The Alaskan Picture Becomes Clearer

Tuesday's announcement by Carnival Corp that they intend to decrease capacity in Alaska in 2010 wasn't specific about which brands and how many ships, but Carnival chairman Micky Arison said the impact would be felt in Alaska.

Holland America has confirmed to CND that they will move one of their ships out of Vancouver where has operated on 7-day one way trips between Vancouver and Alaska. Instead they will move it to Seattle where it will operate a new 14-day round trip program from there. While it will still be going to Alaska, it will essentially only carry half the number of people. That translates into about 11,000 fewer passengers over the course of the summer.

Princess had already confirmed to CND that they would remove one ship from the Gulf of Alaska route and deploy it elsewhere. That represents 29% of their capacity in the Gulf, or 16% of their overall Alaska capacity.

Arison indicated that their land operations (tours and hotels) would also be scaled back. Neither company could yet provide data to CND on how many fewer employees they would have in Alaska in 2010.

Last ppdated 530pm EDT March 27, 2009

Bombshell for Alaska

In today's conference call to discuss the last quarter's earnings, Carnival Corp chairman Micky Arison said the effects of Alaska's initiative, which imposed a $50 tax on passengers cruising to the state, are now becoming clear with bookings to Alaska down in the "double digit" percentages for the company. With pricing down, the $50 becomes even more significant.

He announced that Carnival intends to decrease capacity in Alaska in 2010, and specifics will be announced soon. Royal Caribbean International earlier announced reducing their presence in the market next year from three ships to two.

Arison went on to say that if the 2010 cuts don't help stabilize the market and improve yields, there will be additional cuts in 2011 capacity.

In response to one of the questions, Arison said the reduced capacity will also have an impact on their Princess Tours' and Holland America/Westours' land operations.

Proponents of the measure to increase the taxes in Alaska argued the public would not mind the additional taxes and cruise lines would not reduce capacity.

Further details will be in today's edition of CND.

Updated 11:05am EDT

Steel Cut for Disney Dream

Meyer Werft began to cut steel for the first new Disney ship, Disney Dream, on March 2. They have now released this video of the event.



We have photos from the event on the CND website. Disney Dream is set to enter service in 2011.

AIDAluna Delivered

Meyer Werft delivered AIDAluna to Carnival Corp on Monday, and the previews for the trade and media are underway. Even if you don't speak German, this amateur video will give you a good look around the interior of this ship delivering AIDA's unique product.



We have additional photos on the CND website.

Costa Deliziosa Technical Launch Video

Costa Deliziosa was floated out at Fincantieri's Marghera shipyard March 12. Here in some amateur video you can see the beginning of the process. Fincantieri celebrates the occasion by breaking a bottle of champagne, then lots of water floods into the drydock, floating the ship up for the first time. There's lots of video here of water gushing, but as you'll see, it's a very slow process, usually taking about 24 hours, so in reality, there's not a lot of instant gratification. Eventually, the next day, the ship is towed out to a finishing dock where construction will continue, freeing up valuable space in the drydock so the construction of another ship can begin.

We have additional photos on the CND website.