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Cruising 2005: cruise lines are cautiously optimistic, as ever more passengers fill ever larger ships.

Article Excerpt
For 2005, the Cruise Lines International Association expects 11 million passengers to have sailed aboard its member-line ships worldwide, with nine million of those North Americans. CLIA, the cruise industry's marketing and trade organization, comprises 19 cruise lines representing nearly 98 percent of the cruise capacity marketed in North America.

In addition, a recent survey indicates that 30 million North Americans have expressed an interest in taking a cruise within the next three years. Using figures for the first half of 2005, itineraries of one to five days accounted for a 34.8 percent share of the cruise market; itineraries of six to eight days accounted for 53.3 percent; nine to 17 days, for 11.6 percent; and cruises of 18 days or longer, just .34 percent. The average length of a cruise in the first two quarters was 7.33 days versus 7.09 days for the same period in 2004.

Carnival Cruise Lines expects to carry a record 3.3 million passengers in 2005 with more than 1,300 cruises aboard 20 ships departing from 18 different North American homeports. For the broader picture, the dozen Carnival Corporation brands together operate 79 ships worldwide totaling more than 137,000 lower berths, with 12 new ships scheduled for delivery between January 2006 and April 2009.

In mid-July, the new 110,000 gross-register-ton/2,974-passenger Carnival Liberty undertook the line's first Mediterranean cruises on roundtrips from Civitavecchia (Rome), followed by an autumn 16-day trans-Atlantic crossing to Fort Lauderdale to begin a winter season of six- and eight-day Bahamas and Caribbean cruises. As a result of her successful inaugural season, the Carnival Liberty returns to Europe this May for a full season of 12-day Mediterranean cruises. (In the meantime, Carnival's "Pinnacle Project"--developing a class of record-setting 200,000-grt/5,000-pax ships--has been placed on hold because of the unfavorable exchange rate between U.S. dollar and the European Union's euro.)

In September, Carnival chartered for six months three of its cruise ships--Ecstasy, Sensation, and Holiday--to the federal government on behalf of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as part of Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. At first the ships were to house refugees at Galveston, but most did not want to relocate to the ships, so the Ecstasy and Sensation were redeployed to New Orleans to house relief workers, such as homeless police and firefighters and their families. The Holiday first went to Mobile then Pascagoula, Mississippi, to house Gulf Coast homeless families. Soon media reports of how much Carnival might be profiting from the charters, as opposed to keeping the ships in cruise service, caused a stir.

On September 4, the Queen Elizabeth 2 became the longest serving Cunarder in the line's 165-year history when she passed the 36-year/four-month/two-day record of the Scythia, a 19,730-grt ocean liner that sailed from 1921 to 1957. The QE2 has also served as Cunard's flagship longer than any other, from entry into service in 1969 until the Queen Mary 2 assumed the role in 2004. Both the QM2 and QE2 are scheduled to make...

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