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Impact of new luxury ships?


OctoberKat
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Between 2016 and 2018 five new ships will be added to luxury lines (largely thanks to the slowly improving economy encouraging cruise lines to increase investment):

 

-- Regent Explorer, 2016, 738 berths

-- Seabourn Encore, 2016, 604 berths

-- Seabourn Ovation, 2018, 604 berths

-- Silversea Silver Muse, 2017, 596 berths

-- Crystal TBD, 2018, 1,000 berths

 

I'm interested in discussing the impact the new ships will have on luxury cruising. For example:

 

-- will new and infrequent itineraries be added?

-- as new vessels come online, will older ships be phased out (thereby not increasing capacity as much as might be thought initially)?

-- will there be two-tiered luxury cruising? Older ships vs. newer?

-- will new kitchens and storage facilities improve food quality?

-- will new crew housing and facilities improve morale?

-- other effects? thoughts?

 

Please do, heh, weigh in!

Edited by OctoberKat
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Between 2016 and 2018 five new ships will be added to luxury lines (largely thanks to the slowly improving economy encouraging cruise lines to increase investment):

 

-- Regent Explorer, 2016, 738 berths

-- Seabourn Encore, 2016, 604 berths

-- Seabourn Ovation, 2018, 604 berths

-- Silversea Silver Muse, 2017, 596 berths

-- Crystal TBD, 2018, 1,000 berths

 

I'm interested in discussing the impact the new ships will have on luxury cruising. For example:

 

-- will new and infrequent itineraries be added?

-- as new vessels come online, will older ships be phased out (thereby not increasing capacity as much as might be thought initially)?

-- will there be two-tiered luxury cruising? Older ships vs. newer?

-- will new kitchens and storage facilities improve food quality?

-- will new crew housing and facilities improve morale?

-- other effects? thoughts?

 

Please do, heh, weigh in!

 

I don't think there impact on the luxury lines. The same question was asked when the Oasis class ships where first built .

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I don't think there impact on the luxury lines. The same question was asked when the Oasis class ships where first built .

 

Yikes, sorry not have been clearer. Looking for opinions regarding the impact of new luxury ships to the luxe lines. I agree the addition of new ships to mainstream lines has little if any effect on the luxury lines.

Edited by OctoberKat
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You're correct about prices, they aren't going down. Fares on the new vessels likely will be higher. Over time, though, say five years out, if older ships (e.g., Regent Navigator) still are on offer, do you suppose we might see a small discount on the oldest, least attractive? This gets at what i was suggesting by "two-tier" cruising on luxe lines.

Edited by OctoberKat
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Another way of looking at two-tier luxury cruising: looking across all the lines, will there be something like "ultra-luxury" as a category distinguishing the new ships from older sisters and thereby marketed differently at a significant price premium?

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What I was trying to say. I don't expect any impact on the luxury lines by the addition of more ships. I don't expect prices will go down. Just more people might start cruising on them.

 

Agree with you!

 

BTW, Regent's Navigator is already less money on certain itineraries (Alaska and Caribbean) than her sister ships.

 

Regent has a trademark on "the most luxurious ship at sea" so Seabourn came up with some line about being the most "ultra-luxurious..............". It is simply advertising.

 

IMO, five new small luxury ships in the next few years will not impact anything. After all, the capacity of all five ships is slightly more than 2,500 passengers - even if it were one ship, it would not be considered that large.

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It all depends on the economy.

 

If economy remains strong then no impact. If there is a downward turn, then more berths could mean lower prices.

 

Keith

 

That makes sense.

 

What about, however, new-built kitchen and storage facilities? Better meals?

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That makes sense.

 

What about, however, new-built kitchen and storage facilities? Better meals?

 

I think you are going to see that the new Crystal ship will be very unique and will offer a very large range of specialty restaurants and also some innovative features typically not found on the cruise ships. Now this is me speculating but that is my sense.

 

Also the new ship will be offering apartments for sale.

 

Keith

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BTW, Regent's Navigator is already less money on certain itineraries (Alaska and Caribbean) than her sister ships..

 

As it should be. Perhaps that is why Regent chose Navigator for its next world cruise, thereby making the cost more palatable.

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I think you are going to see that the new Crystal ship will be very unique and will offer a very large range of specialty restaurants and also some innovative features typically not found on the cruise ships. Now this is me speculating but that is my sense.

 

Also the new ship will be offering apartments for sale.

 

Keith

 

Hi Keith - I took a look at the upcoming Crystal yacht and it looks good. We would have actually considered the New Year's Eve cruise that includes 3 night in Dubai if we were not committed to a cruise that returns on December.

 

Do you have any idea is the yacht or the new ships will have open seating? This is a requirement for us. Also, having to pay for more than one visit to a specialty restaurant is a bit of a put off for us. We will be watching the news for Crystal's new ships with interest.

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TC, new ocean ship will have open seating and lots of specialty choices and now fees for eating there. New Yacht will have open seating as best I know. We plan to try the Yacht, and also the River Cruise Ship with itineraries to be announced and open for bookings December 1. New ship should deploy late 2018. Best to you.

 

Keith

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Another way of looking at two-tier luxury cruising: looking across all the lines, will there be something like "ultra-luxury" as a category distinguishing the new ships from older sisters and thereby marketed differently at a significant price premium?

 

Within a line, that won't happen, IMO - that would dilute the brand.

 

Across all lines, they are already marketing themselves as different from the others, so that won't change. Marketing is marketing.

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Another way of looking at two-tier luxury cruising: looking across all the lines, will there be something like "ultra-luxury" as a category distinguishing the new ships from older sisters and thereby marketed differently at a significant price premium?

 

I don't consider the age of the ship to be the foremost determinant of a luxury cruise.

 

The MS Europa, which is rated 5+ stars by Douglas Ward, entered service in 1999.

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The most important thing for any luxury product, be it a cruise line or a hotel, is consistency. When you book a Crystal cruise or a Seabourn cruise you expect a certain level of quality and it shouldn't differ from ship to ship. Of course the new ships will have new features. That is a given but in terms of the software it should be the same on all ships.

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I think part of the plan for the luxury lines is to capture passangers who want to move up from the main stream lines. This might slow as some lines are enhancing their product for the upper cabins with private areas, lounges and restaurants. Some like the small ship deal, others like the action on a big ship with upscale dinning and lounges.

 

Sent from my SM-T320 using Forums mobile app

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I think part of the plan for the luxury lines is to capture passangers who want to move up from the main stream lines. This might slow as some lines are enhancing their product for the upper cabins with private areas, lounges and restaurants. Some like the small ship deal, others like the action on a big ship with upscale dinning and lounges.

 

Sent from my SM-T320 using Forums mobile app

 

A reverting to the pre- World War 2 concept of classes of passengers within clearly defined areas of the ship, such as Cunard's Grills, holds no appeal for me.

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A reverting to the pre- World War 2 concept of classes of passengers within clearly defined areas of the ship, such as Cunard's Grills, holds no appeal for me.

 

Agree with you completely. "Class" systems do not belong in this century (nor did they ever really belong).

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And yet there are class systems on almost every luxury line whether they are so designated or not. Book a top suite and see if you don't get more access to specialty restaurants than someone on the lowest category.

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Henry is right.

 

In the end, I have a very simple view and that is choice is good.

 

There are people that we know who prefer getting a suite on say Celebrity and they will enjoy many amenities that are found on a luxury line and they realize though that in other areas of the ship it will not be as luxurious as a luxury line.

 

And there are lots of people who sail Cunard.

 

No one forces us to sail on a particular line and there is a lot of choice out there that hopefully satisfies most people

 

Keith

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