News

Labor strikes delay Oceania Cruises' new Riviera

Details: Written by Teijo Niemelä Teijo Niemelä; Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines; Published: 25 January 2012 25 January 2012

Oceania Cruises was notified by Fincantieri late last week of construction delays and as a result, will reschedule the maiden voyage of its m/s Riviera. Construction on the 1,250-guest ship fell behind schedule when strikes at Fincantieri's shipyard near Genoa, Italy, lasted longer than expected. The maiden voyage of Riviera has moved from April 24 to May 16, and all guests affected by the delay will be contacted by their travel agents or by Oceania Cruises directly to discuss alternative cruise dates.

"We sincerely regret any inconvenience that this may cause our guests," stated Kunal S. Kamlani, the cruise line's president. "We are working very closely with the shipyard to ensure Riviera is completed to meet Oceania's high standards of quality and service."

"We know that sophisticated international travelers are anxious to welcome Riviera and we regret that labor strikes have caused this delay," said Giuseppe Bono, Fincantieri's chief executive officer. "All of us at Fincantieri are committed to producing a superior quality ship and we will deliver a truly magnificent vessel to Oceania Cruises without further delays."

The new maiden voyage is a 10-day Pearls of the Aegean cruise that includes an overnight aboard ship in Venice before visiting Dubrovnik, Kotor, Corfu, Monemvasia, Crete, Santorini, Kusadasi (gateway to Ephesus), Delos, Mykonos and Athens.

Guests booked on affected sailings will have the option of rebooking another cruise and receive a future cruise credit, which ranges from $250 to $1,000 per guest, depending on category of accommodation. In the event guests do not wish to rebook, they will receive a full refund. Travel agent commissions will be protected.

All Leisure Group stages strong recovery

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines; Published: 25 January 2012 25 January 2012

All Leisure Group, the UK based parent of Swan Hellenic, Voyages of Discovery and Hebridean Island Cruises, has staged a strong recovery and returned to profit in the latest financial year that ended 31 October 2011. Group net profit amounted to £5.7 million in 2011, according to preliminary figures, compared to a loss of £2.1 million a year earlier. Operating profit rose to £3.4 million from £3.1 million

“We have taken the strategic decision to manage our capacity and plan significant dry docks, refits, maintenance and upgrades during 2012. In addition, we will continue to develop new routes to market, for example via GDS and on-line to broaden customers' options and product offerings,” Chairman Roger Allard said in a statement.

Minerva’s €14 million upgrade, currently in progress, is mainly being paid for by the vessel’s owner. “In return for these improvements, we have extended the lease for a further 8 years to November 2021 at the same lease rate. We have also agreed to assist the owner's financing of these improvements by paying an additional deposit of up to €2 million; this deposit will be recovered by way of non-payment of lease rentals at the end of the lease term.”

“These improvements should benefit our yield and bottom line for the year ending October 2013 and beyond. We are delighted to say that we are seeing some benefits being delivered for this summer, with per diem fares 11% higher than those for Summer 2011. As a result of mv Minerva being out of service for the majority of the winter season, understandably winter losses will be higher than those for 2010/11, although we are investing for, and should reap the benefits over the next 10 years.”

“mv Discovery is operating in the Middle and Far East and Australia this Winter and, due to the challenging trading conditions, we expect revenues and occupancy to be lower than last year. However, per diem fares are 4% up on those achieved at the same point last year for Summer 2011.”

“Sales of Hebridean Princess are slower than last year, although per diems are being maintained. However, the inaugural river cruise programme is already over 75% sold," Allard said.

Cruise ticket prices edge higher after Costa Concordia - UBS

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines; Published: 24 January 2012 24 January 2012

Fears that the grounding of Costa Concordia in Italy on 13 January might derail appear not to have materialised as ticket prices seem to be firming. “As we are now moving into the heart of Wave Season, and as we are now one full week past the Concordia incident, we thought it timely to check on cruise pricing for the past week,” UBS cruise industry analyst Robin Farley said.

“Although we expected that a strong start to Wave Season would likely be derailed by the accident in Italy last week, ticket prices increased ~40bp in price sequentially week-over-week, and could be up as much as ~1% since the start of the year, according to our UBS Cruise Data Tracker. What is even more surprising is that average ticket prices increased since the start of the year for almost every brand that we survey, including Costa.”

“While still early, impact so far on bookings may not be as negative as one might have expected. Our EPS adjustments last week assume 50bp impact on total demand, with ~10% impact to Costa specifically, which nets to 200bp impact to CCL Carnival Corp & plc) and 50 bp impact to RCL (Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd)."

“Our pricing checks indicate that for the 2012 cruising season, cruise prices across the Caribbean have been up moderately in the last few weeks, including another slight uptick so far in Wave. Caribbean has shown strength since the second to last week of December. Alaska is moderately up since start of year, including an uptick in the last week. Finally, our checks indicate that Med cruise pricing has been stable since the downward pricing adjustment in early November,” she said in a report.