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It will be the first time Carnival has permanently based a ship outside of the United States.
Itineraries and a homeport for the 88,500-tonne ship are yet to be revealed, however Sherry indicated cruises will be eight to 12 days in length, and sail around the Pacific Islands.
A very interesting move and maybe an indication of why the P&O ships are in such a nondescript livery. In years to come I feel we may be seeing these ships rebranded as Carnival Dawn, Carnival Jewel and Carnival Gem. I doubt if Pacific Sun will revert to a Carnival livery and will be sold or scrapped and Spirit is effectively her replacement.
Brad
This is one ship I'm disappointed to see exiting the North American market, but I'm happy for Australia.
Ernie
To date I have not tried P&O Australia (The older ships has been a minor factor).
Given that Carnival has decided on this ship it has given me more interest than a Fantasy class would have given.
quote:Originally posted by Sutho: Given that Carnival has decided on this ship it has given me more interest than a Fantasy class would have given.
Personally I wouldn't lose any sleep if every Fantasy Class ship was sent 'down under', but the Spirit Class is something else entirely. You're getting a quality ship, and I would certainly pick it over any of the Princess Sun Class ships and anything P&O Australia has to offer.
quote:Originally posted by eroller:Personally I wouldn't lose any sleep if every Fantasy Class ship was sent 'down under', but the Spirit Class is something else entirely. You're getting a quality ship, and I would certainly pick it over any of the Princess Sun Class ships and anything P&O Australia has to offer.Ernie
MUTS is a certainty but if Carnival are targetting an predominantly Australian clientele I would assume the casino will shrink as they are not as popular on Australian ships compared with US ships.
Likewise I assume an Australian specialty restaurant will be added. Carnival already have an arrangement with Luke Mangan for Salt restaurants on the newer P&O Australia ships so that may continue onto Spirit.
The slightly garish decor (though not bad by Carnival standards) may be a surprise compared with the Princess sourced ships. I doubt that this will be touched too much however as people never liked the Farcus interiors on Pacific Sun but it didn't stop them cruising on her.
Obviously good news for us, possibly Americans too should they travel here for it.
I would definately go for something like that over the Sun class that Princess operate.
The timing of the announcement is perfect too as it is a little beyond what anyone would book long term leaving the options open for it to attract passengers.
There is no doubt, however, that RCCL's increased interest in Australia has meant Carnival has had to smarten up its product down here. Previously Carnival controlled just about all of the options for cruising in Australia but it now realises that it can no longer get away with calling a 20 year old ship "new".
It seems that Carnival is gradually taking on more and more strategies which are similar to RCI. The new ad campaign 'didja ever' seems a parallel of 'nation of why not'. Growing the clientele base from US to global within the same brand is something RCI have been doing for years. There is already some 'localisation' of the ship announced in the currency and tipping policy. Very interesting given that Carnival have undoubtedly been hugely successful with the previous strategy of offering a different car for every market.
I honestly don't think rcl being down there was any motivation for Carnival placing Spirit down there.
Since Spirit will be leaving Southern California in 2012 , maybe her replacement will be the Carnival Breeze (2012)?
Cam J
I suspected a newer Carnival ship might be motivated in ensuring Carnival has the best ships here opposed to Royal Caribbean. Lets face it Carnival could have sent an older Fantasy class down here.
Something like Carnival Spirit makes the news and stirs up interest.
Whatever the motive is, this is good news for Australia.
Interesting how markets are developing right now. Dubai, The Med turning into a second Caribbean, Australia. RCI now assigning Vision of the Seas to the Scandinavian market again.
Wonder what will happen next?
quote:Originally posted by oslo dutch:I also got the impression that the California market is not doing well at all.
Apparently it is'nt according to an article in the business section of the L.A. Times today. Two other ships are leaving Southern California-RCI's Mariner of the Seas and NCL's Noregian Star. The continuing poor economy in Southern California as well as drug violence in Mexico are apparently the two biggest reasons the ships are being re-positioned to more lucrative markets. Passenger loads have dropped over 20% since 2008. Princess, HAL and now Disney will continue to operate Mexico-bound cruises out of Southern California.
I just wrote an article about this whole thing on my blog...
http://shipgeek.blogspot.com/2011/01/carnival-in-australia-los-angeles-in.html
I hope you guys don't mind me posting a link to the blog. I want it to be a good, informative site and I really value your guy's feedback, so thats why i post it on here.
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