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tidecat

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Everything posted by tidecat

  1. They aren't. The river is a half-mile wide at New Orleans. The Dreams used to sail from New Orleans.
  2. Isn't one of the two ships doing 7-day itineraries? If so, the other ship would have departures every OTHER Saturday, Thursday, and Monday. A third ship could then do the same, just staggered by one week.
  3. It comes down to which port makes Carnival the most money. Most consumers won't care if Galveston gets consecutive newbuilds, especially four years apart. Port Canaveral is a viable option for this as well. PC currently has one Vista-class year round and one seasonally (Venezia) so those would be the leading candidates for redeployment.
  4. No. The market won't support it. It will be either Galveston or Port Canaveral, and I'd actually give a slight edge to Galveston. New build to Galveston Dream from Galveston to Norfolk Sunshine from Norfolk to retired If Sunshine isn't retired, I could see a fourth ship in Galveston year-round, with the seasonal Spirit-class ship headed elsewhere - that would be the best chance for New Orleans, although I think Miami may be more likely (which was supposed to happen before Spirit wound up being redeployed to Mobile). That would allow New Orleans to have a 4 or 5 day cruise departing every Saturday, Thursday, and Monday.
  5. Yes, all Icon-class ships are being built by Meyer Turku. The 2027 Excel ship will be from Meyer Werft.
  6. I think the big question for 2027 is will there be any retirements? Sunshine is scheduled for an early 2025 drydock - if that still happens Carnival could have 28 ships in the fleet instead of 27 for the second half of 2027. That might allow for summer service out of Mobile, additional summer service out of Tampa, etc. If Sunshine is retired when the new ship comes on board, I would expect a Dream-class ship in Norfolk, a Vista-class replacing a Dream-class in Galveston, and the new ship replacing a Vista-class in Port Canaveral or Galveston.
  7. Conquest Class will be with us for a while. Sunshine class and Fantasy class take up the oldest five ships (1996-2000). California isn't fond of LNG, so I doubt the Excel class will ever be based there. I also don't see New Orleans getting an upgrade yet. If they do, it will be the Dream class.
  8. It may still happen, but we are looking at a 2028 or later delivery. If anything, that should allow all of the European mainstream brands to get a newbuild. Either that or Carnival Cruise Line needs three ships between now and 2031 - that likely means curtains for Sunshine, Sunrise, and Radiance.
  9. Fantasy class will still be around in 2027; Elation now has a scheduled drydock for 2026 and Paradise will presumably follow later in 2026. If nostalgia is still going to be a thing, this will be either Holiday or Tropicale. Carnival Fiesta would also work for this class as it fits with Celebration and Jubilee.
  10. It's actually the arcade that is kicking out the Thrill Theater - Club O2 was in the spot where the non-smoking casino was put in. Club O2 moved to the former arcade location, and the arcade moved to where the Thrill Theater was. Club O2 is actually getting a considerable downgrade in terms of space. I'm actually a tad surprised the library survived on Vista - that seems like a natural location for the arcade, given how many other ships have it near the atrium. There are dedicated venues for the Chef's Table and Art Gallery so it's not like they are using the Library for those events.
  11. My initial hypothesis is that this is outdoor waiter service. The original Celebration had something like this when she was with Bahamas Paradise (as Grand Celebration) - it was a burger concept called The Bull, and the tables for it were under the covered part of the Lido deck that flares outward (which the Fantasy class also has). What makes this interesting Steak & Fries interesting is that it would be available for lunch - I have a hard time seeing that working, especially on a sea day, without some sort of dedicated space. The Bull was only available for dinner on Grand Celebration, which made it easier to throw a few tablecloths on some tables and station a waiter to serve it, since most people would have left the pool area by 6:00 PM.
  12. I'll be on Elation the 19th, so if this is true I'll eat there, strictly for research purposes.
  13. The passenger ticket contract specifies the venue in which claims against Carnival must be made. That is Miami. A foreign-domiciled corporation can still be sued in the US. Not that I expect this case will go far. I don't know if the victims could bring suit against the resort under Bahamian law, but the resort would probably have little defense against such a suit.
  14. Atlantic Standard Time is the same as Eastern Daylight Time, so observing the US time change actually puts you in sync with local time in port.
  15. It would be worth $3.84 to me not to carry it up the gangway and around with me if I board before staterooms are ready.
  16. There are plenty of options for August under $300/night, some even for less than $100/night.
  17. I did when I purchased a card via the last offer.
  18. There are multiple AIDA ships that winter in the Caribbean, more or less following each other between Montego Bay and Martinique (La Romana and Barbados also get used as home ports), that would be easy to consolidate. I'm not sure what they consolidate for the spring and summer months, but AIDAstella and AIDAblu both sail the Western Mediterranean for at least part of the season, running similar itineraries to the larger AIDAcosma.
  19. They don't yet, but it has been leaked they are talking with Fincantieri for four ships with the first due in 2027 or 2028. Carnival has confirmed they are in discussions with multiple shipyards, but has not confirmed any specifics. Assuming Elation's 2026 drydock goes through as planned, Elation would be due again in January 2029.
  20. I wouldn't expect anything significant, but it at looks like Elation will be around a few more years as her 2026 drydock dates have been announced: https://help.goccl.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1512/~/carnival-elation-(el)-fact-sheet
  21. Elation departed Jacksonville around 7:30 PM and is expected in Nassau early Saturday morning.
  22. Carnival depreciates 85% of its ships using the straight line method over 30 years. So the depreciation on Jubilee for example is $950 million × .85 ÷ 30 for $26,916,667 per year. In December 2053 her book value will only be $142.5 million. If we have 3% average inflation between 2023 and 2053 that would only be $58.7 million in 2023 dollars. Gains and losses on ship sales are disclosed separately in the financial statements, although there isn't always activity for that every quarter. Carnival Corporation and Carnival PLC report one set of financial statements.
  23. That's kind of hard for a publicly traded company. Carnival's depreciation policy is stated in the notes to their financial statements. That can be changed, but there are all sorts of rules that go into that, even without taking taxes into consideration (taxes aren't really a thing for a Panamian-domiciled company anyway). If Carnival made such a change, there are disclosure requiremnts. If Carnival didn't depreciate it's ships fast enough, it would be taking large losses when ships are sold for scrap or to another operator. If Carnival depreciated its ships too quickly, earnings would look worse, and the variance between cash flow and earnings would be even larger.
  24. Repayment of debt does not factor into profit/loss, aside from reducing interest expense in future periods. Stretching out debt may keep cash available for other activities like building new ships, but raises interest expense in future periods which in turn reduces profit. Because depreciation is such a large expense for any cruise operator, especially Carnival, it has allowed Carnival to be cash flow positive even without being profitable. Depreciation is a decline in value on assets purchased in prior periods; for Carnival this is around $2 billion per year, and it goes up every time a ship enters service. The flip side is that buying a new ship doesn't affect profit/loss either (aside from raising depreciation once it enter service), but does affect cash flow. You also have things that don't run through the income statement at all, like the escrow funds credit card processors required Carnival to have during the shutdown. That was around $1 billion of cash that was tied up, and that was expected to be released by February 2024. Cruise lines have always had seasonality in their business; fares in North America and Europe tend to be higher in the summer months than they are in the winter. Revenue is recognized only when a cruise is completed (or each day of the cruise for longer sailings), not when the customer pays. Increasing customer deposits is another thing that can help cash flow be higher than profit.
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