WanderingTravels

The A&K charter will have A&K shore excursions whereas the Amadeus product will not.

The Uniworld ship is the Joie de Vivre and it does not have a "step-out" balcony, if that's what you're thinking.  That ship's "balconies" are basically the same as the french balcony on the Tauck ship, the Sapphire, its just that the "balcony" opens a different way.  I would recommend Tauck, their shore trips are exceptional.

Apples to oranges comparison?  Comparing a "suite" with a drink package to just a regular balcony cabin?  Doesn't sound right to me.  A regular balcony cabin on the Ascent for that voyage is like $3500 per couple.  

4 hours ago, Canal archive said:

I understand all of the above and this may seem a silly question but has the family actually sold the trading names?

Yes, the entire business (including IP) is being sold.   The deal will close by the end of the year.

17 minutes ago, johng75370 said:

That’s exactly my point; they (MSC Group) did not get Explora 1 correct as evidenced by the non-functional Helios pool.  EJ has tried to make changes to it while sailing, but it’s been taking a while to get it right (maybe it is finally fixed).  Across my two voyages it was not; and as a cruise line that encourages families not having an adult-only area is an issue.  EJ may be holding up Explora 2 rather than ship it with that or other design flaws; they hopefully have learned from what they did not get right on Explora 1.  None of that has to do with the builder; if it was builder-caused delay then the successful sea trials would not have happened on schedule.

Builder trials are machinery tests for propulsion, navigation, engineering equipment, etc.   Trials have nothing to do with the completion of the hotel areas and I’m sure they wouldn’t cancel five revenue cruises, amounting in millions of lost revenue, just because of a non-functional Helios pool.   The fact is, as it generally always is when a ship is delivered late, the outfitting of the vessel is simply not sufficiently complete to begin service without serious disruption to the guests and crew.

4 hours ago, JanR said:

Fortunately, Fincantieri builds cruise ships for very few cruise lines.  The short list is:

Princess, Holland America, Carnival, Costa, P&O Cruises, Ponant, Viking, Cunard, Seabourn, MSC, Silversea, Oceania, Disney, Regent, Hurtigruten, NCL, Hapag-Lloyd and Virgin.

 

Here is something that I thought was interesting.  When we first sailed MSC before our World Cruise, we were told by an MSC official that although MSC was essentially an Italian cruise line, all of their ships prior to the Seaside class were built by companies in France, not Fincatieri which is in Italy.  MSC did hire Fincantieri to build build the Seaside-class ships but it was due to reliability issues with the construction that drover MSC to build their World-class ships Chantiers de l'Atlantique--back in France.

 

So I was surprised after being told this that MSC would double-down to build their luxury-brand ships with Fincantieri.

I take it meant very many cruise lines, not very few.   You left out TUI Mein Schiff and Four Seasons Yacht.  
 

Price and availability are usually the driving factors for determining where a ship is built.  The French yard is busy building ships for MSC, Royal Caribbean, Orient-Express and Ritz-Carlton…it’s a smaller shipyard than Fincantieri and probably couldn’t take on such an order for Explora.

27 minutes ago, johng75370 said:

It’s a shared responsibility, as the cruise line is responsible for the design and features; the builder builds to their specifications.  Putting out a press release that Explora 2 successfully passed sea trials suggests that the builder did their job. 

 

For example, the new trend (with Explora and Silversea) to put pools/large hot tubs off the sides of the ship is a significant engineering challenge - changes all the dynamics compared to the pools/water being in the center or centerline of the ship.  Can be built properly by the builder but give headaches to the operator who made those design choices.  Explora 1 (to my knowledge) may not yet have a functioning Helios pool (the adults area pool) because of a design flaw.  Could be Explora 2 is held up for a comparable issue not being resolved (or same one).

Explora II is not a prototype, she’s the second vessel in a series, so your theory doesn’t really hold up.  Actually the engineering designs (used for construction) are not done by the owner they are done by the yard, based on the general arrangement designs provided by the owner.  So the yard knows what they’re building, in this case the yard didn’t have enough time to deliver on time….likely because of supply-chain issues like with the Sun Princess and several ships beforehand.  

The same shipyard built Sun Princess (Princess Cruises) and she too was late.  It's not the cruise line's fault, it's the builder.  

35 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

When I see a pattern [all new Seaware customers have terrible websites] I connect the dots...

You’ve left the dots on the right side of the page out of your calculation.  Your a cruise line with a website that is connected to a reservation system.  When you launch a new reservation system you have to rebuild your website to connect to the new system.   If you were correct, that the reservation system is at fault, then you would not only be able to use the website but also the reservation system, which is not the case.  Clients are able to make cruise reservations and even book shore excursions, provided they call.  Therefore the issue is the website.   There are many companies that use Seaware (NCL, Disney, AMA) and they don’t have problems.  Lindblad launched Seaware last year and we didn’t hear of any problems.   
 

https://www.travelagentcentral.com/cruises/lindblad-expeditions-announces-expedition-360-advisor-program

1 hour ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Explora uses Versonix Seaware.  They don't have the ability to bring in their own IT team to solve these problems – and every other new Seaware customer has similar website functionality problems.  Azamara's problems took forever to get up to 'decent' and still aren't fully fixed.  Windstar has been down for a month now from the latest 'upgrade.'  I don't know what the solution could be for Explora, but it doesn't involve staying with Seaware.

Versonix Seaware is a reservation system, not a website.  A website would be built by an internal IT team or an outside vendor and then is coded to communicate with the reservation system for prices and availability.  In situations like this the problems usually occur when the company fails to scope out the project sufficiently and doesn't dedicate enough resources (particularly time, money and knowledge) to complete the project properly.  I've seen it countless times at companies, never fails.

Is it me or is the new website as unappealing as the old?

2 hours ago, Whipsnade said:

Vince has it pretty much nailed. 
BTW the Europe river cruise business is a lose lose business unless you are as big as Viking. Marketing costs are the same for little boats as they are for big ships with quadruple the pax. Case closed. 

False.  Do you really think investors would support over 300 money-losing ships if that were the case?  There are numerous large river companies (AMA, Avalon, Uniworld, Croisieurope, Nicko), all of which are building new ships every year, which I highly doubt would be the case if it was a loss-making industry.  Viking is the first river company to publish financials, so you can see its making money, but they are not the only one.  And marketing costs aren't the same as big ships because you need FAR fewer passengers to find.

They recorded a non-cash "private derivatives loss" of $2B in 2023.  That is defined as "the non-cash loss (gain) on the remeasurement of the fair value of the derivatives associated with our Series A Preference Shares, Series B Preference Shares and Series C Preference Shares. Our Series A Preference Shares and Series B Preference Shares are no longer outstanding since the issuance of Series C Preference Shares in 2021. Our Series C Preference Shares will automatically convert to ordinary shares immediately prior to the consummation of this offering."

Without that non-cash loss the company would have reported a $1.1 billion EBITDA, impressive.

6 minutes ago, wolfie11 said:

In the past eight years or so - Alaska, Japan, the Med, British Isles, Australia, New Zealand, French Polynesia, Panama Canal, South America, and Antarctica. Before that some cruising in Europe, Asia, China, and Cuba.  

I meant where besides the Caribbean and Med would you like Virgin to go?  The ships are big so they do have limitations.

7 hours ago, wolfie11 said:

I cruise a lot.  In the last few years I’ve been on Princess, RCI, and Celebrity, as well as Viking, Regent, Cunard, Hurtigruten, Alaska Dream Cruises, and Virgin.  I really can’t stand the mainstream cruise lines anymore.  They nickel and dime, everything is a hard sell, constant announcements to urge people to the casino, shops, art auctions, bingo, and whatever else makes them money. And they absolutely lie to you.  I recently cruised Virgin and I have to say, they made cruising fun again.  Everything was pretty laid back with no frantic efforts to get you to spend, spend, spend.  Sailor’s loot so I could choose a budget that matched my drink consumption rather than having to spend almost the cost of another cruise on a drink package that was way more than I’d ever use.  Lots of free “classes” and activities that have mostly been discontinued on the Walmarts of the Seas.  I would gladly go on a Virgin cruise again.  My problem is that of all places in the world to go, the two I loathe the most are the Caribbean/Mexico and the Med in summer.  I wish they would expand their itineraries to more interesting places and I would jump onboard anytime.

Like where?

On 3/7/2024 at 1:48 PM, Host Dan said:

As I was looking over my final cruise docs from SD, I noticed that my suite is NOT listed as a murphy bed only.  (Notice the difference between affected suites on SDI and SDII)  I assumed the rep made a mistake, and quoted SDII.  My TA called, and was told that it was an error, and that, indeed, my suite is Murphy bed only.  A pretty substantial mistake, I'd say.  My TA was told that initially when the suite was booked, SD relies on the TA community to educate the client on such matters.  My TA had absolutely no idea that my suite was inferior. How in the world would he know that?  The only reference he had was the brochure from SD, and it was wrong!  SD did offer to move us to a normal suite, only as a paid upgrade. 

 

Hopefully this will be a lesson for future guests.  I'm done worrying about the details, and am looking forward to the service one comes to expect, onboard.

VERY unfair for SD to point fingers at the travel agent, shameful!  

Is that $10k per person or per couple?

Speechless!

Are goggles necessary?

4 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

I'll second the recommendation, and explain.  It's about quality.  Viking's ships have the highest number of passengers crammed into the same size hull; AMA has more room per passengers in every area (public, and cabin sizes).  AMA spends more on food per passenger than Viking [according to the Berlitz River Cruising guide].  AMA has more choices of shore excursions and they are all included [I couldn't believe the recent thread about a Colmar tour on Viking costing $159 per person – that tour is free on AMA], and the groups are smaller.

 

One other thought: all pre- and post-extensions on all cruise lines are pricey, but with AMA at least the same Cruise Director accompanies you throughout so you have a high level of service and continuity. 

But when you factor in their air deals isn’t Viking substantially less than AMA?

If you’re from the US, Viking is the best value.

No worries on itineraries that visit Holland & Belgium, usually sailing round trip out of Amsterdam.

Symphony received new engines, is that true?  

On 9/4/2023 at 8:02 AM, crusinbanjo said:

Not sure if this is the right thread for thi, but just in case Azamara management is reading, here goes.

 

This week, the first of my two final payments are due, and I will make them on time, but there has been absolutely NO communication from Aza at all. No reminders of upcoming payments, no emails on excursions, no communication about OBC that was promised, no promos for future cruises, nothing.  It is like I fell off the radar or maybe they lost my email address?  I don’t know, hopefully all goes well, but Aza is not making a good first impression!  

Curious, did you book with a travel agent or direct?

Royal is more popular than Celebrity