SS United States Still for Sale

Frankly what attracted us to this Philadelphia Inquirer article is the stunning photo of SS United States, stored in Philadelphia, as seen from all places, the IKEA store.



The classic liner was acquired for NCL America when the line planned to expand their American-flagged operation. Market conditions never allowed the line to expand, and the cost of rehabilitating the ship has continued to escalate. With the change of ownership structure of NCL America, ownership of the vessel recently reverted to Star. They see no use use for the ship in the foreseeable future, and even simply storing it is a tremendous cash drain, so they put it on the market some time ago.

The subject of SS United States' future has come up in many of CND's interviews with NCL and Star management over the years since it was acquired in 2002. The principals seem to have a real understanding of both the business and historic value of the vessel, some of them taking a real personal interest. Although most outsiders don't believe it, we believe scrapping the ship, just to get rid of it, would be a last resort for Star.

As the Inquirer article indicates, there are people trying to raise money to purchase the ship, but that's only a tiny portion of the problem. If it were just a matter of buying the ship, there are a number of sources that could probably raise the cash quickly. The major battle would then be what to do with the ship. The cost of maintaining it is phenomenal.

Check out the Philadelphia Inquirer article and the article that appeared on Jaunted.

QE2 Readied for Trip to Cape Town

The BBC reports that a couple visible changes were made to ready QE2 for it's trip to South Africa where it will be used temporarily for a hotel.

To comply with maritime law, the homeport of Southampton had to be removed from the ship's stern, and the "Cunard" brand had to be removed from the sides to comply with the terms of sale from Cunard. The changes were required since it is being taken out to sea. They had been left there (and presumably restored once the ship returns home to Dubai) to preserve the authenticity of the ship as a museum.

The new owner, Nakheel, still plans to eventually convert QE2 into a hotel and entertainment center permanently moored at Dubai. The deployment to Cape Town is planned to last 18 months.

Southampton to Have Busy Weekend

Everything is relative.

The Daily Echo reports the port of Southampton is going to have what they consider to be a busy weekend. They will have nine large cruise ships in port over this weekend. The port expects huge crowds coming out to see the ships. Not only that but they are actually free running bus tours.

Saturday will see Royal Caribbean’s Independence of the Seas, P&O Cruises’ Oceana, Fred Olsen Cruise Lines’ Black Watch and Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 in port. Sunday the ships in port will be P&O Cruises' Oriana, P&O's Ventura and P&O's Aurora along with Cunard’s Queen Victoria.

As we said, everything is relative. Ft. Lauderdale would consider those really light days.

Passenger Medevaced from Carnival Liberty

A small boat from the Key West Coast Guard station evacuated a 76-year-old man from Carnival Liberty Friday morning about 7:00am when it was about 20 miles south of Key West.

The US Coast Guard received a call from Carnival Liberty Thursday night (Aug 27, 2009) about 11:00pm while it was en route from Cozumel to Miami saying a passenger was suffering from cardiac arrest and needed to be transferred to a shoreside medical facility. The ship was about 260 miles southwest of Key West at the time. A rendezvous was set up for Friday morning as the ship passed near Key West.

The man and his wife were picked up in the Coast Guard vessel and transferred to a medical facility in Key West, as shown in the photos below.

NCL: Waitlist Shows Unprecidented Interest in Norwegian Epic

On Monday Cruise News Daily told readers how Norwegian Cruise Line had opened a waitlist for Norwegian Epic's first revenue cruise, which will be a transatlantic crossing. The 150,000-ton ship is a new concept vessel currently under construction at the STX Europe yard in St. Nazaire, France.

The delivery date is not yet finalized so NCL has not yet set the crossing's itinerary, dates, the length or even where it will begin or end. All that they can confirm is that it will be in the early summer sometime before the July 17 (2010) inaugural cruise from Miami, and the lead rate will be $699.

Passengers can be put on a waitlist for the crossing, and will be contacted when the details are set this fall. Since the waitlist was opened this week, the line reports strong demand for space on the list, signaling unprecedented interest in the new ship, according to the line.

“We’ve seen great demand for the waitlist so far, as these guests will have the first priority to book this cruise before we open it to the general public,” said Andy Stuart, executive vice president of global sales and passenger services for NCL.

Information about Norwegian Epic is on the ship's website. Customers interested in the transatlantic crossing can call either their travel agent or NCL at 866-234-7350.