quote:

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Originally posted by Noordam:
Does anyone know how Thomson ships are selling this summer? They are more then doubling their births, but at the same time won't be competing with My Travel.

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Thompson is now really the only UK budget cruise line. They clearly aim to mop-up all the AirTours (My Travel) passengers past and present.

Sunbird (Thomson Destiny) is bound to continue it's success.

[ 02-17-2005: Message edited by: Keitaro ]

[ 02-24-2005: Message edited by: joe at travelpage ]

quote:

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Originally posted by Malcolm @ cruisepage:

Thompson is now really the only UK budget cruise line. They clearly aim to mop-up all the AirTours (My Travel) passengers past and present.

Sunbird (Thomson Destiny) is bound to continue it's success.

Thomson also own the UK biggest branch of travel agents 'Lunn Poly' - there isone in every major UK town. This puts them in a very good position to push their ships and do very nicely.

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This means that the only "original" ship in the fleet is P Marissa as all the other "Princesas" have gone.

I do not know where the ship was sold and would be interesting to find out.

With P. Cypria leaving, the only ships remaining for cruises from Cyprus are the Serenade and P.Marissa.

On a more serious note... Pan, I was waiting to hear news from Paradise Cruises with regard to a replacement for Atalante. Something which 'may be a ferry' was on the cards I believe, but I have not seen anything further mentioned or have I missed it?

quote:

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Originally posted by PamM:
Malcolm may enjoy the 'entertainment' aboard P. Marissa

On a more serious note... Pan, I was waiting to hear news from Paradise Cruises with regard to a replacement for Atalante. Something which 'may be a ferry' was on the cards I believe, but I have not seen anything further mentioned or have I missed it?

Pam

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No, I don't think you have.
Paradise cruises have not made any announcements.

It seems that Cyprus local cruises will be minimised to 3 ships this year.

P Marissa
Serenade and
maybe Salamis Glory

[ 02-22-2005: Message edited by: Pan ]

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Originally posted by Pan:
Louis have announced today that they have sold the old Princesa Cypria for $4m.

This means that the only "original" ship in the fleet is P Marissa as all the other "Princesas" have gone.

I do not know where the ship was sold and would be interesting to find out.

With P. Cypria leaving, the only ships remaining for cruises from Cyprus are the Serenade and P.Marissa.

Do not forget that New Paradise cruises have also got rid of Atalante.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Keitaro:
Hi Pan. I looked at Louis' website and can't find anything about the P CYPRIA sold for scrap? Where did you hear about it?

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There has been an announcement yesterday at the Cyprus Stock Exchange. (code: LUI)

Their website is still under construction (maybe I should say is permanently under construction) and things change from day to day.

Do not forget that New Paradise cruises have also got rid of Atalante.<<

Despite reports some months ago, Salamis Lines do operate the SALAMIS GLORY also this year. It had been reported that they wanted to go out of the cruise business.

In a talk to a Cyprus based source, I understood that Salamis Lines have also a ferry which is a good, valuable ship. This ship had been arrested for dept.

My guess was that they wanted to sell the SALAMIS GLORY to free the ferry.

Now they apparently decided against a sale, a sales person gave me a sketch of the cruise itinerary today.

The SALAMIS GLORY will be in operation from 25 March. The first cruise will go to Beirut. She will do Egypt cruises on Monday to Wednesday and from Wednesday to Friday. Also there is a 3-day cruise per week which will go either to Rhodes or to Beirut (and Latakia?). This has not been decided yet.
Also there will be 5-day cruises to the Greek Islands.

quote:

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Originally posted by anthemius:
>>With P. Cypria leaving, the only ships remaining for cruises from Cyprus are the Serenade and P.Marissa.

Do not forget that New Paradise cruises have also got rid of Atalante.<<

Despite reports some months ago, Salamis Lines do operate the SALAMIS GLORY also this year. It had been reported that they wanted to go out of the cruise business.

In a talk to a Cyprus based source, I understood that Salamis Lines have also a ferry which is a good, valuable ship. This ship had been arrested for dept.

My guess was that they wanted to sell the SALAMIS GLORY to free the ferry.

Now they apparently decided against a sale, a sales person gave me a sketch of the cruise itinerary today.

The SALAMIS GLORY will be in operation from 25 March. The first cruise will go to Beirut. She will do Egypt cruises on Monday to Wednesday and from Wednesday to Friday. Also there is a 3-day cruise per week which will go either to Rhodes or to Beirut (and Latakia?). This has not been decided yet.
Also there will be 5-day cruises to the Greek Islands.

Michael Hipler
http://liners.gmxhome.de

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It seems that the local cruise industry is not making any profits.
This is possibly due to the cancellation of Holly Land cruises and hence the reduced demand for mini cruises from Limassol.
In the past, Louis's main destination was Holly Land in (or without) combination of Egypt.

Cruises to Greece and Greek islands branded for Cypriots cannot give very high profits just beause most of the population have their holidays during the first three weeks of August.

The result is to have semi-empty ships up to early July (and from September and onwards) with a period of heavy use "sandwiched" between them (approximately 15 July to 20 August).

This is the reason behind LCL decision to operate ships from Greece, charter ships to Thomson and create sister company Louis Hotels managing various 5* and 4* hotels in Cyprus and Greece.

They have also another sister company that owns and operates Cyprus Hilton and Hilton Park. These are both 5* hotels of the famous chain.

[ 02-24-2005: Message edited by: Pan ]

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Originally posted by anthemius:
Pan,
is this caused by shool holidays in the first 3 weeks of August?

Michael
http://liners.gmxhome.de

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No, school holidays extend from 15 June to 15 September !!!

However, during the first three weeks of August the rest of the people are on leave mainly construction industry, private companies e.t.c e.t.c

HELLENIC OPERATIONS
PERLA
CALYPSO

MED OPERATIONS
Aquamarine
Sapphire

Cypriot OPERATIONS
Ausonia
Serenade
Princesa Marissa

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Originally posted by Noordam:
With the introduction of the PERLA, it appears that the Ausonia may now be available to sail from Cyprus as well...

HELLENIC OPERATIONS
PERLA
CALYPSO

MED OPERATIONS
Aquamarine
Sapphire

Cypriot OPERATIONS
Ausonia
Serenade
Princesa Marissa

CHARTER
Spirit
Destiny
Emerald

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Yes, although there is something wrong in the whole announcement.

They have announced to the CSE that the Ausonia will be renamed Ithaca and sail from Piraeus.
Then came the announcement of the purchase of Seawing (Perla) and that she would be based at Piraeus because the other two were fully booked.

Now Ausonia does not appear to be operating.

She has not been in operation for two years now.

quote:

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Originally posted by Johan:
Not another one !

J

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