Tag Archives: Cuba

Thomson Cruises adds Guatemala to winter programme

Posted on by
Reply

Thomson Cruise ship (the shadow is of MSC Poesia); photo by Dave Jones

by Phil Davies

Guatemala is being introduced together with more Cuba calls in an expanded Caribbean programme by Thomson Cruises for winter 2017-18.

Three ships will be based in the region including Thomson Celebration moving to a new homeport of La Romana in the Dominican Republic.

All-inclusive ships Tui Discovery and new addition Tui Discovery 2 will join Thomson Celebration and will sail out of Bridgetown, Barbados and Montego Bay, Jamaica respectively.

Thomson Celebration’s move to the Dominican Republic opens more opportunities to combine cruises with beach stays, with the new Sensatori Resort Punta Cana among properties added to the portfolio.

The port of Santo Tomas de Castilla in Guatemala is introduced on new Tui Discovery 2 itinerary, as well as Nassau in The Bahamas as part of re-positioning sailing.

The number of Cuban sailings on the new ship will be increased, giving passengers more chance to explore Havana during overnight stops.

Other destinations include St Lucia, Grenada and Antigua, St Maarten and Martinique.

Tui Discovery will sail on two new itineraries from Barbados, which include calls St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The cruises will be served by new regional Thomson Airways flights from Cardiff, Doncaster Sheffield, East Midlands, Glasgow, Newcastle and Stansted in addition to Birmingham, Manchester and Gatwick.

Thomson Dream will move to its new homeports of Santa Cruz, Tenerife and Las Palmas, Gran Canaria in November 2017.

Thomson Majesty and Thomson Spirit will both embark on their last sailings in November 2017 from Malaga and Limassol respectively before they leave the fleet.

The winter 2017 programme goes be on sale from Thursday (November 17).

Free all-inclusive upgrades are available on selected cruises on board Thomson Celebration, Thomson Dream, Thomson Majesty and Thomson Spirit which set sail between November 2017 and April 2018. Tui Discovery and Tui Discovery 2 offer all-inclusive packages as standard.

Thomson Cruises managing director Richard Sofer said: “We’re really excited about the introduction of the Dominican Republic as Thomson Celebration’s base for next winter.

“This is the first time we’ll have had three ships in the Caribbean and that means we can continue to offer more choice and flexibility to our customers, who we know are looking more and more for holidays further afield.”

Carnival CEO says Trump likely to be pro-business

Posted on by
Reply

T1114ARNOLDDONALDTALK_JB_HR.jpg

Carnival Corp. CEO Arnold Donald with Travel Weekly editor in chief Arnie Weissmann at CruiseWorld. Photo Credit: Jamie Biesiada
 

Carnival Corp. CEO Arnold Donald said that the election of Donald Trump as president has the potential to be good for the cruise industry, but he also said he hopes that Trump will do “the right thing” internationally.

Donald made the comment during a conversation with Travel Weekly editor in chief Arnie Weissmann at CruiseWorld, an annual Travel Weekly event in Fort Lauderdale that brings together travel agents and travel suppliers.

Asked by Weissmann for his response to the election, Donald quoted Secretary of State John Kerry, who several years ago said that there are no winners or losers after a U.S. presidential election. “The next morning we all wake up as Americans” who work on problems together, Donald said.

CRUISEWORLD300x171

More specifically, Donald said, “On the surface, President Trump will be pro-business. At the same time, I hope he does the right thing internationally. Most of our business is outside the U.S.”

In a follow-up about Cuba, Donald said that despite Trump’s campaign rhetoric about reversing President Obama’s openings toward Cuba, “I’m cautiously optimistic that bringing the two countries together is the right thing to do.”

Earlier this year, Carnival Corp.’s Fathom brand became the first line to regularly shuttle passengers between the U.S. and Cuba in over 50 years.

Donald said Carnival continues to work on a private destination in the Bahamas but isn’t ready to announce anything. Carnival executives have said in the past they have a potential site picked out on Grand Bahama Island.

“We want the right one on the right terms,” Donald said. “We think we have something coming soon, but we don’t want to count the chickens before they hatch, so to speak.”

Donald took the chance to show the audience of several hundred travel agents clips from the new Carnival-produced Saturday-morning network TV shows, such as “Vacation Creation” and “Ocean Treks with Jeff Corwin.”

He also regaled the group with a tale of highlights from his rise to CEO of Carnival Corp. He said his initial introduction to Carnival Corp. chairman Mickey Arison was engineered by board member Uzi Zucker, a Bear Stearns partner who also served as an adviser to a private equity firm of which Donald was a part.

He also told about his ambition as an 11th-grader to be a very specific level of manager at a specific type of Fortune 50 company. He said the teachers at the all-boys Catholic high school in New Orleans he attended on scholarship constantly reminded their students to think big.

“Three times a day they told us, ‘Gentlemen, prepare yourselves. You’re going to run the world.'”

Royal Caribbean loosens restraints on Empress cabins

Posted on by
Reply

Image result for empress of the Seas

Empress of the Seas

Inventory for Empress of the Seas will not be released a few months at a time in 2017 as it has been in 2016, Royal Caribbean International president Michael Bayley said on Friday.

The Empress has been sailing short itineraries to the Bahamas and the Caribbean since it returned to Royal Caribbean’s fleet in June. It had been renovated at a cost of $50 million with the intent to use it on itineraries to Cuba.

However, Royal Caribbean has yet to gain approval from Cuban authorities to begin those cruises.

“We really were holding it late and hoping for the itinerary change,” Bayley said during Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.’s third-quarter earnings call.

With cabins available only a few months ahead of time, travel agents have difficulty making group bookings that typically require longer to organize than individual ones.

Empress cruises are currently available through April 2017.

Royal Caribbean was also delayed in launching the Empress into Caribbean service by unexpected construction obstacles after the ship was returned from Royal’s Spanish subsidiary Pullmantur.

During the call, Royal Caribbean said projected earnings in the current fourth quarter have been pared by an estimated $13 to $15 million by the delay in getting Empress sailing again and the resulting lost sales momentum.

For the third quarter, RCCL reported net income of $693.3 million on revenue of $2.56 billion. Results are not directly comparable with last year’s third quarter because of a huge write-down on Pullmantur.

Executives said the company is in a better booked position for next year than it was last year at this time, with both loads and pricing ahead of pace. North American demand for Europe is returning in the absence of recent terrorism incidents, they said, although Europe will account for 15% of Royal’s overall capacity in 2017, down from 20% this year.

The Caribbean will rise to 50% of overall capacity with the addition of Harmony of the Seas, which will not sail in Europe next summer as it did this year, and the shift of Celebrity Equinox from Europe to the Caribbean year-round.

After a pause in bookings following Hurricane Matthew, Royal Caribbean began some promotions to restart consumer demand.