Celebrity Eclipse Will Be One of Six Celebrity Ships in Europe – Celebrity Must Be A Success – Volcanic Ash Brings About Unusual Cruise Ship Schedules

by Mark Tre’ – "The Cruise Examiner"

As 122,000-ton Celebrity Eclipse sails on her maiden voyage from Southampton, some are still pondering what will be the effect that having four ships of this size based in Europe in 2011.

Certainly, Celebrity seems to be doing better as a brand now if we can judge by its management bonuses last year. Meanwhile, the Eclipse‘s emergency trip to Spain last week to pick up tourists stranded by the Icelandic volcanic ash clouds set the scene for her christening on Saturday.

Celebrity Eclipse Will Be One of Six Celebrity Ships in Europe
Not long before Celebrity Eclipse was delivered earlier this month, her owner, Celebrity Cruises announced that it would be basing all four Solstice class ships in Europe in 2011. This will include Celebrity Solstice, now in year-round Caribbean service, Celebrity Equinox, christened in Southampton last year, and  Celebrity Silhouette, which will enter service in July 2011.

With Celebrity Mercury and Celebrity Constellation in Europe as well, the summer of 2011 will mark the first time the line has had six vessels in Europe since the 1960s and 1970s, when predecessor Chandris Cruises operated ships out of Southampton, Amsterdam and Piraeus, among other ports.

The new Southampton-based Eclipse was named on Saturday by celebrity yachtswoman Emma Pontin, a woman who has not only sailed around the world and crossed the Atlantic fifteen times, but has also recently beaten breast cancer and written a book about it.

As well as Eclipse, which starts from Southampton this year,  Celebrity Constellation will introduce a new series of 7-day alternating Mediterranean voyages from Piraeus in 2011.

Silhouette then enters service in July 2011 with her maiden voyage from Hamburg to Civitavecchia, after which she will operate a 9-night Mediterranean cruise before a series of 12- and 13-night Holy Land sailings from Civitavecchia. Equinox will also sail from Civitavecchia, offering 10- and 11-night round-trips.

Thereafter, Silhouette will become the first Solstice ship to serve New York when she positions to Bayonne’s Cape Liberty cruise port for 12-day Caribbean cruises during the winter of 2011-12.

Constellation‘s week-long Med cruises will leave Piraeus on alternating Holy Land and Greek Isles itineraries. Constellation is now being "Solsticized" to bring her services into line with the four new ships. A new four-night Greece land package will also be available with the Piraeus programme while other cruise-tour choices will include Madrid and Barcelona; Venice, Florence and Rome; Paris and London Paris and Amsterdam.

Solstice is based in Port Everglades for weekly Caribbean cruises throughout 2010, and will return to Europe for 12-night cruises from Barcelona in 2011. Eclipse, now running from Southampton, will be offering cruises from Barcelona in 2011 after the new Celebrity Silhouette is delivered.

Celebrity Must Be A Success

Success seems to breed money, even in a recession, and if we are to judge by the latest executive compensation figures from Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd, then Celebrity Cruises must be a success. Celebrity president and ceo Dan Hanrahan’s compensation last year reached $2.4 million, up from $2 million, mainly due to a bonus award increase of nearly 88%, reflecting the strong performance of Celebrity relative to budget. His bonus was $723,000, up from $385,000, and his salary rose by $40,000, to $600,000.

Chairman and ceo of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd, Richard Fain received $5.4 million in compensation in 2009, down from $5.8 million in 2008, partly due to a lower bonus based on company results. In a company filing, Mr. Fain’s $1 million salary was the same, but his bonus of just under $1.2 million was 18% lower than his $1.4 million bonus in 2008. He also received stock awards valued at $2.1 million, down from $2.4 million, and option awards valued at $715,000, slightly lower than 2008. Other compensation of nearly $175,000 included auto, life insurance and other benefits.

Meanwhile, the other brand Royal Caribbean International’s president and ceo Adam Goldstein saw his compensation decline. It was down to $2.7 million from $3.2 million because his company results bonus dropped nearly 55%, to $532,000, compared to just under $1.2 million in 2008, while his salary was $700,000, roughly the same.

So the boss of Celebrity now makes more than 85% of the boss of Royal Caribbean (compared to 77% the year before) and he received almost 90% in overall compensation (compared to 62.5% the previous year), both signs that the Solstice class ships must be a real success.

Volcanic Ash Brings About Unusual Cruise Ship Schedules
Celebrity Cruises made the news in a good way last week when instead of taking 2,000 travel agents on a free 2-day cruise from Southampton Eclipse went south to Bilbao to rescue more than 2,000 stranded clients of Thomson, First Choice, Thomas Cook and Co-Operative Travel, tour operators that work with Celebrity, and about 100 priority passengers from the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office in Madrid. While the tour operators covered Celebrity’s port costs in Bilbao, Celebrity chief,  Mr. Hanrahan, said this voyage was not really about cost.

Meanwhile, one of those tour operators, Thomson, brought its own Island Escape all the way north to Falmouth last Friday to land passengers who had been on a fly/cruise, along with 300 non-cruise Thomson passengers from Madeira, and then boarded passengers for what was to have been her next fly/cruise from the Canaries to Palma de Mallorca.

Meanwhile, it sent its newly-introduced Thomson Dream from Palma to Barcelona to land a number of her own fly/cruisers for overland transport back to the UK. One wonders whether some of them may also have been on Celebrity Eclipse when she arrived back in Southampton last week.

European travellers stranded in the United States were lucky enough to be able to catch one of the many cruise ships that are operating positioning voyages towards Europe at this time of year, although many were already sold out. North American travellers stranded in Europe had a harder time however as RMS Queen Mary 2’s first two trips of the season to New York were already sold out, but some did manage to book passage on cargo ships, although such space is very rare.

Silversea Speakers – World Cruise 2011

 



The world’s newest ultra-luxury, all-suite cruise ship, Silver Spirit, will take to the seas next January on a 119-day westbound World Cruise traversing both hemispheres from Los Angeles to Southampton.  To complement such an extraordinary odyssey, Silversea is lining up an impressive array of distinguished speakers.

Among those already tapped to host enriching presentations are:

Dan Rather:  The Emmy Award-winning broadcast journalist who presented the CBS Evening News in the US for 24 years, and contributed to CBS’ 60 Minutes and other prime-time news programmes, will host Voyage 5107, 22 March – 3 April, Hong Kong – Singapore.

Robert Lacey:  The British historian and biographer, whose numerous international bestsellers include Majesty, considered the definitive study of British monarchy, is slated to host Voyage 5110, 3 – 19 May, Athens – Southampton.

Zahi Hawass:  The world-famous Egyptologist and secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Cairo will host Voyage 5109, 18 April – 3 May, Dubai – Athens.

Bruce Riedel:  A senior fellow in foreign policy at the Saban Centre for Middle East Policy of the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, former CIA analyst, counter-terrorism expert and author is slated to host Voyage 5110, 3 – 10 May, Athens – Southampton.

Geoffrey Blainey:  The eminent Australian historian, commentator and author of numerous books, including his highly acclaimed A Short History of the World, will host Voyage 5105, 12 February – 1 March, Auckland – Sydney.

Lawrence Blair:  The writer, host and co-producer of the Emmy Award-nominated BBC/PBS adventure series Ring of Fire, tracing a ten-year epic journey across the Indonesian archipelago, will host Voyage 5106, 1 – 22 March, Sydney – Hong Kong.

Caroline Boyle-Turner:  The world-renowned art historian, author of several books and founder of the Pont-Aven School of Contemporary Art will host Voyage 5103, 20 January – 1 February, Los Angeles – Papeete.

George Losey:  A professor of zoology and marine biology at the University of Hawaii, who has studied the behaviour and ecology of marine animals throughout the world, will host Voyage 5103, 20 January – 1 February, Los Angeles – Papeete.

Mark Eddowes:  The New Zealand archaeologist who has lived in the Society Islands for over 20 years, doing field work throughout Polynesia, New Zealand, Hawaii, Easter Island and the Cook Islands, will host Voyages 5103 – 5104, 20 January – 12 February, Los Angeles to Auckland.

John Hartley:  The retired Australian major general, a graduate of Duntroon’s Royal Military College, the University of Queensland and the US Army War College, will host Voyage 5106, 1 – 22 March, Sydney – Hong Kong.

Denise Heywood:  The author, journalist, photographer, fellow with the Royal Geographical Society, and lecturer for the British Museum on their Asian Art course, will host Voyages 5106 – 5107, 1 March – 3 April, Sydney – Singapore.

Scott Pearson:  The recipient of a PhD in economics from Harvard University, who taught economic development and international trade at Stanford University, winning several awards for his research and teaching, will host Voyages 5108 – 5109, 3 April – 3 May, Singapore – Athens.

Lyn Farmer:  The widely published wine and food writer and senior editor of The Wine News magazine, who has been honoured with the James Beard Foundation Award for Best Writing on Wine and Spirits, will host Voyage 5105, 12 February – 1 March, Auckland – Sydney.

Rosanne Martorella:  The professor of sociology at William Paterson University and author of several books on art and society will host Voyage 5110, 3 – 10 May, Athens – Southampton.

Steve Tucker, Silversea’s vice president of field sales for North America, said:  "The enrichment programme is an integral part of our World Cruise experience and is designed to appeal to luxury travel’s most discerning clientele.  We scoured the globe to find fascinating personalities and some of the most distinguished and stimulating speakers.  Engaging experts from an array of fields will be on hand to share their talents and perspectives."

This grandest of voyages, appropriately themed "Spirit of Discovery," begins in Los Angeles on 19 January, when Silver Spirit is set to welcome no more than 540 privileged passengers for a 119-day odyssey exploring 60 destinations in 25 countries — with 11 overnight port visits — before concluding in Southampton on 19 May.  Along the journey, Silver Spirit will take in the tranquillity of French Polynesia, Australia’s untamed landscapes, the unique customs and cultures of Asia, ancient Egyptian wonders and timeless Mediterranean hideaways spanning from Italy and Monaco to Spain and Portugal.

In the US, Silversea has been voted "World’s Best" by the readers of Condé Nast Traveler (nine times) and Travel + Leisure (seven times), and rated Number-One luxury cruise line by high-net-worth consumers in the 2008 Luxury Brand Status Index (LBSI).  International awards include "Best Innovation in Products and Services" from the Italian Innovazione Marketing Oggi Awards (2009); "World’s Leading Small Ships Cruise Line" from World Travel Awards (2009); "Five Star Diamond Award" from the American Academy of Hospitality Sciences (2009); "Number One" small-ship line in the Readers’ Choice survey conducted by Britain’s Condé Nast Traveller magazine (2007); "Best Luxury Cruise Line" Excellence Award by Spain’s Cruise News Media Group (2009); "Best Luxury Cruise Line" by Australia’s Luxury Travel & Style Magazine (2009); and "Best Luxury Cruise Operator" according to Asia’s Travel Weekly (2008).

For more information on Silversea Cruises, please contact The Cruise People Ltd on +1.416.900.0889 or 1.800.961.5536 or Skype  the.cruise.people

Technorati Tags: Dan Rather,Robert Lacey,Zahi Hawass,Bruce Riedel,George Blainey,Lawrence Blair,Caoline Boyle-Turner

A Move Back to Single Cabins

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

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

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

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

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

Trans Atlantic Situation

Photo Courtesy of Brian Burnell

Regretfully there is no space available any passenger carrying vessel – liner, cruise ship or passenger freighter at this time.

If, by chance, space opens up will advise via this blog.

Here is Cunard’s schedule availability as of to-day – 18 Apr 10.

RMS Queen Mary 2 – Transatlantic Crossing Schedule
Thu 22 April
Departs Southampton 6:00 PM
Check-In closes at 4:00 PM
Sold-Out / Wait-List
Thu 29 April
Departs New York 5:00 PM*
Sold-Out / Wait-List
Sat 8 May
Depart Southampton 5:00 PM*
Sold-Out / Wait-List
*Subject to change based on air travel disruption developments

New, Reduced MSC Singles Supplement for Fall Foliage Canada/New England Cruises

Single travellers can experience the fall foliage of Canada/New England cruises on MSC Poesia for new, reduced rates.

Passengers who book an interior, oceanview, or balcony cabin for one on MSC Cruises’ 2010 Canada/New England cruises by August 31, 2010 can save with these new rates.

This special single supplement offer is applicable for Categories 1-11 on MSC Poesia Canada/New England cruises departing from New York and Quebec. Cruise itinerary highlights include:

– 6-night "Maple Leaves & Mansions" cruise from Quebec City and calling in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada; Boston, Massachusetts; Newport, Rhode Island; and New York. October 23; single rate was $1,078.20 and is now $718.80 [plus $81.40 pp. government fees and taxes (GFT's)] for a savings of $359.40;
– 7-night "Scenic Splendours of Fall" cruise from New York City and calling in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada; Corner Brook, Newfoundland, Canada, and Quebec City, Quebec; Canada, October 2; single rate was $1,258.20 and is now $838.80 (plus $78.50 pp. GFT’s) for a savings of $419.40;
– 10-night "Dazzling Fall Foliage" cruise from New York City and calling in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada; Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada; Quebec City, Quebec, Canada; Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; Newport, Rhode Island; and New York. September 22; single rate was $1,798.20 and is now $1,198.80 (plus $72.90 pp. GFT’s) for a savings of $599.40;
– 14-night"Autumn Leaves and Lighthouses," cruise from Quebec City and calling in Sydney, Nova Scotia; Bar Harbor, Maine; Boston, Massachusetts; Newport, Rhode Island; New York, New York; Halifax, Nova Scotia; and Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. October 9; single rate was $2,428.20 and is now $1,618.80 per person (plus $129.45 pp. GFT’s) for a savings of $809.40.

Rates are available for residents of the US and Canada; offer is per person, cruise only and subject to availability.

For more information, call  The Cruise People at 1-800-961-5536.

Technorati Tags: fall foliage Canada/New England cruises,cruises from New York,cruises,fall foliage,cruise,cruises from Canada

Viva L’España: Pullmantur Advances on the World – Azamara’s Overnight Stays – A Second Cruise Ship for South Africa

by Mark Tre’ – "The Cruise Examiner"
In the past few years, the Spanish cruise market has been one of the fastest-growing in the world and the big two, Carnival and Royal Caribbean have both now joined the play. Spanish-speaking cruises now operate not only from Spanish ports but also from Venice, Piraeus, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Lisbon, Santo Domingo, Cartagena, Acapulco and many ports in Brazil. This week the news is about where Azamara is going and the announcement of a second ship for the South African cruise market.

Viva L’España – Pullmantur Advances on the World
With the publication of an English-language brochure Pullmantur is now making available to a wider audience its worldwide cruise itineraries on its fleet of second generation cruise ships built in the 1980s and 1990s – two by Royal Caribbean, two by Celebrity and one each by Carnival and Hapag-Lloyd.

Pullmantur’s big attraction is its "AI" all inclusive programme that includes not only the usual full board but also "unlimited [bottled] water, fruit juices, coffee, soft drinks, beer, wine and drinks in the bars and restaurants, disco and theatre."

The fleet is a modern one, but composed of more traditional cruise ships than the mammoth 100,000-tonners that have become popular to-day. Two-thirds of it has been acquired from parent company Royal Caribbean. The oldest fleet member is  Ocean Dream, built in 1982 as Tropicale, Carnival’s first newbuilding, and the others are of more recent vintage. Sovereign was built in 1988 as Royal Caribbean’s Sovereign of the Seas, at the time the world’s largest cruise ship;  Empress in 1990 as Royal Caribbean’s Nordic Empress, the first newbuilding for 3- and 4-day cruises, Pacific Dream as Celebrity Cruises’ Horizon in 1990, and her sister ship Zenith, also for Celebrity in 1992. The line’s sixth ship, Bleu de France, was built as Hapag-Lloyd’s last Europa in 1982 and like the present Europa, was once the top-rated cruise ship in the world. Although operated by its French subsidiary Croisiéres de France, she is also featured in Pullmantur’s English-language brochure.

Since the early days of operating cruises from Barcelona with ships like Oceanic, Pullmantur has advanced to the stage where it now operates cruises between Copenhagen and Helsinki with Empress, from Athens with  Zenith, and from Lisbon and Malaga with both  Zenith and Empress, at different times of the year. Bleu de France also sails from Marseilles for the French market. In the Caribbean, it operates Pacific Dream from Santo Domingo and Ocean Dream from Cartagena. In Mexico, Pacific Dream sails from Cozumel and  Ocean Dream from Acapulco and Puerto Vallarta. Its flagship, meanwhile, the 2,324-berth Sovereign, runs on the line’s traditional routes from Barcelona.
In conjunction with the longer-haul cruises, Pullmantur also operates a fleet of 747s that offer a business class service on the upper deck. But here is the fleet:

Pullmantur’s seventh ship, the steam turbine-powered Atlantic Star, originally Sitmar’s Fairsky, remains laid up for the moment. But there has been talk that she may be placed into a new service in Europe, serving ports such as Dover, Amsterdam, Le Havre and Bilbao, with passengers able to board at any one of them for a 7-day cruise. On such a relatively short circuit, this heavy fuel burner would be much more economic and would also be able to remain in some ports overnight.

All in all, Royal Caribbean, who acquired Pullmantur as the major player in the rapidly-expanding Spanish-speaking market in 2006, has stolen a march on Carnival Corp & PLC, who quickly followed them into that market with Ibero Cruceros in 2007. Ibero Cruceros presently has a fleet of three ships, but these are about to be joined by a fourth in  Grand Holiday, formerly Carnival’s Holiday, now undergoing refurbishment in Genoa.

Ibero’s ship are newer on average, but can only carry about 58% of the fleet capacity of those Pullmantur ships that are in service, which will come down to about half if the Atlantic Star is reactivated.

Nevertheless, like Pullmantur, Ibero Cruceros now bases ships in several of the same main markets, i.e. the Western Med from Spain (primarily Grand Holiday, but also Grand Mistral and Grand Voyager), the Eastern Med from Venice and Piraeus (Grand Celebration), the Atlantic and Canary Islands from Vigo and Lisbon (Grand Voyager), the Baltic and North Atlantic (Grand Mistral) and Brazil (Grand Celebration). Unlike Pullmantur, it is not in the Caribbean or on the Mexican Riviera, but this is still a much better showing for a Carnival Hispanic product after the failed Fiesta Marina project in 1993-94, which used the former Carnivale. Meanwhile, one further Spanish line, operating mainly out of Valencia and Barcelona, as well as Venice and Athens, is a company called Happy Cruises. Formerly know as Quail Cruises, its present fleet numbers two smaller ships:

Gemini‘s claim to fame is that she was actually built in Spain, by Union Naval de Levante in Valencia, while Ocean Pearl is a first generation cruise ship, built as Song of Norway for Royal Caribbean Cruise Line. Both ships are owned by the Clipper Group of Denmark and managed by International Shipping Partners of Miami.

Azamara’s Overnight Stays
When Azamara Club Cruises announced that it would be adding more overnight stays so that passengers could get to explore not only the nightlife, theatres and restaurants but also the general environs of where they were, it turns out that it was quite serious. The line announced that there would be overnight stays in no fewer than 38 different ports, and, on top of that, late night (10 pm or later) departures for 63 more ports in 2011-12.

Its spring Mediterranean itineraries have been designed as a series of 7-night cruises where ports generally do not repeat, so that they can be combined into a 14- or 21-night cruise for those who want a longer stay on board. Then heading for the Baltic, Azamara Journey will set sail from the Paris port of Rouen, whose cathedral was the world’s tallest building between 1876 and 1880 and was painted more than thirty times by Monet. Other destinations for this ship will include the West Indies, the Amazon, South America and the Antarctic.

Azamara Quest, meanwhile, will be back in the Far East, with overnight stays featured in Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi. After a Far East season, and heading back to the Med, she will feature an overnight stay in Alexandria, then visits to the Greek Isles and the Black Sea. Both ships will be offering 7-night itineraries that can be combined, as well as a number of 11-night voyages. Back to the Red Sea, overnight stays will be offered at Sharm el Sheik and Safaga, as well as Aqaba, and other overnight stays are planned in ports such as Mumbai and Bali.

Azamara also began its programme of complimentary vintage red and white wines chosen from boutique vineyards, bottled waters, soft drinks and specialty coffees and teas, and complimentary shuttle buses at ports where it is felt they are needed.

A Second Cruise Ship for South Africa
For many years now, Starlight Cruises of Johannesburg has been offering Italian cruise ships in the seasonal South African summer market. Ships as varied as  Achille Lauro, Rhapsody, Melody, MSC Armonia and MSC Sinfonia have served this market, usually offering a southbound liner voyage from Italy in November and a northbound voyage back to the Mediterranean in the spring.

For the 2010-11 season, however, two ships will head south, when the 1,544-berth MSC Sinfonia, which is just completing her maiden season in South Africa, will be joined by the return of the 1,064-berth MSC Melody, as she is called now. Most sailings have been from Durban and popular destinations include Madagascar, Mauritius, Reunion and the Seychelles, as well as Mozambique.

Two ships will give MSC an annual equivalent capacity for over 100,000 cruisers from both Durban, where MSC has long had an important office, and Cape Town. Starlight Cruises began with Greek and other chartered ships but now acts as general sales agent in South Africa for MSC Crociere. What is interesting about MSC in South Africa, however, is that the review sites there give the line the same mixed reports that it gets from other nationalities such as Americans and Britons.

Shipyards Anxious for New Orders

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Article courtesy of Mark Tre