Cruise Line Fans: Cruise Forum, Reviews and Chat From Real Cruisers - Cruise Examiner at Cruise Line Fans http://www.cruiselinefans.com en Sat, 21 Nov 2009 21:27:24 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.cruiselinefans.com/images/styles/cruiselinefans/misc/rss.jpg Cruise Line Fans: Cruise Forum, Reviews and Chat From Real Cruisers - Cruise Examiner at Cruise Line Fans http://www.cruiselinefans.com Dutch Cruise News http://www.cruiselinefans.com/cruise-examiner-cruise-line-fans/44174-dutch-cruise-news-new-post.html Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:30:15 GMT The Cruise Examiner Mark Tre for Cybercruises.com - November 16 2009.

The naming this weekend of the new 3,434-ton 110-berth expedition vessel Plancius at Vlissingen adds to the variety of Dutch-flag vessels available on the high seas, and her operator, Oceanwide Expeditions of Vlissingen, made more news when it was also named the World's Leading Polar Expedition Company 2009 at London's World Travel Market last week.
Elsewhere, Holland America Line's latest Nieuw Amsterdam, the fourth of that name, due to enter service on July 4, 2010, was floated out at Fincantieri's Marghera yard a fortnight ago. Meanwhile, work proceeds on the new Cruise Hotel Rotterdam, being prepared on board Holland America Line's last purpose-built Transatlantic liner, the 38,645-ton Rotterdam of 1958, a ship that is still almost in its original form.
This week we take a look at Dutch contributions to ocean cruising, both past and present.



An Expedition Ship With Great Views

Built in 1976 as the Royal Dutch Navy's oceanographic research ship Tydeman, the Plancius has been totally rebuilt over the past two and a half years into a top-notch ice-class passenger vessel capable of operating in polar regions. On touring the ship, one of the first things that strikes one, compared to many ships previously used in Antarctic and polar waters is the excellent views that can be had not only from her main observation lounge, forward on deck 5, but also from the windows either side of her dining room aft on deck 3.
Both rooms double as lecture halls when it comes time to learn about wildlife, geology, Antarctic base camps and local history. And off her main lounge is a library stocked with various reference materials. The ship's decor is very pleasing, with grey leatherette banquettes featuring in both lounge and restaurants while the ship is carpeted throughout in blue.
Companionway bulkheads are decorated with very good still wildlfie photography.

Deck 3 outside is laid with teak and contains an embarkation area and zodiac boarding area on the starboard side while the port side contains the ship's galley. Aft there is a rather attractive teak-laid barbecue area with views over the stern. The upper decks are quite extensive and on certain decks it is possible to walk completely round the superstructure, making for superb viewing of wildlife and scenery.

Forward of the main lounge is an accessible open deck area and from here passengers can reach the bow. Passengers are also allowed onto the bridge, where views are possible in most directions, although the forward view is obscured somewhat by the layout of navigation instruments and controls that cover the lower window area, so there sre better views from the open bridge wings.

The new ship's cabins have been simplifed into three basic types of accommodation, all en suite. Ten superior cabins located on the top two decks, 5 and 6, contain double beds, and thirty-nine twin cabins on decks 2, 3 and 4 contain twin beds, while four triple cabins have an additional third, upper, berth and are located on the lowest deck, 2. In addition to the double bed, the superior cabins feature a sofa and double windows.

Being a former oceanographic ship, the Plancius has attractive hull lines and is quite a good-looking ship. It is also obvious that much thought has been put into her new internal layout for carrying passengers. She will be staffed by an experienced Russian crew recruited from the Professor Molchanov and Professor Multanovskiy, two ships that Oceanwide have been operating on charter for many years while the expedition team and hotel manager will be from Oceanwide's own experienced personnel.

This year is the second time Oceanwide has won the World's Leading Polar Expedition Company award as it received the same award in 2005. As well as the Plancius, it operates the 2,180-ton 84-berth Chilean-owned Antarctic Dream, a ship that was built in the Netherlands for the Chilean Navy, in the Spitsbergen season, and the 1,753-ton 50-berth Professor Molchanov and Professor Multanovskiy, in the Antarctic season.
The fleet is rounded out by the two-masted schooner Noorderlicht, a historic vessel that dates to 1910 and now carries 20 passengers around Spitsbergen.


A Fourth Nieuw Amsterdam

Elsewhere, while Cunard Line is building a new 92,000-ton Queen Elizabeth, named after the 83,673-ton ship of that name that entered service in 1940, Holland America Line is building an 86,200-ton Nieuw Amsterdam, named for the 36,287-ton ship of that name that entered service in 1938. Nedxt year will thus see the introduction of two large new cruise ships carrying the names of two famous two-funnelled ocean liners of the past.

Just over two weeks ago, on October 30, the fourth Nieuw Amsterdam was floated out from her building berth at Fincantieri and moved to her nearby fitting out berth. A sister ship to last year's Eurodam, the new liner will be a slightly shorter version the new Queen Elizabeth, with a different funnel configuration and interior design, but both based on the same original "Vista" class platform developed by Carnival Shipbuilding.
P&O's Arcadia, a third Carnival group ship named for an earlier liner, is also of this class, but topped off with a P&O funnel.

Nieuw Amsterdam having been the name the Dutch explorers first gave to New York City, the interiors of the new ship will reflect this New York theme, with a Manhattan restaurant and a skyscraper theme to start with. More details will follow on the latest addition to the Holland America fleet. ]]> Cruise Examiner at Cruise Line Fans *Lars* http://www.cruiselinefans.com/cruise-examiner-cruise-line-fans/44174-dutch-cruise-news.html New Ports: Coney Islands of the Seas? http://www.cruiselinefans.com/cruise-examiner-cruise-line-fans/44042-new-ports-coney-islands-seas-new-post.html Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:25:15 GMT The Cruise Examiner Mark Tre for Cybercruises.com - November 9 2008

Now that ships have become destinations in their own right, the 225,282-ton Oasis of the Seas has had to set up some of its own ports of call as it's too big to go to most other places.

A new dock has been built at Labadee and a new port is being developed for her at Falmouth, Jamaica. Recent new ports developed by the cruise lines have also included Cozumel (Cruise Examiner, October 5) and Costa Maya in Mexico, Roatan in Honduras and Grand Turk in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
These places, with their instant shopping villages, restaurant outlets and beer halls, tend to style themselves after the North American suburban mall, except for the more recent addition of theme park rides, which is bringing them more into line with theme parks.
So this week, let's have a look at the places the mass market lines go and examine some recent trends brought about with the advent of the jumbo cruise ship.


Now: Caribbean Theme Park Islands and Beaches

For years there were two ports in the Eastern Caribbean that most cruise ships sailing from Florida went to. One was San Juan, in the associated free state of Puerto Rico, and the other was St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. Indeed, St Thomas became so large that malls were finally built right on the docks so that passengers could shop without having to go into the town of Charlotte Amalie. And of course Americans could double their duty-free purchases from the usual two bottles of spirits to four at St Thomas. However, is beginning to be the mass market cruise of the past.

Starting next month, the Oasis of the Seas will run a 7-day Eastern Caribbean itinerary from Fort Lauderdale that will include St Thomas, St Maarten and Nassau, and a Western Caribbean itinerary to Labadee, Costa Maya and Cozumel. In December 2010, the new Jamaican port of Falmouth, whose opening has been delayed a year, will replace Costa Maya.

If Falmouth is anything like Cozumel and Grand Turk it will have shoreside beer bars and "retail experiences" galore, but there may yet be hope. Meanwhile, NCL's new Norwegian Epic will sail from Miami to the same Eastern Caribbean ports as the Oasis of the Seas but her Western Caribbean itinerary will include Costa Maya, Roatan and Cozumel. Although two calls in Mexico may be rather repetitive, at least the Oasis of the Seas will be able to switch to Jamaica ina year's time.

As of today, we have landside surfing at Grand Turk, which now has a FlowRider installation dockside that is similar to those carried on the larger Royal Caribbean ships. Opened in June 2008, this is now part of the new $50 million Grand Turk Cruise Center, which features an 14-acre shopping and restaurant complex and dates to February 2006.

Among other things, it also includes the Caribbean's largest Margaritaville bar, restaurant and store, and 45,000 sq ft shopping centre. Previously an isolated out-of-the-way island of 3,700 souls that had not seen regular passenger service since the Clyde Line a hundred years ago, Grand Turk has now come to the fore as a Carnival Corp & PLC cruise port that is relatively close to Miami, and only thirty miles south of the Bahamas. Indeed, it is mainly Carnival, Costa, Holland America, P&O, Princess and Seabourn ships that call here except for the odd unexpected call by Crystal, Oceania and Regent Seven Seas.

Elsewhere, next week, a new elevated chairlift will begin taking cruisers from the Carnival cruise terminal at Roatan directly to the private beach at Mahogany Bay. Passengers will pay $5 for a pass for unlimited six-minute rides that travel 67 feet above the ground and the treetops. With a capacity of 1,500 passengers an hour, the four-passenger chairlift units, named by Carnival the "Magical Flying Beach Chair," look very much like a conventional ski lift.
Last year, the three-acre Roatan Cruise Port Village was opened there by Royal Caribbean, something that added shopping to the agenda where previously they had had to rely on that island's "rustic charms.".

Royal Caribbean has gone a step further at Labadee, however, with the opening this year of a new "Dragon's Tail" Alpine roller coaster at its private "island" beach in Haiti. According to Adam Goldstein, Royal Caribbean International president, riders will reach 680 feet and "have just enough time to catch your breath and marvel at the view before turning and whooshing down at 30 miles per hour. Racing through 360-degree turns and dips, waves and curves, riders will be able to catch glimpses of the ocean."

The ride time will be 3-5 minutes, of which about two thirds is reported to be up and about 30 seconds down. Royal Caribbean charge $35 per passenger for the ride (a child with an adult rides free), and $85 for the "Dragon's Breath Flight Line" zip-line. There have been a number of protests that Royal Caribbean is charging too much for these installations, where they have everyone captive anyway as it is a private island (it's actually a peninsula).
Once back on board, however, passengers can benefit from the carousel and zip-line on the Oasis of the Seas, as well as a bar that rides up and down between three decks.

Not only that, but Labadee will soon boast three new features, now under development: the "retail experiences" of Dragon's Plaza and Labadee Town Square, and the Columbus Family Beach. Dragon's Plaza will be the heart of Labadee and will also feature the Dragon�s Breath Café and Pub, a welcome centre, and central tram station, which will ferry guests to other areas of the peninsula. Labadee Town Square will offer guests shopping, dining and entertainment, including the Haitian Cultural Museum, Café Labadee and Bar, and the Straw and Artisan Market.
This expansion, including a new pier, is all caused by Oasis of the Seas, of course, which is scheduled to make her first call there on December 3. Bringing 5-6,000 passengers a week, the existing facilities would have been hopelessly inadequate.

Meanwhile, Falmouth, a small 18th Century port on Jamaica's north coast, is due to open in December 2010 as a new cruise port for larger vessels. Located between Montego Bay and Ocho Rios, it will cater for Royal Caribbean's new jumbo-sized Oasis of the Seas and will de developed as a heritage renewal project, based on the town's early Jamaican architecture, plus a large shopping mall, developed from existing facilities.
Built as a planned town, Falmouth had piped water even before New York. Once home to several hundred sugar plantations, it thrived during the slave trade but has been relatively quiet since 1840 and is only now being redeveloped. One potential source of confusion, however, is that there is already a cruise port called Falmouth in Antigua.

]]> Cruise Examiner at Cruise Line Fans *Lars* http://www.cruiselinefans.com/cruise-examiner-cruise-line-fans/44042-new-ports-coney-islands-seas.html Not the Oasis of the Seas http://www.cruiselinefans.com/cruise-examiner-cruise-line-fans/43888-not-oasis-seas-new-post.html Mon, 02 Nov 2009 22:18:20 GMT The Cruise Examiner Mark Tre for Cybercruises.com - November 2 2009.

With 884 articles on the Oasis of the Seas now listed in Google News, we have decided that we should not write the 885th.
With plenty of coverage for the new 225,282-ton Royal Caribbean behemoth, including a brief stop in the UK to disembark workers as she heads for Florida, we have decided to cover some other stories today.
This week we look at Southampton threatening Liverpool in the UK, Princess considering new ships, the Dutch introducing a new Antarctic ship and Disney introducing some really clever and novel ideas, that perhaps only they could get away with, while finally, Italy beats out Mexico as the world's number one cruise destination.


Southampton protests Liverpool use of EU Funds

In the UK, Associated British Ports, owners of the Port of Southampton, are calling for an enquiry into the Port of Liverpool's intention to open its new Pier Head cruise terminal as an embarkation port for cruises leaving the UK. At the moment, the Pier Head facility is used only as a port of call.
Southampton point out that £9 million out of the £20 million total cost of the new Liverpool cruise terminal came from EU assistance funds, whereas the Port of Southampton, with three cruise terminals, has been totally privately funded. They would therefore regard any move to install baggage, customs and immigration facilities needed to handle cruise ship departures to be unfair competition.

Almost 300 cruise ships called at Southampton last year compared to 16 at Liverpool, but if Liverpool were to attract just one line this could mean anything in the area of say 40 new calls to the northern port. Liverpool's Pier Head terminal last made news on October 20 when Queen Mary 2 berthed there for the first time on a visit to the city which had once been Cunard Line headquarters and had seen the line's first departures in 1840.
The Liverpool facility is run by Peel Ports, which owns the Mersey Docks & Harbour Company.


Newbuildings for Princess?

Recent reports indicating that a number of executives from Princess Cruises have met with Meyer Werft in Papenburg have followed by several months reports that Carnival Corp & PLC were considering ordering two Princess newbuildings from Mitsubishi.
The latest reports have of course caused new speculation as to when cruise ship orders might be placed again. Significantly, although plenty of new ships are now being delivered, no new cruise ship orders have been placed during the first ten months of 2009.

Princess president Alan Buckelew, however, has announced that the line has a new prototype design, which is based on a slightly longer version of the Ruby Princess, a Fincantieri product. But Meyer Werft is not known as a Carnival yard, having been tied into first Celebrity, then Royal Caribbean and then Star, NCL and P&O for the Oriana and Aurora.
The Carnival connection lies mainly with Fincantieri and even if P&O had two ships built by Meyer Werft their newer P&O ships have come from Princess designs. As they say, stay tuned.


Antarctic Cruiser Plancius to be Named in Netherlands

On November 14, Oceanwide Expeditions will name its latest polar expedition ship Plancius. Following the recent entry into service of Lindblad's 148-berth National Geographic Explorer (a former Norwegian coastal vessel), and Gap Adventures' 120-berth Expedition (an ex-Baltic ferry), the Plancius is the third new conversion to have been added to the Antarctic expedition trade in the last year.

Built in 1976 as the Netherlands oceanographic research ship Tydemann, the Plancius as rebuilt can now accommodate 110 passengers in fifty-three cabins plus 36 crew. The vessel will be named a week from Saturday by Carla Peijs, the Queen's Commissioner for the province of Zeeland. She then departs for the Antarctic and leaves Ushuaia on her maiden voyage on January 8, 2010.

The ship is being named for the Dutch astronomer, mapmaker and geologist Petrus Plancius (1552 � 1622), who postulated the existence of a northern passage to Asia. His theory provoked several northern discovery voyages at the end of the 16th Century and a Dutch expedition under Willem Brantsz discovered Spitsbergen, but got stuck in the pack ice of Nova Zembla. Today, that route is known as the Northeast Passage.


Interesting Features in New Disney Ships

Among the newbuilding projects now under way, last week Disney revealed some of the unique features the new 128,000ton Disney Dream will boast. These icnlude a 765-foot long water coaster ride, to be called the AquaDuck, and "virtual portholes" in inside cabins, which fed by video cameras on the outside of the ship, interspersed occasionally with Disney characters.

While the latest Disney ship will join the Carnival Dream and Norwegian Epic in the waterslide department, the Disney ship's will be the longest afloat (Carnival's is only 300 feet) and will be based on a two-person raft, propelled in some areas by waterjets. At one point near the stern the ride will go 13 feet beyond the edge of the ship at about 150 above the water, giving a bit of a thrill factor as welt to the 90-second ridel.

Bookings for the Disney Dream open next week and her maiden voyage is scheduled to leave Port Canaveral on January 26, 2011. While on the subject of Disney, the company will return to Europe in 2010 with the Disney Magic, which will operate a series of summer Baltic cruises from Dover as well as Mediterranean cruises from Barcelona between May and September. The Disney Magic was last in Europe in 2007.


Italy beats Mexico for Cruise Passengers

After many years of Mexico boasting to welcome the largest number of cruise ship passengers, with its combination of Pacific and Atlantic cruise ports and its proximity to the United States, Italy has now come to the fore. This news comes from John Tercek, vice president of commercial development at Royal Caribbean Cruises, speaking at the Florida Caribbean Cruise Association's latest meeting in St Lucia.

His view is that Italy's five home ports of Venice, Civitavecchia, Naples, Genoa and Savona, not to mention the number of calls cruise ships now make at Italian ports not only on the mainland but also in Sicily and Sardinia, now give Italy the advantage. As well, recent years have seen the development of year-round Mediterranean cruising by not only locals such as Costa, MSC and Louis but also by outsiders such as Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line.

Meanwhile, the largest passenger ship ever built, the Oasis of the Seas, will head out into the Atlantic after her brief stop at the Isle of Wight to offload her workers.

(Source: By Mark Tré - Cybercruises.com) ]]> Cruise Examiner at Cruise Line Fans *Lars* http://www.cruiselinefans.com/cruise-examiner-cruise-line-fans/43888-not-oasis-seas.html Cruising à la Française http://www.cruiselinefans.com/cruise-examiner-cruise-line-fans/43753-cruising-la-francaise-new-post.html Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:41:10 GMT The Cruise Examiner Mark Tre for Cybercruises.com - October 26 2009.

The Cruise Examiner did not appear last week because of a two-and-a-half hour delay to a TGV travelling from Paris to Marseilles.
So here finally is Mark Tré's latest report on the state of cruising in France, a country where, despite having produced ships of state such as the Normandie and France and cruise ships up to the size of the Queen Mary 2, its own residents are far behind the rest of Europe in taking up cruising.
Even those operators who have more recently entered the French market sometimes have trouble ramping up to the next ship size as the market grows (or they hope will grow). So let us have a look at this late developing market.


The State of the French Market

Unlike the UK market and more recently the Spanish, Italian and German markets, France is a long way behind in the number of its residents that take a cruise every year. From 212,000 cruisers in 2003 the market had grown by 2007 to only 280,000, a smaller 32% rise compared to it neighbours Italy, which had grown 85% to 640,000 and Spain, up by 69% to 513,000 in 2007.
France, a country of 64 million souls, produced less than 1% of the total European cruise market of 4 million passengers.

Taking fifth place in Europe, French passengers represented only 7.9% of those booking cruises in the top five European countries, while 37.8% came from the UK, 21.6% from Germany, and 18.1% from Italy and 14.6% from Spain, both neighbours. Perhaps too used to their own croissants and espressos, breads, wines and cheeses, the French seem positively reluctant to step aboard a cruise ship and go exploring.
It now seems that the French Line was run entirely for the benefit of French emigrants and American tourists, and after the demise of Paquet Cruises, the country was not represented by a single large cruise ship other than the 394-berth Club Med 2 and 330-berth Paul Gauguin in Tahiti, both of which are niche products.

But things may be changing. In 2008, the French market grew to 310,000 compared to 280,000 the year before, or by almost 11%. While growth from 2006 to 2007 was 15.7%, this was still double digit and in an uncertain year and has to be compared to previous years' growth rates of between 3% and 5%. In Spain, on the other hand, the market actually fell by 4% in 2008 while Italy grew by only 6%.
France is still the poor man, but in 2008 it grew faster than any other major European market outside Germany, which grew by 19%. The big question is can France begin to grow in the same way Germany has. It is still very early days but both Royal Caribbean and Carnival Corp & PLC, as well as some indiginous French operators, are keen to find out.


Croisières de France

Formed in late 2007 as an arm of Pullmantur Cruises, Croisières de France has been operating unilingual French-language cruises with the Bleu de France since May 2008. The product is all-inclusive, with fare, port charges, gratuities and drinks with lunch and dinner and in the bars all included in the price.and unconfirmed estimates put carryings by this ship, dedicated to the French market, at about 30,000 passengers during her first year of service.

After having concentrated in its first year by summer on the Mediterranean market from Marseilles and the Caribbean by winter, Croisières de France is changing its approach for 2010. Instead of sending Bleu de France to the Caribbean this winter, the line will embark passengers on a ship of sister company Pullmantur.

The Pacific Dream, formerly Celebrity's Horizon, will carry a mix of Spanish-speaking passengers and francophones from both France and Quebec, sailing from La Romana in the Dominican Republic, a popular haunt as well and with good airlift for French-speaking Canadians escaping the frozen north, as did the Bleu de France last winter.

Meanwhile, the French ship will remain in the Mediterranean, as with so many other cruise ships in recent years, and will also sail the Red Sea. This should allow Croisières de France to build its passenger numbers further in anticipation of further expansion.

In the meantime, a rumour last week had the Bleu de France being sold to another operator, widely touted as being Saga of the UK. Built as Hapag-Lloyd Cruises' last Europa, she would be a perfect replacement for their Saga Rose, which is being retired as the new SOLAS 2010 regulations come into effect.

If this is true, the problem for Croisières de France will be that while the Bleu de France has 374 cabins, the next size up, the Pacific Dream (ex-Horizon), has 715, which would mean having to double the line's carryings in one fell swoop if she were chosen as a replacement.

Although little different from adding a second ship to a one-ship operation, some doubt that Croisières de France would be able to double their business that quickly in an uncertain market. On the other hand, the French economy is now out of recession and grew by 0.3% in the first quarter while the French purchasing manager's index is this month at its highest in almost three years.


Croisières Paquet

While in the larger ship market, other news to come out of France is about Paquet, which was acquired many years ago by Costa Cruises of Genoa. Now dormant for a decade, Carnival plans to revive the Paquet brand in 2010 in an agreement with Marseilles-based TMR, who will market the 820 lower-berth Costa Allegra from Marseilles exclusively for French cruise passengers.
Best known for the cruises that were previously operated by the Mermoz, the last word in French cruise ships of any size, several hundred items from which raised €195,000 recently at an auction in Marseilles, the Paquet brand could have a lot of sway in how the French choose their cruises.

The new Paquet will thus provide head-on competition for Croisières de France, operated by Carnival arch-rival Royal Caribbean. As the Costa Allegra is returning from China, where she is being replaced by a larger ship, it has not yet been announced just how French her crew may be and whether she will be similarly a totally unilingual ship, but it seems certain that a French cruise staff will be taking over for these cruises.

To begin service from Marseilles in May 2010, she will add to Costa's own capacity from that port with an intial program of four 11-to-14-day cruises to the eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea. These cruises will test the waters through to late June and will be followed by more Paquet cruises, mostly musically-themed, in September and October. Costa now accounts for half the uptake of French passengers, or more than150,000 berths on their Marseilles calls.


Her Future

By using TMR instead of its own Costa channels in France (and Costa has been building up good volumes from Marseilles), the revived Paquet will be using a separate distribution channel to the French market, and one that is a little more upmarket. TMR founder Maurice Ravon chartered the Norway, ex-France, in 1993 and again in 2000, and in 2003 carried some 15,000 French passengers in the 684-berth Insignia (since renamed Regatta), on charter from Oceania Cruises, and in 2004 in her sister ship Nautica.


 ]]> Cruise Examiner at Cruise Line Fans *Lars* http://www.cruiselinefans.com/cruise-examiner-cruise-line-fans/43753-cruising-la-francaise.html