Frank to step down, among other changes at Carnival Corp.

Posted on 4 November, 2013 by Spacejunkie2

Frank to step down, among other changes at Carnival Corp.

By Jerry Limone

Carnival Corp. said Howard Frank will step down as vice chairman and COO to assume the role of special adviser to the chairman and CEO.

Frank will continue as chairman of CLIA.

Frank has been Micky Arison’s right-hand man for the past 25 years. Arison stepped down as Carnival Corp.’s CEO earlier this year, and was replaced by Arnold Donald. Arison remains chairman of the company.

“For the last Alan Buckelew 25 years, Howard and I have worked side by side, and I could not have asked for a better business partner. I am looking forward to his continued contributions in his new role,” Arison said in a statement.

The change will be effective on Dec. 1, as will several other management changes at Carnival Corp.

Alan Buckelew, the current president and CEO of Princess Cruises (a Carnival Corp. brand), will be Carnival Corp.’s new COO.
Jan Swartz
Buckelew will have oversight of a maritime and port operations around the world and group collaborative functions, including information technology; group strategy and global operations; ship retrofits; newbuilds; research and development; risk advisory; and quality assurance. He also will oversee Carnival Asia.

With Buckelew leaving Princess, Holland America Line CEO Stein Kruse will oversee Princess as CEO of the newly formed Holland America Group. The move adds Princess Cruises and Alaska land operations to Kruse’s current responsibilities of Holland America Line and Seabourn.

Also, Jan Swartz has been promoted to president of Princess Cruises. Swartz is currently Princess’ executive vice president of sales, marketing and customer service.

Swartz will be in charge of Princess’ worldwide operations. She will report to Kruse.

Buckelew and Kruse will report to Donald.

HAL pulls Noordam from Eastern Med in 2014

Posted on 22 October, 2013 by Spacejunkie2

HAL pulls Noordam from Eastern Med in 2014

By Tom Stieghorst

Holland America Line said it has made the decision to redeploy the Noordam away from its Eastern Mediterranean itineraries for all of 2014.

HAL had already canceled port calls in Egypt for 2014 due to the unrest there. It said those cancellations created further operational and port implications that led to the redeployment.

Noordam will now do central and western Med itineraries next spring and summer. The cruise line is in the process of notifying guests and travel agents.

Guests booked on the previous itineraries can choose any 11- to 14-day cruise in Europe as a substitute, and receive the same stateroom category for the original cruise fare paid, plus a shipboard credit based on the stateroom category previously booked, HAL said.

Carnival preparing Seattle ships for new emission limits

Posted on 12 October, 2013 by Spacejunkie2

Carnival preparing Seattle ships for new emission limits

Carnival Cruises is pumping a significant sum of money into equipping five of its ships based in North America with new environmental technology.

With strict new rules coming into effect over cruise ship emissions in the region, the company will reportedly spend $10 million (£6.3 million) fitting exhaust scrubbers on its Seattle-based fleet, Bizjournals reports.

The green technology works by cleaning ship emissions and should ensure that the vessels in question comply with the new air quality standards.

As well as fitting its own Seattle-based ships with the exhaust scrubbers, Carnival will also implement the technology on ships operated out of the Port of Seattle by its subsidiaries Holland-America Line and Princess Cruises.

Seattle, along with Alaska, is one of the main cruise ports expected to be negatively affected by the new rules, with ships concentrating on these areas likely to remain in the North American Emission Control Area for the majority of their cruising.

In the long-term, Carnival has suggested that the exhaust tech will be fitted to all 32 of the ships it has servicing North America.

Previously, it warned that the new environmental rules could negatively impact on the number of cruises offered in the region, particularly those focusing on the Canadian Atlantic.