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tidecat

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About Me

  • Location
    Louisville
  • Interests
    Cruising, Louisville City Soccer, Marble Racing
  • Favorite Cruise Line(s)
    Carnival
  • Favorite Cruise Destination Or Port of Call
    Half Moon Cay, Bahamas

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  1. I had this happen to me on the Horizon. Someone from maintenance came to fix the door. The vibrations had worked the latch loose.
  2. Technically the Excel class could run 100% on diesel, but it would seem like a tremendous waste to put a LNG-capable ship in a non-LNG capable port. Port Canaveral started out having LNG delivered from Georgia, not sure where a similar bunkering barge would be based on the West Coast.
  3. Miami may be the traditional cruise capital of the world, but Port Canaveral has overtaken them as the world's busiest cruise port. Go where the demand is the strongest. Carnival is still going to have one of its newest class (Celebration) in Miami, and whatever Carnival has there in 2027 is still going to be smaller than the Oasis class, so I'm not sure it matters too much whether the ship is brand new or five years old from a visual perspective. FWIW, Utopia of the Seas and Star of the Seas are scheduled to debut out of Port Canaveral over the next two summers. Maybe Port Canaveral reaches a saturation point, but there may be a good chance Excel 4 debuts there, with Mardi Gras taking over for Freedom or Glory. The timing doesn't line up for Carnival to best capture it, but there are likely going to be a lot of extra visitors to Central Florida in 2025 and 2026 with Universal Orlando's new park. Even if that tails off in 2027 (when Excel 4 debuts), the market for short cruises may be much larger as people look to round out their vacations at Universal's parks. Carnival also doesn't have an orderbook yet past 2027. There certainly will be additions beyond the new Excel ship.
  4. The pizza place and deli on Deck 8 will be open (embarkation day is actually a great time to visit them, before most people onboard discover them).
  5. Quantum of the Seas was spending the (North American) winter season in Australia. RCI has withdrawn her from Australia, but wants to keep her on Alaska service, therefore Los Angeles was the only real choice. If RCI is returning to Brisbane in late 2025, it hasn't been announced yet. Quantum also isn't much bigger than Panorama or Firenze, and Quantum is older than both of them. I'm not sure this move really merits a response, especially since Carnival's ships are sailing year-round from Long Beach. Unless if Carnival cuts capacity elsewhere, Carnival can't really respond before mid-2027. Now whether Panorama merits being moved to a new port by 2027 as part of a normal refresh would be a perfectly reasonable question. A 2029 move may be more likely as that would be the natural drydock date.
  6. Maximum draft on the Excel class is 28 feet. The draft on the Conquest class is 27 feet. The limit for the lower Mississippi is 50 feet. I couldn't find anything definitive, but beam doesn't appear to be an issue. Even near Port Eads the river is over 500 feet wide, and it typically is wider upstream. The biggest problem New Orleans has is that it's not in Texas or Florida. Moving up to the Excel class would nearly double Carnival's capacity on either 7-day or 4/5-day cruises out of New Orleans. If New Orleans were that underserved, we'd probably already see something done about it.
  7. I'd question whether Australia gets anything larger. The original plan for Panorama (as a P&O ship) was pulled back due to concerns over infrastructure in the ports of call. Then 2020 happened and the Australian market was one of the last to reopen.
  8. Excel 4 to Long Beach Firenze from Long Beach to Galveston Panorama from Long Beach to Norfolk Spirit-class from Galveston (winter)/San Francisco (summer) to Long Beach (winter)/San Francisco (summer) Sunshine from Norfolk to Aliaga This would roughly level in terms of total capacity out of Long Beach during the winter months, and a decrease during the summer months while the Spirit-class ship is running out of SF. This adds capacity in a Galveston market that presumably is not slowing down. Port Canaveral and Norfolk also get a raise.
  9. I don't think the World Cup, Super Bowl, and Olympics are going to do anything to increase cruising out of Southern California, unless if a bunch of folks decide to rent out their home and leave town during those events. In that regards cruising competes favorably with other forms of travel. Cruise ships are portable, buildings on land not so much Princess is really the only worldwide brand-and has much deeper connections to Southern California-so any advertising efforts would probably be better focused there if you're dealing with a general international audience (i.e., advertising in the venue). If Carnival Corporation has the ability to geographically target with their ads (i.e. television), then they can push Costa, Carnival, both P&Os, and AIDA to the appropriate audiences. What may happen is that some cruise operators may make their ships available for charter as temporary hotels. The LA/Long Beach area has about 98,000 hotel rooms (although the most recent data I could find was from 2016). I would think the extant hotels and rental home market would be large enough to absorb the Olympics, but there may still be some opportunity for cruise ships. London has about 123,000 hotel rooms, their hotel occupancy actually went down during the 2012 Olympics.
  10. It's about 65 miles from Amber Cove to the Haitian border in a straight line. There are places in Puerto Rico closer to La Romana than Haiti. Port au Prince and Croix des Bouquets are not close to the border.
  11. Seabourn and Holland America - and those are just the ones owned by Carnival. You have to remember that when Carnival charged you $995 pp in 1985 to sail on the Festivale, that's akin to paying $2,908 today. That may not quite approach Seabourn in terms of pricing, but that's still higher than Holland America in real terms. I'd have some concern about HAL's plans once R-class hits retirement age, but they could keep sub-100K GT ships well into the 2050s. The smaller lines can afford to spend more per lower berth on a ship because they command higher fares.
  12. I had not seen the news on AIDA but it seems like it would take the Sphinx class off the table for Carnival Cruise Line. The Icarus class may still be on table given their refurbishment dates haven't been set. It may be more cost effective to keep Elation and Paradise as far out as 2037 (age 39). If the Spirit class can hang around to age 39, it would be 2040 before Carnival would have to exit one of Jacksonville, Baltimore, or Tampa, and 2048 before they would lose all three ports.
  13. Steel has been cut for the third Icon class ship: https://www.cruisehive.com/actual-construction-begins-on-third-icon-class-cruise-ship/120787 Oasis 7 and Icon 3 both appear to be happening. I imagine the financial penalties for canceling either of those would not be justifiable.
  14. NCL to Jacksonville has been confirmed with the Gem sailing seasonally from there. NCL's Jewel class and CCL's Spirit class came out within a few years of each other. Ultimately NCL is going to run into the same problem that Carnival will, and that they can't afford to build a smaller non-luxury ship either.
  15. Elation already has a drydock scheduled for 2026, and presumably Paradise will shortly follow. Those ships should be in the fleet until at least 2028, if not 2029. The Spirit class was built entirely after 2000, those will be with us well into the next decade. Luminosa should continue into the early 2040s. I suspect the ultimate fate of Tampa, Jacksonville, and Baltimore will lie with more upmarket lines that have smaller ships, like Holland America and Seabourn. The masses will continue sailing from Port Canaveral, Miami, and Galveston. I also think Carnival Cruise Line may pick off some AIDA ships, which may buy the height-restricted ports some time. That would still be a few years down the road if it happens, though.
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