Three Carnival ships go to Katrina relief!

Good going Carnival!

Ernie - who will be working relief flights to MSY tomorrow.


From Seatrade Insider:
==========================
Three Carnival ships go to Katrina relief
3/9/2005
Ecstasy, Sensation and Holiday will be pulled from service next week and
deployed for six months to Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, Carnival Cruise
Lines confirmed.
Ecstasy, normally homeported at Galveston, and Sensation, normally
homeported in New Orleans, will be pulled from service effective Monday.
Initial plans are for both vessels to be docked in Galveston.

The Holiday, which is homeported at Mobile, will be pulled from service
effective Thursday. Initial plans are for the vessel to remain docked in
Mobile.

Carnival president and ceo Bob Dickinson apologized to guests whose
vacations will be impacted. 'However, given that Hurricane Katrina is the
worst natural disaster in U.S. history, we trust our guests will understand
that the decision to enter into these charters was the right one. This
inconvenience to our guests will provide desperately needed housing for
thousands of individuals affected by this tragedy,' he said.

All customers whose bookings have been canceled will be offered full refunds
and the opportunity to re-book their cruise on any Carnival ship. Those who
re-book will receive a $100 per person shipboard credit. Carnival is
protecting travel agent commissions on cancelled cruises.

Ecstasy, Sensation and Holiday normally operate four- and five-day cruises.

More details, again from Seatrade Insider:

US charters 3 Carnival ships, ferry for hurricane relief
3/9/2005
Carnival Cruise Lines' Sensation, Ecstasy and Holiday as well as the
car-ferry Scotia Prince have been chartered for the hurricane relief effort
on the Gulf Coast, Seatrade Insider has learned.
The total value of the contract is $249m, a spokeswoman for the Military
Sealift Command said.

MSC procured the ships on behalf of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's
emergency relief campaign to aid Hurricane Katrina victims.

I'm glad to see Carnival didn't overreact, thought it through
carefully, and developed a workable plan.

Now, sadly, we will see the fight begin over who gets assigned to the
Category 11 and 12 suites, and who gets the inside cabins. No doubt
the race pimps (Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, etc.) will go rushing for
the microphones if any whites get a suite. Hate to by a cynic, but you
know it will happen.

-rr

"E.k.R." wrote in message
...
More details, again from Seatrade Insider:

US charters 3 Carnival ships, ferry for hurricane relief
3/9/2005
Carnival Cruise Lines' Sensation, Ecstasy and Holiday as well as the
car-ferry Scotia Prince have been chartered for the hurricane relief
effort on the Gulf Coast, Seatrade Insider has learned.
The total value of the contract is $249m, a spokeswoman for the Military
Sealift Command said.


Is that $249 million?

Not a bad number. Probably far more than the ships are worth today (given
all the depreciation that has occurred since they were built).

--Tom

I hope these cruise ships don't get trashed

In article , "Tom K"
wrote:

"E.k.R." wrote in message
.. .
More details, again from Seatrade Insider:

US charters 3 Carnival ships, ferry for hurricane relief
3/9/2005
Carnival Cruise Lines' Sensation, Ecstasy and Holiday as well as the
car-ferry Scotia Prince have been chartered for the hurricane relief
effort on the Gulf Coast, Seatrade Insider has learned.
The total value of the contract is $249m, a spokeswoman for the Military
Sealift Command said.


Is that $249 million?

Not a bad number. Probably far more than the ships are worth today (given
all the depreciation that has occurred since they were built).

That's $83 mil a ship. IIRC the contract was for six months or
about $13.8 mil a month or $3.4 mil a week (if I did the math
correctly). What would that work out to be in lost rev.


--
I didn't - in spite of ample warnings by sociologists
from large Eastern Universities - foresee the need to have
27" flat-screen television sets available to every family in the
New Orleans city limits as soon as the electricity went out.
That one WAS my bad.
--Richard Galen at www.mullings.com

If the passengers had non-refundable fares to NOLA, the airlines are
refunding them at present, although that is subject to change when they
start serving MSY again.

E.k.R. wrote:
Good going Carnival!

Ernie - who will be working relief flights to MSY tomorrow.


From Seatrade Insider:
==========================
Three Carnival ships go to Katrina relief
3/9/2005
Ecstasy, Sensation and Holiday will be pulled from service next week and
deployed for six months to Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, Carnival Cruise
Lines confirmed.
Ecstasy, normally homeported at Galveston, and Sensation, normally
homeported in New Orleans, will be pulled from service effective Monday.
Initial plans are for both vessels to be docked in Galveston.

The Holiday, which is homeported at Mobile, will be pulled from service
effective Thursday. Initial plans are for the vessel to remain docked in
Mobile.

Carnival president and ceo Bob Dickinson apologized to guests whose
vacations will be impacted. 'However, given that Hurricane Katrina is the
worst natural disaster in U.S. history, we trust our guests will understand
that the decision to enter into these charters was the right one. This
inconvenience to our guests will provide desperately needed housing for
thousands of individuals affected by this tragedy,' he said.

All customers whose bookings have been canceled will be offered full refunds
and the opportunity to re-book their cruise on any Carnival ship. Those who
re-book will receive a $100 per person shipboard credit. Carnival is
protecting travel agent commissions on cancelled cruises.

Ecstasy, Sensation and Holiday normally operate four- and five-day cruises.

"E.k.R." wrote in message
...
Good going Carnival!

I agree, Ernie...Kudos to Carnival!

--Jean

Oh, excellent thought. thousands of people have been homeless, foodless,
waterless, sans sanitation for a week. Carnival is making big money on al
this and you, of course, are worrying about The Fun Ship being trashed.

I hate in when people have the poor taste to die in the streets. It is
sooooo messy and unthoughtful of them.

Paul


wrote in message
oups.com...
I hope these cruise ships don't get trashed

Tom K wrote:

"E.k.R." wrote in message
...

More details, again from Seatrade Insider:

US charters 3 Carnival ships, ferry for hurricane relief
3/9/2005
Carnival Cruise Lines' Sensation, Ecstasy and Holiday as well as the
car-ferry Scotia Prince have been chartered for the hurricane relief
effort on the Gulf Coast, Seatrade Insider has learned.
The total value of the contract is $249m, a spokeswoman for the Military
Sealift Command said.


Is that $249 million?
Not a bad number. Probably far more than the ships are worth today (given
all the depreciation that has occurred since they were built).

Call me cynical again--let's look at the numbers. These ships have a
combined double occupancy of 5,556. Let's assume that CCL could sell
out all staterooms, (double occ.), on the ships for the next six months,
at a fare of $150 pppd ($1,050 for a one week cruise--a very generous
number for these ships compared to their usual fares.) That equals
about $152 million. Granted, no onboard revenue, but CCL also saves a
lot on labor (no shows, bardenders, deck stewards, room stewards, shop
clerks, entertainment, purser staff) and provisioning (no steak,
lobster, shrimp, and all-you-can-eat buffets here.)

Look--I'm not trying to bash Carnival here--I just am not going to swoon
over their "generosity" until I look at the numbers--since I (and other
taxpayers) are footing the bill.

How B