Really Quick Update...More Coming in a Little Bit

I’M SORRY!!! I KNOW I HAVEN’T POSTED IN SO LONG!! (*sobs). Really I didn’t forget about you, I didn’t, it’s just…just I’ve been busy!! I know, you should never be too busy for ships! Nothing should come in the way of ships…but this time…something did. I will tell you more about that in another post! I think you might actually find it quite interesting, even though, it is completely un-related to ships.

Before that though, a really quick and totally uninformative catch up on the news!

- Carnival Corp. has ordered 3 new ships. Two for Carnival’s German brand, AIDA, to be built by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (exciting!), and one Carnival’s European subsidiary, Costa Cruises to be built by Fincantieri (not very exciting as judging from the numbers, this ship will be another Dream Class ship).

-QM2 failed a health inspection (old news now). However, the noted problems have since been fixed, and in a subsequent inspection she passed! QM2 I LOVE YOU!

-The Port of Los Angeles hosted several US Navy ships for Navy Week…it was an overly successful but tremendous fail. Too many people, not enough planning.

-Ft. Lauderdale based cruise line, Discovery Cruises, is shutting down its one ship operation (sad). The line ran day cruises to the Bahamas with their ship, Discovery Sun.

-NCL has released more details on their upcoming ships…mostly regarding the new suite complex, “The Haven”. So far all the details look good, but I am already pretty certain that the ships will not be good when it comes to crowds. More on that later.

-Carnival has released the first interior renderings of the upcoming, Carnival Breeze, and I have to say that I have mixed feelings. This will be Carnival's first ship not decorated by the infamous Joe Farcus. More on that later!

-(old news) Celebrity Cruises’ newest ship, Celebrity Silhouette, has been launched, christened, and is now in service. And might I say, she looks to be a fantastic ship!

-The recent rash of storms in the Atlantic has caused problems with itineraries, damage to private destinations, and a large public relations problem for Royal Caribbean.

-Mickey Arison (my hero!) has a twitter!

And finally… The final block of the Disney Fantasy has been placed!

So that is pretty much all the news that I care to post right now. Sorry, I know I usually go into more detail, but it's late, and I don’t want to :D Stay tuned for my next article, “Why You Should Cruise”. That should be up maybe later today, tomorrow, or in the next few days!

Norwegian Epic’s Successor: Lessons learned.

One of the things I forgot to write about the other day, when I wrote my Cruise News article, was a small tidbit of information that NCL had released a few days back…the codename for their new ships…”Project Breakaway”.

Since the new ships were announced several months back in October (after weeks of rumors), there has not been much information released about them. All we really knew for a while was what NCL had initially released…the ships would be built by Meye- Werft in Papenburg, Germany, they would each be about 144,000grt (around 10,000grt smaller then Norwegian Epic), carry around 4,000 passengers, and they would be delivered to NCL in 2013 and 2014, respectively. Along with the announcement, a rendering of the new ships was released…which set off a flurry of speculation on the internet.

Then a few days ago, as I said above, NCL revealed the project name for the ships, “Project Breakaway”…not really anything too amazing. Then today, NCL released renderings of the cabins aboard the new ships.

(Mini Suite rendering)

(Standard Cabin rendering)

Now for my thoughts…

I have to say that I like the design so far. The outside of the ship looks good, certainly much better than Epic’s looks (she easily had the most controversial looks ever in the cruise industry). And though she's not really that spectacular by any means (like my beloved Queen Mary 2!!!!....I know, that’s not really a fair comparison), but she is un-offensive and pretty enough…not to mention that many of her yet to be revealed details, are not shown in the rendering, which means that she will look slightly different in the end. I am optimistic though! :D

As to the cabins, I admit, I have mixed feelings here. On one hand, the cabin design looks cool, trendy and pretty well designed. On the other hand, these cabins are interlocked (as in, they are not rectangular and fit together with the adjacent cabins in a…um…interlocking way), which at first glance doesn’t seem bad right? Well to me this says one thing…less space. Interlocking cabins allow designers to squeeze more cabins into less space (which for the cruise lines means more money out of less space) by making the cabins narrower overall, and having them bulge out into the next cabin in places where they need to be wider (such as the where the bed goes) and bulge in where they can be narrower (such as the sitting area). Cruise ship cabins, while comfortable, are already pretty small (at least compared to land based hotels), so any narrowing of the standard cabin is, in my opinion, a mistake, and a downgrade to the passenger experience.

I would love to be proven wrong here but, given this ships size and relatively big passenger number (for a ship this size), my gut feeling is that I am right. The fact that NCL didn’t release square footage estimates for the cabins, is also slightly suspicious.

(((Keep in mind that there are three other possibilities at this point...that I really could be wrong - I know, unlikely - or, that the cabins can, in fact, interlock and still be spacious, or, lastly, that the design will change)))

I do want to say though, that I really do like these cabins...even if they are small (which I am not positive they will be). The design looks great! One of the places where I think NCL can really be great is, in cabin design.

(Norwegian Epic Cabin)

Overall, after crunching the numbers and looking at the cabin design, I am inclined to believe that these ships will be really crowded, much like Epic (ugh...). One of the biggest and most common complaints against the Norwegian Epic, was her crowdedness. According to reviews (not all reviews), it is hard to escape the crowds onboard. This is unfortunate; NCL’s product revolves around the concept of “Freestyle Cruising” where you ‘can do whatever you want, whenever you want, and with whoever you want’…but how “freestyle” can it be when you are stuck waiting in long lines, and competing with so many other passengers to take advantage of the many amenities? These new ships carry 100 less passengers than the Epic, but at the same time they will be 10,000grt smaller! On top of this, using the somewhat crude, and flawed, ‘gross tonnage divided by passenger capacity’ method of determining a ship's passenger space ratio, these ships score less than the Epic, with a per passenger space ratio of about 35sqft compared to Epic's 38sqft.

This all sounds bad, but fear not! There is hope for these ships! I save the best for last… Yes, so far these ships looks like they could be just as crowded as Epic (if not more so)…however, there is one thing that can set these ships apart from the Epic and allow them to be great…good design. One of Epic’s problems is a somewhat weird layout. When you look at the ship's deck plans, you can see part of the reason this ship is crowded (or at least feels that way); it is dis-jointed, and doesn’t have really great ‘flow’.

In an example of how great design helps crowds, we can look at the Oasis and Allure of the Seas. Those ships can carry over 6,000 passengers and 2,000 crew (that’s over 8,000 people!), and yet, according to reviews, the ships hardly ever feel crowded. Part of this is because the Oasis Class is huge (the largest cruise ships in the world) at over 222,000grt, but another part of it is Royal Caribbean’s good design. The layout of these ships ‘flows’ very well, public spaces are spread out, and the ships are “intuitive” to get around.

There are many reasons why Epic turned out to be the quirky ship she is (that’s a subject for another article, for another day), such as mismanagement on the part of NCL’s old management team, and trouble with the ship yard, and new owners. However, I hope and think that NCL has learned from these past mistakes and that this new ship will be as awesome as it could be!

Back to the cabins. You can already see that NCL has at least learned something from the mistakes with Epic, in fact, one of the biggest mistakes with Epic…the bathrooms. (picture at right - Standard Cabin bathroom rendering)

As anyone who follows the industry (or who has been reading this blog since the beginning) knows, Epic’s cabins caused quite a stir for a number of reasons, but mostly because of their bathrooms…or lack thereof. The reason was because, they aren’t really bathROOMS per se. Each standard cabin has 2 stalls (with frosted glass doors that don’t leave much to the imagination), one with the toilet, and the other with the shower (the sink and vanity are out in the open inside the cabin). This has been easily one of Epic’s biggest flaws (in fact, many won’t sail on the ship for this reason) as there is not really any privacy in a normally very private spot.

However, NCL has fixed this problem on the new ships. These cabins have the standard bathroom…the kind that is an actual room. For me, this by itself already makes the ship more appealing than Epic. (picture at left - Mini Suite Bathroom rendering)

Anyways, I started this article with the intention of making it short, yet here we are (I am not good at writing short things….), time to finish. Considering everything I said above, I am really looking forward to learning more about these ships! As of right now, the ships could go either way, we don’t know enough about them, yet, to be able to say with way is more likely. However, I am confident that NCL could build a great ship (they have before), they just need to learn from past mistakes, and perfect the good aspects of what they already have! What ever they do, I am looking forward to seeing it!

Recent Cruise Industry News!!

Well, I am trying to finally get back into the swing of things here on the blog. The month of June is already more than half way over (time goes by so fast!!) and so far I have only one new article up for the month, “Come to Alaska”…check that out by the way.

Despite my absence from the ‘blogosphere,’ the cruise industry never sleeps and is constantly moving, giving us more to talk about here on Ramblings. So lets talk about what’s new, interesting, and happening lately in our favorite industry! You will have to forgive me as some of this news is slightly old. :o

- Princess Cruises, Holland America and Carnival Cruise Lines have just announced that they will be implementing a new and more restrictive smoking policy.

Up until now, Princess has allowed smoking inside select cabins and on cabin balconies (ironically the 2006 fire aboard Princess’ ship Star Princess, was caused by a cigarette on a balcony – new safety requirements have been passed regarding balcony fire safety as a result). Princess said that it’s new policy is in line with the global trend towards a more smoking-free environment, and that it will go into effect on all cruises after January 15th, 2012. Princess is however, quick to add that they still welcome smokers on their ships and will still have several different and convienent location where smokers may get their fix. Theses places include cigar bars, portions of the open decks, and in certain areas of the casino and night clubs.

Holland America’s new policy will disallow any smoking in any cabin across their fleet, effective January 15th, 2012. However, smoking on balconies, and in certain other areas, is still allowed.

Carnival’s new policy will be implemented in 2 phases. Phase 1, effective June 15th, 2011, will limit smoking onboard to Carnival’s dance clubs, and certain areas of the casinos, casino bars, nightclubs, and certain portions of the open decks.

Phase 2, effective December 1st, 2011, will restrict all smoking in all cabins across the fleet. Smoking on balconies (with the exception of the smoke free Spa cabins) will still be allowed. All three lines have stated that anyone who breaks these rules will be charged a $250 cleaning fee.

In recent years, smoking has become one of the more controversial subjects in the cruise industry. Obviously, many people are staunchly against it and would prefer that there was no smoking at all…others are just the opposite, and want to be able to smoke more freely.

- Radiance of the Sea has just completed a seventeen million dollar overhaul in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. The refit added several new features and venues to the 90,000grt ship, such as, "Samba Grill" (a Brazilian Churrascaria introduced on the Allure of the Seas), Royal Caribbean’s largest pub at sea, “The Quill and Compass,” “Izumi Asian Cuisine,” and “Rita’s Cantina. They have also added a new and improved mini-golf course, a big screen outdoor TV, an arcade, and even a nursery. The drydock, part of a larger 70 million dollar effort by RCI to upgrade their fleet, added several new cabins, (including 3 single cabins), as well as other new eateries from Allure and Oasis of the Seas.

Radiance is offering cruises this summer to Alaska. Then this Winter, it will be repositioned to the South Pacific for it’s first season in Australia.

- P&O Cruises has announced that they will be building the largest ship in the company’s, over 170 year history, at over 141,000grt. The ship will be sister ships to Princess Cruises' recently announced, and completely new, "Royal Princess," albeit with some differences. The most obvious difference at this point is that, unlike the Royal Princess, this new P&O ship will have 2 funnels situated on its stern. The ship will also lack the new “Sea Walk”, a cantilevered, glass floored walk way that takes you over the side of the ship where you can watch as the sea passes almost 200 feet below you, featured on the upcoming, Royal Princess.

Personal Note: Even though I love the way multiple funnels look on ships, I have to say that I am not so crazy about how they have done it on this ship…it looks unbalanced to me.

The ship will be built by Fincantieri Shipyard in Italy, and is expected for delivery in March 2015. At over 141,000grt, the ship will carry 3,600 passengers and will be the largest ship ever built for the British market.

- In a somewhat surprising move, Royal Caribbean has announced that they will be sending the 140,000grt, Voyager of the Sea’s, down to Sydney, Australia in Fall 2012. The ship will be, by far, the largest cruise ship to ever homeport in Australia, and one of the largest to ever even call
there. She will be joining her fleet mates, Radiance of the Seas, and Rhapsody of the Seas, in what some have called a ‘war’ against Australian cruise market leader Carnival Corp.

Launched in 1999, the Voyager was the largest cruise ship ever built and was revolutionary for Royal Caribbean and the industry as a whole. She introduced novelties like, “Studio B” (Royal Caribbean’s ice skating rinks), rock climbing walls, and the huge indoor Royal Promenade; all of which have become staples of RCI ships. The addition of this ship to the Australian cruising fleet is no small upgrade.

In recent times, Australia has seen a rash of new high-end deployments to the country. Both RCI and Carnival Corp. are sending some of their best to be home ported in Australia for a season or more. As I reported a few months back, Carnival will be sending it’s Carnival Spirit, one of their most popular ships, and Holland America’s Oosterdam (both of which I might add, are leaving for Australia at the expense of the cruise industry in California…). Royal Caribbean is taking it up a few notches (if you ask me) from there. They are sending the wonderful, Radiance of the Sea’s, later this year (one of RCI’s best ships and most beloved), the Rhapsody of the Seas (one of RCI’s slightly older ships at 14 years old, but still a great and popular ship), and now, the Voyager of the Seas. On top of this, Celebrity Cruises – a RCI sister company --, will be sending their cutting edge (and one of my personal favorites) Celebrity Solstice, down under next year.

In my humble opinion, Carnival better watch out. RCI seems quite intent on taking Australia.

Moving on…

In an even more surprising move though, Royal Caribbean has announced that they will be first deploying the Voyager of the Seas to China in July 2012. This is surprising to me because I personally did not think that the Chinese cruise market, though fast growing, would be ready for a ship like Voyager. Up until now, like Australia, China has gotten some of the older and less flashy ships home-ported there. Over the years better ships have come, but nothing at quite the level of Voyager. However, obviously RCI must be confident that she will do well there, and I am sure she will be popular. She is a great ship and will offer something new for China!

Before this big move, Voyager of the Sea's will be based in New Orleans.

- Carnival has announced that they will be starting their first year round deployment out of New York City, with their Carnival Miracle. Beginning in April next year, Miracle will be offering 3 different eight day cruises. 1) An Eastern Caribbean cruise, calling at place like San Juan, St Thomas, and Grand Turk. 2) A Bahamas cruise calling at places such as Half Moon Cay (Holland America’s private island), Grand Turk, and Nassau. 3) will be a Bahamas/Florida cruise with stops in Cape Canaveral, FL, Nassau, and Freeport.

(above photo shows Carnival Miracle in New York - by flickr member " Tom Turner - SeaTeamImages / AirTeamImages" Tom Turner)

Carnival will be joining NCL (who has 2 ships based year round in NYC), and Disney Cruise Lines which announced in April that they will be basing the Disney Magic in NYC for 20 cruises, starting May 2012.

Carnival currently has part time deployments in NYC with their Carnival Glory, and Carnival Miracle. The larger Carnival Corp. also bases Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 out of New York for a part of the year.

- P&O's ships the Arcadia, was recently subjected to very bad treatment by the US Customs and Border Patrol while docked in Los Angeles. Passengers (with a large number of elderly) were made to stand and wait as each passenger was put through an extensive background check, even though the ship had already called on other US port's during it's cruise. The ship subsequently, stayed an extra 24 hours in Los Angeles (cancelling a call in Roatan) to allow it's passengers to actually see this great city. Interestingly enough, I was at the port during this unfortunate event and reported the news on Rambling's Facebook page, right away.
As an Angelino (a person from Los Angeles) I am very sorry to all the passengers on the Arcadia for your bad time in our city.

- Some other small tibbits of news...

- Carnival Cruise Line's is being sued by preservation and environmental groups in Charleston, SC, who allege that the Carnival Fantasy - which is based out of the city - breaks zoning laws (the ship does not meet the city's 60ft height limit) , causes public disturbances, and breaks environmental laws. Personally, I think this lawsuit is absolutely baseless.

- South Carolina's legislator as passed a resolution thanking Carnival for it's contributions to South Carolina and it's economy.

- The Australian government is looking at ways to help ease cruise ship congestion in Sydney, with all the new deployments there.

Anyway…that's it for right now! Keep checking back here for more articles. Thing are busy in life so I make no guarantee that they will be up tomorrow, but rest assured that I am working on getting them posted as soon as possible…hopefully tomorrow…or the next day…or days ;) .

(Sunset from Enchantment of the Seas)

Re-Connect

Hello fellow shipgeeks!

Finally I can connect to the internet again. My computer is still acting weird and won't connect to the internet by itself so I am using a network stick thing drive something or another. Anyway, what this mean for you is that I can finally after almost two month get back to the blog!

There is a lot to report on but in the interest of keeping this blog current I will not be writing extensively about anything that has happened in the last few weeks, unless I feel that it is important to do so.

So stay tuned. I am hoping to post the next article within the next few days!

-Mark

Blog Update

Hello Readers!

I just wanted to give you a quick update. As you, I am sure, have noticed, there has been a lack of new articles in the last week or so. Let me first say, sorry, things have been busy. Secondly, let me say, there is a lot of new things to talk about in upcoming articles, so keep reading!!

Cruise Shipping Miami, the industry's largest trade show, just took place in Miami, giving me much to say about the industry now and the future of the industry. So I will be talking about that but also Princess Cruises new ship, Royal Princess, and there will be the first of a new series of articles - "Cruise Line Reviews" - meant to help those of you who are not shipgeeks, get to know the different lines and products that we have in the cruise industry. The first will be a review of Disney Cruise Lines!

I am hoping to have it up by tomorrow (Thursday) but I make no guaranties as over the next few days, our computer will be going through a very extensive overhaul and I won't be able to post.

Thanks for reading!

-Mark the Shipgeek!

Rambling's New Facebook Page

Hello my dear readers!

In response to the blog's ever growing number of readers, I have decided to start a facebook page for it!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/ShipGeeks-Unite/163786533672134#!/pages/ShipGeeks-Unite/163786533672134#!/CruiseCritic

By "liking' this page you will be able to stay current on all things to do with the blog, the cruise industry, Cruise news, and ships in general. You will also be able to interact with other ship and cruise geeks from all over the world.

Having this facebook page allows me to be more consistent in my updates to you. While I will still have the blog (which I promise I will try and update more frequently), you can always pop on over to our facebook page for the latest and most current industry news, and commentary, as I will be updating it everyday.

This also gives you, our readers, the chance to communicate with me and other shipgeeks....so don't be shy! On top of that you can use our facebook to connect to the cruise line's and other cruise and ship related entities' facebook pages.

Have fun and thank you for supporting my blog!

-Mark

This past few weeks. The SS United States, Cunard in Los Angeles, and other industry news!

EEEEEEE!!!!!! I am still glowing! Why? Well if you don’t know by now…Cunards Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth were here in Los Angeles!!! It was beautiful!! Too beautiful........I almost died. But that’s not all that happening lately, nope. There is also news of RCI’s plans for a new class of ships, some small updates on the Carnival Splendor (the one that caught fire), Oceana’s newest ship is out and sailing, the SS United States has been bought and some other news!

Cunard!
AHHHHH!!!!! AHHHH!!!!! IT WAS BEAUTIFUL!! Seeing two of the Cunard Queens here in my home town was incredible! The day started off very early, like at 3:30 am early!(…usually I have not even gone to sleep yet at that time.). I got up this early so I would be able to travel from Pasadena to the port (a drive of about 30 miles I’d say) in time to see the Queen Elizabeth sail into port. Unfortunately, when I got there to San Pedro (the port district of the City of Los Angeles) there was some very thick fog and I was not able to see the ship sail in through Angles Gate (the entrance to the Port to Los Angeles), however I was able to go to a park across the quay from the cruise terminal. From here, I was able to see the QE come up the main channel through the fog and dock at the terminal. It was beautiful and I was totally ship geeking out!! (photo at right- "Queen Victoria" by flickr member "Voyager One")

There was only one problem I had. For some reason, it had been decided that the QE would use one of the lower terminals. Let me explain…the cruise terminals at the Port of Los Angeles are arrange in a ‘L’ shape. Two berths are parallel to the main channel, the other terminal and berth is perpendicular to the channel (you see it in the beginning sequence of “The Love Boat”) and it’s perfect for ship spotting as there is a small park and boardwalk located across the slip from it. This later terminal is where I wanted the ship to dock but alas, they docked at the other lover terminal. This terminal isn’t horrible for ship spotting as there is a long walkway that has a good view of the ship but it does put more distance between the ship and you not to mention a large parking lot and a chain link fence. As it turns out, the Sapphire Princess and the Norwegian Star ended up taking the 2 other berths.

As you know, I have my problems with the Queen Elizabeth but seeing her in person was great. I have to admit I am really starting to like this ship (even though I stand by all I have said before) and have never been able to resist a ship in Cunard color. She’s still not as good looking as her sister the Queen Victoria but she’s not as bad as she looks in some pictures. After looking at her pretty much all day she departed from LA in the dark as me, my family (who I dragged along with me) and some other shipgeeks watched.

Next day, it was the Queen Victoria (my favorite of the two)!!! For the sake of keeping this article at a shorter length I shan’t go into the details of the day. I think it will suffice to say, that the day went pretty much like the day before had gone…she docked at the wrong terminal (Disney Wonder got the one I wanted for QV), I geeked out and she was beautiful! I should also mention that despite that fact that the QV had been to Los Angeles before, this was my first time seeing her, which made it very special to me. Unfortunately, I was not able to watch her sail out as I had to get back up to Pasadena but I am sure it was beautiful!!

The only thing that would have made the weekend better was if Cunard had allowed me to visit!!




Royals New Ship?

Speaking about RCI’s better then expected results for the 4th quarter of 2010 and the year as a whole, Richard Fain Chairman and CEO of Royal Caribbean also stated that RCI is working on a new class of ship.

In his own words…

"I know the question, when will you be ordering another ship is out there, and
it's waiting to be asked -- it almost always is," said Fain. "I have previously
confirmed that while we look forward to a period of slower growth, we do not aim
to stagnate."

“It will probably be the start of a new a series, which
would incorporate our latest learnings about efficiency and about guest
amenities.”

“We’ve been working intensively on developing a design that
reflects our innovative spirit but in an efficient package and we think we are
near an acceptable outcome,”

Of course, the online cruise and ship geek communities like Cruise Critic or my favorite Cruise Talk at Travel Server, have been buzzing with speculation and predictions about this new class of ships. Everyone is sure that the ships will be smaller then the Oasis class (that is pretty much what Fain said) but can’t seem to agree on just how much smaller. Some are predicting ships around 180,000grt and others are predicting a more modest 120,000 to 130,000grt ship. Some speculate that these ships will not have all the bells and whistles of the Oasis Class or the Freedom Class, others say that these amenities (like the Boardwalk or Central Park on Oasis) can and should appear on these new smaller ships as they are what RCI is know for.

If I can throw my own predictions into the mix here… Personally I think that RCI will or should go smaller with this new class; maybe around 110,000 to 130,000grt in size. I also think that while many of the newer features on RCI ships should be retained, I think these ships should be toned down slightly. My reasoning for these ideas is this…I have read many reviews and opinions that have said they would like to see smaller ships from RCI. For many, the Oasis, Freedom and even the Voyager class are just to large for them, they prefer the likes of the panamax (the largest size that can fit in the Panama Canal) Radiance Class ship. A class of ships sized in between the larger classes and the smaller classes in RCI’s fleet could at like a bridge or stepping stone, for people transitioning to the larger ships. A smaller ship also has more versatility then a larger ship. It can serve more destinations and be put to work on up and coming markets, for example, Australia or Asia. Also some destinations like Alaska, Hawaii or other Caribbean destinations, are more suited for smaller ships (if you can call 120,000grt small).

What ever comes out, I am sure it will be great! RCI are know for their newbuilds. Its very exciting!

Oceana’s New Ship!

Oceana (a luxury line) just put its first new ship, the Marina, into service this past week. Oceana is a relatively new cruise line, started in 2003, and up until now has only had 3 “R” Class ships which were built in the early 2000’s for the now defunct, Renaissance Cruises. A few years ago Oceana ordered a duo of new ships for the line. These new ships would be larger and hold more people then the original ships but were still heavily related to them.

A few days ago, Oceana hosted a naming ceremony for the ship at its home port of Miami. The ship was christened by Entertainment Tonight star Mary Hart. After this the ship set off on a preview cruise with travel agents (which are responsible for the vast majority of Oceana’s bookings) and invited guests. So far the ship looks good (maybe a little dated looking in some areas, but that works for Oceana’s passengers) and the reviews are really good.

The United States has been bought…

The world famous Ocean Liner, the SS United States, has recently been bought from its previous owners, NCL, by he United States Conservancy, a group dedicated to the future career and preservation of this American flag ship. (photo at right - "The SS United States coming in" by flickr member "Captain Zenith ")

The sad thing is that most American’s have never heard of this ship, their flagship and Ship of State, the United States (also know as the Big U). They don’t know of its unique mark on the USA’s history, they don’t know of its career or the way it came to symbolize a powerful post WWII United States to the rest of the world.

The United States Conservancy and I would love to change that.

Short history of this ship…
After WWII, the US wanted to build a passenger liner to serve on the North Atlantic and compete with Brittan and France for the passenger trade. The ship was to be safe, reliable, fast…like really fast, and comfortable. On top of this, seeing the way the glorious Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth heroically served the allied forces during WWII, delivering hundreds of thousands of troops to the front, the US wanted a liner that could do the same in a time of war.

The answer to these demands was the beautiful United States, our nation’s new Ship of State. Setting sail on her maiden voyage on July 4th, 1952, she shattered all previous transatlantic speed records (……the Queen Mary’s speed record…-_-…). After that she went on to have a successful but short career. She carried many of the worlds most elite on almost every voyage and never once did she have any kind of mechanical failure delay her. Throughout her career she was an icon of American ingenuity, innovation and power. However due to the emergence of clumsy jet travel, transatlantic travel by ocean liner began to decline. Because of this, the United States Line (her owners) decided to with draw her from service and lay her up. After that she was passed from owner to owner having all her interior fittings removed until eventually she was bought by NCL with the intention of putting her back into active service in Hawaii. These plans never materialized for many reasons and as such the Big U remained laid up in Philadelphia. Through the last few years the United States Conservancy has worked tirelessly to insure that this ship is preserved and protected. In 2009, NCL announced that it was taking bids for the ship which of course attracted the scrap yards. In response to this the Conservancy ramped up its fund raising in effort to by the ship themselves. Luckily due to the generosity of some people and NCL, the Conservancy was able to reach an agreement with NCL where the Conservancy would buy the ship for only 3 million…even though this was less then the bids from scrap yards.

This past week the transaction became final and the SS United States is under the owner ship of the Conservancy. Now comes the real challenge…the Conservancy only has a limited amount of time to raise money and come up with a viable way to save this historic ship. Keeping up a ship is not cheap and to say that this will be a difficult undertaking is a large understatement. But I sincerely hope that they will succeed…this ship is too important for it to just be scraped or laid up forever. It’s a symbol of our country and needs to be saved. I would encourage anyone reading this to donate to the cause or do anything you can to help the Conservancy in this important effort.
PLEASE LOOK HERE... http://www.ssunitedstatesconservancy.org/

Anyways, sorry it has been so long since I have written on here. I haven’t forgotten about this blog or my readers (who apparently now number in the thousands :D ).
Hope by the time you finish reading this really really long article that I have the next one ready for you. I currently have 3 other ones in the oven.

Stay tooned!!

Above photo- the SS United States (top) passing her fleetmate the SS America (bottom) in New York City.

Carnival in Australia, Los Angeles in Decline...

Big news in the industry right now... The other day it was announced that Carnival is abandoning me for…for…Australia! The Carnival Spirit, which Carnival recently announced it would be sending here to L.A., has been assigned to Australia from October 2012, where according to rumor, she will be sailing on voyages of 8 to 12 days.

This is actually probably the biggest news of the past couple of weeks (OF COURSE I MEAN OTHER THEN CUNARD NEWS!!!) as this is a pretty big step for Carnival, and for the Australian based cruise industry as well. For Carnival as a company, it is a big step because it is the first time Carnival has permanently based a ship outside of North America, Carnival’s main market. It is also one of the first times Carnival has really really reached out to a demographic other than North Americans. Carnival has based ships (temporarily) in Europe for a few cruises, but even those were strongly targeted at Americans wanting to cruise the Mediterranean. This time is will be mostly Australians and New Zelanders.

For the Australian cruise market this move also represents a large leap. In recent years the Australian cruise market has been growing and growing fast. As a response to this growth, the cruise lines have been sending more and more capacity down to Australia, either to be based there for a season, or just to make a few calls. Bigger and newer ships, such as the Queen Mary 2, usually only call at Sydney (or other Australian ports) as a port-of-call, and until now have never really been based there permanently. Up until now, Australian cruisers have been left with older, hand-me-down ships that are too old for the American and European cruise market. The largest cruise line serving Australia, P&O Australia (a sub-brand of P&O, a subsidiary of Carnival), has a fleet totally made up of older hand-me-down tonnage from various lines under the Carnival Corp. umbrella. The leftovers if you will…

The Carnival Spirit, on the other hand, while not the newest or the biggest in Carnival’s fleet, it’s still modern and it certainly will be the largest, and newest, to serve Australia and it’s a big big step up from the current selection out there. This just goes to show how much the Australian market has been growing! Cruise lines don’t send their better ships to a small meaningless market; they are reserved for important markets and destinations where they can be supported.

The Carnival Spirit was built in 2001 as the first (second if you count Costa Cruises fleet) in Carnival’s new Spirit Class of ships. It has since become one of Carnival’s most popular and nicest ships. Australia has scored big with this one! (photo at left "CARNIVAL SPIRIT" by flickr member "steamboatsorg" - Franz Neumeier, www.cruisetricks.de )

How do I feel about this though…well…I am happy for Australia…but at the same time I hate it! This ship has been deployed in California (which for those of you who are just joining, is my home state) mostly, for a while now…oh, and in Alaska in the summer months. In a few months, Spirit will be starting a season based out of L.A. doing the Mexican Riviera. Lately though, Los Angeles, San Diego and Long Beach have fallen victim to a declining cruise market :( due to several things, including fear of drug violence in Mexico, the Jones Act and a lack of destinations. Several ships have already left (such as yesterday when Mariner of the Seas left - sniff, sniff ) and headed to other destinations like Europe. Soon Norwegian Star will be leaving as well, and now here goes the Spirit along with them.

So in that sense, I hate it. I hate to see another ship leaving Los Angeles. I want to see my homeport doing well in the cruise business (in cargo operations, L.A. is still one of the most powerful ports in the world). I do think within a few years the cruise industry in California will pick up again (California is one of the largest cruise markets in the USA), but in the mean time, it’s sad to watch the decline.

On a happier note for L.A., the Disney Wonder will be here (and stay here for a few months) on Friday, which I will be there at the port for. On top of that, the QV and QE will be out here next week! (PLEASE PLEASE ALLOW ME TO VISIT THEM, CUNARD!!!...I love you!) Los Angeles, as well as other ports in Southern California, are great ports in great cities! I think that this fact will eventually help turn the tide for L.A., and bring the ships back.

In the end, both Los Angeles and Australia are going to be important players in the future of the cruise industry…that’s what I think anyway.

(Above photo -"Los Angeles Maritime Museum" by flickr member "karenpeacock")

Ramblings of a Ship-Geek is Growing!

Over the last couple of weeks Ramblings of a Ship-Geek has more than quadrupled in size, and the number of viewers everyday, now numbers in the hundreds. We have readers from all over the world, in literally dozens of countries and the numbers continue to climb faster and faster all the time.

In response to this, I have decided to try a few new things with this blog, and the over all product to try and expand it even further. I have started a YouTube Channel, a flickr account, and a flickr group for the blog. Please feel free to have a look at these pages and join, and then add to them!

I am working hard to make this blog successful and enjoyable to those who read it. Lately I have been trying to post a new article every other, to every few days. Please always feel free to comment on any post regarding anything. Your comments are important!

Thank you my readers for reading! Let’s keep this blog growing!

-Mark the Shipgeek

Here are the links to our new pages!

Rambling's new YouTube account is here! Its still pretty small but it is growing and should have more videos soon! Tell me what you think!

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/user/RamblingShipGeek

Rambling of a Ship-Geek has a new offcial (because you know how offcial I am) flickr group, "Ship-Geeks Unite". A place for fellow shipgeeks to share pictures, videos and just talk about our favorite thing..SHIPS! You are all invited to join and add your own pictures (as many as you want) and join/start any disscussion!

Enjoy!

http://www.flickr.com/groups/ship-geek/

Rambling of of Ship-Geek also has a new flickr account where we will host much of the pictures you see here on the blog, and many many more. You can add us as a contact on flickr, and be the first to know when we upload new pictures or you can just look at our photostream and check out all the awesome ship photos without joining. On top of this if you have any ship pictures you would like to see on here and on our group you can send them to me and I will be more then happy to upload them. Enjoy!

http://www.flickr.com/people/57699850@N03/


Remember that all these pages are new and are still growing so don't forget to check them often!

You may contact me either here on the blog or through e-mail at ramblingshipgeek@yahoo.com