Oasis of the Seas To Drydock in Europe in 2014

 

SS Norway

Reminiscent of the days when Norwegian Cruise Line used to bring its s.s. Norway back to Europe for drydockings when she was still the world’s largest cruise ship, Royal Caribbean International will be bringing its 5,400-berth Oasis of the Seas back to Europe, where she will drydock in the Netherlands in the early autumn of 2014.

While typically Norwegian used to drydock Norway in Europe, she also performed the odd Transatlantic crossing, remembering her days as the famed s.s. France.

In 1997, for example, she left Miami on August 16 and New York on August 18 for Southampton, where she arrived on August 30, sailing from Southampton on her return voyage on September 2 and reaching New York on September 10 and Miami on September 13.

On some of these crossings, Norway was drydocked for modifications and on one such visit to Europe she was even chartered to a French group TMR for cruises from France. These first Oasis cruises from Europe will also no doubt be remarked upon since Royal Caribbean have ordered a third such ship from STX France.

Oasis of The Seas

In 2001, Norway made her final crossing, leaving Miami on September 2 and New York September 5 to arrive in Southampton on September 18. The events of September 11 occurred while s.s. Norway was still crossing the North Atlantic.

The upcoming dry-docking will allow Oasis of the Seas to offer a brief season of Europe cruises in the late summer/autumn of 2014 before and after a five-year dry-docking in the Netherlands.

The Oasis will offer a total of five cruises, including two Transatlantic crossings and three cruises out of Barcelona, in a short European season. The Oasis, along with sister ship, Allure of the Seas, has been operating alternating eastern and western Caribbean cruises out of Port Everglades since her debut in December 2009.

On September 1, 2014, the Oasis will offer her first Transatlantic revenue crossing (she carried no passengers on her original delivery voyage in 2009) to Europe: a 12-day eastbound crossing from Port Everglades to Barcelona.

A 13-day westbound cruise will return her to Florida from Rotterdam on October 14, and passengers will also be able to embark at Southampton on October 15. When she does so, she will become the largest passenger ship ever to have called on Southampton, not a difficult task, as she is the world’s largest passenger ship.

While in Europe, the Oasis will offer two round-trip five-day Mediterranean cruises from Barcelona and a seven-night sailing from Barcelona to Rotterdam, where she will commence her dry-docking. The seven-day Barcelona to Rotterdam cruise will call at Malaga and Vigo while itineraries for the five-day cruises will be announced before April 11.

UK & Canadian Incoming Markets

by Kevin Griffin

Cruise Britain released its latest figures, revealing that the number of cruise passenger visits to the UK’s 52 cruise ports increased by 11% to 723,000 people in 2012.

QM2 in Quebec City

In total more than 100 ships visited the UK from 47 different cruise lines while 2012 also saw 962,000 passengers start their cruise from a UK port. Overall 84% of passengers were British. Since 2004, the number of visiting passengers has more than doubled and the number of ships calling (not calls) has gone from 76 to 105, up 38%.

Meanwhile, a new economic impact study released showed that 2.02 million cruise visitors to Canadian ports generated $2.38-billion generated in economic activity in 2012. The report by the North West & Canada Cruise Association (NWCCA) counted 1,101 cruise ship calls.

Interestingly, this is almost triple the UK port count, but both Alaska and Canada New England cruises attract vastly more passengers than the relatively small number of Round Britain cruises on offer each year.

The Canadian Tourism Commission has taken a particular interest in cruising and cruise visitors, as is reflected in its decision to be a headline sponsor for the second year running of the UK Cruise Convention 2013, due to be held in Southampton on May 23-24.

AidaStella and MSC Preziosa Join World Cruise Fleet

by Kevin Griffin writing for cybercruises.com

AidaStella sailing the Elba River to Hamburg

AidaStella, 71,300 gross tons, 831 x 106′, 2,194 lower berths
Saturday saw the naming in Warnemünde of Aida Cruises’ tenth cruise ship, AidaStella, completed recently by shipbuilder Meyer Werft in Papenburg. Last of the latest series of seven “smaller” ships, she will be followed in 2015 and 2016 by two 125,000-tonners of a totally new design from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Japan.

The ten godmothers for AidaStella included eight Aida employees from different countries and departments, and a representative each from Meyer Werft and naval architects Partner Ship Design. Aida of course is the German arm of Carnival Corp & plc, reporting to the Costa Cruises Group in Genoa, where former Aida president Michael Thamm is now ceo.

As seagoing “club resorts”, Aida ships have many on-board amenities and facilities that attract younger, more active holidaymakers and families. Much of the dining, for example, is buffet style.

The evening ceremony was celebrated with “stellar” fireworks, stella of course being the Latin word for star. AidaStella spent the night in Warnemünde before setting off on Sunday for her maiden voyage to Oslo, Southampton, Le Havre and Amsterdam and Genoa, where she is due to arrive on Friday.

Of AidaStella’s 1,097 passenger cabins, roughly two-thirds (722), have balconies. Included are thirty-nine spa cabins with direct access to the large spa with its glass roof. The ship also comes fully equipped with seven restaurants and twelve bars, including the Bella Donna for Italian regional specialties and gourmet restaurant Rossini.

AidaStella has her own red wine and an exclusive AidaStella beer will be available on board, in Swarovski-designed crystal-studded ‘starry’ beer glasses.

 

MSC Preziosa, 139,072 gross tons, 1093 x 125′, 3,478 lower berths.
To the south, Thursday saw STX France deliver the MSC Preziosa to MSC Cruises in St Nazaire. After a ribbon-cutting ceremony, she is now cruising by way of Lisbon, Cadiz, Casablanca, Valencia and Marseilles to Genoa, where she will be officially named.

MSC Cruises took over this ship, which was originally ordered in 2010 by Libya’s General National Maritime Transport Company, on the stocks last year. Of MSC’s own Fantasia class, naval architects De Jorio Design International were responsible for the end design.

MSC Fantasia

The fourth of the Fantasia class ships, MSC Preziosa has 100 cabins more than earlier vessels, and becomes the line’s new flagship. Like the AidaStella she also has a Swarovski feature, in her case her sweeping grand staircases. Other features include a magical “infinity” pool for adults only and a revised rear lounge arrangement, casino and disco.

Like the other Fantasia class ships, Preziosa features an exclusive, but enlarged in her case, MSC Yacht Club suite area, with dedicated facilities, private decks and forward-facing lounge on top of the ship.

Almost double the size of AidaStella, MSC Preziosa counts among the ten largest ships in the world. Royal Caribbean International has five larger, seven when Quantum of the Seas and Anthem of the Seas deliver in 2014 and 2015. Norwegian Breakaway (to enter service in May) and Norwegian Getaway (2014) will also exceed her size, as do Queen Mary 2 and Norwegian Epic.

MSC Preziosa has eleven shopping venues, including new perfumery and cosmetics shop La Profumeria and two jewellery shops, Il Gioiello for high-end jewels and the new Fashion Bijoux for costume jewellery. Fantasia class favourites include duty-free Mini Mall, designer watch and sunglass shop L’Angolo dell’Oggetto, La Boutique for men’s, women’s and children’s fashions, the Pool Shop, MSC Logo Shop, sweet shop La Caramella, Accessories Shop for upmarket bags, belts and leather goods and the MSC Photo Shop.

MSC Preziosa is due to be named on Saturday by the line’s longtime permanent godmother Sophia Loren.

Celebrity & Azamara Top Cruisers Choice Awards

by Kevin Griffin writing for cybercruises.com

Sister lines Celebrity and Azamara walked away with the top positions in the Cruise Critic Cruisers Choice awards last week. Looking at the top five ships in three categories in the US and UK polls, Celebrity scored nine firsts and Azamara eight, followed by Oceania and Thomson with six each.

For purposes of its polls, Cruise Critic defined a medium-sized ship as carrying between 1,200 and 1,999 passengers, with anything above that being defined as large and anything below as small. The results are laid out below for the best five ships in each of category for each of the UK and US, as well as the best ship in each category for dining, entertainment and service for the UK and US. The actual ships’ scores are given in brackets. Some of the surprizing results: are laid out below.

Cruise Critic Cruisers Choice awards 2013 – Scores courtesy of Cruise Critic

The most interesting result was that of the forty-eight results laid out above, Royal Caribbean brands collected eighteen of the top spots, compared to only four for Carnival brands. Celebrity’s nine wins were all for 2,850-berth Solstice class ships except for 1,814-berth Celebrity Century positioning third in the UK medium ships category. Celebrity took the UK’s top three large ship positions.

Azamara did proportionally even better in that with only two 684-berth ships, it managed to pick up eight of these awards. The other Royal Caribbean win was the 5,408-berth Allure of the Seas, which took third-best large ship in the US results.

Oceania managed six wins in the categories we have chosen above, all by its two newest ships, the 1,258-berth Marina and Riviera. But the real surprise was Thomson Cruises walking away with six awards, not only from their own market in the UK but also from US voters. We can think of only one reason for that and that is that the UK results must be included in the US ones, but the website is not clear as to the methodology.

Certainly, with Thomson selling off brands, such as its ski operation, Neilson, and contemplating unloading others to pay down £1.6 billion in debt, any aspiring bidder might look at Thomson Cruises as a possible acquisition. That its older ships should have achieved tops in the mid-size awards for entertainment in both polls and also outscored Carnival’s brand-new 3,690-berth Carnival Breeze makes Thomson worth a look.

It is actual cruisers who are being polled here and of the Carnival brands only one ship from each of Carnival, Cunard, Holland America and Seabourn managed to score in this sample, and none from P&O or Princess. What makes it even odder is that Carnival Breeze won her spot in the UK survey and not the US one. In the US, Disney managed to score as many wins as all Carnival brands combined.

Norwegian Cruise Line and Crystal each achieved three places, but Azamara’s two ukltra-premium ships taking eight places to only three for Crystal’s two ultra-luxury ships is an interesting surprise.

Cuba Back on the Map

by Kevin Griffin writing for cybercruises.com

Earlier this month, Toronto-based Cuba Cruise announced a series of 7-night cruises around Cuba, to depart from Havana. This is the second time round for Cuba Cruise as in July 2011 it announced a similar programme of 7-night cruises by the same ship, the 966-berth Louis Cristal. These cruises were cancelled when the new cruise line said it needed more time to develop its sales channels.

Cuba – The Cathedral

The season will run from December 16, 2013, to March 31, 2014, and will offer a total of 15 departures. Cruise-only fares for the 7-night cruise will start at $586 in double occupancy and run to $1,204 per person in an Imperial Suite. Fly/cruise packages will also be available from Thomas Cook in Germany, and the Holiday Place in the UK, as well as a number of tour operators in Canada, which sent about a million tourists to Cuba out of the 2.8 million that visited last year.

Louis Cristal’s 7-night cruises will leave Havana every Monday at midnight and call at  Bahia Nipe, Cayo Coco, Holguin, Santiago de Cuba, Montego Bay (Jamaica), Cienfuegos, Trinidad and sail past Isla de la Juventud. Available on her itinerary will be six UNESCO World Heritage sites and four national parks. It will also be possible to join ship on Fridays at Montego Bay in Jamaica, where departures are scheduled for 11 pm.

With the exception of a 5 pm departure from Cayo Coco on Tuesdays, most port departures take place between 9 pm and midnight, giving plenty of time to explore ashore.

Although cruise lines that are controlled in the United States are barred from cruising to Cuba, other operators, mainly European, also cruise to Cuba. This year, these include Hapag-Lloyd Cruises and Thomson Cruises, both controlled by TUI, Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines, Swan Hellenic and Voyages of Discovery, while next year will see the addition of Star Clippers, which plans a Cuban series for 6- to 14-night cruises. These cruises are not sold to US citizens.

Since the Cuban Revolution, an American ban on its citizens travelling to Cuba and US-based companies trading with Cuba has kept cruise lines away from the largest island in the Caribbean. And under present US law, no ship calling on Cuba is allowed to trade into a US port for a period of six months after making a call in Cuba.

Nevertheless, there is slow progress towards a new future. While 900,000 Russians visited Cuba last year, almost 100,000 Americans also arrived on so-called people-to-people visits and charter flights have been allowed from many US airports.

Cruise & Maritime Enters The Australian Market

by Kevin Griffin for cybercruises.com

Astor

Last Wednesday, Premicon AG, owners of the 600-berth 20,606-ton Astor, announced that she would be chartered to UK-based Cruise & Maritime Voyages for three winter seasons, starting in 2013-14.

She will continue to operate for Bremen-based TransOcean Cruises in the summer time. Astor will become Cruise & Maritime’s third ship, being added to the 848-berth Marco Polo and 650-berth Discovery, which has only just joined the fleet from Voyages of Discovery.

Cruise & Maritime plan to operate Astor in the Australian summer market, filling the void left by the demise of Classic International Cruises at the end of 2012.
It will offer a series of Australian cruises, including cruises from Fremantle, a Round Australia cruise and some Asian cruises in the winter of 2014.

Marco Polo in Rio de Janeiro

Over the past several years, Classic International had been offering southbound passages from Europe to Australia in late autumn and northbound passages back from Australia to the UK each spring, first in the 430-berth Funchal, and more recently in the 556-berth Athena.

The 1987-built Astor will make an ideal modern replacement for those ships. She will depart from Europe on November 5 via South Africa, to arrive in Fremantle on December 11, while the northbound voyage to Europe will depart on April 1, also by way of South Africa. As well as adding a needed service to the South African market, this will avoid any possible contact with pirates off Somalia.

Astor was built for the South Africa run in 1987 but when she was delivered went into destination and adventure cruising.

Cruise & Maritime Voyages have some experience of the Australian trade as its two main directors, Richard Bastow and Chris Coates, spent a good part of their early careers with CTC Cruises, who used to operate ex-UK by summer and from Australia in the winter. Cruise & Maritime had also tried to arrange a last-minute charter of Delphin from Passat Kreutzfahrten to Classic International’s Australian arm to replace Athena, but by then, Passat was unwilling to give up its own winter programme so the charter did not go ahead. Cruise & Maritime has opened a new branch office in Sydney. It also opened a North America office in Fort Lauderdale in 2011.

LiveJournal Tags: Astor,Athena,Funcha,Delphin

Which Shares Would You Buy?

by Kevin Griffin writing for cybercruises.com

Two Initial Public Offering (IPO) floats on the Nasdaq in the past seven months, each valued at about $28 at the close of markets on Friday, had totally different outcomes.

Two Initial Public Offering (IPO) floats on the Nasdaq in the past seven months, each valued at about $28 at the close of markets on Friday, had totally different outcomes. Credited to Yahoo Finance

First came Facebook (FB), which floated on May 18, 2012 at $38 a share. In a disorganized sale process the share price fell, and kept falling until September, when it crashed below the $20 barrier, a value that was half of what it floated for. Many lost money as the Facebook flotation was given the sobriquet “worst IPO in a decade,” but the share price of the $16 billion IPO has since risen to $28.55 on Friday, still a 25% discount on the original price.

The other flotation was Norwegian Cruise Line (NCLH), whose IPO launched on January 17, when it opened at $19 a share, above the initially intended range of $16-18, raising $446.5 million for the cruise line. Twenty-five days later, it had risen to $27.91 on Friday’s close, a premium of 47% on the original price. Many commentators were surprised at how well this share had done, particularly given Norwegian’s levels of debt.

Which shares would you buy and why?.It might be interesting to keep an eye on these two for the next year or so.

How the Quantum Class Ships Were Named, from the Royal Caribbean Blog

English: Royal Caribbean International Flag (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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In case you haven’t heard we recently announced that Quantum of the Seas and Anthem of the Seas are the names of our new Quantum Class of ships. Quantum of the Seas will join our Fleet in late 2014 and Anthem of the Seas in spring 2015.
While I still am not able to share details about the Quantum Class of ships, formerly known as "Project Sunshine", I can assure you that we are continuing to raise the bar of innovation and expectations of what our guests can do on a cruise vacation. We felt as though the name Quantum was a great fit since we are going a step above and propelling it forward. We’re taking a quantum leap.

The word anthem is defined as a song of praise and Anthem of the Seas is indicative of many of the best qualities and features of Royal Caribbean International. Quantum represents a step change in cruising and anthem is a song of praise for that step.
Selecting the name of a new ship is an interesting process. It’s even more interesting when we’re developing a new ship class. We worked with a naming consultant who provided several different avenues to explore. We looked at names that were categorized as experiential names, cosmopolitan names, leading edge names and more. But with Quantum, we felt that the tone fit what we were seeking.
Quantum of the Seas is a name that everyone on our Project Sunshine Steering Committee immediately liked. We voted on paper when selecting the names and the results were pretty much unanimous. We all gravitated to the same two names.
We are working to set the stage and landscape for the future of cruise vacations with Quantum of the Seas and Anthem of the Seas. But you’ll need to wait a bit longer until we can share the details with you.

LiveJournal Tags: Quantum of the Seas,Anthem of the Seas

Freighter Expert Fred Cherney Retires From The Cruise People’s Toronto Office: London Office To Take Over Cargo Ship Bookings

 

Fred Cherney from the Toronto office of The Cruise People Ltd yesterday announced his retirement from the field of freighter travel, after thirty-three years in the business.

In a statement from Toronto, Fred said “Instead of retiring my sweater, The Cruise People Ltd (Canada) is retiring from the passenger freighter business. The company will continue to be a very experienced source of ocean liner voyages, cruise ships, river boats and expedition cruises. The Langs [owners of the Canadian firm] have been in business since 1972.”

In his message to past passengers, Mr Cherney said, “I’d like to thank my past clients who sailed over the years. It has been a real pleasure working with you and reading your voyage reports. My e-mail account will remain open for a time and I’d love to hear from you.” Fred can be reached at fcherney@thecruisepeople.ca.

He went on to add that “those interested in passenger freighter voyages should contact our London office. Miri Lopusna is very experienced in freighters all over the world and will look after your needs. I recommend her highly.”

Miri joined The Cruise People in 2009 and  will continue to book freighter passengers on routes worldwide. Being close to owners in Europe, the London office now counts more than 350 passenger-carrying cargo ships on its books and Miri books passengers from around the world. She can be reached in London on +44 (0)20 7723 2450 (UK time) or by e-mail any time at cruise@cruisepeople.co.uk.

Photos: Fred Cherney (top) and Miri Lopusna (above).

The Growth of Cruising – A Twenty-Five Year Comparison

by Kevin Griffin writing for cybercruises.com

Twenty-five years ago, in 1988, the main cruise lines were Carnival, Cunard, Holland America, Norwegian America Line, Norwegian Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and Royal Viking Line.

Royal Viking Sun

Of these seven, only two, Norwegian America and Royal Viking Line, have fallen away, consolidated into Cunard. But half a dozen new lines have arisen.

In 1988, Seabourn had introduced its first ship, the 212-berth Seabourn Pride, and four more lines follow over the years with Crystal Cruises, Regent and Silversea, all ultra-luxury, and more recently Oceania and Azamara in the ultra-premium sector. The former Chandris Cruises, meanwhile, evolved into Celebrity Cruises, which was taken over by Royal Caribbean in 1997.

Of the lines we have chosen, it might be surprising to some that in 1988 the fleet numbered only 39 ships with 37,157 berths (42 and 40,566 berths if we include Cunard), especially as in 2013 the top eight ultra-luxury and ultra-premium lines together operate 25 ships with 21,480 berths. In this context, to-day’s ultra-luxury and ultra-premium fleet is more than half the size of the entire main line and luxury fleet of twenty-five years ago.

The biggest difference, however, is in the size of the ships. Although the 1988 average was below 1,000 berths per ship this was the beginning of a period of growth, not only in number of berths (Princess Cruises’ 62,500-ton Star Princess, which seemed big then, had only 1,470 berths), but ships started to grow in tonnage as well.

Ultra-Luxury & Ultra-Premium Fleet comparison table: 1988 – 2013

The average ship size for the main-market lines grew from about 950 berths to 2,335 berths, or almost two-and-a-half times per ship. And the size of ultra-luxury and ultra-premium ships has risen from 212 in  Seabourn Pride to about 670 to-day if we do not include Cunard, or more than three times the size.

And the main market lines have also been taking advantage of economies of scale. Although Norwegian Cruise Line had introduced the 70,202-ton 1,850-berth Norway in 1980, it was 1988 before Royal Caribbean introduced the 73,192-ton 2,292-berth Sovereign of the Seas. But another eight years saw the introduction of the 101,353-ton 2,642-berth Carnival Destiny. The result has been that traditional lines’ fleets and berth capacities have grow exponentially:

Main Line & Luxury Cruise Fleet comparison table: 1988 – 2013

Other lines such as Costa Cruises and Chandris Cruises, with six ships each, the 10-ship Epirotiki Lines and a single-ship (at the time) P&O Cruises have not been included in this analysis, but obviously Costa and P&O have both benefitted in terms of fleet expansion from being taken over by Carnival Corp, now Carnival Corp & plc.

All in all, despite wars, terrorism, disease and economic dislocations, the industry as a whole is surviving and seems to be surviving well if we can judge by cruise line stocks as well as fleet size .