Arison: 'Ultimate' ship is now 2 projects

This is good news! I thought it was ridiculous to use a common platform ship
for both Princess and Carnival, especially such a large one. The fact that
Carnival is designing it's own mega-liner from scratch and not some hybrid
GRAND PRINCESS is much preferred. This way it can be something truly unique
and fitting the most popular brand in the world, not some hand-me-down
design from Princess. It might also give Carnival the chance to finally
design something that can match the features of the Voyager Class in the
Caribbean.

Kudos to Arison for finally seeing the light! Common platform ships may be
cheaper in the long run, but they are not always the best solution.

Ernie



From Seatrade Insider:

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Arison: 'Ultimate' ship is now 2 projects
29/9/2003

When Micky Arison disclosed 'The Ultimate Carnival Princess' project back in
June, the company was considering a massive newbuild design that might work
as a common platform for more than one brand. During an interview today
about Queen Mary 2 sea trials [see earlier story], Arison revealed that the
thinking has changed.

'It really doesn't work having a common concept for Carnival Cruise Lines
and Princess,' he told Seatrade Insider. 'For a variety of reasons, we
decided to split it into two projects.'

They are a bigger version of the 116,000gt Caribbean Princess, which could
be as large as 135,000gt-140,000gt for the Princess brand and, for the
Carnival brand, a ship that would run 170,000gt-180,000gt with up to 4,000
lower berths.

'All of this is relatively preliminary,' Arison told Seatrade Insider. 'I
wouldn't expect any [order] before close to the end of the year, and I
wouldn't expect any delivery before the end of 2006 or in 2007.'

He suggested the euro-dollar exchange rate will continue to play a role in
any building decisions. Today, the euro was at just under 116 to the dollar.
When Carnival signed for Caribbean Princess 2 back in April shortly after
the merger closed, the rate was at 92 to the dollar.

Arison also said that the Princess and Carnival brand newbuilds are just two
of various projects Carnival is developing. 'We're talking to a number of
yards on all these projects, all yards that we currently work with,
including Masa, Chantiers, Fincantieri and Mitsubishi.'

Personally I think RCL is making a mistake by concentrating on the giant ships
that are not like cruising the seas at all. I understand economy of scale but
what about ships that are like ships? I can go to my local mall if that is the
experience I'm looking for. I thouroughly enjoyed being on Navigator last Jan,
but much of the reason was the novelty and probably would never sail a ship
that size again. Further don't think it's wise business to copy the
competition and therefore not be unique or different.

RCI can charge more for the Voyager class ships than for smaller ships.
And they do.

The class of ship seems to be very profitable.

Why would you NOT concentrate on them if they're THAT successful?

--Tom

HDawson228 wrote:

Personally I think RCL is making a mistake by concentrating on the giant ships
that are not like cruising the seas at all. I understand economy of scale but
what about ships that are like ships? I can go to my local mall if that is the
experience I'm looking for. I thouroughly enjoyed being on Navigator last Jan,
but much of the reason was the novelty and probably would never sail a ship
that size again. Further don't think it's wise business to copy the
competition and therefore not be unique or different.