CRUISING 2000: Year-End Review - notable events and services in travel industry

Cruise Travel, Jan, 2001 by Theodore W. Scull

But that was nothing compared to what has happened to the former Edinburgh Castle as she prepared to enter service as the Big Red Boat II, operating from New York. Refit delays and engine, electrical, and air-conditioning failures postponed her start of service and caused much bad press. Then once the program got going, the interruptions reoccurred resulting in off-loading passengers in mid-cruise, missing ports, and canceling sailings. To add to her woes, one of her anchors even severed a power cable serving electricity to sections of Newport and Jamestown, Rhode Island.

Premier's ambitious game plan was to operate a fleet of four Big Red Boats, catering to the family market. But when the company announced that the Rembrandt would join the list as the Big Red Boat IV, there was a storm of protest from the ship's considerable following about vandalizing the former Rotterdam's much-revered 1950s interiors. A letter-writing and phone campaign caused company officials to rethink their plans, and the Rembrandt's hull remains blue.

Then suddenly on September 14th, Premier Cruises abruptly ceased trading when the U.S. investment banking firm of Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette seized its ships for failing to meet mortgage payments. DLJ controls 80 percent of the equity in Premier, and the ships went to the nearest non-U.S. port to avoid seizures by additional creditors. Most passengers were immediately sent home, the crew more gradually so, and the Rembrandt, Big Red Boat I (Oceanic), and Big Red Boat III (IslandBreeze) sailed to Freeport for layup and possible sale. The Big Red Boat II (Edinburgh Castle), under separate ownership, returned to New York with passengers and docked in Staten Island. The SeaBreeze remains in Halifax for the short term. The Seawind Crown at first escaped then was also seized at Barcelona, and many of her crew-members remained aboard for some weeks without pay or tickets home as the food supplies dwindled.

Also in September, Cape Canaveral Cruise Line shut down its one-ship operation, using the Dolphin IV on short cruises between Central Florida, the Bahamas, and Key West. The veteran vessel had started life as Zim Israel's Atlantic liner Zion in 1956.

Another debacle that went largely unreported concerned the World Cruise Company of Toronto, Canada. The newly formed company chartered the 800-passenger Ocean Explorer I from her Cypriot owner to operate a budget level series of continuous round-the-world cruises, beginning in late November 1999 (the ship had begun life in 1944 as a troop carrier and was best known more recently as the Emerald Seas). During the course of the first circumnavigation, the ship experienced mechanical problems, but much worse was the elderly steamship's thirsty fuel consumption at a time when oil prices were soaring. With only 400 passengers booked for the second circuit, the World Cruise Company canceled the charter and hurriedly took on a much smaller Spanish-owned vessel, which was renamed Riviera I. As the ship was not ready, the sailing was delayed by several weeks and passengers finally boarded at Cadiz, Spain, instead of Piraeus, Greece. All seemed well enough until the ship reached Tahiti, where the passengers were told that the cruise was being terminated. As the World Cruise Company's funds were impounded, the remaining passengers had to pay their own way home, mostly to North America. The World Cruise Company then ceased to operate.