Crown and Majesty

[ashleycrew]

Let's see if a post can happen without too much bashing. I know NCL has sold the Crown and are looking at getting rig of the Majesty also to Fred Olson. Any new rumors on what they are looking at on replacing these. Will the move another smaller ship(S) so to sail to St. George or just begin docking in other ports. I am sure just rumors at this point but any speculation?

[electricron]

Let's see if a post can happen without too much bashing. I know NCL has sold the Crown and are looking at getting rig of the Majesty also to Fred Olson. Any new rumors on what they are looking at on replacing these. Will the move another smaller ship(S) so to sail to St. George or just begin docking in other ports. I am sure just rumors at this point but any speculation?

 

To dock at St. George, a cruise ship must be 700 feet or shorter in length.

Only the Crown and Majesty are less than 700 feet long sailing for NCL today, therefore when they are gone NCL can't dock in St. George anymore.

 

The Crown departs NCL next fall, nobody knows for sure when th eMajesty will depart. By the way, I've read rumors somewhere on the world wide web that Louis Cruises is interested in buying the Majesty. I repeat, just rumors.

 

St. George residents are against upgrading their facilities for larger ships.

What Hamilton plans to do is unknow, first this then not that....

So, it looks like NCL's larger ships will be docking at King's Wharf for a long time to come.

[ashleycrew]

To dock at St. George, a cruise ship must be 700 feet or shorter in length.

Only the Crown and Majesty are less than 700 feet long sailing for NCL today, therefore when they are gone NCL can't dock in St. George anymore.

 

The Crown departs NCL next fall, nobody knows for sure when th eMajesty will depart. By the way, I've read rumors somewhere on the world wide web that Louis Cruises is interested in buying the Majesty. I repeat, just rumors.

 

St. George residents are against upgrading their facilities for larger ships.

What Hamilton plans to do is unknow, first this then not that....

So, it looks like NCL's larger ships will be docking at King's Wharf for a long time to come.

 

That would be a shame, Kings warf is far and away the least desirable port to be at. I don't understand why they would just not pull the Majesty for a year and give her a makeover.

[e.durban]

I think NCL's issue with Majesty is her size, not her condition, so a makeover is really beside the point. She's not designed for freestyle, not carrying enough pax, never (no matter what modifications are made to her) going to be competitive in the balcony department. We here on this board may love Crown/Majesty but the NCL offices want to market a consistant freestyle product with all new ships having 8plus restaurants, big theatres, bowling alleys, climbing walls, courtyard villas, and balconies, balconies, balconies. They don't want to say 'you'll love our NCL freestyle experience except on our smaller, older ships where the cruise will be quite different from, say, Dawn/Jewel/Gem'. They want a product that is pretty much uniform throughout the fleet. Not to mention that, economically speaking, it's cheaper to run one 90,000 ton ship than 2 small ships totalling 75,000 tons (like the Crown/Majesty.) One crew instead of two, significantly less fuel, etc...

[cruisingbug]

So who would that leave as far as visiting St. George's or Hamilton in Bermuda as a port? Just Celebrity?

[ashleycrew]

So who would that leave as far as visiting St. George's or Hamilton in Bermuda as a port? Just Celebrity?

 

You would have to think someone would want to come in and take that space, it is far and away the nicest most relaxed place to dock in Bermuda.

[MikeT718]

We are booked on the Crown for next July and it will be my 3rd time in Bermuda and there is nothing like comming into St. George's through "The Cut" with the Cannon Salute and the Town Crier welcoming you...:)

It is going to be a real shame when there are no more small ships that can cruise into St. George:confused: IMHO it is one of the most beautiful ports that I have ever seen, not that I have seen a lot..After that the next loss will be Hamilton.Then that only leaves the Royal Navy Yard don't get me wrong it is a nice port but it is TOO FAR away from every thing....Once again IMHO Cruise lines are loosing a lot by giving up on St. Geroge's and Hamilton

[jimswims]

We are booked on the Crown for next July and it will be my 3rd time in Bermuda and there is nothing like comming into St. George's through "The Cut" with the Cannon Salute and the Town Crier welcoming you...:)

It is going to be a real shame when there are no more small ships that can cruise into St. George:confused: IMHO it is one of the most beautiful ports that I have ever seen, not that I have seen a lot..After that the next loss will be Hamilton.Then that only leaves the Royal Navy Yard don't get me wrong it is a nice port but it is TOO FAR away from every thing....Once again IMHO Cruise lines are loosing a lot by giving up on St. Geroge's and Hamilton

 

Hi MikeT718:

 

We have been on the Majesty, Boston to Bermuda twice....great time and loved St. George!

 

My parents have been on the Majesty 15 times....I guess they like it too! They just got back from their 9/17/06 sailing.

 

Aside from the newer ships being too long, they got some other information.

 

I do not want to be spreading rumors but I will share what they were told. They were talking with a few of the officers on the ship and they were saying that it is the Bermuda Gov. is not wanting the ships in port more than one to two days. That it is not good for tourism, especially for the restaurants since the ships are serving food almost constantly. NCL has a contract with Bermuda Gov. to go to St. George through 2007.

 

I do not know if others have heard this or if there is any way to confirm. It may mean that other lines may also have this problem as well.

[electricron]

So who would that leave as far as visiting St. George's or Hamilton in Bermuda as a port? Just Celebrity?

 

Here's a list of cruise ships sailing today for mainstream North American cruise lines that are less than 700 feet in length, and could dock in St. George. I counted just eight cruise ships.

 

Celebrity Zenith, Holland American Prinsendam, Norwegian Crown, Norwegian Majesty, Island Princess, Pacific Princess, Tahitian Princess, and Royal Caribbean's Empress of the Seas.

 

Note: only four of the eight, the Zenith, Crown, Majesty, and Empress of the Seas, sailed to Bermuda this past summer. Next year, the Prinsendam will also stop twice in Hamilton during two long 50+day Trans Atlantic cruises. All the ships on this list that sailed to Bermuda are the oldest and smallest ships for their cruise lines. Princess' small ships are fairly new, but have been sailing only in the Pacific, no where close to Bermuda.

[hotspur]

Here's a list of cruise ships sailing today for mainstream North American cruise lines that are less than 700 feet in length, and could dock in St. George. I counted just eight cruise ships.

 

Celebrity Zenith, Holland American Prinsendam, Norwegian Crown, Norwegian Majesty, Island Princess, Pacific Princess, Tahitian Princess, and Royal Caribbean's Empress of the Seas.

Oceania's three ships--which were once "mainstream," under the Renaissance flag, but no more--are 593.7 feet in length, but I doubt it would be cost effective to put them on a Bermuda run with only 694 passengers.

[cruisingbug]

They were talking with a few of the officers on the ship and they were saying that it is the Bermuda Gov. is not wanting the ships in port more than one to two days.

 

That's weird - I thought that Bermuda used to REQUIRE ships to be in port 3 days, and that only now they've loosened the restriction to one night so that the bigger ships are stopping at Kings Wharf on their way to the Bahamas, Caribbean, etc.

[cruisingbug]

Oops, duplicate post.