Tag Archives: cruise lines

Panama expansion delays hurting cruise lines

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Delays to the expansion project underway at the Panama Canal will affect the itineraries of cruise lines that had intended to send their larger ships along the iconic waterway this year.

The canal is currently undergoing a multi-billion dollar widening some 100 years after it was first opened, which will see it able to hold ships larger than the existing locks allow for.

Currently, only vessels measuring approximately 290 metres or less in length and up to 32 metres in width can traverse the canal.

However, the consortium undertaking the work to widen the waterway – which connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans – has threatened to down tools if authorities do not compensate it for the significant cost overruns on the project, amounting to $1.6 billion (£975 million).

As a result, Cruise Critic reports that larger ships could be forced to wait until April 2015 or later before they are able to pass through the Panama Canal.

The expansion plans would see ships measuring approximately 425 metres in length, 55 metres in width and 18 metres in depth capable of traversing the canal.

That should be enough to accommodate the current largest cruise ships in the world, Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas.

Coming soon to a port near you

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By Tom Stieghorst

*InsightNext year’s cruise ships have yet to arrive but, borrowing a page from the movie industry, cruise lines are starting to provide online trailers of their coming attractions.

Several of the industry’s most anticipated ships are being previewed in videos that can show agents and customers what they might be buying if they reserve a spot on the next newbuild.

Cruise lines have been producing these videos for a while, but they’re growing increasingly elaborate. They’re a great tool to build excitement for what is likely a premium sale.

According to a recent survey of Cruise Holidays agents, no ship is more anticipated than Royal Caribbean’s Quantum of the Seas, due to enter service next November from New York/New Jersey.*TomStieghorst

The ship will have lots of firsts, including the first skydiving simulator, the first bumper cars and a giant mechanical arm that will take occupants of a glass capsule up and over the side of the ship.

All are prominently displayed on Royal Caribbean’s website in an eight-minute video that includes a lot of sophisticated 3-D imagery of a ship that physically has yet to be created.

On hand to narrate is actress Kristin Chenoweth, the ship’s godmother, along with RCCL chairman Richard Fain, Royal Caribbean International President Adam Goldstein and actress Estelle Harris of “Seinfeld” fame, who is allowed to take a few playful digs at Fain in the skydiving segment.

At eight minutes, the video done by visual effects house Brewster Parsons, is distinctive, if a bit long for the attention span of the average cruise shopper. But it is entertaining, full of cameos from the likes of magicians Penn & Teller, and there’s a lot of new ground to cover to explain all of Quantum’s special features.

At 2 minutes, 18 seconds, the video for the Norwegian Getaway, due in February, is much easier to digest. It is fast-paced, with no voiceover, and starts with an amazing tracking shot of the Waterfront entertainment area on the ship. The video soundtrack is full of marimbas and timbales, as befits a Miami-based ship, and there are several shots that capture the NCL logo on the ship’s stack so there’s no doubt whose ship it is.

Regal Princess, the sister ship to 2013’s Royal Princess, is such a close sibling that the Princess Cruises video promotes both at once. The length comes in at a manageable five minutes, the pacing is measured, and the ship’s features are explained by a soothing and neutral feminine voice.

Even ships that won’t debut until 2015 have videos, including a newly minted one for P&O Cruises’ Britannia, featuring executives on its newbuild team, and another for Viking Cruises’ Viking Star, a true departure for the river cruise company, that is briskly described by a British-sounding male narrator.

So if you have a spare moment, check out next year’s ships today. It has never been easier.

Couple’s removal from Celebrity cruise raises dementia issue

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By Tom Stieghorst

The plight of an older couple that was put off a Celebrity Cruises ship in Australia mid-cruise illustrates some of the tricky issues facing cruise lines when passengers are afflicted with dementia.

The couple, John and Adry Arnold, had booked a nine-day cruise on the Celebrity Millennium in November to celebrate their 55th wedding anniversary.

Celebrity said it decided to debark Adry Arnold when a housekeeper found her alone and disoriented in her cabin. Her husband was on a shore excursion and could not be reached.

When he returned to the ship, Celebrity had their bags packed and had arranged for an ambulance to take them to a hospital in Cairns. The Arnolds, who live in a town a few hours west of Sydney, will get a pro-rated refund.

In an interview with a TV station in Perth, John Arnold said his wife, 78, has dementia but can still perform familiar activities. “A lot of things she can do by rote, having done it many times,” he told the “Today Tonight” program on Channel 7 in Perth.

Arnold said his wife had been up and down the same staircase on the ship but apparently got confused returning to her cabin. Arnold had been leaving her on the ship at ports for an hour at a time to go ashore.

He told the program he was “gobsmacked” by the decision to remove him, which he said was not explained. “They didn’t tell me a thing,” he said, “except the so-called doctor considered that she was a liability and had to be taken off the ship.”

Arnold was critical of how abruptly he was removed from the ship and said the hospital didn’t know what to do with them when they arrived.

“I’ll always remember the wedding anniversary from being dumped from an American ship in Cairns,” he said.

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., parent of Celebrity Cruises, said in a statement that it acted out of concern for Adry Arnold’s safety.

“Every year, thousands of guests with medical conditions sail onboard Celebrity Cruises ships,” the statement said. “However, for their own safety and the safety of others, these guests must be able to care for themselves.”

Curtis Mase, a Miami attorney who often defends cruise lines in lawsuits, said the liability issues are very real.

“Imagine what happens in this situation where a cruise line allows someone who is physically or mentally not able to take care of themselves to travel without someone, they then cause some kind of safety concern,” he said. “Take your pick: They accidentally lower a lifeboat and injure someone as a result, or they trigger some alarm or go into someplace they shouldn’t have gone.

“All of a sudden the cruise line is liable because they didn’t have a reasonable policy for how someone like that could travel,” Mase said.

He said with advanced notice, the cruise line probably could have arranged an accommodation that would have averted the debarkation.

Cynthia Martinez, a spokeswoman for RCCL, said travel agents with clients who may be mentally diminished should have a conversation about it before booking a cruise.

Mary Beth Lantzy, a spokeswoman for the Alzheimer’s Association, said when considering a trip for someone with dementia, agents should try to visit places that were familiar before the onset of dementia and that involve as few changes in daily routine as possible.