Skip to main content

Thank You 500,000 readers

Von
18 comments

Trends - CUNARD to launch the biggest cruise ship in its history

Von
CUNARD, will launch in 2022 the biggest cruise ship in its 177 years history. The yet unnamed vessel will accomodate 3,000 passengers ...
CUNARD is one of the world’s most recognised shipping and cruise brand, and one of the oldest steamship companies in the worls. ÖSTERREICHISCHER LLYOD/LLOYD AUSTRIACO, founded in 1833, today ITALIA MARTTIMA, former LLOYD TRIESTINO, when becoming Italian, is a bit older - by seven years. The company had a twisted history and ended as container shipping company and is now part of the EVERGREEN GROUP, in its MARINE department.
by Earl of Cruise
CUNARD to launch the biggest cruise ship in its history
The CUNARD fleet as it will be in 2022 - courtesy THE TELEGRAPH
A few days ago CUNARD announced it will build a new ship to be launched in 2022. A 3,000 passenger ship, the fourth and largest in the actual CUNARD fleet by total capacity. The yet unnamed cruise ship will join the QUEEN MARY 2 (QM2), QUEEN VICTORIA and QUEEN ELIZABETH. The QUEEN VICTORIA and QUEEN ELIZABETH are VISTA Class cruise ships, constructed at FINCANTIERI´s MARGHERA SHIPYARD, of which the first was introduced in 2002 by HOLLAND AMERICA LINE, one of the subsidiaries of the CARNIVAL CORP. The VISTA Class in turn is based on the 20m shorter SPIRIT Class introduced in 2000 with COASTA ATLANTICA, developed and constructed at HIETALATHI SHIPYARD (also known as HELSINKI NEW SHIPYARD, Finnish: Helsingin uusi telakka).
CUNARD promotion video for the new coming QUEEN - Source: YouTube
CARNIVAL CORPORATION, CUNARD's parent company, and where the decisions are made, has signed a memorandum of agreement with FINCANTIERI, Italy - where ships for VIKING CRUISES, SEABOURN and MSC CRUISES are currently under construction. This newbuilt is CUNARD’s first new ship since the launch of QUEEN ELIZABETH - 2010 launched by Her Majesty The Queen. CARNIVAL says it has “ambitious plans” for the future of Cunard. The passenger number for the new ship is suggesting, that CUNARD will open the more into the mass me-too market. But 3,000 and luxury, is quite a question to me. In the end CUNARD is watering down its pedigree of luxury and style, both degenerated since years by the parent company CARNIVAL, with its lack of understanding what real luxury is. What CUNARD actually is offering is what Miami is thinking what British style is.
A total of 17 ships with room for at least 5,000 passengers in average are currently under construction. In the face of fierce competition from newer and increasingly luxurious ships, which all are smaller in size amd passenger capacity, the brand has recently invested over £ 120,000,000.00 bringing two of its existing vessels up to date. The refurbishment of of its flagship QUEEN MARY 2 was with £ 90,000,000.00 the most expensive refit for any ship in CUNARD’s then 176-year history. QUEEN VICTORIA will get a £ 34,000,000 "makeover", that is including the addition of 43 Britannia Club balcony cabins.
CUNARD relaunched QUEEN MARY 2 last summer (2016) following a bow-to-stern refit, while the QUEEN VICTORIA re-emerged from dry dock in June this year following a significant facelift. The marketing department of CUNARD was busy as hell to accompany that re-modeling and re-styling. New added cabins and refreshed cabins furnished in smart purple, navy and gold and to offer more allocation for solo travellers, single cabins have been created, and include a significant number of `suite categories´ - big staterooms with suite service. These include apartment-style Grand Suites with a separate kitchen and a seperate TV room, and two balconies.
CUNARD to launch the biggest cruise ship in its history
VISTA Class vessel KONINGSDAM of HOLLAND AMERICA - Source: Wikipedia
Depsite KONIGSDAM the new CUNARDer will have one deck more, which increaes the passenger capacity as well the tonnage.
Drinking and dining venues have also been given a makeover. To coincide with its £ 34,000,000 refit QUEEN VICTORIA is offering now the first gin tap at sea, serving QUEEN VICTORIA gin as part of its new Gin and Fizz menu. Each of the `three QUEENs´, as the ships are collectively known, now have a bespoke gin, blended to reflect their sailing routes.
With its trademark red-and-black funnels and white and navy livery, Cunard is one of the world’s most recognised “heritage” cruise brands. The QE2, also launched by the Queen and now retired, celebrated its 50th anniversary this month and in 2015 more than one million people gathered on the Mersey in Liverpool to mark the line’s 175th year in service.
CUNARD to launch the biggest cruise ship in its history
QUEEN MARY 2 - courtesy The Telegraph
QUEEN MARY 2 is the only dedicated passenger ship in the world serving too as a liner, purpose-built to sail across the Atlantic. The journey from Southampton to New York takes six days. For this Northatlantic service QUEEN MARY 2 got a number of excemptions from the current SOLAS reqirements - the most significant, the position of the lifeboats, above of 15 m fixing. Waves of the Atlantic are in 15m high, while its swell is at 120m.
In numbers the fleet of CUNARD
Newbuilt, unnamed ship,113,000 GT, Passenger capacity: 3,000,Launch date: 2022
I would suggest Queen Alexandra will be the name.
QUEEN ELIZABETH, 90,901 GT, Capacity: 2,092, Launched: 2010
QUEEN VICTORIA, 90,049 GT, Capacity: 2,081, Launched: 2007
QUEEN MARY 2, 151,400 GT, Capacity: 2,695, Launched: 2004
For the design aspect ... the new vessel for CUNARD looks top heavy and unbalanced, the structure above the bridge, which is to me too low located, is too high. the stern of each VISTA Class vessel is more in the shape of a bus or a train coach.
Using the VISTA platform is depriving CUNARD from a distinctive special, perhaps British look. HOLLAND AMNERICA has a near black, dark blue hull, while CUNARD´s is black (liner tradition!). Only the label CUNARD at their sides make them different to HOLLAND AMERICA ships ... CARNIVAL had a chance creating a USP for its most valued brand, developing a CUNARD special class. The interior make them different ... a British style that is Americanized, like a worse Hollywood creation. Not for the masses the exterior is relevant ... they are looking for the most new amusement housed inside. But there is a great number that would like to cruise in a unique and beautiful styled cruise ship. And it is possible, if would not be, that the "money department" is deciding what is "beautiful".
The new CUNNARDer is definitely a bygone chance.


Labels:

Comments

  1. SamtrakSeptember 27, 2017 at 11:56 PM

    Those hightop boxy cruise ships - like jumbo jets - are so un-streamlined, bulky & UGLY!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

HISTORY - The CUNARD - WHITE STAR Liner rms QUEEN ELIZABETH (1938-1972)

Von
Over years, in my early youth, the QUEEN ELIZABETH was shaping my mind for the perfect ocean liner, despite having made my first experiences with a liner onboard the HANSEATIC (1), ex EMPRESS OF SCOTLAND, ex EMPRESS OF JAPAN. When leaning at the rail of HANSEATIC entering the port, my eyes where every where and I wished to by a camera, I took all in. And when seeing the QUEEN ELIZABETH with my own eyes, the nice behaving young boy turned into a tomboy, that my grandmére was no longer able to tame ... I did draw quite a lot of looks, back then. I found, while on research, this article and thought it interesting publishing in my blog: written and published by John Sheperd at liverpoolships.org editing and comments by Earl of Cruise I ( John Shepard ) joined the CUNARD LINE in March 1962 as an Assistant Purser and sailed the QUEEN ELIZABETH throughout that year, before transferring to the Liverpool-based CARINTHIA in November, where I remained as Crew Purser for the next five...
3 comments
Read more

Ocean Liners in Movies or Films at Sea (updated Nov 2017)

Von
For liners and the shipping companies movies and films had been a top marketing tool Movies or Films and liners at sea, had been intriguing me since I have read about in my youth in LUXUSLINER - BILDER EINER GROSSEN ZEIT by Lee Server ( THE GOLDEN AGE OF OCEAN LINERS ). But earlier, mot only since my first crossing, I was keen watching movies with liners in it, and disapointed, which was an understatement, when I realized the films have been made in a set ashore in some movie "factory". That was after my first crossing.   by Earl of Cruise an essay in progress `Sabrina´, Humphrey Bogart in the office, while LIBERTÉ is sailing out of New York harbor - screenshot Ocean liners, especially those of the luxury category, had been the location of dramas, love stories, thrillers, suspense and catastrophies sinde film was born, or nearly. In this list, the most descriptions are taken from Wikipedia, as I guess no one can expect having seen all these films ... otherwise I w...
7 comments
Read more

HISTORY - ts / ss BREMEN and ts / ss EUROPA

Von
Germany’s two luxury liners, BREMEN and EUROPA , have not only played an important part in their country’s mercantile revival, but have added also an immortal chapter to the history of transatlantic travel. Copy from Shipping Wonders of the World   From part 6 , published 17 March 1936 editing by Earl of Cruise ss / ts BREMEN in her early years - Source: Shipping Wonders of the World/Bundespresse Archiv The PRIDE OF A NATION - the NORDDEUTSCHER LLOYD quadruple-screw turbine express liner BREMEN . The keel of this ship was laid in June 1927. Her launch took place in August, 1928. In less than a year later, the Bremen made her first voyage to America, when she crossed the Atlantic from Cherbourg to New York in four days seventeen hours forty-two minutes, thus setting up a new record and gaining the coveted “Blue Riband”. During the passage the Bremen attained an average speed of 27.83 knots. ss / ts BREMEN in her early years - Source: W ikipedia For the pop...
2 comments
Read more

Heritage - Boabdil the last Muslim King in Spain

Von
Abu `Abd All āh Mohammed XII, the Spanish name him Boabdil, is the last Muslim king in Spain and at the very end of a 700 year lasting, most fruitful realm. Based on original research, and drawing attention to the connections between the medieval Moorish king Boabdil , actually Abu `Abd All āh Mohammed XII, and current social and political concerns in Europe today, Cambridge academic Elizabeth Drayson presents the first full account in any language of the Moorish sultan of Granada, and head of the Nasrid dynasty. As historian I am fascinated by the once liberal cultur of al-Ándalus . It was once a thriving center of cultural exchange between christian Europe and the Arabian world and knowledge, that Arabian cientists, doctors, astronomers, historians and intelectuals saved from ancient times and developed further on. by Earl of Cruise Especially the knowledge and developments in navigation, shipbuilding and rigging, made it possible for the comming age of discovery. As well the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ships of State - BREMEN the shocking modern German Greyhound

Von
When BREMEN , the first of the two, the world shocking last German Greyhounds , and ` Ships of State ´, was introduced in 1929 - BREMEN had provoking radical new streamlined lines and broke with any traditions. When asking todays public: what is a typical liner, BREMEN is named among the first five. Only ten years after the Versailles Peace Treaty , with 20,000,000,000,000.00 Goldmark anual reparations for the next 58 years, an occupation of the Ruhrgebiet , a raging inflation till 1923 (then introduction of the Rentenmark ), the resurging Germany and NORDDEUTSCHER LLOYD back at the top again. And BREMEN and EUROPA had been financed private! Bank loans from German and US American banks, plus the liberation of frozen LLOYD capital from pre WWI. by Earl of Cruise BREMEN, in her first years with the squat funnels - courtesy coloured by Daryl LeBlanc The difference to EUROPA are the paired windows in the front of the promenade deck and the big ventilators, the last remains o...
1 comment
Read more

HISTORY - Traveling with airliner LZ 129 HINDENBURG was the most luxurious airtravel

Von
The real airliner LZ 129 HINDENBURG enabled the most luxurious airtravel for decades. Imagine, gliding through the air while the landscape or the sea below can be seen ... LZ 129 HINDENBURG marks the climax of airship construction. On May 6, 1937, the story of civilian airship ended in a tragedy. In Lakehurst, New Jersey, the largest flying object and has been with the similar sized LZ 130 GRAF ZEPPELIN II the most luxurious of all time. How this came about can be reconstructed logically, a series of fatal physics concatenations . The airship LZ 129 HINDENBURG marks the climax of airship construction. It was in its time the fastest and most exclusive traveling object between Europe and America. The challenges of the construction of the giant of the heaven were immense. by Earl of Cruise LZ 129 HINDENBURG, 1936, in Lakehurst - digital copy of a coloured cover photo, originally by Bill Schneider, published in Dan Grossman´s book ` ZEPPELIN HINDENBURG: AN ILLUSTRATED HI...
1 comment
Read more

ss NORMANDIE 1935-1942 XIII - Le NORMANDIE the great triumph and tragic end of the greatest ship of France

Von
NORMANDIE at sea - courtsey coloured by Daryl LeBlanc Le NORMANDIE , the greates ship of France, was a great triumph for the French industry, economy the most gracious ambassador of France - a symbol of cultur and Savoir de Vivre. NORMANDIE never surppassed by any liner. But whom the gods love, they beat him to a tragic ending. In case of NORMANDIE the gods let do their dirty job by careless, ignorant and arrogant US Navy officials and their sub contractors.   by Earl of Cruise   NORMANDIE had 4 years of living and the chance to bring Glitz, Glamour and Luster into a world that was just in front of an abyss since October 1929. Sailing with NORMANDIE , created to cater primarily the First Clas clientele, and enjoying life on board seems to me today, as a Dance on the Volcano, that errupted in 1939. Longitudinal cutaway of PARIS - own collection copy from a CGT broshure ÎLE DE FRANCE , Cie Gle TRANSATLANTIQUE provoking ART DÉCO liner - own collection  ...
1 comment
Read more

HISTORY - German Greyhounds III

Von
Armistice 1918 and Versailles 1919, Germany was deprived of its German Greyhounds. by Earl of Cruise Laid up German Greyhounds, on the right: ss KRONPRICESSIN CECELIE and ss KAISER WILHELM II source, courtesy NEW YORK TIMES July 16th, 1929 was a great day for Germany, ss BREMEN was setting sails for her inauguaral crossing to New York. 4days, 17h, 42later (22nd) she snatched the Blue Riband off of rms MAURETANIA - source: Bundesarchiv Only ten years after the Versailles Peace Treaty, with 2 billion Goldmark anual reparations for the next 58 years, a raging inflation till 1923 (introdution of the Rentenmark), the resurging Germany and NORDDEUTSCHER LLOYD was back at the top again. Phoenix rose from its ashes. The Allies of WWI got hold of countless German vessels during the war. German vessels did seek refugee in neutral ports. Later during the war, that all wars should end for the future, these countries   turned into enemies and seized the interned vessel...
1 comment
Read more

The modern Black Gang

Von
Stewardesses and Stewards are the modern " BlackGang " by Earl of Cruise  Stokers on board USS MASSACHUSETS - source Wikipedia The men working in the bowels of the steamers had been named Black Gang. these where those men with the hardest labour - bringing the coal form the bunkers to the furnasses and filling them. This ardous labour became obsolete, when the steamer and turbine furnasses became oil fired - cleaner, fewer men and no longer heat and coal dust drenched air. The living conditions, when free from their shifts, had been similar ardous - cramped sleeping rooms, no light and less air, and few washing rooms and toilets. The loan was less than acceptable. Despite some some first class travellers made their way in these aereas, as into third class, to "slum a bit", for whatever their reasons may have been, or tipping the men of the Black Gang for harder work making a fast voyage. DAS TOTENSCHIFF , B. Traven, bying , In 1959 it was adapted int...
Post a Comment
Read more

HISTORY - PACIFIC MAIL STEAMSHIP COMPANY

Von
The PACIFIC MAIL STEAMSHIP COMANY was existing for "just" one hundred years and was in her heydays a backbone for the development of the US West. The PACIFIC MAIL STEAMSHIP COMPANY was founded April 18, 1848, as a joint stock company under the laws of the State of New York by a group of New York City merchants, William H. Aspinwall , Edwin Bartlett, Henry Chauncey, Mr. Alsop, G.G. Howland and S.S. Howland. These merchants had acquired the right to transport mail under contract from the United States Government from the Isthmusof Panama to California awarded in 1847 to one Arnold Harris. The company was sold 1938 last to AMERICAN PRESIDENT LINES , existing only on the paper, was closed down in 1949.   by Earl of Cruise CALIFORNIA , PACIFIC MAIL's first ship - Source: Wikipedia   CALIFORNIAwas the first steamer built by the PACIFIC MAIL STEAMSHIP COMPANY and she was launched May 19, 1848. She sailed from New York for Panama, via Cape Horn, on October 6, 1848...
3 comments
Read more