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In Spain, however, Carnival is close to finalizing its joint venture with Iberojet. The new cruise line will be Iberocruceros, and will combine Grand Mistral, Grand Voyager, and Carnvial's Celebration which will be transfered in the spring after a refit.
That will be one eclectic collection of ships- perhaps CCL's new dumping ground for old tonnage now that the Australia/NZ market is maturing to newer ships.
[ 09-05-2007: Message edited by: Fairsky ]
With a good refit the Celebration could become a far better ship than the ugly Grand Voyager.
As said in another post the Celebration isn't anymore the right ship in the Caribbean due to the lack of a lot of private balconies, but she will probably be a good ship for the spanish cruise market.
At sixteen years old Celebration is a very poor choice to join this fleet of modern cruise ships.
It would seem that Carnival might have some ideas on taking on Pullmantur Cruises by putting an older cruise ship in this area.
They might even consider doing inclusive cruising as well !
Neil ( Bob )
They should totally remove the funnel and give the ship a new one altogether--like they did for Tropicale.
However with regard to Spain it really depends on the quality of the refit, I think the Mistral is pretty ugly outside but ok inside, the Voyager looks great outside but has some restrictions inside, Celebration will need a huge refit to meet the same quality. Of course the Spanish market is still relatively new and therefore immature, they may not see the difference - as in Pullmantur?
Both of these ships had or have a pretty poor reliability reputation here in Australia though Pacific Sky was liked as a cruise ship. It is hard to find anyone with anything nice to say about Pacific Star.
Pacific Sun is a sister to Celebration and is a fine ship. The only issue is P&O Australia added 400 berths when the ship was transferred from Carnival and the common areas struggle to cope. It is to be hoped that Carnival learnt its lesson though somehow I doubt it.
Brad
CARNIVAL CORPORATION & PLC AND ORIZONIA FINALIZE AGREEMENT FOR NEW SPANISH CRUISE OPERATION
New Iberocruceros Cruise Brand to Launch with Three-Ship Fleet
MIAMI (September 5, 2007) -- Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE: CUK), the world’s largest cruise vacation company, and Orizonia Corporación, Spain’s largest travel company, today announced that they have finalized the agreements for a previously announced multi-ship cruise brand serving the Spanish market.
The transaction is expected to close on September 14, 2007, with Carnival owning 75 percent of the joint venture and Orizonia owning 25 percent. The new joint venture company will be consolidated into Carnival Corporation & plc’s financial results starting in the fourth quarter 2007 and is expected to be accretive to results in 2008.
To be called Iberocruceros, the new joint venture combines the two vessels of Orizonia’s existing cruise operations with a ship from the Carnival group.
In addition to Orizonia’s 1,244-passenger Grand Mistral and 834-passenger Grand Voyager, the 1,486-passenger Celebration from Carnival Cruise Lines’ fleet, will be transferred to the new Iberocruceros company. After an extensive renovation, the Celebration is scheduled to enter service in late spring 2008.
Alfredo Serrano, currently general manager of the Iberojet fleet, has been appointed general manager of Iberocruceros, which will be headquartered in Madrid. Serrano will report to the newly formed Iberocruceros board whose chairman will be Pier Luigi Foschi, chairman and CEO of Carnival Corporation & plc’s Costa Cruises unit. The board will also include Orizonia CEO Gabriel Subias.
“The new Iberocruceros joint venture will build upon the tremendous brand awareness of Orizonia’s Iberojet operations – one of Spain’s leading vacation companies – while providing a solid platform for expanding in the fast-growing European marketplace,” said Micky Arison, Carnival Corporation & plc’s chairman and CEO.
The three Iberocruceros ships will fly the Italian flag. Itineraries for these vessels will be announced shortly.
quote: After an extensive renovation, the Celebration is scheduled to enter service in late spring 2008
Any bets that this is code for "Once we have added a s@!tload of extra berths Celbrtation will be transferred to the joint venture."
quote:Originally posted by mike sa:Any bets the new name will be " Grand Celebration" !?
I really hope not. The new cruise line should be given a new brand identity including a new logo and ship names. Remember, the current ships are part of "Iberojet Crocieros." The new joint venter will be "Iberocrocieros." While similar, I hope we see a makeover for the whole operation.
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