4 New HAL Ships

[blackbird71]

to RuthC and others...

 

I was looking at an around South American cruise and the cheapest for a single wanting his own cabin was..... Silverseas...... 10% single sup plus a good discount... Who would have thought it.

 

I also just did the Amazon on the Radisson SS Mariner for $500 more than the Royal Princess. And the $500 could have been lower but I am a very light drinker...

[shipcafe]

I was just thinking today that the STATENDAM is already in her 13th year. Another 7 or 8 years and she might be due for replacement!

Stephen

 

Such a sad thought - I just love the "S" Class ships!

[RevNeal]

I was just thinking today that the STATENDAM is already in her 13th year. Another 7 or 8 years and she might be due for replacement!

 

Blasphemy!

Go wash your mouth out with soap. :eek:

[RuthC]

Greg, let's be realistic here. HAL's oldest ships are the four S-class. (I'm not factoring the Prinsendam in this; she's a speciality ship.) They will be the first to leave. They will either be replaced with something of a similar ilk, or the atmosphere they provided to the passengers who love them will be gone.

 

One of my concerns now is staffing the new ships. If HAL is having trouble getting enough help (one possibility we've talked about) for the ships they have, then how will they ever staff four new, larger ships adequately? Four larger ships will require more staffing than the four S-class---and that's if the new ships are replacements. If they are additional ships in the fleet then the staffing problems will be magnified.

[Crescoia]

This is interesting. A couple months back I was reading Carnvil's Annual Report and saw a list of all the new builds coming on-line. (As most readers may know Carnival Corp is the parent for Carnival, Princess, Holland, AIDA, Costa, Cunard, P&O, Ocean Village, Seabourn and Windstar). Anyway they disclosed then that they were building one HAL ship, the Noordam which we all know about and two ships that had yet to be assigned to a particular line. That of course doesn't mean things haven't changed since then, but here is a list of what they published in their SEC report...

 

 

Ship Commitments

 

Brand & Ship Expected Capacity

 

Carnival-

Valor ..................12/04 ........2974

Liberty .................7/05......... 2974

Freedom ..............3/07......... 2974

 

 

 

Princess

Crown Princess ....6/06.......... 3110

Un-Named ..........4/07........... 3110

 

 

Holland America

Noordam............. 2/06........... 1848

 

AIDA

Un-Named........... 5/07........... 2030

Un-Named ...........5/09........... 2030

 

Costa

Costa Concordia ...7/06........... 3004

 

Cunard

Queen Victoria .....12/07.......... 1982

 

Unassigned Contracts

Newbuild ..............4/08............ 3100

Newbuild ..............6/08............ 3000

 

 

The Unassigned "New Builds" at the time looked more like they would fit into the Princess style ship, but maybe they are trying something different.

[RDWills]

DH is already looking at Crystal and the Queen Mary 2 for 2007

 

We've wanted to do a cruise on the QM2 also, but seeing the Queen Vicortia coming in at about the same size as the Vista ships makes me want to see her deck plans and itineraries!

 

I also hope HAL doesn't get one of those unassigned 3000+ passenger ships, the Vista Class is big enough for me.

 

Also, forgive the newbie question, but what is a 'post-Panamax ship'?

 

-Robin

[PRINSENDAM]

We've wanted to do a cruise on the QM2 also, but seeing the Queen Vicortia coming in at about the same size as the Vista ships makes me want to see her deck plans and itineraries!

 

I also hope HAL doesn't get one of those unassigned 3000+ passenger ships, the Vista Class is big enough for me.

 

Also, forgive the newbie question, but what is a 'post-Panamax ship'?

 

-Robin

 

 

Robin,

 

Don't panic just yet! As far as I know the unassigned 3000 pax ships are for Princess/P&O.

 

I think you may be waiting a long time for QUEEN VICTORIA. My information is that they have not even started cutting steel yet.

 

A 'Panamax' ship is one built to the largest dimensions which can fit the locks. The dimensions are 1000 feet in length and 110 feet wide

 

The VISTA ships are 936 feet length overall and their waterline beam is 105.8 feet. Leaves just 2.2 feet of space either side when going through the locks. A tight squeeze! Draught in the locks is not a problem for the passenger ships.

 

Stephen

[PRINSENDAM]

Blasphemy!

Go wash your mouth out with soap. :eek:

 

 

Greg,

 

DONE!

 

Quite right too. I think a lot of people will be sad to see the S class ship go, but hopefully that won't be the case for many, many years.

 

Stephen

[whm]

Sounds as though the key word here is "heard". Remember the old childs game at school where you sat in a ring and the first person passed some verbal tidbit to the second person and so on until it returned to the starting point. Not resembling the initial tidbit at all! That was taught as a lesson. I guess that some people can only complain and find fault.