Archive for the ‘Discovery World Cruises’ Category

Cruising in "the Dominions"

Africa, Canadian Cruises, Costa Cruises, Cunard Line, Discovery World Cruises, Fred Olsen, Holland America Line, MSC, P&O, Princess Cruises, Regent Seven Seas, Silversea, South Pacific | Posted by cruisepeople
Dec 15 2009

Years ago, the Commonwealth countries of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa were known as "the Dominions" – indeed Canada called itself the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s.

The Dominions, which had been served by lines such as Canadian Pacific, Cunard, White Star, P&O, Shaw Savill and New Zealand Shipping, came to the aid of the UK in two world wars, long before the United States entered either.

To-day, however, very few people realize that these four countries contribute about 1.3 million passengers to the world cruise market. This is more passengers than Germany, Italy or Spain and almost as many as the UK. So let’s have a look at the cruising market in these Commonwealth countries to-day

Canada: 775,000 "Invisible" Canadians
Earlier this month CLIA acknowledged the importance of Canadians to the cruising market, in announcing that the next Cruise 360 travel agents’ conference would be held in Vancouver on June 2-6, 2010. CLIA estimates the size of the Canadian market travelling in its ships at 775,000, or triple the size of a decade ago. This is larger than all European countries except the UK and Germany.

The Canadian market has always been easy to miss as most Canadians travel across the longest undefended border in the world, that with the United States, to join ships that are already full of Americans. Thus, unlike Australia, which is geographically distinct from other countries, Canadian cruisers have become a sort of "invisible minority."

One interesting thing that unites Canada and Australia, however, is that RMS Queen Mary 2 visits both during the course of the year, visiting Quebec in the summer or autumn and Sydney as part of her world cruise, thus being the largest ship to call at each country.
At one time, Eastern Canada did have its own small cruise market, with ships from Cunard Line and later the Soviet  Alexandr Pushkin and the Polish Stefan Batory, operating round trip cruises from Montreal. But over the years Montreal and Quebec became part of a one-way Canada/New England cruise rotation whereby ships shuttled back and forth between Montreal and increasingly Quebec in the north and New York or Boston in the south.

Meanwhile, Vancouver, at least up until the past two or three years, had acted as the base for the Alaska fleet.

However, history was made at the Port of Québec this October as more than 13,000 cruise passengers embarked or disembarked in one 48-hour period, with three ships, Crown Princess, Norwegian Spirit and Costa Atlantica, also making inaugural calls. And inward visits into the St Lawrence in 2009 totalled 166,000 passengers on 21 ships.

On the west coast, however, Vancouver, with close to500,000 passengers, 80% of them American, embarking there, remains the cruise capital of Canada, despite the loss of half its Alaska business to Seattle and a general reduction in the Alaska cruise trade because of the Alaska head tax.

Australia: 330,000 Cruisers With a Geographical Base
Unlike Canada, Australia is so far removed from the rest of the world that it has always had its own ships cruising from Australian ports full of mainly Australian (and of course New Zealand) passengers. Starting with P&O ships and a number of ships from Sitmar, which was later taken over by P&O Princess, the two largest carriers to-day are both branches of Carnival, in P&O Cruises Australia and Princess Cruises. Carryings in the Australian market were about 330,000 in 2008.

P&O Cruises has expanded from two ships to four in a fairly short time, with the delivery this month of Pacific Jewel, ex-Ocean Village 2, and in 2010 its fourth ship, Pacific Pearl, now Ocean Village. Having already acquired Regal Princess, now Pacific Dawn, this means that the flagships of the P&O Cruises fleet in Australia are now the last of the Sitmar ships.

The once Crown Princess and Regal Princess were introduced in 1990-91, while the old Fair Princess was still cruising from Australia.
Last Thursday, December 10, proved to be a big day for Sydney, with Diamond Princess arriving first, followed by  Pacific Jewel, fresh from her makeover in Singapore, and then Sun Princess. Nearly 10,000 passengers were handled in Sydney that day.

With Diamond, Sun and Dawn Princess, Pacific Dawn, Sun and Jewel all based in Sydney either full time or for the summer, the Australian market has finally shown it can support not just one or two ships but two fleets of ships with P&O Cruises and Princess Cruises each having its own fleet of Australia-based ships now. And in the west, Classic International Cruises has its Athena now based in Fremantle on a seasonal basis.

New Zealand: 119,000, Mostly Foreigners
In the 2008/09 season, 118,987 cruisers were reported to have left New Zealand ports, of whom almost 90% were visitors, mainly American, Canadian and Australian. About 25,000 were actually New Zealanders. This total of almost 119,000 was up from 40,000 in 2004/05 so the market has almost tripled in just four years.

The local New Zealand market is strong enough, however, that P&O Cruises will lengthen its 2010 Auckland season for  Pacific Sun from two months to twenty-four, after the 2009 season sold out with 12,000 Kiwis cruising in her over just two months.

South Africa: 70,000 in MSC Sinfonia Alone
South Africa this year has its largest cruise ship yet in the 2,100-passenger MSC Sinfonia, now based at Durban for the 2009/10 winter season and working for South Africa-based Starlight Cruises. MSC Sinfonia is expected to carry some 70,000 cruisers this season and replaces  MSC Melody and MSC Symphony/Rhapsody before her.
Spring will also see Holland America Line’s Noordam and Westerdam in Durban and Port Elizabeth, not as cruise ships but as accommodation ships for the 2010 World Cup in Cape Town
Other than that, there is no indigenous South African cruise market other than those operated by Starlight Cruises, although other ships calling in South Africa this season will be Queen Mary 2, Balmoral, Discovery, Seven Seas Voyager, Silver Wind, Crystal Serenity and Columbus, all making calls on world cruises or longer voyages.

Conclusions
For those who like statistics, here are the estimated non-US markets by rank, in number of cruise passengers, with Commonwealth countries shown in red:
UK – 1,500,000
Germany – 907,000
Canada – 775,000
Italy – 682,000
Spain – 497,000
Australia – 330,000
France – 310,000
Scandinavia – 123,000
New Zealand – 119,000
Benelux – 92,000
South Africa – 75,000
Switzerland – 62,000
Commonwealth – 2,799,000
Continent – 2,673.000
The Commonwealth countries thus total 2,799,000 cruisers while Continental European countries total 2,673,000 – a very different way of looking at things, but one that is no longer current since the UK joined the European Union.
(Source: By Mark Tré – Cybercruises.com)

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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)

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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)

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Fly Free on Discovery’s Grand Amazon Voyage!

Atlantic Crossing, Caribbean, Discovery World Cruises, South America, Special Cruise Offers | Posted by cruisepeople
Jun 20 2007

Your can save up to 43% on brochure rates and enjoy complimentary round-trip trip air on the April 3, 2008, Grand Amazon Voyage, a 39-night cruisetour sailing from Montego Bay to Harwich. Fares from US$6,250 per person, double. You’ll call at ports in the yachtsmans’ Caribbean, explore the Amazon Basin and its crucial ecosystem and discover the gems of the Azores before an included post-cruise hotel stay in London.

Ports include Curaco, Tobago, Santarem, Boca da Valeria, Manaus (overnight), Parintins, Alter do Chao, Devil’s Island, Trinidad, Grenada, St. Vincent, Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua, Horta, Angra do Heroismo and Ponta Delgada.

2-for-1 Rates and Free Air available on the April 26, 2008 Caribbean and Atlantic Isles cruise; 16 nights from Bridgetown to Harwich. First-passenger fares from US$4,750; second passenger sails free (pays port charges and government taxes).
Amazon cruise opportunities include:

AMAZON ADVENTURE
11 nights from US$2,795pp, Montego Bay to Manaus, April 3, 2008

AMAZON DISCOVERY
23 nights from US$4,595pp, Montego Bay to Barbados, April 3, 2008

AMAZON AND CARIBBEAN
12 nights from US$3,095pp, Manaus to Barbados, April 14, 2008

Attractive air add-ons are available from Discovery‘s 26 North American gateway cities.

Awarded “Best Cruise Value” Specialty Cruises 2006
World Ocean & Cruise Liner Society

Quoted rates are in US dollars, per-person, double occupancy, based on minimum category, subject to availability. Free air offers reflect package rates and $0 air add-ons from Discovery World Cruises’ North American gateways.

E&OE

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