Digital Story of the Week: Airways will allow ba.com users to hold seats for up to 72
hours without booking for a down payment of as little as £5. BA announced the move
on the 21st August saying: “This will give customers the time to make sure they’re
happy with their flight choices before paying for them”.
Cruise Story of the Week: Advantage has joined together with cruise group CLIA to
hold a series of regional cruise conferences for Cruise Champions and members
looking to grow their cruise business. One-day events will run in Birmingham on 8
October at Jurys Inn, Broad Street, Leeds on 9 October at Hilton Leeds City Centre,
Neville Street, and London on 22 October at Radisson Blu Portman, Portman Square.
Hotel Story of the Week: Taj Hotels and Resorts is to feature in a new television
documentary on the BBC. Due to air on BBC2, Hotel India is a four-part series and
launches on August 27 at 8pm.
Partnership Story of the Week: Princess Cruises is to offer a new chocolate range on
board after partnering with chocolatier Norman Love. The range will be unveiled on
Regal Princess during its inaugural Caribbean season and then rolled out to the rest
of the fleet in 2015.
Travel Story of the Week: Travel association Abta has predicted upwards of two million
UK residents will go on holiday over the August Bank Holiday, up more than 200,000
on last year. Abta said the Balearic and Canary Islands in Spain would again be the
most-popular overseas destinations, along with Greece, Turkey and Tunisia.
Cruise Story of the Week #2: Cruise & Maritime Voyages is giving potential customers
a taster of life onboard by offering lunch or dinner, bed and breakfast on the Marco
Polo while it is docked at the London Cruise Terminal in Tilbury in October. The
chance to dine on the ship will be available on October 3 or 4 and guests can also
choose to stay overnight in one of the cabins and have breakfast the following
morning before disembarking.
Showing posts with label princess cruises. Show all posts
Showing posts with label princess cruises. Show all posts
Monday, 25 August 2014
Tuesday, 19 August 2014
Stories of the Week
Travel Story of the Week: Ryanair saw July passenger numbers rise by 4% to 9.15 million on the back of a strategy to improve customer service. EasyJet started the summer peak with a 7.7% hike in passenger carryings. Figures for July show that the budget airline flew more than 6.4 million passengers, up from 5.9 million in the same month last year.
Cruise Story of the Week: The final episode of fly-on-the-wall documentary The Cruise Ship was watched by 3.8 million people, according to Princess Cruises. This was the highest viewing figure for an episode during the four-part series, which centred around the senior team on board Royal Princess in its debut season in the Caribbean.
Digital Story of the Week: Search advertising spend up 24% in Europe, with 38% in UK clicks coming from mobile. Quarterly search advertising spend is up by 24% across Europe, with revenue up by 23%, research from Kenshoo has found. The research reveals the total volume of clicks on search ads rose by 11% from Q2 in 2013, while total impressions have fallen by 6% and click through rate is up by 17%.
Launch Story of the Week: Turquoise launches new health and fitness winter sun packages. Turquoise Holidays has created a variety of luxury winter sun holidays for clients seeking to cleanse mind, body and soul in advance of this year’s Christmas period. Packages range from a one-off week’s yoga holiday in the Maldives with a celebrity instructor to Wildfitness holidays in Africa, where guests take part in outdoor fitness activities in “stunning natural locations.”
Cruise Story of the Week: #2: Silversea Cruises is looking at the possibility of adding a new-build to its classic fleet. Speaking at the line’s 20th anniversary gala in London on Monday, the line's chief executive Enzo Visone said no contract had been signed but he was looking at expanding.
Social Story of the Week: EE show social media now accounts for 25% of all 4G data. EE show social media now accounts for 25% of all 4G data. Telecoms provider EE has published the results of a report into the impact of 4G data on the lives of its customers, showing that social media now accounts for a quarter of all network traffic on 4G, a higher proportion than that recorded by 3G.
Cruise Story of the Week: The final episode of fly-on-the-wall documentary The Cruise Ship was watched by 3.8 million people, according to Princess Cruises. This was the highest viewing figure for an episode during the four-part series, which centred around the senior team on board Royal Princess in its debut season in the Caribbean.
Digital Story of the Week: Search advertising spend up 24% in Europe, with 38% in UK clicks coming from mobile. Quarterly search advertising spend is up by 24% across Europe, with revenue up by 23%, research from Kenshoo has found. The research reveals the total volume of clicks on search ads rose by 11% from Q2 in 2013, while total impressions have fallen by 6% and click through rate is up by 17%.
Launch Story of the Week: Turquoise launches new health and fitness winter sun packages. Turquoise Holidays has created a variety of luxury winter sun holidays for clients seeking to cleanse mind, body and soul in advance of this year’s Christmas period. Packages range from a one-off week’s yoga holiday in the Maldives with a celebrity instructor to Wildfitness holidays in Africa, where guests take part in outdoor fitness activities in “stunning natural locations.”
Cruise Story of the Week: #2: Silversea Cruises is looking at the possibility of adding a new-build to its classic fleet. Speaking at the line’s 20th anniversary gala in London on Monday, the line's chief executive Enzo Visone said no contract had been signed but he was looking at expanding.
Social Story of the Week: EE show social media now accounts for 25% of all 4G data. EE show social media now accounts for 25% of all 4G data. Telecoms provider EE has published the results of a report into the impact of 4G data on the lives of its customers, showing that social media now accounts for a quarter of all network traffic on 4G, a higher proportion than that recorded by 3G.
Wednesday, 7 May 2014
Princess 50th Anniversary Cruise On Pacific Princess – Other Cruise News: Princess Pair Reflagged to UK – Adventure Canada Takes On Larger Ship Next Year
Last week Princess Cruises announced that it was scheduling the
Pacific Princess for a 14-night 50th Anniversary cruise from Los Angeles
to the Mexican Riviera on December 3, 2015, fifty years to the day
after the chartered Princess Patricia departed on her first voyage for
the new line. In other news, last month Princess transferred its
Japanese-built Diamond Princess and Sapphire Princess to UK flag, where
along with three Australian-based P&O ships, they join a very small
circle of five UK-flag ships in the Carnival fleet out of the thirty
operated by Princess (17), P&O (10) and Cunard (3). Meanwhile,
Adventure Canada will up its capacity by two-thirds next year with the
charter of the larger Ocean Endeavour to replace Sea Adventurer in 2015.
THIS WEEK’S STORY
Princess 50th Anniversary Cruise On Pacific Princess
To celebrate its 50th anniversary next year, Princess Cruises has scheduled the 680-berth Pacific Princess for a special Mexican Riviera itinerary departing Los Angeles on December 3, 2015. She will leave fifty years to the day after the line’s original ship, the 347-berth Princess Patricia, left on the line’s first cruise in 1965.
The original vessel, from which Princess Cruises took its name, was chartered from Canadian Pacific, who normally operated her in the Alaska cruise trade by summer and laid her up in Victoria each winter.
It was Stan McDonald who saw this opportunity. McDonald had got his
start in cruising during the Seattle World’s Fair in 1962, when he
chartered the 401-berth Miami-Nassau cruise ship Yarmouth for seventeen
10-day cruises between San Francisco and Victoria.
From Victoria, passengers were ferried to Seattle in the Princess Marguerite, sister ship of the Princess Patricia. The name Princess Cruises had actually been used by Canadian Pacific for its Alaska service as early as the 1930s.
As it happened, although schooled in Seattle, like the Princess name, Stan McDonald was also of Canadian origin. He located Princess Cruises’ first offices at 643 South Flower Street, at the corner of Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, in the same building as the British-American Chamber of Commerce and not far from the Harbor Freeway.
The Pacific Princess, which will perform the 50th anniversary cruise, is the smallest ship in the Princess fleet, and the 14-night cruise will be of the same duration as that first cruise on the Princess Patricia. It will include a blend of ports from the maiden itinerary, including Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Manzanillo, and add some newer destinations such as La Paz and Loreto.
During her two winter seasons with Princess, the 23-knot Princess Patricia turned at Acapulco and it was her success that allowed McDonald to move on to larger ships and expand into the Alaska trade as well. McDonald managed the fledgling cruise line from Los Angeles until 1974, when he sold out to P&O.
The 50th anniversary cruise goes on sale on May 13, with fares
starting at $1,699 per person, double occupancy. By way of comparison,
fares on the 1965 Princess Patricia cruise began at $430. While that
fare may seem high for 1965, they were less per day than her 8-night
Alaska summer cruises, which started at $275.
Guests on the commemorative cruise will also be treated to activities and entertainment celebrating half a century of cruising and will be joined by some surprise guests.
“This nostalgic cruise to Mexico will be the perfect finale to what’s sure to be a special 50th anniversary year for Princess,” said Jan Swartz, Princess Cruises president. “For this significant milestone we couldn’t resist recreating, with some new touches, the very first cruise our company operated. And because the name Pacific Princess is so integral to our company’s history, we wanted to offer the cruise aboard the current ship with this iconic name.”
Now one of the best-known names in cruising, Princess Cruises’ first season offered ten cruises to Mexico between December 3 and April 8 accommodating about 3,200 cruisers. Nearly fifty years later, Princess is the third largest cruise line in the world, with seventeen ships carrying 1.7 million cruisers to destinations around worldwide.
OTHER CRUISE NEWS
Princess Pair Moved To UK Flag
Still on the subject of Princess Cruises, there are interesting changes of registry occurring there at the moment. After Princess, P&O and Cunard all abandoned the British flag for Bermuda, except for the three P&O Australia ships that still fly the UK flag, two Princess ships were transferred from Bermudian to British flag last month.
This is not a return as the two ships in question had been registered in Bermuda since they were built in Japan ten years ago.
On April 1, Princess moved its Diamond Princess and Sapphire Princess to UK flag and the ships now have London painted on their sterns instead of Hamilton.
Princess has made no announcement but according to sources in Bermuda
it may have something to do with the new trades the ships are shifting
to in Singapore and the Far East as there may be some fiscal advantage
to UK registry in Far East and Australian waters.
At least, there is not the threat of the EU laws that apply when ships operate from the UK. On August 1, 2011, when the Equality Act was implemented, it was no longer lawful to pay differential rates of pay to other EU nationals, no matter where recruited. This meant that market rates of pay that had been negotiated for other nationals could no longer be paid under UK flag. The Act had misunderstood the competitive nature of shipping and how it works.
On September 23, 2011, after a polite few weeks’ interval, Peter Shanks, then president of Cunard Line, started talking of weddings, telling The Financial Times that “weddings at sea are now very big business” and “this business is currently denied to us, as our fleet is registered in the UK.”
Soon, there were no Cunard ships under UK flag, nor any P&O or Princess ships for that matter, except in Australia.
According to The Transport Select Committee report on UK Shipping
Strategy report of March 26, the number of UK ratings has fallen nearly
30% in the time since passage of the Equality Act, to the current level
of 8,590, and a significant shortfall in UK trained seafarers is
predicted by 2021.
Of the two Princess ships that have been reflagged, the Diamond Princess also cruises from Australia during their summer season, bringing the UK-flag cruise ship fleet based in Australia to four on a seasonal basis. She is now cruising from Yokohama until November, when she shifts back to Sydney, remaining there until her return to Yokohama in April 2015. From next month through November, Sapphire Princess will be cruising from Shanghai, Tianjin and Singapore and from November she will be based in Singapore.
While on the subject of Bermuda, millions of cruise tickets have now been issued by Cunard, P&O and Princess showing their ships as “Bermudan.” The preferred usage in Bermuda is actually Bermudian, a term that generates ten times as many search results on Google, in excess of 9 million, compared to just 900,000 for Bermudan.
One cannot say that Bermudan is incorrect but it is not favoured in Bermuda, where Bermudian is regarded as proper.
Adventure Canada Takes On Larger Ship Next Year
Toronto-based Adventure Canada announced a new ship last week when it revealed that it would be chartering the 12,907-ton Ocean Endeavour for its 2015 Arctic expedition season. The Ice Class 1B ship will replace the 4,376-ton Sea Adventurer.
Outfitted with a fleet of twenty Zodiacs, advanced navigation
equipment, several lounges and a ship-top observation room, Ocean
Endeavour is perfect for intimate expeditions to remote environments
around Newfoundland, Labrador, the Canadian Arctic, Greenland and the
Northwest Passage.
“Not only will we retain the entertaining and educational expedition programming our guests value, but we’ll be able to invite even more resource staff aboard to further enhance the experience,” said Cedar Swan, Adventure Canada’s vice president.
“Ocean Endeavour allows us to provide more options for our guests.”
Ocean Endeavour’s shallow draft and maneuverability allow her to navigate isolated fiords, sheltered bays and visit secluded communities to deliver the routes Adventure Canada is known for. While venturing to some of the world’s last great frontiers, such as the Northwest Passage, guests can appreciate the comforts of a boutique hotel and know their safety is first.
The Ocean Endeavour will comfortably accommodate a maximum of 198 passengers when in service with Adventure Canada. Compared to 118 on the Sea Adventurer this will allow two-thirds more passengers to enjoy these popular expedition voyages.
Guests can select from a variety of cabin categories, ranging from 100 to 320 square feet, all en suite and with television.
Built in 1982, the ice-strengthened Finnish-registered vessel was converted for cruising in 2010 and underwent further extensive renovations this year. Passengers enjoy spectacular views on several decks equipped with comfortable lounge chairs and can take advantage of amenities including sauna, Jacuzzi, gym and spa.
Ocean Endeavour’s three lounges also provide spacious public spaces for simultaneous workshops, events and presentations, inviting each guest to tailor their own on board experience.
(Kevin Griffin is managing director of specialist cruise agency The Cruise People Ltd in London, England. For further information concerning cruises mentioned in this article readers can visit his blog)
THIS WEEK’S STORY
Princess 50th Anniversary Cruise On Pacific Princess
To celebrate its 50th anniversary next year, Princess Cruises has scheduled the 680-berth Pacific Princess for a special Mexican Riviera itinerary departing Los Angeles on December 3, 2015. She will leave fifty years to the day after the line’s original ship, the 347-berth Princess Patricia, left on the line’s first cruise in 1965.
The original vessel, from which Princess Cruises took its name, was chartered from Canadian Pacific, who normally operated her in the Alaska cruise trade by summer and laid her up in Victoria each winter.
The Pacific Princess
From Victoria, passengers were ferried to Seattle in the Princess Marguerite, sister ship of the Princess Patricia. The name Princess Cruises had actually been used by Canadian Pacific for its Alaska service as early as the 1930s.
As it happened, although schooled in Seattle, like the Princess name, Stan McDonald was also of Canadian origin. He located Princess Cruises’ first offices at 643 South Flower Street, at the corner of Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, in the same building as the British-American Chamber of Commerce and not far from the Harbor Freeway.
The Pacific Princess, which will perform the 50th anniversary cruise, is the smallest ship in the Princess fleet, and the 14-night cruise will be of the same duration as that first cruise on the Princess Patricia. It will include a blend of ports from the maiden itinerary, including Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Manzanillo, and add some newer destinations such as La Paz and Loreto.
During her two winter seasons with Princess, the 23-knot Princess Patricia turned at Acapulco and it was her success that allowed McDonald to move on to larger ships and expand into the Alaska trade as well. McDonald managed the fledgling cruise line from Los Angeles until 1974, when he sold out to P&O.
The 347-berth Princess Patricia
Guests on the commemorative cruise will also be treated to activities and entertainment celebrating half a century of cruising and will be joined by some surprise guests.
“This nostalgic cruise to Mexico will be the perfect finale to what’s sure to be a special 50th anniversary year for Princess,” said Jan Swartz, Princess Cruises president. “For this significant milestone we couldn’t resist recreating, with some new touches, the very first cruise our company operated. And because the name Pacific Princess is so integral to our company’s history, we wanted to offer the cruise aboard the current ship with this iconic name.”
Now one of the best-known names in cruising, Princess Cruises’ first season offered ten cruises to Mexico between December 3 and April 8 accommodating about 3,200 cruisers. Nearly fifty years later, Princess is the third largest cruise line in the world, with seventeen ships carrying 1.7 million cruisers to destinations around worldwide.
OTHER CRUISE NEWS
Princess Pair Moved To UK Flag
Still on the subject of Princess Cruises, there are interesting changes of registry occurring there at the moment. After Princess, P&O and Cunard all abandoned the British flag for Bermuda, except for the three P&O Australia ships that still fly the UK flag, two Princess ships were transferred from Bermudian to British flag last month.
This is not a return as the two ships in question had been registered in Bermuda since they were built in Japan ten years ago.
On April 1, Princess moved its Diamond Princess and Sapphire Princess to UK flag and the ships now have London painted on their sterns instead of Hamilton.
The Diamond Princess
At least, there is not the threat of the EU laws that apply when ships operate from the UK. On August 1, 2011, when the Equality Act was implemented, it was no longer lawful to pay differential rates of pay to other EU nationals, no matter where recruited. This meant that market rates of pay that had been negotiated for other nationals could no longer be paid under UK flag. The Act had misunderstood the competitive nature of shipping and how it works.
On September 23, 2011, after a polite few weeks’ interval, Peter Shanks, then president of Cunard Line, started talking of weddings, telling The Financial Times that “weddings at sea are now very big business” and “this business is currently denied to us, as our fleet is registered in the UK.”
Soon, there were no Cunard ships under UK flag, nor any P&O or Princess ships for that matter, except in Australia.
The Sapphire Princess
Of the two Princess ships that have been reflagged, the Diamond Princess also cruises from Australia during their summer season, bringing the UK-flag cruise ship fleet based in Australia to four on a seasonal basis. She is now cruising from Yokohama until November, when she shifts back to Sydney, remaining there until her return to Yokohama in April 2015. From next month through November, Sapphire Princess will be cruising from Shanghai, Tianjin and Singapore and from November she will be based in Singapore.
While on the subject of Bermuda, millions of cruise tickets have now been issued by Cunard, P&O and Princess showing their ships as “Bermudan.” The preferred usage in Bermuda is actually Bermudian, a term that generates ten times as many search results on Google, in excess of 9 million, compared to just 900,000 for Bermudan.
One cannot say that Bermudan is incorrect but it is not favoured in Bermuda, where Bermudian is regarded as proper.
Adventure Canada Takes On Larger Ship Next Year
Toronto-based Adventure Canada announced a new ship last week when it revealed that it would be chartering the 12,907-ton Ocean Endeavour for its 2015 Arctic expedition season. The Ice Class 1B ship will replace the 4,376-ton Sea Adventurer.
Adventure Canada’s Ocean Endeavour
“Not only will we retain the entertaining and educational expedition programming our guests value, but we’ll be able to invite even more resource staff aboard to further enhance the experience,” said Cedar Swan, Adventure Canada’s vice president.
“Ocean Endeavour allows us to provide more options for our guests.”
Ocean Endeavour’s shallow draft and maneuverability allow her to navigate isolated fiords, sheltered bays and visit secluded communities to deliver the routes Adventure Canada is known for. While venturing to some of the world’s last great frontiers, such as the Northwest Passage, guests can appreciate the comforts of a boutique hotel and know their safety is first.
The Ocean Endeavour will comfortably accommodate a maximum of 198 passengers when in service with Adventure Canada. Compared to 118 on the Sea Adventurer this will allow two-thirds more passengers to enjoy these popular expedition voyages.
Clipper Adventurer – Sea Adventure
Built in 1982, the ice-strengthened Finnish-registered vessel was converted for cruising in 2010 and underwent further extensive renovations this year. Passengers enjoy spectacular views on several decks equipped with comfortable lounge chairs and can take advantage of amenities including sauna, Jacuzzi, gym and spa.
Ocean Endeavour’s three lounges also provide spacious public spaces for simultaneous workshops, events and presentations, inviting each guest to tailor their own on board experience.
(Kevin Griffin is managing director of specialist cruise agency The Cruise People Ltd in London, England. For further information concerning cruises mentioned in this article readers can visit his blog)
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