Word: shipping
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...certainly big enough for the job. Taller than Notre Dame cathedral and designed to cruise the North Atlantic at a zippy 30 m.p.h., the 151,400 gross-ton ship cost $800 million and will tower over every port where it docks. But as more than 2,600 paying passengers, served by almost half as many crew members, sail to Florida for more celebrations this week, one question was going through many minds: Is this a ship of fools...
According to Cunard officials, 70% of the QM2's berths have been booked through the end of 2004, and 60% of the passengers have never traveled on a Cunard ship before. The trick will be to keep up this momentum. Last week the company tried to extract every ounce of buzz it could from the naming ceremony, drawing thousands of veteran cruisers, journalists and European travel agents to tour the ship. The general verdict was highly positive, even if the ship's decor and amenities seemed to be straining to appeal to customers in different age and income groups. After...
...original Queen Mary, 113 ft. shorter than QM2, is now a floating hotel in Long Beach, Calif. The QM2 has some of the old ship's glamour--and, with a nod to nostalgia, one of its whistles. But the focus is catering to modern taste: the QM2 offers the only planetarium at sea, the largest dance floor afloat, education-lite courses by Oxford professors and a luxurious 20,000-sq.-ft. spa run by the upscale Canyon Ranch chain. Cabins are comparatively roomy, and three-quarters of them have balconies. Some observers on the preliminary tour complained that the furniture...
...Ship owners have learned to protect profits even with soft demand. Ships have become bigger, and "economies of scale really work" on cruises, says John Maxwell, a leisure-industry analyst at Merrill Lynch in New York City. Ways of extracting extra money from passengers have become more sophisticated, like TV sets that allow gambling from one's stateroom and premium restaurants that charge a supplement. Driscoll estimates that Carnival makes 20% of its revenues from onboard charges...
Also, in a time when fear of terrorism is widespread, ships--unlike hotels--can take advantage of their mobility, shifting routes away from geopolitical hot spots. Since Sept. 11, cruises through the Suez Canal or to countries like Indonesia have been replaced by trips to Alaska, the Caribbean and South America. There is also an increase in "home porting," which means cruise ships stop at smaller U.S. ports to pick up passengers who can drive there instead of taking a flight. Some 30 U.S. cities now operate as cruise-ship gateways, including Baltimore, Md.; Galveston, Texas; and Mobile, Ala.--roughly...