Tag Archives: Dave Jones

Damen Completes Breakaway Refurbishment

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Norwegian Breakaway at Damen Shiprepair Brest

Damen Shiprepair Brest completed an 11-day program of scheduled maintenance and refurbishment on the Norwegian Breakaway in April and May as the 146,000-ton ship drydocked.

Laurent Salou, Project Manager at Damen Shiprepair Brest, commented: “I truly believe that all the personnel at Damen Shiprepair Brest really appreciated the opportunity to work on Norwegian Breakaway as the collaboration with the ship’s staff was more than excellent during the entire dry-docking period. I’m personally really proud of the work which has been achieved by my colleagues and honoured to have worked on such a notable project.

“The client chose us for this project not only because we are capable of handling a ship of this size, but also because we are close to the major cruise terminal at Southampton, which was its last port of call. They were also very satisfied with the works that we performed on the Norwegian Epic in 2015 and I am pleased to be able to report that the client was very happy with the performance of the DSBr workers and the yard on this project as well.”

The primary objective of the visit was mechanical workson the ship’s two ABB azipods, Damen said.

The shipyard’s team worked alongside ABB service engineers on both azipods to repair the shaft bearings and replace the slewing seals. This work required the removal of both propellers and took place in very close coordination with the other teams working on the vessel to ensure that no dust and other contaminants entered the complex systems within the azipods.

At the same time, technicians worked with personnel from Brunvoll on the ship’s bowthrusters, as well as dismantling, maintaining and then refitting the two Fincantieri stabilizers. The hull was also repainted.

While the Norwegian Breakaway was in Damen’s 420-meter drydock, large quantities of the carpets inside the cruise ship were removed and replaced by a specialist contractor as part of a rolling program. The yard managed the 24/7 logistical flow, ensuring that old carpets were removed on time and the new rolls available for fitting.

The Norwegian Breakaway left Damen Shiprepair Brest on May 8 at 12:00 p.m. local time, six hours ahead of schedule.

China ‘Stronger Than Last Year’ For Carnival Corp

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Costa Serena

“The bottom line is things are stronger for sure that they were last year at this time,” said Arnold Donald, president and CEO of Carnival Corporation, touching on China on the company’s Monday morning second quarter earnings call.

Donald said he still believes China will eventually be the largest cruise market in the world and putting in new hardware (ships) still made sense.

“The market there is very large in terms of overall travel, both from cities in China and, of course, as a huge potential source market for fly/cruise all over the world,” Donald said.

“In terms of the distribution system itself, yes, we’ve moved from full-ship charters primarily now to group sales and partial ship charters,” he continued. “We’ve added a large number of additional distributors. All of that kind of de-risks things a bit from being overly concentrated and what, in effect, today is still pretty much a B2B market. The direct sales component is slowly growing a bit there. There’s an opportunity to grow that over time. But a timeline in China, we’ll see. It’s a small market.

“I don’t see a dramatic increase in per cent of total capacity in the short term there. And the reason is not so much because of China, but because of the demand everywhere else in the world. And then as I mentioned, there are large addressable markets everywhere in the world that are under-penetrated, including the United States.

“And so it looks positive for the year on a relative basis so far. But China’s China, and we have to see how things play out for the full year,” Donald said.

“But right now, conditionally, things definitely look stronger. In terms of sanctions, we haven’t heard of any sanctions on either side that would directly impact the cruise industry.”

Travel to Korea is still unofficially restricted, and Donald said if that opens up, it could help the situation.

WATCH: Carnival’s New Marketing Video Best of Recent Cruise Line Commercials

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Photo courtesy of Carnival Cruise Line

Carnival Cruise Line released a new marketing video on its YouTube page today, breaking down what a vacation onboard its ships is all about, and it does so in a refreshingly down-to-earth way, particularly compared to the recent commercials released by competing cruise companies.

Carnival’s spot, embedded below, is relaxed, emphasizing its playful philosophy and history of delivering on its promise of “fun for all” and “all for fun.” It presents a welcome antidote to our lives that are often “too fast” and just “too much.” It even takes a note from the McDonald’s playbook, sharing that it has provided joy for 60 million guests and counting, but the commercial is anything but fast food-like in its approach.

In fact, the video is slow-paced and focused on friends and family. After all, Carnival was indeed started by Ted Arison and passed down to his son Micky Arison. They believe that all people, not just the well-off, have a right to fun, and to have as much of it while on earth, and the commercial perfectly says Carnival is exactly where they can find it.

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/BGsWdEoKUYw?rel=0

Comparatively, Royal Caribbean International’s latest commercials are much shorter for television and cram as much in as possible. They speak to a millennial crowd, of which I am included, and they mostly succeed, even though the song in the one below is rather headache-inducing. This variety grabs your attention but sustains on a different level and definitely speaks less to relaxation.

Norwegian Cruise Line’s one below comes somewhere in between with a Pitbull soundtrack that leaves more room to breathe in between the beats. The lifestyle presented is certainly youth-friendly without forgetting older generations and both demographics’ need for some negative space in a vacation as well. The “Feel Free” tagline is a good fit for the brand and for a broad target audience.