New cruise port at Dominican Republic’s Amber Cove to open in October

Posted on 24 February, 2015 by Spacejunkie2

An aerial view of Amber Cove.

Cruise passengers will have a new stop in the Caribbean in October when ships pull into Amber Cove port in the Dominican Republic.

The new port facility is expected to revive interest in the north coast of the Dominican Republic, which hasn’t been a regular cruise stop since the 1980s, Carnival Corp. announced Wednesday.

Amber Cove adds more cruising cachet to the Caribbean, already the world’s largest cruising market. It accounts for more than a third of the cruise business globally.

The Carnival Victory will be the first ship to visit the $85-million port on Oct. 6. Other lines in the Carnival family — Carnival, Costa, Cunard, Holland America, German line AIDA and British-based P&O Cruises — will follow suit later this year and in 2016.

Carnival Corp. was a partner in developing the new port facility. Ships (it was built to accommodate super-sized cruise ships) are expected to bring more than 250,000 cruise passengers to Amber Cove in its first year of operation, the announcement says.

The port is near the city of Puerto Plata (it made Travel + Leisure’s Best Places to Travel in 2015 list) where there’s an Amber Museum that displays insects and flowers trapped in the ancient resin and a marine park called Ocean World.

The new stop allows Carnival brands to offer more than 40 new shore excursions — including beaches, water sports, culinary and cultural tours — as well as new itineraries in the central Caribbean.

Thirteen ships across six Carnival brands are expected to make 57 port calls between October and April 2016.

Upcoming visits include Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 on Nov. 22, the Costa Deliziosa on Dec. 31 and Holland America’s ms Eurodam on Jan. 19.

Diversification and Norwegian’s bottom line

Posted on 18 February, 2015 by Spacejunkie2


By Tom Stieghorst

The benefits of diversification in the cruise industry will be evident this week when Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings reports its results for the fourth quarter and calendar year 2014 on Tuesday.

Norwegian, until recently a single-brand company, is heavily tied to the Caribbean in the fourth and first quarters. According to analyst Rachel Rothman, of Susquehanna Financial Group, Norwegian’s results will be pulled down by its high exposure to the Caribbean relative to its competitors Carnival Corp. and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

Norwegian does not benefit from growth in Asia, which is also helping those two companies, Rothman notes.

In a positive light, Norwegian is aided by not having any cruise brands that do business in currencies other than the dollar. That means the relatively strong dollar affects it less than Carnival, with its Costa, Aida and P&O subsidiaries, or Royal Caribbean, which owns Spain’s Pullmantur and France’s CDF.

From that perspective, Norwegian’s recent acquisition of Prestige Cruise Holdings is ideal. The two Prestige brands, Regent Seven Seas Cruises and Oceania Cruises, both do business in U.S. dollars, so their results won’t be a drag because of currency exchange.

And as destination-oriented luxury lines, Oceania and Regent do relatively less sailing in the overcrowded Caribbean and have more itineraries in Asia, although neither is set up to source business there.

Rothman expects Norwegian to earn about $76 million in the fourth quarter and about $508 million for 2014. The company is building ships just about as fast as is practicable, which should help it diversify its itineraries further away from the Caribbean to areas like Brazil in the winter.

Norwegian has come a long way in a short time. Tuesday’s results may show it has further to go.

Carnival Corp. CEO was paid $8.7 million last year

Posted on 10 February, 2015 by Spacejunkie2

Carnival Corp. president and CEO Arnold Donald received $8.7 million in compensation last year, an increase of 11% from 2013.

The cruise company’s 2014 net income rose 14.4% in 2014. Carnival’s stock price rose 12.8% over the year.

Donald earned a salary of $1 million, plus stock compensation worth $3.5 million, non-equity compensation plan remuneration of $3.9 million and $291,000 of other compensation, including private use of the corporate jet.

The five mostly highly paid executives at CarnivalCorp. earned a combined $32.7 million, including $6.5 million for Costa Group CEO Michael Thamm, $6.1 million for departed Carnival Cruise Lines president and CEO Gerry Cahill, $6.1 million for chief operations officer Alan Buckelew, and $5.2 million for CFO David Bernstein.

The information is contained in a statement filed with U.S. financial regulators in advance of the annual shareholders meeting, which is set for April 14 in London.