How would CC's purchase of PO-Princess:

*Bring about a lack of choice or fewer choices?

*Bring about higher fares?

*Deteriorate the level of passenger services and amenities?

It won't. Prices have *decreased* dramatically over the past twenty years. And all of the consolidation among cruise lines over the past 14 years or so has only brought more and larger ships which has brought passengers MORE choice, MORE amenities and LOWER prices. If anyone can show me where prices have risen in the past 14 years, please let me know along with the CEO's of the various cruise lines. And if any one thing has brought lower levels of passenger service, it's the low fares.

And yes, Mr Arison is looking out for the interests of his shareholders and his own interests. He sees PO-Princess as an attractive company that would add a lot to his portfolio and as a part of Carnival Corp, PO-Princess stands a lot to gain and so does the consumer.

I am afraid I would have to disagree with on this one.

The scuttlebut going around the industry is that if the P&O/ RCI merger does take place, there is a good chance you will see the Celebrity product slowly disappear.

Given Carnival's track record at purchasing cruise lines and allwoing them to do what they do best, I think P&O would prosper. Don't forget - QE2 and Caronia both still fly the British flag and are the HAL ships registered in Holland?

I think that the merger between P&O would be the bigger mistake and having an homogenization of product. It would be in Carnival's best interest to keep the P&O product as is - it is less competetion for their other 6 lines.

Just as P&O-Princess is not *one* cruise line, it is comprised of six different cruise brands; Carnival Corp is comprised of Carnival, Costa, Cunard, Holland America, Seabourn and Windstar; six, yes six, different and distinct brands.

The way you refer to "Carnival", it's as if all the brands they own are all neon laden "fun ships". There's a reason Carnival Corp is as big and successful as they are; they're good at what they do, they have an eye and talent for strong branding and they know how to exploit and build strong brands. Carnival goes from strength to strength. As others have mentioned, Carnival Corp has built up and arguably has the strongest, largest and best known portfolio of cruise products; all leaders in their respective markets.

Granted, they made some mistakes and had more than their fair share of mis-steps with the purchase and subsequent merger of Cunard and Seabourn, but they realized their mistakes and are once again going from strength to stregth.

P&O-Princess is quite similar to Carnival Corp in that vein; they have a portfolio of cruise products that are all very strong, well known and regarded as leaders in their respective markets. Look how they built up Princess and the way they have built P&O; from a fleet of two old ships in 1995 to a fleet of 4 ships; all brand new or very new. And then there's the European products they've built up; just brilliant!

In both cases, the parent companies built strong companies with strong products and brand recognition.

RCCL bought Celebrity and arguably, RCCL has done a bang up job of building RCI into one of the most dynamic and well known brands out there. But what of Celebrity? I dont know about over in the UK or down under, but Celebrity has not gained an significant brand recognition since the purchase. Yeah, they have more ships and new & spectacular ones at that, but noone knows who they are.

For P&O-Princess to merge with RCCL would only mean them getting dragged down. Carnival knows how to build and maintain strong brands and P&O-Princess would be in much better hands with them and their "if it aint broke, don't fix it" attitude. Very hands off and if everything's gooing well, all Uncle Micky wants to know is how big a check he needs to write to keep things going well or how much more to make it even better. You cant say that about RCCL.

It looks is if we are going to end up with a Duopoly! All remaining big players i.e. RCI, NCL, P&O, princess etc may well be included sooner or late, and take their respective sides?

Rather than compete in a price war, and erode their respective margins, the two 'giants' can simply 'price fix'and agree not to undercut each other.

While I would prefer to see P&O Princess and RCI remain separate entities (this would be in the best interest to the cruising public), it doesn't appear this will happen. If acquired by Carnival, I do foresee changes, although not the doom and gloom as some may predict. I don't foresee any price gouging, but I do see an erosion of branding and even more homogenization of the cruise industry.

I for one don't believe for a minute that Carnival leaves it's many brands operate as autonomously as many believe. They do to a certain extent, but for the big decisions (the ones that really effect you and I), big brother steps in and says how it will be done. I'm talking about fleet deployments (which I do understand to avoid duplication and cross competition), newbuilding orders, and policy changes. For those that remember, the first thing Carnival did upon acquiring HAL (before the signatures were even dry) was to cancel the newbuild that HAL was ready to order. This was a unique design that was similar but larger than the N-Class ships. Carnival probably did the right thing, but even so this is a good example of who really makes the decisions. As we all know, Carnival replaced the original HAL design with one of their own, which was a hybrid of the FANTASY class (at least in the lower deck function designs). Hence, the STATENDAM class ship was born.

One major difference between (at least from my viewpoint) a Carnival/Princess and RCI/Princess merger is how the deal is set up. For Carnival Corp., this would be an acquisition. Princess would lose it stock symbol and become another entity under the Carnival umbrella. Carnival is basically free to do what ever they want with the company. Being that Princess is so close to HAL, I would expect to see some major changes, especially in Alaska.

The RCI/Princess merger appears to be just that, a merger. Somewhat of equals, but with stocks remaining separate and the companies guaranteed to operate as they normally would. Of course, there would be the benefit of combined synergies such as purchasing, marketing, and an overall fleet strategy. Also, lets not forget the combined interest in a new European cruise line where both RCI and Princess will donate two ships each. I think there is a lot of promise in this venture, and it may be one of the reasons Carnival is so interested seeing this merger fail (besides protecting their market share and of course, just plain ego).

Well, that is my two cents worth....and the reasons if any merger goes through, I hope it's the original one planned with Princess and RCI (RCP). I guess I would rather see two huge conglomerates such as RCP and Carnival in the marketplace, than just one.... Carnival Corp. I think it's in the best interest for all concerned parties.