the two lines have developed a very strong local following and with the addition of some Vegemite and Fosters beer, there should be no reason they couldn’t do the same in Australia. Unfortunately, however, the last time it tried to sell Celebrity in the Australian market, it ended up cancelling the programme (and still  there is still no word on whether Celebrity might try again once all its new ships are delivered).
The false start by Celebrity might remind one of NCL, who also tried the Australian market with Norwegian Capricorn Line in 1997. But when Star Cruises took over NCL in 2001, the line was dissolved.
In terms of penetration of the cruise product down under, probably the easiest comparison is with fellow Commonwealth countries:

It should be noted that while New Zealand looks strong, its cruise market is made up mostly of foreigners. But however one might measure the Australian market, if it were developed to the same level as the UK and Canada it would be producing well in excess of 500,000 cruisers a year instead of the present 330,000. That would indicate that Mr Dingle is probably quite right when he predicts such huge growth for Carnival Australia, even when one realizes that he is predicting that his company alone will handle as many cruisers as the entire Australian market now produces for all lines.
Meanwhile, in Perth, Classic International Cruises has been operating Fremantle-based cruises since 2003. It now uses the 560-berth Athena, and in 2010-11 will add the 450-berth Princess Danae, working out of Singapore, for the Australian fly/cruise market. Meanwhile, Carnival Australia will also be sending its 1,485-berth Pacific Sun and Sun Princess out to Fremantle to compete with them in the Western Australian market.
And while Australia hasn’t seen any Italian ships since the days of Sitmar Cruises’ Fairstar and Fair Princess, the 2,260-berth Costa Deliziosa will be calling there on her 2011 maiden world cruise, adding a bit of a European taste to the product on offer there.
Bottom line to all this is when Australia might see its first cruise newbuilding. As David Dingle once pointed out, Ocean Village was the sort of brand that could only support second-hand ships. But will these same ships in the Australian market be able to produce strong enough support to make it feasible to build a new ship dedicated specifically to Australian cruising?

THIS WEEK IN CRUISING
The End of EasyCruise?
Is last week’s news the end of the line for easyCruise or are they just taking a year out? In August last year, after four years of rather inconsistent operations, Stelios Haji-Iouannou finally sold the rights to the use of the easyCruise name to Greek ferry operator Hellenic Seaways.
From starting off as a boiled down "no frills" cabin price only product on the Riviera it had evolved into a pretty standard budget Greek Island cruise operator, running 3- and 4-day cruises from Piraeus, by the time this sale took place. In return, Mr. Stelios obtained some interest in Hellenic Seaways.
The news broke last week, however, only six months after the Hellenic Seaways agreement, that easyCruise was putting its 2010 itineraries "on hold" and could not confirm any availability until it heard further from its new owners.
EasyCruise has has difficulties from its start in 2005. The 232-berth easyCruise 1 proved to be too small to be viable and had to be replaced by the 462-berth easyLife in 2008. The start-up line’s first venture into river cruising, the easyCruise 2 of 2006, had also closed down midway through its 2007 season.
In a related move, the original sister ship of EasyCruise 1 (both were former Renaissance ships), the 100-berth Clelia II, and named for Mr. Stelios’ sister Clelia, has been chartered for ten years to Australia’s Orion Cruises and is to join them in the summer of 2011 as Orion II. As Clelia II, she opened a Great Lakes cruise service for Travel Dynamics of New York in 2009 and will still return for one more Great Lakes season this year.
News is not all bad for the Great Lakes, however, as Pearl Seas Cruises’ 210-berth Pearl Mist will be cruising the Great Lakes this year and Hapag-Lloyd Cruises’ 420-berth Columbus will be returning in 2011.
But in the end, getting back to easyCruise, it seems "no frills" cruise lines are not such a great idea after all. Most people really do want the frills (and the thrills). Not only easyCruise, but Airtours’ Sun Cruises and the imminent demise of Ocean Village tend to point in this direction. There are two or three exceptions of course. Thomson maintains Island Cruises as a separate one-ship brand.
And Louis Cruises and Classic International Cruises still manage to carve out a niche for themselves among those who want a low-fare product. But the latter were never introduced as no frills products.
The German Market
Peter Shanks’ comment that Germany was one of Cunard’s two fastest-growing markets does not come as a complete surprise. Going all the way back to Norwegian American Cruises, which Cunard acquired in 1988, it has had a large German following. At first they stayed with Vistafjord, which had typically been about half full of Germans as she was based in Europe, where  Sagafjord was its American ship. Even after Vistafjord became Cunard’s Caronia she retained her strong German following and whenever RMS Queen Mary 2 calls on Hamburg she brings throngs out to see her.
To-day that German following has successfully been transferred to the new Queens and there was a very large number of German passengers on Queen Victoria‘s Transatlantic crossing to New York last month..
In the meantime, the "club cruise" ships of Aida Cruises have built up such a large following that there are now seven of them, ranging 1,185 to 2,050 berths, with two more on order. Aida is such a new name in the business that most people forget that it actually dates back to the 1960s as Deutsche Seerederi (DSR). Its first ship, Volkerfreundschaft, is still sailing as Classic International’s much-rebuilt Athena.
All but the original Aida, built in 1996 and now named AidaCara, were built in Germany, four by Meyer Werft and two by Aker MTW. To-day Aida is operated as the German division of Costa Cruises and its ships are all all registered in Genoa. Nevertheless, it is dedicated to the German-speaking market, so much so that one can even forget sometimes that Aida and Cunard share the same ownership.
The latest product on the German market, TUI Cruises’ 1,870-berth Mein Schiff, is a joint venture between Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and TUI Travel, who also operate the upmarket Hapag-Lloyd Cruises. In the three months to December 2009, TUI Cruises, which began operations in May 2009, generated 122,000 passenger days, for a load factor of 69%.
The upmarket Hapag-Lloyd Cruises produced 77,000 passenger days on its four ships, a 77% load factor. Lower bookings reported in both markets reflected the economic conditions of the period in question. TUI Cruises will celebrate its first anniversary this year with a 12-night Round Britain cruise from Hamburg on May 9-21, with fares from €1,695 per person.
Meanwhile, Phoenix Reisen of Bonn have continued to expand until they now have four ocean ships, the 600-berth Amadea and 885-berth Albatros and the chartered Athena and 450-berth Alexander von Humboldt. They are due to take delivery in 2011 of the 1,200-berth Artania, built as the first Royal Princess and trading today as P&O’s Artemis. Then there is Hansa Kreutzfahrten of Bremen, with its 400-berth Delphin, 650-berth Delphin Voyager and the chartered 450-berth Princess Danae.
Other operators in the German market include three single-ship lines, Peter Deilmann Cruises of Neustadt, with its 550-berth Deutschland, Lord Nelson Seereisen, with its 780-berth Mona Lisa, now in British Columbia for the Winter Olympics, and Transocean Cruises of Bremen with its 590-berth Astor, not to mention numerous river operators.

No Comments »

Cruising to (and from) Cuba

Caribbean, Deilmann Cruises, Fred Olsen, Holland America Line, News, Royal Caribbean | Posted by cruisepeople
Nov 25 2009

While Americans have not been able to cruise to Havana for forty-seven years, other nationalities are able to travel there freely, and ships from some of these countries have been making cruise calls in Cuba over that period. For example, four lines that are offering calls at Havana this winter include Compagnie du Ponant, Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines, Hapag-Lloyd Cruises and Thomson Cruises, with the latter actually making Havana an embarkation port for some cruises.
Meanwhile, although the Obama administration has made it easier for some Americans to travel to Cuba, and charter flights have begun from US airports, there is no obvious sign that US-based cruise lines will be calling there soon. So let’s have a look at who goes now to this tropical isle with more than 2,000 miles of coast line located just 90 miles from Florida.

Havana’s Glory Days
One of the icons of early American television was a comedy couple called Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez, who in a November 1957 programme entitled "Luci Takes a Cruise to Havana," filmed partly in Cuba just a week before the Castro revolution, recounted how they had met when she took a cruise to Cuba in 1940. Although war had broken out in Europe by 1940, it had not yet stopped cruise ships from sailing from New York and Miami.
Havana first developed as a popular cruise port in the 1920s with the Ward Line, whose ships sailed from New York and had names such as Havana, Orizaba, Siboney, Mexico, San Jacinto and Monterey. Soon, others joined them, and most particularly the Cunard Line, which at the end of1928 began advertising a departure from New York for Havana every Saturday with its Transatlantic liner Caronia.
Cunard used the tagline "A West Indies Cruise Is Either Cunard Or It Is Not Cunard" and soon other Cunard ships were also sailing to Havana. The Ward Line soon retaliated however with its celebrated 1930 duo of Oriente and Morro Castle, but the latter became an infamous fire loss off the New Jersey coast in September 1934.
Florida ports also saw regular sailings to Havana, from the American P&O (Peninsular & Occidental Steamship Co), with daily overnight sailings from Tampa and Key West, and later from both P&O and the Clyde Line, with nightly sailings from Miami. These were followed in the 1930s by regular 7-night cruises from Miami that called in both Havana and other Caribbean ports.
Although war put a stop to activities after 1940, by the 1950s the trade had returned, with reports indicating that sometimes two-thirds of cruise passengers sailing to Cuba were single working women from New York seeking adventure and romance. Cunard Line confirmed this observation. The centre of action was a Havana bar called Sloppy Joe’s, a popular location frequented by tourists.
But while hit movies such as Guys and Dolls (1955) stressed Havana’s bars, casinos and romance there was also an undertone of US mob-controlled crime, however, supported by a corrupt Cuban regime. All this ended in September 1962, when cruise ships stopped calling in Havana. The last ship to leave, the ferry City of Havana, took with her 287 passengers, 237 of whom were Cubans with US residency certificates and the balance employees of the US State Department. Since then, no cruise ship has sailed to Cuba from any US port.

To-day: A Door Slowly Opens
Since President Obama came to power in the USA there has been a slight loosening of the reigns, at least for exiled Cubans wishing to return to visit relatives. Charter flights to Cuba now leave from New York, Miami and Los Angeles, and one Miami-based operator claims to have carried more than 10,000 passengers to Cuba this summer.
In September, Cuban exile Armando Ruiz, revealed that his company, Florida Ferry International, had applied to the US Treasury Department to operate a 600-cabin cruise ferry between Miami and Havana. And while cruise lines have been developing new ports in Haiti, Honduras and the Turks and Caicos, none has spoken publicly about sending ships to Cuban ports.
Eight years ago now, in March 2001, an American shipping company, Crowley Liner Services, was granted a licence to carry eligible commodities to Cuba in weekly service from Port Everglades and Jacksonville to Havana, which is, after all, a city of 3.7 million people.
Four weeks ago, on October 28, a vote at the United Nations saw 187 nations vote against the US embargo of Cuba as against to only 3 for – which included the United States, Israel and Palau, a tiny nation of 21,000 people. This almost unanimous vote is the first such vote to take place since President Obama came to office.

Meanwhile, opportunities do exist with European-owned lines to cruise to and from Cuba. This is despite the fact that Italy’s Costa had to stop its ships calling on Cuba and give up on plans for a $62 million Havana cruise terminal after it became part of the Carnival Group, and Spain’s Pullmantur had to drop its own Cuban cruises after Royal Caribbean acquired that company.

Le Levant To Spend Christmas in Cuba
Compagnie du Ponant’s 90-guest megayacht Le Levant will visit Havana this winter, with a Christmas cruise leaving Fort de France, Martinique, and sailing by way of St Barthelemy, Virgin Gorda, and the Dominican Republic ports of La Samana, Cayo Levantado and Cayo Arena to Cuba’s Santiago de Cuba (on Christmas Day), arriving December 27 at Cienfuegos, where passengers will disembark for a visit to Havana and dinner at the Tropicana cabaret.
From Cienfuegos, Le Levant will make her way to Cancun by way of Cuba’s Cayo Largo, then Belize City, Half Moon Caye and Calabash Caye, all in Belize, meaning a full turnaround at Cuba’s south coast port of Cienfuegos, but these will be the only Cuban calls this winter.
Braemar To Call at Havana and Santiago
This winter, Fred. Olsen’s Braemar is offering a series of 14-night "Caribbean and Cuba" Friday departures from Barbados that include an overnight stay in Havana from Sunday to Monday in the middle of each cruise. The first departure has recently left (November 12) and subsequent departures will be made on December 10 and February 18. These cruises also call at Curacao, Aruba, Ocho Rios, Costa Maya and Cozumel before Havana and then proceed to Grand Cayman and Montego Bay before returning to Barbados.
Two more cruises, leaving on March 5 and April 2, will make a daytime call at Santiago de Cuba, calling at St Lucia, St Martin and Grand Turk before Santiago and then Bonaire and Grenada before returning to Barbados.
Two Hapag-Lloyd Ships Call on Cuba
Hapag-Lloyd’s top-rated 408-berth flagship Europa has called many times at Havana and other Cuban ports and this year will be no different.  Europa will make four calls in Cuba this year, at Santiago de Cuba, Cienfuegos, Isla de la Juventud and Havana during her December 5 cruise from La Guaira to Progreso, Mexico.
Before arriving in Cuba, calls will also be made at Antigua, St Barthelemy and Jost van Dyke and she will then finish her cruise in Mexico after a full week spent cruising in Cuban waters, with an overnight stay in Santiago de Cuba and two nights spent in Havana.
Hapag-Lloyd’s other main line cruise ship, the 420-passenger Columbus, whose charter has just been renewed until 2011, will be making a turnaround in Havana. Columbus will turn at Havana after her Christmas cruise, that starts on December 21 in Progreso, Mexico, and arrives in Havana on January 5 for an overnight stay.
Calls will also include Santiago de Cuba and Cienfuegos in Cuba, after cruising by way of Montego Bay, Ocho Rios, Virgin Gorda, Antigua, St Barthelemy and Santo Domingo. Columbus will leave Havana, after another overnight stay, on January 7, 2111, bound for Callao via Playa del Carmen, Cozumel, Belize City, Puerto Cortes, Roatan, Puerto Limon, San Blas and Esmeraldas in Ecuador.
Thomson Dream to Sail from Havana in 2011
Ironically, although Costa had to give up its Cuban dreams when it became part of Carnival Group, it is a former Costa ship, the 1,500-berth Costa Europa, to become Thomson Dream in April, that will not only be offering regular opportunities to visit Havana on overnight calls but will also be boarding some of her passengers in Havana. This will be a first for Thomson, part of the TUI Travel Group.
During the winter of 2010/11,  Thomson Dream will operate three 14-night itineraries – the Cuban Adventure, the Caribbean Experience and the Classic Caribbean cruise, with two or three days in Havana on each itinerary. The Cuban Adventure sails from Montego Bay to Barbados, with a two-night call in Havana. The Caribbean Experience sails from Barbados to Havana, with an overnight stay. And the Classic Caribbean cruise sails from Havana to Montego Bay. The ship will actually be sailing on a repeating 21-day itinerary that will be divided into 14-night segments.
So for some of the more fortunate on three dates in 2011, Havana will be serving as a turnaround port for  Thomson Dream, offering chances to stay or visit other parts of the island such as Varadero or the Isle of Juventud, once know as the Isle of June. Direct flights will be operated from the UK to Havana, Barbados and Jamaica by Thomson Airways.
There will be four sailings from each of Barbados and Montego Bay and three from Havana, the first time Havana departures have ever been offered by such a large ship. Over the years Thomson has also been improving its product it now has a reputation as a more traditional style cruise operator. The only exception to this in its fleet of five ships (three of which served with Holland America not so long ago) is its "ultra-casual" Island Escape, which has been taken over from First Choice and is operated as a sub-brand..

Whither Cuban Cruising?
By no means are these the only cruise ships to have called at Cuba. Over the years, ships such as Alexandr Pushkin, Deutschland, Spirit of Adventure, Hebridean Spirit, Vistamar, AidBlu and others have called as well. In fact, one ship, Airtours’ Sunbird (now sailing as  Thomson Destiny) set a record on New Year’s Day 2003 when she brought 1,414 passengers to Havana.
In 2005, Cuba saw 102,440 passengers visit on 122 calls at its ports. But this dropped to just 11,000 in 23 port calls in 2007 after Pullmantur had to withdraw its Holiday Dream in October 2006 after being bought by Royal Caribbean. And ships that do call in Cuba cannot then call on a US port for the following six months because of the Torricelli Act of 1992 and the Helms-Burton Act of 1996.
Nevertheless, an island country with 289 named beaches and the potential to take 3 million American tourists when the trade is re-opened also stands to be very good cruising ground. If a small island like Cozumel can attract 2.5 million cruisers, then there is a huge future for cruising in Cuba when that day finally does arrive. And it won’t be just large ships, but small ships and sailing ships too will want to be able to take advantage of Cuba’s huge coastline. One interesting question is whether the Cuban register might be able to add some opportunities in future.
(Source: By Mark Tré – Cybercruises.com)

2 Comments »

Ocean Liner Days: The Real Thing

Africa, Asia, Atlantic Crossing, Australia/New Zealand, Azamara Cruises, Canadian Cruises, Carnival Cruise Lines, Celebrity Cruises, Costa Cruises, Cunard Line, Deilmann Cruises, Discovery World Cruises, Fred Olsen, Holland America Line, MSC, Oceania Cruises, P&O, Positioning Voyages, Royal Caribbean | Posted by cruisepeople
Aug 30 2009

When RMS Queen Mary 2 recently sailed from Southampton, she left behind some who had tried to book her but could not get space. Despite the fact that she has about 1,000 more berths to fill than the old Queen Elizabeth 2 and despite a world recession, QM2 often sails full these days.
Cunard is not alone in being a company that has ocean liner roots that it still honours to-day.
Others have also found a new seasonal niche in moving their ships between cruising grounds (positioning voyages) and it is now not rare to find these voyages sold out, sometimes well in advance.
Surprisingly, a lot of tradition survives in this 21st Century market of 5,000-passenger ships. So let’s look at some of the opportunities available to-day to and from North America, Australasia, South America and Asia.

The North Atlantic
Cunard Line has the longest North Atlantic liner tradition on Earth, dating back to the first scheduled sailing of its Britannia from Liverpool on July 4, 1840. The last century saw many famous Cunard ships ploughing the Atlantic waves – among them two Mauretanias, Aquitania, two Caronias and three Queens, which will soon be six when the second Queen Elizabeth delivers next year. And in its traditional way, it like to call its ships, ocean liners.
To-day, Cunard maintains the last regular ocean liner link between Europe and North America with RMS Queen Mary 2‘s dozen scheduled voyages for each of 2009 and 2010, plus the occasional voyage by Queen Victoria and in 2011 by Queen Elizabeth as well, usually in connection with the January departures of their world cruises.
For several years now, since it started to add larger ships to its fleet, Fred. Olsen has been offering special voyages around Africa and around South America, as well as world cruises that can be booked by sector. This autumn, however, sees two special North Atlantic sailings to Canada. Balmoral will leave Dover on September 26 for a 13-night passage to Montreal via the Azores, Corner Brook, Gaspe and Quebec and after two weeks cruising the east coast, she will leave Halifax on October 23 for a 12-night sail back to Dover by way of Sydney, Charlottetown, St Pierre, St John’s and Cobh.
Two more Canadian sailings are being offered by Costa and Peter Deilmann. Costa Atlantica will leave Savona on September 16 for Quebec City, a 17-night voyage via Barcelona, Lisbon, the Azores, New York, Boston and Charlottetown. And Deilmann’s classic Deutschland leaves Hamburg September 22 for a 12-night sailing to Montreal by way of Falmouth, Ireland, Newfoundland, St Pierre and the Saguenay Fjord.
Other than RMS Queen Mary 2, which offers a full Transatlantic schedule, other operators tend to offer very seasonal fare, that is, from America to Europe in spring and back from Europe to America and the Caribbean by autumn. This year, there will be three sailings from Europe to New York or Boston in August, two of these by old-time liner operator Holland America Line; six in September to New York, Boston or Fort Lauderdale, two of which will be offered by Princess Cruises; seven in October, two of which again are by Holland America; a dozen sailings in November, two each by Celebrity and Royal Caribbean and one by Holland America; and three stragglers in December by Azamara, Fred. Olsen and MSC.
One crossing that has attracted much repeat business each autumn is Oceania Cruises, with its smaller 684-berth ships, but the biggest ship crossing will be Royal Caribbean’s 3,600-berth Independence of the Seas, a 13-night crossing leaving Southampton on November 23 for Fort Lauderdale. One line that we have mentioned, Holland America Line, founded in 1872, was among the original North Atlantic operators and even tried to take ownership of the words "ocean liner" for a while until they wisely allowed Cunard to take the role of operating the real ocean liners within the Carnival group.
Other than the US sailings, several ships also terminate in Caribbean ports. And the same fleet will all be headed back to Europe next spring, with the exception of new ships such as  Carnival Dream and Celebrity Equinox, which will be making delivery voyages to their new cruising grounds after a few introductory cruises in Europe.
For people who need more flexibility, there are also year round cargo ship voyages that carry a few passengers. One of these, on the Independent Container Line route between Antwerp, Liverpool and Philadelphia, even offers weekly sailings. And although they only carry passengers between April and November, year-round sailings are still available to and from the Mediterranean.

Europe To the West Coast
An interesting departure for North America’s west coast is Cunard Line’s departure of  Queen Victoria, which leaves Southampton on January 4, 2010, for San Francisco by way of New York, Fort Lauderdale and Acapulco, to arrive 24 nights later. Yet another ship, Arcadia, that was originally intended to have been completed as Queen Victoria too, but then switched to P&O, leaves Southampton on January 10, to arrive in San Francisco 22 nights later, sailing by way of Madeira, Barbados and Acapulco.

Australia and New Zealand
P&O, which actually got its start a couple of years before Cunard, eventually developed into a line best known for its services to and from Australia and New Zealand and India and the Far East. People who remember names such as Orion, Oronsay, Viceroy of India, Arcadia and Canberra can still to-day book liner voyages with P&O by booking a particular sector of its annual world cruises.
Aurora leaves Southampton, for example, on January 5, 2010, offering a 55-night voyage through Suez to Brisbane, 57 nights to Sydney, 60 nights to Melbourne or 66 nights to Fremantle, while Arcadia leaves Southampton on January 10 and offers a 38-night voyage via the Panama to Auckland, 45 nights to Sydney or 47 nights to Brisbane.
On the way back to Southampton,  Arcadia leaves Auckland on February 15 (59 nights), Sydney on February 22 (52 nights) and Brisbane on February 24 (50 nights), returning via Suez. The Aurora, meanwhile, leaves Brisbane on February 26 (52 nights), Sydney on February 28 (50 nights), Melbourne on March 3 (47 nights) and Fremantle on March 9 (41 nights), returning to Southampton via the Cape of Good Hope.
Returning from Sydney, Queen Victoria sails on February 18 for a grand 63-night voyage back to Southampton. The same voyage is available from Auckland in 70 days, while Fremantle to Southampton takes 55 days via Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai.
For Canadians and Americans too, there are opportunities. The same Queen Victoria that arrives in San Francisco on January 26 offers a 25-night sailing to Sydney via Honolulu, Fiji and New Zealand. And Arcadia that arrives in San Francisco on February 1 offers a 16-night sailing to Auckland, New Zealand via Honolulu and Christmas Island, or a 22-night sailing that finishes in Sydney.
Another regular operator to and from Australia is Classic International, first with Funchal, but now with Athena, offering an annual autumn departure from Athens for Fremantle and a March return voyage that can be booked as liner voyages. This year Athena leaves Athens’ port of Piraeus on November 14 for a 34-night voyage to Fremantle through Turkey, Cyprus and Suez via Colombo and Singapore. After a season of Australia-based cruises, she will then leave Fremantle on March 14 for a reverse voyage that finishes 35 nights later in Nice. Fares compare very well with P&O and Cunard.
A longer passage, offered by Cunard Line, is RMS Queen Mary 2, leaving Southampton on January 11 for a 57-night voyage to Sydney via the Med, Suez, Singapore, Hong Kong, three ports in Japan and two in New Zealand. Equally, Southampton to Auckland is 53 nights. Coming the other way, Queen Mary 2 leaves Auckland March 2 for a 51-night passage back to Southampton by way of the Far East, Indian Ocean and Cape of Good Hope, and leaves Sydney on March 6 for a 47-night trip back to the UK.
Queen Victoria will be sailing the other way, leaving Southampton on January 4 for a 47-night voyage to Australia via New York, San Francisco, Honolulu and New Zealand, or a 55-night passage to Fremantle. Those wishing to disembark in Auckland may also do so after 40 nights. And North Americans may sail from San Francisco, which she leaves on January 26, for Sydney in 40 nights.

South America
Certain South American countries boast a large Italian population that can be traced back to the era of ocean liners, especially SpA "Italia," as it was known, and then Costa. Italian liner companies always considered their South American connections to be almost as important as their North American ones and this holds true right up until to-day. Every year, Costa and MSC Cruises send several ships to Brazil and Argentina for the winter (nine this year) and in the process offer a seasonal liner service, out from Europe in the autumn and back in the spring.
MSC will offer half a dozen outbound South American sailings this autumn, with two returning to the UK in the spring. First, on October 5, 2009, MSC Lirica leaves Genoa for Santos, Brazil, via Madeira, the Canaries and ports in Brazil, a voyage of 18 nights. On March 12, 2010, she will return from Santos via a similar route, returning to Genoa on March 29. MSC Melody, meanwhile, leaves Genoa for Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, on October 23 (a short 14-night voyage) and returns from Bahia on March 13, 2010, another quick 14-night trip back to Genoa.
And on November 2, MSC Musica leaves Venice for Santos via Madeira and ports in Brazil, another 18-night voyage. On March 17, 2010, she will return from Santos via a similar route, arriving at Venice on April 4. MSC Armonia, leaves Venice for Buenos Aires on November 15 (21 nights) and leaves Buenos Aires for Venice on April 29, 2010 (also 21 nights). These are the four sailings that will return to Italy next spring, but two more MSC ships will also leave Italy, but return to Dover next spring.

South America to UK Sailings
New this year, two MSC ships will return from Brazil to the UK next spring. On October 26, 2009, MSC Opera leaves Venice for a 17-night voyage to Rio de Janeiro via the Canaries and ports in Brazil. And on May 3 2010, she returns from Santos via a similar route, but this time in 18 nights to Dover, thus offering British passengers a direct sailing from South America. And on December 1, 2009, MSC Orchestra leaves Genoa for Santos via Madeira, the Canaries and Brazilian ports, a voyage of 17 nights. On April 20, 2010, she will return from Santos via a similar route, also to Dover, offering British passengers a second direct sailing from South America, this one in 16 nights. Return dates in April and May will also allow more flexibility to those planning to travel from Brazil to the UK next spring.
Where MSC have half a dozen ships headed for South America, Costa will be sending three. Costa Magica will make an 18-night crossing from Savona to Santos on November 18 and Costa Concordia will perform a similar voyage just four days later, on November 22. Then Costa Victoria will depart Savona on December 3 for a 19-night voyage to Buenos Aires, her base for the winter. And like the MSC ships, all three will return to Italy next spring.
Royal Caribbean, meanwhile, will be sending Splendour of the Seas and Vision of the Seas to Brazil, both from Lisbon, while Oceania will offer Insignia from Barcelona, for three more South America sailings this autumn, producing a total of a dozen crossings this autumn.
For those who don’t live like lemmings, however, and can’t cope with such seasonality, Grimaldi Lines offer a sailing every 10 days between Tilbury and Buenos Aires in 12-passenger cargo ships that also call in Brazil. This has been so successful that passenger accommodation on their Buenos Aires ships is now sold out many months ahead of sailing.

Far East and India
Viceroy of India, we mentioned, was a well-known P&O ship, but outbound Britons can now join P&O’s Aurora at Southampton on January 5 for a 21-night voyage to Mumbai, or 27 nights to Singapore or 35 nights to Hong Kong. They could also catch Cunard’s QM2 on January 11 for a 27-night voyage to Singapore or 34 nights to Hong Kong. And for those who wish to leave earlier, Voyages of Discovery offers a November 28 sailing from Barcelona to Mumbai (24 days), Singapore (39 days) or Hong Kong (65 days) in  Discovery.
For Canadians and Americans, the February 1 departure of Arcadia from San Francisco offers a 38-night sailing to Hong Kong with stops in Sydney, Cairns and Kota Kinabalu, shades of both the old Matson and American President Lines.
For those wishing to sail back to the UK from the Far East, Cunard’s Queen Victoria leaves Hong Kong on March 9 for a 44-night passage to Southampton, or Singapore on March 23 for a 30-night voyage. Also from Hong Kong, on March 12, Britons can catch Arcadia home to Southampton in 34 nights via Bangkok, Singapore, Mumbai and Athens. The same voyage also offers a 20-night opportunity from Mumbai to Southampton, leaving on March 29. Equally, Aurora offers a March 17 sailing from Singapore to Southampton, taking 33 nights by way of the Indian Ocean and Cape of Good Hope.

South Africa
There was a time when voyages to and from South Africa were more common, but for the moment, there are only a few opportunities. MSC offers one Durban sailing this autumn. On November 24, 2009, MSC Sinfonia leaves Leghorn for Durban via Naples, Suez, the Seychelles and Madagascar, a voyage of 20 nights. She then returns on April 1, 2010, from Durban, on a 21-night passage back Leghorn via Mauritius, the Seychelles, Suez and Naples again, one of the few liner offerings to South Africa these days other than a twice-monthly cargo-passenger service between Antwerp and Cape Town and two UK sailings a year by the mail ship RMS St Helena.
Although South African opportunities have been less frequent recently, the activities of pirates off Somalia have convinced some operators to avoid the Suez Canal on some future voyages, and we are likely to see more such opportunities in 2011. One such opportunity is now being offered in P&O’s Aurora on April 4, 2010, when she leaves Cape Town for Southampton on what will be a 15-night voyage via Walvis Bay, St Helena and Madeira.
So not every ship in the cruise world goes round and round the same five or six ports every seven days. Lots sail the world and if you pay attention there are plenty of opportunities to be had to cross the ocean like our ancestors and parents did, enjoying the voyage for what it is with many days at sea rather than the mad whirlwind of a port a day. It does take a little more planning now; you can’t call your travel agent and say "book me on the next boat to Sydney, Lou," as the opportunities come and go. But it’s worth the extra work if you can do it.
(Source: By Mark Tré – Cybercruises.com)

No Comments »

Expedition Cruising – Is Antarctica Getting Too Crowded?

Alaska Cruises, Antarctica, Celebrity Cruises, Cruise West, Crystal Cruises, Deilmann Cruises, Discovery World Cruises, Expedition Cruises, Transocean Tours | Posted by cruisepeople
Aug 19 2008

More Cruisers for Antarctica
During the 2006/07 Antarctic season 9,693 Americans, 4,518 Brits, 4,082 Germans and 2,756 Australians landed in Antarctica out of a total of 29,576. The 2007/08 total is expected to be around 34,000. With Silversea recently introducing its Prince Albert II, Lindblad Expeditions National Geographic Explorer and GAP Adventures buying a ship to replace its own Explorer, lost in the Antarctic last November, there is much new for visitors to the Antarctic.
New money is also going into the expedition business and main line cruise operators are planning a "scenic" invasion that could see close to 50,000 tourists sail to the seventh continent next year. But one question remains. What if there is an accident?
New Expedition Ships
Last week brought news that GAP Adventures of Toronto had purchased the 345-foot Viking Line ferry Alandsfarjan for $2.6 million. GAP intends to convert the 6,172-ton Ice Class 1B Swedish ferry, into an expedition ship that will replace its ill-fated 108-passenger Explorer, lost in Antarctic waters in November.
This year, GAP chartered the 98-passenger Russian ship Polaris, a near-sister to the original Explorer, as a stop-gap measure. As presently configured with bow and stern doors and car decks, as well as no major overnight accommodation, the new 1972-built acquisition will need some major conversion work before she can go into service as an expedition ship.
Meanwhile, the inaugural voyage of Silversea Cruises’ first expedition ship, the 120-passenger Prince Albert II, has left Londonfor islands of the Atlantic, Norway and Spitsbergen.
Acquired last year from Sembawang Shipyards in Singapore, the Ice Class 1A 6,072-ton Prince Albert II was previously Society Expeditions’ rather luxurious World Discoverer II, but has lain idle since that company went out of business five years ago. Two weeks after Prince Albert II leaves London, Lindblad Expeditions’ new Ice Class 1A 148-guest National Geographic Explorer enters service.
Formerly Hurtigruten’s 6,167-ton Lyngen, this 1982-built coastal mail boat, has been converted in Las Palmas into a much-reinforced 350-foot expedition ship,  left her old home port of Bergen on June 26 for her own first voyage, to the Norwegian fjords and Spitsbergen.
Meanwhile, Oceanwide Expeditions of the Netherlands is planning to convert the former 2,977-ton Dutch oceanographic ship Tydeman into the 296-foot expedition ship Plancius, full details of which have not yet been announced. For 2008 and 2009, however, they will use the 84-passenger chartered Chilean vessel Antarctic Dream.
Corporate Changes
A lot has also happened recently in terms of the ownership of expedition companies, particularly as First Choice Holidays, the UK holiday company that is now part of Germany’s TUI, has acquired a fistful of expedition companies, not only marine but also land-based, in a move to diversify away from mainstream travel.
It started with First Choice’s £19.5 million acquisition of Melbourne-based Peregrine Adventures in November 2005, along with the operation of the 110-passenger Akademik Ioffe and Akademik Sergey Vavilov. The very next month First Choice announced the purchase of St Louis-based INTRAV, operating the 122-guest Clipper Adventurer and 128-berth Clipper Odyssey (as well as the smaller US-flag Nantucket Clipper and Yorktown Clipper, which were sold on to Cruise West).
Finally, last May, when Quark Expeditions founder Lars Wikander announced his retirement, First Choice revealed that it was also buying Connecticut-based Quark, whose fleet consisted of one owned ship, the 82-passenger Ocean Nova, and a number of chartered Russian and Ukrainian ships. These included the 120-passenger icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov, the 110-berth Lyubov Orlova, the 50-passenger Akademik Shokalskiy and Professor Multanovskiy,and the 100-passenger nuclear icebreaker Yamal, which it uses for one or two voyages to the North Pole every year.
All previous operations of Peregrine and Clipper have now been brought together under Quark, which has gained new offices in Melbourne and St Louis.
By summer, Quark sublets the Lyubov Orlova to Cruise North Expeditions of Toronto, which offers cruises from Kuujjuaq, Quebec, (formerly Fort Chimo) to Baffin Island and Hudson Bay.
Cruise North is owned by Makkovik Corporation, a native company, and had previously used the 66-passenger Argentine ship Ushuaia. A few days after announcing its acquisition of Quark, First Choice announced that the sale of Clipper Adventurer and Clipper Odyssey to International Shipping Partners (ISP) of Miami, but with the charter back of  Clipper Adventurer for the next five Antarctic seasons.  Clipper Odyssey will be used by Zegrahm Expeditions of Seattle and Noble Caledonia of London.
ISP itself has greatly expanded its own activities in the small ship sector, particularly in connection with the Clipper Group of Denmark.
It also manages the 112-passenger Island Sky for Noble Caledonia, the 60-passenger Quest for Polar Quest of Gothenburg and the 112-berth Corinthian II, which will sail the Antarctic for Travel Dynamics of New York, in addition to Quark’s Ocean Nova, a near sister of the Quest.
As well as these smaller vessels, over the past year Clipper, through ISP, has begun to acquire a number of medium-size cruise ships for charter to other operators.
Not related to Quark, but also owned by TUI, is Hapag-Lloyd Cruises, whose four-ship fleet includes two highest ice class expedition ships, the 184-guest Hanseatic and 164-berth Bremen, in the upmarket sector.
With a sale of Hapag-Lloyd AG by TUI now a possibility, its cruise operation, if not included, may soon be in need of a new name. Hapag-Lloyd will perform two Northwest Passage cruises in the summer of 2009, with Hanseatic and Bremen crossing the Canadian Arctic in opposite directions. The pair will meet in Cambridge Bay for a barbecue that will also be attended by the line’s managing director from Hamburg.
Meanwhile, Hapag-Lloyd is so heavily sold out on Antarctica departures that it raises the question of how or when it might add more capacity to fulfil this demand.
At the end of last month, it was announced that KSL Capital Partner had acquired Orion Expedition Cruises of Melbourne, who operate the 106-passenger Ice Class E3 Orion, built in Germany in 2003. The new owners said there would soon be fleet expansion by way of newbuildings and/or second-hand acquisitions.
Orion operates from Australian ports to the Antarctic, the Kimberley, Papua New Guinea, Melanesia and Asia. All these ships carry only 100 or so passengers and are equipped with zodiacs to land their passengers to observe wildlife (including seals, whales and of course the many varieties of penguins), the area’s spectacular scenery and international research stations, many of which are now historic sites.
Big Ships, Inexperienced Crews
The Antarctic tourist season, which normally runs from November to March, has flourished in the past fifteen years, growing from around 6,500 visitors in 1997 to 30,000 in 2007, or five times in a decade.
Part of this huge growth has come from main line cruise operators that operate larger ships than the adventure companies. Beginning in 1993 with Orient Lines’ 848-passenger Marco Polo, now operating for Transocean Tours of Bremen, this grew when the 710-berth Discovery joined her in 2001 after being acquired by Voyages of Discovery.
Two newer Norwegian Hurtigruten ships, the 500-passenger Fram and 690-passenger Nordnorge have also joined this sector. These ships limit the number of passengers they carry in the Antarctic to between 350 and 400 in order to be able to perform landings. Even then, as not all passengers can be landed at one time, they must do so in stages.
Others in this category include Saga, Peter Deilmann and now Transocean.
More recently, lines such as Holland America and Princess, the big two in Alaska, have scheduled cruises to the Antarctic. These larger ships do not offer landings but something they call "scenic cruising" of the "dazzling landscape" of the Antarctic.
This year, Golden Princess carried 2,425 passengers and 1,120 crew to the Antarctic, and her sister ship Star Princess is to do the same in 2009.
Holland America’s Rotterdam, which can carry up to 1,668 passengers, also made a cruise to the Antarctic Peninsula in January. The latest to join the fray, with an announcement last month, is Celebrity Cruises, whose Celebrity Infinity, which can carry up 2,450 passengers, will perform two Antarctic cruises in 2010.
Of the upmarket cruise lines, only Crystal has sent the 960-passenger Crystal Symphony on such "scenic" cruises.
What worries people most about these ships is not just the huge numbers of souls they can carry to isolated locations and the lack of Antarctic knowledge among their officers and crews, but also the fact that the owners of these ships do not feel it is necessary to have double hulls or even ice-strengthening to navigate these waters, not to mention the risk of pollution from the heavy oil that these ships burn as opposed to the lighter diesel used by most expedition ships.
What if there is an accident?
Last year, at about 3 am on November 23, GAP Adventure’s Explorer was holed by ice near King George Island, taking on water and beginning to list.
All 154 passengers and crew were evacuated after about 5 hours in lifeboats and she sank about 15 hours later. The Explorer had been built in 1969 as Lindblad Explorer, the pioneer Antarctica expedition ship, designed for navigating these waters.
Ten years ago, at 1:30 am on December 15, 1998, Royal Caribbean’s Monarch of the Seas struck Proselyte Reef in Great Bay, St Maarten, causing a 130 by 7 foot gash in her starboard hull.
All 2,557 passengers had to be evacuated by tender and flown home after the ship started taking on water.
One of her officers at the time recently told this author that the ship would have sunk had her master not taken quick action to ground her on a nearby sandbank, something that the subsequent investigation said would take a minimum of about 12 hours. Ninety years ago, at about 2 am on October 24, 1918, Canadian Pacific’s Princess Sophia, en route from Skagway to Juneau, Alaska, grounded on Vanderbilt Reef in the Lynn Canal.
All 343 passengers and crew lost their lives 39 hours later after heavy weather prevented rescue efforts and she slipped off the reef and sank in deep water.
Lost in time, this tragedy was completely overshadowed by the end of the First World War a few days later.
In the case of Explorer, winds were not high and there was no fog at the time.
In the case of Monarch of the Seas, despite the large numbers involved, help was as near as the closest shore tender by which the ship’s passengers were rescued.
In the case of Princess Sophia, though, even though she was in isolated waters, help was at hand. But over a period of almost two days the weather prevented anyone from being rescued before she sank, taking all with her within sight of land.
As it happens, as National Geographic Explorer is in drydock at Las Palmas, her 110-berth fleetmate National Geographic Endeavour is also there, undergoing some work of her own.
She had participated along with the Nordnorge in the Explorer rescue in November. As for  Nordnorge, the Explorer rescue was actually her second of the year, as in January she had been called to evacuate 294 passengers from her sister ship Nordkapp after she ran aground off Deception Island, something that forced the cancellation of the rest of her 2007 season.
And just this January, Hurtigruten gave 50% refunds to passengers of  Fram, the Nordkapp‘s replacement, after her engines failed and she drifted into ice at Brown’s Bluff during her Christmas cruise to Antarctica.
After receiving ice damage to one of her lifeboats, she had to cancel her subsequent cruise as well.
As well as the natural threats of wind, weather, ice and grounding, not to mention machinery failure, there is the hazard of fire. In March 2006,Star Princess, which is scheduled to sail to Antarctica in 2009, suffered a fire in which one died and eleven were injured.
At the time, she was sailing between Grand Cayman and Jamaica and help was nearby.
But in Antarctica help can be 36 to 48 hours away across the Drake Passage, one of the roughest stretches of water in the world. To quote a cruise expert who has sent many adventurers to the Antarctic, "When Explorer sank they had just 154 people to rescue. Twenty times that many would be a catastrophe."
To send ships to the Antarctic without double hulls, let alone any ice strengthening, is probably begging for something to happen and it might behoove the 46 nation members of the Antarctic Treaty Organization to have a look at this.
There is a saying in shipping that the more times you move something, the more chance there is of damaging it, and the same holds true of ships.
The International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators (IAATO), possibly in an attempt to be able to control them, has allowed the owners of larger cruise ships to become members. In an effort to do so, since 2001 it has required that ships carrying more than 500 passengers make no landings in the Antarctic.
IAATO, founded by seven private members in 1991, now consists of 104 private companies, 44 of which are full members and five of these are cruise lines.
There is a precedent that some IAATO members already have to follow at the other end of the world. A good set of regulations exists in Canada, which has its own set of rules for Arctic waters. Called the Arctic Ice Regime Shipping System, it was designed to enforce the Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act of 1970.
Although the Arctic suffers from multi-year pack ice, it includes areas that have only seasonal ice and the scheme, whlle complicated, may be worth a look.
But the main question is should ships with no ice strengthening be allowed to cruise the Antarctic?
(Source: By Mark Tré – Cybercruises.com)

1 Comment »

Music Gala at Sea

Deilmann Cruises, Mediterranean, Northern Europe, Theme Cruises | Posted by cruisepeople
Nov 05 2007

Deilmann’s flagship, Deutschland, becomes a floating concert hall as the award-winning Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn joins the air-inclusive 14-day “Music Gala at Sea” cruise, departing Hamburg, Germany on September 18, 2008 with stops in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Portugal, Monaco and Spain. Eight renowned artists join the orchestra, including soprano Carolyn Sampson, pianist Erno Feher and guitarist Jose Maria Gallardo. This extraordinary international music programme is provided at no additional cost to the normal cruise fare.

No Comments »

New Brochure Peter Deilmann Cruises

Asia, Atlantic Crossing, Deilmann Cruises, Mediterranean, New Brochure, Northern Europe | Posted by cruisepeople
Sep 05 2007

Grand Hotel Voyages through April 2008.  Call for your copy.

No Comments »

Single Occupancy on Ships

Costa Cruises, Cunard Line, Deilmann Cruises, Fred Olsen | Posted by cruisepeople
Aug 03 2007

There are still a few cruise ships available which have single accommodations.

Cunard Line’s  Queen Elizabeth 2 apparently has 109 at present.

Fred Olsen’s pre-stretch Balmoral was to have 59 but now  with stretch 78.  Boudicca has 46,  Black Watch 36,  Black Prince 29 and Braemar 23.

Peter Deilmann has 39 in Deutschland.

Transocean has 26 in Arielle.

Costa Concordia and Costa Serena each has 21 singles. Costa Europa has 18,
Costa Fortuna and Costa Magica 14, Costa Marina13 and Costa Classica and Costa Romantica 6.

Hebridean Spirit has 18 and Hebridean Princess 11.

Page & Moy has 18 in Ocean Majesty.

Louis has 14 in Orient Queen and 9 in  Perla.

Funchal has 12 and Princess Danae 7.

Lindblad has 10 in Endeavour and Gap has 8 in Explorer.

This information kindly provided by Kevin Griffin of The Cruise People, Ltd., London and The Leading Cruise Agents of The UK.

1 Comment »

Peter Deilmann’s Smoking Policy

Deilmann Cruises, News | Posted by cruisepeople
Jun 19 2007

Peter Deilmann Cruises is expanding the no-smoking restrictions on its European river fleet to include all areas inside the vessels without exception beginning in 2008. The policy will become effective at the start of the river cruise season in March 2008. Peter Deilmann Cruises, which operates a fleet of nine deluxe river vessels, first extended the smoke-free areas on its ships in 2005 to include all cabins and corridors along with its no-smoking policy in the restaurants. Now smoking will only be permitted on the open decks.

“We are happy to have our river ships smoke free now that the laws in Europe are evolving to ban smoking indoors and we are adjusting our policy to reflect this shift in sentiment. The changing attitude in Europe helps us please our American guests even more”, Ron Santangelo, Deilmann’s North America president, said in announcing the new policy.

Deilmann Cruises offers more than 270 European river sailings each year ranging in length from seven to 14 nights from late March through October (through mid-November in France) that bring passengers into the heart of Europe’s cities, towns and villages. Seven of the eight ships in regular passenger service are rated five stars; one is rated four star and the ninth vessel operates charters.

No Comments »