According to recently released CLIA research,
itineraries to Africa and the Indian Ocean grew more than
250 percent between 2004 and 2005. The appeals of the Dark
Continent are many and varied, but topping the list of attractions
are photo safaris. Most lines offer optional safaris to Kenya,
Tanzania or South Africa before or after voyages through the
Indian Ocean. Although well known by French and Italian tourists,
the islands of the Indian Ocean have been relatively undiscovered
by Americans; these include the Seychelles, Maldives, Comoros,
Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Reunion and Madagascar, among others.
Cruises also visit West Africa’s Ivory
Coast, often in combination with European ports. Ports of
call along the Ivory Coast include Casablanca in Morocco and
various of the Canary Islands, just off the African mainland.
According to Terry L. Dale, CLIA’s president and CEO, “The
pristine isles of the Indian Ocean and all of Africa, are
fascinating and can be culturally mind-boggling. A cruise
in the region offers North American travelers a comfort factor
when exploring such exotic parts of the world.”
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. announced
in July that net income for the second quarter of 2005 that
ended June 30 was $154.5 million, or $0.71 per share. This
compares to $122.2 million, or $0.58 per share, for the second
quarter of 2004. Revenues for the second quarter of 2005 increased
5.3 percent to $1.2 billion from revenues of $1.1 billion
in the second quarter of 2004. The increase in revenues was
attributable to an increase in cruise-ticket prices and onboard
revenues. Gross Yields and Net Yields for the second quarter
of 2005 increased 5.6 percent and 6.3 percent from the second
quarter of 2004, respectively. "Clearly we had an excellent
quarter that exceeded our expectations," said Richard
D. Fain, chairman and chief executive officer. "Despite
the spike in fuel prices we are pleased to report a 26 percent
increase in earnings with no increase in capacity."
The company estimates that lost revenue
and costs associated with previously disclosed cancelled/modified
voyages reduced second quarter 2005 earnings per share by
approximately $0.05.
Outlook: Current consumer
demand remains strong and the company continues to enjoy price
increases over those experienced in the prior year. Assuming
there are no external shocks and current booking trends continue,
the company reaffirms its prior estimates for Net Yields to
increase in the range of 6 to 7 percent in 2005 compared to
the prior year. The company currently expects Net Yields for
the third quarter of 2005 will increase by approximately 6
percent.
However, fuel costs remain unpredictable.
If fuel prices for the remainder of the year remain at today's
level, the company estimates that its fuel costs (net of hedging
and fuel saving initiatives) will increase approximately $32
million and negatively impact earnings per share by $0.14
compared to the company's last guidance. Based on this fuel
assumption, the company estimates that Net Cruise Costs per
APCD for 2005 will increase in the range of 6 to 7 percent
as compared to the prior year. Higher fuel costs account for
approximately 4 percentage points of this increase. The company's
expectations for Net Cruise Costs excluding fuel have not
changed from previous guidance despite incurring costs associated
with vessel incidents.
Based on the aforementioned fuel assumption,
the company estimates that Net Cruise Costs per APCD for the
third quarter of 2005 will increase approximately 9%, compared
to the same quarter in 2004. Higher fuel costs account for
approximately 5 percentage points of this increase. Depreciation
and amortization is expected to be in the range of $405 to
$415 million and net interest expense is expected to be in
the range of $285 to $295 million.
For the full report, visit http://www.rclinvestor.com
Radisson Seven Seas Cruises®’ Seven Seas
Society members will soon enjoy a series of enhancements in
their past passenger program. The new, tiered loyalty program
will feature exclusive experiences, savings, communications,
offers and benefits. “Our goal is to make the Seven Seas Society
more personalized and benefits-centered for our loyal guests,”
said Kenneth Watson, executive vice president, marketing and
sales for Radisson Seven Seas. “This program enhancement is
a concerted effort to continue to recognize and reward our
highly prized repeat customers. In fact, the changes are
the direct result of feedback we’ve received from them in
the past year.”
After guests sail once with the luxury
cruise line, they automatically become Seven Seas Society
members. Among its benefits, membership now includes savings
of up to 10 percent on select sailings, instead of the previous
uniform 5 percent discount.
The new four-tiered program will recognize
guests with benefits based on the number of nights they have
sailed with the line. Among the new program highlights: exclusive
activities and events onboard and ashore; invitations to special
Seven Seas Society cruises; stateroom/suite one-category upgrade
certificates; complimentary onboard Internet access and laundry
service; priority access to itineraries; early boarding; priority
restaurant and spa reservations; spa certificates and more.
Seven Seas Society members will enjoy access
to their own newly enhanced section of www.rssc.com.
Membership will carry additional privileges, as participants
will be privy to exclusive benefits unique to the Seven Seas
Society, including enrollment in the luxury line’s new Signature
Cellars wine club.
The enhanced Seven Seas Society program
will be fully launched in the fall and will be in place for
2006. In the meantime, members can reap immediate benefits
with a one-category stateroom/suite upgrade on all 2006 seven-night
Baltic sailings, if booked by September 30, 2005.
Silversea guests sailing aboard ultra-luxury
Silver Shadow this month will be the first to experience
the transformation of the Terrace Café into La Terrazza, an
innovative Italian restaurant that will be open exclusively
for dinner. The new dining concept and menu for La Terrazza,
created under the guidance of Marco Betti, owner of the award-winning
Antica Posta restaurants in Atlanta, Georgia, and Florence,
Italy, are a further product enhancement designed to reflect
the line's unique concept of luxury—one that arises from,
and is shaped by, its Italian heritage. And it is only fitting
that an Italian-owned company would offer a new dining experience
that reflects one of the world's most luxurious culinary trends,
the Slow Food Movement, launched in Italy 19 years ago and
dedicated to preserving gastronomic traditions through the
use of fresh—not processed— traditional foods. "For several
years, Marco and his two chef brothers, Gianni and Alessandro,
have been dazzling and delighting sophisticated diners in
Atlanta and Florence with a taste of the Old World in their
innovative Tuscan-style and regional Italian cuisine,"
said Erling Frydenberg, Silversea's chief operations officer.
"This is a further step in our ongoing program of enhancements
designed to give our concept of luxury a distinctly Italian
touch."
La Terrazza will be rolled out aboard Silver
Wind in September, while the line's other two ships, Silver
Cloud and Silver Whisper, are set to offer the
new dining venue later in the year. The Terrace Café will
remain each ship's casual alternative restaurant for breakfast
and lunch during daytime hours.
Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity
Cruises are simultaneously launching online check-in for their
guests, reducing the check- in process at the pier from minutes
to seconds. Titled "SetSail" for Royal Caribbean
International and "Xpress Pass" for Celebrity Cruises,
online check-in is now available for guests booked on Royal
Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas and for those on
Celebrity's Zenith. The company expects online check-in
to be available for both brands' entire fleets by September.
The new online check-in process allows
guests to fill out all pertinent cruise documents before arriving
at the pier. Boarding documents, immigration forms, onboard
accounts and ticket contracts can be completed with just a
click of the mouse. "This is a truly innovative development,
basically making the web our 'virtual check-in agent,'"
said Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. Associate Vice President
Guest Port Services Juan Trescastro. "By averting the
need to complete paperwork at the pier or while in line, we're
reducing the time involved at the pier from an average of
three to four minutes to an average of 30 seconds per guest."
To check in online, guests are asked to
visit either http://www.celebrity.com or http://www.royalcaribbean.com,
and then click Before You Cruise on Celebrity's site,
and Before You Board on Royal Caribbean's site, followed
by Online Documentation where guests will be asked
to provide their booking number, ship and sail date, and then
follow four easy steps to complete the process. When the process
is completed, guests will receive an e-mail confirmation stating
that their documents have been processed. They can print the
confirmation and provide it, along with identification, to
agents at a special express counter at the pier.
Carnival Cruise
Lines, a unit of Carnival Corporation launched its newest
cruise ship, the 110,000- ton Carnival Liberty this
month in Civitavecchia, Italy. Academy Award winning actress
Mira Sovino served as godmother at the ship naming ceremonies
on July 19. The 2,974-passenger ship—the 21st vessel in Carnival's
"Fun Ship" fleet—also inaugurates the line's first-ever
Mediterranean cruise program.
Carnival Liberty's seven-port, 12-day Med
cruises from Civitavecchia include visits to Naples, Italy;
Dubrovnik, Croatia; Venice, Italy; Messina, Sicily; Barcelona,
Spain; Cannes, France; and Livorno, Italy. Following this
program, Carnival Liberty will depart Civitavecchia on a 16-day
transatlantic crossing Oct. 24 and arrive in Fort Lauderdale,
Fla., November. 9, 2005, positioning the vessel for a one-of-a-kind
program of six- and eight-day Bahamas/Caribbean voyages beginning
November 12. She will return to Europe in May 2006 for another
season of 12-day Mediterranean cruises.
Stylish and top-rated SeaDream Yacht Club
has published a new brochure this month that will be available
on a complimentary basis worldwide to travel professionals
and the general public. The full-color compendium features
dramatic photos of life aboard SeaDream I and II, the
company’s twin, ultra-luxury mega-yachts, as well as colorful
schematic, deck-by-deck renditions of SeaDream I and II to
orient the viewer, and a page for Terms and Conditions of
sailing with SeaDream.
Designed with an insert sheet detailing
current Caribbean and European schedules and itineraries.,
the brochure’s inserts will be updated regularly and made
available to travel agents and the public. It should be noted
that the insert sheets do not include pricing. “In the real
world prices change, increasing or even decreasing as availability
fluctuates,” said Larry Pimentel, CTC, SeaDream’s President
and CEO. “The most up-to-date pricing information will always
be found on our website [ www.seadreamyachtclub.com] and is
easily accessed.”
At 21 pages (12 inches by 8.5 inches) the
new SeaDream brochure is light-weight and compact.
In a new luxury cruising initiative, Radisson
Seven Seas® today announced the launch of “The Travel Concierge,”
a multifaceted tour and hotel program that expands upon the
line’s distinctive roster of destination offerings with the
addition of exclusive, more highly customizable land options.
Concierge Choice, Concierge à La Carte, Concierge Collection
and Hotels à La Carte options are available fleet wide. Whether
it’s a helicopter ride over the Amalfi Coast, renting a vintage
sports car with a private villa in Tuscany, dining by candlelight
in the Cisterns of Istanbul, or any number of other imaginative
options, the new “Travel Concierge” program gives guests the
freedom to go beyond traditional land and city tours to explore
each destination in greater depth - imparting a more personal,
experiential touch in every locale.
As luxury goes exploring, guests will now
be able to choose from an exciting array of optional services
including intimate group tours and the opportunity - via personalized
one-on-one consultations - to tailor their time ashore to
their own interests, resulting in fully customized, individually
designed experiences in ports of call. A dedicated toll free
phone line is now open for guests to discuss and set up their
own customized programs with the Concierge department. “The
destination experience lies at the heart of luxury cruising,
and the launch of our Travel Concierge program will further
enhance how our guests go exploring the many intriguing places
we call,” said Mark Conroy, president of Radisson Seven Seas.
“We’ve created a program that reflects the direct feedback
of our guests - and what they’ve told us they want is more
intimate, more uniquely personalized and - in some cases -
tailor-made experiences when they step ashore. (More details
in Cruise
Itinerary News/Offers)
Carnival Corporation & plc has ordered
a 68,500-ton cruise ship for its AIDA Cruises brand, which
caters exclusively to the German-speaking market, marking
the third new ship order placed for its German cruise line
in the past nine months. The 2,030-passenger vessel, which
will be constructed by Germany's Meyer Werft shipyard at an
all-in cost of euro 315 million, is scheduled to enter service
in April 2008. It will be a sister ship to AIDA's two previously
announced 68,500-ton cruise ships which will be built at Meyer
Werft and are expected to enter service in April 2007 and
April 2009.
Like its sister ships, the new vessel will
operate under AIDA's informal "club resort" cruise
concept which is aimed at younger, more active vacationers
and offers a host of on-board amenities and facilities. "With
an expected passenger base of approximately one million by
2010, the German market is expanding at a very rapid pace.
Ordering a third 68,500-ton 'club resort' newbuild for AIDA
continues our European strategy of developing this fast-growing
market by offering cruises with the most exciting, modern
ships available for German vacationers," said Micky Arison,
Carnival Corporation & plc chairman and CEO.
AIDA Cruises revolutionized the German
cruise market with the introduction of its first club ships
in 1996. By 2009, a total of seven club ships will be in service,
operating voyages to the Mediterranean, the Canaries, North
Sea, the Baltic, the Caribbean and Central America.
When Queen Mary 2 departs New York
on January 15, 2006, her guests will be embarking on an historic
voyage to the bottom of the world on the largest ship to ever
cruise around Cape Horn. Queen Mary 2's New York to Rio sailing
is the first leg of the 38- or 36-day adventure, and will
offer guests a colorful blend of the Caribbean and Brazil
on the ship's journey southward. Alternatively, guests have
the option of departing from this dazzling South America city
on the last leg of the 38- or 36-day eastbound reverse itinerary,
departing Rio on April 3, and arriving in Ft. Lauderdale on
April 13 and in New York on April 15. "Cunard's 2006
South American liner voyages are the pinnacle of civilized
adventure, offering a mesmerizing glimpse into the experiences
of history's greatest explorers, while guests enjoy the Cunard
hallmarks of opulent surroundings, fine dining, and renowned
White Star Service(TM)," says Jan Swartz, senior vice
president of customer service and sales for Cunard Line. "'Route
to Rio' is an exciting kick-off to Queen Mary 2's maiden foray
into the rich history and traditions of South America."
(More details in Cruise
Itinerary News/Offers)
Celebrity Cruises will build a new cruise
ship and launch a new class of landmark ships, Royal Caribbean
Cruises Ltd. and German shipbuilder Meyer Werft announced
in July after signing a letter of intent. Celebrity also has
an option for a second ship. The agreement is subject to customary
conditions being satisfactorily met.
The new ship, Celebrity’s first wide-body
construction, has a volume of 117,000 gross registered tons,
and length and width of 1,033 feet by 121 feet, making it
a post-Panamax vessel. The 1,425-stateroom ship accommodates
2,850 guests (double occupancy) and 1,250 crew. The average
standard stateroom on Celebrity’s new ship will be 215 square
feet. “We are excited to be collaborating with Celebrity
on this new, breakthrough design and its market-leading innovations,”
said Meyer Werft Managing Partner Bernard Meyer. “It has taken
us many months to develop a strong, working prototype and
this next-generation of ships is truly extraordinary.”
Celebrity expects delivery of the new ship
in fall 2008 and estimates the all-in cost of the ship to
be approximately $225,000 per berth. The exercise date for
the second ship is March 15, 2006, subject to certain conditions.
With today’s new ship and current
ship orders, the company predicts fleet capacity to increase
by 2.8 percent in 2006, 7.4 percent in 2007, and 7.2 percent
in 2008.
Advocating for responsible ecological practices—and
taking a stand against the wanton capture and use of marine
mammals for the amusement of travelers—Radisson Seven Seas
Cruises® announced it will no longer offer dolphin encounter
programs in any of its ports of call. The luxury cruise line
supports the World Society for the Protection of Animals’
worldwide campaign to halt dolphin encounter operations, and,
through its onboard environmental education programs in partnership
with Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Futures Society, encourages
guests to become responsible environmental citizens. “Sadly,
under the guise of communing with nature or advancing our
scientific understanding, dolphin encounter programs too often
overlook the way dolphins actually exist and interact with
each other in the wild, rather than respecting their natural
place in the marine ecosystem,” said Darius Mehta, director
of land programs for Radisson Seven Seas. “While some parks
may obtain dolphins legally, many use illegal and cruel means
to capture these magnificent animals. While we will continue
to employ programs that allow our guests the wonderful experience
of observing dolphins in the wild, we’re opposed to those
that interfere with dolphins’ natural behavior.”
Radisson Seven Seas and its partner the
Ocean Futures Society have a shared commitment to inspire
deeper knowledge of the world’s oceans and to work to end
cruelty to marine life with its adverse impact on the environment.
“We should enjoy the abundant variety of marine life as it
moves about and inhabits its own environment - without imposing
artificial means on sea creatures to make them interact or
‘perform’ for people,” Cousteau said. “Capturing marine mammals
for the purpose of orchestrating structured encounters with
humans or to display them in unnatural circumstances is unethical,
puts them at risk and interferes with their natural and appropriate
life cycles.”
Cousteau said he supports and commends
Radisson Seven Seas for “making a vital and forceful statement
to the travel and tourism industry that these encounter programs
should be avoided at all costs.”
The mission of Ocean Futures Society
is to explore the global ocean, inspiring and educating people
throughout the world to act responsibly for its protection,
documenting the critical connection between humanity and nature,
and celebrating the ocean's vital importance to the survival
of all life. In French Polynesia, Radisson Seven Sea’s
ambitious “Ambassadors of the Environment” program with the
Ocean Futures Society promotes ocean responsibility and engages
youngsters aboard the Paul Gauguin® with fun learning activities.
The partnership is enhanced with an engaging, fleet-wide lecture
series featuring Ocean Futures Society experts, personal appearances
by Jean-Michel Cousteau on select sailings, original in-suite
TV programming, plus live TV uplinks from dives conducted
by Cousteau and his team during select Radisson Seven Seas
cruises.
Website: http://www.oceanfutures.org
