The Grant Thomas Blog Sustainability, Tech, Social Business, Cruises news & comment

Carnival upbeat despite fall off in Q4 profits

Global cruise giant Carnival Corporation has reported a decline in fourth quarter profits but says booking levels are strong going into the peak January wave booking period.

Net income for the three months to November was down to $217 million from $248 million in the same period last year. Annual net income was $1.912 billion against $1.978 billion in the previous 12 months to November.

Fuel costs in the 12 months rose to $2,193 billion from $1.622 billion while revenues were up to $15.793 billion from $14.469 billion.

Describing the full year as “encouraging,” chairman and chief executive Micky Arison, said: “Our North American brands performed well, achieving an almost four per cent revenue yield increase, while our European, Australian and Asian brand yields were in line with the prior year despite having been significantly impacted by the geo-political unrest in the Middle east and North Africa.

“Higher revenue yields partially offset a 32% increase in fuel prices, which reduced earnings by $535 million.”

Booking levels for the first three quarters of 2012 taken in the last six weeks are running “well ahead” of the same time last year but at lower prices.

Cumulative advance bookings for next year are at slightly higher prices with slightly lower occupancies, the company said.

Looking forward, Arison said: “Our base of business for 2012 is solid and we are experiencing strong booking volumes leading into wave season, our heaviest booking period which begins in January.

“Despite the uncertain economic environment, we anticipate a continued slow recovery in yields in 2012 driven by ongoing consumer recognition that our cruises provide an exceptional value.”

The parent company of brands such as P&O Cruises, Cunard and Princess Cruises remains focused on strategic growth through the addition of two to three ships a year, according to Arison.

“We estimate our cash from operations will approach $4 billion in 2012, while our capital investment commitment will be $2.6 billion,” he said.

Three new ships are due for delivery in 2012 – Costa Fascinosa in April plus AIDAmar and Carnival Breeze in May. P&O Cruises Australia has sold the Pacific Sun for an undisclosed sum which will leave the fleet in July 2012.

Sir Jimmy Savile tribute planned by Cunard

Cunard is to pay tribute to regular passenger Sir Jimmy Savile by staging a sailing past his burial place in Scarborough.

The DJ, who died in October aged 84, cruised extensively with the company. His last voyage was on board Queen Elizabeth on its maiden round-Britain voyage in September.

The ship has been specially scheduled to sail past Scarborough on August 1, 2013.

Sir Jimmy was among celebrity guests at a ceremony in Southampton when the Queen officially named the vessel in October 2010.

A spokeswoman said the ship would sound its whistle in respect to Sir Jimmy, who was "a true friend of Cunard". "He was marvellous on the ships, always speaking to anyone and everyone as he made his way round the decks," she said.

Queen Mary 2 refit details release

From "WeAreCunard"

In January 2012 Queen Mary 2 will celebrate her 8^thbirthday. She is recognised in the new 2012 Berlitz Cruise Guide as the top large resort ship in the world. I was looking through our guest questionnaires recently and when we ask our guests to rate ‘Appearance of Stateroom’ and ‘Condition and Cleanliness of Public Rooms’ they have been averaging around 95% which is a good score. We have through every year of her life continued to invest in her upkeep and I have always been especially impressed by how well the Deck Department have looked after the extensive  teak decks and outside areas.

Well in late November Queen Mary 2 will be taken out of service, and out of the water, for a planned refit in Hamburg, Germany. She will be out of service for 14 days. I have had a number of questions on the blog as to what we plan to do during that time. We will release that news later this week – but I promised to reveal the news through our blog first so – here goes;

Staterooms – We will refurbish every stateroom on board Queen Mary 2 – all 1,310 of them. Each of the Queen’s Grill Grand Duplex, Master and Penthouse Suites will receive a fresh individual design. All of our Queen’s Grill Suites, Princess Grill and Britannia Staterooms will receive new carpets, curtains, bedcovers, linen and some will also see new soft furnishings. The designs will be very much in keeping with the current designs and with the overall ship – but with a fresh look. I am really pleased with how they will look and our returning loyal guests will I am sure be delighted. I have always recognised just how important it is to feel comfortable in your stateroom – a home from home. The designs on Queen Mary 2 are very enduring and when the ship returns to service in December her staterooms will be more appealing and comfortable than ever.

Golden Lion Pub – our guests have worn the Pub out. The Pub lunches are more popular than ever, the bar area is always busy and sport and musical events are increasingly popular. So we have completely redesigned this room. Below are a couple of shots of how the new Pub will look. It recreates the best of British Pubs as well as the comfortable American Country Club feel. We will achieve more comfortable seats and more of them. We will have new and improved screens for sporting events and we will still be able to have our famous Jazz evenings and daytime activities.

Canyon Ranch – goes from strength to strength on Queen Mary 2. One of the highlights of our Canyon Ranch is the wet area and Spa Pool. Well we are completely refurbishing the teak surrounds of the pool and doing a lot of work in other areas of the spa. We will have a range of new exercise machines in the gym area and some new and improved features in the salon. Canyon ranch are one of our most prized partnerships – when it comes to health, relaxation, exercise and wellness – they are the real thing and I am so pleased we are investing in further improving the facilities.

Commodore Club – one of the most iconic bar locations at sea up on deck 9 forward. No radical changes here – but as you can see form the design layout below we are investing in new carpets and refurbishing and adding to our beautiful white leather furniture.

Children’s Club – one of Cunard’s best keep secrets.  We have excellent facilities – but although they were industry leading in 2004 it is time for us to invest further in the facilities. We will refurbish the area, including the very latest in electronic gaming and entertainment – I am looking forward to trying them out for myself.

Sir Samuel’s – Originally designed when the ship came into service as a venue to offer the very best in classic wines. The advent of Cappuccinos, Lattes and Espresso has changed our approach and the room is very busy day and night. So time for new carpets and some new chair covers which will give the room a real lift.

Grill Restaurants – We will lay down a new carpet design for both the Queen’s Grill and Princess Grill Restaurants. These will be very much in keeping with the overall design but I think will give a lighter feel to both restaurants – which remain amongst the best restaurants at sea or on land.

Carpets – We will be refreshing the carpets in many areas of decks 2 and 3 both in public rooms and through our wonderful central walkways and landings. In one or two areas – and our guests have mentioned this on the blog – we have some wear and tear of the flooring under the carpet. We refurbished much of this in the last refit and will complete the work this time round.

What are we not doing – One area that I have received questions on is Kings Court – the equivalent to The Lido area on Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria. Given it’s location, and the fact that it covers such a large area with many sections – some of our guests have in the past found the area can be quite confusing – especially the first time you visit it. To make significant changes to the actual structure of this area would be very difficult and prohibitively expensive given it’s scale. So we have been tackling this in different ways. We have been looking carefully at customer flow, our food and beverage offering and in particular how we best manage the service in Kings Court. We have plans to increase the alternative dining opportunities and themed evenings, and removing possible confusion by not having too many different serving stations at breakfast. This has significantly improved the situation and we will continue to focus here and make sure we create the appropriate experience for our guests.

By the way and a small tip – when I travel on our ships I always choose to have breakfast in the Britannia Restaurant. It is a lovely place to eat, the service is impeccable, you have a wide choice, you don’t help yourself so the portions are smaller and better for you, you sit up straight, you can converse with our wonderful staff and the whole experience is a lot more relaxing. I normally have Grapefruit Juice, Bircher Muesli (nobody does it like Cunard), Scrambled Egg with American Bacon (yes some of us Brits do prefer the crispy American bacon) and a toasted English muffin (worth asking for it to go through the toaster twice) and fresh coffee. Marvelous.

Down Below – as ever we will take the opportunity to complete the regulatory and necessary checks and works below deck and that program is in place. Interestingly part of the technical work will be to add a Skycon to the ship. What is a Skycon I hear you say? You may have seen them on other ships but surprisingly Queen Mary 2 did not have this feature. It is a small rail that goes round the higher decks of the ship, to which you add a cage for the deck crew to clean and maintain many of the external railings and windows. When in port you will often see Cherry Pickers around Queen Mary 2 – tall extended cage like cranes to reach those parts that man simply cannot reach. With the addition of a Skycon we will be better able to maintain these areas of the ship and not have the expense of Cherry Pickers in port, so there you have it – some inside knowledge on what we have to do to make the ship look as she does.

To make this happen we will be adding enough carpet to cover 10 football pitches. We will be adding miles of fabric – and we will have a team of thousands of workers to make it happen.

In these tough economic times it remains very important for us to continue to invest in both the technical and hotel areas of our ships. With Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth we are fortunate to have two very young ships that provide a fabulous experience for our guests. In Queen Mary 2 we have something very special, the most famous ocean liner in the world and a ship that still turns heads everywhere she goes – she is unquestionably the pride of our fleet. And that is why we will be investing in the ship and in our future guests experience through the upcoming refit.

I hope this exclusive sneak peak at some of the things we will be doing has been of interest. We will be announcing some new on board experiences nearer the time for when she comes back into service and during the refit we have plans to keep you up to speed with the refit through a series of videos and blogs.

I trust you are keeping well.

Best Regards

Peter

Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth Changes UK Registry Today

After months of speculation, last week Cunard finally confirmed that it will be changing the registry for Queen Mary 2, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth to Bermuda.

Although it was never confirmed when the change will take place, it will come as a shock to many that Queen Elizabeth will have her registry changed today.

Queen Victoria will undergo the change on Thursday and Queen Mary 2will follow five week later.

Cunard decided to change the registry for its fleet so it can offer weddings at sea.

However with everything happening so quickly it does raise suspicions as to whether Cunard are trying to remove its ships from under the Equality Act 2010, which came into effect earlier this year.

2 Ships Shelter from Channel Storm in Southampton

As the intense low pressure system moved through the channel last night two cruise ships headed into Southampton instead of their scheduled port of Dover. The 71,000 tonne Aida Blu and the 85,000 Cotsa Atlantica have headed to Southampton to allow the Gale Force storm winds to blow through on Tuesday 6th September.

AIDA BLU

COSTA ATLANTICA

£35m to be spent on a multi-ship Re-spruce

All Leisure Holidays is investing more than £35 million in its ocean and river cruise brands and has revealed plans for two new ships next year. The investment is being spread across the ship's three cruiselines - Voyages of Discovery, Swan Hellenic and Hebridean Island Cruises, which will enter the river cruise market for the first time.

The investment in the operator's ships will include major upgrades of cabins and onboard facilities and create 25 new jobs.

The company's Alexander von Humboldt cruise ship, which it bought in November 2009, is being renamed Voyager and will become Voyages of Discovery's second ship alongside Discovery when it starts sailing in November 2012. In addition, the company's Hebridean Island Cruises brand is chartering a river cruise ship Royal Crown, from Dutch river cruise company Crown, for four itineraries in 2012.

All Leisure Holidays executive chairman Roger Allard said: "We need to plan for the future and customers will migrate to us because they want a better experience. It's pointless whinging about the market, we have to move forward and plan for a better product to attract new customers." More than £10 million is being spent on Swan Hellenic's flagship cruiseship Minerva, which has had its lease extended by eight years to 2021. It will go into dry dock for a refurbishment in November and be back in service in March 2012.
The refurbishment will see six cabins removed to free up extra space, giving the ship a total of 181 cabins. Of these, 32 cabins will have balconies added, bringing the total with balconies to 44.

All cabins will be upgraded with new ensuite bathroom facilities. Public areas of the ship will also be upgraded to include a new observation lounge, expanded Shackleton's Bar, new internet lounge and walk-round promenade deck.

Swan Hellenic managing director Colin Stone said: "We don't want to change what we offer, just improve it. The plan is to utilise the ship better. "Most importantly 23% of cabins will now have balconies. It's an area of the business that's important to us and has been missing for a few years."

Voyages of Discovery's new Voyager ship is smaller than its existing ship Discovery, with capacity for 550 passengers in 278 cabins; 35 are suites and of these 30 have balconies.
This follows investment of more than £23 million to date on new balcony cabins and public areas, with more upgrades yet to be announced.

It will offer flexible, less formal dining options, also planned for Discovery for 2013, and aims to attract a younger market of 45 to 55 year olds as well as giving existing customers a new product to experience.

Managing director Alan Murray said: "We will continue with the same ethos but the big difference will be that this is a modern ship and we can offer open dining which has been an issue on Discovery. I personally believe it will give us the opportunity to lower the age range and appeal to a younger market." Voyager's inaugural cruise to Istanbul out of Portsmouth will be in November 2012 when Discovery is in dry dock for a three- month refurbishment of decks, cabins and furnishings until spring 2013.

It will then move to the Caribbean before offering itineraries in central and south America. Prices will lead in from £1,399 for a two week cruise including a longhaul flight.
Hebridean Island Cruises' new 42-cabin river cruise ship Royal Crown will offer four itineraries on the Rhine and the Danube in the spring and autumn of 2012.

Like the company's other ships, prices will include all excursions, gratuities, and guest speakers. Prices start from £2,995.

Source: TravelWeekly