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Ocean Princess for sale

yyjguy

By yyjguy,
in Princess Cruises

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CHK

CHK

Posted
Posted
Source of information: Carnival Corporation annual shareholders report, cited in many economic stockholder reports, and also in maritime industry trade web sites.

 

I'm not doubting what you're saying but I can't find a copy of that report anywhere (and as a shareholder they sure didn't tell us...) Anyway, can you possibly provide a link to your source?

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yyjguy

yyjguy

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Certainly:

 

Donald also used the opportunity to reiterate Carnival’s newbuild policy which he described as “measured capacity growth” with only one new ship in 2017, a recent order for Princess Cruises. He also noted that there are plans to sell the Ocean Princess.

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Jim Avery

Jim Avery

Posted
Posted

Unfortunately, "measured capacity growth" seems to mean ever larger ships. I am not the only one here who will not sail the larger existing ships. I like the Princess Product on the smaller ships but don't want to be on anyones 3,500 passenger plus ships. Just one couple's opinion. Your mileage may vary.:D

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casavaha

casavaha

Posted
Posted

In my opinion this is a big mistake for Princess. These ships can fit a niche market.

Fix them up, spend some money on them. Look at Azamara, Oceana etc. There is a

market. Look at HAL with their small ships, most of which are in terrible shape.

 

Princess could do some SA roundtrip cruises out of LA, do more rt cruises out of the

west coast to other places than Alaska and Hawaii.

 

I doubt these ships will bring much. Princess has the economy of scale in buying goods,

advertising, support.

 

My guess this is a Carnival Corp decision.

 

Greg

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Dorset Cruiser

Dorset Cruiser

Posted
Posted
Since you've never sailed on either of them, how do you know they're "tired"? If you're that psychic, perhaps you could tell me tomorrow's winning lottery numbers, so that I can book a long voyage on one of the best ships in the fleet.

 

Ocean Princess is definitely not 'tired' - she is a beautiful ship with a 'country house' feel. We enjoyed our one cruise on her. There is no way on earth that I would sail on the monster ships - Royal and Regal 😔

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

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Loonbeam

Loonbeam

Posted
Posted

Niche markets are more expensive to operate (and usually to cruise). Princess could do it, sure, but its not the most cost effective use of their resources for their market (which is different than Azamara, etc).

 

The cost of the necessary upgrades would probably pricepoint most Princess cruisers out of the running.

In my opinion this is a big mistake for Princess. These ships can fit a niche market.

Fix them up, spend some money on them. Look at Azamara, Oceana etc. There is a

market. Look at HAL with their small ships, most of which are in terrible shape.

 

Princess could do some SA roundtrip cruises out of LA, do more rt cruises out of the

west coast to other places than Alaska and Hawaii.

 

I doubt these ships will bring much. Princess has the economy of scale in buying goods,

advertising, support.

 

My guess this is a Carnival Corp decision.

 

Greg

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icat2000

icat2000

Posted
Posted
A few years ago, we were told by a cruise director that the Ocean and Pacific averaged earning about 1 million per MONTH, while the big ships averaged 5 million per WEEK

 

Big difference. I guess they not sustainable financially and probably due for a refit soon.

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Host Jazzbeau Great Review Rare

Host Jazzbeau

Posted
Posted (edited)
In my opinion this is a big mistake for Princess. These ships can fit a niche market.

Fix them up, spend some money on them. Look at Azamara, Oceana etc. There is a market...

 

Your Azamara example points the other way: Celebrity initially bought them to use as boutique ships but immediately realized that they couldn't charge the necessary per diem to make money with the "Celebrity" mass market name attached. That's why they created Azamara.

 

Princess can't do that because Carnival already owns Seabourn and HAL has the Prinsendam. Princess is locked into its market segment by Carnival pecking order.

Edited by Host Jazzbeau
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steveww48

steveww48

Posted
Posted
I strongly suspect that Princess is counting on most of the cruising public to be unaware of the possibility that Ocean Princess might be sold (and if there is a sale, a whole bunch of cruises will be cancelled). On that basis, they are counting on there being enough people continuing to book the ship so that Princess still will be able to make money on those cruises.

 

As someone else has posted, I strongly believe that cruises on the small ships are profitable for Princess, just not as profitable as are the cruises on larger ships. If these trips were not profitable, Princess would simply mothball the small ships rather than continue to operate them and lose money on each cruise. So they'd be happy to continue to book and operate these cruises as long as they still own the ship. If/when a sale happens, they will have to deal with some very disappointed customers and there will be some amount of goodwill lost, but pragmatically, that will relate to a very small fraction of the cruising population. At least that's what I suspect their thinking is.

 

As it happens, as one who does know about Princess' desire to sell the ship, that is inhibiting me from booking the Ocean Princess. We've been seriously looking at a July, 2015 cruise on this ship and were probably a day or two away from placing a booking when I read about the ship being for sale. As you point out, there are additional costs one incurs when booking a cruise (e.g., insurance, airfare) and these are non-refundable (at least in part). In our situation, I figure that I'd be looking at about $1000 out-of-pocket in insurance costs and airline change fees if the cruise is cancelled and I doubt very much that Princess would reimburse me for that. (I sent an email to Princess yesterday asking about this but I've not yet gotten a response. I'll be surprised if Princess says they will reimburse such expenses.) Based on what I know now, if I book the Ocean Princess I'm betting about $1000 that Princess will not be able to sell the ship before July 2015. Yes, it's probably unlikely a sale will happen by then but why should I have to place this bet at all?

 

For those who already have a booking on Ocean Princess, presumably there is no decision they need to make at this time-- unless they have not yet booked airfare. But for those who might be considering a booking and know about the possibility of a sale... Princess has created quite a bit of uncertainty for us.

 

I never did get a reply to the email I sent to Customer Relations at Princess. But on Friday I was able to reach someone by phone in that department and I explained my concerns about booking a cruise on Ocean Princess. I asked if Princess would be able to make any commitments as to what would happen to any voyages that might remain on the schedule after the ship is sold-- specifically, if the cruise were to be cancelled, would Princess reimburse me for any non-refundable expenses I've incurred with other vendors? She said she understood my concerns and would "check with management" and get back to me.

 

She called back yesterday. She was polite and professional but did not have a response that I consider to be truly helpful. She said that if voyages are cancelled because the ship has been sold, Princess might consider some reimbursements for expenses incurred with other vendors but there would be no commitments in writing.

 

I asked if she knew of any precedents of this kind (in which a ship was sold) and she said in her 18 years at Princess she could not recall this sort of situation.

 

I asked if Princess is able to make a commitment that all cruises at least through a certain date (any date they choose) would happen. She said they could not make any such commitment.

 

I said that this was very disappointing. I pointed out that knowledge of Princess' desire to sell the ship was widely known online and would only become more widely known among the cruising public with every passing day and that Princess is likely to get an increasing number of inquiries about this. She acknowledged this but said there was nothing more she could tell me, reiterating that there would not be any official commitments of any sort.

 

Under these conditions, we won't be booking anything on Ocean Princess.

 

All of my business experience tells me that when Princess decided to put the ship up for sale they also decided on an unwinding plan for any voyages that might remain beyond the sale date-- they have to take the unwinding costs into account in assessing the net benefit of a sales transaction. I believe they know what they will do, but they do not want to tell us. This leads me to conclude that their plan is not likely to be customer-friendly (if it were customer-friendly, why not announce it and extinguish any possible anxiety?).

 

Perhaps if they get enough flak from customers or see bookings dry up on the Ocean Princess they will see the light and announce their plans-- I really hope they do make an announcement, one that is customer-friendly. As things currently stand, I believe that Princess is creating needless anxiety for customers who know about Princess' desire to sell the ship and in effect, they are taking advantage of those who do not know.

 

I'm really disappointed in Princess.

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Waynetor "Live from...." Rare

Waynetor

Posted
Posted

Thanks for all the info from the Princess rep You are very right that as word gets around booking more than a few months out will dry up,

The more this happens, the more the prices would have to drop and the urgency to sell would increase.

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Goingagin

Goingagin

Posted
Posted
That stinks. :mad:

It certainly does. I Love the small ships - they go to ports others only dream of - can dock while others tender - you actually get to meet people more than once. I'll miss Ocean/Tahitian Princess - what a lady! and Pacific too.

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KruzeKrazy!

KruzeKrazy!

Posted
Posted

We're booked on a "dream vacation" to French Polynesia on the Pacific Princess in Oct 2015. It's to celebrate our 40th anniversary and being a planner-type I have everything arranged - pre-cruise hotels, transfers, surprise canoe-delivered room service breakfast, etc., etc

 

And we're, of course, wondering if we should bag the whole thing and look for something totally different.

 

It's kind of a "keep the dream vacation plans and hope it works out" versus "find something different but know it's a sure thing" decision...

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beg3yrs

beg3yrs

Posted
Posted (edited)
We're booked on a "dream vacation" to French Polynesia on the Pacific Princess in Oct 2015. It's to celebrate our 40th anniversary and being a planner-type I have everything arranged - pre-cruise hotels, transfers, surprise canoe-delivered room service breakfast, etc., etc

 

And we're, of course, wondering if we should bag the whole thing and look for something totally different.

 

It's kind of a "keep the dream vacation plans and hope it works out" versus "find something different but know it's a sure thing" decision...

 

It is the Ocean Princess that's currently for sale. I really doubt the OP will be sold before October of 2015. Putting two R class ships on the market is unlikely.

 

Keep your cruise, stop worrying and have a great time.

Edited by beg3yrs
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