No Project sunshine news till 2014??

Hi, I recieved an email a while ago from Gavin Smith who is the head of Royal Caribbeans Australia division, claiming news and information about the New project sunshine class ships will not be published until the very start of 2014 to save from other cruise lines stealing and copying some of the new and unique features going to be onboard.

He said he wish he could reveal some new details however is not able to. This is unfortunate because i really wanted to see what this ship has to offer soon, but it looks like we have a while to wait.

IMHO, this is a BAD marketing strategy! :confused: Rival cruise lines always have, and always will find a way to steal/copy information -- up to and including the name of the ship -- so RC just needs to deal with it. But, if they are serious about releasing the first Sunshine Class ship in 2014, RC needs to start NOW, letting their customers know what to expect from this new class of ship.

Personally, DH and I are probably among the very last NOOTS hold-outs -- but, we still have absolutely no desire to sail on anything the size of Oasis or Allure. We have been intrigued from the beginning about the Sunshine Class, and were hoping for more information this year. But, if they don't want to tell us anything, we'll just continue to sail on Celebrity -- and look at other cruise lines, as well. :rolleyes:

The naming contest for the Oasis was held early 2008 almost 2 years prior to inagural cruise. We booked the inagural cruise as soon as they accepted reservations, same for The Allure. It was a grueling wait but fun to follow the build online.

Adam Goldstein stated in his blog that RCI would start the marketing on Project Sunshine in early 2013. There is no way that RCI will wait until 2014 to start marketing this ship. Bookings will be started in mid to late 2013.

The naming contest for the Oasis was held early 2008 almost 2 years prior to inagural cruise. We booked the inagural cruise as soon as they accepted reservations, same for The Allure. It was a grueling wait but fun to follow the build online.

August 2008 is when bookings opened up for D/D+ members for Oasis 15 months ahead of the first revenue sailing. At the recent shareholder meeting in Miami May 31/12 Adam G stated that some info would be released in 7-8 months

Adam Goldstein stated in his blog that RCI would start the marketing on Project Sunshine in early 2013. There is no way that RCI will wait until 2014 to start marketing this ship. Bookings will be started in mid to late 2013.

August 2008 is when bookings opened up for D/D+ members for Oasis 15 months ahead of the first revenue sailing. At the recent shareholder meeting in Miami May 31/12 Adam G stated that some info would be released in 7-8 months

Sure hope you guys are right! (And you both usually are. ;))

I'm intrigued by the fact that Meyer-Weft is building the ships. One of the very few early tidbits of info that I heard was that the "Sunshines" would be built on some version of the Solstice hull. It will be fun to follow the progress on Meyer-Weft's website, once they start laying the keel. :cool:

Adam Goldstein stated in his blog that RCI would start the marketing on Project Sunshine in early 2013. There is no way that RCI will wait until 2014 to start marketing this ship. Bookings will be started in mid to late 2013.

Adam Goldstein stated in his blog that RCI would start the marketing on Project Sunshine in early 2013. There is no way that RCI will wait until 2014 to start marketing this ship. Bookings will be started in mid to late 2013.

Plus, they have to announce were the Explorer will be relocated. :):):)

Plus, they have to announce were the Explorer will be relocated. :):):)

I like the way you think!:):):) I want the first Sunshine ship in NJ!

IMHO, this is a BAD marketing strategy! :confused: Rival cruise lines always have, and always will find a way to steal/copy information -- up to and including the name of the ship -- so RC just needs to deal with it. But, if they are serious about releasing the first Sunshine Class ship in 2014, RC needs to start NOW, letting their customers know what to expect from this new class of ship.

 

Personally, DH and I are probably among the very last NOOTS hold-outs -- but, we still have absolutely no desire to sail on anything the size of Oasis or Allure. We have been intrigued from the beginning about the Sunshine Class, and were hoping for more information this year. But, if they don't want to tell us anything, we'll just continue to sail on Celebrity -- and look at other cruise lines, as well. :rolleyes:

WOW......you're teaching them. So you won't sail RCL because you feel they are keeping a secret? Until the cats out of the bag, you will stick with other lines?

I would intend to agree that Royal will start marketing this new ship class next year. The first ship is "supposed" to go into service in 2014 so letting any details out now would not be in RCI's best interest. It does help the anticipation grow for us cruisecritic folks who will be waiting for those first announcements about the new "Project Sunshine" ships. :)

Be prepared for a "drips and drabs" rollout of info whenever it finally starts. Gone are the days when all the ships details are introduced in one shot. They feel there is some advantage to doing it this way although I dont necessarily agree. But is today's "marketing".

Worldspan

131 cruises strong

The naming contest for the Oasis was held early 2008 almost 2 years prior to inagural cruise. We booked the inagural cruise as soon as they accepted reservations, same for The Allure. It was a grueling wait but fun to follow the build online.

It will be interesting to see if RCI will have a contest in naming their new ships or pick a name that reflects how and where they will deploy them.

Adam Goldstein stated in his blog that RCI would start the marketing on Project Sunshine in early 2013. There is no way that RCI will wait until 2014 to start marketing this ship. Bookings will be started in mid to late 2013.

August 2008 is when bookings opened up for D/D+ members for Oasis 15 months ahead of the first revenue sailing. At the recent shareholder meeting in Miami May 31/12 Adam G stated that some info would be released in 7-8 months

I would think a little information may be rumored or made available 1st and 2nd quarter of 2013. If I remember right a lot about the Oasis class ships was a work in progress as they continued to design and build it. The ship was a revolution in the cruise ship industry. There was a over whelming amount of new information to be released. I will be surprised if RCI comes up with ground breaking new innovations for the Sunshine class. RCI has been very progressive in developing new technologies for their new ships and we might get some more surprises in that area. I believe they will try to incorporate what they believe is the best of the best in their fleet. Also they have to be made more flexible to cruise in cooler climates.

This marketing strategy has worked very well for a little company called Apple :)

You make a valid point. However, Apple doesn't have to fill ships -- that's a bit different.

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WOW......you're teaching them. So you won't sail RCL because you feel they are keeping a secret? Until the cats out of the bag, you will stick with other lines?

No, my point was simply that I don't care for RC's most recent builds -- but I do like X's Solstice Class (which is still releasing new ships). I was hopeful that the new Sunshine Class would be ships that DH and I would be interested in sailing on. But, we won't know until they start releasing information -- sooner would be better than later.

I recall a TV interview with William Wright, where he hinted than this new class would be larger than the Oasis class, but I now tend to think not.

I figure under 225K tons, maybe 190K or so. They will fill in a gap, and push other, smaller RCI ships off to their other cruise lines.

Oasis class is hard to beat size-wise. We're talking ship yard building facilities, and ports of call that they can visit. Heck, these things often have to go under bridges.

I thought the Sunshine class would be larger. If they are, good for RCI, but I figure they will be smaller than Oasis class. They will just fill a gap, and push other ships off the line at the smaller end.

I recall a TV interview with William Wright, where he hinted than this new class would be larger than the Oasis class, but I now tend to think not.

 

I figure under 225K tons, maybe 190K or so. They will fill in a gap, and push other, smaller RCI ships off to their other cruise lines.

 

Oasis class is hard to beat size-wise. We're talking ship yard building facilities, and ports of call that they can visit. Heck, these things often have to go under bridges.

 

I thought the Sunshine class would be larger. If they are, good for RCI, but I figure they will be smaller than Oasis class. They will just fill a gap, and push other ships off the line at the smaller end.

The size of the ships are already released at 158,000 tons.

The size of the ships are already released at 158,000 tons.

Okay, so they still fill a gap.

You guys have to help me out here. I remember reading here on CC that the Project Sunshine ships will have a lower (worse) space/pax ratio then the similarly sized Freedom Class. I just looked up both the Freedom Class and Project Sunshine on Wikipedia. It appears that the Sunshine ships will have a higher (better) ratio than the Freedom Class. Did RCI revise their numbers, or is Wikipedia and Reuters wrong?

Freedom Class: 154,407 GT, 4370 passengers (double occupancy).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_class_cruise_ship

Project Sunshine: 158,000 GT, 4100 passengers (double occupancy).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Sunshine_class_cruise_ship

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/29/royalcaribbean-idUSWEA383620120229

You guys have to help me out here. I remember reading here on CC that the Project Sunshine ships will have a lower (worse) space/pax ratio then the similarly sized Freedom Class. I just looked up both the Freedom Class and Project Sunshine on Wikipedia. It appears that the Sunshine ships will have a higher (better) ratio than the Freedom Class. Did RCI revise their numbers, or is Wikipedia and Reuters wrong?

 

Freedom Class: 154,407 GT, 4370 passengers (double occupancy).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_class_cruise_ship

 

Project Sunshine: 158,000 GT, 4100 passengers (double occupancy).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Sunshine_class_cruise_ship

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/29/royalcaribbean-idUSWEA383620120229

That's a good question, Darth! If Sunshine is being built on a modified Solstice hull, I'm guessing that they can stretch her length and height, to get more pax in. But, if they are shooting for having a "New Panamax Ship", I don't think they can go any wider than Solstice. If I'm wrong on those specs, I'm sure someone out there will correct me! ;)

Did RCI revise their numbers, or is Wikipedia and Reuters wrong?

 

Freedom Class: 154,407 GT, 4370 passengers (double occupancy).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_class_cruise_ship

Me thinks that Wikipedia (and possibly Reuters) is wrong or misleading. Freedom has only 1800 berths (via http://shipstips.com), so a "double occupancy" load can only be 3600 pax.

What we don't seem to know know about Project Sunshine (at least from what I can find) is the number of berths (cabins) that will be on the ship, only the proposed number of passengers (4100). Till we have something that more resembles apples, we won't really know what the comparison is.