Carnival must be the most successful cruise line, ever, profit wise. Look at their expanded empire, now. As for contemporary ships, the QE2 has been carrying passengers for (almost) 40 years.

[ 03-03-2007: Message edited by: Malcolm @ cruisepage ]

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..... As for contemporary ships, the QE2 has been carrying passengers for 40 years.[/QB]

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Sorry .... only nearly 38!!!

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Originally posted by KenC:

Sorry .... only nearly 38!!!

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What's two years between Friends?

[ 03-03-2007: Message edited by: Malcolm @ cruisepage ]

One of the most successful ships I would say is the present Mona Lisa ex Kungsholm which was built in 1966.

This will now make her 41 years old and still her owners find charter work for her.

Regards,

To look at the age only is probably not sufficient - often it is luck why a certain ship is still around and bad luck why a good ship 'had to go' early.

The design could be judged by the number of modifications that were necessary over time - the less the better the design (?) -> so considering the age and the number of changes the oldest ships still in service - the Juno - serving the same route and having undergone only 'minor' modifications can hardly be beaten - but I guess this case just shows that these benchmarks are not fair as she is a kind of an exception.

Another way to evalute the sucess of a design is maybe the number of sister ships built. (nevertheless, in somem cases the decision to build sisters could have been made before the design could proof itself in operation)

The economical aspect is probalby also not so easy to evalute - some ships which were not sucessful with their first owners were doing well with other owners - and subsidies might also play a role.

Last but not least one could ask the people who operate the ship - or the passengers - but then as with all machines they do not necessarily have the 'full picture' - e.g features they complain about might have safed a lot of money when the ship was built - so this would only be halve the story.

-> I guess without narrowing it down there is no awnser to this question.

[ 03-03-2007: Message edited by: Ernst ]

This will now make her 41 years old and still her owners find charter work for her.

Regards,

Neil ( Bob ) "

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Originally posted by claudio:
correct me if im wrong but the cunard queens were never consistent money earners ithe british government subsidised them?

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She has had a 52 year career with only one year of layup and few mechanical problems.

Topaz/PeaceBoat is living out her golden years in dignity on a perpetual world cruise with the mission of harmony and understanding.

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Originally posted by Neil Whitmore ( Bob ):
Hi All

One of the most successful ships I would say is the present Mona Lisa ex Kungsholm which was built in 1966.

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But she has been handed around like a hot potato.from one company to another, some of which went bankrupt, and has been renamed many times. She's lucky to be around still.

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Originally posted by lasuvidaboy:

Both Queens were consistant moneymakers for Cunard until approx. 1959-61. Before that they kept the entire Cunard passenger division in the black including the money losing Caronia and Canadian division-after they all started to go into the red in the mid 1950s. I have never heard of Cunard receiving a subsidy (other than building loans for new ships) from the British government. Cunard was a private company and needed to make money unlike the state subsidized lines in France, Italy and the States.

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Must disagree with your comments about the company owning Mona Lisa going bankrupt.

She was only on long term charter to the German company that went bust and it is her present owners who charter her out having bought her from the P&O group.

However the many multi-million pound refits obviously cut into profits. Maybe her operating costs are so much high than many other ships and maybe there have been periods where her occupancy rates are not so good. She's hardly 'mass market' and being only medium sized now, she does not benift from the 'economies of scale' that the new mega ships do.

[ 03-04-2007: Message edited by: Malcolm @ cruisepage ]

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Originally posted by Neil Whitmore ( Bob ):
Hi Brian O

Must disagree with your comments about the company owning Mona Lisa going bankrupt.

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I didn't say "one of which". I said "some of which".