Marella Cruises plans to launch UK domestic cruises

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Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen

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Published: 24 March 2021 24 March 2021

 

Marella Cruises, the UK focused contemporary market cruise unit in the TUI AG group, plans to launch domestic cruises in the UK this summer.

 

Managing Director Andrew Flintham of the northern region of the TUI group said in a webcast interview: “You will see us operating either domestically or in a more limited way to start with while they prove the regulation that is needed.”

 

“We will shaped by the opportunity. The team is looking at a multitude of scenarios; Dover has never looked so attractive,” he said in an interview with Travel Weekly. He did not elaborate.

 

P&O Cruises, MSC Cruises, Princess Cruises and Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines are among the cruise lines that have unveiled similar programmes and Cunard has said that it would launch its own itineraries soon.

 

Marella Cruises has four ships left of a fleet that comprised six units prior to the pandemic, but it axed Marella Celebration and Marella Dream, the two remaining 1980s built vessels from is fleet since then.

Azamara renames fourth ship Azamara Onward

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Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen

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Published: 24 March 2021 24 March 2021

Azamara Cruises, the destination focused upper premium market cruise line, has renamed the former Pacific Princes as Azamara Onward. 

The company took delivery of the ship on 15 March and it became the fourth ship in its fleet. It is of 30,277 gross tons and was built as R Three in France in 1999. All four ships of the company are sisters.

On the same date, Azamara Cruises’ ownership transferred to Sycamore Partners, the New York based private equity group, from the Royal Caribbean Group.

Photo: Azamara Onward as Pacific Princess off Princess Cruises

Tasmania re-enters talks with RMC about ferry order

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Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen

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Published: 22 March 2021 22 March 2021

The Government of the Australian state of Tasmania has decided to re- enter discussions with Rauma Marine Constructions (RMC) in Finland to build two ropax ferries after a working group had found that building them in locally would not be viable.

“We will now enter negotiations for 30 days with RMC for the new Spirit of Tasmania vessels targeting Tasmanian local content of between $50 million and $100 million across both vessels, and we expect also an additional local spend by TT-Line in the order of $40 million as part of the Tasmanian Government’s preferred way forward,” state premier Peter Gutwein said in a statement 

This is a substantial increase on the current Memorandum of Understanding, which provides for $16 million of Tasmanian content across the two vessels. 

RMC had signed a letter of intent with the Australian counterpart to build the two ships, but the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic led to a study to see if the ships could be built in Australia instead. The group completed its work earlier this month and found that building them locally would not be economic.

RMC said last year that the projected vessels would be delivered to the customer at the end of 2022 and 2023. “The vessels set to operate under the brand Spirit of Tasmania will replace the existing vessels, Spirit of Tasmania I and II (ex. Superfast III and Superfast IV), built in Turku, Finland in 1998,” RMC said in a statement. 

“The new ferries will accommodate 1,800 passengers and will have an approximate gross tonnage of 48,000. The ferries are set to operate in challenging conditions on the Melbourne, Australia – Devonport, Tasmania route,” the Finnish shipbuilder said.

P&O Cruises sees strong demand for coastal cruises at booking start

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Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen

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Published: 22 March 2021 22 March 2021

P&O Cruises, the UK focused contemporary market unit in Carnival Corporation & plc groups said it had  attracted an “overwhelming” number of bookings for its summer season of coastal cruises as they went on sale this morning. 

The three, four and seven night cruises, on flagship Britannia and new ship Iona, will set sail from Southampton between June and September.

“P&O Cruises president Paul Ludlow said in a statemen: “It is very demonstrable evidence that a holiday at sea, with all that it has to offer, is a popular and much longed-for option this summer. 

“We always hoped that these domestic cruises would be popular, given the uncertainty around holidays abroad, but we have never before seen such significant and immediate demand and it certainly shows the effects of lockdown and everyone's need for a holiday.” 

“Many thousands of guests have already made bookings and Iona's maiden voyage to the Scottish islands is already very well sold and will be a very special cruise,” he said.

Meanwhile, the online cruise agent Iglu Cruise said its traffic was up by 300% by 9am, shortly after Iona went on sale at 8:30am, according to a report by Travel Weekly.

Simone Clark, senior vice-president of global supply, said: “Many of our cruise line partners are responding to the current situation by releasing cruises for the British market sailing in UK waters for summer 2021.”

“We were confident that travellers would return to cruising as soon as the guidelines allowed, but were not sure about the appetite for booking a UK cruise. The response this morning has been resoundingly positive,” she noted.

Also today, MSC Cruises said that it was assessing the demand on the UK market, where it plans to resume operations on 20 May. The company has earmarked MSC Magnifica for the UK, but it could bring two ships or one larger vessel to cover its UIK p