Interview with Captain Ian McNuaght and Other Cruise News.

I recently had the opportunity to sit down and talk with Captain Ian McNaught of Cunard Line. This was indeed an enjoyable experience as I have known Captain McNaught since he was a young officer on Queen Elizabeth 2 in the 1990s. Captain McNaught is perhaps best known for being the last Cunard captain of the QE2 and his vibrant personality has made him a great favorite of regular Cunard passengers.

Our conversation touched upon a number of topics but the primary focus was on Captain McNaught’s latest command Cunard’s Queen Victoria. The ship is the second largest Cunarder ever built and was designed to bring the Cunard transatlantic crossing style to cruising. Cunard has had cruise ships in the past but their style was always different than its transatlantic liners. Some were mass market, some were luxury, and some reflected the Norwegian style of their previous owners.

Captain McNaught sees the Queen Victoria as carrying through the Cunard experience of QE2 and more recently Queen Mary 2. There are differences but then each ship is different. He attributes much of Cunard’s success in carrying over the Cunard style to his crew and their Cunard training. He is also very impressed by the technology on Queen Victoria, which he feels enhances the product.

My conversation with Captain McNaught is posted at: http://beyondships.com/QV-McNaught-1.html

Turning to the week’s other news:

Princess Cruises has announced that in 2011, it will transfer the Royal Princess to sister company P&O Cruises. Royal Princess is one of Princess’ small ships (see our profile and photo tour at http://beyondships.com/Princess-RP-Profile.html ) She will be following in the footsteps of the previous Royal Princess, which became P&O’s Artemis (http://www.beyondships.com/PO-Artemis-Profile.html). Artemis will be leaving the P&O fleet and thus the addition of Royal Princess to P&O will allow that line to maintain its presence in small ship cruising. The ship is to be renamed Adonia.

Meanwhile, life is changing for some of Royal Princess’ sisters. Royal Princess is one of eight nearly identical ships that were built for Renaissance Cruises. Following the demise of Renaissance, three of these ships went to Princess, three to Oceania Cruises and two to Azamara Cruises.

This week Azamara announced that it was changing its name to Azamara Club Cruises. Its new president, Larry Pimintel, explained that the new name was more in keeping with the club-like atmosphere onboard its up-market ships. The line is also changing its approach to become more destination focused with longer stays in port including more overnights. I’ll be writing more about Azamara’s plans in the near future.

I recently heard from two of the officers who have been interviewed on Beyondships. Trevor Lane, who had been Staff Captain on Queen Mary 2, has been promoted to captain and is the master of the Pacific Sun of P&O Cruises Australia. Meanwhile, Captain Francesco La Fauci, who I interviewed on Carnival Triumph, is now in command of Carnival Conquest.

Photo Tour of Fred.Olsen's Balmoral and Cruise News

Balmoral is the newest and largest ship in the Fred.Olsen Cruise Line’s fleet. However, veteran cruisers will remember her first appearance as the Crown Odyssey of Royal Cruise Line in 1988. More cruisers will remember her as the popular Norwegian Crown of Norwegian Cruise Line as she spent most of her prior career with that line.

After purchasing her from NCL, Fred.Olsen sent her to Germany to have an additional section inserted. This increased her passenger capacity as well as the public space. However, the ship still retains a small ship atmosphere.

At 40,000 gross tons, Balmoral is not a yacht. However, the atmosphere onboard is much different than the megacruise ships coming out of the shipyards today. In many ways, it has the flavor of late 20th Century cruising when the emphasis was more on relaxation in comfortable surroundings than on the number and variety of onboard experiences that a ship can provide. In my view, both styles of cruising have merit and thus it is good that someone is still offering the old style as an option for travelers.

Balmoral is primarily geared toward the British market. The line is well known in the UK and for most of the year, Balmoral operates from Dover, England.

Beyondships new profile page for Balmoral appears at http://beyondships.com/FOL-Balmoral-Profile.html and the photo tour and commentary starts at http://beyondships.com/FOL-Balmoral-Tour-1.html

Turning to the events of the last week, Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas was officially named in a ceremony in Fort Lauderdale on 30 November. The ship has already achieved notoriety as the world’s largest passenger ship. At 225,282 gross tons and capable of serving 5,400 passengers at double occupancy (that means she can carry even more if the upper berths are used), Oasis is not just a little larger than the previous record holder of the but almost half again larger. (The previous holders were RCI’s three Freedom class ships of 158,000 gross tons. Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 is a bigger physical object than these ships but has less gross tonnage).

RCI had seven godmothers for Oasis - - one each for each of the “neighborhoods” on the ship. The neighborhoods are sections of the ship geared toward different concepts or interests. For example, there is an entertainment neighborhood. This allows “guests with the opportunity to seek out relevant experiences based on their personal style, preference or mood.”

Not to be outdone, Princess Cruises is inviting everyone to be a virtual godmother for the former Tahitian Princess, which has been renamed Ocean Princess. The ceremony will be conducted entirely on line during Ocean Princess’s current cruise. People can log into Princess’ site at http://www.princess.com/oceanvirtualchristening until 18 December to participate.

When I was on Carnival Dream last month, I ran into Gerry Cahill, President of Carnival Cruise Lines, who mentioned that he was onboard talking to some people about plans for Carnival’s next ship. This struck me as odd as Carnival’s next ship, Carnival Magic (a sister to Carnival Dream), is already under construction and is scheduled to join the fleet in 2011. The mystery was cleared-up last week when Carnival announced that it will be building a third ship based upon the design of Carnival Dream. As such, the new ship will be 130,000 gross tons and will accommodate 3,690 passengers double occupancy. She will be built at the Fincantieri shipyard in Monfalcone, Italy and is scheduled to enter service in 2012.

One of the nice things about the Carnival ships is that they are not mere clones of each other. Even when they are part of the same class, there are differences such as distinct interiors and often new features. This makes going aboard each ship more interesting as it is an exploration. It looks like this trend will continue as Carnival says that the new ship “will offer many of the same innovations featured on the recently launched Carnival Dream, as well as some exciting new elements to be announced at a later date.”

Queen Mary 2 - - Behind-the-scenes looks at Entertainment and Dining

This week, Beyondships continues its behind-the-scenes look at the workings of Queen Mary 2 with two interviews.

The first is with Entertainment Director Paul O’Loughlin. Paul is relatively new to QM2 but is no novice to the world of cruise ship programming. He has been a cruise director for 30 years on some 27 ships including many of the major P&O and Princess ships. Considering the prestige of Queen Mary 2, one would expect that anyone assuming such an important would be highly qualified.

The Entertainment Director is in charge of the programming for the ship - - all of the entertainment including production shows, musicians, movies, and visiting entertainers as well as all of the activities ranging from guest lecturers to trivia contests. He also acts as the primary interface between the passengers and the ship’s management, introducing performers, hosting parties and receptions and appearing on the onboard television. It is a highly visible position.

On most ships, this position is called cruise director. However, considering the type of experience that Cunard seeks to present with Queen Mary 2 that title does not really seem appropriate. Indeed, having sailed with Paul on Emerald Princess, which is a very nice up-market cruise ship, I can see a difference between what he did there and what he does on QM2.

My conversation with Paul is posted at http://www.beyondships.com/QM2-art-Oloughlin.html

The second interview posted this week is with Jamie Firth, the maitre d’ hotel of the Britannia Restaurant on QM2. Cunard regulars will remember Jamie from Queen Elizabeth 2 where he was a mainstay in the restaurant operation for years.

Jamie is in charge of the largest and most spectacular dining room on QM2. Since he is a very articulate person, I thought it would be good if he described the dining system on Queen Mary 2, the Britannia Restaurant’s place in that system and the mechanics of the restaurant’s operation. Accordingly, Jamie talks about what the restaurant is all about and such topics as how tables are assigned, the various duties of the restaurant staff (more than one would think) and what happens after a passenger gives his or her order to a waiter.

My interview with Jamie Firth appears at: http://www.beyondships.com/QM2-art-Firth.html

Cunard also featured in the cruise ship news this week. On 23 November, the name Queen Elizabeth was welded onto the new Cunarder now being built by Fincantieri near Trieste in Italy. The new ship will join the Cunard fleet in October 2010. Meanwhile, Cunard came in first in the large cruise line category ahead of 22 other lines in a survey of travelers conducted by Zaggat’s.

Another Fincantieri ship, the Costa Deliziosa (92,600-tons) successfully completed her sea trials on 15 November. She is currently being fitted out at Fincantieri’s Marghera (Venice) shipyard and will be delivered on January 29, 2010.

While much attention was being paid to Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas’s arrival in the United States, her sister ship Allure of the Seas was floated out of her building dock at the STX shipyard in Turku, Finland.

Tahitian Princess is currently in drydock in Singapore being transformed into the Ocean Princess. Progress on the transformation can be followed on the Princess.com website.

Also in drydock, is Holland America’s flagship Rotterdam. I was able to take the attached photo of her during a port call in Freeport, Grand Bahamas last week.

The call in Freeport was on the new Carnival Dream. The Dream, sailing out of New York, was making the same port calls as fleetmate Carnival Pride, which was sailing out of Baltimore. As a result, the two ships formed a Fun Ship Flotilla, which included the two ships maneuvering closely around each other at sea in a similar fashion as when Queen Mary 2 and QE2 made tandem crossings. Dream was also accompanied for a time by the newly-commissioned USS New York (LPD 21).

NCL’s Norwegian Dawn experienced a power failure during a Caribbean cruise, which made her divert to San Juan, Puerto Rico for repairs rather than return to Miami where the cruise had begun. Dawn’s next cruise also had to be cancelled.

Celebrity Life, Photo Tour of Celebrity Constellation and a Talk with the Capatin Of Caribbean Princess

The cruise lines have come a long way from the days when it was the passengers’ responsibility to entertain themselves. The daily programs published by each ship have pages of information about what is going on around the ships and those are not even complete listings of all that one can do.

Celebrity Cruises has traditionally had a good program of onboard activities. It is a premium line whose target market tends to be interested in more sophisticated activities. They also are more demanding about cuisine, wine and the type of offerings in the ship’s spa. The line has received good marks in the past for its efforts to fulfill these demands.

Nonetheless, Celebrity is revamping its onboard programming. It is reorganizing its activities so that there are tracks of activities that are geared toward specific areas of passenger interest. It is also establishing hosts for each area who will help to guide passengers. The idea is to give the passenger a more valuable and meaningful experience at sea than he or she gets from having a cruise full of unrelated, albeit interesting, activities.

I recently had the opportunity to speak to Ms. Lisa Lutoff-Perlo, Senior Vice President of Hotel Operations for Celebrity Cruises, about the new “Celebrity Life” program. The interview is posted at: http://beyondships.com/Celebrity-art-Lutoff-Perlo.html. It can also be accessed through Beyondships new Celebrity Cruises page. http://beyondships.com/Celebrity.html

I spoke with Ms. Lutoff-Perlo onboard Celebrity Constellation, a ship that I have always found particularly photogenic. She has nice exterior lines that give her a sleek look and the appearance of cutting through the water like an arrow, to use a mixed metaphor. Inside, the ship has a splendid contemporary design with an interesting art collection woven into it. Accordingly, I have updated and expanded the Celebrity Constellation section of Beyondships with quite a few new photos as well as with new menus, recipes and other information. The profile page for Constellation is at http://beyondships.com/Celebrity-Constellation-Profile.html and the photo tour begins at http://beyondships.com/Celebrity-Constellation-Tour-1a.html

Last month, I published an article about the revitalization of Caribbean Princess based in part upon my interviews with Captain Marco Fortezze. During the voyage from which that article arose, I had several talks with Captain Fortezze in which we talked about his career, his style of command and what it is like to drive a ship like Caribbean Princess. Since he is an articulate and intelligent man who has had an interesting career - - he was promoted to captain at the young age of 40 - - I thought I would do a second article specifically about Captain Fortezze. This article should also be of interest to those of you who are interested in the way a ship likes Caribbean Princess operates. It can be found at: http://beyondships.com/Princess-CB-art-Fortezze.html

Naming Carnival Dream and Talking with the President of Costa Cruises

Carnival Dream came to New York this week for her official naming ceremony and I had the good fortune to attend. The ship is Carnival Cruise Lines’ largest ship to date and while she is ultimately based upon the Carnival Destiny design, the increase in size gives the ship more-eye pleasing proportions than her predecessors. Inside, the design is more restrained than earlier ships but still with the distinctive style of architect Joe Farcus.

The ceremony was held in the ship’s theater, which was indeed fortunate because outdoors NewYork was in the grips of a pre-winter cold snap and there was a steady rain. Carnival’s Senior Cruise Director and master blogger John Heald conducted the ceremony with his typical charm and good humor. He emphasized that a goal was to get away from the traditional stuffiness of ship naming ceremonies and it was kept fast-paced and light-hearted. Carnival President and CEO Gerry Cahill spoke, Dr. Henry Belin delivered the benediction and Marcia Gay Harden acted as godmother to the ship. I have put together some photos along with excerpts from the various speakers and posted it at: http://beyondships.com/CarnivalDream-art-naming.html
Following up on last week’s story about Costa Atlantica, I was able to ask Maurice Zarmati, President and CEO of Costa Cruises North America, a series of questions about Costa. Costa is a relatively old line and very well known in Europe but in recent years, its North American operations have been primarily in the Caribbean. Now that Costa is offering cruises in and around Canada and New England, I thought it would be a good to give the line the opportunity to re-introduce itself and talk about its cruising style. My interview with Mr. Zarmati appears at: http://beyondships.com/CostaAtlantica-art-Zarmati.html

Returning to Carnival, the line featured prominently in the news this week.

Carnival’s oldest ship, the Holiday, has now left the fleet. She is to be replaced as the Carnival ship sailing out of Mobile, Alabama by the Carnival Fantasy. Taking the Fantasy’s spot in New Orleans will be the Carnival Triumph. Both ships inaugural cruises from their new homeports were delayed a day due to the approach of Hurricane Ida. (As she moved north, the remains of Ida closed the port of Baltimore thus preventing Grandeur of the Seas from returning as scheduled).

Carnival also announced that Carnival Fantasy will be homeported year-round in Charleston, South Carolina beginning in May 2010. She will be replaced in Mobile by sister ship Carnival Elation.

Two other Fantasy-class ships, Carnival Ecstasy and Carnival Fascination, will be going in for major refurbishments, which will include the addition of 98 balconies and the installation of water parks and adults-only retreats. These ships will be the fifth and sixth Fantasy-class ships to be so retro-fitted.

Meanwhile, Oasis of the Seas arrived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, her new homeport, on November 13, 2009. The giant ship was delayed two days on her crossing from Finland due to hurricane-force winds and 80-foot seas. Her next milestone will be her naming ceremony on November 30.

Costa Atlantica Cruise ship photo tour and commentary

This week Beyondships presents its first profile and photo tour of a Costa Cruises ship. She is Costa Atlantica, which was built to the same design as the Carnival Spirit and which is the forerunner of quite a few cruise ships sailing for a number of different lines. It is a good design from a seagoing perspective - - she goes fairly fast and her seakeeping qualities mean that she is not confined to just going around calm seas. This design is also popular with passengers, carrying an array of features and amenities in a good layout. At nearly 86,000 gross tons, she is big but not gargantuan.

What distinguishes Costa Atlantica from her sisters and cousins that sail for other lines is her Italian-style of cruising. While some other lines try to de-emphasize their national origin in hopes of attracting an international clientele, Costa emphasizes its Italian origins and succeeds in attracting an international clientele. In fact, it is the most popular cruise line in Europe and even when the ship is sailing in North America, there are substantial numbers of European guests.

As a result, Costa Atlantica has a cosmopolitan and international feel. This should not be confused with being stuffy - - the bold colors and designs of the interior are too light hearted for that. Rather, it means that one is likely to encounter people with different backgrounds and tastes, which is a broadening experience.

The profile of Costa Atlantica appears at: http://beyondships.com/CostaAtlarntica-Profile.html and the photo tour and commentary begins at: http://beyondships.com/CostaAtlantica-Tour-1.html

Turning to some items in the news - -

On 1 November Oasis of the Seas passed under the Great Belt Fixed Link bridge in Denmark while making her way from the shipyard where she was built in Finland out to the Atlantic. Even with her telescopic funnels lowered, there was only 2 feet of clearance between the bridge and the ship. Traffic on the bridge was halted for 15 minutes while the ship passed. I think that incidents such as this underscore just how big this ship is in a way that the gross tonnage figures do not.

Unfortunately, the ship then encountered high winds and rough seas, which caused RCI to announce that her arrival in Fort Lauderdale will be delayed two days to November 13. This should not be seen as a black mark on the new ship’s record. The North Atlantic can be difficult in November. Building in the ability to withstand such seas and make fast crossings is the reason why Queen Mary 2 cost a third more to build than a comparable sized cruise ship. Since such crossings are not what Oasis is intended to do, there was no reason to build such a capability into her. Her test will be how well she entertains guests while sailing the calm waters of the Caribbean.

Meanwhile, Carnival Cruise Lines’ largest ship yet, Carnival Dream (130,000 tons) will be named in a ceremony in New York on November 12. Carnival has announced that the godmother will be actress Marcia Gay Harden. The naming ceremony will also include the unveiling of the world’s largest children’s book signifying a multi-year partnership between Carnival and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Princess announced that it is going fully digital with its pre-cruise documents. In the past, passengers have received a rather dauntingly large envelope in the mail containing such things as information about shore excursions and a booklet designed to answer questions about the upcoming voyage. For voyages departing after January 21, 2010, passengers will be receiving a series of e-mails giving them information about their upcoming cruise. Amongst other things, these e-mails will be more personalized to the ship, the itinerary and the passenger’s status in Princess’ repeat passenger program. At least in theory, this should save a few trees.

Going behind the scenes on Queen Mary 2

This week we continue with our new series of behind-the-scenes looks at Queen Mary 2.

The first is a conversation with Chief Engineer Brian Watling about how QM2 works from a technical perspective. Brian has served on Cunard ships for 27 years including being Chief Engineer on Queen Elizabeth 2. He also “stood-by” at the shipyard as QM2 was being built o he is uniquely qualified to talk about how the ship works.

In our conversation we talked about everything from the propulsion plant to the azipods and about other areas of the Technical Department’s far-flung responsibilities. The article appears at: http://beyondships.com/QM2-art-Watling.html

To balance this technical discussion, this week I am also presenting an interview with Carol Summers who is the Dance Captain on QM2. This is not the dance team that gives dance lessons in the Queens Room but rather the Royal Cunard Singers and Dancers who perform the production shows in the ship’s theater.

Carol is a professional dancer who performed during QM2’s maiden voyage and subsequently on Queen Victoria and QE2. We talked about how the production shows on passenger ships are put together and what it is like for a team of professional singers and dancers to live aboard a passenger ship. The interview appears at: http://beyondships.com/QM2-art-Summers.html

Royal Caribbean took delivery of Oasis of the Seas on October 30 in a ceremony in a conference room in the shipyard where she was built in Finland. This does not mean that she will go into service yet. Royal Caribbean is taking the approach of using the ship’s transatlantic crossing between Finland and Fort Lauderdale to hone her crew and get them used to operating this colossal vessel. For example, each day during the crossing, a new dining or entertainment venue will be “officially” opened and brought on line. This is an approach that works quite well and is frequently credited as a reason that Ruby Princess opened to such good reviews last year. Oasis will reach Fort Lauderdale on November 11 after which there will be a naming ceremony with seven godmothers cutting the ribbon that will cause a bottle of wine to smash against the ship’s side.

Meanwhile, on 31 October, in Venice Italy, Holland America’s latest ship, the Nieu Amsterdam was floated out of the dry dock in which she was created. The float-out is an important step in a ship’s life equivalent to the traditional practice of sliding the ship down the ways into the water. After the float-out, the ship goes to a fitting out dock where the remainder of the work needed to bring her into service will be done. Nieu Amsterdam is the second Signature-class (Super-Vista) ship to be built and is scheduled to join the HAL fleet on 4 July 2010.

Disney has announced that one f the features on its forthcoming Disney Dream will be a 725-foot long roller coaster. While the new 128,000-ton ship is supposed to be done in keeping with Disney’s existing ships, this feature does not seem at this distance to harmonize with the tasteful (albeit somewhat whimsical) style of those ships. However, Disney is not about to sacrifice its reputation for quality and so it will be interesting to see how they bring this off.