Worldwide will once again be exhibiting at the IT&ME show in Chicago starting on Tuesday September 28th.  Steve Bloss, Leon Banossian, Jim Castle and Jim Huff will be at the show and looking forward to catching up with colleagues and old friends.  Also to be found on our booth is our Oceania Cruises rep. Julie Rose who is looking forward to telling you all about their delightful products.  Please drop by and say hi - we are located at Booth #3839.

Worldwide would like to remind our clients that - WE DO.. Incentive Cruises and Charters

Hurricane Frances

This year is proving to be a very active hurricane season with two storm hitting Florida in August followed by hurricane Frances in early September.  Needless to say all this activity has caused major problems for the cruise lines operation out of Floridian Ports.  To give credit where its due, almost without exception all the various lines have really gone the extra mile to keep the inconvenience to a minimum for their clients.  Both from the view point of passengers caught on board the ships which had to divert and ride out the bad weather as well as  the excellent job the cruise lines did in getting the word of the diversions out to family and joining passengers.

By the time the dust had settled, there were cruise ships of all lines hitting the ports of Ft. Lauderdale and Miami making  fast turn arounds' to get their schedules back on track.  Our next concern  is hurricane Ivan which could hit early next week - speaking for myself - enough is enough - lets hope its slides by without making a landfall.

CMITS - Toronto

Our team made the trip to Toronto for the annual CMITS Show, as always this was a the trade show trip everyone wanted to attend.  Those of us that did enjoyed catching up with old friends and colleagues, playing some great golf courses, eating out at some great restaurants and hitting some great parties... oh and yes, the trade show.. well what can I say, a trade shows a trade show after all!

State of the Industry:

The talk of the industry over the past year has been the expected big international growth of cruise lines, but in reality the story of the second quarter this year was the massive increase of North Americans taking cruises (up 14.3% over the second quarter of 2003) while the number of foreign passengers plunged by 7.5%. CLIA President Terry Dale explains: "If you take into consideration Royal Olympic and First European, who were both heavily focused on the Med for itineraries, and look at where they sourced passengers mainly from overseas, that has to contribute significantly to the decline. Both of those companies departed the industry by the beginning of March, and that obviously impacted second quarter numbers."

Worldwide has never bought into the hyped up growth of overseas buyers as Europeans in particular do not generally feel that comfortable on "American Style" ships preferring their European styled ship - Costa, Med Shipping etc. both because of the language problem many of them have to contend with, but also the decor and menu's. Another factor is the relative success that a number of European and UK tour operators have had with either purchasing or chartering ships for their own account which catering as they do to a select national market has absorbed or, introduced cruising to wider European audience, depending on your viewpoint.  Having said that there are still large portions of the world that do cruise on American Ships, but relatively speaking their overall numbers are quite small.

Many of the major cruise lines have either opened their own overseas offices or have struck deals with local distributors, it seems to us that the old distribution method of GSM's has pretty much become a thing of the past. Communication, the internet and so on have given overseas buyer better and often more economical purchasing options.

Worldwide has always had a good overseas base of clients and rather than seeing an increase in individual and family group bookings which one would have expected we are in fact seeing more whole ship charters coming from overseas.

Cruise Line News:

RCI: Several news reports say that Royal Caribbean has chosen Springfield, Oregon, as the spot for its second major off-site reservation center which could employ as many as 1,000 people. However, Royal Caribbean spokesperson Michael Sheehan advises that no final decision has been made as yet.

All Leisure Group, the parent company of UK-based Voyages of Discovery has signed an agreement with Gerry Herrod to purchase the 610-passenger Discovery and the tour operations of Discovery Cruises UK and Discovery World Cruises USA. Completion will take place at the commencement of Voyages of Discovery’s Summer 2005 program mid-May.

V.Ships, the company that crews and in some cases operates cruise ships on behalf of their cruise line owners has teamed up with Azimut-Benetti group of Italy to take over Fraser Yachts Worldwide, one of the world’s largest brokerage and full management companies for luxury yachts. The deal was sealed in early August but the announcement was held over until being made public at the Cannes Boat show in Southern France. According to V.Ships chief executive Roberto Giorgi, V.Ships will pass over to Fraser the 17 yachts it currently manages taking the number of yachts managed by the US firm up to 45. Through subsidiary V.Ships Leisure, the Monte Carlo-based ship management company will take operating control of the Fraser yacht management business. Giorgi is quotes as saying that they believe they will can have 100 yachts under management within a couple of years. Carlo Agliardi will continue as chairman of Fraser Yachts. Azimut and V.Ships have not disclosed the terms of the sale nor their respective stake in Fraser.
Athens and the aftermath of the Olympic Games. Much to everyone's relief, the Games went off without a serious hitch, granted a number of the venues where not totally completed on time, and happily there where no security issues. Many of the charterer's of ship's that where actually in the port of Piraeus had a nasty surprise when they were invoiced by the port for a number of unexpected items, pumping black and grey water ashore, garbage removal and other items that would normally have been included as part of their port dues.

Ship News

Carnival Cruise Lines ships, the Imagination, Inspiration, and Ecstasy will have their Lidos redone this fall as part of the ongoing retrofitting of all Fantasy class ships. In terms of matching the amenities of Conquest-class, it's not possible. "Some of it is purely physical limitations," notes CEO Bob Dickinson. "As an example, if you don't have space for a deli, you can't offer a deli. Those are a huge success for us."
 

New builds and other news:

Aker Yards Group announced today that it will merge its two shipyards in Finland, Kvaerner Masa-Yards Inc and Aker Finnyards Inc. The new company will be named Aker Finnyards. The new, operative organization will take effect on January 1. ‘Combining our two cruise and ferry-specialized shipyards brings valuable synergies and strengthens their competitive position in the global cruise and ferry markets,’ said Karl-Erik Kjelstad, CEO and President of Aker Yards. The new company will employ some 4,500 workers.  The Aker Finnyards shipyard in Rauma is currently building a cruise ship for Birka Line whilst Kvaerner Masa-Yards is building the world's largest cruise ferry for Color Line as well as two Ultra Voyagers for Royal Caribbean International.

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. announced that it has exercised its option to build a second Ultra-Voyager ship at Kvaerner Masa-Yards. The 3,600-berth vessel is scheduled for delivery in Spring 2007. ‘Despite adverse foreign exchange rates, building a sister ship results in beneficial cost efficiencies and an all-in dollar cost that is essentially the same as the first Ultra Voyager,’ Royal Caribbean said in a statement. The expected cost of the ship at today's exchange rate will be in the region of $690M which by the time it is outfitted and in service will be close to $800M.  Royal Caribbean contracted its first Ultra Voyager on Sept. 19, 2003,  at an all in cost of nearly $210,000 per berth, or roughly $750m. RCI feel that even though the dollar/euro exchange rate will mean the new ship will be some $50M more expensive to construct than the first Ultra-Voyager, even so it will still be a good deal for them. The existing five Voyager ships are approximately 15% smaller than Ultra Voyager.

Apollo Ship Chandlers, Inc. won the contract to provide hotel services to UK-based Island Cruises. Apollo established a new affiliate company, Island Ship Services Limited (ISSL), to provide food, beverage and hotel services, as well as pursers/front desk staff for the Island Escape, effective Nov. 2.  The 1,750-passenger Island Escape operates an eight-month Mediterranean season from Palma de Mallorca carrying Britons and a four-month Brazilian season from Santos, Brazil carrying Brazilians. Island Cruises is the joint venture between Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. and First Choice Holidays. Island Escape will become the 14th ship served by an Apollo affiliate, joining the vessels of Celebrity Cruises, Oceania Cruises, French tour operator TMR and Discovery Cruises.

Featured small cruise Line

We are going to start a new feature in this issue and focus on some of the small cruise lines which are available for charter and often overlooked, these ships are often cruising unique and interesting areas. 

Our initial choice is a UK company by the name of Fred Olson.  a small company with a three ship fleet which  primarily focuses on UK Clients. Their ships cruise the British Isles and adjacent Atlantic countries with some winter Caribbean and South American cruises.  The three ship fleet can carry just under 2,000 passengers in total with departures from traditional south of England Ports such as Dover and Southampton with the occasional departure from Liverpool. The size of the ships do lend themselves to exclusive charters which when the ships are in a suitable cruising area makes them very viable for our clients programs.

Olson's Fleet is made up of the m/v Black Prince;  a nice tight ship in the older style which is ideal for charters.

She is a 11,210 gross registered tonnes vessel, 480 foot in length with a passenger capacity of 412 passengers, served by a crew of 200 (which equates to close to 1 crew member for each 2 passengers and a space ration of 27 cu.ft. per pax.), in a typical British, small initiate ship style of cruise  She was originally constructed in 1966 and refurbished in 1999. During 2004/05 Black Prince sails 13 cruises out of Southampton, and three from Greenock/Liverpool for two Iberian cruises, five Canaries cruises, a mini-cruise visiting Waterford and St Malo and a West Med itinerary.

The m/v Black Watch is a slightly bigger ship of 28,490 gross registered tonnes. She is 674 feet overall length and carries 798 passengers served by 330 crew members. (a ratio of close to 1 crew members for each 2.5 passengers and space ratio of 36 cu.ft per pax) Previously the Royal Viking Star, she is a well known vessel. Originally constructed in 1972 and refurbished in 1998.  She cruises 8 to 29 night itineraries encompassing the Med., Scandinavia, Caribbean and South America.

The m/v Braemar is Olson's newest ship, constructed in 1993 and refurbished in 2001 formally the Norwegian Dynasty, she is also a well know and well liked smaller ship of 19,090 gross registered tonnes.  She is 537 feet overall and carries 750 passengers served by 320 crew (a ratio of 2.34 passengers for each crew member and a space ratio of 25 cu. ft. per pax). The Braemar cruises eight to 16 night cruises to Scandinavia, the Mediterranean and East Coast USA.

Fred. Olsen has expanded its cruise program of regional departures throughout the UK and Ireland in its new 2005/6 brochure. The selection of ports to cruise from includes Liverpool, Dublin and Belfast as well as Southampton, Dover, Greenock and Leith. As a small line with three small ships it behooves them to be different and they are concentrating on their strength of customer friendliness by taking the ships to what would be akin to the UK's drive in market

The move away from the traditional southern UK departure ports of Southampton and Dover is akin to the homeland cruising trend taking place in the US. This move was not possible when only 100,000 Brits were cruising but now the figure is over 1m people, the sourcing of passengers is shifting northwards. There are around 200,000 people in the Liverpool catchment area alone.  (You may recall Worldwide recently informed our reader that Liverpool was undergoing an major investment to capture cruise ship business).

Fred Olson Line noted that within two years from now the 412-passenger Black Prince will be a regional ship.  For 2005/06 11 cruises will depart Southampton, 9 will be from Liverpool, four from Leith and three from Greenock.

Scottish passengers are well catered for in 2005/06 with a choice of seven cruises aboard Black Prince departing from Greenock and Leith and visiting the Canaries, Norway, Arctic Circle and Baltic. The line has designated a sales person wholly responsible for Scotland as it sees this as growth area for source passengers.

Both Black Watch’s and Braemar’s cruise program for 2005/06 are based out of Southampton and Dover whilst all all Fred. Olsen’s Caribbean cruises depart from Gatwick and Manchester airports; a selection fly from 11 other regional hubs.

Ship Report:

• Pride of Aloha:  Retail Clients views on a recent vacation cruise on the "new" Pride of Aloha.

One of our neighbors in the office complex Worldwide is situated in just returned from a vacation on the new NCL ship Pride of Aloha, this was to be a 35th wedding celebration cruise to Hawaii, a place both had wanted to visit for many years.  Upon their return they came into our office knowing we are always interested in hearing how cruises went and proceeded to tell us a horror story.. much of which I am not going to even go into as we are reluctant to to go into details as much of what they reported was subjective and we feel it better to get one of our staff back on the ship and see for ourselves how the product delivery is working.

We do however, feel that we owe it to our clients to issue a warning so that you can be prepared to deal with some very difficult situations, most of which revolve around the crewing, service and so on.

Opt-in

Another issue we are concerned about are the new rules covering such things as unsolicited emails and faxes.  Whilst we are making every effort to comply with the new rules as they appear, it is never the less easy to run foul of something one is not aware of.  Currently we give our clients the option to "Opt-out"  of receiving our news letter but, this is a blanket opt-out which also has the effect of removing your name from our mailing list for such things as complimentary ship cruises (site inspections) and resort inspections as well as other complimentary offers we are able to make to our clients from time to time.  We have given this a lot of thought but the difficulty of managing multi-lists to cover everyone's requirement is more than we feel we can manage successfully at this time.
 

With this in mind, we have decided to make a start on "Opting - in" ... we realize that not everyone reads every issue of our newsletter so many people might miss this announcement (we always receive a good number of "out-of-office reminders" back from our clients - so we know you're all hard working folk... ).  So starting with the May  issue and running through the summer we will add this note to the bottom of our newsletter and respectfully request that you take just a second or two to complete the "Opt-in" form so you may continue to receive communications from WWTCA.