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To all our good friends, colleagues and clients, from all of us here at Worldwide Cruise Associates a belated but never the less happy and successful New Year.
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Editorial. Here we go again, another year creeps up on us. Maybe I am getting old but it does not seem as though Worldwide has been doing this gig for close to 17 years now. For the first four year Worldwide was based in Antibes in the South of France and dealt mostly with mega yacht and small cruise ships. In 1992 the company moved its base of operations to Fort Lauderdale for basically two reasons, to be closer to our cruise line partners and to cut in half the time difference between Europe and the West Coast of the USA, in order to be accessible to our clients in both areas during a business day. Happily this has worked well for us.
As with many small and specialized business, we have had our ups and downs over the years, but through it all we have continued to offer the best service possible to our clients and if one measures this success by the number of repeat clients we have, well we must be doing something right.
If you have not used our service in the past, this is the year to try... we are readily available on any of the contact numbers listed below, we do not charge any fee for our services and are happy to simply discuss your requirements and make suggestions based on our insider knowledge of the cruise industry.
If you go to our web site you can download a copy of our most recent corporate brochure to revue, you will find a list of referrals by your industry peers on the last page... feel free to call them and ask them their opinion of our service.
Once again a happy and success (and profitable) 2005....
New Builds Norwegian Cruise Line recently announced that it intends to build two new 2500 passenger Freestyle cruise ships for delivery in time for the summer season of 2007. One of the ships will be constructed at Mayer Werf in Germany, the other will be constructed in Finland by Aker Finnyards. The Mayer ship will be an exact replica of the Norwegian Jewel the Aker ship will be built to a totally new design to enable the ship to fully incorporate all the features of Norwegians Freestyle cruising. The Panamax ship will be slightly larger in capacity than the Mayer ship having around 2430 berths in more than 840 staterooms and suites with every outside stateroom having private balconies (a first for the industry). These two ships will be the 8th & 9th new ships that NCL has introduced into their fleet since Star took over, which represents a $3.75 billion total investment in the fleet and is being undertaken to both expand the fleet and replace six of the mid-size, middle age ships.
Interesting news and statistics Kudos to Arthur Pollack, President of Imperial Majesty - His sole ship the Regal Empress is (according to the recent Port Everglades Ship Revenue & Volume Report) is not only one of the smallest (1190 passenger) multi-day ships operating out of the port, but also the most profitable with revenues of $2.8m for the fiscal year ending September. The Regal Empress launched in 1953 as the Olympia also ranked second in the number of passengers moved - 246,000 for the fiscal 2004 year. The Regal Princess offers 2 night cruises from Port Everglades to Nassau year round.
Port news Aided by the Regal Empress... Port Everglades reported that is had record growth in operating revenues for the year 2004 with revenues of $112,476,658.00 the first time in the ports 27 year history it had exceeded the $100m mark This represented a 26% increase over 2003 with the highest performance coming from the cruise sector. Besides a number of new cruise ship using the port, the port also benefited from the temporary transfer of seven cruise ships from the port of Miami for various reasons. Montego Bay Soon, cruise ships longer than 900 feet will be able to dock at Berth 2, thanks to a new breasting dolphin and a floating tender pier which will enable passengers from large vessels to come ashore. Montego Bay has been wanting to welcome larger ships for sometime and this will resolve the problem. Aruba
Aruba posted a 5% gain in passenger
numbers during 2004 when 567,320 cruisers visited, up from the prior-year figure
of 542,327. Cruise calls rose to 318, up from 315. Carnival Corp. brands made up
the leading group in 2004, bringing more than 300,000 passengers. More than half
of those arrived on weekly visits by Carnival Destiny. The Royal Caribbean group
brought more than 200,000 cruisers to Aruba. Aruba expect to welcome over
500,000 cruisers in 2005. According to statistics published in the latest issue of Cruise Europe News the 89 North European port members of Cruise Europe received 4.7m passengers on 5,165 calls during 2004, Compared to 2003, calls were up by 4.2% and passenger numbers up by 10.5%. As in the previous year Southampton tops the list with 548,000 passengers on 205 calls, followed by Copenhagen with 320,000 visitors on 264 calls. Comparing the two ports’ traffic, almost 100% of Southampton’s calls are turnarounds whilst 66% of Copenhagen’s arrivals are transits Tunis La Goulette
Tunisia’s main cruise port, is
planning to build an additional berth and new cruise terminal. La Goulette,
located on the outskirts of Tunis, accounts for about 90% of the country’s total
cruise passenger arrivals. In 2004 the port accommodated almost 320 cruise
vessels totaling more than 400,000 passengers. By passenger volume Tunis ranks
seventh among the West Mediterranean cruise ports.
European Cruising for 2005 I hate to say "I told you so", but as Worldwide has been telling you for months now... the ONLY viable way for to operate a European program this summer (unless you have an unlimited budget) is to put your people on a cruise ship (buy the cruise, the land excursions and so in old fashioned, pre-depreciated US Dollars). To bear this out, Celebrity Cruises is going to deploy a fourth ship to Europe because of the heavy demand they are experiencing. Celebrity will move the 1750 passenger Century from its planned Caribbean summer schedule to sail a series of 12 night Baltic cruises, roundtrip from Amsterdam as well as several 10-11 day Mediterranean Cruises.
3 & 4 Day Cruises on the Sovereign of the Seas Following a multi-million dollar upgrade and renovation which included adding 62 balcony cabins, new dining options and expanding the children's center, RCI's Sovereign of the Seas returned to service sailing 3 & 4 days Bahamian itineraries from Port Canaveral. The Sovereign was the largest and most impressive ships afloat when she commenced service with RCI in 1968. The work has bought many concept from RCI's newer ships to the 3 & 4 day market which traditionally has been a retirement home for many of the cruise lines older ships. This end of the market is very hard on ships and crew, with fast turn-arounds and little time for maintenance or crew time off.
Paul Gauguin will continue with RSSC The ship which has been part of the Radisson Seven Seas Fleet since 1998 and was recently sold to Grand Circle, will continue to be managed by RSSC through January 6, 2007. The ship which operates 7 night itineraries in the Society Islands is already sold out through the winter. Record bookings by RSSC have tempted the new owners to leave the status quo as it stands and sell into selected voyages with their own clients. An arrangement which should work well for both parties.
This months Ship reports.
Coming up in the next issue or two will be ship reports from Steve Bloss's on his cruise on MSC's Opera, Jim Huff & Castle's cruise on their experience on the Delta Queen. Leon Banossian will be sailing on a music cruise program on the Zuiderdam and will contribute an update on his experience on the ship and the cruise in general. Later in the month he will also be aboard the Zaandam and will be contributing his opinion of that ship in a charter situation.
Another must read? Larry Pimentel the President & CEO of SeaDream Yacht Club's new book - Luxury Travel, A Life Style Special Course was recently published by The Travel Institute (copy can be obtained from 1-800 542 4282) in which Mr. Pimental makes some interesting observations in regards to Luxury.. "There are many individual interpretations of luxury, yet there are certain constants"..
He further maintains that there are six types of Affluent Consumers:
According to his premise the first four should be targeted by sellers of luxury travel. Buy the book and read for yourself how all this shakes down to more and better sales in the luxury market.
SUPERBOWL 39 is taking place in Jacksonville, Florida on February 6, 2005. As so often happens with these types of unique sporting events, they are often held in places which simply cannot cope with the influx of fans and spectators resulting in a dire need for alternative accommodation and entertaining venues. Chartering a ship or purchasing a block of space on a ship often works out to be an ideal answer to this age old problem.
Coming up soon are several sporting events which our clients should be focusing on:
Monaco Grand Prix - this event is held annually in Monte Carlo - call us for ideas, we have already signed several charter contract for this year and 2006.. there is still time to do something.
2006 Ryder Cup - This event is being held in Ireland at the prestigious Kildare Golf and Country Club, Straffan, Co. Kildare, between Friday 22nd and Sunday 24th September. We are looking at bring a ship into the port of Dublin with pre & post cruises planned around the event. Call us if you have any clients interested in a very exclusive golf/cruise program.
The America's Cup Worldwide continues to bring this event to your attention as we feel there is a lot of corporate potential for our clients.
While the actual ocean racing calendar has wrapped up until the spring of 2005 never the less the action continues with more teams registering to challenger for the 32nd America's Cup
The El Reto syndicate, representing the Real
Federación Española de Vela - Spanish Sailing Federation, has become the eighth
challenger for the 32nd America’s Cup. The Société Nautique de Genève, the
Defender of the America’s Cup, accepted the Spanish Challenge on the 17th
December. For more information contact: · Steve Bloss (954) 452-8800, ext. 26 - email Steve · Jim Huff (954) 452-8800, ext. 28 - email Jim · Leon Banossian (954) 452-8800, ext. 29 - email Leon · Martin Dock +44 (0)1794 514336 - email Martin · Jim Castle (954) 452 8800. ext.25 - email Jim
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