You have to admit Carnival's doing pretty well all in all - look at the QE2 now. She's in better shape than she was before, and so is Cunard in general. QM2 would not exist without Micky's backing, and Cunard would likely be on the way out.

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It will after all be a British ship

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Just wondering will the official currency onboard be Pounds Sterling?

Built by the french, owned and paid for by Americans, and working for an American Company? Guess a ship cant get more British than that!

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The last time I checked, if a ship is British registered, flies the British flag, and has a British Captain & officers, that would make it a British ship, no matter if she was built in France or on the Moon and no matter who paid for it, Americans, Algerians or Australians. SydneyBoy, please feel free to correct me if I am wrong. -Miami cruiser

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If we go by this analagy can you tell me what nationality Pacific Sky is? as she is registered in London Flies the British and Australian Flags, has an Australian Captain and Italian Officers....

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By the way, just curious, are there any Australian registered cruise ships sailing or a Australian owned cruise line? For some reason none come to mind which is strange, being that Australia is a continent surrounded by water, and was mainly popluated by immigrants who travelled there by ship. Perhaps if a new Australian cruise ship is is ever built Mrs. Bush would be happy to throw a bottle at it. -Miami cruiser

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Actually yes, if your really interested, I know of one Australian Cruise Line, Captain Cook Cruises (www.captaincook.com.au) who have ships in Australia and Fiji. Other than ship repair/engineering facilities and medium sized boat building we dont have the industry nor facilities to build liners here nor is their the demand in this part of the world, and although we are an island immigrants gennerally came here obviously with their journeys beginning in other parts of the world and that is where the lines woud have based themselves, there was never enough demand to warrant a company solely based in Australia to operate overseas as we were so well served by international lines and still today only have a population of 20 million.

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BTW, SydneyBoy, since you hate Carnival and Americans so much, I guess you'll have to stop sailing on Pacific Sky now the P&O is Carnival. -Britanis

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Carnival dont own it yet! I believe its yet to go to the PO Princess shareholders, who if were smart will block the deal. However should they get their hands on it and the rest of P&O I shall have no choice but to sail with them. I just hope that in that event they leave the Australian operations alone as currently its managed and run by Australians and is hugely succesful, but they will probably send their old Holiday Blocks down our way (CRINGE!)

By the way, I dont hate Carnival as a company, I admit they are very successful, however most of their success has not come through being a cruiseline themselves, they are more like an investment company, buying out other succesful cruiselines to exploit and create a monopoly! And it is this irresponsible behaviour of which i do not approve, i dont think anyone could succesfully argue that with P&O Princess Carnival will not be simply to big! Holding 50% of a market in any industry is dangerous, and knowing Carnivals track record their shopping spree is not over, they will buy others, and one day we will all be able to cruise with any line we want and our dollars will go to Carnival Corp.

There is no sinlge better thing for consumers than competition, for providing choice, variety, value and good service, however if Carnival have their way the only competition in the cruise industry will be between their own ships and brands, in which case we can all cruise with whoever we want, as long as its Carnival!

I think people mainly bash the Carnival Line rather than the Carnival Corporation.

A ship is the nationality of whatever flag it flies. QM2 will be British, as its homeport will be Southampton and it will be flying the British red ensign. If a ship flies the British red ensign, it is either British or British territorial. For instance, Princess ships are registered some in Britian and some in Bermuda (with the Bermuda registered ships having official homeports of Hamilton). However, they all fly the British red ensign as the Bermudan registry is affiliated with the British registry. In essence any ship that flies the British red ensign is a British ship.

CGT

P.S. The "new" Pacific Princess and Tahitian Princess ships are registered in Gibraltar. They also fly the British red ensign.

[ 02-11-2003: Message edited by: CGT ]

It just seems to me that much of the apparant anger towards Carnival Corp. on this board has been due to it being percieved as an "American" company. I wonder if there would be as much opposition, if, for example, Carnival were French or Italian based? Carnival has pursued a highly sucessful growth program that has made them the biggest and most profitable cruise company in the world, and I applaud them for their success, but I hope they take a break from buying for a while to let the whole P&O Princess merger settle in. It isn't really a monopoly, as cruise lines compete not only with each other, but with shoreside resorts and attractions as well. The average person who has never cruised before will usually include national parks, Disney World, foreign countries, etc. in vacation plans in addition to cruising.

If cruise lines cease to offer a quality product at competetive prices, passengers will, as Amerikanis says, "vote with their feet".

As for the Queen christening QM2, I really don't see much of a conflict, many countries have had foreign-built national flagships in the past, the UK just wasn't usually one of them. The USA had Leviathan in the 20's & 30's, Britain had Majestic, for a span of one year, the British-built Amerika was Germany's flagship. In the early 20th century, almost all Holland America liners were British built. Greece has always had foregin-built merchant ships- even the likes of Queen Anna Maria and Queen Frederica were built overseas. Nationality of construction doesn't really matter- it's the flag state that's important. Whew! This post is way too long!

[ 02-11-2003: Message edited by: Britanis ]

This is not the correct answer. There is ONE official currency when on board ship that all purchases in shops, at bars, and other charges are quoted in. The ship may also carry some cash on hand in other currencies (as they do with postage stamps), but the ship only has ONE official currency during any given trip. Whatever that currency is, you will be charged in it.