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Empress of The Seas

BigAl94

By BigAl94,
in Royal Caribbean International

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Biker19

Biker19

Posted
Posted
17 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

I think the plan was that they would end up going to Pulmantur which now seems to possibly have changed with the announcement of Pulmantur using two Celebrity ships.  

https://www.cruisehive.com/celebrity-cruises-has-no-plans-to-offload-ships-to-pullmantur/43618

 

From Celebrity over the weekend:

 

While we fully support the reorganization efforts of Pullmantur and continue to work productively with Pullmantur as it develops its new business plan, it is important to clarify that we have not agreed to lease or sell any of our ships, including any Celebrity Millennium class ships, to Pullmantur.

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ipeeinthepool

ipeeinthepool

Posted
Posted
14 hours ago, Tree_skier said:

Is it possible that Pullmantur restarts with two ships from Celebrity and two ships from Royal?

I’m not sure Pullmantur is viable with 2 ships much less 4.  Maybe it’s time for Pullmantur to go out of business.  They haven’t really been successful, have they ever made a profit?

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twangster "Live from...." Rare

twangster

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, ipeeinthepool said:

I’m not sure Pullmantur is viable with 2 ships much less 4.  Maybe it’s time for Pullmantur to go out of business.  They haven’t really been successful, have they ever made a profit?

 

Impossible to answer that question without knowing the details or seeing the books.  

 

Reorganization (or bankruptcy in the US) is a tool in the CFO toolbox and the company keeps going.  Just ask most of the legacy US airlines who did the same at some point in their past.  American, Delta, Northwest, United, US Airways (twice) have all gone through it.  

 

Fain must see some potential there or he wouldn't be floating the idea of sending more ships their way.  He needs a place to dump unwanted ships without seeing them go to a competitor that will steal business away.  Even if Pullmantur doesn't yield the profit margins and dividends that other RCG brands do it has a purpose that has better potential than the one time peanuts received from scrapping ships.  

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ipeeinthepool

ipeeinthepool

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, twangster said:

Reorganization (or bankruptcy in the US) is a tool in the CFO toolbox and the company keeps going.  Just ask most of the legacy US airlines who did the same at some point in their past.  American, Delta, Northwest, United, US Airways (twice) have all gone through it. 

 

Sometimes the airlines could not be saved.  Braniff, Eastern, TWA are some of the largest airlines that were dissolved.

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Agavegirl1

Agavegirl1

Posted
Posted

After reading a few pages here and calling Royal, I cancelled.  Of course hey tried to convince me to book a similar cruise a year later but there was nothing actually similar so......apparently my Credit Cart will be credited with all monies paid in 45 days.  Amazing how the debit took 45 seconds.

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roeco9084

roeco9084

Posted
Posted
On 11/27/2020 at 6:32 PM, packercruising said:

We are kind of wondering that too. First, cdc is saying no cruises over 7 days, and who knows when Canada will open back up. Then there might not be any other ships sailing from Montreal. Not looking good.

 

They could still do 7 day one way Cruises like New York to Montreal then a 7 day return Montreal to New York. You're probably going to see some interesting itineraries when re strart begins without 7 plus days.

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MADflyer

MADflyer

Posted
Posted
On 11/29/2020 at 9:08 AM, twangster said:

 

Impossible to answer that question without knowing the details or seeing the books.  

...Even if Pullmantur doesn't yield the profit margins and dividends that other RCG brands do it has a purpose that has better potential than the one time peanuts received from scrapping ships.  

RCG's 49% interest in Pullmantur Cruise retained the ownership of the vessels along with the aircraft held by Wamos. RCG would have received payment from the cruise line for use of the ships and the provision of management and operations of the deck and engine for the ships. Pullmantur ran the hotel and travel and tourism section of the business. 

 

They are in a very sensitive situation now with the company having taken a 'ERTE where the wages under the first part are paid by the Spanish government. The 270 remaining employees have most recently claimed that RCG is continuing operations in Spain without Pullmantur having transferred 20000 bookings over to RCG group ships. This is complicating the restructuring especially with the consideration of the Employment law in Spain. 

 

Springwater Capital, the holder of the 51% interest out of Switzerland and Spain would most certainly like to start sailing again when the market conditions allow. 

 

It will be very interesting to see how this plays out, but it would seem that RCG is a winner no matter which direction it turns. 

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Milwaukee Eight

Milwaukee Eight

Posted
Posted
On 11/28/2020 at 2:39 PM, Ourusualbeach said:

The big advantage that Empress has is her size...or lack of.  It just depends on how much value Royal sees in those unique itineraries.  She also had a huge refit when they brought her back.  Majesty just doesn’t have anything going for it.  Too big and no balconies. 

With a new administration and the Green New Deal, I wonder how emissions are going to affect they older cruise ships?  Have they been retrofitted with scrubbers or other carbon reduction protocols?

 

M8

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Giantfan13

Giantfan13

Posted
Posted

Without having to read 44 pages of this thread, we have a cruise booked on the Empress, Aug 23 2021, 11 day sailing Cape Liberty to Montreal. I booked it thru an online TA but today I went to see how the price was doing and I don't see the cruise. I also went to RCCL site and again, so not see the cruise. I haven't received anything from my TA or RCCL that the cruise has been cancelled. They are listing cruises from Montreal in September.

Anyone have any idea what is going on?

I do apologize if something was mentioned pages back.

 

Cheers

Len

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twangster "Live from...." Rare

twangster

Posted
Posted

 

12 minutes ago, Giantfan13 said:

Without having to read 44 pages of this thread, we have a cruise booked on the Empress, Aug 23 2021, 11 day sailing Cape Liberty to Montreal. I booked it thru an online TA but today I went to see how the price was doing and I don't see the cruise. I also went to RCCL site and again, so not see the cruise. I haven't received anything from my TA or RCCL that the cruise has been cancelled. They are listing cruises from Montreal in September.

Anyone have any idea what is going on?

I do apologize if something was mentioned pages back.

 

Cheers

Len

 

The CDC Conditional Sail Order prohibits cruise lines from marketing cruises longer than 7 nights through Nov. 1 2021.  They haven't canceled these cruises in hopes the virus numbers trend downward once we are through the winter, they just can't continue to offer new bookings on them at the moment so they pulled them from the website.

 

So all we can do is wait and see how the virus numbers trend in the spring and early summer.  

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twangster "Live from...." Rare

twangster

Posted
Posted
29 minutes ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

With a new administration and the Green New Deal, I wonder how emissions are going to affect they older cruise ships?  Have they been retrofitted with scrubbers or other carbon reduction protocols?

 

M8

 

Last year pulling away from Costa Maya we blanketed Equinox with a heavy black cloud.  Poor folks having their helipad sailaway party must have been choking on our smoke it was that bad.  I suspect Empress doesn't have scrubbers but don't know that for certain.  Scrubbers often produce white smoke from the water vapor.  

 

Grandeur was having scrubber installed when I sailed her in 2017.  Maybe that's why Pullmantur was willing to take her.  

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Milwaukee Eight

Milwaukee Eight

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, twangster said:

 

Last year pulling away from Costa Maya we blanketed Equinox with a heavy black cloud.  Poor folks having their helipad sailaway party must have been choking on our smoke it was that bad.  I suspect Empress doesn't have scrubbers but don't know that for certain.  Scrubbers often produce white smoke from the water vapor.  

 

Grandeur was having scrubber installed when I sailed her in 2017.  Maybe that's why Pullmantur was willing to take her.  

I was just curious as many other groups feel like with new administration, Cuba sailings would resume shortly. Not sure which ships can sail into Cuba. 

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twangster "Live from...." Rare

twangster

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

I was just curious as many other groups feel like with new administration, Cuba sailings would resume shortly. Not sure which ships can sail into Cuba. 

 

Empress hung out of the slip a bit.  Majesty would hang out quite a bit more.

 

Empress:

 

1807NE-110.jpg

 

I don't know for sure but I imagine at some point it isn't a good idea to have too much ship unsecured extended out of the berth.  The angle of the lines and potential currents and winds could make the forces not work out very well.  

 

If that is the case there is a magic number for ship length that is considered safe and once a ship crosses that length it just isn't wise or safe to go there.  Is that magic number good for Majesty but not for Vision?  Don't know.  

 

There was a 3rd party who was going to upgrade the facilities and piers in Havana but that was going to take years.  Don't know about some of the other Cuban ports that were starting to see some traffic.  

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