At Sea with Doug Newman » Carnival Corporation & plc

Two More New Ships for AIDA

Doug Newman — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 21:01:51 +0000

In the wake of the announcement that Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. and TUI AG will be forming a new German cruise venture, Carnival Corporation & plc has ordered two new ships for Germany’s largest cruise line, AIDA.

The two new ships, to be delivered from Meyer Werft in April 2011 and May 2012, will be the fifth and sixth in a series of vessels that began with AIDADiva, which entered service earlier this year.

At 71,000 GT and 2,174 berths, they will be slightly larger than the first ships in the series; AIDADiva is 69,203 GT and has 2,050 berths. Carnival has also announced that the fourth ship in the series, to be delivered in April 2010, will be increased in size to that of the two newly-ordered ships. The second ship in the series, AIDABella, to enter service in April 2008, and the as-yet-unnamed third, to enter service in April 2009, will remain the same size as AIDADiva.

Click here for a press release from Carnival Corporation & plc.

Queen Victoria Delivered to Cunard & First Official Interior Photos

Doug Newman — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 02:29:37 +0000

This past Sunday, 25 November 2007, Cunard took delivery of the new 90,049 GT, 2,000-berth Queen Victoria at Fincantieri’s Marghera shipyard in Venice. This is the culmination of a process that began with the start of work on 14 April 2005 and continued with the keel laying on 19 May 2006 and float out on 15 January 2007.

Cunard president and managing director Carol Marlow and Carnival Corporation & plc chairman Micky Arison were on hand to accept delivery of the ship. Among the guests in attendance was Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, who was the head of state-owned Fincantieri’s then-parent IRI from 1982 to 1989, during which time the company began building cruise ships. (The first Fincantieri cruise ship was the original Crown Princess, now Ocean Village’s Ocean Village Two, delivered from the Monfalcone yard near Trieste in 1990. Ocean Village Two is part of the Carnival UK family along with Queen Victoria.)

The ship, now under the command of Captain Paul Wright, will leave the yard on 30 November and is scheduled to arrive in her home port of Southampton on 7 December. She will be named at Southampton on 10 December by HRH The Duchess of Cornwall before departing on her maiden voyage on 11 December.

The following is a series of photographs released by Cunard that give us the first real glimpse of the ship’s interiors, designed by Giacomo Mortola of GEM srl. This is Mr. Mortola’s first Cunarder, but he has previously done a great deal of work for sister company Princess Cruises.

From these photos, many areas of the interiors of Queen Victoria show a strong resemblance to Mr. Mortola’s Princess work, albeit with a strong “British ocean liner” theme reminiscent of Queen Mary 2. The overall decor is very different from that ship (whose interiors were mainly the work of Tillberg Design) and many elements like the frequent use of green, brown and neutral tones, the ceiling finishes, the layout of the seats in the Royal Court Theatre the marble flooring in the Grand Lobby and the carpet patterns should seem very familiar to Princess veterans. However, the overall effect is clearly a new one, making Queen Victoria distinct from both past Cunard and Princess ships.

While I would certainly have preferred a more modern interior design — I recall the “modern British liner” design theme specified for the original Queen Victoria (completed as Arcadia for sister company P&O Cruises) — Queen Victoria’s decor is clearly in line with image Cunard wishes to project and I imagine the ship will be quite a commercial success. However, I am hoping for a more modern design for the upcoming Queen Elizabeth! In the meantime, I look forward to boarding Queen Victoria as soon as possible to see her for myself.

A Third Newbuild for Seabourn

Doug Newman — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 21:10:33 +0000

Seabourn Cruise Line has ordered a third new ship from Italian yard T. Mariotti. The new vessel will be a sister to Seabourn Odyssey, entering service in June 2009, and an unnamed ship entering 2010; both were ordered last year. The newly-ordered ship will enter service in the summer of 2011. Each of the new sisters will measure an estimated 32,000 GT and carry 450 passengers.

Click here to read Seabourn’s press release about the new order.

Two More New Ships for Costa

Doug Newman — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 17:32:21 +0000

Just when I thought the ubiquitous series of Carnival Destiny-based ships was nearing the end of the line, Costa Cruises has gone and ordered two more of them. Of the Concordia-class variety – that is, sisters to the existing Costa Concordia and Serena and 2009’s Costa Pacifica – the two new ships will debut in 2011 and 2012 and like their three older sisters will measure 114,200 GT and carry 3,012 passengers. Unlike the three older ships, which hail from Fincantieri’s Sestri Ponente yard in Genoa, the newer pair will come from Marghera, Venice.

These new ships will bring the grand total of Destiny-based ships up to 16, built from 1996 to 2012. Carnival will seemingly get its last Destiny derivative with Carnival Splendor next year, before moving on to a new 130,000 GT design for Carnival Dream in 2009 and Carnival Magic in 2011. Costa, on the other hand, has apparently elected not to adopt the new design – at least not yet.

In addition to Costa Pacifica and her two newly-announced sisters, Costa also has two 92,000 GT, 2,260-berth ships on order from Fincantieri; Costa Luminosa will enter service in 2009 and an as-yet-unnamed sister in 2010. This gives Costa the largest number of ships on order of any cruise line. Costa is also one of only two cruise lines (the other is Disney) with an order book that stretches to 2012.

Carnival and TUI Withdraw Joint Venture

Doug Newman — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 20:10:22 +0000

Carnival Corporation & plc and TUI AG have withdrawn their plans for a joint venture.

The joint venture was intended to encompass Carnival’s existing German-market brand, AIDA, and a new brand, TUI Cruises, which was to be launched in 2010 with a new ship. Intended to be 75 percent owned by Carnival and 25 percent by TUI, it has been axed because of what Carnival described as “an extremely difficult regulatory environment in Germany”.

Carnival will continue to operate AIDA independently. TUI also owns other cruise lines through its subsidiaries TUI Travel plc and Hapag-Lloyd AG; TUI Travel owns Thomson Cruises and Quark Expeditions, as well as part of Island Cruises, a joint venture between TUI Travel and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd while Hapag-Lloyd owns Hapag-Lloyd Cruises. None of these brands were intended to be part of the Carnival joint venture and they will not be affected by the announcement.

Click here for a full press release from Carnival Corporation & plc or here from TUI.