Fuel surcharge intrigue continues

Back in November when Carnival Corporation announced the retroactive addition of fuel surcharges to existing bookings, we knew, first, that the rest of the industry would follow, and second, that there would be eventual pushback from customers or regulators. Nobody likes making a reservation, paying a deposit, and then being told sometime later that more money is due.

Sure enough, other brands owned by Carnival (like Cunard, Holland America, and Princess) added the fuel surcharge retroactively to existing bookings and, shortly thereafter, so did Royal Caribbean (and its siblings Celebrity and Azamara).

Meantime one cruise line, Norwegian, stands out as taking the most consumer-friendly approach to skyrocketing fuel prices. They added a fuel surcharge only for new bookings. Good for them!

Which brings us to earlier this month, and the regulatory pushback from Florida's attorney general Bill McCollum. The cruise lines had gotten themselves in hot water in Florida in 1997 over the issue of "port charges," since when ports were skipped (say, due to inclement weather), the "port charges" weren't reliably refunded. This resulted in an agreement between the cruise lines and the state requiring clear explanation of charges that make up the fare.

Apparently when Royal Caribbean was approached by Attorney General McCollum about whether, by adding retroactive charges now, they had run afoul of that 1997 agreement, the cruise line thought his argument was persuasive enough to cave in. So last week Royal Caribbean announced they're going to give back the retroactive charges, and clearly disclose the charges on new bookings.

Carnival, though, is resisting the idea of a rebate. Yesterday, Carnival Corp. dug in its heels on its quarterly conference call with financial analysts, falling back on its fine print which it said had mentioned for some time the possibility of future fuel surcharges. The attorney general disagrees that this constituted adequate disclosure, and it will be fascinating to see how this plays out over the next few weeks. We're thinking that kicking sand at their home-state attorney general will probably not serve them well in the long term.

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Cunard adds new planetarium shows onboard Queen Mary 2

The only planetarium at sea features two new shows, courtesy of Cunard's partnership with the American Museum of Natural History's Hayden Planetarium.

The new productions, "Cosmic Collisions" and "Passport to the Universe," join existing program "The Search for Life: Are We Alone?" in the Queen Mary 2's unique 150-seat Illuminations planetarium.

Narrated by Robert Redford, "Cosmic Collisions" launches passengers on a trip through space and time to explore the cosmic collisions and hypersonic impacts that drive the continuing evolution of the universe.

Tom Hanks narrates "Passport to the Universe," which takes passengers on an exhilarating flight though the universe and into the Orion Nebula, deep into intergalactic space.

Finally, "The Search for Life: Are We Alone?", which is narrated by Harrison Ford, and was produced with NASA's assistance, delves into the role of water as one of the necessities for life as we know it.

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Cruise ship Webcams and Bridgecams: cruise live from your desk!

The ongoing Internet-enabling of cruise ships now brings live cruising to your computer. Many ships offer near-real-time Webcams and Bridgecams with views from their ships' bridges and elsewhere onboard.

Admittedly, port areas aren't always the most scenic part of cruising, but every once in a while you'll get a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty, or the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City, or picturesque Villefranche on the French Rivera. It's a fun diversion for any cruise lover.

Among cruise lines offering Webcams are:

• Princess Webcams
• Crystal Webcams
• CostaWebcams
• Carnival Webcams (Liberty and Valor only)
• Norwegian Webcams (select ship of interest, then Webcam option)
• Cunard for the QE2 Webcams and QM2 Webcams
  
• Royal Caribbean only on Voyager of the Seas Webcams
• Celebrity Webcams
  

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Panama Canal to get a third lane?

Living near Boston, we thought we'd never hear of a construction mess bigger than the Big Dig. That changed when Panamanian president Martin Torrijos announced an audacious $5.25 billion plan to add a third lane to the Panama Canal to accommodate even the largest ships envisaged today.

Most large new cruise ships are called "post-Panamax," meaning they're bigger than the 33-meter maximum width that can squeeze through the canal's two current lanes. The expansion project would add a third, 55-meter wide lane, ready for use by 2015.

While cruise lines will happily make use of the capability to move ships like Cunard's Queen Mary 2 and Royal Caribbean's Voyager-class vessels through the canal, the real target of the project is the freight shipping industry which has plenty of post-Panamax ships of its own. The canal would be able to handle almost twice as much freight tonnage as it can today, with a corresponding boost in revenues.

This Biggest Dig will get under way provided that Panamanian voters approve the project in an upcoming referendum.

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Brooklyn's new cruise ship terminal inaugurated by Queen Mary 2

You couldn't ask for a showier guest at your housewarming party. Cunard's Queen Mary 2 arrived regally yesterday morning as the first visitor to Brooklyn's new Red Hook passenger cruise terminal, ending a 38-day South America cruise.

Brooklyn will be the Queen Mary 2's permanent home during her summer-long trans-Atlantic cruise season, in addition to ships from Cunard sister company Princess Cruises, and Norwegian Cruise Line.

Cunard and Norwegian contracted with the city in 2004 to build out the Red Hook terminal space, and conduct the channel dredging and widening necessary to accommodate today's breed of mega-liner. The new terminal was sorely needed to relieve the crush of new cruise traffic that has descended on the threadbare and aging west side passenger cruise terminal over the past few years.

We'll be visiting the new terminal in late April and will report back with more details then!

New York Daily News: Boro of kings greets a queen

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Secret swank ship suites?

Ask most cruise aficionados about the existence of secret VIP staterooms aboard cruise ships, and they'd say, "occasionally rumored, but where's the proof?"

After all, plenty of spectacular staterooms that qualify as VIP digs--like Queen Mary 2's 2-story duplex apartments, or newer Norwegian ships' 3000+ square foot garden villas--are well-publicized and can be purchased by anybody with the substantial means necessary. No secret there. But we recently got to experience an off-the-deckplan, can't-be-purchased accommodation firsthand, onboard Carnival Fascination.

While these two secret swank suites aboard select Carnival Fantasy-class ships are officially called penthouse 1 and penthouse 2, Carnival insiders refer to them as either owner's suites, or "Mickey suites," after Carnival Corporation chairman Mickey Arison. They don't appear on any deck plans, and they can't be booked at any price. Only senior executives of the cruise line or those lucky few with special dispensation can sail in them. A lot of Carnival employees don't know they exist.

The penthouses are hidden in plain sight, yet with blank-faced entry doors off the beaten path to give their occupants privacy. Beyond the wet bar in the foyer is an enormous, well-appointed living and dining room, a large bedroom, and in turn a marble-trimmed bath and walk-in closet. We were amused to find that enough fiddling with the veritable switchboard of lighting knobs next to the bed resulted in red mood glow on the ceiling.

And, apparently, the ship's staff was unaccustomed to having such lowbrow types as ourselves berthed in the penthouse, since whenever we tried to charge something to our shipboard account they refused to believe it was our stateroom and demanded proof.

Oh, and last but certainly not least, should they be reading this, we send a big thank-you to the Carnival people who arranged this major upgrade for us!

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Carnival quarterly financials good, except for fuel cost

Yields are up, but earnings took a beating from higher fuel prices. Such is the good and bad news shared by Carnival Corporation when comparing its most recently ended fiscal quarter with the same quarter year-prior.

A 19% drop in net income for the quarter ended February 28 was driven by a 63% increase in fuel prices. Revenues rose 2.7% across all 12 Carnival-owned brands to $2.46 billion, with net income of $280 million. The net revenue per lower passenger berth per day , called net yield, increased 1.2%, suggesting strengthening pricing.

The executive summary? Cruising is growing, demand is up, the business is sound, but darn that OPEC.

The impact of the results on Carnival's stock was muddied since the fire onboard Star Princess was announced during the earnings conference call. Carnival's brands are: Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America, Princess, Seabourn, Windstar, AIDA Cruises, Costa, Cunard, Ocean Village, P&O, Swan Hellenic, and P&O Australia.

Carnival's Earnings Announcement

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QM2 headed to drydock for pod repairs

Remember the propulsion pod damage suffered by Cunard's Queen Mary 2 cruising out of Fort Lauderdale in January? The ship has been sailing on its three remaining pods since then, and Cunard had hoped to make repairs without disrupting any sailings. Unfortunately, drydock service will be required twice--once for removal of the damaged pod and again for its reinstallation--causing a May cruise to be shortened and a November trip to be cancelled.

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Queen Mary 2 mutiny ploy pays off for passengers

The threatened passenger mutiny aboard Cunard's Queen Mary 2, traveling at reduced speed subsequent to brushing the side of the shipping channel cruising from Ft. Lauderdale January 17 and breaking one of her four propulsion pods, has been averted.

Some passengers were dismayed that all three ports of call were skipped between Ft. Lauderdale and Rio de Janeiro after the incident, and found Cunard's initial offer of a 50% refund lacking. Having plenty of time onboard to organize their counterattack, these modern-day mutineers threatened to refuse to leave their staterooms and disembark on January 26 in Rio unless Cunard made a better offer.

In a move that showed Cunard the downside of providing ubiquitous satellite phone and Internet connectivity from the ship for passengers, the rebels managed, while enroute, to engage a British law firm to whip up publicity around a potential class-action lawsuit.

Cunard, undoubtedly calculating the cost of negative PR if the passengers made good on their threats, increased their refund offer from 50% to 100%, successfully mollifying the rebels and averting a showdown.

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Cruise passenger traffic up 4.5 percent in North America

The number of passengers boarding cruises on seventeen major cruise lines, making at least one stop in North America, was 4.5% higher in the third quarter of 2005 than in 2004, according to the U.S. Maritime Administration.

Why? The cruise industry continues to flourish amid continued new shipbuilds, innovation in the onboard product, diversity of itineraries, and renewed interest in far-from-home travel among Americans.

The big winners included Norwegian Cruise Line, adding 49 departures dominated by its innovative us-flagged Hawaii cruise ships Pride of America and Pride of Aloha, and Princess Cruises with 22 additional sailings.

The data includes Carnival, Celebrity, Costa, Crystal, Cunard, Disney, Holland America, MSC Italian Cruises, Norwegian, Oceania, Princess, Radisson, Royal Caribbean, SeaDream, Silversea, Seabourn, and Windstar.

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Freedom of the Seas takes largest cruise ship crown from Queen Mary 2

Royal Caribbean's massive Freedom of the Seas officially became the world's largest cruise ship afloat when her hull was moved from drydock to wetdock on August 22, in preparation for the final work prior to her May 2006 introduction. At 158,000 gross registered tons, Freedom edges out the previous champ, Cunard's Queen Mary 2, which weighs in at a mere 150,000 tons.

Everything about Freedom is big, from the passenger capacity (4,370) and number of staterooms (1,817), to the size of the interior promenade (427 feet) and overall length (1,112 feet). The ship keeps the popular features of the Voyager-class vessels, like the rock climbing wall and ice skating rink, while adding new bells and whistles--some of which remain secret.

Freedom of the Seas' Western Caribbean itineraries are now available for booking, from $709 per person (double occupancy, as of 8/22/2005). All Freedom of the Seas bookings at 02Cruise.com are eligible to earn valuable CruiseDividends points redeemable toward name-brand merchandise, from Apple iPods to Weber grills.

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John Cleese joining Queen Mary 2 Trans-Atlantic Crossing

Monty Python fans rejoice! Monty Python co-creator John Cleese will sail and entertain aboard Cunard's Queen Mary 2 on its June 9-15, 2005 transatlantic crossing from New York to Southampton, England. The star of the current hit broadway show Spamalot will be joined by his wife, Alyce Faye Cleese, psychotherapist and author of "How to Manage Your Mother," and Australian actor and writer Bille Brown. Select films from John Cleese's repertoire such as "A Fish Called Wanda," "The Meaning of Life" and "Fawlty Towers" will be screened onboard.

Click here to request a quote and to book the cruise.

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Setting up house onboard the Queen Elizabeth 2

Assisted living facilities are so...yesterday. The new hotness is moving in to a 5-star cruise ship! Mrs. Bea Muller has lived on Cunard's Queen Elizabeth 2 since 1999 and is still going strong. The 86-year-old has received quite a bit of media attention over the years for this gambit, and the Newark Star-Ledger recently did us the favor of tracking her down for an interesting update.

Mrs. Muller started her journey onboard QE2 after her husband passed away, and she plans to keep it up "'till I'm bored or dead." This in spite of a minor snub when Cunard declined to move Mrs. Muller to the Queen Mary 2 when it took over QE2's trans-Atlantic crossings.

Interestingly, Mrs. Muller's story has caused some pundits to semi-seriously question whether cruise ships could be the retirement wave of the future. Her expenses run about $66,000 a year which is compared in the article to $48,000 for a high-end assisted living center. We're going out on a limb here and guessing that QE2 is at least $18,000 more fun than even a swank assisted living facility.

Newark Star-Ledger: Life is a cruise for QE2 senior

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Bitter brew on board?

The Orlando Sentinel has decided to help out coffee addicts with an unscientific-but-amusing expose of which cruise lines know their way around a coffee bean.

The free coffee on Royal Caribbean and Princess brewed up a bitter reaction. On the other hand, Radisson, Windstar, Crystal, Cunard's Queen Mary 2, and Costa perk along with high-quality java. Other cruise lines drew mixed reviews, with cynical (realistic?) observers suggesting that the quality of the free coffee has declined as many lines have added extra-cost gourmet coffee bars that serve the really good stuff.

Orlando Sentinel: What's Brewing on Cruise Ships (Registration Required)

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