P&O, Ocean Village, etc

[tom_uk]

We've had some good discussions (is that the right word?) recently about the continuing P&O traditions versus the Ocean Village approach. Quite by chance I came across a document on the P&O website, "The Cruise Report 2009". Page 3 of this document contains what looks like David Dingle's comments on the matter (and others). I'll quote it:

 

"Clearly it is disappointing to have to phase out the Ocean Village brand by the end of 2010 but this

was a decision primarily prompted by the impact of higher fuel costs and, as a by-product, increased

air fares. This was a double whammy for a fly-cruise operation using older, medium-sized ships.

 

Although fuel prices have come down from their highest levels, they still remain much higher than just a

few years ago and roughly double 2003 levels when Ocean Village was launched.

Nevertheless, Ocean Village remains a popular and strongly-branded product with very high customer

satisfaction levels.

It has also had a very important impact on the cruise industry as a whole and it is not too strong to say

that, through changing the face of UK cruising, it has opened the industry to an audience who would never

have considered it.

We have seen this reflected in our other brands which have attracted a much broader spectrum of

customers thanks to the Ocean Village effect.

We will now make sure that their marketing targets these people so that they will cruise with us even

when Ocean Village has gone.

We will not, though, change the core values of our other brands in response to the closure of

Ocean Village as that could disappoint their existing customers' expectations.

Instead we will continue our policy of evolution rather than revolution."

 

Something for everyone there, I think.

 

Here's a link to the complete document.

[Single Cruiser]

Thanks for that Tom. Interesting reading..

 

I think at the moment (at least for me) its time to "jump ship" to the NCL brand.

 

I don't fancy spending nearly a 3rd of my 14 night holiday confined to cabin and room service! :eek:

 

We all know that ultimately the strategy is going to be driven by profits and the next two years with the increased fleet size for P&O will prove crucial to see if they can gain new passengers.

[History addict]

From the statement they seem to think that OV has attracted first time cruisers who now they have had a taste of cruising will be happy to cruise formally in future as the core values of the other brands will not change. I wonder how many people have switched from OV to P and O and other brands so far?

 

Personally I started off as a formal cruiser and have switched from formal to informal - I am in no hurry to change back unless the itinerary is special. If they are planning on x% of OV passengers making the switch to a totally different product then I wonder if they will be disappointed?

 

Or perhaps this is a message that has been put out into the public domain to test the water?

 

I'm still a floating customer with no brand allegiance post 2010 but I am not yet convinced that any of the Carnival Group brands are a good fit for me.

[Esprit]

I find Mr Dingle's comments contradict his boss's comment made at the Carnival AGM last April.

 

Mr Arison simply said Ocean Village had under performed and the ships could be better utilised in the expanding Australia market.

 

Obviously the fuel/running costs hit the bottom line too.

[Goldryder]

I think a game of one-upmanship is going on tween CCL and RCCL.

 

AIDA is part of CCL, owned by Costa. AIDA were the first full on casual cruise line, OV followed suit sometime after CCL became parent.

 

Now, look a little further afield to the Mediterranean big boys.

 

CCL have Costa, who in turn have controlling stake in Iberocruceros (Spain) and AIDA (Germany).

RCCL have ownership or significant interests in Pullmantur (Spain), CDF (France) & TUI (Germany).

 

CCL have been left behind in France, so they are doing some toe dipping with that and their French TA arm (who were cruise operators in their own right 20 years ago) Paquet...as a direct piece of competition to CDF. If it works, all well and good, CCL will have a French market line, if not, Costa will take back their ship and carry on as before.

 

Now...AIDA and OV.

 

OV was popular amongst UK guests...but perhaps the extremely popular AIDA is about to go global rather than be just for the German market. If that is the case, CCL would not want two casual operators working in the same regions as each other or based on opposite sides of the English Channel....competing with RCCL is one thing, competing with yourself is a no-no.

 

So I have a suspicion that once OV goes down the swanny, AIDA will go global and if they do, then NCL had better watch themselves cos AIDA have a far superior product and the ships are out of this world...as you might expect being built for the German ultra luxury casual market.

 

I can definitely see AIDA moving into the void left by OV and Paquet going head to head with RCCL's CDF for the French market, just as CCL's Iberocruceros has against RCCL's Pullmantur.

 

Going to be an interesting few years in the nautical chess game.

[tom_uk]

There was also Island Cruises, owned by RCCL. I can't remember now whether the announcement of their demise preceded or followed that of OV, but they were very close.

 

Island's first ship was an ex-ferry, but her second was a former Celebrity ship, Horizon, which provided a pretty good on-board experience.

[Goldryder]

There was also Island Cruises, owned by RCCL. I can't remember now whether the announcement of their demise preceded or followed that of OV, but they were very close.

 

Island's first ship was an ex-ferry, but her second was a former Celebrity ship, Horizon, which provided a pretty good on-board experience.

 

Island Escape (former ferry/ex RCI) is now with Thomson and Island Star (ex Celebrity/RCCL) is now with Pullmantur (RCCL group)...so that game of nautical chess has stayed sort of in house (ish) since Thomson are part of the TUI group.

 

However, Thomson (part of TUI) are going to be chartering Costa Europa for 10 years as of April, Costa being a part of the CCL group.

 

Pullmantur (RCCL group) purchased Pacific Star & Pacific Sky...both ex P&O Australia and CCL group.

 

The nautical chess games get a tad confuzzling but not entirely impossible to follow.

[StLucia]

From the statement they seem to think that OV has attracted first time cruisers who now they have had a taste of cruising will be happy to cruise formally in future as the core values of the other brands will not change. I wonder how many people have switched from OV to P and O and other brands so far?

 

Personally I started off as a formal cruiser and have switched from formal to informal - I am in no hurry to change back unless the itinerary is special. If they are planning on x% of OV passengers making the switch to a totally different product then I wonder if they will be disappointed?

 

Or perhaps this is a message that has been put out into the public domain to test the water?

 

I'm still a floating customer with no brand allegiance post 2010 but I am not yet convinced that any of the Carnival Group brands are a good fit for me.

 

Well we did exactly that. We had 2 wonderful cruises on OV, chosen primarily because of the ports they were visiting. We are now cruise addicts and love more formal cruising. Our experience of RCI on IOS was not as good as that on Ventura. We are very interested to see how Solstice will compare.

[David&Heather]

Thanks Tom_uk, the report makes interesting reading. Stops just short of admitting they have made a mistake by phasing out OV but that is the impression conveyed.

They appear to want to retain ex OV passengers and continue to get new people cruising (something OV is very good at), difficult to see how they can achieve this without making changes to at least 2 P&O ships. If they want to retain all their present customers (both P&O & OV), with 8 ships in the fleet (soon to be 9) it must surely be possible to offer traditional, modern and a bix of both styles of cruising on diffrent ships or am I being too simplistic?

I am sure the debate will go on and thats a good thing even if it does get heated at times.

Some of our concerns re P&O have gone away and thats mainly due to participation in this forum.

[brillo]

I and my wife after several happy years of cruising with OV 1 & 2 this May tried Ventura.

 

No problem with the ship, staff, entertainment or food,

 

We will not however be cruising with PO again.

 

Two weeks in gods waiting room with so many geriatrcs was enough we will be looking elswhere for our next holiday.

 

brillo