They do have actual deck plans, can anyone identify the ship?

Under Asia Cruises she was significantly refurbished that some of the public rooms looks completely new. As from the deck plan she will get a few new cabins on higher decks.

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Condo Cruise Lines' First Ship Is Nearly Sold Out in Less Than Six Months
June 19, 2006

DESTIN, Fla., -- The new cruise line that pioneered affordable luxury cruise ship condominiums is already working on its next two medium-sized ships.

Erin LeCel Jones, Executive Vice President of the company, says, "We sold almost 80 percent of the available condos on our first ship in about twenty weeks - more than enough to go ahead and start the re-design and renovation process. "The ship will be drydocked in Singapore and the renovations should be complete by early December," she added. The as-yet-unnamed ship will then be delivered in mid-January to its homeport in San Francisco where it will begin the first of its two-year-long worldwide voyages. The young cruise line gained notoriety last January when it announced it was taking semi-retired cruise ships and converting about two-thirds of the staterooms into multi-room luxury condo suites.

Condo Cruise Lines has four more ships targeted for conversion to condos, and the next two are already being re-configured by its world-class maritime partners. To do the renovations the company has enlisted the talents of one of the most renowned maritime interior designers in the world. Tillberg Designs, the marine interior designers that created the luxurious interiors of the Queen Mary II and many more of the newest mega-ships, will develop the condo suites. The first ship's condo prices started out at $349,000 and went as high as $529,000 last January, but after two price increases, the condos that are left range from $562,000 to $1,280,000, according to Thomas Blackburn, the company's Senior Vice President and director of finance. "We didn't sell a single $349,000 suite as most people were looking for the higher rental income from the larger suites," he said. "So we eliminated the small, single suites and converted them to larger three-room penthouses and sold out." Many real estate investors are opting for this variation to the pre- construction condo purchase because the rental income is about five times higher than a beachfront condo on the Gulf of Mexico. Plus the ships move out of the way of hurricanes! More information on the company can be seen at its website: Condo Cruise Lines.

eTurboNews

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joe wrote:
That's the press release that made me ask these questions. It doesn't take much money to issue a press release but is there anything to it?

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I guessed this was the press release you were quoting from. I posted it because of the figures quoted. Cruise News Daily has an article about this company:

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* A Suite of Your Own
June 23 - Last January we wrote about a company that had promise. Condo Cruise Line said they planned to buy a ship, refit it with luxury suites, sell them as condominiums, and let the owners either cruise indefinitely or sublet their suites to others and make money from the rental income. We had seen similar unsuccessful schemes a dozen times before, but this one seemed different. Because their business plan was markedly different, we thought this one might be headed for success where others failed.
We're happy to report that it is succeeding. They have more or less sold out, have made a commitment on a ship, and are now looking to start selling their second ship.

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Anyone have access to the full article?

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Cheers

[ 06-25-2006: Message edited by: bulbousbow ]

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Originally posted by bulbousbow:

Anyone have access to the full article?

******

Cheers

[ 06-25-2006: Message edited by: bulbousbow ]

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I think all CND is doing is taking the press release at face value (...big surprise there). I suspect that the "full article" has little more than what was published in the press release.

If you visit the web site, there are a number of inconsistencies that make me skeptical of the venture. One of the big ones is that the log-in form is nothing more than a graphic (see below):

If it was functional it would be a form that would actually accept log-in information.

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Joe wrote:
If you visit the web site, there are a number of inconsistencies that make me skeptical of the venture. One of the big ones is that the log-in form is nothing more than a graphic...If it was functional it would be a form that would actually accept log-in information.

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They do have a street address and a toll-free number. Can anyone in Florida check-them-out?

Besides Cruise News Daily, they've also been mentioned in/at:

Condo Owner Magazine
Forbes.com
Donald Trump Real Estate Expo
Real Estate Broker

Wonder if the Donald knows anything about these people?

******

quote:

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Originally posted by bulbousbow:

They do have a street address and a toll-free number. Can anyone in Florida check-them-out?

Besides Cruise News Daily, they've also been mentioned in/at:

Condo Owner Magazine
Forbes.com
Donald Trump Real Estate Expo
Real Estate Broker

Wonder if the Donald knows anything about these people?

******

Cheers

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But if you look closely at the "Forbes" mention, it is actually nothing more than their press release displayed in a Forbes wrapper. Apparently Forbes gets a feed from PRNewswire. I still don't see much substance here.

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Originally posted by bulbousbow:

They do have a street address and a toll-free number. Can anyone in Florida check-them-out?

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Cheers

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They're supposedly located in Destin, FL, which is up in the Panhandle. Whenever I call them, however, I get an answering service, who will only take messages and forward them.

There is apparently no one directly connected with this operation whom you can speak with.

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Joe wrote:
...Forbes gets a feed from PRNewswire...

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That's normal with a lot of publications, rehashing press releases. What worries me is that they should be investigating their news sources a bit better, by making calls, paying visits, doing background checks, etc. Not good journalism.

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Linerrich wrote:
They're supposedly located in Destin, FL, which is up in the Panhandle. Whenever I call them, however, I get an answering service, who will only take messages and forward them. There is apparently no one directly connected with this operation whom you can speak with.

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You actually get a person! Interesting! What about e-mailing them? Would be interesting to find someone who’s actually paid money towards a “condo” and hear from them. If Condo Cruise Lines have received down payments (deposits) they must have an escrow account in a bank somewhere managed by an accountancy or law firm. Wonder if these guys are in bed with them as well. Anyone want to do some investigating?

******

I work for Condo Cruise Lines and normally wouldn't waste my time addressing your misinformed chatter, but thought it might be fun to set you straight.

The reason we don't announce the name of the ship we are selling is we don't need hundreds of prospective condo purchasers trying to talk to the ship's owners inquiring about everything from the color of the carpeting to what time dinner is served, during our purchase negotiations.

The website login and password graphic will be live when we close our sales and it will be for condo owners only.

We purchase ships with decades of useful life left and pour another $12 million bringing them up to "luxury ship" standards. This work will be done by both Aker Yards US, and Tillberg Designs, which if you know anything about shipbuilding, you will know they are about the best that come (Freedom of the Seas, QM2, etc).

No, it's not Magellan. We're affordable.

We use an answering service because we have literally hundreds of calls daily and we have to sort them by priority.

At no time are our condo purchasers at risk. They put up a $10k totally refundable deposit, that is held in escrow by one of the top escrow attorneys in the south. When 75% of the ship is sold out, we purchase the ship and then, after purchasers inspect their suites, we close the sales. And, we are 100% sold out of our first ship, and 40% of our second.

Because of our marketing to real estate investors, we have been checked out by state of Florida fraud and securities investigators and given a clean bill of health. Don't believe it? Give them a call..

We are addressing a need in two industries... there are not enough luxury cruise suites and we've just about run out of beachfront development space. So we take mid-size cruise ships and convert a certain number of cabins into multi-room luxury suites.

Sorry to take the wind out of your sails, but, no scam here, and to hear you all chatter, you sound like a bunch of old crows with nothing better to gossip about but a creative group that is setting the investment condo world on its ear.

Don't bother to ask me any questions, as this is my only contact I'll have with your group...

P.S.: Why do you release the easily recongnizalbe deck plans but not yet the name of the ship - the fact that people might call the present owners is a very strange reason for this procedure to say the least - if you want people to invest you have to give them information - and they certainly want to know which ship you are talking about.
AKER BTW bought the yars which built QM2 - back then this yard was not yet part of Aker.

[ 07-11-2006: Message edited by: Ernst ]

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"16) Q – How old is the ship?

A – The ships will usually be ten to fifteen years old, with many decades of useful life left.

17) Q – How long will the ship last before retiring?

A – Our ships will most likely have 10 to 30 years of cruising ahead of them. The ship will then be retired and moored somewhere as a floating hotel. Your suite will still be earning you an income in the range of $200-$400 a night, depending on location.

18) Q – What kind of shape is the ship in… is it safe?

A – The ship is inspected thoroughly before purchase. All our ships will meet or exceed US regulations (the toughest in the world). All are SOLAS, US Coast Guard, and US Public Health Service compliant."
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Is OMAR III SOLAS 2010 compliant???

Same era as BW who has recently undergone a refit costing 3 times the amount stated above.. OK she had new engines, but OMAR III may well need that too!