Fincantieri lays first keel block for Nieuw Statendam and order a Third Ship

Posted on 24 March, 2017 by Spacejunkie2

Fincantieri lays first keel block for Nieuw Statendam

Fincantieri laid the first piece of keel for Holland America Line’s Nieuw Statendam at its Marghera yard in Venice, Italy on 20 March. The 260-ton block, which is 11.3 metres long and 34.8 wide, will form the central section of Nieuw Statendam.

Built as a sister to Koningsdam, Nieuw Statendam will be Holland America’s second 99,800gt Pinnacle class ship and will be delivered at the end of 2018. The vessel will be able to accommodate up to 2,650 passengers in more than 1,300 cabins and feature interiors created by two major studios – Tihany Design and YSA Design.

Holland America Line to Build Third Pinnacle Class Ship for Delivery in 2021

Carnival Corporation announced that it has signed a memorandum of agreement with Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri S.p.A. to build two new cruise ships with final contracts expected to be executed in early 2017. The two new ships are designated for the company’s Holland America Line and Princess Cruises brands.

Holland America Line’s new ship will be built at Fincantieri’s shipyard in Marghera, Italy, with an expected delivery in 2021.

“We are extremely pleased to formally announce these two new ships and build on the success and popularity of their sister ships already sailing guests around the globe,” said Arnold Donald, CEO of Carnival Corporation. “Our goal is to exceed expectations of the 11.5 million guests who sail with us each year, and these new ships will offer more opportunities for our guests to create lifelong vacation memories while generating added excitement around the fast-growing global demand for cruise vacations.”

Holland America Line’s new 99,500-ton, 2,660-guest ship will be its third Pinnacle Class vessel, following the design of the line’s newest and largest ship, ms Koningsdam, and its sister ship, ms Nieuw Statendam, scheduled for delivery in November 2018.

The new ship will combine classic hallmarks of the brand while featuring several of the innovative venues that were introduced on Koningsdam, as well as new concepts that will debut on Nieuw Statendam and additional elements unique to the new vessel.

Each of Carnival Corporation’s new ships will be specifically designed and developed for each brand and the guests and markets it will serve, supporting the corporation’s overall goal of providing extraordinary vacation experiences at an exceptional value for its guests around the world. Specific features and amenities for the ships, along with deployment details, will be revealed in the coming months.

Virgin Voyages doesn’t hold back on design partners

Posted on 23 March, 2017 by Spacejunkie2

Virgin Voyages CEO Tom McAlpin announced several key design partners for Virgin Group’s first cruise venture, including the team behind hipster hotel chain Ace Hotels.

At a steel-cutting ceremony in Genoa, Italy, for the first of three 110,000-gross-ton ships that Virgin Voyages has on order from Fincantieri, McAlpin on Wednesday listed off the numerous designers and architects who are helping Virgin’s vision of cruising come to life.

“Thanks to them, our ships will be a complete departure from the ordinary,” said McAlpin against the backdrop of a “Make ship happen” banner. “That style that we see in some of the coolest places on land, soon we will see on the seven seas.”

The creative team includes Roman and Williams, the design team behind numerous Ace hotels and the Standard High Line hotel in New York; Concrete, an edgy Amsterdam design company; cruise ship design firm GEM, which has designed vessels for Silversea, Cunard and Princess Cruises; HOSTUDIO, a London-based brand development agency; New York-based architecture firm WORKac; creative agency Chandelier; and global design company HKS.

The first Virgin Voyages ship is slated to enter service in 2020, with two additional ships to follow in 2021 and 2022.

Wednesday’s steel-cutting ceremony is expected to be followed by a keel-laying event toward the end of 2017.

The 2,700-passenger vessels will carry 1,150 crew members.

Where will all the passengers come from?

Posted on 8 February, 2017 by Spacejunkie2

Norwegian Escape above, Norwegian Bliss to set sail in April 2018.

Where are all the passengers going to come from?

I have to think this question troubles cruise executives now and then more than they let on.

One of the best answers I have heard in awhile comes from Riccardo Casalino, chief marketing officer at MSC Cruises’ headquarters in Geneva.

Over lunch in at semi-permanent catering tent at the Fincantieri shipyard in Manfalcone, where MSC is building several vessels, Casalino shared some of MSC’s perspective on various cruise issues, including supply and demand.

The question is as critical for MSC as any cruise line out there. It has 11 large ships on order through 2026, having already grown its capacity by 800% since 2003.

Of course, MSC is looking to North America for growth, by devoting its MSC Seaside to year-round Caribbean cruises from Miami. MSC executive chairman Pierfrancesco Vago perhaps spilled the beans a bit early by announcing at a shipyard event that MSC would have three ships in Miami during the 2019-2020 winter season.

And there’s further growth afoot in MSC’s European back yard, Casalino said.

But another opportunity is the emerging middle class in countries all over the world that are making the transition from third world to first world.

China, clearly, is everyone’s favorite example. But Casalino cited another country with an intriguing new population of potential cruisers: South Africa.

There, tens of thousands of black residents that were oppressed and kept out of the middle class during the country’s apartheid years are discovering leisure travel for the first time.

“They’re in a country where for most of them, it’s a new thing for society at large to take a packaged vacation,” Casalino said.

The level of education on how to do that is understandably low. In South Africa, MSC gets questions that it would hardly ever field in the U.S. or Europe.

“They call us up and want to know if they should bring bed linens,” Casalino said. “Or whether they should bring food along for us to cook. They want to know how it works.”

The vast potential for growth among the new to cruise has become somewhat of a cliche at conferences where panel discussions debate cruise topics.But MSC is showing that behind the cliche there are real people and real potential customers waiting with new hopes and new dollars to find out how it works.