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Talking about a 'sister' for QM2 - Freedom of the Seas cost some 750 million Euros.
Malcolm
For long cruises which I believe she will be taking, the nightly formal requirements are a luggage burden.
I never say never, but she is not a unique one off like the QM2, so QV will not be a draw to me.
The interior renderings look like a commitee decision to put Art Deco and mock Edwardian in a blender. Tillberg who is Cunard's interior design firm is not good with retro styles.
The PR efforts of Cunard in the States during QM2's introduction was led by a beautiful redhead. but I am biased as she is now my wife.....
quote:Originally posted by Carlos Fernandez:Yesterday I recieved the Cunard brochure with QV and it's deckplans, they are very different to the ones of the Vista-class ships.
In what ways?
quote:Originally posted by Gerry:The PR efforts of Cunard in the States during QM2's introduction was led by a beautiful redhead. but I am biased as she is now my wife.....
Gerry - who is this (I am reluctant to post her name) but I can only think of one redhead who was involved in that...does it begin with an "E"?
Regardless - congrats!
She did a great job, in April 2004 when she first docked at the NYCPST there were 100's of people getting a gander at her. My 2004 trip was purchased over a year in advance.
Interesting about Tillberg out of the picture here and Princess in-house team here.
quote:Originally posted by Gerry:This was not Tillberg but the Princess In-house team.The PR efforts of Cunard in the States during QM2's introduction was led by a beautiful redhead. but I am biased as she is now my wife.....
We were both on board for the Olympic charter in Athens. I was doing Operations and she was doing PR. One of the highlights for her was giving a tour of the ship to President Bush Snr.
quote:Originally posted by Ernst:I remember the costs for QV to be around 400 million Euro.Talking about a 'sister' for QM2 - Freedom of the Seas cost some 750 million Euros.
I am sure QM2 was more expensive to build than the slighty larger Freedom. QM2 has thicker plate as well as additional/more powerful engines. The big difference is the passenger capacity.
Source: Wikipedia
quote:Originally posted by Gerry:This was not Tillberg but the Princess In-house team.
You would think that as Gerry and his team made such a wondeful job of the QM2, that they would have been first choice to work on the Queen Vic decor.
This would have automatically given QM2 and QV a connection in terms of decore and style.
Oh that's fortunate, they could have asked Farcus !
quote:Originally posted by lasuvidaboy:I am sure QM2 was more expensive to build than the slighty larger Freedom. QM2 has thicker plate as well as additional/more powerful engines. The big difference is the passenger capacity.
The only reason to post this number was to get a a feeling for the order of magnitude we talk about.The costs of QM2 are often stated to have been 800 million U.S. dollar - she is smaller and this is also some years ago - but it's the same order of magnitude.My point is that building a ship of this size and costs is not out of reach for a major company. I am sure Carnival could in principle do that - the quesiton is whether the market is strong enough to support 'another QM2' - mind you that HAL and Celebrity are adding capacity - so there seems to be some potential.
quote:Originally posted by Gerry: This was not Tillberg but the Princess In-house team.
That explains why the Commodore Club looks like a Princess Wheelhouse Bar.
quote:Originally posted by CGT: That explains why the Commodore Club looks like a Princess Wheelhouse Bar.
This is certainly one disadvantage of Princess taking over Cunard. Do we need another set of bland Princess clones floating around? I think not. Just like we don't need more Farcus designed cruise ships, yet they have found their way into Costa.
Princess designed ships sailing under the Cunard banner was a major concern I voiced at the time the consolidation was announced. Hopefully my fears will be put to rest when I actually see QV.
Ernie
The new QV is under the Princess in house team.
Unless you are talking about a rendering of QV's Commodore Club which I haven't seen.
quote:Originally posted by Gerry:The Princess team is a very talented bunch. I for one am looking forward to seeing what they come up with for QV.
Teresa Anderson and Giacomo Mortola are the primary designers of all Princess ships. They do an ok job but there is very little deviation or originality in their work. I just disembarked CROWN PRINCESS on Saturday and she is pretty much like every other Princess ship .... once you have seen one, you have pretty much seen them all. This consistency works well for Princess but it's not the right fit for Cunard. Hopefully they can break out of the consistent mold they have been stuck in for the last 10 years and create some originality for QV. I will be very interested to see how many typical materials and design traits used for Princess end up on QV. The Costa ships are so identical to Carnival that even the signage onboard is the same. I hope the same won't be true of QV and future Cunard ships.
However complicated a land based commercial interior design job is, quadruple it for a ship.
The old ships of state had designers and architects to push the envelope of technology and the ships be a showcase for their country. Love or hate the original France or BigU, the 2 ships were very clever and original in the use of plastics and aluminum.
Henry Dreyfuss who did the Indy and Connie, designed the interiors and all of the graphics for signage, menus, baggage tags, and tickets.
Raymond Loewy did the same for the SS Brasil and Argentina.
The 4 ships had an integrated unified look
Today marketing committees hire designers to create a nostalgic or ersatz theme that will appeal to the masses. It is called kitsch. We end up with a plastic wooded QM2. A Toscana dining room that is Tuscon, Arizona and resembles nothing from Tuscany.
PS: the extra 10m on the QV is for the bow. QV will be beefed up more than the other Vistas for the world cruise service and X-Atlantic runs. QV can cruise 2 knots faster too than the other Vistas.
If the Carnival, HAL, or Costa Vista class are a VW Passat, Queen Victoria is an Audi A4.
[ 10-04-2006: Message edited by: desirod7 ]
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