Asia-Pacific: Costa and Carnival Climbing Asia
While much of Costa Crociere’s focus, and international attention, is on the Concordia disaster, former chairman Pier Luigi Foschi is now in Asia where Costa, and Carnival Corporation as a whole, are moving new tonnage and discovering new challenges. The 85,619-ton Costa Atlantica sailed to Asia in May, joining the 76,000-ton Costa Victoria already positioned…
Asia-Pacific: ‘The Timing is Right’
“Going into Asian markets has been part of a strategic planning process, whereby we reviewed market opportunities for the industry and for the Princess brand,” said Jan Swartz, executive vice president, sales, marketing and customer service for Princess Cruises. “We have studied China for a number of years and concluded there is real interest in…
Asia-Pacific: 20 Years of Leading the Market
With five ships, a newbuild on the way, a recent big-budget refurbishment program, and new homeports, Star Cruises is underlining its leadership position in the Asia/Pacific market. “Starting this November we will deploy the 1,511-passenger SuperStar Aquarius from Kota Kinabalu (Malaysia), calling at Brunei’s Bandar Seri Begawan and Sarawak’s Bintulu,” said William Ng, chief operating…
Asia-Pacific: Henna Marks One Year
Since its maiden voyage on January 26, 2013, from Sanya, China, HNA Cruises continues to make waves and gain ground within the Chinese cruise marketplace. Hao Zhang, CEO of HNA Cruises, is pleased with its steady development thus far. “We have served over 20,000 passengers onboard the Henna,” he said, in an exclusive interview with…
Shipbuilding: Nine and Counting
The current generation of ships being built offers many new product features and behind the scenes technical innovations, according to Gabriele Cocco, senior executive vice president of merchant shipbuilding for Fincantieri. “All our newbuildings represent steps forward,” he said, “using new technologies and complying with the new rules and regulations.” Furthermore, he said: “The new…
Shipbuilding: Cruise, Ferries and Ice-Going Vessels
At the Turku Shipyard, the Mein Schiff 3 was in the hull erection phase, and the Mein Schiff 4 was in the prefabrication and block stage at press time, according to Jari Anttila, executive vice president and COO of STX Finland. “The progress of both ships is good and we are exactly on schedule,” Anttila…
Working at Sea: Norwegian: A Better Life
During his five years at the helm of Norwegian Cruise Line, CEO and President Kevin Sheehan said he has worked continuously to improve the work environment aboard the ships. “Today, many crew have single cabins,” he said. “They can lock their doors and have some privacy. When I first came aboard and visited some of…
Technical: Environmentally Friendly
Norway’s Fjord Line began service with the Stavangerfjord this past July. Running solely on LNG, the cruise ferry sails between Bergen and Stavanger in Norway and Hirtshals, Denmark. Originally set to enter service in May, construction delays pushed the introduction back. More complications followed as existing Norwegian regulations do not allow bunkering of LNG with…
Company Profile: Celebrity Cruises
As senior vice president of operations for Celebrity Cruises since last September, Greg Purdy said it was a great advantage to have a view of both marine and hotel operations, to be able to develop strategies for the total product. “It is a remarkable opportunity,” he said, “providing access to all our teams ashore and…
Food and Beverage: Windstar’s New Corp Exec Chef
There are a lot of cool, even flashy jobs in the cruise industry, but maybe the one that gives the biggest opportunity to be a rock star of sorts is executive chef. With a passion for motorcycles, race cars, exotic travel, and of course amazing food, nobody plays the role quite like Michael Sabourin. With…
Digital: Silversea Goes Streaming
Already rolled out on the Silver Cloud, guests can now watch TV, on-demand movies and enjoy newspapers from their mobile devices and laptops. Silversea plans to have the service on four more ships, the Shadow, Whisper, Wind and Galapagos by year’s end. The server can be accessed on any Wi-Fi-enabled device, ranging from iPads to…
Refurbishments: Crystal Serenity’s Super Drydock
The keys to a successful drydock? “Planning, timing and supervision,” according to Steven Spendlove, director of technical operations for Crystal Cruises, and who is in charge of the Serenity’s $17 million November drydocking in Spain. Among the main highlights for the nine-day drydock is technical work. First, Crystal is doing major maintenance work on the…
Editorial: Europe Taking ‘Five’
Our market focus in this issue is on Europe and its diversity of cruise products, driven by a decade of steady growth and expectations of an even brighter future. No matter how expert, however, forecasters do not seem able to predict such events as the Arab Spring, negative publicity from ship incidents, or economic downturns,…
Europe: Awaiting a Turn-Around
After posting an average annual growth rate of more than 8 percent a year for the past five years, the European passenger base has grown from 3.1 million in 2005 to 6.1 million in 2012. With more ships under construction by European cruise brands, and with the North American brands also sourcing in Europe, the…
Europe: Ponant Global Push
A luxury French cruise line in Compagnie du Ponant is making a worldwide push thanks to a recent newbuild program and investment from Bridgepoint, a European private equity firm. “New ships mean an increase in the consistency of our Ponant product,” said Hervé Bellaiche, executive vice president of sales. The company’s older tonnage has been…