ROYAL
CARIBBEAN CRUISES LTD. beat earnings expectations even as
the companys first-quarter earnings fell 37% year-over-year, to
$119.5 million. In a conference call with analysts Royal Caribbean
executives cited fuel costs, ship refurbishments and the cost of
doing business in Hurricane Wilma-torn Cozumel as factors. The
companys premium brand Celebrity Cruises outpaced Royal Caribbean
International in terms of growth, Royal Caribbean CEO Richard Fain
said.
NORWEGIAN
CRUISE LINE took delivery of the Pride of Hawaii last week
at a ceremony in the Dutch port of Eemshaven after a delay due to
problems with the ships Azipod propulsion system. NCL said the
Pride of Hawaii would arrive in Baltimore by the end of this month,
and after a series of inaugural events in San Francisco and Los
Angeles in May it will begin sailing out of Honolulu June 5. The
shipbuilder, Meyer Werft, said in a statement that it had changed
the bearings in the ships pod system as a measure of
precaution.
EASYCRUISE will launch a second vessel this
summer, a riverboat called EasyCruiseTwo that will offer river and
canal itineraries in the Netherlands and Belgium starting July 14.
The 100-passenger ship will remain owned and operated by a
franchisee, Boonstra River Line, but will be renovated and
restructured to EasyCruise standards. Chairman Stelios Haji-Ioannou
said that the company is negotiating with two other potential
franchisees to run EasyCruise ships in the Greek Islands and on the
Nile River.
HAJI-IOANNOU said the company made a few
tactical errors with the EasyCruiseOne, the lines first ship, and
is fixing them before next year. The ships dining options will be
refined in order to offer more than the current sports-bar menu.
There will also be more outside cabins and windows fitted on the
ship, as Haji-Ioannou said he took a lot of stick (i.e. criticism)
for boarding up the windows in the EasyCruiseOnes outside cabins.
Both ships will be outfitted with a new EasyCruise logo and hull
paint job.
THE QUEEN
MARY 2 sailed into the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, its new
New York homeport, for the first time on April 15. All went
smoothly at the $56 million facility, with one snag: some people
who disembarked the QM2 from a Caribbean cruise waited more than
two hours for buses to take them on a city tour before going to the
airport. Jackie Matthews, a Cunard Line spokeswoman, said the
private bus company has made accommodations that will ensure a
smooth operation in the future and that the motorcoach parking area
will be changed to accommodate more coaches and allow more
efficient loading of the coaches.
Cruise
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