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Originally posted by Captain Rhone:
It looks as if they kept and painted the Cunard funnel yellow?

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Yes, I think you're right. How cheap is that! Carnival Corp has taken things too far... first they use one ship design for multiple brands and only change the funnel- now they don't even change that. I can only think of 2 possible reasons:

1. They are too cheap to build a new funnel.
2. They want to keep the Cunard design in case they ever switch the ship back to that brand (faster and easier interchangability).

quote:

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Originally posted by Captain Rhone:
It looks as if they kept and painted the Cunard funnel yellow?

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Surely not?

I've had a great idea, why not give all Carnival brands the same funnel and colour...after all they will soon have the same ships!

Better than that, why not scap all the brand names and call the whole cruise line 'Carnival'?

Even better, why not scrap all of the ships, and build just one giant ship (million tons) called 'Carnival Arc' that we all can cruise on!

Nurse...the screens!

[ 05-14-2004: Message edited by: Malcolm @ cruisepage ]

[ 05-14-2004: Message edited by: CGT ]

[ 05-15-2004: Message edited by: Ðraikar ]

I never thought they should copy QE2’s funnel for the other Cuanrd ships and was glad they settled for a smaller less pleasing funnel on QM2 so as not to just carbon copy something that is so unique to QE2.

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Originally posted by lasuvidaboy:
On the other hand, that 1980s built Carnival ship that is in Australia now still has her winged Carnival funnel, with different livery. The shipyard could easily extend the side shields upward and give her an Oriana style funnel. Come on Carnival!!

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Pacific Sun as Jubilee is called in Australia looks good with her winged funnel in the P&O Cruises colors.

The Pacific Sky does not have a Oriana style funnel hers is slanted at a similar style to Pacific Sun and painted Blue so it would make no sense to replace Sun's funnel with a buff colored slant-less Oriana funnel (which has 2 be one of the most boring designs ever considered.)

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Originally posted by Chris Cunard:

Speaking of Costa, they change Tropicale's funnel but not Costa Europa's ? Bizarre.

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Costa Cruises hasn't spent much money on the former Westerdam, when she was converted into Costa Europa at the Mariotti Yards of Genoa... in just one month in 2002.
They have just painted the hull in white, added the colours on the funnel, changed the deck longue chairs at the two pools, redesigned the Queens' Lounge, and added a phon and a safe in the cabins.
I was onboard on her inaugural cruises on April, 27, 2002. I can confirm that she is pretty much the same as Westerdam... with quite dated interiors.
Even if she is younger than Tropicale I believe that Costa will not retain her for long time. Probably she will leave the fleet in 2006, with the arrival of the new flagship.

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Originally posted by Chris Cunard:
Speaking of Costa, they change Tropicale's funnel but not Costa Europa's ? Bizarre.

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As I believe Tropicale’s funnel was changed because it wasn’t that stable. I read somewhere that in a storm one of the wings broke off during Carnival days. So when it was repositioned to the Costa fleet it had to be changed, and conveniently they could replace it with a Costa tube. Costa Europa’s funnel (which actually is a QE2 type funnel as well) works perfect so there is no need to change that.

I think a funnel design should mostly be a functional object so if a ship has a good and unique funnel why change it if colours would do nicely? In case of Arcadia they have a change to create a specific and unique funnel for her so I hope it will turn out to be that way. It would be unfortunate if the QE2 type funnel of QV was already made before the shift in brands and just stuck on the vista ship!

I cant judge the small picture correctly but to me it also looks like the QE2 type funnel on there. I think Cunard did wrong in iconizing (is that a real word?) the QE2 funnel. Their red and black bands livery is so powerful that they can turn all funnel designs in Cunard funnels without changing the design. By making an icon funnel (like Carnival has) you create more problems than it is worth, 1. you diminishes the individuality of each ship (which for Carnival is okay but not for Cunard’s business strategy) 2. it makes selling/relocating to another brand un easy because it will always look like “that other ship” and subconsciously a powerful brand idea of giving an icon funnel by the first cruise brand suddenly does not seem to be so powerful if any brand can sail with the second hand ship with that icon funnel.

Lets hope Arcadia does not end up with the QV funnel, for me that would feel like Cunards PR is like a hot air balloon, just like the QV keel laying ceremony which now feels like an empty party without meaning.

Onno

[ 05-15-2004: Message edited by: Onno ]

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Originally posted by Ðraikar:
For me it looks like too single funnels like on Zuiderdam but yellow.

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No this funnel looks nothing like the Vistaclass funnels 2 on each ship. The funnel looks larger and more box shape as the P&O funnels.