Continuing its expansion in Europe, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. announced today it is launching a new cruise brand, CDF Croisieres de France, committed to the French market. The new brand will begin sailing its first ship, Bleu de France, in May, 2008, after the ship has completed extensive renovations and undergone a cultural transformation wholly adapting the brand experience to French tastes.

The new line will operate one ship initially when it begins operations. The 376-cabin ship was the former luxury liner Europa when it was owned by Hapag Lloyd. Currently, it is Pullmantur's Holiday Dream. As the flagship of the new brand, Bleu de France will benefit from a euro 30-million overhaul, significantly altering many of the ship's public spaces, guest accommodations, entertainment venues and dining options.

The onboard experience of Bleu de France's guests will be totally French, from cuisine to entertainment to decor. French will be the language used on the ship as well.

The ship will sail a Mediterranean itinerary, departing from Marseille, France, starting in Spring, 2008. It will shift to a Caribbean routing, sailing out of La Romana, Dominican Republic, beginning in Winter, 2008-2009.

"We are thrilled with this opportunity to enter the French cruise market with a custom-tailored brand for French cruisers," said CDF Croisieres de France Managing Director Brigitte Tissier. "Our start-up efforts will clearly benefit from the global success and experience of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.'s family of brands, and we look forward to launching another stellar brand into that circle of excellence."

Equally enthusiastic about the new brand, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. Chairman and CEO Richard Fain, added, "We are very excited about bringing French cruising to the French market. We have a high demand for the product, a ship tailor-made for the market, and a highly talented team to lead the effort. I couldn't be more pleased."

[ 09-13-2007: Message edited by: joe at travelpage ]

Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Great news !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Originally posted by Pascal:
Ushhh, all this makes me HOT !

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Originally posted by Ernst:
It would have been fun if they named her Liberte.

This is good news. She was an amazing ship when built and certainly one of my favourit vessels. Although she has been altered quite and lacks some contemporary facilites she still must be a nice ship.

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Originally posted by recab:

I can suure you that she still is a very nice ship and will be even finer after revitalization.

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Now a few issues :

-they will have to keep the fares lower than those of Costa or MSC, or at least not higher. Those lines are already trading ex-Marseille, it it would be quite hard to explain people they would have to pay more for an porthole cabin an old ship, than for a balcony on a newbuilt. More over, I guess the point is to create a French mass market and good deals will be usefull make cruising more popular (in the good sense of the word).

-Which crew ? The crew will have to be reasonnabily fluent in French and I don't think it's the case of many cheap Philippinos or Indonesians crew members. Of course, you can recruit in Comoros, Madagascar or Western Africa were French is widely spoken, but there's no tradition of working on cruise ships in this countries. CDF may be compelled to train itself its crew (teach Philippinos French or train some Africans).

-Which itineraries ? IMO, it would be nice to alternate various itineraries ex-Marseille... Even a 7 nights trip would afford some interesting and original possibilities. Costival and MSC are already on the "Milky" West Med run (Barcelone/Marseille/Genoa/Tunis/Palma). It would be nice to see a bit variety. For the Winter season, I don't really understand why the ship will be based in La Romana... I think the French islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique would make easier turn around ports, there are many flights from France, no customs... But the point may be to keep them as calls as they are very popular destinations here.
-Travel agents : many of them haven't get yet that they can make money with cruises. They will have to be convinced...

Pascal you sound happy .

[ 09-13-2007: Message edited by: Carlos Fernandez ]

well obviously RCCI has decided to follow Carnival Corp and develop special brands for specific groups of people in this case French "speaking"people

i don't think they market this as premium or mass-market but as FRENCH, and i agree with Pascal they will fight a steep battle with Costa and MSC
but more competition will lead to a better product for the cruiser and more choice too

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Originally posted by Pascal:
[...]
-they will have to keep the fares lower than those of Costa or MSC, or at least not higher. Those lines are already trading ex-Marseille, it it would be quite hard to explain people they would have to pay more for an porthole cabin an old ship, than for a balcony on a newbuilt. [...]

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Actually, her cabins are one of her strong points - probably still better than most standard cabins on quite some other more recently built ships. Her cabins are large and well built and in the original configuration of Hapag Lloyd there were only windows, no portholes. (she nevertheless always had inside cabins - mind you that under Star and Pulmatur some crew cabins became passenger cabins)

[ 09-13-2007: Message edited by: Ernst ]

Downdie sailed Holiday Dream earlier this year and said in a thread somewhere she was tip top condition, and he thoroughly enjoyed the cruise.

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Originally posted by buddhaJoe:
hi there

well obviously RCCI has decided to follow Carnival Corp and develop special brands for specific groups of people in this case French "speaking"people

i don't think they market this as premium or mass-market but as FRENCH, and i agree with Pascal they will fight a steep battle with Costa and MSC
but more competition will lead to a better product for the cruiser and more choice too

best regards,
b. Joe

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Costa and MSC ships are officialy multi lingual, but if you don't speak a little Italian or English you can feel easily desoriented onboard as it's almost impossible to interract with the crew and 80% of the other pax. This is a considerable issue which slows the market growth. TA prefer sending their clients in predominantly French speaking resorts, and most people don't complain as the foreign language skills of my fellow citizens are often quite limited. That will be the main asset of CDF which could easily become a well known brand if properly marketed... So far the only cruise lines really known by the French public are Costa (thanks to their ads), Cunard (the Queen effect) and Princess (the Love Boat was a popular show here as well). MSC is pratically unknown even if they are currently the number 2 French cruise line in term of pax transported. Many MSC pax actually went to their TA to book a Costa cruise and eventually ended with MSC for availability or fares reasons.

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Originally posted by PamM:
Pascal, do you not think a ship specifically for French people with everything French aboard, food, language and so on, would more than make up for an older vessel and the same price for a porthole rather than a balcony? I don't necessarily mean those French who are already regulars on MSC/Costa etc, but for the majority of French people who have never cruised. It may well make them consider such a trip?

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Perhaps, but I'm not sure. CDF will not only compete with existing cruise lines but as well with land based resorts... It's possible to find 1 week vacations in Tunisia or Morocco for 400 or 500 €, all included. Reasonable fares are needed, IMO.

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I think we discussed once befoe that the French do not tend to travel far for holidays as every type of holiday is on the doorstep in France, now there is a cruise ship.

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Costa and MSC ships are officialy multi lingual, but if you don't speak a little Italian or English you can feel easily desoriented onboard as it's almost impossible to interract with the crew and 80% of the other pax.

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When we were on Sinfonia in May 2005, we found that the principal languages spoken on board by crew members - at least, senior crew members - were Italian, German & English. Many of the dining room waiters were Italian, and they didn't have much of anything except Italian; many of the bar managers were also Italian. There were a lot of Balinese drinks waiters, and they generally spoke excellent English but not much Italian. (I witnessed several stressful-looking incidents when the Italian bar managers (who didn't speak Balinese, of course) were trying to give instructions to the waiters who weren't really understanding them. Management tempers seemed to fray easily....) We had excellent service from the Balinese waiters, of course!

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Originally posted by mike sa:
I wonder if Carnival may go ahead with the new German line without TUI, ther eis no reason why they shouldn't.

I doubt they will want to open a French operation yet as the market is not big enough.

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That's RCI point, I guess. They intend to create the market. Sometimes, the offer generates the demand, it's a well known economic fact. It implies risks, but great success in buisness often comes from risks. For example, when Kloster bought the SS France, it was an enormous risk, just like many people thought Ted Arison was insane when he ordered the Tropicale in the late 70's...