 |
| Carnival Cruise ships - Nassau, Bahamas Copyright Andy Richards 2022 - All Rights Reserved |
MANY OF you probably remember the popular improvisational comedy show starring Drew Cary, Wayne Brady, Ryan Styles and Colin Mochrie (1988 - 2007). It's hard (for us old folks) to believe that was already 10 years ago. When thinking about the mish-mash of cruise ship lines out there, the show came to mind.
 |
| Norwegian Cruise Ship - Glacier Bay National Park - Alaska Copyright Andy Richards 2010 - All Rights Reserved |
IS ANYBODY else confused about all the different rules and processes on different cruise lines? Perhaps more to the point, are they really different cruise lines? We started cruising in 2010. Our first experience, after some "deep dive" online research, was Princess Cruise Lines. At the time we weren't looking for a particular demographic or experience. I was given the nod to choose our first cruise and destination, and decided on Alaska's "Inside Passage." Alaska was one of the first cruise line destinations, and remains part of what I would call the mainline cruise lines' "Big 3:" Caribbean, Alaska and the Mediterranean (over the years, they expanded into parts of Northern Europe, Scandinavia, Iceland and Greenland, Australia and New Zealand, and other parts of the Pacific). In 2010, two lines seemed to have Alaska locked up: Princess and Holland America.
 |
| Princess' Exclusive Terminal - Whittier, Alaska Copyright Andy Richards 2010 - All Rights Reserved |
PRINCESS STILL seems to have the upper hand in Alaska, with their own terminal in Whittier, their own double-decker railroad, and 5 Princess Lodge hotels throughout the northern part of Alaska. At the time I narrowed our choices down to the two lines above. There were a few minor things we thought we would like better about Princess (we did the "cruise-only" trip), but it was a very close call. Interestingly, some good friends of ours did essentially the same itinerary (their first cruise also) on HAL and had some good things to say about it. We liked Princess and followed with several other cruises on Princess. We had almost chosen HAL, and had we done so, our cruising history and progression may have been very different. We cruised on HAL for the first time 14 years later!
There are 3 holding companies that own the 6 "major" cruise lines
OF COURSE other lines cruise in Alaska, but why did it seem that these two lines were so prevalent? Especially HAL. Princess kind of makes sense as they have all of the infrastructure up there. By why HAL? Sometime during our first couple years of cruising, we decided to buy Princess Stock. We like to own stock in products we use and like, and particularly in the travel and entertainment industry, there are often stockholder "perks." To my astonishment, owning Princess Stock meant owning stock in its holding company: non other than Carnival Corporation! Often thought of as "The K-mart of cruise lines," Carnival is one of the last lines we would personally consider cruising on (not trying to be "elitist," but there are just too many things . . . this isn't a cruise line bashing blog, so I will leave it at that). The same holding company also owns HAL. That probably explains HAL' substantial presence in Alaska, as there are most certainly agreements between the two cruise lines for the use of facilities.
 |
| Cruise Ships - Cozumel, Mexico Copyright Andy Richards 2022 - All Rights Reserved |
THERE ARE 3 holding companies that own the 6 "major" (I like to call them mainline) cruise lines. Carnival Corporation owns more than any of the others and its "stable" includes in addition to Carnival Cruises, Princess and HAL, European-centered lines: Costa, P&O, and AIDA. Carnival also owns so-called "luxury lines:" Cunard and Seabourn.
 |
| Disney and Celebrity Cruise Ships - Nassau, Bahamas Copyright Andy Richards 2022 - All Rights Reserved |
THE PARENT of Royal Caribbean is Royal Caribbean Ltd., which also owns Celebrity, Azamera and Silversea, along with a handful of other lessser known lines. The other remaining relative giant: Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) owns their own line as well as Oceania and Regent Seven Seas. There is one other popular line for family and children: Disney. They (of coursse) are owned solely by Disney.
 |
| Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruise Ships - St. Kitts, West Indies Copyright Andy Richards 2024 - All Rights Reserved |
WHEN I first discovered that Princess and HAL were both owned by the Carnival Companies, I wondered, how in the world they could be so different in terms of the quality of the ships and cruises? It appears that each of these separate lines started out at some point on their own, and today's large conglomerate ownership is the result of what we attorneys sometimes used to refer to as "M&A" (mergers and acquisitions). For the most part, when those acquistions happened, if the acquired line was doing reasonably well on their own and had developed a culture and clientele, the owners determined to leave them well enough alone. Consequently, the essential "flavor" of each cruise line has been maintained over the years, even though the is no doubt some "higher level" decisions that apply to all the lines Those high level decisions (I am thinking largely cost-cutting and marketing) may account for why some of the changes we see in current years seem to affect multiple cruise lines). So there you go. The "Paul Harvey" clip on cruise line ownership.
 |
| Multiple Cruise Ships in St. Maarten Copyright Andy Richards 2012 _All Rights Reserved |
No comments:
Post a Comment
I WOULD LOVE TO READ YOUR COMMENTS: