new ships

Hard to believe with many upper level cruises trying to incentivize passengers but the news from Wall St is that RCCL is building two new Oasis of the Seas class ships 6000+ passengers.

A few days later Carnival announces 9 new ships with out specifying which sub they would be for. Makes RSSC seem miserly:eek:

WOW

Just noticed this thread from two days ago. Do you read Seatrade Insider about RCCL's presence in China? At least two of their megaships are there. I did read about Carnival building 9 new ships (2-3 per year). They stated that "The 3% capacity increase breaks out to about a 1% to 2% increase in North America and Europe, but about a 20% increase in Asia on a much smaller base."

The Chinese market is obviously going to be huge in the not so distant future. As you probably know, Crystal passengers have their concerns that one of their ships will be based in China (possibly after the new build). According to Crystal's website, there is a cruise (do not recall when -- either now or soon) where there will be a lot of Chinese on board (I believe the itinerary is from Hong Kong to Singapore). They have brought on extra gaming tables for this cruise (honest - not a joke).

Hoping that Regent sticks with wanting their ships in Cuba rather than China:cool:

One of the many thing we like about Regent is their ships are a comfortable size - hundreds NOT thousands! And Regent pax don't have to learn Chinese. However it is GOOD to learn other languages to keep your mind sharp.

Just noticed this thread from two days ago. Do you read Seatrade Insider about RCCL's presence in China? At least two of their megaships are there. I did read about Carnival building 9 new ships (2-3 per year). They stated that "The 3% capacity increase breaks out to about a 1% to 2% increase in North America and Europe, but about a 20% increase in Asia on a much smaller base."

 

The Chinese market is obviously going to be huge in the not so distant future. As you probably know, Crystal passengers have their concerns that one of their ships will be based in China (possibly after the new build). According to Crystal's website, there is a cruise (do not recall when -- either now or soon) where there will be a lot of Chinese on board (I believe the itinerary is from Hong Kong to Singapore). They have brought on extra gaming tables for this cruise (honest - not a joke).

 

Hoping that Regent sticks with wanting their ships in Cuba rather than China:cool:

It is very true that many Chinese love to gamble (and so do other nationalities!) However the "image" of the Chinese traveller abroad has changed drastically over the last 10 years. I can remember seeing Chinese tour groups in Switzerland then. Poorly dressed, very noisy, not "our kind of" table manners and generally not attractive. Now in Switzerland they tend to travel individually, stay in high end hotels, are very interested in culture and speak English rather well. Also dress far better than I ever could and behave far better than more other tourists. So having many Chinese on a ship doesn't bother me any more than having many Americans or for that matter Brits!!

I believe that the ships that are being sent to China are targeting that market only -- with cruises in Asia. To me this means that the food will be to Chinese tastes and the languages spoken will be Chinese dialects as well as English.

What is Voyager doing between March 25, 2016 when it ends in Beijing and April 12, 2016 when it starts in Singapore!