2003 yearend review: unusual circumstances affected the Cruise Industry in unusual ways

Cruise Travel, Jan-Feb, 2004 by Theodore W. Scull

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (parent of Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises) has filed a $300 million lawsuit on behalf of Celebrity against Rolls Royce and Alstom Power Conversion, co-producers of the troublesome Mermaid podpropulsion system, in an attempt to recover costs and revenue lost with canceled cruises. The suit, tiled in Miami-Dude County, Florida, resulted from unsuccessful negotiations to resolve issues out of corot, The propulsion pods are installed on the four Millennium Class ships--Millennium. Summit, Infinity, Constellation--each of which had been tern porarily removed from service for repairs.

Star Cruises' SuperStar Leo and SuperStar Virgo shifted down under to Australian ports following the outbreak of SARS. While both have since returned to their East Asian cruising itineraries, the success of SuperStar Leo's Australian program prompted the line to send her back from January to March 2004, sailing from Fremantle. Adelaide. Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane to Tasmania, Queensland, the Great Barrier Reef, and South Pacific islands.

Princess Cruises took delivery of the 92,000-grt/l,970-passenger Coral Princess, the first of a new series of ships with multi-public-room Grand Class features yet slim enough to transit the Panama Canal. Her sister ship, Island Princess. followed with an inaugural season in Alaska. Princess also took on two former Renaissance ships for the Tahitian market. The Tahitian Princess cruises from Papeete year round while the Pacific Princess spent the summer in Alaska then moved back into the South Pacific and will also trade from Australia.

P&O's Arcadia became the Ocean Village, a new brand of informal cruising designed to attract the younger more casual market. To replace her, P&O took on Princess's Ocean Princess as the Oceana and sister Sea Princess as the Adonia, the latter geared to adults with no children permitted onboard.

P&O subsidiary Swan Hellenic dropped the charter of the 12,500-grt Minerva in favor of Renaissance's R8, which became the Minerva II. The former in turn got snapped up for the six warm months by Saga Cruises as the Saga Pearl and by Abercombie & Kent as the Explorer II for its winter program featuring Antarctica, the Falklands, and South Georgia. Saga also operates the classic former ocean liner Sagafjord as the Saga Rose. A&K sold off the pioneering, tiny 2,398-grt Explorer, a first-generation expedition ship dating from 1969. Saga picks up another ship when Cunard hands over the Caronia, formerly the Sagafjord's running-mate Vistafjord. The 1973-built Caronia is scheduled to leave Cunard service in November.

In other Cunard news, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will christen the Queen Mary 2 in Southampton on January 8, 2004 (the reigning monarch also named the Queen Elizabeth 2 in 1967). The 150,000-grt/2,620-passenger QM2, largest cruise-liner yet, is scheduled to arrive in Southampton on Boxing Day (December 26) 2003 and will make several pre-inaugural cruises for Cunard employees, suppliers, and friends, and then host the press and travel agents before the January 12th maiden voyage from Southampton to Fort Lauderdale.