From the with friends like this department:

Did you catch the somewhat uneven review of writer Jason Cochran's cruise to Bermuda aboard Azamara Journey in the New York Post? It starts off favorably enough, but the farther you read the less happy he seems to be with the experience.

To sum it up, he seems to like the hardware and the concept, but is anything but impressed with the onboard product.

Part of the problem may be that Mr. Cochran is confused about where Royal Caribbean is positioning the Azamara brand. (Maybe Royal Caribbean itself is sending mixed signals, or at least unclear ones to those who don't know much about the travel industry.) At one point he says that the rates of $1,500 to $2,500 for a 14-night cruise are "sane." Those certainly aren't luxury prices by any stretch of the imagination. ($175/night at the top end of the range for luxury?) When, in another place, he says, "When I spend this much for a cruise...." he starts to lose credibility with me for knowing about luxury cruising. (Seabourn Odyssey will debut with minimum accommodations starting at $645/night.) Then he chides Azamara by saying, "Let's not pretend that you're a true luxury brand." I'm not sure who is pretending and who is confused.

If Mr. Cochran had just stuck to talking about the things he liked and didn't like about the product, it would have been an excellent and credible review.

Note: Link is valid at time of posting.

From the personnel department:

Bo-Erik Blomqvist will replace the retiring Ian Gaunt heading up Carnival Corp's shipbuilding operations.

Blomqvist will become SVP corporate shipbuilding for Carnival Corp effective February 1, 2008, based in Southampton. He will report to Carnival chairman & CEO Micky Arison and vice-chairman and COO Howard Frank.

He has been deputy vice-president, cruises & ferries for Aker Yards, with his most recent assignment in France where he was responsible for the integration of Chantiers de l'Atlantique into the Aker Yards group. Prior to that he held several positions with Aker and before that with Kvaerner-Masa Yards for 14 years.

"We already know Bo-Erik well, having worked with him on several of our shipbuilding projects. He is a highly talented and respected professional whose wide-ranging experience in all aspects of new ship construction makes him the ideal candidate for this position," Frank said. "Carnival
Corporation & plc currently has 20 new ships on order or under construction with three different yards and Bo-Erik's strong management skills and keen attention to detail will enable our company's brands to continue to expand with these highly innovative new ship projects," he
added.

Of the retiring Gaunt, retiring after nearly 30 years with Carnival, Frank said, "Ian's contributions to Carnival Corporation & plc are immeasurable, as he's played a critical role in the continued growth of our company overseeing the construction of some of the most beautiful and technically advanced ships in the cruise industry." Gaunt will remain with Carnival as their outside legal counsel for shipbuilding contracts.

The change comes at a key time when the company has 20 ships are order for delivery between this December and June 2012. Carnival currently operates 84 ships with 156,000 lower berths.

From the word travels slowly department:

Royal Caribbean acquired Spanish tour operator Pullmantur and their ships a year ago, but for some reason the English-speaking Cuban press seems to just be discovering it and its effects on the island nation. In the last week, we've seen a couple of articles on the subject running in the Cuban press. The one appearing in Gramma yesterday is the more thorough.

US law prohibits US-owned companies from doing business with Cuba. The immediate effect of the acquisition was that Cuban crew members aboard the Pullmantur ships had to be terminated and sent home. Longer term, it also means, of course, that Pullmantur's ships will no longer be calling at Cuban ports.

There was a similar economic loss to the island when Carnival Corp acquired Costa Crociere. Cruise News Daily has reported several times over the last few years on the potential Cuba has had both as a port of call and a port of embarkation in combination with European-sourced charter flights. In addition to the direct loss of calls and jobs caused by the US embargo, another provision of the embargo that also stifles Cuba's cruise industry is one that prohibits calls at any US port (including San Juan and St. Thomas) by any ship which has called at a Cuban port within the previous six months.

Breaking News - Costa Ship Order

Carnival Corp ordered two new ships for its Costa brand this morning. The 114,200-ton ships will be built by Fincantieri and will be sisters to Costa Concordia, Costa Serena and Costa Pacifica. They will be delivered in 2011 and 2012.

Details will be in today's edition of Cruise News Daily.

From the nice work department:

Just when you think I've stopped blogging, I'm back. Over the weekend I went to the Fincantieri yard near Venice to see the progress of the fitting out of Cunard's Queen Victoria.

The trip was so short, and time was so compressed, there was just no time to blog. When I returned to the office on Monday, there was a rather lengthy CND article about QV to finish up and photos to select for subscribers to see.

Along on the trip was Cunard CEO Carol Marlow. As we'd walk along in the ship, she'd be commenting almost nonstop on the details/features. She knows the ship inside and out. But one of the things I noticed was that several times as we'd come to major features of the ship (or outside the ship as shown here), she'd just stop, knowing the photographers wanted pictures of her in front of whatever.

Then she'd patiently pose while they would take dozens and dozens of photos each. Sometimes she'd even suggest turning so they get this or that, and then there'd be one who'd want to get closer. There was no attitude of "I'm too important for this," or "Let's get this over with."

Then it struck me what a unique position she's in. If the media wants to take photos of most CEO's, they just take a few snaps of them in some corporate surrounding. Very few CEO's, on the other hand, routinely get asked to pose with their product to promote it. Consequently, she has a relatively unique opportunity to publicize her product from this angle and that. Cruise Line CEO's, maybe airline presidents, and a few others have this opportunity. But how often do you think the CEO of Anheuser Busch gets asked to pose with a bottle of Budweiser or the CEO of Kimberly Clark gets asked to pose with a box of Depends or a package of Cottonelle?

Carol's lucky, and I think she appreciates it.