Carnival Maritime adds P&O Cruises, Cunard Line and Fathom to portfolio

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Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen

Category: More News More News

Published: 18 October 2016 18 October 2016

Carnival Maritime, the marine service unit of Costa Group in Hamburg, announced the expansion of the services provided by the Fleet Operation Center (FOC) of Carnival Maritime onto 11 ships of P&O Cruises, Fathom and the Cunard Line.

For Carnival Maritime, this means further growth also in other departments, explained Managing Director Lars Ljoen. In total, the FOC in Hamburg is now monitoring and supporting 37 ships of the Carnival Corporation & plc.

While until summer 2016, the Center was exclusively responsible for monitoring and supporting 26 ships of the Costa Group (Costa Crociere, AIDA Cruises and Costa Asia), it is now also the first point of contact for all deviations, coordination requests and issues for the P&O and Cunard fleet. Consolidated monitoring in the FOC permits to share best practices among the vessels, leverage economies of scale to reduce costs as well as facilitate and align processes.

Ljoen is confident that a growing cooperation with P&O and Cunard will have positive effects on Carnival Maritime. “With additional manpower and expertise, we will improve our speed to achieve our goal of service improvements towards brands and fleet as well as optimization of our working procedures,” he comments.

 

Another announcement regarded the new Nautical Department of Carnival Maritime. Headed by Vice President Nautical Operations, Keith Dowds, its overall aim is to provide even better tactical support and professional guidance in relation to nautical operations to both fleet and brand. This enables to exploit efficient synergies and works towards the ambitious goals for consistently high level safety and professional standards at Carnival Maritime.

“The main premise behind the new Nautical Operations department is that we are continuously seeking to improve and share information and best practices across the fleets. We provide extra nautical expertise also to the brands. This will give us enormous benefits, for example when it comes to the deployment of the ships, their energy efficiency and port costs,” Dowds explains.

Furthermore, the Continuous Improvement department, headed by Alexander Klingelhöfer supports achieving the ambitious goals of Carnival Maritime through close monitoring and analyses, deploying lessons learned and best practices across ships and business unit.

With the advances achieved since founding the company, the challenge for the future will be to maintain the momentum by building a continuous improvement culture, setting the ground for another step change in ship management. “These advancements will offer substantial benefits, leading to unprecedented safety and efficiency in cruise ship operations,” states Klingelhöfer.

Viking Cruises launches $1 million travel agent challenge

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Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen

Category: More News More News

Published: 18 October 2016 18 October 2016

Viking Cruises, the deep sea and river cruise operator, has announced details of a new promotion for the travel trade, in celebration of the company’s 20^th anniversary.

“The Challenge, called Your Ship Has Come In: Viking Million Dollar Voyage, will be the travel industry’s largest-ever promotion of its kind. Running from October 17, 2016 until March 31, 2017, qualified travel agents who sell Viking’s river or ocean cruises will have the opportunity to enter the Challenge to win $1 million,” the company said in a statement.

“As we prepare to celebrate 20 years of leading the industry in 2017, we wanted an extraordinary way to recognize and reward the efforts of our travel trade partners,” said Torstein Hagen, Chairman of Viking Cruises. “In the last two decades, travel agents have helped us launch more ships and win more awards than any other cruise line, so it seems appropriate that we should also host the biggest-ever Challenge for our travel agent partners.”

To be eligible to win, qualified travel agents must register for “Your Ship Has Come In: Viking Million Dollar Voyage” by visiting www.vrc.com/million.

Upon registration, each qualified Viking River Cruises or Viking Ocean Cruises booking made from October 17, 2016 through March 31, 2017 will count as an entry in the Challenge. There is no limit on the number of entries – so each qualified booking increases the chance of winning. The winning travel agent will win $1 million and will be chosen at random from all qualified bookings, following the end of the Challenge in March 2017.

Azamara Club Cruises appoints Bert Hernandez Chief Operating Officer

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Written by Teijo Niemelä Teijo Niemelä

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Published: 11 October 2016 11 October 2016

Azamara Club Cruises has announced the appointment of Bert Hernandez to Chief Operating Officer effective October 31, 2016.

"This is a newly created position for the brand and Hernandez will play an important role as the line continues to grow and evolve," the cruise line said in a statement. Hernandez is no stranger to the cruise industry as he spent the last three years serving as Vice President of Planning, Strategy and Deployment for Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. and prior to that, enjoyed four years as Vice President of Revenue Management for Celebrity Cruises. An experienced senior executive, he has played a pivotal role in positions across Royal Caribbean’s family of brands.

“Azamara Club Cruises is thrilled to have Bert Hernandez join our dedicated team,” said Larry Pimentel, President and CEO, Azamara Club Cruises. “It’s an exciting time for the brand and Bert brings expertise and knowledge that will be extremely beneficial to our team as we look ahead to Azamara’s bright future. Our Destination Immersion programming is unmatched and we continue to bring unique experiences to our guests because of our talented teams.”

In his new role, Hernandez’s experience as a senior executive with highly developed commercial, planning and management skills will be applied as Azamara continues to implement new and exciting programs, voyages, ports of call and more.

“I am excited to join the Azamara team and look forward to playing an important role in the continued success that lies ahead,” states Bert Hernandez, Chief Operating Officer at Azamara Club Cruises. “I’m ready to dive into this new role and work with the team on this truly unique and special brand.”

Ballast Water Management Convention may drive oldest cruise ships from business

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Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen

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Published: 11 October 2016 11 October 2016

The Ballast Water Management Convention (BWMC) of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) will take effect in September 2017 and it may drive some of the oldest cruise ships out of business due to cost of compliance.

The Convention requires owners of existing vessels to fit equipment that will prevent the spread of organisms with ballast water discharges at the first dry docking of each vessel after Convention has taken effect.

Speakers at the annual conference of the International Chamber of Shipping in London last month said that the equipment will cost between $0.5 million and $5 million, depending on the size of the installation.

At the end of May 2016, there were eight cruise vessels built in the 1960s still in service, which had a combined capacity of 4,232 lower berths. Cruise vessels built in the 1970s numbered 14 and their combined capacity was 8,512 lower berths. The global cruise ship fleet had a combined capacity of 506,356 lower berths at the same point in time, according to figures in Global Ocean Cruise Market Analysis & Forecast by Odo Maritime Research.

Should all the ships built in those two decades leave the market, it would not have a material impact on the supply of cruise berths. However, it might lead to some companies finding it difficult to find suitable replacements to the aged tonnage due to be taken out of service.