Ship Switches - Do I finally Got this Right

[robsvacation]

OK, lately Carnival Corp has been moving and renaming ships between their lines so fast I can no longer keep track. I'm only wondering about the upcoming ships and moves, not all the other swapping that's gone on. Let me see if I got this right:

 

1) Princess' "Royal" will move over to P&O and become the "Artemis" in 2005

 

2) Princess' "Ocean" was moved over to P&O to become the Adonia only to be moved back to Princess under her old name (or is she going to Aida now?)

 

3) The last scheduled HAL "Vista Class" ship was to become the new Cunard "Victoria" but instead gets a third incarnation as the P&O "Arcadia"

 

4) The new Cunard "Victoria" due in 2007 hasn't been traded (yet!) This ship will be designed to look more like the QM2, aka something more akin to an ocean liner.

 

Have I got them right now? Ugh!

[Globaliser]

Have I got them right now? Ugh!

1, 3 and 4 are right.

 

Ocean Princess and Sea Princess were both transferred to P&O, and became Oceana and Adonia respectively (marketed collectively as "the White Sisters"). It's Adonia which is going back to Princess, resuming her old name of Sea Princess. I think she starts in early May 2005.

[Kiwi Kruzer]

Along comes Costa into the act..........

 

Costa has ordered another 112.000 gt "Concordia"-class ship with Fincantieri for delivery in spring, 2007.

 

It has been announced that "Costa Tropicale" will leave the Costa fleet and be transferred to P&O Cruises Australia.

"Costa Tropicale" will be renamed "Pacific Star" and she is to join "Pacific Sun" and "Pacific Sky".

[Druke I]

Kiwi

 

World Cruise and Ocean Liner Society is reporting that latest move (Costa Tropicale to P&O Australia) in their latest newsletter.

 

Australia's cruise market must be really booming - perhaps someday in the near future you will receive a "newbuild", rather than a stream of second (or third) hand ships.

[robsvacation]

Thanks for the clarification everyone. It seems in the last few years the lines have been shifting ships all over the place fairly quickly, I just can't keep track! Carnival Corp has been really active in this regard. When Sun bought NCL they might as well have just sailed their respective fleets across the Pacific and swapped, most of the pre-Star NCL fleet is heading to aisa over the next few years while almost every newbuild destined for Star has ended up in the NCL fleet.

 

As for Australia, I think it's only a matter of time before a newbuild heads for that market, likely from an Asian shipyard.

[Globaliser]

This may have something to do with the size and type of ship that seems to be right for the Asia/Pacific region.

 

The Australian home market is a relatively small one, especially for ships that are culturally aimed at Aussies/Kiwis - the contrast I'm drawing is with the "carriage trade" of people flying in from further afield onto mega ships during limited seasons.

 

And it looks like Star is discovering that the home Asian (ie Oriental) cruising market is not developing as fast as they would like - perhaps because that market's expectations from a cruise are different. Look at the proportion of short cruises being offered, and the designs of the big Star-ordered ships which have lots of restaurant and casino space but much less in the way of show theatres/bars/lounges.